UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

Form 10-Q

 

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

For the quarterly period ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020

or

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

For the transition period from              to             

Commission File Number: 000-29089

Agenus Inc.

(exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Delaware

 

06-1562417

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

3 Forbes Road, Lexington, Massachusetts 02421

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:

(781) 674-4400

 

Securities registered or to be 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 $0.01

AGEN

The Nasdaq Capital 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 (§232.405 of this chapter) 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, 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  

 

Number of shares outstanding of the issuer’s Common Stock as of November 1, 2019: 137,361,477August 3, 2020: 183,442,653 shares

 


Agenus Inc.

NineSix Months Ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

Page

PART I

 

 

ITEM 1.

 

Financial Statements:

 

2

 

 

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 (Unaudited) and December 31, 20182019

 

2

 

 

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss for the three and ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 and 2018 (Unaudited)

 

4

 

 

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Convertible Preferred Stock and Stockholders’ Deficit for the three and ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 and 2018 (Unaudited)

 

5

 

 

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 and 2018 (Unaudited)

 

7

 

 

Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

 

8

ITEM 2.

 

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

 

2321

ITEM 3.

 

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

 

2927

ITEM 4.

 

Controls and Procedures

 

2927

 

 

 

PART II

 

 

ITEM 1A.

 

Risk Factors

 

3028

ITEM 6.

 

Exhibits

 

5483

 

 

Signatures

 

5584

 

 

 

 


PART I - FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1.

Financial Statements

AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share amounts)

 

 

September 30, 2019

(unaudited)

 

 

December 31, 2018

 

 

 

June 30, 2020

(unaudited)

 

 

December 31, 2019

 

ASSETS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents

 

$

93,274

 

 

$

53,054

 

 

$

79,171

 

 

$

61,808

 

Inventories

 

 

55

 

 

 

55

 

Accounts receivable

 

 

2,328

 

 

 

938

 

 

 

16,628

 

 

 

16,293

 

Prepaid expenses

 

 

10,441

 

 

 

19,265

 

 

 

7,664

 

 

 

7,420

 

Other current assets

 

 

1,088

 

 

 

1,496

 

 

 

1,296

 

 

 

1,015

 

Total current assets

 

 

107,186

 

 

 

74,808

 

 

 

104,759

 

 

 

86,536

 

Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated amortization and depreciation of

$41,566 and $38,068 at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively

 

 

25,029

 

 

 

25,116

 

Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated amortization and depreciation of

$45,330 and $42,861 at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively

 

 

28,520

 

 

 

26,326

 

Operating lease right-of-use assets

 

 

7,684

 

 

 

 

 

 

15,015

 

 

 

7,364

 

Goodwill

 

 

22,757

 

 

 

22,925

 

 

 

24,276

 

 

 

23,188

 

Acquired intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization of $8,878 and

$7,472 at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively

 

 

10,853

 

 

 

12,338

 

Acquired intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization of $10,499 and

$9,431 at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively

 

 

11,760

 

 

 

10,504

 

Other long-term assets

 

 

1,298

 

 

 

1,214

 

 

 

1,454

 

 

 

1,417

 

Total assets

 

$

174,807

 

 

$

136,401

 

 

$

185,784

 

 

$

155,335

 

LIABILITIES, CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK AND STOCKHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current portion, long-term debt

 

$

13,847

 

 

$

146

 

 

$

1,532

 

 

$

646

 

Current portion, liability related to sale of future royalties and milestones

 

 

38,125

 

 

 

27,443

 

 

 

52,849

 

 

 

45,961

 

Current portion, deferred revenue

 

 

34,230

 

 

 

1,814

 

 

 

37,337

 

 

 

29,174

 

Current portion, operating lease liabilities

 

 

1,311

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,650

 

 

 

1,347

 

Accounts payable

 

 

16,424

 

 

 

13,624

 

 

 

20,698

 

 

 

13,564

 

Accrued liabilities

 

 

28,744

 

 

 

24,551

 

 

 

27,451

 

 

 

31,332

 

Other current liabilities

 

 

267

 

 

 

484

 

 

 

755

 

 

 

185

 

Total current liabilities

 

 

132,948

 

 

 

68,062

 

 

 

142,272

 

 

 

122,209

 

Long-term debt, net of current portion

 

 

 

 

 

13,212

 

 

 

18,813

 

 

 

13,380

 

Liability related to sale of future royalties and milestones, net of current portion

 

 

171,973

 

 

 

182,817

 

 

 

175,547

 

 

 

175,408

 

Deferred revenue, net of current portion

 

 

31,290

 

 

 

1,165

 

 

 

14,995

 

 

 

27,705

 

Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion

 

 

8,245

 

 

 

 

 

 

15,337

 

 

 

8,020

 

Contingent purchase price considerations

 

 

4,218

 

 

 

3,038

 

 

 

11,443

 

 

 

8,843

 

Other long-term liabilities

 

 

4,088

 

 

 

2,773

 

 

 

6,424

 

 

 

4,190

 

Commitments and contingencies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share; 5,000,000 shares authorized:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Series C-1 convertible preferred stock; 12,459 shares and 18,459 shares

designated, issued, and outstanding at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018,

respectively

 

 

26,917

 

 

 

39,879

 

Series C-1 convertible preferred stock; 12,459 shares designated, issued,

and outstanding at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019

 

 

26,917

 

 

 

26,917

 

STOCKHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Series A-1 convertible preferred stock; 31,620 shares designated, issued, and

outstanding at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018; liquidation value

of $32,988 at September 30, 2019

 

 

0

 

 

 

0

 

Series A-1 convertible preferred stock; 31,620 shares designated, issued, and

outstanding at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019; liquidation value

of $33,145 at June 30, 2020

 

 

0

 

 

 

0

 

Common stock, par value $0.01 per share; 400,000,000 shares authorized;

171,417,481 and 137,818,068 shares issued at June 30, 2020 and

December 31, 2019, respectively

 

 

1,714

 

 

 

1,378

 

Additional paid-in capital

 

 

1,156,442

 

 

 

1,059,583

 

Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

 

 

369

 

 

 

(1,324

)

Accumulated deficit

 

 

(1,377,147

)

 

 

(1,284,993

)

2

 


Common stock, par value $0.01 per share; 400,000,000 and 240,000,000 shares authorized

at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively; 137,357,407 and 119,996,331

shares issued at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively

 

 

1,374

 

 

 

1,200

 

Additional paid-in capital

 

 

1,055,159

 

 

 

1,005,183

 

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

 

 

(1,282

)

 

 

(1,539

)

Accumulated deficit

 

 

(1,254,938

)

 

 

(1,177,311

)

Total stockholders’ deficit attributable to Agenus Inc.

 

 

(199,687

)

 

 

(172,467

)

 

 

(218,622

)

 

 

(225,356

)

Non-controlling interest

 

 

(5,185

)

 

 

(2,078

)

 

 

(7,342

)

 

 

(5,981

)

Total stockholders’ deficit

 

 

(204,872

)

 

 

(174,545

)

 

 

(225,964

)

 

 

(231,337

)

Total liabilities, convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ deficit

 

$

174,807

 

 

$

136,401

 

 

$

185,784

 

 

$

155,335

 

 

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

3

 


AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

(Unaudited)

(Amounts in thousands, except per share amounts)

 

 

 

Three Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Nine Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Three Months Ended June 30,

 

 

Six Months Ended June 30,

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

Revenue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development

 

$

5,751

 

 

$

6,276

 

 

$

81,022

 

 

$

18,385

 

 

$

18,068

 

 

$

4,399

 

 

$

19,996

 

 

$

75,271

 

Service revenue

 

 

1,023

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,023

 

 

 

 

Other revenue

 

 

1,985

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,453

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

2,053

 

 

 

52

 

 

 

2,468

 

Non-cash royalty revenue related to the sale of future royalties

 

 

12,204

 

 

 

6,526

 

 

 

30,073

 

 

 

11,948

 

 

 

7,846

 

 

 

9,263

 

 

 

21,002

 

 

 

17,869

 

Total revenues

 

 

19,940

 

 

 

12,802

 

 

 

115,548

 

 

 

30,333

 

 

 

26,945

 

 

 

15,715

 

 

 

42,073

 

 

 

95,608

 

Operating expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost of service revenue

 

 

(634

)

 

 

 

 

 

(634

)

 

 

 

Research and development

 

 

(46,132

)

 

 

(29,854

)

 

 

(131,506

)

 

 

(88,569

)

 

 

(38,550

)

 

 

(45,243

)

 

 

(74,913

)

 

 

(85,374

)

General and administrative

 

 

(11,512

)

 

 

(9,203

)

 

 

(33,723

)

 

 

(27,616

)

 

 

(14,195

)

 

 

(11,405

)

 

 

(24,809

)

 

 

(22,211

)

Contingent purchase price consideration fair value adjustment

 

 

1,781

 

 

 

180

 

 

 

(1,180

)

 

 

1,456

 

 

 

(6,840

)

 

 

(213

)

 

 

(2,456

)

 

 

(2,961

)

Operating loss

 

 

(35,923

)

 

 

(26,075

)

 

 

(50,861

)

 

 

(84,396

)

 

 

(33,274

)

 

 

(41,146

)

 

 

(60,739

)

 

 

(14,938

)

Other expense:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loss on early extinguishment of debt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(10,767

)

Non-operating (expense) income

 

 

304

 

 

 

(117

)

 

 

(250

)

 

 

(1,490

)

Loss on modification of debt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2,720

)

 

 

 

Non-operating expense

 

 

(340

)

 

 

(924

)

 

 

(1,392

)

 

 

(554

)

Interest expense, net

 

 

(10,658

)

 

 

(7,538

)

 

 

(29,598

)

 

 

(16,543

)

 

 

(14,630

)

 

 

(9,797

)

 

 

(28,664

)

 

 

(18,940

)

Net loss

 

 

(46,277

)

 

 

(33,730

)

 

 

(80,709

)

 

 

(113,196

)

 

 

(48,244

)

 

 

(51,867

)

 

 

(93,515

)

 

 

(34,432

)

Dividends on Series A-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

(52

)

 

 

(52

)

 

 

(156

)

 

 

(155

)

 

 

(52

)

 

 

(52

)

 

 

(105

)

 

 

(104

)

Less: net loss attributable to non-controlling interest

 

 

(803

)

 

 

(605

)

 

 

(3,107

)

 

 

(1,258

)

 

 

(764

)

 

 

(1,233

)

 

 

(1,361

)

 

 

(2,304

)

Net loss attributable to Agenus Inc. common stockholders

 

$

(45,526

)

 

$

(33,177

)

 

$

(77,758

)

 

$

(112,093

)

 

$

(47,532

)

 

$

(50,686

)

 

$

(92,259

)

 

$

(32,232

)

Per common share data:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic and diluted net loss attributable to Agenus Inc. common stockholders

 

$

(0.33

)

 

$

(0.29

)

 

$

(0.58

)

 

$

(1.04

)

 

$

(0.28

)

 

$

(0.38

)

 

$

(0.59

)

 

$

(0.24

)

Weighted average number of Agenus Inc. common shares outstanding:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

 

 

137,619

 

 

 

114,977

 

 

 

134,014

 

 

 

107,601

 

 

 

169,130

 

 

 

134,636

 

 

 

157,096

 

 

 

132,182

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other comprehensive loss:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign currency translation (loss) gain

 

$

(204

)

 

$

(38

)

 

$

257

 

 

$

553

 

Other comprehensive (loss) income

 

 

(204

)

 

 

(38

)

 

 

257

 

 

 

553

 

Other comprehensive income:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign currency translation gain

 

 

466

 

 

$

1,142

 

 

$

1,693

 

 

$

460

 

Other comprehensive income

 

 

466

 

 

 

1,142

 

 

 

1,693

 

 

 

460

 

Comprehensive loss

 

$

(45,730

)

 

$

(33,215

)

 

$

(77,501

)

 

$

(111,540

)

 

$

(47,066

)

 

$

(49,544

)

 

$

(90,566

)

 

$

(31,772

)

 

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

 


 

4

 


AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK AND STOCKHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

(Unaudited)

(Amounts in thousands)

 

 

Series C-1

 

 

 

Series A-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

Common Stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Amount

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Additional

Paid-In

Capital

 

 

Accumulated

Other

Comprehensive

Income (Loss)

 

 

Non-controlling

Interest

 

 

Accumulated

Deficit

 

 

Total

 

Balance at December 31, 2018

 

 

18

 

 

$

39,879

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

119,996

 

 

$

1,200

 

 

$

1,005,183

 

 

$

(1,539

)

 

$

(2,078

)

 

$

(1,177,311

)

 

$

(174,545

)

Net income (loss)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1,071

)

 

 

18,506

 

 

 

17,435

 

Other comprehensive loss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(682

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(682

)

Adoption of ASC 842

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(25

)

 

 

(25

)

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,843

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,843

 

Shares sold under stock purchase agreement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11,111

 

 

 

111

 

 

 

29,889

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30,000

 

Conversion of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

(3

)

 

 

(6,481

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,000

 

 

 

30

 

 

 

6,451

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6,481

 

Payment of consultant in shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

37

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

37

 

Exercise of stock options and employee share purchases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

85

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

172

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

173

 

Balance at March 31, 2019

 

 

15

 

 

$

33,398

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

134,206

 

 

$

1,342

 

 

$

1,043,575

 

 

$

(2,221

)

 

$

(3,149

)

 

$

(1,158,830

)

 

$

(119,283

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

(1,233

)

 

$

(50,634

)

 

 

(51,867

)

Other comprehensive income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,143

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,143

 

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,917

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,917

 

Conversion of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

(3

)

 

 

(6,481

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,000

 

 

 

30

 

 

 

6,451

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6,481

 

Vesting of nonvested shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

53

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

(1

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balance at June 30, 2019

 

 

12

 

 

$

26,917

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

137,259

 

 

$

1,373

 

 

$

1,051,942

 

 

$

(1,078

)

 

$

(4,382

)

 

$

(1,209,464

)

 

$

(161,609

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

(803

)

 

$

(45,474

)

 

 

(46,277

)

Other comprehensive income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(204

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(204

)

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,084

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,084

 

Payment of consultant in shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19

 

Exercise of stock options and employee share purchases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

44

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

115

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

115

 

Vesting of nonvested shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

48

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

(1

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balance at September 30, 2019

 

 

12

 

 

$

26,917

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

137,358

 

 

$

1,374

 

 

$

1,055,159

 

 

$

(1,282

)

 

$

(5,185

)

 

$

(1,254,938

)

 

$

(204,872

)


5


AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK AND STOCKHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

(Unaudited)

(Amounts in thousands)

 

 

Series C-1

 

 

 

Series A-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

Common Stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Amount

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Additional

Paid-In

Capital

 

 

Accumulated

Other

Comprehensive

Income (Loss)

 

 

Non-controlling

Interest

 

 

Accumulated

Deficit

 

 

Total

 

Balance at December 31, 2019

 

 

12

 

 

$

26,917

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

137,819

 

 

$

1,378

 

 

$

1,059,583

 

 

$

(1,324

)

 

$

(5,981

)

 

$

(1,284,993

)

 

$

(231,337

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(597

)

 

 

(44,674

)

 

 

(45,271

)

Other comprehensive income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,227

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,227

 

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,397

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,397

 

Shares sold at the market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24,716

 

 

 

247

 

 

 

64,876

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

65,123

 

Amendment of 2015 warrants and issuance of 2020 warrants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,145

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,145

 

Payment of consultant in shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12

 

Exercise of stock options and employee share purchases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

765

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

2,196

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,204

 

Balance at March 31, 2020

 

 

12

 

 

$

26,917

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

163,304

 

 

$

1,633

 

 

$

1,132,209

 

 

$

(97

)

 

$

(6,578

)

 

$

(1,329,667

)

 

$

(202,500

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

(764

)

 

$

(47,480

)

 

 

(48,244

)

Other comprehensive income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

466

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

466

 

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,464

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,464

 

Shares sold at the market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7,290

 

 

 

73

 

 

 

19,834

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19,907

 

Issuance of shares for business acquisition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

405

 

 

 

4

 

 

 

896

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

900

 

Payment of CEO payroll in shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

88

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

88

 

Payment of consultant in shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31

 

Exercise of stock options

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

290

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

921

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

924

 

Vesting of nonvested shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

88

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

(1

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balance at June 30, 2020

 

 

12

 

 

$

26,917

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

171,418

 

 

$

1,714

 

 

$

1,156,442

 

 

$

369

 

 

$

(7,342

)

 

$

(1,377,147

)

 

$

(225,964

)


5


AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK AND STOCKHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

(Unaudited)

(Amounts in thousands)

 

 

 

 

Series C-1

 

 

 

Series A-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Series C-1

 

 

 

Series A-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

Convertible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

Common Stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

 

Preferred Stock

 

 

Common Stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Amount

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Additional

Paid-In

Capital

 

 

Accumulated

Other

Comprehensive

Income (Loss)

 

 

Non-controlling

Interest

 

 

Accumulated

Deficit

 

 

Total

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Amount

 

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Number of

Shares

 

 

Par

Value

 

 

Additional

Paid-In

Capital

 

 

Accumulated

Other

Comprehensive

Income (Loss)

 

 

Non-controlling

Interest

 

 

Accumulated

Deficit

 

 

Total

 

Balance at December 31, 2017

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

101,706

 

 

$

1,017

 

 

$

951,812

 

 

$

(2,169

)

 

$

 

 

$

(1,026,476

)

 

$

(75,816

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(121

)

 

 

(54,141

)

 

$

(54,262

)

Balance at December 31, 2018

 

 

18

 

 

$

39,879

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

119,996

 

 

$

1,200

 

 

$

1,005,183

 

 

$

(1,539

)

 

$

(2,078

)

 

$

(1,177,311

)

 

$

(174,545

)

Net income (loss)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1,071

)

 

 

18,506

 

 

 

17,435

 

Other comprehensive loss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(537

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

(537

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(682

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(682

)

Adoption of ASC 606

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8,856

 

 

$

8,856

 

AgenTus share distribution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

274

 

 

 

 

 

$

274

 

Adoption of ASC 842

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(25

)

 

 

(25

)

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,932

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

1,932

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,843

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,843

 

Vesting of nonvested shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

53

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

(1

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

Shares sold at the market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,202

 

 

 

12

 

 

 

5,246

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

5,258

 

Shares sold under stock purchase agreement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11,111

 

 

 

111

 

 

 

29,889

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30,000

 

Conversion of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

(3

)

 

 

(6,481

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,000

 

 

 

30

 

 

 

6,451

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6,481

 

Payment of consultant in shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14

 

 

 

0

 

 

 

37

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

37

 

Exercise of stock options and employee share purchases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

320

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

1,057

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

1,060

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

85

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

172

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

173

 

Balance at March 31, 2018

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

103,281

 

 

$

1,033

 

 

$

960,046

 

 

$

(2,706

)

 

$

153

 

 

$

(1,071,761

)

 

$

(113,235

)

Balance at March 31, 2019

 

 

15

 

 

$

33,398

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

134,206

 

 

$

1,342

 

 

$

1,043,575

 

 

$

(2,221

)

 

$

(3,149

)

 

$

(1,158,830

)

 

$

(119,283

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

 

(533

)

 

 

(24,671

)

 

 

(25,204

)

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

 

(1,233

)

 

 

(50,634

)

 

 

(51,867

)

Other comprehensive income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,129

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,129

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,142

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,142

 

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,584

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,584

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,917

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,917

 

Shares sold at the market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7,917

 

 

 

79

 

 

 

22,558

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22,637

 

Balance at June 30, 2018

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

111,198

 

 

$

1,112

 

 

$

984,188

 

 

$

(1,577

)

 

$

(380

)

 

$

(1,096,432

)

 

$

(113,089

)

Net loss

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(605

)

 

 

(33,125

)

 

 

(33,730

)

Other comprehensive income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(38

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(38

)

Share-based compensation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,905

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,905

 

Exercise of stock options and employee share purchases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

93

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

13,314

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13,315

 

Shares sold at the market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7,062

 

 

 

71

 

 

 

172

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

243

 

Balance at September 30, 2018

 

 

 

 

$

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

118,353

 

 

$

1,184

 

 

$

999,579

 

 

$

(1,615

)

 

$

(985

)

 

$

(1,129,557

)

 

$

(131,394

)

Conversion of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

(3

)

 

 

(6,481

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,000

 

 

 

30

 

 

 

6,451

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6,481

 

Vesting of nonvested shares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

53

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

(1

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balance at June 30, 2019

 

 

12

 

 

$

26,917

 

 

 

 

32

 

 

$

0

 

 

 

137,259

 

 

$

1,373

 

 

$

1,051,942

 

 

$

(1,079

)

 

$

(4,382

)

 

$

(1,209,464

)

 

$

(161,610

)

 

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

6

 


AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited)

(Amounts in thousands)

 

 

Nine Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Six Months Ended June 30,

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

Cash flows from operating activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net loss

 

$

(80,709

)

 

$

(113,196

)

 

$

(93,515

)

 

$

(34,432

)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depreciation and amortization

 

 

5,001

 

 

 

4,745

 

 

 

3,491

 

 

 

3,323

 

Share-based compensation

 

 

6,844

 

 

 

5,695

 

 

 

4,950

 

 

 

3,760

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

(30,073

)

 

 

(11,948

)

 

 

(21,002

)

 

 

(17,869

)

Non-cash interest expense

 

 

30,400

 

 

 

16,063

 

 

 

28,191

 

 

 

19,609

 

Loss on disposal of assets

 

 

 

 

 

118

 

Change in fair value of contingent obligations

 

 

1,180

 

 

 

(1,456

)

 

 

2,456

 

 

 

2,961

 

Loss on extinguishment of debt

 

 

 

 

 

10,767

 

Loss on modification of debt

 

 

2,720

 

 

 

 

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accounts receivable

 

 

(1,390

)

 

 

(4,934

)

 

 

766

 

 

 

(1,267

)

Inventories

 

 

 

 

 

24

 

Prepaid expenses

 

 

8,780

 

 

 

(3,470

)

 

 

(266

)

 

 

5,704

 

Accounts payable

 

 

3,100

 

 

 

2,882

 

 

 

6,106

 

 

 

5,643

 

Deferred revenue

 

 

62,551

 

 

 

(1,064

)

 

 

(4,599

)

 

 

52,803

 

Accrued liabilities and other current liabilities

 

 

5,406

 

 

 

222

 

 

 

(3,532

)

 

 

(235

)

Other operating assets and liabilities

 

 

2,008

 

 

 

269

 

 

 

2,354

 

 

 

883

 

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities

 

 

13,098

 

 

 

(95,283

)

Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities

 

 

(71,880

)

 

 

40,883

 

Cash flows from investing activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proceeds from sale of plant and equipment

 

 

 

 

 

6

 

Purchases of plant and equipment

 

 

(3,601

)

 

 

(2,996

)

 

 

(1,762

)

 

 

(2,762

)

Cash paid for business acquisition

 

 

(1,000

)

 

 

 

Cash acquired in business acquisition

 

 

28

 

 

 

 

Net cash used in investing activities

 

 

(3,601

)

 

 

(2,990

)

 

 

(2,734

)

 

 

(2,762

)

Cash flows from financing activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net proceeds from sale of equity

 

 

30,000

 

 

 

41,280

 

 

 

85,030

 

 

 

30,000

 

Proceeds from employee stock purchases and option exercises

 

 

287

 

 

 

1,234

 

 

 

3,128

 

 

 

172

 

Proceeds from sale of future royalties

 

 

 

 

 

204,878

 

Transaction costs from sale of future royalties and milestones

 

 

 

 

 

(494

)

Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt

 

 

6,197

 

 

 

 

Repayments of debt

 

 

 

 

 

(161,847

)

 

 

(1,000

)

 

 

 

Payment of finance lease obligation

 

 

(232

)

 

 

(193

)

 

 

(1,430

)

 

 

(151

)

Net cash provided by financing activities

 

 

30,055

 

 

 

84,858

 

 

 

91,925

 

 

 

30,021

 

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash

 

 

668

 

 

 

(602

)

 

 

52

 

 

 

521

 

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

 

 

40,220

 

 

 

(14,017

)

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents

 

 

17,363

 

 

 

68,663

 

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

 

 

53,054

 

 

 

60,187

 

 

 

61,808

 

 

 

53,054

 

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

 

$

93,274

 

 

$

46,170

 

 

$

79,171

 

 

$

121,717

 

Supplemental cash flow information:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cash paid for interest

 

$

925

 

 

$

838

 

 

$

590

 

 

$

620

 

Supplemental disclosures - non-cash activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purchases of plant and equipment in accounts payable and

accrued liabilities

 

 

 

 

 

122

 

 

$

662

 

 

$

105

 

Issuance of common stock, $0.01 par value, in connection with payment to consultant

 

 

56

 

 

 

 

 

 

31

 

 

 

38

 

Issuance of common stock, $0.01 par value, in connection with business acquisition

 

 

900

 

 

 

 

Contingent purchase price consideration in connection with business acquisition

 

 

144

 

 

 

 

Lease right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for new operating lease liabilities

 

 

3,017

 

 

 

 

 

 

8,600

 

 

 

 

Lease right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for new finance lease liabilities

 

 

2,434

 

 

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

7

 


AGENUS INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

NOTES TO UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

SeptemberJune 30, 20192020

 

Note A - Business, Liquidity and Basis of Presentation

Agenus Inc. (including its subsidiaries, collectively referred to as “Agenus,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology (“I-O”) company with aadvancing an extensive pipeline of immune modulatingcheckpoint antibodies, vaccines, adjuvants and adoptive cell therapies dedicatedand neoantigen vaccines, to becoming a leader in the discoveryfight cancer and development of innovative combination therapies and committed to bringing effective medicines to patients with cancer.infections. Our business is designed to drive success in I-O through speed, innovation and effective combination therapies. We believe that combination therapies and a deep understanding of each patient’s cancer will drive substantial expansion of the patient population benefiting from current I-O therapies. In addition to a diverse pipeline, we have assembled fully integrated end-to-end capabilities including novel target discovery, antibody generation, cell line development and good manufacturing practice (“GMP”) manufacturing. We believe that these fully integrated capabilities enable us to produce novel candidates on timelines that are shorter than the industry standard. Leveraging our science and capabilities, we have forged important partnerships to advance our innovation.

We are developing a comprehensive I-O portfolio driven by the following platforms and programs, which we intend to utilize individually and in combination:

our multiple antibody discovery platforms, including our proprietary display technologies, designed to drive the discovery of future CPM antibody candidates;

our antibody candidate programs, including our CPM programs;

our multiple antibody discovery platforms, including our proprietary display technologies, designed to drive the discovery of future CPM antibody candidates;

 

our antibody candidate programs, including our CPM programs;

our vaccine programs, including Prophage™, AutoSynVax™ and PhosPhoSynVax ™;

our saponin-based vaccine adjuvants, principally our QS-21 Stimulon™ adjuvant, or QS-21 Stimulon; and

our saponin-based vaccine adjuvants, principally our QS-21 Stimulon™ adjuvant, or QS-21 Stimulon; and

our cell therapy subsidiary, AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc., which is designed to drive the discovery of future adoptive cell therapy, or “living drugs” (Activated, CAR-T and TCR) programs.

our cell therapy subsidiary, AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc., which is designed to drive the discovery of future adoptive cell therapy, or “living drugs” programs.

Our business activities include product research and development, intellectual property prosecution, manufacturing, regulatory and clinical affairs, corporate finance and development activities, and support of our collaborations. Our product candidates require clinical trials and approvals from regulatory agencies, as well as acceptance in the marketplace. Part of our strategy is to develop and commercialize some of our product candidates by continuing our existing arrangements with academic and corporate collaborators and licensees and by entering into new collaborations.As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, we streamlined our operations and repurposed certain of our research and development efforts to advance product candidates for the potential treatment of COVID-19, including certain agents from our existing clinical portfolio.

Our cash and cash equivalents at SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 were $93.3$79.2 million, an increase of $40.2$17.4 million from December 31, 2018.2019.

          We have incurred significant losses since our inception. As of SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $1.3$1.4 billion. We are likelyAlthough we plan to continue to incur losses until we become a commercial company generating profits. Ourlaunch our first commercial product launches are planned for as early asin 2021, if approved, we do not expect to be profitable in 2021.

During the first half of 2021.

Since our inception,past five years, we have successfully financed our operations through the sale of equity, notes, corporate partnerships and advance royalty sales and interest income.sales. Based on our current plans and projections, we believe that our cash resources of $93.3$79.2 million as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019, plus anticipated license fees2020, combined with proceeds from financing transactions already completed in the third quarter of 2020, along with cash expected to be received from corporate transactions and milestones, will be sufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements into the secondthird quarter of 2020.2021; we are presently in financing, partnership, and out licensing discussions which, if consummated, could extend our cash resources further into and beyond next year. Until we are successful in our efforts for capital infusion through these transactions or other financing options, and because the completion of such transactions is not entirely within our control, in accordance with accounting guidance we are required to disclose that substantial doubt exists about our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. Accordingly, the financial statements have been prepared on a basis that assumes we will continue as a going concern and which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities and commitments in the ordinary course of business.

Management continues to address the Company’s liquidity position.position and will adjust spending as needed in order to preserve liquidity. In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we streamlined our organization, which included a headcount reduction and the slowing down of several non-priority programs and our CEO, Dr. Garo Armen, also elected to receive his base

8


salary in stock rather than cash for the remainder of 2020. We also continue to monitor the likelihood of success of our key initiatives and canhave a plan to discontinue funding of such activities if they do not prove to be successful, or further restrict funding of non-core programs, restrict capital expenditures and/or reduce the scale of our operations if necessary.as necessary to ensure sufficient cash resources into the third quarter of 2021. Our future liquidity needs will be determined primarily by the success of our operations with respect to the progression of our product candidates and key development and regulatory events in the future. Potential sources of additional funding include: (1) pursuing collaboration, out-licensing and/or partnering opportunities for our portfolio programs and product candidates with one or more third parties, (2) renegotiating third party agreements, (3) selling assets, (4) securing additional debt financing and/or (5) selling equity securities.

Based on our recurring losses from operations and expectation of continuing losses, we will require additional capital to finance our operations through and beyond the second quarter of 2020. Based on current revenue trends from GlaxoSmithKline’s Shingrix vaccine and the progress trends of our clinical stage programs, we expect to receive additional milestone payments during 2020. In addition, we are currently pursuing transactions designed for significant capital infusion to satisfy our cash requirements. Until we are successful in our efforts for capital infusion through these transactions or other financing options, in accordance with accounting

8


guidance, we are required to disclose that a substantial doubt exists about our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. Accordingly, the financial statements have been prepared on a basis that assumes we will continue as a going concern and which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities and commitments in the ordinary course of business.

The accompanying unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete annual consolidated financial statements. In the opinion of our management, the condensed consolidated financial statements include all normal and recurring adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation of our financial position and operating results. All significant intercompany transactions and accounts have been eliminated in consolidation. Operating results for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2019.2020. For further information, refer to our consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 20182019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 18, 2019.16, 2020.

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 disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Management bases its estimates on historical experience and on various assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

For our foreign subsidiaries, the local currency is the functional currency. Assets and liabilities of our foreign subsidiaries are translated into U.S. dollars using rates in effect at the balance sheet date while revenues and expenses are translated into U.S. dollars using average exchange rates during the period. The cumulative translation adjustment resulting from changes in exchange rates are included in the consolidated balance sheets as a component of accumulated other comprehensive loss in total stockholders’ deficit.

 

Note B - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Except as detailed below, there have been no material changes to our significant accounting policies during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, as compared to the significant accounting policies disclosed in Note 2 of the Consolidated Financial Statements in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Leases

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842) (“ASC 842”) which supersedes Topic 840, Leases (“ASC 840”). We adopted ASC 842 on January 1, 2019 using the alternative transition method and recorded a cumulative effect adjustment to beginning retained earnings without restating prior periods. Accordingly, all financial information and disclosures for periods before January 1, 2019 continue to be presented under the requirements of ASC 840. We elected the package of practical expedients, which allowed us to carry forward our historical lease classification, our assessment of whether a contract is or contains a lease and our initial direct costs for any leases that existed prior to adoption of the new standard.

At the inception of an agreement, we determine whether the contract contains a lease. If a lease is identified in such arrangement, we recognize a right-of-use asset and liability on our consolidated balance sheet and determine whether the lease should be classified as a finance or operating lease. We have elected not to recognize assets or liabilities for leases with lease terms of 12 months or less.

A lease qualifies as a finance lease if any of the following criteria are met at the inception of the lease: (i) there is a transfer of ownership of the leased asset by the end of the lease term, (ii) we hold an option to purchase the leased asset that we are reasonably certain to exercise, (iii) the lease term is for a major part of the remaining economic life of the leased asset, (iv) the present value of the sum of lease payments equals or exceeds substantially all of the fair value of the leased asset, or (v) the nature of the leased asset is specialized to the point that it is expected to provide the lessor no alternative use at the end of the lease term. All other leases are recorded as operating leases.

Finance and operating lease right-of-use assets and liabilities are recognized at the lease commencement date. Lease liabilities are recognized as the present value of the lease payments over the lease term using the discount rate implicit in the lease. If the implicit rate is not readily determinable, as is the case with all our current leases, we utilize our incremental borrowing rate at the lease

9


commencement date. Right-of-use assets are recognized based on the amount of the lease liability, adjusted for any advance lease payments paid, initial direct costs incurred, or lease incentives received prior to commencement. Right-of-use assets are subject to evaluation for impairment or disposal on a basis consistent with other long-lived assets.

Operating lease payments are expensed using the straight-line method as an operating expense over the lease term, unless the right-of-use asset reflects impairment. We will then recognize the amortization of the right-of-use asset on a straight-line basis over the remaining lease term with rent expense still included in operating expense in our condensed consolidated statement of operations.

Finance lease assets are amortized to depreciation expense using the straight-line method over the shorter of the useful life of the related asset or the lease term, unless the lease includes a provision that either (i) results in the transfer of ownership of the underlying asset at the end of the lease term or (ii) includes a purchase option whose exercise is reasonably certain. In either of these instances, the right-of-use asset is amortized over the useful life of the underlying asset. Finance lease payments are bifurcated into (i) a portion that is recorded as imputed interest expense and (ii) a portion that reduces the finance lease liability.

We do not separate lease and non-lease components for any of our current asset classes when determining which lease payments to include in the calculation of its lease assets and liabilities. Variable lease payments are expensed in the period incurred. If a lease includes an option to extend or terminate the lease, we reflect the option in the lease term if it is reasonably certain the option will be exercised. Our right of use assets and lease liabilities generally exclude periods covered by renewal options and include periods covered by early termination options (based on our conclusion that it is not reasonably certain that we will exercise such options).

We account for the sublease of space in our main Lexington, Massachusetts facility from the perspective of a lessor. Our sublease is classified as an operating lease. We record sublease income as a reduction of operating expense.

Operating leases are recorded in “Operating lease right-of-use assets”, “Current portion, operating lease liabilities” and “Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion”, while finance leases are recorded in “Property, plant and equipment, net”, “Other current liabilities” and “Other long-term liabilities” on our condensed consolidated balance sheet.

Impact of Adopting ASC 842 on the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

We recorded the following adjustments to our condensed consolidated balance sheet on the date of adoption (in thousands):

 

 

As Reported December 31, 2018

 

 

ASC 842 Adjustment

 

 

Adjusted January 1, 2019

 

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operating lease right-of-use assets

 

$

 

 

$

5,687

 

 

$

5,687

 

Current portion, operating lease liabilities

 

 

 

 

 

1,510

 

 

 

1,510

 

Other current liabilities

 

 

484

 

 

 

(95

)

 

 

389

 

Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion

 

 

 

 

 

6,216

 

 

 

6,216

 

Other long-term liabilities

 

 

2,773

 

 

 

(1,921

)

 

 

852

 

Accumulated deficit

 

$

(1,177,311

)

 

$

(25

)

 

$

(1,177,336

)

The adoption did not have an impact on our condensed consolidated statement of operations or our condensed consolidated statement of cash flows. See Note L for additional information regarding our leases.

10


Note C - Net Loss Per Share

Basic net loss per common share is calculated by dividing the net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding (including common shares issuable under our Amended and Restated Directors’ Deferred Compensation Plan, or “DDCP”). Diluted incomeloss per common share is calculated by dividing net incomeloss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding (including common shares issuable under our DDCP) plus the dilutive effect of outstanding instruments such as warrants, stock options, non-vested shares and convertible preferred stock, and convertible notes.stock. Because we reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders for all periods presented,, diluted loss per common share is the same as basic loss per common share, as the effect of utilizing the fully diluted share count would have reduced the net loss per common share. The following securities (listed on an as-if-converted-to-Common-Stock basis) have been excluded from the computation of diluted weighted average shares outstanding as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, as they would be anti-dilutive (in thousands):

 

 

Three and Nine Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Three and Six Months Ended June 30,

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

Warrants

 

 

1,400

 

 

 

2,900

 

 

 

1,950

 

 

 

1,400

 

Stock options

 

 

24,890

 

 

 

16,918

 

 

 

26,079

 

 

 

23,844

 

Non-vested shares

 

 

2,117

 

 

 

2,222

 

 

 

873

 

 

 

2,218

 

Series A-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

333

 

 

 

333

 

 

 

333

 

 

 

333

 

Series C-1 convertible preferred stock

 

 

12,459

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

12,459

 

 

 

12,459

 

 

9


Note DC - Investments

Cash equivalents consisted of the following as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 (in thousands):

 

 

 

September 30, 2019

 

 

December 31, 2018

 

 

 

Cost

 

 

Estimated

Fair Value

 

 

Cost

 

 

Estimated

Fair Value

 

Institutional money market funds

 

$

87,491

 

 

$

87,491

 

 

$

29,948

 

 

$

29,948

 

 

 

June 30, 2020

 

 

December 31, 2019

 

 

 

Cost

 

 

Estimated

Fair Value

 

 

Cost

 

 

Estimated

Fair Value

 

Institutional money market funds

 

$

53,942

 

 

$

53,942

 

 

$

55,258

 

 

$

55,258

 

U.S. Treasury Bills

 

 

9,996

 

 

 

9,996

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total

 

$

63,938

 

 

$

63,938

 

 

$

55,258

 

 

$

55,258

 

 

As a result of the short-term nature of our investments, there were minimal unrealized holding gains or losses for the ninethree and six months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018.2019.

 

 

Note ED - Goodwill and Acquired Intangible Assets

The following table sets forth the changes in the carrying amount of goodwill for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 (in thousands):

 

Balance, December 31, 2018

 

$

22,925

 

Foreign currency translation adjustment

 

 

(168

)

Balance, September 30, 2019

 

$

22,757

 

Balance, December 31, 2019

 

$

23,188

 

Foreign currency translation adjustment

 

 

294

 

Addition of goodwill related to business acquisition

 

 

794

 

Balance, June 30, 2020

 

$

24,276

 

 

Acquired intangible assets consisted of the following as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 (in thousands):

 

 

As of September 30, 2019

 

 

As of June 30, 2020

 

 

Amortization

period

(years)

 

Gross carrying

amount

 

 

Accumulated

amortization

 

 

Net carrying

amount

 

 

Amortization

period

(years)

 

Gross carrying

amount

 

 

Accumulated

amortization

 

 

Net carrying

amount

 

Intellectual property

 

7-15 years

 

$

16,462

 

 

$

(7,530

)

 

$

8,932

 

 

7-15 years

 

$

16,667

 

 

$

(9,015

)

 

$

7,652

 

Trademarks

 

4.5 years

 

 

811

 

 

 

(811

)

 

 

-

 

 

4-4.5 years

 

 

1,266

 

 

 

(867

)

 

 

399

 

Other

 

2-6 years

 

 

567

 

 

 

(537

)

 

 

30

 

 

2-7 years

 

 

2,345

 

 

 

(617

)

 

 

1,728

 

In-process research and development

 

Indefinite

 

 

1,891

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,891

 

 

Indefinite

 

 

1,981

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,981

 

Total

 

 

 

$

19,731

 

 

$

(8,878

)

 

$

10,853

 

 

 

 

$

22,259

 

 

$

(10,499

)

 

$

11,760

 

 

11


 

As of December 31, 2018

 

 

As of December 31, 2019

 

 

Amortization

period

(years)

 

Gross carrying

amount

 

 

Accumulated

amortization

 

 

Net carrying

amount

 

 

Amortization

period

(years)

 

Gross carrying

amount

 

 

Accumulated

amortization

 

 

Net carrying

amount

 

Intellectual property

 

7-15 years

 

$

16,509

 

 

$

(6,147

)

 

$

10,362

 

 

7-15 years

 

$

16,584

 

 

$

(8,044

)

 

$

8,540

 

Trademarks

 

4.5 years

 

 

820

 

 

 

(820

)

 

 

-

 

 

4.5 years

 

 

834

 

 

 

(834

)

 

 

 

Other

 

2-6 years

 

 

569

 

 

 

(505

)

 

 

64

 

 

2-6 years

 

 

572

 

 

 

(553

)

 

 

19

 

In-process research and development

 

Indefinite

 

 

1,912

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,912

 

 

Indefinite

 

 

1,945

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,945

 

Total

 

 

 

$

19,810

 

 

$

(7,472

)

 

$

12,338

 

 

 

 

$

19,935

 

 

$

(9,431

)

 

$

10,504

 

 

The weighted average amortization period of our finite-lived intangible assets is 9 years. Amortization expense related to acquired intangibles is estimated at $0.5$1.1 million for the remainder of 2019, $1.92020, $2.2 million for each of the years ending December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, and $1.4$1.7 million for the year ending December 31, 2023.2023 and $0.6 million for the year ending December 31, 2024.

 

 

10


Note FE - Debt

Debt obligations consisted of the following as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 (in thousands):  

 

Debt instrument

 

Principal at

September 30,

2019

 

 

Unamortized

Debt Discount

 

 

Balance at

September 30,

2019

 

 

Balance at

June 30,

2020

 

Current Portion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Debentures

 

$

146

 

 

$

 

 

$

146

 

 

$

146

 

2015 Subordinated Notes

 

 

14,000

 

 

 

(299

)

 

 

13,701

 

Total

 

$

14,146

 

 

$

(299

)

 

$

13,847

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Debt instrument

 

Principal at

December 31,

2018

 

 

Unamortized

Debt Discount

 

 

Balance at

December 31,

2018

 

Current Portion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Debentures

 

$

146

 

 

$

 

 

$

146

 

Other

 

 

1,386

 

Long-term Portion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 Subordinated Notes

 

 

14,000

 

 

 

(788

)

 

 

13,212

 

 

 

12,616

 

Other

 

 

6,197

 

Total

 

$

14,146

 

 

$

(788

)

 

$

13,358

 

 

$

20,345

 

 

Debt instrument

 

Principal at

December 31,

2019

 

 

Unamortized

Debt Discount

 

 

Balance at

December 31,

2019

 

Current Portion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Debentures

 

$

146

 

 

$

 

 

$

146

 

2015 Subordinated Notes

 

 

500

 

 

 

 

 

 

500

 

Long-term Portion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 Subordinated Notes

 

 

13,500

 

 

 

(120

)

 

 

13,380

 

Total

 

$

14,146

 

 

$

(120

)

 

$

14,026

 

On February 18, 2020, we entered into an amendment to the 2015 Subordinated Notes (the “Amendment”) pursuant to which we:

extended the maturity date of $13.5 million of the 2015 Subordinated Notes by three years from February 20, 2020 to February 20, 2023;

repaid $0.5 million of the 2015 Subordinated Notes;

extended the exercise period of the warrants to purchase 1,350,000 shares of the Company’s common stock previously issued in 2015 by three years from February 20, 2020 to February 20, 2023; and

issued new warrants to purchase 675,000 shares of the Company’s common stock with a term of five years and an exercise price of $4.48 per share, which represented a 20% premium over the 30-day average trailing closing price of the Company’s common stock as of the date of the Amendment.

The Amendment was accounted for as a debt extinguishment under the guidance of ASU 470: Debt. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, we recorded a loss of approximately $2.7 million in other expense in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, which primarily represents the fair value of the new and extended warrants. The amended 2015 Subordinated Notes were recorded at fair value. In April 2020, we repaid $0.5 million of the outstanding amended 2015 Subordinated Notes and cancelled related warrants. As of June 30, 2020, the principal amount of our outstanding debt balance was $20.7 million.

Payroll Protection Program

In May 2020, we entered into promissory notes with Bank of America, NA for aggregate loan proceeds of approximately $6.2 million (collectively, the “Loan”) under the Small Business Administration (the “SBA”) Paycheck Protection Program of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the “CARES Act”). We intend to use at least 60% of the Loan proceeds for covered payroll costs and no more than 40% of the Loan proceeds for rent and utilities in accordance with the relevant terms and conditions of the CARES Act, as amended by the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act. Each Loan has a two-year term and bears interest at a rate of 1.00% per annum.

The Loan may be forgiven partially or fully if the Loan proceeds are used for covered payroll costs, rent and utilities, provided that such amounts are incurred during the twenty-four week period commencing on receipt of the Loan proceeds, and at least 60% of any forgiven amount has been used for covered payroll costs. Any forgiveness of the Loan will be subject to approval by the SBA and will require us to apply for such treatment in the future.

11


As we cannot yet determine if the Loan will be partially or fully forgiven, we have classified the Loan proceeds as debt in our condensed consolidated balance sheet.

 

 

Note GF – Liability Related to the Sale of Future Royalties and Milestones

 

The following table shows the activity within the liability account in the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 (in thousands):

 

 

Period from

December 31, 2018 to

September 30, 2019

 

 

Period from

December 31, 2019 to

June 30, 2020

 

Liability related to sale of future royalties and milestones - beginning balance

 

$

210,795

 

 

$

221,845

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

(30,073

)

 

 

(21,002

)

Non-cash interest expense recognized

 

 

29,866

 

 

 

27,999

 

Liability related to sale of future royalties and milestones - ending balance

 

 

210,588

 

 

 

228,842

 

Less: unamortized transaction costs

 

 

(490

)

 

 

(446

)

Liability related to sale of future royalties and milestones, net

 

$

210,098

 

 

$

228,396

 

 

Healthcare Royalty Partners

12


In January 2018, we, through our wholly-owned subsidiary Antigenics, LLC (“Antigenics”), entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreement (the “HCR Royalty Purchase Agreement”) with Healthcare Royalty Partners III, L.P. and certain of its subsidiariesaffiliates (collectively, “HCR”). Pursuant to the terms of the HCR Royalty Purchase Agreement, we sold to HCR 100% of Antigenics’ worldwide rights to receive royalties from GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”) on sales of GSK’s vaccines containing our QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant. At closing, we received gross proceeds of $190.0 million from HCR. Although we sold all of our rights to receive royalties on sales of GSK’s vaccines containing QS-21, as a result of our obligation to HCR, we are required to account for these royalties as revenue when earned, and we recorded the $190.0 million in proceeds from this transaction as a liability on our condensed consolidated balance sheet that will be amortized using the interest method over the estimated life of the HCR Royalty Purchase Agreement. The liability is classified between the current and non-current portion of liability related to sale of future royalties and milestones in the condensed consolidated balance sheets based on the estimated recognition of the royalty payments to be received by HCR in the next 12 months from the financial statement reporting date.

During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we recognized $30.1$21.0 million of non-cash royalty revenue, and we recorded $29.9$28.0 million of related non-cash interest expense related to the HCR Royalty Purchase Agreement.

As royalties are remitted to HCR from GSK, the balance of the recorded liability will be effectively repaid over the life of the HCR Royalty Purchase Agreement. To determine the amortization of the recorded liability, we are required to estimate the total amount of future royalty payments to be received by HCR. The sum of these amounts less the $190.0 million proceeds we received will be recorded as interest expense over the life of the HCR Royalty Purchase Agreement. Periodically, we assess the estimated royalty payments to be paid to HCR from GSK, and to the extent the amount or timing of the payments is materially different from our original estimates, we will prospectively adjust the amortization of the liability. During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, our estimate of the effective annual interest rate over the life of the agreement increased to 21.1%27.3%, which results in a prospectiveretrospective interest rate of 19.1%22.9%.

 

12


Note HG - Accrued Liabilities

Accrued liabilities consisted of the following as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 (in thousands):

 

 

September 30, 2019

 

 

December 31, 2018

 

 

June 30, 2020

 

 

December 31, 2019

 

Payroll

 

$

7,065

 

 

$

8,770

 

 

$

6,514

 

 

$

9,575

 

Professional fees

 

 

4,836

 

 

 

3,528

 

 

 

4,254

 

 

 

4,314

 

Contract manufacturing costs

 

 

7,531

 

 

 

5,947

 

 

 

8,044

 

 

 

8,768

 

Research services

 

 

8,070

 

 

 

5,348

 

 

 

7,344

 

 

 

6,675

 

Other

 

 

1,242

 

 

 

958

 

 

 

1,295

 

 

 

2,000

 

Total

 

$

28,744

 

 

$

24,551

 

 

$

27,451

 

 

$

31,332

 

 

 

Note IH - Fair Value Measurements

We measure our contingent purchase price considerations at fair value.

The fair values of our contingent purchase price considerations, $4.2$11.4 million, are based on significant inputs not observable in the market, which require them to be reported as Level 3 liabilities within the fair value hierarchy. The valuation of these liabilities use assumptions we believe would be made by a market participant and are based on estimates from a Monte Carlo simulation of our market capitalization and share price, and other factors impacting the probability of triggering the milestone payments. Market capitalization and share price were evolved using a geometric Brownian motion, calculated daily for the life of the contingent purchase price considerations.

13The significant unobservable inputs include the anticipated timelines to achieve the contingent purchase milestones and our estimated credit spread, the weighted average values of which (weighted based on the value of each contingent liability), as of June 30, 2020, are shown in the table below.

Unobservable

Input

Period of time to achieve milestones (in years)

1.4

Credit spread

10.8

%

 


Liabilities measured at fair value are summarized below (in thousands):

 

Description

 

September 30, 2019

 

 

Quoted Prices in

Active

Markets for

Identical Assets

(Level 1)

 

 

Significant

Other

Observable

Inputs

(Level 2)

 

 

Significant

Unobservable

Inputs

(Level 3)

 

 

June 30, 2020

 

 

Quoted Prices in

Active

Markets for

Identical Assets

(Level 1)

 

 

Significant

Other

Observable

Inputs

(Level 2)

 

 

Significant

Unobservable

Inputs

(Level 3)

 

Liabilities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contingent purchase price considerations

 

$

4,218

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

4,218

 

 

$

11,443

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

11,443

 

Total

 

$

4,218

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

4,218

 

 

$

11,443

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

11,443

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Description

 

December 31, 2018

 

 

Quoted Prices in

Active

Markets for

Identical Assets

(Level 1)

 

 

Significant

Other

Observable

Inputs

(Level 2)

 

 

Significant

Unobservable

Inputs

(Level 3)

 

 

December 31, 2019

 

 

Quoted Prices in

Active

Markets for

Identical Assets

(Level 1)

 

 

Significant

Other

Observable

Inputs

(Level 2)

 

 

Significant

Unobservable

Inputs

(Level 3)

 

Liabilities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contingent purchase price consideration

 

$

3,038

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

3,038

 

 

$

8,843

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

8,843

 

Total

 

$

3,038

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

3,038

 

 

$

8,843

 

 

$

 

 

$

 

 

$

8,843

 

 

13


The following table presents our liabilities measured at fair value using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3), as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 (in thousands):

 

Balance, December 31, 2018

 

$

3,038

 

Change in fair value of contingent purchase price considerations

   during the period

 

 

1,180

 

Balance, September 30, 2019

 

$

4,218

 

Balance, December 31, 2019

 

$

8,843

 

Change in fair value of contingent purchase price considerations

   during the period

 

 

2,456

 

Addition of contingent purchase price consideration related to

   business acquisition

 

 

144

 

Balance, June 30, 2020

 

$

11,443

 

The fair value of our outstanding debt balance at both SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 was $20.5 million and $14.2 million, respectively, based on the Level 2 valuation hierarchy of the fair value measurements standard using a present value methodology that was derived by evaluating the nature and terms of each note and considering the prevailing economic and market conditions at the balance sheet date. The principal amount of our outstanding debt balance at both SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 was $20.7 and $14.1 million.million, respectively.

 

 

Note JI - Revenue from Contracts with Customers

Gilead Collaboration Agreement

On December 20, 2018, we entered into a series of agreements with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (“Gilead”) focused on the development and commercialization of up to five novel immuno-oncology therapies. Pursuant to the terms of the license agreement, the option and license agreements and the stock purchase agreement we entered into with Gilead (each defined below and, collectively,(collectively, the “Gilead Collaboration Agreements”), at the closing of the transaction on January 23, 2019 (the “Effective Date”), we received an upfront cash payment from Gilead of $120.0 million and Gilead made a $30.0 million equity investment in Agenus. We are also eligible to receive up to $1.7 billion in aggregate potential milestones.

License AgreementCollaboration Revenue

PursuantFor the three months ended June 30, 2020, we recognized $4.0 million of research and development revenue related to the termsGilead Collaboration Agreements based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of quarter end. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, we recognized $3.8 million of research and development revenue based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of quarter end.

For the six months ended June 30, 2020, we recognized $5.8 million of license and collaboration revenue related to the Gilead Collaboration Agreements based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of period end. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, we recognized $74.1 million of license and collaboration revenue related to the Gilead Collaboration Agreements. This amount included $8.6 million of the transaction price recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of period end.

We expect to recognize deferred research and development revenue of $22.9 million and $27.7 million for the remainder of 2020 and 2021, respectively, related to performance obligations that are unsatisfied or partially unsatisfied as of June 30, 2020.

Incyte Collaboration Agreement

For the three months ended June 30, 2020, we recognized approximately $0.2 million of research and development revenue for research and development services provided. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, we recognized approximately $0.6 million of research and development revenue. This amount included $0.1 million of the transaction price recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of quarter end and $0.5 million for research and development services.

For the six months ended June 30, 2020, we recognized approximately $0.3 million of research and development revenue for research and development services provided. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, we recognized approximately $1.2 million of research and development revenue. This amount included $0.3 million of the transaction price for the Incyte Collaboration Agreement recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of period end and $0.9 million for research and development services.

14


Betta License Agreement

In June 2020, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement between the parties (the “License“Betta License Agreement”) with Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (“Betta”), pursuant to which we granted GileadBetta an exclusive worldwide license under certain of our intellectual property rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize our preclinical bispecific antibody, AGEN1423 (now GS-1423),balstilimab and zalifrelimab in all fields of use. Pursuant to the License Agreement, Gilead is responsible for all of the development, manufacturing and commercialization costs for any products that Gilead may develop under the License Agreement. In addition, Gilead also received the right of first negotiation for two of our undisclosed antibody programs. The License Agreement will continue until all of Gilead’s applicable payment obligations under the License Agreement have been performed or have expired, or the agreement is earlier terminated.Greater China. Under the terms of the License Agreement, each party has the right to terminate the agreement for material breach by, or insolvency of, the other party. Gilead may also terminate the License Agreement in its entirety, or on a product-by-product or country-by-country basis, for convenience upon ninety (90) days’ notice. Pursuant to the terms of theBetta License Agreement, we received $15.0 million upfront in July 2020 and are eligible to receive potential development and commercial milestones of up to $552.5$100.0 million in the aggregate, as well as tiered royaltymilestone payments plus royalties on aggregate netany future sales ranging from the high single digit to mid-teen percent, subject toin Greater China.

14


certain reductions under certain circumstances as described in the License Agreement. We filed an investigational new drug (“IND”) application for AGEN1423 (now GS-1423) in February 2019, and the IND was accepted by the FDA in March 2019.

Option and License Agreements

Pursuant to the terms of two separate option and license agreements between the parties (each, an “Option and License Agreement” and together, the “Option and License Agreements”), we granted Gilead exclusive options to license exclusively (“License Option”) our bispecific antibody, AGEN1223, and our monospecific antibody, AGEN2373 (together, the “Option Programs”), during the respective Option Periods (defined below). Pursuant to the terms of the Option and License Agreements, we agreed to grant Gilead an exclusive, worldwide license under our intellectual property rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize AGEN1223 or AGEN2373, as applicable, in all fields of use upon Gilead’s exercise of the applicable License Option. Gilead is entitled to exercise its License Option for either or both Option Programs at any time up until ninety (90) days following Gilead’s receipt of a data package with respect to the first complete Phase 1b clinical trial for each Option Program (the “Option Period”). During the Option Period, we are responsible for the costs and expenses related to the development of the Option Programs. After Gilead’s exercise of a License Option, if at all, Gilead would be responsible for all development, manufacturing and commercialization activities relating to the relevant Option Program at Gilead’s cost and expense.

During the Option Period, we are eligible to receive milestones of up to $30.0 million in the aggregate. If Gilead exercises a License Option, it would be required to pay an upfront license exercise fee of $50.0 million for each License Option that is exercised. Following any exercise of a License Option, we would be eligible to receive additional development and commercial milestones of up to $520.0 million in the aggregate for each such Option Program, as well as tiered royalty payments on aggregate net sales. For either, but not both, of the Option Programs, we will have the right to opt-in to share Gilead’s development and commercialization costs in the United States for such Option Program in exchange for a profit (loss) share on a 50:50 basis and revised milestone payments. If we opt-in under one Option and License Agreement, our right to opt-in under the other Option and License Agreement automatically terminates.

Unless earlier terminated, each Option and License Agreement will continue until the earlier of (i) the expiration of the Option Period, without Gilead’s exercise of the License Option; and (ii) the date all of Gilead’s applicable payment obligations under the Option and License Agreement have been performed or have expired. Under the terms of each Option and License Agreement, we and Gilead each have the right to terminate the agreement for material breach by, or insolvency of, the other party. Gilead may also terminate an Option License Agreement in its entirety, or on a product-by-product or country-by-country basis for convenience upon ninety (90) days’ notice.

Stock Purchase Agreement

Pursuant to the terms ofentered into a stock purchase agreement between the parties (the “Stock Purchase Agreement”with Betta and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Betta (“Betta HK”), Gilead purchased 11,111,111pursuant to which we agreed to sell to Betta HK 4,962,779 shares of Agenus common stock (the “Shares”) for an aggregate purchase price of $30.0approximately $20.0 million, or $2.70$4.03 per share. Gilead owned approximately 8.5% of the outstanding shares of Agenus common stock after such purchase. Under the Stock Purchase Agreement, Gilead has agreed (i) not to dispose of any of the Shares for a period of 12 months, (ii) to certain standstill provisions that generally preclude it from acquiring more than 15% of Agenus’ outstanding voting stock after taking into account the purchase of the Shares and (iii) to vote the Shares in accordance with the recommendations of the Agenus board of directors in connection with certain equity incentive plan or compensation matters for a period of 12 months. In the Stock Purchase Agreement we agreed to register the Shares for resaleThe closing under the Securities Act of 1933, andstock purchase agreement occurred in October 2019 we filed a registration statement with the SEC accordingly.

Collaboration RevenueJuly 2020.

We identified the following performance obligations under the Gilead Collaboration Agreements:Betta License Agreement: (1) the license that we granted to Gilead pursuant to the License Agreement (the “AGEN1423 License”),of balstilimab and zalifrelimab, (2) our obligation to complete manufacturing and know-how techtechnology transfer activities to Gilead pursuant toBetta (the “Technology Transfer”) for balistilimab and zalifrelimab and (3) the License Agreement to enable Gilead or its third party contract manufacturing organization to manufacture the licensed antibody (the “AGEN1423 Technology Transfer”), (3) our obligation to advance developmentsupply of AGEN1223 to the option exercise point pursuant to the AGEN1223 Optionbalistilimab and License Agreement (such development activities, the “AGEN1223 R&D Services”), and (4) our obligation to advance development of AGEN2373 to the option exercise point pursuant to the AGEN2373 Option and License Agreement (such development activities, the “AGEN2373 R&D Services”).  zalifrelimab.

We determined that the AGEN1423 Licenselicense of balstilimab and zalifrelimab was both capable of being distinct and distinct within the context of the contract given bothas the license has significant stand-alone functionality as of contract inception based on the advanced development stage of developmentbalstilimab and that the IND was anticipated to be accepted within a short period of time after the

15


Effective Date. Gileadzalifrelimab. Betta can begin deriving benefit from the license prior to the AGEN1423 Technology Transfer being completed. The technology transfer plan includes an extensive list of items to be transferredTechnology Transfer is completed over time and is separate from the transfer of the AGEN1423 Licensebalstilimab and zalifrelimab license, which occurred at contract inception. As a result, we concluded that the AGEN1423 Licensebalstilimab and AGEN1423zalifrelimab license and Technology Transfer are separate performance obligations.

We considered whether the AGEN1223 R&D Services and AGEN2373 R&D Services were distinct from one another and from the performance obligations related to AGEN1423. Wealso determined that the researchsupply of balstilimab and development services related to each antibody werezalifrelimab was both capable of being distinct and distinct within the context of the contract given that each program is governed byas it was considered a separate option agreement with a separate development plan. The services performed to develop each program are independent of one another, andreadily available resource in the antibodies are in different stages of development. We concluded that the AGEN1223 R&D Services and AGEN2373 R&D Services are separate performance obligations.market.

We determined that there were no significant financing components, noncash consideration, or amounts that may be refunded to the customer, and as such the total upfront fixed consideration of license and research and development fees totaling $120.0$15.0 million would be included in the total transaction price. In additionprice and be allocated to the fixed consideration, the variable consideration milestones related to IND acceptance for each of the three antibodies was also included in the transaction price. We determined that based on the likelihood of the triggering event occurring for the acceptance of each IND filling, the most likely amount for each of the three milestones was the stated value, totaling $22.5 million. The variable consideration related to eachidentified performance obligation will be allocated entirely to that specific performance obligation. The remaining fixed consideration will be allocatedobligations using the relative standalone selling price method.

We determined the estimated standalone selling price of the AGEN1423 Licensebalstilimab and zalifrelimab license by applying a risk adjusted, net present value, estimate of future cash flow approach. We determined the estimated standalone selling price of the AGEN1423 Technology Transfer and AGEN1223 R&D Services and AGEN2373 R&D Services by using the estimated costs of satisfying thesethe performance obligations,obligation, plus an appropriate margin for such services. We did not estimate the standalone selling price of the balstilimab and zalifrelimab supply due to the “as invoiced” practical expedient.

Revenue attributable to the AGEN1423 Licensebalstilimab and zalifrelimab license was recognized at a point-in-time, upon delivery of the license to GileadBetta at the Effective Date.contract inception. The AGEN1423 Technology Transfer AGEN1223 R&D Services and AGEN2373 R&D Services areis satisfied over time and revenue attributable to thesethis performance obligationsobligation will be recognized as the related services are being performed using the input of costs incurred over total costs expected to be incurred. We believe this is the best measure of progress because other measures do not reflect how we transfer ourthe performance obligationsobligation to Gilead. A cost-based input method of revenue recognition requires management to make estimates of costs to complete our performance obligations. In making such estimates, significant judgment is required to evaluate assumptions related to cost estimates. The cumulative effect of revisions to estimated costs to complete our performance obligations will be recorded in the period in which changes are identified and amounts can be reasonably estimated. A significant change in these assumptions and estimates could have a material impact on the timing and amount of revenue recognized in future periods.Betta.

For the three and six months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we recognized $3.6$13.9 million of license and collaboration revenue related to the Gilead CollaborationBetta License Agreement. This amount included $3.6 million of the transaction price recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of quarter end.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, we recognized $77.7 million of license and collaboration revenue related to the Gilead Collaboration Agreement. This amount included $12.2 million of the transaction price recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of period end.

We expect to recognize deferred research and development revenue of $6.9 million, $37.2 million, and $20.8 million for the remainder of 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively, related to performance obligations that are unsatisfied or partially unsatisfied as of September 30, 2019.

Incyte Collaboration Agreement

For the three months ended September 30, 2019, we recognized approximately $2.1 million of research and development revenue. This amount included $1.7 million of the transaction price for the collaboration agreement (“Incyte Collaboration Agreement”) we entered into with Incyte Corporation (“Incyte”) recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of quarter end and $0.4 million for research and development services. For the three months ended September 30, 2018, we recognized approximately $6.3 million of research and development revenue. This amount included $0.3 million of the transaction price for the Incyte Collaboration Agreement recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time

16


performance obligations as of quarter end, $5.0 million for the achievement of a milestone and $1.0 million for research and development services.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, we recognized approximately $3.3 million of research and development revenue. This amount included $2.0 million of the transaction price for the Incyte Collaboration Agreement recognized based on the partial satisfaction of the over time performance obligations as of period end and $1.3 million for research and development services. For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, we recognized approximately $14.4 million of research and development revenue. This amount included $1.1 million of the transaction price for the Incyte Collaboration Agreement recognized based on proportional performance, $10.0 million for the achievement of a milestone and $3.3 million for research and development services.

We expect to recognize deferred research and development revenue of $0.1 million for the remainder of 2019 related to performance obligations that are unsatisfied or partially unsatisfied as of September 30, 2019. These amounts exclude amounts (milestones, research and development services and royalties) where we have a right to invoice the customer in the amount that corresponds directly with the value of the performance completed to date.

Disaggregation of Revenue

The following tables present revenue (in thousands) for the three and ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and September 30, 2018,2019, disaggregated by geographic region and revenue type. Revenue by geographic region is allocated based on the domicile of our respective business operations.

 

 

 

Three months ended September 30, 2019

 

 

 

United States

 

 

Europe

 

 

Total

 

Revenue Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development services

 

$

441

 

 

$

 

 

$

441

 

Recognition of deferred revenue

 

 

5,310

 

 

 

 

 

 

5,310

 

Recognition of deferred grant revenue

 

 

6

 

 

 

445

 

 

 

451

 

Manufacturing services

 

 

1,534

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,534

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

12,204

 

 

 

 

 

 

12,204

 

 

 

$

19,495

 

 

$

445

 

 

$

19,940

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three months ended September 30, 2018

 

Revenue Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development services

 

$

1,014

 

 

$

 

 

$

1,014

 

License and collaboration milestones

 

 

5,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

5,000

 

Recognition of deferred revenue

 

 

262

 

 

 

 

 

 

262

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

6,526

 

 

 

 

 

 

6,526

 

 

 

$

12,802

 

 

$

 

 

$

12,802

 

1715

 


 

Nine months ended September 30, 2019

 

 

Three months ended June 30, 2020

 

 

United States

 

 

Europe

 

 

Total

 

 

United States

 

 

Rest of World

 

 

Total

 

Revenue Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development services

 

$

1,341

 

 

$

 

 

$

1,341

 

 

$

237

 

 

$

 

 

$

237

 

License fee revenue

 

 

65,500

 

 

 

 

 

 

65,500

 

 

 

13,857

 

 

 

 

 

 

13,857

 

Other services

 

 

 

 

 

1,023

 

 

 

1,023

 

Recognition of deferred revenue

 

 

14,181

 

 

 

 

 

 

14,181

 

 

 

3,974

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,974

 

Recognition of deferred grant revenue

 

 

651

 

 

 

501

 

 

 

1,152

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

 

Manufacturing services

 

 

3,301

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,301

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

30,073

 

 

 

 

 

 

30,073

 

 

 

7,846

 

 

 

 

 

 

7,846

 

 

$

115,047

 

 

$

501

 

 

$

115,548

 

 

$

25,922

 

 

$

1,023

 

 

$

26,945

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nine months ended September 30, 2018

 

 

Three months ended June 30, 2019

 

Revenue Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development services

 

$

3,321

 

 

$

 

 

$

3,321

 

 

$

486

 

 

$

 

 

$

486

 

License and collaboration milestones

 

$

10,000

 

 

$

4,000

 

 

 

14,000

 

Recognition of deferred revenue

 

$

1,064

 

 

$

 

 

 

1,064

 

 

 

3,913

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,913

 

Recognition of deferred grant revenue

 

 

231

 

 

 

55

 

 

 

286

 

Manufacturing services

 

 

1,767

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,767

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

11,948

 

 

 

 

 

 

11,948

 

 

 

9,263

 

 

 

 

 

 

9,263

 

 

$

26,333

 

 

$

4,000

 

 

$

30,333

 

 

$

15,660

 

 

$

55

 

 

$

15,715

 

 

 

Six months ended June 30, 2020

 

 

 

United States

 

 

Rest of World

 

 

Total

 

Revenue Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development services

 

$

334

 

 

$

 

 

$

334

 

License fee revenue

 

 

13,857

 

 

 

 

 

 

13,857

 

Other services

 

 

 

 

 

1,023

 

 

 

1,023

 

Recognition of deferred revenue

 

 

5,805

 

 

 

 

 

 

5,805

 

Recognition of deferred grant revenue

 

 

8

 

 

 

44

 

 

 

52

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

21,002

 

 

 

 

 

 

21,002

 

 

 

$

41,006

 

 

$

1,067

 

 

$

42,073

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six months ended June 30, 2019

 

Revenue Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development services

 

$

901

 

 

$

 

 

$

901

 

License fee revenue

 

 

65,500

 

 

 

 

 

 

65,500

 

Recognition of deferred revenue

 

 

8,870

 

 

 

 

 

 

8,870

 

Recognition of deferred grant revenue

 

 

646

 

 

 

55

 

 

 

701

 

Manufacturing services

 

 

1,767

 

 

 

 

 

 

1,767

 

Non-cash royalty revenue

 

 

17,869

 

 

 

 

 

 

17,869

 

 

 

$

95,553

 

 

$

55

 

 

$

95,608

 

Contract Balances

Contract assets primarily relate to our rights to consideration for work completed in relation to our research and development services performed but not billed at the reporting date. The contract assets are transferred to receivables when the rights become unconditional. Currently, we do not have any contract assets which have not transferred to a receivable. We had no0 asset impairment charges related to contract assets in the period. The contract liabilities primarily relate to contracts where we received payments but have not yet satisfied the related performance obligations. The advance consideration received from customers for research and development services or licenses bundled with other promises is a contract liability until the underlying performance obligations are transferred to the customer.

The following table provides information about contract assets and contract liabilities from contracts with customers (in thousands):

 

16


Nine months ended September 30, 2019

 

Balance at beginning of period

 

 

Additions

 

 

Deductions

 

 

Balance at end of period

 

Six months ended June 30, 2020

 

Balance at beginning of period

 

 

Additions

 

 

Deductions

 

 

Balance at end of period

 

Contract assets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unbilled receivables from collaboration partners

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

 

$

-

 

Contract liabilities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deferred revenue

 

$

2,052

 

 

$

77,000

 

 

$

(14,181

)

 

$

64,871

 

 

$

56,414

 

 

$

1,311

 

 

$

(5,805

)

 

$

51,920

 

The change in contract liabilities is primarily related to the recognition of $5.8 million of revenue related to the Gilead Collaboration Agreements and the addition of $77.0$1.1 million of deferred revenue from the Gilead Collaboration Agreement, offset by the recognition of $12.2 million of revenue related to this same agreement and $2.0 million of revenue related to the Incyte CollaborationBetta License Agreement during the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019.2020. Deferred revenue related to the Gilead Collaboration AgreementAgreements of $64.8$50.6 million as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, which was comprised of the $142.5 million initial transaction price, less $77.7$91.9 million of license and collaboration revenue recognized from the effective date of the contract, will be recognized as the combined performance obligation is satisfied. Deferred revenue related to our Incyte Collaboration Agreement of $0.1 million as of September 30, 2019, which was comprised of the $25.0 million upfront payment, less $24.9 million of license and collaboration revenue recognized from the effective date of the contract, will be recognized as the performance obligation is satisfied.

We also recorded a $2.3$1.6 million receivable as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 for research and development and manufacturingother services provided.

During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we did not recognize any revenue from amounts included in the contract asset or the contract liability balances from performance obligations satisfied in previous periods. NoneNaN of the costs to obtain or fulfill a contract were capitalized.

 


Note KJ - Share-based Compensation Plans

 

We primarily use the Black-Scholes option pricing model to value stock options granted to employees and non-employees, including stock options granted to members of our Board of Directors. However, the fair value of stock option market-based awards is calculated based on a Monte Carlo simulation as of the date of issuance. All stock options have 10-year terms and generally vest ratably over a 3 or 4-year period.

A summary of option activity for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 is presented below:

 

 

Options

 

 

Weighted

Average

Exercise

Price

 

 

Weighted

Average

Remaining

Contractual

Term

(in years)

 

 

Aggregate

Intrinsic

Value

 

 

Options

 

 

Weighted

Average

Exercise

Price

 

 

Weighted

Average

Remaining

Contractual

Term

(in years)

 

 

Aggregate

Intrinsic

Value

 

Outstanding at December 31, 2018

 

 

18,613,822

 

 

$

4.15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding at December 31, 2019

 

 

27,164,147

 

 

$

3.67

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granted

 

 

7,442,970

 

 

 

2.42

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,333,722

 

 

 

4.01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercised

 

 

(44,228

)

 

 

2.62

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(817,429

)

 

 

3.10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forfeited

 

 

(819,928

)

 

 

3.49

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1,315,126

)

 

 

3.41

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expired

 

 

(302,499

)

 

 

7.15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1,286,014

)

 

 

4.49

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding at September 30, 2019

 

 

24,890,137

 

 

 

3.62

 

 

 

7.47

 

 

$

2,908,321

 

Vested or expected to vest at September 30, 2019

 

 

24,890,137

 

 

 

3.62

 

 

 

7.47

 

 

$

2,908,321

 

Exercisable at September 30, 2019

 

 

12,710,229

 

 

$

4.32

 

 

 

5.89

 

 

$

62,562

 

Outstanding at June 30, 2020

 

 

26,079,300

 

 

$

3.69

 

 

 

7.38

 

 

$

16,015,293

 

Vested or expected to vest at June 30, 2020

 

 

26,079,300

 

 

$

3.69

 

 

 

7.38

 

 

$

16,015,293

 

Exercisable at June 30, 2020

 

 

12,863,425

 

 

$

4.05

 

 

 

5.87

 

 

$

6,172,093

 

 

The weighted average grant-date fair values of stock options granted during the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 were $1.46 and 2018 were $1.61 and $1.28,$1.83, respectively.

As of SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, there was approximately $14.9$16.9 million of total unrecognized share-based compensation expense related to these stock options which, if all milestones are achieved, will be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.22.0 years.

Certain employees and consultants have been granted non-vested stock. The fair value of non-vested market-based awards is calculated based on a Monte Carlo simulation as of the date of issuance. The fair value of other non-vested stock is calculated based on the closing sale price of our common stock on the date of issuance.

17


A summary of non-vested stock activity for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 is presented below:

 

 

Non-vested

Shares

 

 

Weighted

Average

Grant Date

Fair Value

 

 

Non-vested

Shares

 

 

Weighted

Average

Grant Date

Fair Value

 

Outstanding at December 31, 2018

 

 

2,213,967

 

 

$

3.20

 

Outstanding at December 31, 2019

 

 

2,207,943

 

 

$

2.85

 

Granted

 

 

647,682

 

 

 

2.95

 

 

 

73,030

 

 

 

3.56

 

Vested

 

 

(100,690

)

 

 

2.96

 

 

 

(88,132

)

 

 

2.95

 

Forfeited

 

 

(643,674

)

 

 

4.15

 

 

 

(1,320,311

)

 

 

3.44

 

Outstanding at September 30, 2019

 

 

2,117,285

 

 

$

2.85

 

Outstanding at June 30, 2020

 

 

872,530

 

 

$

2.00

 

 

As of SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, there was approximately $4.2$0.9 million of unrecognized share-based compensation expense related to these non-vested shares for which if all milestones are achieved, will be recognized over a period of 1.91.7 years.

During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019, 84,7032020, 236,855 shares were issued under the 20092019 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, 100,69088,132 shares were issued as a result of the vesting of non-vested stock and 44,228817,429 shares were issued as a result of stock option exercises.

19


The impact on our results of operations from share-based compensation for the three and ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, was as follows (in thousands):

 

 

Three Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Nine Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Three Months Ended June 30,

 

 

Six Months Ended June 30,

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

Research and development

 

$

1,239

 

 

$

895

 

 

$

2,735

 

 

$

2,535

 

 

$

839

 

 

$

610

 

 

$

2,042

 

 

$

1,497

 

General and administrative

 

 

1,845

 

 

 

1,010

 

 

 

4,109

 

 

 

3,160

 

 

 

1,625

 

 

 

1,306

 

 

 

2,819

 

 

 

2,263

 

Total share-based compensation expense

 

$

3,084

 

 

$

1,905

 

 

$

6,844

 

 

$

5,695

 

 

$

2,464

 

 

$

1,916

 

 

$

4,861

 

 

$

3,760

 

 

 

Note LK – Leases

The majority of our operating lease agreements are for the office, research and development and manufacturing space we use to conduct our operations.

We lease space in Lexington, Massachusetts for our manufacturing, research and development, and corporate offices, office space in New York, New York for use as corporate offices, a facilityfacilities in Berkeley, California, for manufacturing and corporate offices and facilitiesa facility in Charlottesville, Virginia and Cambridge, United Kingdom for research and development and corporate offices. We have subleased a small portion of the space in our main Lexington facility for part of the associated head lease. These agreements expire at various times between 2020 and 2030.

We also have a finance lease agreementsagreement for transportation equipment usedthat expires in our research and development and manufacturing activities which expire in 2020.

Lease information related to the adoption of ASC 8422022.

The components of lease cost recorded in our condensed consolidated statement of operations were as follows (in thousands):

 

 

Three months ended June 30,

 

 

Six months ended June 30,

 

 

Three months ended September 30, 2019

 

 

Nine months ended September 30, 2019

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

Operating lease cost

 

$

686

 

 

$

1,841

 

 

$

1,074

 

 

$

604

 

 

$

2,151

 

 

$

1,155

 

Finance lease cost

 

 

52

 

 

 

175

 

 

 

119

 

 

 

58

 

 

 

192

 

 

 

123

 

Variable lease cost

 

 

411

 

 

 

1,066

 

 

 

495

 

 

 

357

 

 

 

1,009

 

 

 

655

 

Sublease income

 

 

(140

)

 

 

(421

)

 

 

(144

)

 

 

(140

)

 

 

(288

)

 

 

(280

)

Net lease cost

 

$

1,009

 

 

$

2,661

 

 

$

1,544

 

 

$

879

 

 

$

3,064

 

 

$

1,653

 

Variable lease cost for the three and ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 primarily related to common area maintenance, taxes, utilities, insurance and insuranceparking associated with our operating leases. Short-term lease cost for the three and ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 was immaterial.

18


Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of operating lease liabilities for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 was approximately $1.1 million.$0.9 million and $0.8 million, respectively. Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of finance lease liabilities for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 was immaterial.approximately $1.4 million.

The following table presents supplemental balance sheet information related to our leases as of September 30, 2019 (in thousands):

 

20


 

As of September 30, 2019

 

 

As of June 30, 2020

 

 

As of December 31, 2019

 

Operating Leases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operating lease right-of-use assets

 

$

7,684

 

 

$

15,015

 

 

$

7,364

 

Total operating lease right-of-use assets

 

 

7,684

 

 

 

15,015

 

 

 

7,364

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current portion, operating lease liabilities

 

 

1,311

 

 

 

1,650

 

 

 

1,347

 

Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion

 

 

8,245

 

 

 

15,337

 

 

 

8,020

 

Total operating lease liabilities

 

 

9,556

 

 

 

16,987

 

 

 

9,367

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finance Leases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Property, plant and equipment, net

 

 

826

 

 

 

2,353

 

 

 

796

 

Total finance lease right-of-use assets

 

 

826

 

 

 

2,353

 

 

 

796

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other current liabilities

 

 

235

 

 

 

701

 

 

 

148

 

Other long-term liabilities

 

 

451

 

 

 

 

Total finance lease liabilities

 

$

235

 

 

$

1,152

 

 

$

148

 

Maturities of our operating lease liabilities in accordance with ASC 842 as of SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 were as follows (in thousands):

 

Year

 

Operating Leases

 

 

Finance leases

 

 

Expected sublease receipts

 

 

Net future lease commitments

 

 

Operating Leases

 

 

Finance leases

 

 

Expected sublease receipts

 

 

Net future lease commitments

 

Remainder of 2019

 

$

714

 

 

$

104

 

 

$

(140

)

 

$

678

 

2020

 

 

2,753

 

 

 

159

 

 

 

(578

)

 

 

2,334

 

Remainder of 2020

 

$

2,048

 

 

$

402

 

 

$

(289

)

 

$

2,161

 

2021

 

 

2,531

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,531

 

 

 

4,344

 

 

 

804

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5,148

 

2022

 

 

2,579

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,579

 

 

 

4,446

 

 

 

67

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,513

 

2023

 

 

2,127

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,127

 

 

 

4,008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,008

 

2024

 

 

2,638

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,638

 

Thereafter

 

 

5,523

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5,523

 

 

 

12,366

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12,366

 

Total

 

$

16,227

 

 

$

263

 

 

$

(718

)

 

$

15,772

 

 

$

29,850

 

 

$

1,273

 

 

$

(289

)

 

$

30,834

 

Less imputed interest

 

 

(6,671

)

 

 

(28

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(12,863

)

 

 

(121

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Present value of lease liabilities

 

$

9,556

 

 

$

235

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

16,987

 

 

$

1,152

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total future minimum lease payments of approximately $12.5 million for an operating lease that has not yet commenced as of September 30, 2019, as we do not yet control the underlying asset, are not included in the condensed consolidated financial statements. This lease is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2020 with a term of 10 years.

The weighted-average remaining lease terms and discount rates related to our operating and finance leases were as follows:

 

September 30, 2019

Weighted average remaining lease term (in years)

6.4

Weighted average discount rate

16.6

%

 

 

June 30, 2020

 

 

 

Operating

 

 

Finance

 

Weighted average remaining lease term (in years)

 

 

7.3

 

 

 

1.6

 

Weighted average discount rate

 

 

15.8

%

 

 

12.3

%

Additional lease information related to

Note L – Equity

At the applicationMarket Offerings

During the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, we received net proceeds of ASC 840approximately $19.9 million and $85.0 million from the sale of approximately 7.3 million and 32.0 million shares of our common stock at an average price per share of

The following information is disclosed19


approximately $2.82 and $2.74, respectively, in accordance with ASC 840, which was applicable until December 31, 2018. As of December 31, 2018, future minimum commitmentsat-the-market offerings under our facility leases were as follows (in thousands):At Market Issuance Sales Agreement with B. Riley FBR, Inc. (“B. Riley”) dated May 11, 2019 (the “Prior Sales Agreement”).

 

Year ending December 31,

 

 

 

 

2019

 

$

2,499

 

2020

 

 

2,279

 

2021

 

 

1,874

 

2022

 

 

1,915

 

2023

 

 

1,457

 

Thereafter

 

 

928

 

Total

 

$

10,952

 


Note M - Recent Accounting Pronouncements

 

Recently Issued and Adopted

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASC 842 which supersedes ASC 840, Leases. ASC 842 requires lessees to recognize a right-of-use asset and a lease liability on their balance sheets for all leases with terms greater than twelve months. We adopted the new standard on January 1, 2019 and have used the effective date as our date of initial application. See Note B and Note L.

In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-07, Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718) Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting (“ASU 2018-07”). The amendments in ASU 2018-07 simplify the accounting for share-based payments to nonemployees by aligning it with the accounting for share-based payments to employees, with certain exceptions. We adopted the new standard on January 1, 2019. The adoption did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Recently Issued, Not Yet Adopted

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-04, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350) (“ASU 2017-04”) that will eliminate the requirement to calculate the implied fair value of goodwill to measure a goodwill impairment charge. Instead, an impairment charge will be based on the excess of a reporting unit’s carrying amount over its fair value. The guidance is effective for the Company in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Early adoption is permitted. We do not anticipate the adoption of this guidance to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements, absent any goodwill impairment.

In August 2018, the FASBFinancial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU No. 2018-13, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement ("(“ASU 2018-13"2018-13”). The amendments in ASU 2018-13 modify the disclosure requirements of fair value measurements. The standard will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, and interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. Certain disclosures are required to be applied on a retrospective basis and others on a prospective basis. We are currently evaluatingadopted the impact ofstandard on January 1, 2020. The adoption of ASU 2018-13did not have a material impact on our financial statement disclosures.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-15, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other - Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer's Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement that is a Service Contract ("ASU 2018-15"). The amendments in ASU 2018-15 align the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software. The standard will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, and interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. ASU 2018-15 is required to be applied either retrospectively or prospectively to all implementation costs incurred after the date of adoption. We are currently evaluating the impact of adoption of ASU 2018-07 on our consolidated financial statements.

 

In November 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-18, Collaborative Arrangements (Topic 808): Clarifying the Interaction between Topic 808 and Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, (“ASC 606”) (“ASU 2018-18”). ASU 2018-18 (1) clarifies that certain transactions between collaborative arrangement participants should be accounted for under ASC 606, when the collaborative arrangement participant is a customer in the context of a unit of account, (2) adds unit-of-account guidance in ASC 808 to align with ASC 606 when an entity is assessing whether the collaborative arrangement, or a part of the arrangement, is within the scope of ASC 606, and (3) precludes presenting transactions together with revenue when those transactions involve collaborative arrangement participants that are not directly related to third parties and are not customers. We adopted the standard on January 1, 2020. The adoption did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Recently Issued, Not Yet Adopted

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-04, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350) that will eliminate the requirement to calculate the implied fair value of goodwill to measure a goodwill impairment charge. Instead, an impairment charge will be based on the excess of a reporting unit’s carrying amount over its fair value. The guidance is effective for the Company in the first quarter of fiscal 2023. Early adoption is permitted. We do not anticipate the adoption of this guidance to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements, absent any goodwill impairment.

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes (“ASU 2019-12”). ASU 2019-12 enhances and simplifies multiple aspects of the income tax accounting guidance in ASC 740. The standard will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019,2020, and interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of adoption of ASU 2018-182019-12 on our consolidated financial statements.

No other new accounting pronouncement issued or effective during the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 had or is expected to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements or disclosures.

 

 

 

Note M – Subsequent Events

Automatic Shelf Registration Statement on Form S-3ASR

On July 22, 2020, we filed an Automatic Shelf Registration Statement on Form S3-ASR (file no. 333-240006) (the “Registration Statement”). The Registration Statement included both a base prospectus that covered the potential offering, issuance and sale from time to time of common stock, preferred stock, warrants, debt securities and units of Agenus and a prospectus covering the offering, issuance and sale of up to 100 million shares of our common stock from time to time in “at-the-market offerings” pursuant to a new At Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “New Sales Agreement”) entered into with B. Riley on July 22, 2020. Pursuant to the New Sales Agreement, sales will be made only upon instructions by us to B. Riley.

At the Market Offerings

During the period of July 1, 2020 through August 3, 2020, we received net proceeds of approximately $23.7 million from the sale of approximately 6.9 million shares of our common stock under both the Prior Sales Agreement and New Sales Agreement.

20

 


Item 2.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Forward Looking Statements

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other written and oral statements we make from time to time contain certain “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). You can identify these forward-looking statements by the fact they use words such as “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “target,” “may,” “project,” “guidance,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “will,” “potential,” “opportunity,” “future” and other words and terms of similar meaning and expression in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. You can also identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from current expectations. These statements relate to, among other things, our business strategy, our research and development, our product development efforts, our ability to commercialize our product candidates, the activities of our licensees, our prospects for initiating partnerships or collaborations, the timing of the introduction of products, the effect of new accounting pronouncements, uncertainty regarding our future operating results and our profitability, anticipated sources of funds as well as our plans, objectives, expectations, and intentions.

We have included more detailed descriptions of these risks and uncertainties and other risks and uncertainties applicable to our business that we believe could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements in Part II-Item 1A “Risk Factors” of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. We encourage you to read those descriptions carefully. Although we believe we have been prudent in our plans and assumptions, no assurance can be given that any goal or plan set forth in forward-looking statements can be achieved. We caution investors not to place significant reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this document; such statements need to be evaluated in light of all the information contained in this document. Furthermore, the statements speak only as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements.

ASVASV™, AgenTusAgenTus™, AgenusAgenus™, AutoSynVaxAutoSynVax™, PSVPSV™, PhosPhoSynVaxPhosPhoSynVax™, Prophage™, Retrocyte Display™ and Stimulon™are trademarks of Agenus Inc. and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage immuno-oncology (“I-O”) company with aadvancing an extensive pipeline of immune modulatingcheckpoint antibodies, vaccines, adjuvants and adoptive cell therapies dedicatedand neoantigen vaccines, to becoming a leader in the discoveryfight cancer and development of innovative combination therapies and committed to bringing effective medicines to patients with cancer.infections. Our business is designed to drive success in I-O through speed, innovation and effective combination therapies. We believe that combination therapies and a deep understanding of each patient’s cancer will drive substantial expansion of the patient population benefiting from current I-O therapies. In addition to a diverse pipeline, we have assembled fully integrated end-to-end capabilities including novel target discovery, antibody generation, cell line development and good manufacturing practice (“GMP”) manufacturing. We believe that these fully integrated capabilities enable us to produce novel candidates on timelines that are shorter than the industry standard. Leveraging our science and capabilities, we have forged important partnerships to advance our innovation.

We are developing a comprehensive I-O portfolio driven by the following platforms and programs, which we intend to utilize individually and in combination:

our multiple antibody discovery platforms, including our proprietary display technologies, designed to drive the discovery of future CPM antibody candidates;

our antibody candidate programs, including our CPM programs;

our multiple antibody discovery platforms, including our proprietary display technologies, designed to drive the discovery of future CPM antibody candidates;

 

our antibody candidate programs, including our CPM programs;

our vaccine programs, including Prophage™, AutoSynVax™ and PhosPhoSynVaxPhosPhoSynVax™;

our saponin-based vaccine adjuvants, principally our QS-21 Stimulon™ adjuvant, or QS-21 Stimulon; and

our cell therapy subsidiary, AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc. (“AgenTus Therapeutics”), which is designed to drive the discovery of future adoptive cell therapy, or “living drugs” programs.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, we streamlined our saponin-based vaccine adjuvants, principallyoperations and repurposed certain of our QS-21 Stimulon™ adjuvant, or QS-21 Stimulon;research and

development efforts to advance product candidates for the potential treatment of COVID-19, including certain agents from our cell therapy subsidiary, AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc. (“AgenTus Therapeutics”), which is designed to drive the discovery of future adoptive cell therapy, or “living drugs” (Activated, CAR-T and TCR) programs.existing clinical portfolio.

We assess development, commercialization and partnering strategies for each of our product candidates periodically based on several factors, including pre-clinical and clinical trial results, competitive positioning and funding requirements and resources. WeOur

21


most advanced antibody candidates are balstilimab (an anti-PD-1 antibody) and zalifrelimab (an anti-CTLA-4 antibody), which are currently advancing our ownin Phase 2 trials of balstilimab monotherapy and balstilimab/zalifrelimab combination for patients with second-line cervical cancer. Both of CTLA-4these trials are designed to support Biological License Application (“BLA”) filings under the U.S. Food and PD-1 antibodiesDrug Administration (“FDA”) accelerated approval pathway. We announced interim data from these trials in second line cervical cancerFebruary and are on trackMarch 2020, and we expect to file our first BLA for balstilimab monotherapy by the end of 2020, with the BLA for our balstilimab/zalifrelimab combination to follow soon thereafter. In June 2020, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement (the “Betta License Agreement”) with Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (“Betta”), pursuant to which we granted Betta an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialize balstilimab and zalifrelimab in Greater China. Under the terms of the Betta License Agreement, we received $15.0 million upfront and are eligible to receive up to $100.0 million in milestone payments plus royalties on any future sales in Greater China. In connection with this transaction, we also entered into a stock purchase agreement with Betta and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Betta (“Betta HK”), pursuant to which we agreed to sell to Betta HK 4,962,779 shares of Agenus common stock for $4.03 per share, or an aggregate purchase price of approximately $20.0 million. The closing under the stock purchase agreement occurred in July 2020.

23


We have formed additional collaborations with companies such as Gilead Sciences, Inc. (“Gilead”), Incyte Corporation (“Incyte”), Merck Sharpe & Dohme (“Merck”) and Recepta Biopharma SA (“Recepta”). Through these alliances, as well as our own internal programs, we currently have more than a dozen antibody programs in pre-clinical or clinical development, including our anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 antibody programs (both partnered with Recepta for certain South America territories) and anti-GITR and anti-OX40 antibody programs (both partnered with Incyte).development.

In February 2017, we amended our Incyte Collaboration Agreement to, among other things, convert the GITR and OX40 programs from profit-share to royalty-bearing programs, and there are no longer any profit-share programs remaining under the collaboration. Pursuant to our collaboration agreement with Incyte, we have exclusively licensed to Incyte monospecific antibodies targeting GITR, OX40, TIM-3 and LAG-3, which Incyte is currently advancing in various clinical trials, as well as an additional undisclosed target that Incyte is advancing in preclinical studies. Under the amendedterms of our agreement, Incyte is responsible for all future development expenses, and we received acceleratedare eligible to receive up to an additional $500.0 million in potential milestone payments plus royalties on any future sales. Pursuant to our collaboration and license agreement with Merck, we exclusively licensed to Merck a monospecific antibody targeting ILT4, which Merck is advancing in a Phase 1 clinical trial. Under the terms of $20.0 million from Incyte relatedour agreement, Merck is responsible for all future development expenses, and we are eligible to the clinical development of INCAGN1876 (anti-GITR agonist) and INCAGN1949 (anti-OX40 agonist). Concurrent with the execution of the amendment, we and Incyte also entered into the Stock Purchase Agreement whereby Incyte purchasedreceive up to an additional 10$95.0 million shares of our common stock at $6.00 per share, resulting in additional proceeds of $60.0 million to us. Onpotential milestone payments plus royalties on any future sales. In September 20, 2018, we, through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Agenus Royalty Fund, LLC, entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreementroyalty purchase agreement (the “XOMA Royalty Purchase Agreement”) with XOMA (US) LLC (“XOMA”). Pursuant to the terms of the XOMA Royalty Purchase Agreement, XOMA paid us $15.0 million at closing in exchange for the right to receivepurchased 33% of theall future royalties and 10% of theall future milestonesmilestone payments that we are entitled to receive from Incyte and Merck, net of certain of our obligations to a third party. After taking into account our obligations under the XOMA Royalty Purchase Agreement, as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we remain eligible to receive up to $450.0 million and $85.5 million in potential development, regulatory and commercial milestones from Incyte and Merck, respectively.

In December 2018, we entered into a series of agreements with Gilead to collaborate on the development and commercialization of up to five novel I-O therapies.therapies (the “Gilead Collaboration Agreements”). Pursuant to the collaboration agreements, we received an upfront cash payment from Gilead of $120.0 million following the closing in January 2019, a milestone payment of $7.5 million in March 2019 and $15.0 million in milestone payments in the quarter ended September 30, 2019. We are eligible to receive up to an additional $1.7 billion in aggregate potential fees and milestones. At closing,Collaboration Agreements, Gilead received worldwide exclusive rights to our bispecific antibody, AGEN1423 (now GS-1423). Gilead also received, as well as the exclusive option to exclusively license exclusively AGEN1223, a bispecific antibody, and AGEN2373, a monospecific antibody. We filed INDs for each of AGEN1423 (now GS-1423), AGEN1223 and AGEN2373 earlier this year,in 2019, and all three assets are now in clinical development. We are responsible for developing the option programs up to the option decision points, at which time Gilead may acquire exclusive rights to the programs on option exercise. For either, but not both, of the option programs, we have the right to opt-in to share Gilead’s development and commercialization costs in the United States in exchange for a profit (loss) share on a 50:50 basis and revised milestone payments. Gilead also received the right of first negotiation for two additional, undisclosed programs. AtPursuant to the closing,terms of the Gilead also purchased 11,111,111 shares of Agenus common stock for $30.0 million pursuantCollaboration Agreements, we are eligible to a stock purchase agreement.receive up to an additional $1.7 billion in aggregate potential fees and milestones, as well as royalties on any future sales.

Our QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant is partnered with GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”) and is a key component in multiple GSK vaccine programs. These programs are in various stages, with the most advanced being GSK’s shingles vaccine, Shingrix. In October 2017, GSK’s shingles vaccine was approved in the United States by the FDA. In January 2018, we entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreement with Healthcare Royalty Partners III, L.P. and certain of its affiliates (together, “HCR”), pursuant to which HCR purchased 100% of our worldwide rights to receive royalties from GSK on GSK’s sales of vaccines containing our QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant. We do not incur clinical development costs for products partnered with GSK. Pursuant to our agreement with HCR, we areWe were also entitled to receive up to $40.35 million in milestone payments from HCR based on GSK’s sales of ShingrixGSK’s vaccines as follows: (i) $15.1 million upon reaching $2.0 billion last-twelve-months net sales any time prior to 2024 (the “First HCR Milestone”) and (ii) $25.25 million upon reaching $2.75 billion last-twelve-months net sales any time prior to 2026.2026 (the “Second HCR Milestone”). We were obligated to payreceived the First HCR approximately $25.9 million in 2021 if neitherMilestone after GSK’s net sales of the following Shingrix sales milestones were achieved: (i) 2019 sales exceed $1.0 billion or (ii) 2020 sales exceed $1.75 billion; however, this milestone was recently achieved when GSK announced that Shingrix sales for the first ninetwelve months ofended December 31, 2019 reached 1.28exceeded $2.0 billion, pounds (or approximately $1.6 billion).and we remain eligible to receive the Second HCR Milestone.

22


Our business activities include product research and development, intellectual property prosecution, manufacturing, regulatory and clinical affairs, corporate finance and development activities, and support of our collaborations. Our product candidates require clinical trials and approvals from regulatory agencies, as well as acceptance in the marketplace. Part of our strategy is to develop and commercialize some of our product candidates by continuing our existing arrangements with academic and corporate collaborators and licensees and by entering into new collaborations.

In October 2017, we announced the launch of a subsidiary that is advancing our cell therapy business, AgenTus Therapeutics. The subsidiaryAgenTus Therapeutics is focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of breakthrough “living drugs” to advance cures for cancer patients.patients, currently advancing allogeneic cell therapies that include unmodified iNKT cells. AgenTus Therapeutics licenses intellectual property assets from Agenus and has its own management and governance.

24


Historical Results of Operations

Three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 compared to the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20182019

Research and development revenue

 We recognized research and development revenue of approximately $5.8$18.1 million and $6.3$4.4 million during the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, respectively. Research and development revenues in the thirdsecond quarter of 20192020 primarily consisted of $3.6$4.0 million related to the recognition of deferred revenue earned under our Gilead Collaboration AgreementAgreements and $1.7$13.9 million related to the recognition of an upfront fee under our Betta License Agreement. Research and development revenues in the second quarter of 2019 primarily consisted of $3.8 million related to the recognition of deferred revenue earned under our IncyteGilead Collaboration Agreement. Research and development revenues in the third quarter of 2018 primarily consisted of fees earned under our Incyte Collaboration Agreement, including $5.0 million related to the recognition of a milestone and $1.0 million related to the reimbursement of development costs. During the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, we recorded revenue of $5.3$4.0 million and $0.3$3.9 million, respectively, from the amortization of deferred revenue.

Non-cash royalty revenue related to the sale of future royalties

In January 2018, we sold 100% of our worldwide rights to receive royalties from GSK on sales of GSK’s vaccines containing our QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant to HCR. As described in Note GF to our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, this transaction has been recorded as a liability that amortizes over the estimated life of our Royalty Purchase Agreement with HCR. As a result of this liability accounting, even though the royalties are remitted directly to HCR, we record these royalties from GSK as revenue. During the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, we recognized approximately $12.2$7.8 million and $6.5$9.3 million, respectively, in non-cash royalty revenue related to our agreement with GSK.

Research and development expense

Research and development expense includes the costs associated with our internal research and development activities, including compensation and benefits, occupancy costs, manufacturing costs, costs of consultants, and administrative costs. Research and development expense increased 55%decreased 15% to $46.1$38.6 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 from $29.9$45.2 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018. Increased2019. Decreased expenses in the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 primarily relate to a $10.9$5.5 million increasedecrease in third-party services and other related expenses largely relatingdue to the timing of expenses related to the advancement of our antibody programs and a $3.9$1.9 million increasedecrease in expenses attributable to the activities of our subsidiary,subsidiaries, AgenTus Therapeutics and a $2.3 million increase in personnel related expenses, primarily due to increased headcount.Agenus UK Limited. These increasesdecreases were partially offset by a $0.5$0.6 million decreaseincrease in other research and development expenses and a $0.4 million decrease in expenses of our foreign subsidiaries, Agenus UK Limited and Agenus Switzerland.expenses.

General and administrative expense

General and administrative expense consists primarily of personnel costs, facility expenses, and professional fees. General and administrative expenses increased 25%24% to $11.5$14.2 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 from $9.2$11.4 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018.2019. Increased expenses in the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 primarily relate to a $1.5$1.6 million increase in personnel related expenses, primarily due to increased headcount,professional fees, a $0.4 million increase in other general and administrative expenses and a $0.3$0.5 million increase in expenses attributable to the activities of our subsidiaries AgenTus Therapeutics and Agenus UK Limited.a $0.6 million increase in other general and administrative expenses.

Contingent purchase price consideration fair value adjustment

Contingent purchase price consideration fair value adjustment represents the change in the fair value of our purchase price considerations, which mainly resulted from changes in our market capitalization and share price and changes in the credit spread since each year end. The fair value of our contingent purchase price considerations is mainly based on estimates from a Monte Carlo simulation of our market capitalization and share price.

Non-operating (expense) income expense

Non-operating (expense) incomeexpense includes our foreign currency translation adjustment and other income or expense. Non-operating income increased $0.4expense decreased $0.6 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, from expense of $0.1$0.9 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018 2019

23


to income of $0.3 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, primarily due to decreased foreign currency exchange gains in the third quarter of 2019 compared to losses in the thirdsecond quarter of 2018.2020 compared to the second quarter of 2019.

Interest expense, net 

Interest expense, net increased to approximately $10.7$14.6 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 from $7.5$9.8 million for the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018,2019, due to increased non-cash interest recorded in connection with our Royalty Purchase Agreement with HCR.

25


NineSix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 compared to the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20182019

Research and development revenue

We recognized research and development revenue of approximately $81.0$20.0 million and $18.4$75.3 million during the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, respectively. Research and development revenues in the first nine monthshalf of 2020 primarily consisted of $5.8 million related to the recognition of deferred revenue earned under our Gilead Collaboration Agreements and $13.9 million related to the recognition of an upfront fee under our Betta License Agreement. Research and development revenues in the first half of 2019 primarily consisted of amounts earned under our Gilead Collaboration Agreement, including $65.5 million related to the recognition of an upfront license fee and $12.2$8.6 million related to the recognition of deferred revenue earned and amounts earned under our Incyte Collaboration Agreement, including $1.3 million related to the reimbursement of development costs. Research and development revenues in the first nine months of 2018 primarily consisted of $4.0 million related to the recognition of a milestone under our license agreement with Merck and fees earned under our Incyte Collaboration Agreement, including $10.0 million related to the recognition of milestones and $3.3 million related to the reimbursement of development costs.earned. During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, we recorded revenue of $14.2$5.8 million and $1.1$8.9 million, respectively, from the amortization of deferred revenue.

Non-cash royalty revenue related to the sale of future royalties

In January 2018, we sold 100% of our worldwide rights to receive royalties from GSK on sales of GSK’s vaccines containing our QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant to HCR. As described in Note GF to our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, this transaction has been recorded as a liability that amortizes over the estimated life of our Royalty Purchase Agreement with HCR. As a result of this liability accounting, even though the royalties are remitted directly to HCR, we will record these royalties from GSK as revenue. During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, we recognized approximately $30.1$21.0 million and $11.9$17.9 million, respectively, in non-cash royalty revenue related to our agreement with GSK.

Research and development expense

Research and development expense includes the costs associated with our internal research and development activities, including compensation and benefits, occupancy costs, manufacturing costs, costs of consultants, and administrative costs. Research and development expense increased 48%decreased 12% to $131.5$74.9 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 from $88.6$85.4 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018. Increased2019. Decreased expenses in the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 primarily relate to a $30.0$11.6 million increasedecrease in third-party services and other related expenses largely relatingdue to the timing of expenses related to the advancement of our antibody programs and a $10.9$2.1 million increasedecrease in expenses attributable to the activities of our subsidiary,subsidiaries, AgenTus Therapeutics and Agenus UK Limited. These decreases were partially offset by a $4.6$2.0 million increase in personnel related expenses, primarily due to increased headcount. These increases were partially offset byheadcount and a $0.7$1.2 million decreaseincrease in other research and development expenses and a $1.9 million decrease in expenses of our foreign subsidiaries, Agenus UK Limited and Agenus Switzerland.expenses.

General and administrative expense

General and administrative expense consists primarily of personnel costs, facility expenses, and professional fees. General and administrative expenses increased 22%12% to $33.7$24.8 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 from $27.6$22.2 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018.2019. Increased expenses in the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 primarily relate to a $3.4$1.1 million increase in professional fees, a $0.5 million increase in personnel related expenses, primarily due to increased headcount,share-based compensation expense and a $0.4 million increase in professional fees, a $1.2$1.1 million increase in other general and administrative expenses and a $1.1 million increase in expenses attributable to the activities of our subsidiaries, Agenus UK Limited and AgenTus Therapeutics.expenses.

Contingent purchase price consideration fair value adjustment

Contingent purchase price consideration fair value adjustment represents the change in the fair value of our purchase price considerations, which mainly resulted from changes in our market capitalization and share price and changes in the credit spread since each year end. The fair value of our contingent purchase price considerations is mainly based on estimates from a Monte Carlo simulation of our market capitalization and share price.

Non-operating (expense) income expense

Non-operating expense includes our foreign currency translation adjustment and other income or expense. Non-operating expense decreased $1.2increased $0.8 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, from $1.5$0.6 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20182019 to $0.3$1.4 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, primarily due to our decreasedincreased foreign currency exchange losses in the first nine monthshalf of 20192020 compared to the first nine monthshalf of 2018.2019.

Interest expense, net:

24


Interest expense, net increased to approximately $29.6$28.7 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 from $16.5$18.9 million for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2018,2019, due to increased non-cash interest recorded in connection with our Royalty Purchase Agreement with HCR.

26

 


Research and Development Programs

 

For the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, our research and development programs consisted largely of our antibody programs as indicated in the following table (in thousands). 

 

 

 

 

Nine Months Ended September 30,

 

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six Months Ended June 30,

 

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and

Development Program

 

Product

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2017

 

 

2016

 

 

Prior to

2016

 

 

Total

 

 

Product

 

2020

 

 

2019

 

 

2018

 

 

2017

 

 

Prior to

2017

 

 

Total

 

Antibody programs*

 

Various

 

$

99,420

 

 

$

97,011

 

 

$

95,656

 

 

$

83,920

 

 

$

76,712

 

 

$

452,719

 

 

Various

 

$

59,677

 

 

$

126,400

 

 

$

97,011

 

 

$

95,656

 

 

$

160,632

 

 

$

539,376

 

Heat shock proteins for cancer

 

Prophage and ASV

 

 

10,306

 

 

 

13,235

 

 

 

12,499

 

 

 

8,202

 

 

 

315,189

 

 

 

359,431

 

 

Prophage and ASV

 

 

1,917

 

 

 

13,235

 

 

 

13,235

 

 

 

12,499

 

 

 

323,391

 

 

 

364,277

 

Vaccine adjuvant

 

QS-21 Stimulon

 

 

753

 

 

 

211

 

 

 

222

 

 

 

77

 

 

 

13,799

 

 

 

15,062

 

 

QS-21 Stimulon

 

 

90

 

 

 

872

 

 

 

211

 

 

 

222

 

 

 

13,876

 

 

 

15,271

 

Other research and development programs

 

 

 

 

21,027

 

 

 

14,143

 

 

 

7,748

 

 

 

2,772

 

 

 

67,822

 

 

 

113,512

 

Adoptive cell therapies and other research and development programs

 

Various

 

 

13,229

 

 

 

27,832

 

 

 

14,143

 

 

 

7,748

 

 

 

70,594

 

 

 

133,546

 

Total research and development expenses

 

 

 

$

131,506

 

 

$

124,600

 

 

$

116,125

 

 

$

94,971

 

 

$

473,522

 

 

$

940,724

 

 

 

 

$

74,913

 

 

$

168,339

 

 

$

124,600

 

 

$

116,125

 

 

$

568,493

 

 

$

1,052,470

 

 

*

Prior to 2014, costs were incurred by 4-AB, which we acquired in February 2014.

 

Research and development program costs include compensation and other direct costs plus an allocation of indirect costs, based on certain assumptions and our review of the status of each program. Our product candidates are in various stages of development and significant additional expenditures will be required if we start new clinical trials, encounter delays in our programs, apply for regulatory approvals, continue development of our technologies, expand our operations, and/or bring our product candidates to market. The total cost of any particular clinical trial is dependent on a number of factors such as trial design, length of the trial, number of clinical sites, number of patients, and trial sponsorship. The process of obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals for new therapeutic products is lengthy, expensive, and uncertain. Because of the current stage of our CPM antibody programs are early stage, and because further development of HSP-based vaccines is dependent on clinical trial results,product candidates, among other factors, we are unable to reliably estimate the cost of completing our research and development programs or the timing for bringing such programs to various markets or substantial partnering or out-licensing arrangements, and, therefore, when, if ever, material cash inflows are likely to commence. Active programs involving QS-21 Stimulon depend on our licensee successfully completing clinical trials, successfully manufacturing QS-21 Stimulon to meet demand, obtaining regulatory approvals and successfully commercializing product candidates containing QS-21 Stimulon.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We have incurred annual operating losses since inception, and we had an accumulated deficit of $1.3$1.4 billion as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019. 2020. We expect to incur significant losses over the next several years as we continue to developdevelopment of our technologies and product candidates, manage our regulatory processes, initiate and continue clinical trials, and prepare for potential commercialization of products. We are likely to continue to incur losses until we become a commercial company generating profits. Our first commercial product launches are planned for as early as the first half of 2021. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity notes, corporate partnerships, advance royalty salesand debt securities, and interest income.income earned on cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investment balances. From our inception through SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we have raised aggregate net proceeds of approximately $1.2$1.3 billion through the sale of common and preferred stock, the exercise of stock options and warrants, proceeds from our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, royalty monetization transactions, and the issuance of convertible and other notes.

We maintain an effective registration statement (the “Registration Statement”), covering the offering of up to $250 millionan unlimited amount of common stock, preferred stock, warrants, debt securities and units. The Registration Statement includes prospectuses covering the offer, issuance and sale of up to 50100 million shares of our common stock from time to time in “at-the-market offerings” pursuant to an At Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “Sales“New Sales Agreement”) with B. Riley FBR, Inc. as our sales agent. We sold approximately 32.0 million and 6.9 million shares of our common stock pursuant to both a prior At Market Issuance Sales Agreement with B. Riley FBR, Inc. and the New Sales Agreement during the six months ended June 30, 2020 and the period of July 1, 2020 through August 3, 2020, respectively, and received aggregate net proceeds totaling $108.7 million. As of September 30, 2019,August 3, 2020, we had approximately 34.194.4 million shares remainthat remained available for sale under the New Sales Agreement.

25


As of SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we had debt outstanding of $14.1$20.7 million in principal. In February 2015, we issued subordinated notes in the aggregate principal amount of $14.0 million with annual interest at 8% (the “2015 Subordinated Notes”). TheIn February 2020, we amended $13.5 million of the 2015 Subordinated Notes, areextending the due date by three years to February 2023. The remaining $0.5 million of the 2015 Subordinated Notes were repaid in February 2020. In April 2020, we repaid an additional $0.5 million of the 2015 Subordinated Notes, leaving $13.0 million outstanding. In May 2020, we received $6.2 million under the Paycheck Protection Program of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the “CARES Act”) which is classified as debt in our condensed consolidated balance sheet we cannot yet determine if the amount will be partially or fully forgiven.

27


Our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments at SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 were $93.3$79.2 million, an increase of $40.2$17.4 million from December 31, 2018. 2019.

During the past five years, we have successfully financed our operations through the sale of equity, notes, corporate partnerships and advance royalty sales. Based on our current plans and projections, we believe that our cash resources of $93.3 $79.2 million as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019, plus anticipated license fees2020, combined with proceeds from financing transactions already completed in the third quarter of 2020, along with cash expected to be received from corporate transactions and milestones, will be sufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements into the secondthird quarter of 2020. We continue to address2021; we are presently in financing, partnership, and out licensing discussions which, if consummated, could extend our liquidity position. We also continue to monitor the likelihood of success of our key initiatives and can discontinue funding of such activities if they do not prove to be successful, restrict capital expenditures and/or reduce the scale of our operations if necessary.

Based on our recurring losses from operations and expectation of continuing losses, we will require additional capital to finance our operations throughcash resources further into and beyond the second quarter of 2020. Based on current revenue trends from GSK’s Shingrix vaccine and the progress trends of our clinical stage programs, we expect to receive additional milestone payments during 2020. In addition, we are currently pursuing transactions designed for significant capital infusion to satisfy our cash requirements.next year. Until we are successful in our efforts for capital infusion through these transactions or other financing options, and because the completion of such transactions is not entirely within our control, in accordance with accounting guidance we are required to disclose that a substantial doubt exists about our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Management continues to address the Company’s liquidity position and will adjust spending as needed in order to preserve liquidity. In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we streamlined our organization, which included a headcount reduction and the slowing down of several non-priority programs and our CEO, Dr. Garo Armen, also elected to receive his base salary in stock rather than cash for the remainder of 2020. We also continue to monitor the likelihood of success of our key initiatives and have a plan to discontinue funding of such activities if they do not prove to be successful, or further restrict funding of non-core programs, restrict capital expenditures and/or reduce the scale of our operations as necessary to ensure sufficient cash resources into the third quarter of 2021. Our future liquidity needs will be determined primarily by the success of our operations with respect to the progression of our product candidates and key development and regulatory events in the future. Potential sources of additional funding include: (1) pursuing collaboration, out-licensing and/or partnering opportunities for our portfolio programs and product candidates with one or more third parties, (2) renegotiating third party agreements, (3) selling assets, (4) securing additional debt financing and/or (5) selling equity securities. Satisfying long-term liquidity needs may require the successful commercialization and/or substantial out-licensing or partnering arrangements for our antibody discovery platforms, CPM antibody programs, and HSP-based vaccines. Our long-term success will also be dependent on the successful identification, development and commercialization of potential other product candidates, each of which will require additional capital with no certainty of timing or probability of success. If we incur operating losses for longer than we expect, and/or we are unable to raise additional capital, we may become insolvent and be unable to continue our operations.

Our future cash requirements include, but are not limited to, supporting clinical trial and regulatory efforts and continuing our other research and development programs. Since inception, we have entered into various agreements with contract manufacturers, institutions, and clinical research organizations (collectively “third party providers”) to perform pre-clinical activities and to conduct and monitor our clinical studies and trials. Under these agreements, subject to the enrollment of patients and performance by the applicable third-party provider, we have estimated our total payments to be $313.1$352.3 million over the term of the related activities. Through SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we have expensed $234.6$287.7 million as research and development expenses and $221.3$271.4 million has been paid under these agreements. The timing of expense recognition and future payments related to these agreements is subject to the enrollment of patients and performance by the applicable third-party provider. We have also entered into sponsored research agreements related to our product candidates that required payments of $10.0 million, of which $8.9$9.0 million have been paid as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019.2020. We plan to enter into additional agreements with third party providers as well as sponsored research agreements, and we anticipate significant additional expenditures will be required to initiate and advance our various programs.

Part of our strategy is to develop and commercialize some of our product candidates by continuing our existing collaboration arrangements with academic and collaboration partners and licensees and by entering into new collaborations. As a result of our collaboration agreements, we will not completely control the efforts to attempt to bring those product candidates to market. For example, our collaboration with Incyte for the development, manufacture and commercialization of CPM antibodies against certain targets is managed by a joint steering committee, which is controlled by Incyte.

Net cash (used in) provided by (used in) operating activities for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2020 and 2019 and 2018 was $13.1($71.9) million and ($95.3)$40.9 million, respectively. Our future ability to generate cash from operations will depend on achieving regulatory approval and market acceptance of our product candidates, achieving benchmarks as defined in existing collaboration agreements, and our ability to enter into new collaborations. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Forward Looking Statements” in Part I, Item 2, and the risks highlighted under Part II, Item 1A. “Risk Factors”, of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

 

26


Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

We did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as of SeptemberJune 30, 2019.2020.

28


Item 3.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Our primary market risk exposure is foreign currency exchange rate risk. International revenues and expenses are generally transacted by our foreign subsidiaries and are denominated in local currency. Approximately 4%1% and 1%2% of our cash used in operations for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 and the year ended December 31, 2018,2019, respectively, was from our foreign subsidiaries. We are also exposed to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation risk related to our transactions denominated in foreign currencies. We do not currently employ specific strategies, such as the use of derivative instruments or hedging, to manage these exposures. Our currency exposures vary but are primarily concentrated in the Euro, Swiss Franc and British Pound, in large part due to our subsidiaries, AgenTus Therapeutics SA, withwhich formerly had operations in Belgium, Agenus Switzerland a company formally withwhich formerly had operations in Switzerland, and Agenus UK Limited, with operations in England. There has been no material change to our interest rate exposure and our approach toward interest rate and foreign currency exchange rate exposures, as described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018.2019.

We had cash and cash equivalents at SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 of $93.3$79.2 million, which are exposed to the impact of interest rate changes, and our interest income fluctuates as interest rates change. Additionally, in the normal course of business, we are exposed to fluctuations in interest rates as we seek debt financing and invest excess cash. Due to the short-term nature of our investments in money market funds and U.S. Treasury Bills, our carrying value approximates the fair value of these investments at SeptemberJune 30, 2019.2020.

We invest our cash and cash equivalents in accordance with our investment policy. The primary objectives of our investment policy are to preserve principal, maintain proper liquidity to meet operating needs, and maximize yields. We review our investment policy annually and amend it as deemed necessary. Currently, the investment policy prohibits investing in any structured investment vehicles and asset-backed commercial paper. Although our investments are subject to credit risk, our investment policy specifies credit quality standards for our investments and limits the amount of credit exposure from any single issue, issuer, or type of investment. We do not invest in derivative financial instruments. Accordingly, we do not believe that there is currently any material market risk exposure with respect to derivatives or other financial instruments that would require disclosure under this item.

Item 4.

Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures, as such term is defined under Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e) promulgated under the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, our Principal Executive Officer and our Principal Financial Officer concluded that, as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective and were designed to ensure that information we are required to disclose in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure, and is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms. It should be noted that any system of controls is designed to provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurances that the system will achieve its stated goals under all reasonably foreseeable circumstances. Our Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer have each concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report are effective at a level that provides such reasonable assurances.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that occurred during the three months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

 

2927

 


PART II - OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1A.

Risk Factors

Our future operating results could differ materially from the results described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q due to the risks and uncertainties described below. You should consider carefully the following information about risks below in evaluating our business. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial conditions, results of operations and future growth prospects would likely be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of our common stock would likely decline. These risk factors restate and supersede the risk factors set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019March 31, 2020 filed with the SECSecurities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on August 9, 2019.May 11, 2020.

We cannot assure investors that our assumptions and expectations will prove to be correct. Important factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Forward Looking“Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in Part I, Item 2 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those factors discussed below.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

We have incurred net losses in every year since our Businessinception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses in the future.

IfInvestment in I-O product development 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 and become commercially viable. We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales to date, and we continue to incur operating losses for longer than we expect, orsignificant research and development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations. As a result, we are not able to raise additional capital, we may be unable to continueprofitable and have incurred losses in each period since our operations, or we may become insolvent.

inception. Our net losses for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, and 2016, were $111.6 million, $162.0 million and $120.7 million, and $127.0 million, respectively. During the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, we generated a net loss of $80.7$93.5 million. We expect to incur additionalsignificant losses overfor the next several yearsforeseeable future as we continue toour research and development efforts, seek regulatory approvals, and begin commercial readiness efforts for our product candidates. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:

conduct clinical trials for our product candidates;

further develop our antibody programs and platforms, our vaccine programs, and our saponin-based vaccine adjuvants;

continue to discover and develop additional product candidates;

maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;

hire additional clinical, scientific manufacturing and commercial personnel;

expand in-house manufacturing capabilities;

establish a commercial manufacturing source and secure supply chain capacity sufficient to provide commercial quantities of any product candidates for which we may obtain regulatory approval;

acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies;

seek regulatory approvals for any product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any products for which we may obtain regulatory approval; and

28


add operational, regulatory, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts, as well as any additional infrastructure necessary to function as a public company.

To become profitable, we or any current or potential future licensees and collaboration partners must develop and eventually commercialize products with significant market potential at an adequate profit margin after cost of goods sold and other expenses. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing clinical trials, obtaining marketing approval for product candidates, obtaining adequate reimbursement for product candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling products for which we may obtain marketing approval and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in any or all of these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenue that is significant or large enough to achieve profitability. If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our technologiescompany and pursue partnering opportunities, regulatory strategies, commercialization,could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and related activities. development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company also could cause our stockholders to lose all or part of their investment.

Even if we succeed in commercializing one or more of our product candidates, we will continue to incur substantial research and development and other expenditures to develop and market additional product candidates. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. 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 revenue. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital.

Furthermore, our ability to generate cash from operations is dependent on the success of our licensees and collaboration partners, as well as the likelihood and timing of new strategic licensing and partnering relationships and/or successful development and commercialization of product candidates, including through our antibody programs and platforms, our vaccine programs, and our saponin-based vaccine adjuvants.

On September 30, 2019,

We will require additional capital to fund our operations, and if we had $93.3 million infail to obtain necessary financing, we will not be able to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidates.

Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect to continue to spend substantial amounts to conduct further research and cash equivalents. We believe that, based ondevelopment and preclinical or nonclinical testing and studies and clinical trials of our current plans and activities,future programs, to build a supply chain, to seek regulatory approvals for our working capital resources at September 30, 2019, plus anticipated license feesproduct candidates and milestones, will be sufficient to satisfylaunch and commercialize any products for which we receive regulatory approval, including building our liquidity requirements into the second quarter of 2020. We also continue to monitor the likelihood of success of our key initiatives and can discontinue funding of such activities if they do not prove to be successful, restrict capital expenditures and/or reduce the scale of our operations if necessary.

own commercial organization. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity, assets, notes, corporate partnerships and interest income. In order to finance future operations, we will be required to raise additional funds in the capital markets, through arrangements with collaboration partners or from other sources. Additional

As of June 30, 2020, we had $79.2 million of cash and cash equivalents. Based on our current plans and projections, we believe that our cash resources as of June 30, 2020, combined with proceeds from financing transactions already completed in the third quarter of 2020, along with cash expected to be received from corporate transactions and milestones, will be sufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements into the third quarter of 2021; we are presently in financing, partnership, and out licensing discussions which, if consummated, could extend our cash resources further into and beyond next year. However, our future capital requirements and the period for which our existing resources will support our operations may not be availablevary significantly from what we expect, and we will in any event require additional capital in order to complete clinical development of our current programs. Our monthly spending levels will vary based on favorable terms, or at all. Ifnew and ongoing development and corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with development of our product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to raise additionalestimate the actual funds when we need them or if we incur operating losseswill require for longer than we expect, we maydevelopment and any approved marketing and commercialization activities. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not be able to continue some or all of our operations, or we may become insolvent. We also may be forced to license or sell technologies to others under agreements that are on unfavorable terms or allocate to third parties substantial portions of the potential value of these technologies. We have in the past offered Biotech Electronic Security Tokens, but we are not currently offering such tokens at this time and have not issued any to date.limited to:

There are a number of factors that will influence our future capital requirements, including, without limitation, the following:

the number and characteristics of the product candidates we and our partners pursue;

our and our partners’ ability to successfully develop, manufacture, and commercialize product candidates;

the scope, progress, results and costs of researching and developing our future product candidates and conducting pre-clinical and clinical trials;

the timing of, and the costs involved in, obtaining regulatory approvals for our and our licensees’ product candidates;

the cost of manufacturing;

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

the costs involved in preparing, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending and enforcing our intellectual property rights;

the costs associated with any successful commercial operations; and

the initiation, progress, timing, costs and results of preclinical or nonclinical testing and studies and clinical trials for our product candidates;

30

the clinical development plans we establish for our product candidates;

the number and characteristics of future product candidates that we develop or may in-license;

29

 


 

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

the timing, receipt and amount of sales of, or royalties on, our future products and those of our partners, if any.any;

the outcome, timing and cost of meeting regulatory requirements established by the FDA, the European Medicines Agency (the “EMA”) and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities;

the cost of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing our patent claims and other intellectual property rights;

the cost of defending intellectual property disputes, including patent infringement actions brought by third parties against us or our product candidates;

the effect of competing technological and market developments;

the costs of establishing and maintaining a supply chain for the development and manufacture of our product candidates;

the cost and timing of establishing, expanding and scaling manufacturing capabilities; and

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

We do not have any committed external source of funds or other support for our development efforts and we cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Until we can generate sufficient product or royalty revenue to finance our cash requirements, which we may never do, we expect to finance our future cash needs through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements and other marketing or distribution arrangements. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of one or more of our products or product candidates or one or more of our other research and development initiatives. Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause the price of our common stock to decline and we may become insolvent.

From time to time we have issued, and in the future expect to issue, projections regarding our future cash position.  Such projections include the expectation that we will be able to raise additional funds from the aforementioned sources and our ability to do so is subject to the risks described herein.

General economic conditions in the United States economy and abroad, whether as a result of a public health crisis, such as COVID-19, the 2020 U.S. presidential election or otherwise, may have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and financial condition, particularly if our ability to raise additional funds is impaired.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.

We may seek additional capital through a combination of public and private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, our stockholders’ ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect their rights as a stockholder. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could involve certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or product candidates or grant licenses on terms unfavorable to us. We also could be required to seek collaborators for one or more of potential patients and/our current or health care payersfuture product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or relinquish our rights to pay forproduct candidates or technologies that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves.

30


The nature and length of our operating history may make it difficult to evaluate our technology and product development capabilities and predict our future performance.

We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. Our ability to generate product revenue or profits, which we do not expect will occur before 2021, if ever, will depend on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. We may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable product.

All of our programs require additional pre-clinical or clinical research and development, manufacturing supply, capacity and/or expertise, building of a commercial organization, substantial investment and/or significant marketing efforts before we generate any could alsorevenue from potential product sales. Other programs of ours require additional discovery research and then preclinical development. In addition, our product candidates must be approved for marketing by the FDA or certain other health regulatory agencies, including the EMA, before we may commercialize any product.

Our operating history, particularly in light of the rapidly evolving I-O field, may make it difficult to evaluate our technology and industry and predict our future performance. We will encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by clinical stage companies in rapidly evolving fields. If we do not address these risks successfully, our business will suffer. Similarly, we expect that our financial condition and operating results will fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. As a result, our stockholders should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual period as an indicator of future operating performance.

In addition, as a clinical stage company, we have encountered unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown circumstances. As we advance our product candidates, we will need to transition from a company with a research and clinical focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.

Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and stock price.

Global credit and financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and disruptions in the past several years, including severely diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, increases in unemployment rates and uncertainty about economic stability, and these adverse market and economic conditions have increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The scope, duration and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are unknown at this time, so there can be no assurance how significant the deterioration in credit and financial markets and confidence in economic conditions will be and how long it may continue. Our general business strategy may be adversely impacted, thereby limitingaffected by any such economic downturn, volatile business environment or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. If the current equity and credit markets continue to deteriorate, or do not improve, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our potential revenue.growth strategy, financial performance and stock price and could require us to delay or abandon clinical development plans. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our current service providers, manufacturers and other partners may not survive these difficult economic times, which could directly affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget.

As of June 30, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of $79.2 million. While we are not aware of any negative impacts from anydowngrades, material losses, or other significant deterioration in the fair value of our cash equivalents and investments since June 30, 2020, no assurance can be given that further deterioration of the global credit and financial markets would not negatively impact our current portfolio of cash equivalents or our ability to meet our financing objectives. Furthermore, our stock price may decline due in part to the volatility of the stock market and any general economic downturn.

Our independent registered public accounting firm has included an explanatory paragraph relating to our ability to continue as a going concern in its report on our collaboration partnersaudited financial statements, and it is possible that such report on our financial statements may include such an explanation again in the future.

We believe we have sufficient capital to fund our operations into the third quarter of 2021. Going forward, if we are unable to obtain sufficient funding to support our operations, we could limit potential revenuebe forced to delay, reduce or eliminate all of our research and development programs, product portfolio expansion or commercialization efforts, and our financial condition and results of operations will be materially and adversely affected and we may be unable to continue as a going concern. In the future, reports from our product candidates.independent registered public accounting firm may also contain statements expressing substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. If we seek additional financing to fund our business activities in the future and there remains substantial doubt

31


about our ability to continue as a going concern, investors or other financing sources may be unwilling to provide additional funding to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all.

Our obligations to the holders of our 2015 Subordinated Notespromissory notes could materially and adversely affect our liquidity.

In February 2015, we exchanged senior subordinated promissory notes that we issued in 2013 for new senior subordinated promissory notes in the aggregate principal amount of $5.0$14.0 million, of which $13.0 million remains outstanding, with annual interest atof 8%, and we issued an additional $9.0 million principal amount of such notes (the “2015 Subordinated Notes”). The 2015 Subordinated Notes were originallypreviously due February 2018,20, 2020, and in March 2017,February 2020, we amended the 2015 Subordinate Notes to extend the maturity date to February 2020.20, 2023. The 2015 Subordinated Notes include default provisions that allow for the acceleration of the principal payment of the 2015 Subordinated Notes in the event we become involved in certain bankruptcy proceedings, become insolvent, fail to make a payment of principal or (after a grace period) interest on the 2015 Subordinated Notes, default on other indebtedness with an aggregate principal balance of $13.5$13.0 million or more if such default has the effect of accelerating the maturity of such indebtedness, or become subject to a legal judgment or similar order for the payment of money in an amount greater than $13.5$13.0 million if such amount will not be covered by third-party insurance. If we default on the 2015 Subordinated Notes and the repayment of such indebtedness is accelerated, our liquidity could be materially and adversely affected.

In May 2020, we issued promissory notes in the aggregate principal amount of approximately $6.2 million (“PPP Loan”) pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the “CARES Act”). Under the current terms of the CARES Act, our PPP Loan is eligible for forgiveness if the proceeds are used for covered payroll costs, rent and utilities during the 8 to 24-week period immediately following receipt of the proceeds. However, the CARES Act regulations are still being written, and the interim regulations have been revised multiple times since they were initially published in March 2020. Our PPP Loan may not qualify for forgiveness under the final regulations of the CARES Act, and we may be required to repay the PPP Loan in full, with interest.

If we do not have sufficient cash on hand to service or repay our 2015 Subordinated Notes or PPP Loan, we may be required among other things, to:

seekto raise additional financing incapital which entails the debt or equity markets;risks described herein.

refinance or restructure all or a portion

Risks Related to the Development of Our Product Candidates

Our business is highly dependent on the success of our indebtedness;

sell, out-license, or otherwise dispose of assets; and/or

reduce or delay planned expenditures on researchbalstilimab and development and/or commercialization activities.zalifrelimab programs targeting second-line cervical cancer, which still require significant additional clinical development.

Such measures might not be sufficient to enable us to make the principal and interest payments when due on the 2015 Subordinated Notes. In addition, any such financing, refinancing, or sale of assets might not be available on favorable terms, if at all.

Our AGEN2034business and AGEN1884 antibody programs arefuture success depends in potential registrational studies, but there is no guarantee that we will be successful in advancing these through clinical developmentlarge part on our desired timeline, if at all, or that we will be ableability to obtain regulatory approval of, and then successfully launch and commercialize, them successfully.our initial product candidates targeting cervical cancer.

Our anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 programs (AGEN2034(balstilimab and AGEN1884,zalifrelimab, respectively) are in clinical trials that included a Phase 1 dose escalation with expansion cohorts in multiple solid tumors. These molecules are now in2 expansion trials with both anti-PD-1balstilimab monotherapy and anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4balstilimab/zalifrelimab combination trials for patients with second-line cervical cancer that are designed to support one or more Biologic License Application (“BLA”)BLA filings as early as 2020 under the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway. We expect to file our first BLA for balstilimab monotherapy by the end of 2020, with the BLA for our balstilimab/zalifrelimab combination to follow soon thereafter. If approved, we intend to commercialize these assets duringby the first halfend of 2021. These timelines are aggressive and subject to various factors outside of our control, including patient accrual rates for our clinical trials and regulatory review and approval. If our trials are unable to accrue patients at the rate we expect, we are unlikely to hit our anticipated timelines and our business and financial prospects could be materially adversely affected. In addition, in order to file a BLA and seek accelerated approval, we must also launch a confirmatory trial and have it be substantially underway at that time.the time of BLA submission. We have not yet initiated a confirmatory trial.trial intended to satisfy this requirement, but there is no guarantee that the FDA will consider it to be substantially underway at the time of BLA submission, and the COVID-19 pandemic may prevent us from doing so on our planned timeline. There is no guarantee that we will be able to file a BLA in 2020, if at all.all, or that we will be able to commercialize these assets in 2021 even if we receive approval. If our anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 programs encounter safety, efficacy, supply or manufacturing problems, developmental delays, regulatory or commercialization issues or other problems, our development plans and business would be significantly harmed.

We have previously presented early data on these programs at major oncology conferences that demonstrated a clinical benefit (i.e., complete response, partial response or disease stabilization) in more than 60% of patients treated with AGEN1884 and AGEN2034.

Even though we have observed positive results to date, they may not necessarily be predictive of the final results of the trials or future clinical trials or otherwise be sufficient to support an accelerated approval. Many companies in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials after achieving positive results, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks.

All of our other product candidates are in earlier stages of development and will require additional nonclinical and clinical development, regulatory review and approval in multiple jurisdictions, substantial investment, access to sufficient commercial manufacturing capacity and significant marketing efforts before we can generate any revenue from product sales.

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The successful development of immune modulating antibodies, including our balstilimab and zalifrelimab programs, is highly uncertain.

Successful development of immune modulating antibodies, such as our balstilimab and zalifrelimab programs, is highly uncertain and is dependent on numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control. Immune modulating antibodies that appear promising in the early phases of development may fail to reach, or remain in, the market for several reasons, including:

clinical trial results may show our candidates to be less effective than expected (e.g., a clinical trial could fail to meet its primary endpoint(s)) or to have unacceptable side effects, toxicities or other negative consequences;

failure to receive the necessary regulatory approvals or a delay in receiving such approvals. Among other things, such delays may be caused by slow enrollment in clinical trials, patients dropping out of trials, length of time to achieve trial endpoints, additional time requirements for data analysis, or BLA preparation, discussions with the FDA, an FDA request for additional nonclinical or clinical data, or unexpected safety or manufacturing issues;

manufacturing costs, formulation issues, pricing or reimbursement issues, or other factors that make the candidates uneconomical;

proprietary rights of others and their competing products and technologies that may prevent our candidates from being commercialized; and

failure to initiate or successfully complete confirmation trials for candidates that receive accelerated approval.

The length of time necessary to complete clinical trials and to submit an application for marketing approval for a final decision by a regulatory authority may be difficult to predict for immune modulating antibodies.

Even if AGEN2034 and/or AGEN1884we are successful in obtaining market approval, commercial success of any approved products will also depend in large part on the availability of insurance coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors, including government payors, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and managed care organizations, which may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures designed to reduce the cost of healthcare. Third-party payors may limit the definition of the target treatment population to one smaller than that implied in the label granted by regulatory authorities, and could require us to conduct additional studies, including post-marketing studies related to the cost-effectiveness of a product, to qualify for reimbursement, which could be costly and divert our resources. If government and other healthcare payors were not to provide adequate insurance coverage and reimbursement levels for one any of our products once approved, market acceptance and commercial success would be reduced.

In addition, if any of our products are approved for marketing, we will be subject to significant regulatory obligations regarding the submission of safety and other post-marketing information and reports and registration, and will need to continue to comply (or ensure that our third-party providers comply) with cGMPs and good clinical practices (“GCPs”), for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. In addition, there is always the risk that we or a regulatory authority might identify previously unknown problems with a product post-approval, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency. Compliance with these requirements is costly and any failure to comply or other issues with our product candidates’ post-approval could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Interim top-line and preliminary 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 interim top-line or preliminary data from our clinical trials. 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. Preliminary or top-line data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. In February and March 2020, we reported positive interim data from our lead trials of balstilimab and zalifrelimab. These results may not be indicative of the final results from the study, and the final results may not support a marketing approval. There is no guarantee that weeither balstilimab monotherapy or balstilimab/zalifrelimab combination therapy will be ablereceive marketing approval in any jurisdiction, and failure to successfully commercialize

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themachieve marketing approval for either of these programs could have a material adverse impact on our business. Any adverse differences between preliminary or penetrate any commercial markets. We are initially targeting second line cervical cancer, whichinterim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects.


Preclinical development is a small subsetuncertain. Some of the overall market. Further, for products approved under the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, post-commercialization confirmatory trials are required to meet certain endpoints. These confirmatory trials must be completed with due diligence and, in some cases, the FDA may require that the trial be designed and/or initiated prior to approval. Moreover, the FDA may withdraw approval of any product candidate or indication approved under the accelerated approval pathway if, for example (i) the trial or trials required to verify the predicted clinical benefit of the product candidate fail to verify such benefit or do not demonstrate sufficient clinical benefit to justify the risks associated with the drug, (ii) other evidence demonstrates that the product candidate is not shown to be safe or effective under the conditions of use, (iii) we fail to conduct any required post-approval trial of the product candidate with due diligence, or (iv) we disseminate false or misleading promotional materials relating to the product candidate.

Our otherour antibody programs are in early stage development and there is no guarantee that wemay experience delays or may never advance to clinical trials, which would adversely affect our partners will be successful in advancing antibody product candidates into and through clinical development.ability to obtain regulatory approvals or commercialize these programs on a timely basis or at all, which would have an adverse effect on our business.

Our additional

Several of our proprietary antibody programs are currently in early stage development, and many of our antibody programs are pre-clinical. We cannot be certain of the timely completion or outcome of our preclinical testing and studies and cannot predict if the FDA or other regulatory authorities will accept our proposed clinical programs or if the outcome of our preclinical testing and studies will ultimately support the further development of our programs. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs or similar applications for our preclinical programs on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of INDs or similar applications will result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities allowing clinical trials to begin.

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

Before obtaining regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any products, we must demonstrate through potentially lengthy, complex and expensive preclinical studies and clinical trials that our product candidates are both safe and effective for use in each target indication. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process.

Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile despite having progressed through nonclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising results in earlier 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 further clinical development of any of our product candidates.

We intend to develop our existing antibody candidates, and may develop future product candidates, alone and in combination with one or more additional cancer therapies. The uncertainty resulting from the use of our product candidates in combination with other cancer therapies may make it difficult to accurately predict side effects in future clinical trials.

If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our current or future clinical trials, we may have difficulty recruiting patients to our clinical trials, patients may drop out of our trials, or we may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts of one or more product candidates altogether. We, the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities, or an institutional review board may suspend clinical trials of a product candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects 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 drug from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance of any approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our pre-clinicalbusiness, financial condition and prospects.

Positive results from preclinical and clinical studies orof our and/or our partners’product candidates are not necessarily predictive of the results of later preclinical studies and any future clinical trials produceof our product candidates. If we cannot replicate the positive results theyfrom our earlier studies of our product candidates in our later studies and future clinical trials, we may be unable to successfully develop, obtain regulatory for and commercialize our product candidates.

Any positive results from our preclinical studies of our product candidates may not necessarily be predictive of the results offrom required later preclinical studies and clinical trials. Similarly, even if we are able to complete our planned preclinical studies or any future clinical trials. trials of our product candidates according to our current development timeline, the positive results from such preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates may not be replicated in subsequent preclinical studies or clinical trial results. Moreover, positive results observed in interim data may not necessarily be predictive of the results from final, more mature data.

For example, in 2018 we presented early data on our balstilimab and zalifrelimab programs at major oncology conferences that demonstrated a clinical benefit (i.e., complete response, partial response or disease stabilization) in more than 60% of patients treated with balstilimab and zalifrelimab at that time. In February and March 2020, we reported interim data from our registrational trials of these same programs that showed overall response rates of approximately 11.9% with balstilimab monotherapy and

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approximately 26.5% with balstilimab/zalifrelimab combination therapy.  The final data readouts on these programs may not show similar positive results.

Many companies in the pharmaceutical biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in pre-clinicalearly-stage development or earlier clinical trials, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. These setbacks have been caused by, among other things, pre-clinicalpreclinical and other nonclinical findings made while clinical trials were underway, or safety or efficacy observations made in preclinical studies and clinical trials, including previously unreported adverse events. Moreover, pre-clinicalpreclinical, nonclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses and many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in pre-clinicalpreclinical studies and clinical trials nonetheless failed to obtain regulatoryFDA or EMA approval.

If we andencounter difficulties enrolling patients in our partners fail to produce positive results in clinical trials, of antibodies, our business and financial prospects wouldclinical development activities could be materiallydelayed or otherwise adversely affected.

Although we are striving

We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical trials for a variety of reasons. The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to fileenroll a sufficient number of INDs to advance novel antibodies, cell therapypatients who remain in the study until its conclusion. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:

the severity of the disease under investigation;

the patient eligibility and exclusion criteria defined in the protocol;

the size of the patient population required for analysis of the trial’s primary endpoints;

the proximity of patients to trial sites;

the design of the trial;

our ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience;

clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages and risks of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs that may be in clinical development or approved for the indications we are investigating;

the efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;

the patient referral practices of physicians;

the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment;

our ability to obtain and maintain patient consents; and

the risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will drop out of the trials before completion.

In addition, our clinical trials will compete with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and neoantigen vaccine combinations intothis competition will reduce the clinic, there is no guarantee that we will be ablenumber and types of patients available to do so on that timeline, if at all. Our stated timelines are aggressive and subjectus, because some patients who might have opted to various risks, including resource constraints. If we are unableenroll in our trials may instead opt to advance novel candidates into the clinic as planned due to resource constraints or otherwise, our business and partnering prospects could be materially adversely affected.

We have undergone significant growth across multiple locations over the past few years, and are focusing on further enhancing core areas and capabilities as we move toward commercialization.  In addition, we have consolidated certain sites while expanding others to focus on our core priorities and future needs.  We may encounter difficultiesenroll in managing these growth and/or consolidation efforts, either of which could disrupt our operations.

Since our acquisition of Agenus Switzerland Inc., formerly known as 4-Antibody AG (“4-AB”), we have more than tripled our headcount, in part through various acquisitions and the expansiona trial being conducted by one of our research and development activities both nationally and internationally. While we have restructured our organization overcompetitors. Since the past few years,number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we expect to continue increasingconduct some of our headcountclinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in certain coresuch clinical trial site. Moreover, because our product candidates represent a departure from more commonly used methods for our targeted therapeutic areas, as we continue to build our development, manufacturingpotential patients and commercialization capabilities and integrate our acquired technology platforms. To manage these organizational changes, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems and continue to recruit, train and retain qualified personnel. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our timelinestheir doctors may be delayed,inclined to use conventional or newly launched competitive therapies, rather than enroll patients in any future clinical trial.

Delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to generate revenueadvance the development of our product candidates.  The COVID-19 pandemic may cause delays in the patient enrollment in our clinical trials and could prevent the completion and/or timely completion of such trials.


The number of product candidates that we are attempting to simultaneously advance creates a significant strain on our resources and may prevent us from successfully advancing any product candidates. If, due to our limited resources and access to capital, we prioritize development of certain product candidates, such decisions may prove to be reduced,wrong and may adversely affect our business.

We are currently advancing multiple immune modulating antibodies, vaccines, vaccine adjuvants and adoptive cell therapies (through our AgenTus subsidiary). Simultaneously advancing so many product candidates creates a significant strain on our limited human and financial resources. As a result, we may not be able to implementprovide sufficient resources to any single product candidate to permit the successful development and commercialization of such product candidate, causing material harm to our business strategy.business.

As part

If, due to our limited resources and access to capital, we prioritize development of our efforts to optimize efficiency across our organization, we closed our Jena, Germany office in 2016 and consolidated these operations in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In 2017, we completed a reduction in force in our Lexington, MA facility, which included certain members of our management, in line with our prioritization efforts, and we closed our office in Basel, Switzerland and transferred our research and development assets and capabilities there to the United Kingdom. If these transition effortsproduct candidates that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful, we may forego or if we identify managementdelay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or operational gaps in connection with our changes, it couldfor other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential or a greater likelihood of success. Our resource allocation decisions may cause delays in discovery timelines and increased costs for certain of our internal and partnered programs, which also could have an adverse effectus to fail to capitalize on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We are still in the process of liquidating 4-AB and transferring intellectual property rights from Switzerland to the United Statesviable commercial products or elsewhere. There could be adverse tax consequences resulting from this migration of intellectual property rights, which could have an adverse effect on our business and operations.

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Our synthetic Heat Shock Protein (“HSP”) peptide-based platform is in early stage development, and there is no guarantee that a product candidate will progress from this platform.

In June 2014, we reported positive results from a Phase 2 trial with HerpVTM, a vaccine candidate for genital herpes from our synthetic HSP peptide-based platform. The Phase 2 trial met its formal endpoints, but subjects were not followed long enough to determine whether the magnitude of the effect on viral load would be sufficient to significantly reduce the incidence, severity, or duration of herpetic lesions or reduce the risk of viral transmission. Although we have not advanced this program into a Phase 3 trial, we initiated our ASV synthetic cancer vaccine program based on our prior findings with this platform. We initiated our first clinical trial for our first AutoSynVax product candidate in 2017 and reported safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine at CIMT2018.  Although we are planning to initiate a combination trial with ASV and one or more of our antibodies, the timeline is uncertain and there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so at all. Furthermore, it is possible that research and discoveries by others will render any product candidate from this platform as obsolete or noncompetitive.profitable market opportunities.

We may not be able to advance clinical development or commercialize our cancer vaccine candidates or realize any benefits from these programs.

The probability of future clinical development efforts leading to marketing approval and commercialization of Prophage vaccines is highly uncertain. Prophage vaccines have been in clinical development for over 1617 years, including multiple Phase 1 and 2 trials in eight different tumor types as well as randomized Phase 3 trials in metastatic melanoma and adjuvant renal cell carcinoma. To date, the only marketing approval for Prophage is in Russia where commercialization of the approved product was unsuccessful. All of our currently planned trials involving Prophage are intended to be sponsored by third parties, and there is no guarantee that they will occur at all.

Our current clinical trial plans with Prophage vaccines entail one government sponsored IND in which we provide support and product supply. For third-party sponsored trials, we lack the ability to control trial design, timelines, tumor tissue procurement and data availability. For example, in January 2017, we announced a clinical trial collaboration with the NCI, whereby the NCI is conducting a double-blind, randomized controlled Phase 2 trial to evaluate the effect of Prophage vaccine in conjunction with Merck’s pembrolizumab on the overall survival rate of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (“ndGBM”).ndGBM. In addition, the Phase 2 trial of Prophage vaccine in combination with bevacizumab in patients with surgically resectable recurrent glioma that was being conducted under the sponsorship of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a cooperative group of the NCI, has been closed. Our other cancer vaccine programs (ASV and PSV) are in Phase 1 and pre-clinical development, respectively, and there is no guarantee that they will successfully advance in and through the clinic. ASV also utilizes QS-21 Stimulon, and any inability or delay in securing adequate supplies of the adjuvant could have an adverse impact on the program or otherwise delay timelines. Current and future studies may eventually be terminated due to, among other things, slow enrollment, lack of probability that they will yield useful translational and/or efficacy data, lengthy timelines, or the unlikelihood that results will support timely or successful regulatory filings.

Our synthetic Heat Shock Protein (“HSP”) peptide-based platform is in early stage development, and there is no guarantee that a product candidate will progress from this platform.

In June 2014, we reported positive results from a Phase 2 trial with HerpVTM, a vaccine candidate for genital herpes from our synthetic HSP peptide-based platform. The Phase 2 trial met its formal endpoints, but subjects were not followed long enough to determine whether the magnitude of the effect on viral load would be sufficient to significantly reduce the incidence, severity, or duration of herpetic lesions or reduce the risk of viral transmission. Although we have not advanced this program into a Phase 3 trial, we initiated our ASV synthetic cancer vaccine program based on our prior findings with this platform. We initiated our first clinical trial for our first AutoSynVax product candidate in 2017 and reported safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine at CIMT2018.  Although we have planned to initiate a combination trial with ASV and one or more of our antibodies, the timeline is uncertain and there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so at all. Furthermore, it is possible that research and discoveries by others will render any product candidate from this platform as obsolete or noncompetitive.

Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

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If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.

Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import and export are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Before we can commercialize any of our product candidates, we must obtain marketing approval. Except for Prophage in Russia, we have not received approval to market any of our product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction and it is possible that none of our product candidates or any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval. We, as a company, have limited experience in filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain regulatory approvals and expect to rely in part on third-party contract research organizations (“CROs”) and/or regulatory consultants to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the product candidate’s safety and efficacy. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about the drug manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Our product candidates may not be effective, may be only moderately effective or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use.

The process of obtaining regulatory approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive, may take many years if additional clinical trials are required, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations, or changes in regulatory review for each submitted IND, Premarket Approval, BLA or equivalent application types, may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. The FDA and comparable authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies. Our product candidates could be delayed in receiving, or fail to receive, regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;

we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a product candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication or a related companion diagnostic is suitable to identify appropriate patient populations;

the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;

we may be unable to demonstrate that a product candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its safety risks;

the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;

the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of an BLA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;

the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and

the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.

Of the large number of drugs in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA or foreign regulatory approval processes and are commercialized. The lengthy approval process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

We expect the novel nature of our product candidates to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory approval. As a result, our ability to develop product candidates and obtain regulatory approval may be significantly impacted.


For example, the general approach for FDA approval of a new biologic or drug is for sponsors to seek licensure or approval based on dispositive data from well-controlled, Phase 3 clinical trials of the relevant product candidate in the relevant patient population. Phase 3 clinical trials typically involve hundreds of patients, have significant costs and take years to complete. We intend to utilize FDA’s accelerated approval program for our product candidates given the limited alternatives for treatments for certain rare diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases, but the FDA may not agree with our plans.

The FDA may also require a panel of experts, referred to as an Advisory Committee, to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data to support approval. The opinion of the Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our ability to obtain approval of any product candidates that we develop based on the completed clinical trials.

Moreover, approval of genetic or biomarker diagnostic tests may be necessary in order to advance some of our product candidates to clinical trials or potential commercialization. In the future, regulatory agencies may require the development and approval of such tests. Accordingly, the regulatory approval pathway for such product candidates may be uncertain, complex, expensive and lengthy, and approval may not be obtained.

In addition, even if we were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our product candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may not approve the price we intend to charge for our products, may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials, or may approve a product candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that product candidate. Any of the foregoing scenarios could reduce the size of the potential market for our product candidates and materially harm the commercial prospects for our product candidates.

If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for our product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired.

Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in other jurisdictions.

Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain regulatory approval in any other jurisdiction, while a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. For example, even if the FDA grants marketing approval of a product candidate, comparable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing, marketing and promotion of the product candidate in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States, including additional nonclinical studies or clinical trials as clinical trials conducted in one jurisdiction may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions outside the United States, a product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that jurisdiction. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for our products is also subject to approval.

We may also submit marketing applications in other countries. Regulatory authorities in jurisdictions outside of the United States have requirements for approval of product candidates with which we must comply prior to marketing in those jurisdictions. 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 products in certain countries. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our product candidates will be harmed.

Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

Undesirable side effects caused by our product candidates could cause us to interrupt, delay or halt preclinical studies or could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. As is the case with many treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, it is likely that there may be side effects associated with their use. Results of our trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of these or other side effects. In such an event, our trials could be suspended or terminated and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. The treatment-related side effects could affect patient recruitment or the ability of

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enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

Further, clinical trials by their nature utilize a sample of the potential patient population. With a limited number of patients and limited duration of exposure, rare and severe side effects of our product candidates may only be uncovered with a significantly larger number of patients exposed to the product candidate. If our product candidates receive marketing approval and we or others identify undesirable side effects caused by such product candidates (or any other similar drugs) after such approval, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

regulatory authorities may withdraw or limit their approval of such product candidates;

regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, such as a “boxed” warning or a contraindication;

we may be required to create a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients;

we may be required to change the way such product candidates are distributed or administered, conduct additional clinical trials or change the labeling of the product candidates;

regulatory authorities may require a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy(“REMS”), plan to mitigate risks, which could include medication guides, physician communication plans, or elements to assure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools;

we may be subject to regulatory investigations and government enforcement actions;

we may decide to remove such product candidates from the marketplace;

we could be sued and held liable for injury caused to individuals exposed to or taking our product candidates; and

our reputation may suffer.

We believe that any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product candidates and could substantially increase the costs of commercializing our product candidates, if approved, and significantly impact our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and generate revenues.

Our competitors may have superior products, manufacturing capability, selling and marketing expertise and/or financial and other resources.

Our product candidates and the product candidates in development by our collaboration partners may fail because of competition from major pharmaceutical companies and specialized biotechnology companies that market products, or that are engaged in the development of product candidates and for the treatment cancer. Many of our competitors, including large pharmaceutical companies, have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources than we do, such as larger research and development staff, experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations and well-established sales forces. Our competitors may:

develop safer or more effective therapeutic drugs or therapeutic vaccines and other products;

establish superior intellectual property positions;

discover technologies that may result in medical insights or breakthroughs, which render our drugs or vaccines obsolete, possibly before they generate any revenue, if ever;

adversely affect our ability to recruit patients for our clinical trials;

solidify partnerships or strategic acquisitions that may increase the competitive landscape;

develop or commercialize their product candidates sooner than we commercialize our own, if ever; or

implement more effective approaches to sales and marketing and capture some of our potential market share.

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Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Established pharmaceutical companies may also invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel therapeutics or to in-license novel therapeutics that could make the product candidates that we develop obsolete. Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries.

There is no guarantee that our product candidates will be able to compete with potential future products being developed by our competitors.

The CPM drug landscape is crowded with several competitors developing assets against a number of targets. Our development plans are spread out across various indications and lines of therapy, either alone or in combination with other assets. Our competitors range from small cap to large cap companies, with assets in pre-clinical or clinical stages of development. Therefore, the landscape is dynamic and constantly evolving. We and our partners have CPM antibody programs, currently in clinical stage development targeting various pathways (as mono- or bispecifics) including PD-1, CTLA-4, GITR, OX40, TIM-3, LAG-3, CD73, TGFb and CD137.

We are aware of many companies that have products on the market directed towards at least one of the biological targets as these programs, including, without limitation, the following: (1) BMS markets ipilimumab, an anti-CTLA-4 antibody, and nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, and is developing additional antagonists to LAG-3, TIM-3 and CD73. BMS also has next generation anti-CTLA-4 antibodies in the clinic, which may be competitive to our next generation anti-CTLA-4 program, (2) Merck has an approved anti-PD-1 antibody, as well as anti-CTLA-4 and LAG-3 antagonists recruiting in clinical trials, (3) Regeneron has an approved anti-PD-1 antibody as well as an antibody targeting LAG-3 in clinical development, (4) Roche/Genentech has an approved anti-PD-L1 antibody as well as bispecifics targeting CD137, LAG-3 and TIM-3 in clinical development, (5) AstraZeneca has an approved anti PD-L1 antibody, as well as antibodies targeting CTLA-4 and CD73 in the clinic and (6) Pfizer has an approved anti-PD-L1 (with Merck KgaA) as well as agents targeting PD-1, TGFbR1, CD137 in clinical development. Besides these PD-1 and PD-L1 antibodies that were approved in the U.S., we are also aware of competitors with approved PD-1 agents in ex-U.S. geographies such as China. These include Innovent Biologics, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences, Shanghai HengRui Pharmaceuticals and Beigene.

We are also aware of other competitors with clinical-stage PD-1/PD-L1 agents including but limited to AbbVie, Adagene, Amgen, Anhui Anke Biotechnology, Arcus Biosciences, Akeso Bio, Biocad Ltd., Boehringer Ingelheim, Checkpoint Therapeutics, CStone Pharmaceuticals, CSPC ZhongQi Pharmaceutical Technology, GSK, Gilead Sciences, Genor Biopharma/ Apollomics, Genrix (Shanghai) Biopharmaceutical, Incyte, ImmuneOncia Therapeutics Inc., Jounce Therapeutics, Janssen, Laekna Therapeutics, Lee’s Pharmaceuticals, Livzon Mabpharm, MacroGenics, Mabspace Biosciences, Maxinovel Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Servier, Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical, Suzhou Alphamab/3D Medicines, Shanghai Henlius Biotech Co Ltd, Sinocelltech, Shandong New Time Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, and Taizhou Houdeaoke Technology. In addition, we are also aware of anti-PD-(L)1 monospecific agents that are preclinical in stage. We are also aware of competitors developing bispecifics targeting PD-1 or PD-L1.

We are aware of companies developing “next-generation” anti-CTLA-4 approaches, which may be competitive to our next-generation anti-CTLA-4 program (AGEN1181). As mentioned earlier, BMS has 3 next-generation CTLA-4 programs in the clinic: a non-fucosylated anti CTLA-4 antibody, a peptide-masked version of ipilimumab and a peptide masked version of the non-fucosylated anti CTLA-4 antibody; the peptide masked versions are designed to localize activity to the tumor and minimize systemic toxicity associated with parent drug. We are also aware of companies advancing clinical stage, CTLA-4 targeting multispecifics as a next-generation approach, including, but not limited to, Macrogenics, Xencor, AstraZeneca, Akeso Biopharma, 3D Medicines/Alphamab, Alpine Immune Sciences. We are also aware of preclinical stage bispecifics co-targeting CTLA-4.

We are also aware of competitors with clinical stage monospecific drug candidates against CTLA-4, GITR, OX40, LAG-3, TIM-3, CD73, TGFb, and CD137, in addition to those named earlier in this section. As outlined above, some of these include, but are not limited to AbbVie, Adagene, Arcus Biosciences, Alligator Biosciences, Beigene, Boehringer Ingelheim, Compass Therapeutics, Corvus Pharmaceuticals, CStone Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Forbius, GSK, Innovent Biologics, Inhibrx, Leap Therapeutics, Lyvgen Biopharma, MedPacto, Novartis, Potenza Therapeutics, Servier, Scholar Rock, and Sanofi. We are also aware of preclinical stage competitors developing monospecific agents against these targets. Further, we are also aware of competitors developing bispecifics targeting these pathways.

Additionally, we are advancing TIGIT programs towards Investigational New Drug (IND) filing and are aware of competitors with clinical stage anti-TIGIT antibodies. These include, but are not limited to, Arcus Biosciences, BMS, Beigene, Compugen, iTeos Therapeutics, Merck, Mereo Biopharma, Potenza Therapeutics, Roche, Merck, Mereo Biopharma and Seattle Genetics. We are also

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aware of competitor programs in preclinical development against this target. There is no guarantee that our antibody product candidates will be able to successfully compete with our competitors’ antibody products and product candidates.

We are conducting both monotherapy and combination trials in second line cervical cancer. We are aware that Merck’s PD-1 antagonist, Keytruda, has been approved in advanced cervical cancer. We are also aware of industry sponsored clinical trials, including exploratory studies, that are underway in this setting. Clinical stage competitors include, but are not limited to, Regeneron (anti-PD-1), BMS (anti-PD-1 alone or in combination with CTLA-4), Seattle Genetics and Genmab (antibody drug conjugate targeting Tissue Factor), Iovance Biotherapeutics (autologous TILs), Merck KgaA (anti-PD-L1/TGFb), Roche (anti-PD-L1 alone or in combination with anti-TIGIT), Vaccibody (HPV vaccine in combination with anti-PD-L1), Biocad (anti-PD-1), Genor Biopharma (anti-PD-1), Gloria Biosciences (Anti-PD-1), Shanghai Henlius Biotech (anti-PD-1 in combination with albumin bound paclitaxel), Akeso Bio (anti-PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific) and Lee Pharmaceuticals (anti-PD-L1).

We have autologous vaccine programs in clinical development including our Prophage vaccine in clinical development for GBM. We are aware of other therapeutic options in GBM that could compete with our vaccine, including but not limited to the following: Merck markets temozolomide for treatment of patients with ndGBM and refractory astrocytoma. Other companies are developing vaccines for the treatment of patients with ndGBM, including, but not limited to, Northwest Biotherapeutics (DC-Vax), Mimivax Inc. (SurVaxM) and Annias Immunotherapeutics (CMV Vaccine). Other companies may begin development programs as well. There are companies advancing neoantigen vaccines that compete with our HSP based vaccines including, but not limited to: Gritstone Oncology, BioNTech, Moderna/Merck, Genocea Biosciences, ISA Pharmaceuticals, Nouscom, and Vaccibody. In addition, and prior to regulatory approval, if ever, our vaccines and our other product candidates may compete for access to patients with other products in clinical development, with products approved for use in the indications we are studying, or with off-label use of products in the indications we are studying. We anticipate that we will face increased competition in the future as new companies enter markets we seek to address and scientific developments surrounding immunotherapy and other traditional cancer therapies continue to accelerate.

Our subsidiary company, AgenTus Therapeutics, is advancing invariant natural killer T cell (iNKT) therapy. We are aware of competitors advancing NKT therapies, including but not limited to, Kuur Therapeutics and BrightPath Biotherapeutics.

Several other vaccine adjuvants are in development or in use and could compete with QS-21 Stimulon for inclusion in vaccines. These adjuvants may include but are not limited to: (1) oligonucleotides, under development by Pfizer, Idera, and Dynavax, (2) MF59, under development by Novartis, (3) IC31, under development by Intercell (now part of Valneva), (4) MPL, under development by GSK, (5) Matrix-MTM, under development by Novavax, (6) AS03, under development by GSK, and (7) TQL 1055, under development by Adjuvance Technologies. In the past, we have provided QS-21 Stimulon to other entities under materials transfer arrangements. In at least one instance, it is possible that this material was used without our permission to develop synthetic formulations and/or derivatives of QS-21. In addition, companies such as CSL Limited as well as academic institutions and manufacturers of saponin extracts, are developing saponin adjuvants, including derivatives and synthetic formulations. These sources may be competitive to our ability to execute future partnering and licensing arrangements involving QS-21 Stimulon. The existence of products developed by these and other competitors, or other products of which we are not aware, or which other companies may develop in the future, may adversely affect the marketability of products developed or sold using QS-21 Stimulon.

We are also aware of a third party that manufactures pre-clinical material purporting to be comparable to QS-21 Stimulon. The claims being made by this third party may create marketplace confusion and have an adverse effect on the goodwill generated by us and our partners with respect to QS-21 Stimulon. We are also aware of other manufacturers of QS-21. Any diminution of this goodwill may have an adverse effect on our ability to commercialize future products, if any, incorporating this technology, either alone or with a third party.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates, the availability and price of our competitors’ products could limit the demand and the price we are able to charge for our product candidates. We may not be able to implement our business plan if the acceptance of our product candidates is inhibited by price competition or the reluctance of physicians to switch from existing methods of treatment to our product candidates, or if physicians switch to other new drug or biologic products or choose to reserve our product candidates for use in limited circumstances.

Even if our product candidates receive marketing approval, we, or others, may subsequently discover that such product is less effective than previously believed or causes undesirable side effects that were not previously identified and our ability to market such product will be compromised.

Clinical trials of our product candidates are conducted in carefully defined subsets of patients who have agreed to enter into such clinical trials. Consequently, it is possible that our clinical trials may indicate an apparent positive effect of a product candidate that is greater than the actual positive effect, if any, or alternatively fail to identify undesirable side effects. If one or more of our

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product candidates receives regulatory approval, and we, or others, later discover that they are less effective than previously believed, or cause undesirable side effects, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

withdrawal or limitation by regulatory authorities of approvals of such product;

seizure of the product by regulatory authorities;

recall of the product;

restrictions on the marketing of the product or the manufacturing process for any component thereof;

requirement by regulatory authorities of additional warnings on the label, such as a “black box” warning or contraindication;

requirement that we implement a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy or create a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients;

commitment to expensive additional safety studies prior to approval or post-marketing studies required by regulatory authorities of such product;

the product may become less competitive;

initiation of regulatory investigations and government enforcement actions;

initiation of legal action against us to hold us liable for harm caused to patients; and

harm to our reputation and resulting harm to physician or patient acceptance of our products.

Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular product candidate, if approved, and could significantly harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Even if our product candidates receive marketing approval, such products may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third- party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

If balstilimab and zalifrelimab or any other future product candidates receive marketing approval, whether as single agents or in combination with other therapies, they may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. For example, current approved immunotherapies, and other cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, are well established in the medical community, and doctors could continue to rely on these therapies. If balstilimab and zalifrelimab or any other future product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of balstilimab and zalifrelimab or any future products, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:

efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments;

the ability to offer our products, if approved, for sale at competitive prices;

convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;

the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;

the strength of marketing and distribution support;

sufficient third-party coverage or reimbursement, including of combination therapies;

adoption of a companion diagnostic and/or complementary diagnostic; and

the prevalence and severity of any side effects.

Even if we are able to commercialize any product candidates, such products may not receive coverage or may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives, all of which would harm our business.

The legislation and regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing and reimbursement for new drug products vary widely from country to country. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many

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countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or drug licensing approval is granted. In some foreign markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial approval is granted. In the United States, approval and reimbursement decisions are not linked directly, but there is increasing scrutiny from the Congress and regulatory authorities of the pricing of pharmaceutical products. 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 candidate, possibly for lengthy time periods, and negatively impact the revenues we are able to generate from the sale of the product candidate in that 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.

Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of our product candidates for which we seek regulatory approval. Our ability to commercialize any drugs successfully will depend, in part, on the extent to which reimbursement for these drugs and related treatments will be available from government health administration authorities, private health insurers and other organizations. Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which medications they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. Obtaining and maintaining adequate reimbursement for our product candidates, if approved, may be difficult. Moreover, the process for determining whether a third-party payor will provide coverage for a product may be separate from the process for setting the price of a product or for establishing the reimbursement rate that such a payor will pay for the product. Further, one payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage and reimbursement for our products, if they are approved, by third-party payors.

A primary trend in the healthcare industry in the United States and elsewhere is cost containment. Government authorities and 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, with respect to an approved product, additional clinical evidence that goes beyond the data required to obtain marketing approval. They may require such evidence to demonstrate clinical benefits and value in specific patient populations or they may call for costly pharmaceutical studies to justify coverage and reimbursement or the level of reimbursement relative to other therapies before covering our products. Accordingly, we cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any drug that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, we cannot be sure as to the level of reimbursement and whether it will be adequate. Coverage and reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. If reimbursement is not available or is 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 reimbursement for newly-approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the indications for which the drug is approved by the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities outside of the United States. Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement 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, sale and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the clinical setting in which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost drugs and may be incorporated into existing 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. Third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable payment rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved drugs that we develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize drugs and our overall financial condition.

The market opportunities for our product candidates may be limited to those patients who are ineligible for or have failed prior treatments and may be small, and our estimates of the prevalence of our target patient populations may be inaccurate.

Cancer and autoimmune therapies are sometimes characterized as first-line, second-line, third-line and even fourth-line, and the FDA often approves new therapies initially only for last-line use. Initial approvals for new cancer and autoimmune therapies are often restricted to later lines of therapy, and in the case of cancer specifically, for patients with advanced or metastatic disease. Indeed, the BLAs that we intend to file for balstilimab and zalifrelimab target second-line cervical cancer. This will limit the number of cervical cancer patients who may be eligible to use balstilimab and zalifrelimab, if approved.

Our projections of both the number of people who have the diseases we are targeting, as well as the subset of people with these diseases in a position to receive our therapies, if approved, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including scientific literature, input from key opinion leaders, patient foundations, or secondary

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market research databases, and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than expected. Additionally, the potentially addressable patient population for our product candidates may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with our product candidates. For instance, we expect our product candidates targeting cervical cancer to target the smaller patient populations that suffer from the respective diseases we seek to treat. Furthermore, regulators and payors may further narrow the therapy-accessible treatment population. Even if we obtain significant market share for our product candidates, because certain of the potential target populations are small, we may never achieve profitability without obtaining regulatory approval for additional indications.

We are currently building marketing, sales and commercial compliance functions, and as a company, we have no experience in marketing, selling and distributing products or performing commercial compliance. If we are unable to establish such capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to perform such functions, we may not be able to generate product revenue.

We currently have a small number of employees that are tasked with building our marketing, sales and commercial compliance functions, and we currently have no sales, marketing, distribution or commercial compliance capabilities and have no experience as a company performing such tasks. Developing an in-house marketing team, sales force and commercial compliance function will require significant capital expenditures, management resources and time and may ultimately prove to be unsuccessful. In the event we develop and deploy these capabilities, we will have to compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train and retain personnel qualified to perform these tasks.  If we fail to market and sell our approved products in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, we may be subject to fines or other penalties.

In addition to establishing internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, we may pursue collaborative arrangements regarding the sales and marketing of our products, however, there can be no assurance that we will be able to establish or maintain such collaborative arrangements, or if we are able to do so, that they will have effective sales forces. Any revenue we receive will depend upon the efforts of such third parties, which may not be successful. We may have little or no control over the marketing and sales efforts of such third parties and our revenue from product sales may be lower than if we had commercialized our product candidates ourselves. We also face competition in our search for third parties to assist us with the sales and marketing efforts of our product candidates.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to develop in-house sales and distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to commercialize any product in the United States or overseas.

Risks Related to Manufacturing and Supply

Our product candidates are uniquely manufactured. If we or any of our third-party manufacturers encounter difficulties in manufacturing our product candidates, our ability to provide supply of our product candidates for clinical trials or our products for patients, if approved, could be delayed or stopped, or we may be unable to maintain a commercially viable cost structure.

The manufacturing process used to produce certain of our product candidates is complex and novel and has not yet been validated for commercial production. As a result of these complexities, the cost to manufacture certain of our product candidates is potentially higher than traditional antibodies and the manufacturing process is less reliable and is more difficult to reproduce. Furthermore, our manufacturing process for certain of our product candidates has not been scaled up to commercial production. The actual cost to manufacture and process certain of our product candidates could be greater than we expect and could materially and adversely affect the commercial viability of such product candidates.

Our manufacturing process may be susceptible to logistical issues associated with the collection of materials sourced from various suppliers as well as shipment of the final product to clinical centers, manufacturing issues associated with interruptions in the manufacturing process, contamination, equipment or reagent failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, inconsistency in production batches, and variability in product characteristics. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, lot failures, product defects, product recalls, product liability claims and other supply disruptions. If microbial, viral, or other contaminations are discovered in our product candidates or in our manufacturing strategies,facilities in which our product candidates are made, production at such manufacturing facilities may be interrupted for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination. Further, as we transition from late-stage clinical trials toward approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials.

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Although we continue to optimize our manufacturing process for our antibody product candidates, doing so is a difficult and uncertain task, and there are risks associated with scaling to the level required for commercialization, including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, lot consistency, and timely availability of reagents and/or increased demandraw materials. We ultimately may cause delays, unanticipatednot be successful in transferring our in-house clinical scale production system to any commercial scale manufacturing facilities that we establish ourselves, or establish at a contract manufacturing organization (“CMO”). If we are unable to adequately validate or scale-up the manufacturing process for our product candidates with our contracted CMO, 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 for all product candidates. As a result, we may ultimately be unable to reduce the cost of goods for our product candidates to levels that will allow for an attractive return on investment if and when those product candidates are commercialized.

The manufacturing process for any products that we may develop is subject to the FDA and foreign regulatory authority approval process, and we will need to contract with manufacturers who can meet all applicable FDA and foreign regulatory authority requirements on an ongoing basis. If we or our CMOs are unable to reliably produce products to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the approvals we need to commercialize such products. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that either we or our CMOs will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other 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. Any of these challenges could delay completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidates, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods, and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Our future success depends on our ability to manufacture our products on a timely basis with acceptable manufacturing costs, while at the same time maintaining good quality control and complying with applicable regulatory requirements, and an inability to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, we could incur higher manufacturing costs if manufacturing processes or lossstandards change, and we could need to replace, modify, design, or build and install equipment, all of revenue streams within or acrosswhich would require additional capital expenditures. Specifically, because our programs.

Our antibody programs will require substantial manufacturing developmentproduct candidates may have a higher cost of goods than conventional therapies, the risk that coverage and investment to progress. We are currently progressing a portfolio of antibody programs that are at different stages of development. If these efforts are delayed or do not produce the desired outcomes, this will cause delays in development timelines and increased costs, whichreimbursement rates may causebe inadequate for us to limitachieve profitability may be greater.

We own and operate our own clinical scale manufacturing facility and infrastructure in addition to or in lieu of relying on CMOs for the size and scopemanufacture of clinical supplies of our effortsproduct candidates. This is costly and studies. time-consuming.

In 2015, we secured our own internal antibody manufacturing capabilities with the purchase of a manufacturing pilot plant from XOMA Corporation in Berkeley, California, and we expect this facility to supply us withsupplies our antibody drug substance requirements throughfor clinical proof-of-concept studies. We will also need to develop or secure later phase and/or commercial manufacturing capabilities for larger, registrational studies or any commercial supply requirements. ForAny performance failure on the programs for which we will produce our own drug substance, we will continue to rely on third parties for fill-finish services and other parts of the manufacturing process. These services include the storage and maintenance of our drug substance during all stages of the manufacturing process. While we maintain insurance to cover certain potential losses, there is no guarantee that our insurance coverage will be adequate. Furthermore, we currently rely on contract manufacturing organizations (“CMOs”) and contract research organizations (“CROs”) to support somepart of our existing antibody programs. Our dependence on external CMOs for the manufacture of certain antibodies results in intrinsic risks to our performance, timelines, and costsfacility could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our accelerated development plans, and which could divert resources away from our antibody programs and/or lead to delays in the development of our product candidates. In the event that our antibody programs require progressively larger production capabilities, our options for qualified CMOs may become more limited.programs.

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To date, we have manufactured our Prophage vaccines in our Lexington, MA facility. Manufacturing of the Prophage vaccines is complex, and various factors could cause delays or an inability to supply the vaccine. Deviations in the processes controlling manufacture or deficiencies in size or quality of source material could result in production failures. Specific vulnerabilities in the process may exist in tumor types in which quality or quantity of tissue is limited. In addition, regulatory bodies may require us to make our manufacturing facility a single product facility. In such an instance, we may elect to manufacture another product candidate in our current facility and would no longer have the ability to manufacture Prophage vaccines as well.

We have given our corporate QS-21 Stimulon licensee, GSK, manufacturing rights for QS-21 Stimulon for use in their product programs. We have retained the right to manufacture QS-21 for ourselves and third parties, although no other such programs are anticipated to bring us substantial revenues in the near future, if ever. Although we have the right to secure certain quantities of QS-21 from GSK and we have some internal supply in-house, we currently do not have an alternative long-term supply partner for this adjuvant. In January 2019, we announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded us a grant to develop an alternative, plant cell culture-based manufacturing process with the goal of ensuring the continuous future supply of QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant. There is no guarantee that we will be successful in these development efforts.

OurWe also may encounter problems hiring and retaining the experienced scientific, quality-control and manufacturing personnel

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needed to operate our manufacturing processes, which could result in delays in production or difficulties in maintaining compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.

Any problems in our manufacturing process or facilities, or that of our licensees and suppliers, could make us a less attractive collaborator for potential partners, including larger pharmaceutical companies and academic research institutions, which could limit our access to additional attractive development programs.

The FDA, the EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities may require us to submit samples of any lot of any approved product together with the protocols showing the results of applicable tests at any time. Under some circumstances, the FDA, the EMA or other foreign regulatory authorities may require that we not distribute a lot until the relevant agency authorizes its release. Slight deviations in the manufacturing process, including those affecting quality attributes and stability, may result in unacceptable changes in the product that could result in lot failures or product recalls. Lot failures or product recalls could cause us to delay product launches or clinical trials, which could be costly to us and otherwise harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Problems in our manufacturing process could restrict our ability to efficientlymeet market demand for our products.

We are dependent on suppliers for some of our components and materials used to manufacture our product candidatescandidates.

We currently depend on suppliers for some of the components necessary for our product candidates. We cannot be sure that these suppliers will remain in business, that they will be able to meet our supply needs, or that they will not be purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is contingent,not interested in part, uponcontinuing to produce these materials for our own,intended purpose. There are, in general, relatively few alternative sources of supply for these components. These suppliers may be unable or unwilling to meet our future demands for our clinical trials or commercial sale. Establishing additional or replacement suppliers for these components could take a substantial amount of time and it may be difficult to establish replacement suppliers who meet regulatory requirements. Any disruption in supply from a supplier or manufacturing location could lead to supply delays or interruptions which would damage our CMOs’, abilitybusiness, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we are able to ramp up productionfind a replacement supplier, the replacement supplier would need to be qualified and may require additional regulatory authority approval, which could result in further delay. While we seek to maintain adequate inventory of the materials used to manufacture our products, any interruption or delay in the supply of materials, or our inability to obtain materials from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, withoutcould impair our ability to meet the benefitdemand of yearsour customers and cause them to cancel orders. In addition, as part of experiencethe FDA’s approval of our product candidates, we will also require FDA approval of the individual components of our process, which include the manufacturing processes and familiarityfacilities of our suppliers. Our reliance on these suppliers subjects us to a number of risks that could harm our business, and financial condition, including, among other things: interruption of product candidate or commercial supply resulting from modifications to or discontinuation of a supplier’s operations; delays in product shipments resulting from uncorrected defects, reliability issues, or a supplier’s variation in a component; a lack of long-term supply arrangements for key components with our suppliers; inability to obtain adequate supply in a timely manner, or to obtain adequate supply on commercially reasonable terms; difficulty and cost associated with locating and qualifying alternative suppliers for our components and precursor cells in a timely manner; production delays related to the processes,evaluation and testing of products from alternative suppliers, and corresponding regulatory qualifications; delay in delivery due to our suppliers prioritizing other customer orders over ours; and fluctuation in delivery by our suppliers due to changes in demand from us or their other customers. If any of these risks materialize, our manufacturing costs could significantly increase and our ability to meet clinical and commercial demand for our products could be impacted.

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We rely on third parties for the manufacture of clinical supplies of certain of our product candidates and expect to rely on third parties for commercial supplies of any approved product candidates. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or drugs or such quantities at an acceptable cost, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.

We expect to rely on third-party manufacturers for the manufacture of commercial supplies of our drug candidates. At present, we do not have long-term supply agreements with all of the vendors needed to produce our product candidates for commercial sale and we may be unable to establish such agreements with third-party manufacturers or do so on acceptable terms.

The agreements that we do have in place with our third-party manufacturers obligate us to make significant non-refundable deposits to reserve manufacturing slots prior to the receipt of marketing approval for our product candidates.  Additionally, if our product candidates are approved, we will be required to make minimum purchases and will have limited ability to purchase product in excess of our forecasted needs. As a result, if product sales fall below our minimum purchase obligations, we will be obligated to purchase more product than we can successfully sell, and if product demand exceeds the amount that we can purchase from our manufacturers, we will have to forgo some product sales. Either of these events may materially harm our financial prospects. Finally, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:

reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;

the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;

the possible failure of the third party to manufacture our drug candidate according to our schedule, or at all, including if the third-party manufacturer gives greater priority to the supply of other drugs over our drug candidates, or otherwise does not satisfactorily perform according to the terms of the manufacturing agreement;

equipment malfunctions, power outages, natural or man-made calamities or other general disruptions experienced by our third-party manufacturers to their respective operations and other general problems with a multi-step manufacturing process;

the possible misappropriation or disclosure by the third party or others of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and

the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.

The agreements that we have in place with our third-party suppliers and manufacturers significantly limit the liability of such suppliers and manufacturers for failing to supply or manufacture, as applicable, our product candidates pursuant to the terms of our agreements, or as required by applicable regulation or law. As a result, if we suffer losses due to our suppliers or manufacturers failure to perform, we will have limited remedies available against such suppliers and manufacturers and are unlikely to be able to recover such losses from them.

Third-party manufacturers may not be able to adequately transfer. We currently rely uponcomply with cGMP regulations or similar regulatory requirements outside of the United States. Facilities used by our third-party manufacturers must be inspected by the FDA after we submit an BLA and expectbefore potential approval of the drug candidate. Similar regulations apply to continue to rely upon third parties, potentially including our collaborators or licensees, to produce materials required to support our product candidates, pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, and any future commercial efforts. A number of factors could cause production interruptions at either our manufacturing facility or the facilitiesmanufacturers of our CMOsdrug candidates for use or suppliers, including equipment malfunctions, labor or employment retention problems, natural disasters, power outages, terrorist activities, or disruptionssale in the operations of our suppliers. Alternatively, there is the possibility we may have excess manufacturing capacity if product candidates doforeign countries. We will not progress as planned.

As mentioned above, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails risks to which we would not be subject if we manufactured all of our product candidates ourselves, including reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance, the possibility of breach ofcontrol the manufacturing agreement by the third party because of factors beyond our control,process and the possibility of termination or non-renewal of the agreement by the third party, basedwill be completely dependent on its own business priorities, at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.

Biopharmaceutical manufacturing is also subject to extensive government regulation. Components of a finished therapeutic product approved for commercial sale or used in late-stage clinical trials must be manufactured in accordance with current good manufacturing practices. These regulations govern manufacturing processes and procedures (including record-keeping) and the implementation and operation of quality systems to control and assure the quality of investigational products and products approved for sale. Our facilities and quality systems and the facilities and quality systems of some or all of our third-party contractors must pass a pre-approval inspectionmanufacturers for compliance with the applicable regulations as a condition of regulatory approval of a product candidate. In addition, facilities are subject to on-going inspections and routine audits, and minor changes in manufacturing processes may require additional regulatory approvals and audits, either of which could cause us to incur significant additional costs, set-backs or delays and eventual loss of revenue.

Risks associated with doing business internationally could negatively affect our business.

We currently have research and development operations inrequirements for the United Kingdom, and we expect to pursue pathways to develop and commercialize our product candidates in both U.S. and ex-U.S. jurisdictions. Various risks associated with foreign operations may impact our success. Possible risks of foreign operations include fluctuations in the value of foreign and domestic currencies, requirements to comply with various jurisdictional requirements such as data privacy regulations, disruptions in the import, export, and transportation of patient tumors and our products or product candidates, the product and service needs of foreign customers, difficulties in building and managing foreign relationships, the performancemanufacture of our licensees or collaborators, geopolitical instability, unexpected regulatory, economic, or political changes in foreign and domestic markets, including without limitation any resulting from the United Kingdom’s planned or actual withdrawal from the European Union ordrug candidates. If our current political regime, and limitations on the flexibility of our operations and costs imposed by local labor laws.  

Our competitors may have superior products, manufacturing capability, selling and marketing expertise and/or financial and other resources.

Our product candidates and the product candidates in development by our collaboration partners may fail because of competition from major pharmaceutical companies and specialized biotechnology companiesmanufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that market products, or that are engaged

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in the development of product candidates and for the treatment cancer. Many of our competitors, including large pharmaceutical companies, have greater financial and human resources and more experience than we do. Our competitors may:

develop safer or more effective therapeutic drugs or therapeutic vaccines and other products;

establish superior intellectual property positions;

discover technologies that may result in medical insights or breakthroughs, which render our drugs or vaccines obsolete, possibly before they generate any revenue, if ever;

adversely affect our ability to recruit patients for our clinical trials;

solidify partnerships or strategic acquisitions that may increase the competitive landscape;

develop or commercialize their product candidates sooner than we commercialize our own, if ever; or

implement more effective approaches to sales and marketing and capture some of our potential market share.

There is no guarantee that our product candidates will be able to compete with potential future products being developed by our competitors.

The CPM landscape is crowded with several competitors developing assets against a number of targets. Our development plans are spread out across various indications and lines of therapy, either alone or in combination with other assets. Our competitors range from small cap to large cap companies, with assets in pre-clinical or clinical stages of development. Therefore, the landscape is dynamic and constantly evolving. We and our partners have CPM antibody programs, currently in clinical stage development targeting various pathways including PD-1, CTLA-4, GITR, OX40, TIM-3, LAG-3 and CD137. We are aware of many companies that have antibody-based products on the market or in clinical development that are directedconforms to the same biological targets as these programs, including, without limitation,strict regulatory requirements of the following: (1) BMS markets ipilimumab, an anti-CTLA-4 antibody,FDA and nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, and is developing additional antagonists to LAG-3 and TIM-3. BMS also has next generation anti-CTLA-4 antibodies in the clinic, which may be competitive to our next generation anti-CTLA-4 program, (2) Merck has an approved anti-PD-1 antibody, as well as anti-CTLA-4 and LAG-3 antagonists recruiting in clinical trials, (3) Regeneron has an approved anti-PD-1 antibody as well as antibodies targeting CTLA-4 and LAG-3 in clinical development, (4) AstraZeneca has an approved anti PD-L1 antibody, as well as an anti-CTLA-4 targeting antibody in the clinic, (5) Pfizer has an approved anti-PD-L1 (with Merck KgaA) as well as anti-PD-1, and anti-OX40 and anti-CD137 antibodies in clinical development, and (6) Roche/Genentech has an approved anti-PD-L1 antibody. Besides these PD-1 and PD-L1 antibodies that were approved in the U.S., we are also aware of competitors with approved PD-1 agents in ex-U.S. geographies such as China. These include Innovent Biologics, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences and Shanghai HengRui Pharmaceuticals. We are also aware of other competitors with PD-1/PD-L1 agents in clinical development, including but not limited to AbbVie, Arcus Biosciences, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Beigene, Macrogenics/Incyte, CytomX, Novartis, Symphogen, Jounce Therapeutics, Gilead Sciences, Janssen, Apollomics/Genor Biopharma, Fortress Biotech, CStone Pharmaceuticals, Suzhou Alphamab, Mabspace Biosciences, Akeso Biopharma, Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical, CSPC ZhongQi Pharmaceutical Technology, Yuhan Corp, Lee’s Pharmaceuticals and Sinocelltech. We are also aware of competitors with pre-clinical antibodies against PD-1 or PD-L1. In addition, we are aware of competitors with clinical stage antibodies against CTLA-4, GITR, OX40, LAG-3, TIM-3 and CD137 as well as our earlier stage programs such as TIGIT. As outlined above, some of these include, but are not limited to, BMS, Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Merck, GSK, Regeneron, CStone Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Innovent Biologics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Arcus Biosciences, Potenza, GlaxoSmithKline, AbbVie, Leap Therapeutics, Mereo Biopharma, OncoMed, Symphogen, Alligator Biosciences and Compass Therapeutics. Additionally, we are aware of competitors developing preclinical assets against these targets, including next generation agents. We are also aware of competitors with clinical or preclinical stage bispecifics targeting PD-1, CTLA-4, GITR, OX40, TIM-3, LAG-3 and CD137. There is no guarantee that our antibody product candidatesany applicable foreign regulatory authority, they will be able to successfully compete with our competitors’ antibody products and product candidates.

We are conducting both monotherapy and combination trials in second line cervical cancer. We are aware that Merck’s PD-1 antagonist, Keytruda, has been approved in advanced cervical cancer. We are also aware of industry sponsored clinical trials, including exploratory studies, that are underway in this setting. Clinical stage competitors include, but are not limited to, Regeneron (anti-PD-1), Ono Pharmaceuticals and BMS (anti-PD-1 alone or in combination with CTLA-4), Seattle Genetics and Genmab (antibody drug conjugate targeting Tissue Factor), Iovance Biotherapeutics (autologous TILs), Genor Biopharma and Lee Pharmaceuticals.

We have autologous vaccine programs in development including our Prophage vaccine in clinical development for GBM. We are aware of other therapeutic options in GBM that could compete with our vaccine, including but not limited to the following: Merck markets temozolomide for treatment of patients with ndGBM and refractory astrocytoma. Other companies are developing vaccines for the treatment of patients with ndGBM, including, but not limited to, Northwest Biotherapeutics (DC-Vax), Mimivax Inc.

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(SurVaxM) and Annias Immunotherapeutics (CMV Vaccine). Other companies may begin development programs as well. We are advancing our neoantigen vaccine, AutoSynVax, in solid tumors. There are companies advancing individualized or synthetic vaccine technologies and/or patient-specific medicine techniques that compete with our HSP based vaccines including, but not limited to: Neon Therapeutics, Gritstone Oncology, BioNTech, Moderna/Merck, Genocea Biosciences, ISA Pharmaceuticals, Nouscom, EpiVax Inc., and Vaccibody.

In addition, and prior to regulatory approval, if ever, our vaccines and our other product candidates may compete for access to patients with other products in clinical development, with products approved for use in the indications we are studying, or with off-label use of products in the indications we are studying. We anticipate that we will face increased competition in the future as new companies enter markets we seek to address and scientific developments surrounding immunotherapy and other traditional cancer therapies continue to accelerate.

We are aware of compounds that claim to be comparable to QS-21 Stimulon that are being used in clinical trials. Several other vaccine adjuvants are in development or in use and could compete with QS-21 Stimulon for inclusion in vaccines. These adjuvants may include but are not limited to: (1) oligonucleotides, under development by Pfizer, Idera, and Dynavax, (2) MF59, under development by Novartis, (3) IC31, under development by Intercell (now part of Valneva), and (4) MPL, under development by GSK. In the past, we have provided QS-21 Stimulon to other entities under materials transfer arrangements. In at least one instance, it is possible that this material was used without our permission to develop synthetic formulations and/or derivatives of QS-21. In addition, companies such as Adjuvance Technologies, Inc., CSL Limited, and Novavax, Inc., as well as academic institutions and manufacturers of saponin extracts, are developing saponin adjuvants, including derivatives and synthetic formulations. These sources may be competitive to our ability to execute future partnering and licensing arrangements involving QS-21 Stimulon. The existence of products developed by these and other competitors, or other products of which we are not aware, or which other companies may develop in the future, may adversely affect the marketability of products developed or sold using QS-21 Stimulon.

We are also aware of a third party that manufactures pre-clinical material purporting to be comparable to QS-21 Stimulon. The claims being made by this third party may create marketplace confusion and have an adverse effect on the goodwill generated by us and our partners with respect to QS-21 Stimulon. We are also aware of at least two additional manufacturers of QS-21. Any diminution of this goodwill may have an adverse effect on our ability to commercialize future products, if any, incorporating this technology, either alone or with a third party.

Failure to realize the anticipated benefits of our strategic acquisitions and licensing transactions could adversely affect our business, operations and financial condition.

An important part of our business strategy has been to identify and advance a pipeline of product candidates by acquiring and in-licensing product candidates, technologies and businesses that we believe are a strategic fit with our existing business. Since we acquired 4-AB in 2014, we have completed numerous additional strategic acquisitions and licensing transactions. The ultimate success of these strategic transactions entails numerous operational and financial risks, including:

higher than expected development and integration costs;

difficulty in combining the technologies, operations and personnel of acquired businesses with our technologies, operations and personnel;

exposure to unknown liabilities;

difficulty or inability to form a unified corporate culture across multiple office sites both nationally and internationally;

inability to retain key employees of acquired businesses;

disruption of our business and diversion of our management’s time and attention; and

difficulty or inability to secure financing to fund development activities for such acquired or in-licensed product candidates, technologies or businesses.

We have limited resources to integrate acquired and in-licensed product candidates, technologies and businesses into our current infrastructure, and we may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of our strategic transactions. Any such failure could have an adverse effect on our business, operations and financial condition.

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Failure to enter into and/or maintain significant licensing, distribution and/or collaboration agreements in a timely manner and on favorable terms to us may hinder or cause us to cease our efforts to develop and commercialize our product candidates, increase our development timelines, and/or increase our need to rely on partnering or financing mechanisms, such as sales of debt or equity securities, to fund our operations and continue our current and anticipated programs.

As previously noted, our ability to advance our antibody programs depends in part on collaboration agreements such as our collaborations with Gilead and Incyte. In addition, from time to time we engage in efforts to enter into licensing, distribution and/or collaboration agreements with one or more pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies to assist us with development and/or commercialization of our other product candidates. If we are successful in entering into such agreements, we may not be able to negotiate agreements with economic terms similar to those negotiated by other companies. Wesecure the applicable approval for their manufacturing facilities. If these facilities are not approved for commercial manufacture, we may not, for example, obtain significant upfront payments, substantial royalty rates or milestones. If we fail to enter into any such agreements in a timely manner or at all, our efforts to develop and/or commercialize our product candidates may be undermined. In addition, if we do not raise funds through any such agreements, we will need to rely on other financing mechanisms, such as sales of debt or equity securities, to fund our operations. Such financing mechanisms, if available, may not be sufficient or timely enough to advance our programs forward in a meaningful way in the short-term.

Because we rely on collaborators and licensees for the development and commercialization of certain of our product candidate programs, these programs may not prove successful, and/or we may not receive significant payments from such parties.

Part of our strategy is to develop and commercialize many of our product candidates by continuing or entering into arrangements with academic, government, or corporate collaborators and licensees. Our success depends on our ability to negotiate such agreements on favorable terms and on the success of the other parties in performing research, pre-clinical and clinical testing, completing regulatory applications, and commercializing product candidates. Our research, development, and commercialization efforts with respect to antibody candidates from our technology platforms are, in part, contingent upon the participation of institutional and corporate collaborators. For example, in February 2015, we began a broad collaboration with Incyte to pursue the discovery and development of antibodies, and in December 2018 we entered into a partnership with Gilead relating to five of our antibody programs. Furthermore, we have a collaboration arrangement with Recepta for CTLA-4 and PD-1, giving Recepta rights to certain South American countries and requiring us to agree upon development plans for these product candidates. Disagreements or the failure of either party to perform satisfactorily could have an adverse impact on these programs.

The Brain Tumor Trials Collaborative, through the NCI, is sponsoring a Phase 2 clinical trial of our Prophage vaccine candidate in combination with Merck’s pembrolizumab in patients with glioma. When our licensees or third-party collaborators sponsor clinical trials using our product candidates, we cannot control the timing of enrollment, data readout, or quality of such trials or related activities.  

Development activities for our collaboration programs may fail to produce marketable products due to unsuccessful results or abandonment of these programs, failure to enter into future collaborations or license agreements, or the inability to manufacture product supply requirements for our collaborators and licensees. Several of our agreements also require us to transfer important rights and regulatory compliance responsibilities to our collaborators and licensees. As a result of these collaboration agreements, we will not control the nature, timing, or cost of bringing these product candidates to market. Our collaborators and licensees could choose not to, or be unable to, devote resources to these arrangements or adhere to required timelines, or, under certain circumstances, may terminate these arrangements early. They may cease pursuing product candidates or elect to collaborate with different companies. In addition, these collaborators and licensees, outside of their arrangements with us, may develop technologies or products that are competitive with those that we are developing. From time to time, we may also become involved in disputes with our collaborators or licensees. Such disputes could result in the incurrence of significant expense, or the termination of collaborations. We may be unable to fulfill all of our obligations to our collaborators,find alternative manufacturing facilities, which may result in the termination of collaborations. As a result of these factors, our strategic collaborations may not yield revenue. Furthermore, we may not be able to enter into new collaborations on favorable terms or at all. Failure to generate significant revenue from collaborations could increase our need to fund our operations through sales of debt or equity securities and would negatively affect our business prospects.

Our internal computer systems, or those of our third-party CROs, CMOs, licensees, collaborators or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could result in a material disruption in our business and operations or could subject us to sanctions and penalties that could have a material adverse effect on our reputation or financial condition.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our current and future CROs, CMOs, licensees, collaborators and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Potential vulnerabilities can also be exploited from inadvertent or intentional actions of our employees, third-party vendors, business partners, or by malicious third parties. Attacks

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of this nature are increasing in their frequency, levels of persistence, sophistication and intensity, and are being conducted by sophisticated and organized groups and individuals with a wide range of motives (including, but not limited to, industrial espionage) and expertise, including organized criminal groups, “hacktivists,” nation states and others. In addition to the extraction of sensitive information, such attacks could include the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices increases the risk of data security incidents. While we are not aware of any such material system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed, on-going or future clinical trials could result in delays in obtaining approval for the applicable drug candidate as alternative qualified manufacturing facilities may not be available on a timely basis or at all. In addition, our manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and corresponding state and foreign agencies for compliance with cGMPs and similar regulatory approval effortsrequirements. Failure by any of our manufacturers to comply with applicable cGMPs or other regulatory requirements could result in sanctions being imposed on us or the contract manufacturer, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspensions or withdrawals of approvals, operating restrictions, interruptions in supply and significant costs to recover or reproduce the data. Likewise, we rely on third parties to manufacture certaincriminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our drug candidates and conduct clinical trials, and similar events relating to their computer systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liabilities and the further development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed. We do not maintain cyber liability insurance, and would therefore have no coverage for any losses resulting from any data security incident.

We use and store customer, vendor, employee and business partner and, in certain instances patient, personally identifiable information in the ordinary course of our business. We are subject to various domestic and international privacy and security regulations, including but not limited to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), which mandates, among other things, the adoption of uniform standards for the electronic exchange of information in common healthcare transactions, as well as standards relating to the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information, which require the adoption of administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect such information. In addition, many states have enacted comparable laws addressing the privacy and security of health information, some of which are more stringent than HIPAA. Failure to comply with these standards, or a computer security breach or cyber-attack that affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of proprietary or personally identifiable information, could subject us to criminal penalties and civil sanctions, and our reputation could be materially damaged, and our operations could be impaired. We may also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could have a material adverse effectimpact on our business, financial condition and results of operationsoperations. Any drugs that we may develop may compete with other drug candidates and financial condition.drugs for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us.

We are highly reliant on certain members47


Our anticipated future dependence upon others for the commercial manufacture of our management team. In addition, we have limited internal resourcesdrug candidates or drugs may adversely affect our future profit margins and if we fail to recruit and/or retain the services of key employees and external consultants as needed, we may not be able to achieve our strategic and operational objectives.

Both Garo H. Armen, Ph.D., the Chairman of our Board of Directors and our Chief Executive Officer who co-founded the Company in 1994, and Jennifer Buell, Ph.D., our Chief Operating Officer, are integral to building our company and developing our technology. If either Dr. Armen or Dr. Buell is unable or unwilling to continue his or her relationship with Agenus, our business may be adversely impacted. We have employment agreements with Dr. Armen and Dr. Buell. They both play an important role in our day-to-day activities, and we do not carry key employee insurance policies for Dr. Armen, Dr. Buell or any other employee.

Our future growth success depends to a significant extent on the skills, experience and efforts of our executive officers and key members of our clinical and scientific staff. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from other pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as academic and other research institutions. We may be unable to retain our current personnel or attract or assimilate other highly qualified management and clinical personnel in the future on acceptable terms. The loss of any or all of these individuals could harm our business and could impair our ability to support our collaboration partners or our growth generally. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate revenue could be reducedcommercialize any drugs that receive marketing approval on a timely and we may not be able to implement our business strategy.

We intend to advance our cell therapy business through our subsidiary, AgenTus Therapeutics, eventually with separate funding. Moving intellectual property assets into AgenTus Therapeutics in foreign jurisdictions could have adverse tax consequences, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to attract external funding. Moreover, even if the business is funded, there is no guarantee that it will be successful.

We are currently in the process of pursuing external funding and partnership opportunities to advance AgenTus Therapeutics, but Agenus is currently funding such operations. There is no guarantee that external funding will be available. If funding is available, there is no guarantee that it will be on attractive or acceptable terms, or that it will be adequate to advance the business to an inflection point for additional funding, including any potential initial public offering. Similarly, there is no guarantee that partnership opportunities will be available on attractive terms, if at all. If external funding is not available, we may be forced to either retire these programs or continue to use internal resources to advance them. In addition, our cell therapy assets are pre-clinical. Even if adequate

38competitive basis.

 


funding and partnership opportunities are available, there is no guarantee that we or AgenTus Therapeutics will be successful in advancing one or more product candidates into and through clinical development. In addition, most of the efforts being madeRisks Related to Our Reliance on behalf of AgenTus Therapeutics are being led by a separate AgenTus chief executive officer, utilizing several members of Agenus’ management team and Agenus’ internal G&A resources. The current structure could distract management and divert Agenus resources from Agenus’ own core pipeline and programs.

The cell therapy assets necessary to enable AgenTus Therapeutics are currently owned or controlled by Agenus in the United States and Switzerland. In connection with capitalizing AgenTus Therapeutics, these assets will be transferred or licensed to new legal entities within the United States and Europe and potentially others. Transferring these assets or licensing them on an exclusive basis would require that taxes be paid based on the fair market value of the assets. We may not have adequate net operating losses to offset any tax liabilities in the relevant jurisdictions. Moreover, we have previously disclosed our interest in potentially issuing a tax-free dividend to Agenus’ stockholders in the form of stock of AgenTus Therapeutics. There is no guarantee that any such dividend will be tax-free or that it will be issued at all, or the timing thereof. If we issue a dividend in the form of stock, there could be adverse tax consequences for certain of our stockholders.

Natural or man-made calamities could disrupt our business and materially adversely affect our operations.

Our operations, and those of our CROs, CMOs, and other contractors and consultants, could be subject to earthquakes, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, extreme weather conditions, medical epidemics and other natural or man-made disasters or business interruptions.  The occurrence of any of these business disruptions could prevent us from using all or a significant portion of our facilities, and, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue certain activities, such as for example our manufacturing capabilities, for a substantial period of time.  The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses and delays as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. We rely in part on third-party manufacturers to produce and process some of our product candidates. Our ability to obtain some of our clinical supplies of our product candidates could be disrupted if the operations of these suppliers are affected by a man-made or natural disaster or other business interruption.

We own an antibody pilot plant manufacturing facility and lease additional office space in Berkeley, CA. This location is in an area of seismic activity near active earthquake faults and active wildfire activity. In October 2019, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”), the utility supplier for our Berkeley, CA facility provided notice to all residents and businesses in Almeda County (where Berkeley, CA is located) that it would shut off power to the county for a multiday period due to the risk of wildfires.  The emergency backup generators located at our Berkeley, CA facility are not able to power the entire facility and only have enough fuel capacity to provide emergency power for a few hours.  We have plans in place to maintain the fuel supply of our generators in the event of an extended power interruption, but there is no guarantee that such plans will be adequate to maintain emergency power at our Berkeley, CA facility.  In addition, many of our employees reside in Alameda County and may be unable to leave home for the duration of any power shut off.  While PG&E did not shut off power to our facility in October 2019, PG&E may do so in the future on short notice.Third Parties

We are dependent upon our collaborationcollaborations with Gilead, Incyte and Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (“Betta Pharmaceuticals”) to further develop and commercialize certain of our antibody programs. If we or Gilead, Incyte or Betta Pharmaceuticals fail to perform as expected, the potential for us to generate future revenues under the collaborationsuch collaborations could be significantly reduced, the development and/or commercialization of these antibodies may be terminated or substantially delayed, and our business could be adversely affected.

In December 2018, we entered into a series of agreements with Gilead to collaborate on the development and commercialization of up to five novel I-O therapies. Pursuant to the collaboration agreements, Gilead received (i) worldwide exclusive rights to AGEN1423 (now GS-1423), a bispecific antibody, (ii) the exclusive option to license exclusively AGEN1223, a bispecific antibody, and AGEN2373, a monospecific antibody, and (iii) the right of first negotiation for two additional, undisclosed programs. Gilead has the exclusive right to develop and commercialize GS-1423, and we are eligible to receive potential development and commercial milestones of up to $552.5 million in the aggregate, as well as tiered royalty payments on aggregate net sales ranging from the high single digit to mid-teen percent, subject to certain reductions under certain circumstances. Accordingly, the timely and successful completion by Gilead of clinical development and commercialization activities will significantly affect the timing and amount of any milestones or royalties we may receive for this program. Gilead’s activities will be influenced by, among other things, the efforts and allocation of resources by Gilead, which we cannot control. With respect to the option programs, we are responsible for developing each program up to the option decision point, at which time Gilead may acquire exclusive rights to each program on option exercise. During the option period, we are eligible to receive milestones of up to $30.0 million in the aggregate. If Gilead exercises an option, it would be required to pay an upfront license exercise fee of $50.0 million for each option that is exercised. Following any option exercise, we would be eligible to receive additional development and commercial milestones of up to $520.0 million in the aggregate

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for each such option program, as well as tiered royalty payments on aggregate net sales ranging from the high single digit to mid-teen percent, subject to certain reductions under certain circumstances. For either, but not both, of the option programs, we will have the right to opt-in to share Gilead’s development and commercialization costs in the United State for such option program in exchange for a profit (loss) share on a 50:50 basis and revised milestone payments. There is no guarantee that we will receive any fees, milestones or royalties from Gilead. Similarly, there is no guarantee that we will be able to successfully advance the option programs to the option decision point, and, even if we do, there is no guarantee that Gilead will exercise its option for either program. If Gilead does not exercise its option for either of the option programs, there is no guarantee that we will be able to advance any such program ourselves or with another partner. If we wanted to partner either of the programs that are subject to a right of first negotiation with a third party other than Gilead, such discussions could be delayed and ultimately terminated as a result of Gilead’s right of first negotiation. Accordingly, we may not be able to partner either of these programs with a third party other than Gilead on attractive terms, if at all.

In addition, our collaboration with Gilead may be unsuccessful due to other factors, including, without limitation, the following:

Gilead may terminate any of the agreements for convenience upon 90 days’ notice;

Gilead may terminate any of the agreements for convenience upon 90 days’ notice;

Gilead has control over the development of GS-1423, and it will have control over the option programs if and when it exercises its options;

Gilead has control over the development of GS-1423, and it will have control over the option programs if and when it exercises its options;

Gilead may change the focus of its development and commercialization efforts or prioritize other programs more highly and, accordingly, reduce the efforts and resources allocated to GS-1423 or the option programs (if exercised); and

Gilead may change the focus of its development and commercialization efforts or prioritize other programs more highly and, accordingly, reduce the efforts and resources allocated to GS-1423 or the option programs (if exercised); and

Gilead may choose not to develop and commercialize GS-1423 or the option programs (if exercised) in all relevant markets or for one or more indications, if at all.

Gilead may choose not to develop and commercialize GS-1423 or the option programs (if exercised) in all relevant markets or for one or more indications, if at all.

We are dependent upon our collaboration with Incyte to further develop, manufacture and commercialize antibodies against certain targets. If we or Incyte fail to perform as expected, the potential for us to generate future revenues under the collaboration could be significantly reduced, the development and/or commercialization of these antibodies may be terminated or substantially delayed, and our business could be adversely affected.

In February 2017, we amended the terms of our collaboration agreement with Incyte to, among other things, convert the GITR and OX40 programs from profit-share programs, where we and Incyte shared all costs and profits on a 50:50 basis, to royalty-bearing programs, where Incyte funds 100% of the costs and we are eligible for potential milestones and royalties. In addition, the profit-share programs relating to TIGIT and one undisclosed target were removed from the collaboration, with TIGIT reverting to Agenus and the undisclosed target reverting to Incyte, each with a potential 15% royalty to the other party on any global net sales. The remaining three royalty-bearing programs in the collaboration targeting TIM-3, LAG-3 and one undisclosed target remain unchanged, and there are no more profit-share programs under the collaboration. For each program in the collaboration, we serve as the lead for pre-clinical

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development activities through the filing of an IND, and Incyte has exclusive rights and all decision-making authority for manufacturing, clinical development and commercialization. Accordingly, the timely and successful completion by Incyte of clinical development and commercialization activities will significantly affect the timing and amount of any royalties or milestones we may receive under the collaboration agreement. In addition, in March 2017 we transferred manufacturing responsibilities to Incyte for antibodies under that collaboration. Any delays or weaknesses in the ability of Incyte to successfully manufacture could have an adverse impact on those programs. Incyte’s activities will be influenced by, among other things, the efforts and allocation of resources by Incyte, which we cannot control. If Incyte does not perform in the manner we expect or fulfill its responsibilities in a timely manner, or at all, the clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory approval, and commercialization efforts related to antibodies under the collaboration could be delayed or terminated. There can be no assurance that any of the development, regulatory or sales milestones will be achieved, or that we will receive any future milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration agreement. In September 2018, we sold to XOMA a portion of the royalties and milestones we are entitled to receive from Incyte.

In addition, our collaboration with Incyte may be unsuccessful due to other factors, including, without limitation, the following:

Incyte may terminate the agreement or any individual program for convenience upon 12 months’ notice;

Incyte may terminate the agreement or any individual program for convenience upon 12 months’ notice;

Incyte has control over the development of assets in the collaboration;

Incyte may change the focus of its development and commercialization efforts or prioritize other programs more highly and, accordingly, reduce the efforts and resources allocated to our collaboration;

Incyte may choose not to develop and commercialize antibody products, if any, in all relevant markets or for one or more indications, if at all; and

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Incyte has control over the development of assets in the collaboration;

Incyte may change the focus of its development and commercialization efforts or prioritize other programs more highly and, accordingly, reduce the efforts and resources allocated to our collaboration;

Incyte may choose not to develop and commercialize antibody products, if any, in all relevant markets or for one or more indications, if at all; and

If Incyte is acquired during the term of our collaboration, the acquirer may have competing programs or different strategic priorities that could cause it to reduce its commitment to our collaboration.

If Incyte terminates our collaboration agreement, we may need to raise additional capital and may need to identify and come to agreement with another collaboration partner to advance certain of our antibody programs. Even if we are able to find another partner, this effort could cause delays in our timelines and/or additional expenses, which could adversely affect our business prospects and the future of our antibody product candidates under the collaboration.

In June 2020, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Betta Pharmaceuticals to collaborate on the development and commercialization of balstilimab and zalifrelimab in greater China. Pursuant to the license and collaboration agreement, Betta Pharmaceuticals received an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialize zalifrelimab and balstilimab in all fields (other than intravesical delivery) in greater China. Under the agreement, Betta Pharmaceuticals is responsible for all of the development, regulatory approval, manufacturing and commercialization costs in greater China. As part of the collaboration, Betta Pharma made an upfront cash payment of $15.0 million and agreed to make up to $100.0 million in aggregate milestone payments plus tiered royalties on net sales of zalifrelimab and balstilimab. Royalties range from mid-single digit to low-twenties percent, subject to certain reductions under certain circumstances. Accordingly, the timely and successful completion by Betta Pharmaceuticals of development, regulatory approval, manufacturing and commercialization activities will significantly affect the timing and amount of any milestones or royalties we may receive from Betta Pharmaceuticals. Betta Pharmaceuticals’ activities will be influenced by, among other things, the efforts and allocation of resources by Betta Pharmaceuticals, which we cannot control.

In addition, our collaboration with Betta Pharmaceuticals may be unsuccessful due to other factors, including, without limitation, that Betta Pharmaceuticals:

may terminate any of the license and collaboration agreement for convenience upon 90 days’ notice;

has control over the development, regulatory approval, manufacturing and commercialization of balstilimab and zalifrelimab in greater China;

may change the focus of its business efforts or prioritize other programs more highly and, accordingly, reduce the efforts and resources allocated to balstilimab and zalifrelimab; and

may choose not to develop and commercialize balstilimab and zalifrelimab in all markets within greater China or for one or more indications, if at all.

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Additionally, the US-China relationship has deteriorated in recent years and, further deterioration may impact the ability of Agenus and Betta Pharmaceuticals to successfully collaborate.

Failure to enter into and/or maintain additional significant licensing, distribution and/or collaboration agreements in a timely manner and on favorable terms to us may hinder or cause us to cease our efforts to develop and commercialize our product candidates, increase our development timelines, and/or increase our need to rely on partnering or financing mechanisms, such as sales of debt or equity securities, to fund our operations and continue our current and anticipated programs. Even if we enter into and maintain such agreements, they may not prove successful, and/or we may not receive significant payments from agreements.

Part of our strategy is to develop and commercialize many of our product candidates by continuing or entering into arrangements with academic, government, or corporate collaborators and licensees. Our success depends on our ability to negotiate such agreements on favorable terms and on the success of the other parties in performing research, pre-clinical and clinical testing, completing regulatory applications, and commercializing product candidates. Our research, development, and commercialization efforts with respect to antibody candidates from our technology platforms are, in part, contingent upon the participation of institutional and corporate collaborators. For example, in February 2015, we began a broad collaboration with Incyte to pursue the discovery and development of antibodies, and in December 2018 we entered into a partnership with Gilead relating to five of our antibody programs. Furthermore, we have a collaboration arrangement with Recepta for balstilimab and zalifrelimab, giving Recepta rights to certain South American countries and requiring us to agree upon development plans for these product candidates. Disagreements or the failure of either party to perform satisfactorily could have an adverse impact on these programs.

The Brain Tumor Trials Collaborative, through the NCI, is sponsoring a Phase 2 clinical trial of our Prophage vaccine candidate in combination with Merck’s pembrolizumab in patients with glioma. When our licensees or third-party collaborators sponsor clinical trials using our product candidates, we cannot control the timing of enrollment, data readout, or quality of such trials or related activities.  

Our ability to advance our antibody programs depends in part on such collaborations. In addition, from time to time we engage in efforts to enter into licensing, distribution and/or collaboration agreements with one or more pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies to assist us with development and/or commercialization of our other product candidates. Any licensing, distribution and/or collaborations agreements, we enter into, including those with Gilead and Incyte, may pose a number of risks, including the following:

collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply;

collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected;

collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of any product candidates that achieve regulatory approval or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs or license arrangements based on clinical trial results, changes in the collaborators’ strategic focus or available funding, or external factors, such as a strategic transaction that may divert resources or create 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 products and product candidates if the collaborators believe that the competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours;

product candidates discovered in collaboration with us may be viewed by our collaborators as competitive with their own product candidates or products, which may cause collaborators to cease to devote resources to the commercialization of our product candidates;

collaborators may fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements regarding the development, manufacture, distribution or marketing of a product candidate or product;

collaborators with marketing and distribution rights to one or more of our product candidates that achieve regulatory approval may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product or products;

disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over proprietary rights, contract interpretation or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or terminations of the research, development or commercialization of product candidates, might lead to additional responsibilities for us with respect to product candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration, any of which would be time-consuming and expensive;

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 potential litigation;

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

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if a collaborator of ours is involved in a business combination, the collaborator might deemphasize or terminate the development or commercialization of any product candidate licensed to it by us; and

collaborations may be terminated by the collaborator, and, if terminated, we could be required to raise additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable product candidates.

If our current or future collaborations do not result in the successful discovery, development and commercialization of products or if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research funding or milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these agreements, our development of our technology and product candidates could be delayed and we may need additional resources to develop product candidates and our technology. All of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval and commercialization described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K also apply to the activities of our therapeutic collaborators.

Additionally, if one of our collaborators, such as Gilead, Incyte or Recepta, terminates its agreement with us, we may find it more difficult to attract new collaborators and our perception in the business and financial communities could be adversely affected.

Collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors.

If we are unable to reach agreements with suitable collaborators on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, we may have to curtail the development of a product candidate, reduce or delay its development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay its potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we elect to increase our expenditures to fund development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional expertise and additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we fail to enter into collaborations or do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates, bring them to market and generate revenue from sales of drugs or continue to develop our technology, and our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines or comply with regulatory requirements, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval of or commercialize any potential product candidates.

We depend upon third parties, including independent investigators, to conduct our clinical trials under agreements with universities, medical institutions, CROs, strategic partners and others. Such reliance obligates us to negotiate budgets and contracts with CROs and trial sites, which may result in delays to our development timelines and increased costs.

We rely heavily on third parties over the course of our clinical trials, and, as a result, have limited control over the clinical investigators and limited visibility into their day-to-day activities, including with respect to their compliance with the approved clinical protocol. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements and scientific standards, and our reliance on third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. We and these third parties are required to comply with GCP requirements, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities for product candidates in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce these GCP requirements through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, clinical investigators and trial sites. If we or any of these third parties fail to comply with applicable GCP requirements, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to suspend or terminate these trials or perform additional nonclinical studies or clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot be certain that, upon inspection, such regulatory authorities will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with the GCP requirements. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with biologic product produced under cGMP requirements and may require a large number of patients.

Our failure or any failure by these third parties to comply with these regulations or to recruit a sufficient number of patients may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. Moreover, our business may be implicated if any of these third parties violates federal or state fraud and abuse or false claims laws and regulations or healthcare privacy and security laws.

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The persons engaged by third parties conducting our clinical trials are not our employees and, except for remedies that may be available to us under our agreements with such third parties, we cannot control whether or not such persons devote sufficient time and resources to our ongoing pre-clinical and clinical programs. These third parties may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other product development activities, which could affect their performance on our behalf. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to complete development of, obtain regulatory approval of or successfully commercialize our product candidates. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed.

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. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter similar challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

Risks Related to Government Regulations

The regulatory approval process for our product candidates in the United States, European Union and other jurisdictions is currently uncertain and will be lengthy, time-consuming and inherently unpredictable and we may experience significant delays in the clinical development and regulatory approval, if any, of our product candidates.

The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, selling, import, export, marketing and distribution of drug products, including biologics, are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA in the United States and regulatory authorities in states and other countries. We are not permitted to market any biological product in the United States for commercial use until we receive a biologics license from the FDA. We have not previously submitted a BLA to the FDA, or similar marketing application to comparable foreign authorities, except for our application related to Prophage. A BLA must include extensive nonclinical and clinical data and supporting information to establish that the product candidate is safe, pure and potent for each desired indication. The BLA must also include significant information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing and controls for the product, and the manufacturing facilities must complete a successful pre-license inspection. We expect the novel nature of our product candidates to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory approval. Accordingly, the regulatory approval pathway for our product candidates may be uncertain, complex, expensive and lengthy, and we may never obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

The FDA may also require a panel of experts, referred to as an Advisory Committee, to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data to support approval. The opinion of the Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our ability to obtain approval of any product candidates that we develop based on the completed clinical trials.

The FDA may disagree with our regulatory plan and we may fail to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates.

Although the regulatory framework for approving immunotherapy products is evolving, the general approach for FDA approval of a new biologic or drug has historically been to provide dispositive data from two well-controlled, Phase 3 clinical trials of the relevant biologic or drug in the relevant patient population. Phase 3 clinical trials typically involve hundreds of patients, have significant costs and take years to complete. We intend to utilize an accelerated approval approach for our product candidates given the limited alternatives for cancer treatments, but the FDA may not agree with our plans.

In addition, our clinical trial results may also not support approval of our product candidates. Our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;

we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that our product candidates are safe and effective for any of their proposed indications;

the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;

we may be unable to demonstrate that our product candidates’ clinical and other benefits outweigh their safety risks;

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the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from nonclinical studies or clinical trials;

the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates may be deemed by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to be insufficient to support the submission of a BLA or other comparable submission in foreign jurisdictions or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;

the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve or find deficiencies with the manufacturing processes and controls or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies or any facilities that we may own in the future; and

the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner that could render our clinical data insufficient for approval.

The FDA, the EMA and other regulatory authorities may implement additional regulations or restrictions on the development and commercialization of our product candidates, which may be difficult to predict.

The FDA, the EMA and regulatory authorities in other countries have each expressed interest in further regulating biotechnology products, such as antibodies, vaccines, adjuvants and adoptive cell therapies. Agencies at both the federal and state level in the United States, as well as the U.S. Congressional committees and other governments or governing agencies, have also expressed interest in further regulating the biotechnology industry. Such action may delay or prevent commercialization of some or all of our product candidates. Adverse developments in clinical trials of antibodies, vaccines, adjuvants or adoptive cell therapies products conducted by others may cause the FDA or other oversight bodies to change the requirements for approval of any of our product candidates. Similarly, the EMA governs the development of antibodies, vaccines, adjuvants and adoptive cell therapies in the European Union and may issue new guidelines concerning the development and marketing authorization for such products and require that we comply with these new guidelines. These regulatory review agencies and committees and the new requirements or guidelines they promulgate may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies or trials, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of our product candidates or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. As we advance our product candidates, we will be required to consult with these regulatory agencies and comply with applicable requirements and guidelines. If we fail to do so, we may be required to delay or discontinue development of such product candidates. These additional processes may result in a review and approval process that is longer than we otherwise would have expected. Delays as a result of an increased or lengthier regulatory approval process or further restrictions on the development of our product candidates can be costly and could negatively impact our ability to complete clinical trials and commercialize our current and future product candidates in a timely manner, if at all.

Breakthrough Therapy Designation, Fast Track Designation or Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy Designation by the FDA, even if granted for any of our product candidates, may not lead to a faster development, regulatory review or approval process, and it does not increase the likelihood that any of our product candidates will receive marketing approval in the United States.

We may seek a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for some of our product candidates. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a therapy that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other therapies, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the therapy may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For therapies that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor of the trial can help to identify the most efficient path for clinical development while minimizing the number of patients placed in ineffective control regimens. Therapies designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA may also be eligible for priority review and accelerated approval. Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to therapies considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that such product candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

We have received Fast Track Designation for investigation of balstilimab in combination with zalifrelimab for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory metastatic cervical cancer and balstilimab alone for the treatment of cervical cancer, and we intend to apply for such designation for our other product candidates in the future. If a therapy is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the therapy demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this condition, the therapy sponsor may apply for Fast Track Designation. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant this designation, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for this designation; we cannot assure our stockholers that the FDA would

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decide to grant it. We may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures for the product candidate for which we have received, or may receive in the future, Fast Track Designation. The FDA may withdraw Fast Track Designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. Fast Track Designation alone does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s priority review procedures.

We may seek Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (“RMAT”) designation for some of our product candidates including our allogeneic cell therapies. In 2017, the FDA established the RMAT designation as part of its implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act to expedite review of any drug that meets the following criteria: it qualifies as a RMAT, which is defined as a cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering product, human cell and tissue product, or any combination product using such therapies or products, with limited exceptions; it is intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition; and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug has the potential to address unmet medical needs for such a disease or condition. Like Breakthrough Therapy Designation, RMAT designation provides potential benefits that include more frequent meetings with FDA to discuss the development plan for the product candidate, and eligibility for rolling review and priority review. Products granted RMAT designation may also be eligible for accelerated approval on the basis of a surrogate or intermediate endpoint reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit, or reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites, including through expansion to additional sites. RMAT-designated products that receive accelerated approval may, as appropriate, fulfill their post-approval requirements through the submission of clinical evidence, clinical trials, patient registries, or other sources of real world evidence, such as electronic health records; through the collection of larger confirmatory data sets; or via post-approval monitoring of all patients treated with such therapy prior to approval of the therapy. There is no assurance that we will be able to obtain RMAT designation for any of our product candidates. RMAT designation does not change the FDA’s standards for product approval, and there is no assurance that such designation will result in expedited review or approval or that the approved indication will not be narrower than the indication covered by the designation. Additionally, RMAT designation can be revoked if the criteria for eligibility cease to be met as clinical data emerges.

We may seek priority review designation for one or more of our other product candidates, but we might not receive such designation, and even if we do, such designation may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process.

If the FDA determines that a product candidate offers a treatment for a serious condition and, if approved, the product would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness, the FDA may designate the product candidate for priority review. A priority review designation means that the goal for the FDA to review an application is six months, rather than the standard review period of ten months. We may request priority review for our product candidates. The FDA has broad discretion with respect to whether or not to grant priority review status to a product candidate, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for such designation or status, the FDA may decide not to grant it. Moreover, a priority review designation does not necessarily result in expedited development or regulatory review or approval process or necessarily confer any advantage with respect to approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. Receiving priority review from the FDA does not guarantee approval within the six-month review cycle or at all.

We may not be able to obtain or maintain orphan drug designations from the FDA for our current and future product candidates, as applicable.

Our strategy includes filing for orphan drug designation where available for our product candidates, but thus far, our applications for orphan drug designation with respect to balstilimab and zalifrelimab have been rejected.

Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is defined as one occurring in a patient population of fewer than 200,000 in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug or biologic will be recovered from sales in the United States. In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives, such as opportunities for grant funding toward clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers. In addition, if a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications, including a full new drug application, or NDA, or BLA, to market the same drug or biologic for the same indication for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity or where the original manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient product quantity.

In addition, exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be limited if we seek approval for an indication broader than the orphan-designated indication or may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if we are unable to assure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the orphan- designated disease or condition. Further, even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product

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from competition because different drugs with different active moieties may receive and be approved for the same condition, and only the first applicant to receive approval will receive the benefits of marketing exclusivity. Even after an orphan-designated product is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve a later drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior if it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug, nor gives the drug any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process. In addition, while we may again seek orphan drug designation for our product candidates, we may never receive such designations.

Our relationships with healthcare providers and physicians and third-party payors will be subject to applicable anti- kickback, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings.

Healthcare providers, physicians and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of pharmaceutical products. Arrangements with third-party payors and customers can expose pharmaceutical manufactures to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the federal False Claims Act (the “FCA”), which may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which such companies sell, market and distribute pharmaceutical products. In particular, the promotion, sales and marketing of healthcare items and services, as well as certain business arrangements in the healthcare industry, are subject to extensive laws designed to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self- dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, structuring and commission(s), certain customer incentive programs and other business arrangements generally. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of patient recruitment for clinical trials. The applicable federal, state and foreign healthcare laws and regulations laws that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to:

the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe or rebate), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, 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 the Medicare and Medicaid programs. A person or entity can be found guilty of violating the statute without actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA. The Anti-Kickback Statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers, and formulary managers on the other. There are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting some common activities from prosecution;

federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws, including the FCA, which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, false or fraudulent claims for payment to, or approval by, Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal healthcare programs, knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim or an obligation to pay or transmit money to the federal government, or knowingly concealing or knowingly and improperly avoiding, decreasing or concealing an obligation to pay money to the federal government. Manufacturers can be held liable under the FCA even when they do not submit claims directly to government payors if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims. The FCA also permits a private individual acting as a “whistleblower” to bring actions on behalf of the federal government alleging violations of the FCA and to share in any monetary recovery;

the federal anti-inducement law, prohibits, among other things, the offering or giving of remuneration, which includes, without limitation, any transfer of items or services for free or for less than fair market value (with limited exceptions), to a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary that the person knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary’s selection of a particular supplier of items or services reimbursable by a federal or state governmental program;

the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), which created new federal criminal statutes that prohibit knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or 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

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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. Similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity can be found guilty of violating HIPAA without actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it;

HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (“HITECH”), and their respective implementing regulations, which impose, among other things, requirements on certain covered healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses as well as their respective business associates that perform services for them that involve the use or disclosure of, individually identifiable health information, relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information without appropriate authorization. HITECH also created new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions;

the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act, created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and its implementing regulations, which require manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals 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 the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), information related to payments or other “transfers of value” made to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors) and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members;

the U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which prohibits, among other things, the adulteration or misbranding of drugs, biologics and medical devices;

federal consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate marketplace activities and activities that potentially harm consumers; and

analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers, and may be broader in scope than their federal equivalents; state and foreign laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers; state and foreign laws that require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures; and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

The distribution of pharmaceutical products is subject to additional requirements and regulations, including extensive record-keeping, licensing, storage and security requirements intended to prevent the unauthorized sale of pharmaceutical products.

The scope and enforcement of each of these laws is uncertain and subject to rapid change in the current environment of healthcare reform, especially in light of the lack of applicable precedent and regulations. Federal and state enforcement bodies have recently increased their scrutiny of interactions between healthcare companies and healthcare providers, which has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry. Ensuring business arrangements comply with applicable healthcare laws, as well as responding to possible investigations by government authorities, can be time- and resource-consuming and can divert a company’s financial resources and management’s attention away from the business.

On January 31, 2019, the HHS and HHS Office of Inspector General proposed an amendment to one of the existing Anti- Kickback safe harbors (42 C.F.R. 1001.952(h)) which would prohibit certain pharmaceutical manufacturers from offering rebates to pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”), in the Medicare Part D and Medicaid managed care programs. The proposed amendment would remove protection for “discounts” from Anti-Kickback enforcement action and would include criminal and civil penalties for knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting, or receiving remuneration to induce or reward the referral of business reimbursable under federal health care programs. At the same time, HHS also proposed to create a new safe harbor to protect point-of-sale discounts that drug manufacturers provide directly to patients, and adds another safe harbor to protect certain administrative fees

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paid by manufacturers to PBMs. If this proposal is adopted, in whole or in part, it could affect the pricing and reimbursement for any products for which we receive approval in the future.

The failure to comply with any of these laws or regulatory requirements subjects entities to possible legal or regulatory action. Depending on the circumstances, failure to meet applicable regulatory requirements can result in civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, individual imprisonment, possible exclusion from participation in federal and state funded healthcare programs, contractual damages and the curtailment or restricting of our operations, as well as additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws. Any action for violation of these laws, even if successfully defended, could cause a pharmaceutical manufacturer to incur significant legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of the business. Prohibitions or restrictions on sales or withdrawal of future marketed products could materially affect business in an adverse way.

We have adopted a code of business conduct and ethics, but it is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent inappropriate conduct may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements will comply with applicable healthcare laws may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental and enforcement authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law interpreting applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, disgorgement, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. In addition, the approval and commercialization of any of our product candidates outside the United States will also likely subject us to foreign equivalents of the healthcare laws mentioned above, among other foreign laws.

Even if we receive regulatory approval of any product candidates or therapies, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our product candidates.

If any of our product candidates are approved, they will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping, export, import, conduct of post-marketing studies and submission of safety, efficacy and other post-market information, including both federal and state requirements in the United States and requirements of comparable foreign regulatory authorities. In addition, we will be subject to continued compliance with cGMP and GCP requirements for any clinical trials that we conduct post- approval.

Manufacturers and manufacturers’ facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA, and comparable foreign regulatory authority requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP regulations. As such, we and our contract manufacturers will be subject to continual review and inspections to assess compliance with cGMP and adherence to commitments made in any BLA, other marketing application, and previous responses to inspection observations. Accordingly, we and others with whom we work must continue to expend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production and quality control.

Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our product candidates may be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate. The FDA may also require a risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, or REMS, program as a condition of approval of our product candidates, which could entail requirements for long-term patient follow-up, a medication guide, physician communication plans or additional elements to ensure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. In addition, if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves our product candidates, we will have to comply with requirements including submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports and registration.

The FDA may impose consent decrees or withdraw approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with our product candidates, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:


restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of our products, withdrawal of the product from the market or voluntary or mandatory product recalls;

fines, warning letters or holds on clinical trials;

refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or suspension or revocation of license approvals;

product seizure or detention or refusal to permit the import or export of our product candidates; and

injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising, and promotion of products that are placed on the market. Products may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant liability. The policies of the FDA and of other regulatory authorities may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained which would adversely affect our business, prospects and ability to achieve or sustain profitability.

We also cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, either in the United States or abroad. For example, certain policies of the current administration may impact our business and industry. Namely, the current administration has taken several executive actions, including the issuance of a number of executive orders, that could impose significant burdens on, or otherwise materially delay, the FDA’s ability to engage in routine regulatory and oversight activities, such as implementing statutes through rulemaking, issuance of guidance and review and approval of marketing applications. It is difficult to predict how these executive actions, including any executive orders, will be implemented, and the extent to which they will impact the FDA’s ability to exercise its regulatory authority. If these executive actions impose constraints on FDA’s ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business may be negatively impacted.

Healthcare insurance coverage and reimbursement may be limited or unavailable in certain market segments for our product candidates, if approved, which could make it difficult for us to sell any product candidates or therapies profitably.

The success of our product candidates, if approved, depends on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors. In addition, because our product candidates represent new approaches to the treatment of the diseases they target, we cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement will be available for, or accurately estimate the potential revenue from, our product candidates or assure that coverage and reimbursement will be available for any product that we may develop.

Patients who are provided medical treatment for their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their treatment. Adequate coverage and reimbursement from governmental healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and commercial payors are critical to new product acceptance.

Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which drugs and treatments they will cover and the amount of reimbursement. Coverage and reimbursement by a third-party payor may depend upon a number of factors, including the third-party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

a covered benefit under its health plan;

safe, effective and medically necessary;

appropriate for the specific patient;

cost-effective; and

neither experimental nor investigational.

In the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors. As a result, obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval of a product from a government or other third-party payor is a time- consuming and costly process that could require us to provide to each payor supporting scientific, clinical and cost- effectiveness data for the use of our products on a payor-by-payor basis, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained. Even if we obtain coverage for a given product, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate for us to achieve or sustain profitability or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Further, even if one payor provides coverage for a given product, other payors may not provide coverage for that product. Additionally, third-party payors may not cover, or provide adequate reimbursement for, long-term follow-up evaluations required following the use of product candidates. Patients are unlikely to

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use our product candidates unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of our product candidates. Because our product candidates may have a higher cost of goods than conventional therapies, and may require long-term follow-up evaluations, the risk that coverage and reimbursement rates may be inadequate for us to achieve profitability may be greater. There is significant uncertainty related to insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. It is difficult to predict at this time what third-party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates.

Payment methodologies may be subject to changes in healthcare legislation and regulatory initiatives. For example, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 required that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for administering the Medicare program (“CMS”) reduce the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule by 2% in 2013, which served as a base for 2014 and subsequent years. In addition, effective January 1, 2014, CMS also began bundling the Medicare payments for certain laboratory tests ordered while a patient received services in a hospital outpatient setting. Additional state and federal healthcare reform measures are expected to be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for certain pharmaceutical products or additional pricing pressures.

Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors in the United States and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for newly approved products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. There has been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to specialty drug pricing practices. Specifically, there have been several recent U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. For example, in October 2017, California became the first state to pass legislation requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to announce planned drug price increases. While this legislation does not directly affect drug prices, it puts further pressure on pharmaceutical manufacturers in setting prices. At least one state, Oregon, has recently passed a similar law, requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to disclose cost components, and other states are likely to follow. Additionally, the Trump administration recently released a “Blueprint”, or plan, to reduce the cost of drugs. The Trump administrations’ Blueprint contains certain measures that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is already working to implement. At the state level, legislatures are increasingly passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, cost containment initiatives and additional legislative changes.

Ongoing healthcare legislative and regulatory reform measures may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Changes in regulations, statutes or the interpretation of existing regulations could impact our business in the future by requiring, for example: (i) changes to our manufacturing arrangements; (ii) additions or modifications to product labeling; (iii) the recall or discontinuation of our products; or (iv) additional record-keeping requirements. If any such changes were to be imposed, they could adversely affect the operation of our business.

In the United States, there have been and continue to be a number of legislative initiatives to contain healthcare costs. For example, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), was passed, which substantially changes the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impacts the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. The ACA, among other things, subjects biological products to potential competition by lower-cost biosimilars, addresses a new methodology by which rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program are calculated for drugs that are inhaled, infused, instilled, implanted or injected, increases the minimum Medicaid rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and extends the rebate program to individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations, establishes annual fees and taxes on manufacturers of certain branded prescription drugs, and creates a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturer’s outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D.

Since January 2017, President Trump has signed two Executive Orders designed to delay the implementation of certain provisions of the ACA or otherwise circumvent some of the requirements for health insurance mandated by the ACA. One Executive Order directs federal agencies with authorities and responsibilities under the ACA to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision of the ACA that would impose a fiscal or regulatory burden on states, individuals, healthcare

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providers, health insurers, or manufacturers of pharmaceuticals or medical devices. The second Executive Order terminates the cost-sharing subsidies that reimburse insurers under the ACA. On June 14, 2018, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the federal government was not required to pay more than $12 billion in ACA risk corridor payments to third-party payors who argued were owed to them. The effects of this gap in reimbursement on third-party payors, the viability of the ACA marketplace, providers, and potentially our business, are not yet known.

Moreover, on May 30, 2018, the Right to Try Act, was signed into law. The law, among other things, provides a federal framework for certain patients to access certain investigational new drug products that have completed a Phase I clinical trial and that are undergoing investigation for FDA approval. Under certain circumstances, eligible patients can seek treatment without enrolling in clinical trials and without obtaining FDA permission under the FDA expanded access program. There is no obligation for a drug manufacturer to make its drug products available to eligible patients as a result of the Right to Try Act, but the manufacturer must develop an internal policy and respond to patient requests according to that policy. We expect that additional foreign, federal and state healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in limited coverage and reimbursement and reduced demand for our products, once approved, or additional pricing pressures.

These laws, and future state and federal healthcare reform measures may be adopted in the future, any of which may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding and otherwise affect the prices we may obtain for any of our product candidates for which we may obtain regulatory approval or the frequency with which any such product candidate is prescribed or used.

European Union drug marketing and reimbursement regulations may materially affect our ability to market and receive coverage for our products in the European member states.

We intend to seek approval to market our product candidates in both the United States and in selected foreign jurisdictions. If we obtain approval in one or more foreign jurisdictions for our product candidates, we will be subject to rules and regulations in those jurisdictions. In some foreign countries, particularly those in the European Union, the pricing of pharmaceutical products is subject to governmental control and other market regulations which could put pressure on the pricing and usage of our product candidates. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after obtaining marketing approval of a product candidate. In addition, market acceptance and sales of our product candidates will depend significantly on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors for our product candidates and may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures.

Much like the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibition in the United States, the provision of benefits or advantages to physicians to induce or encourage the prescription, recommendation, endorsement, purchase, supply, order or use of medicinal products is also prohibited in the European Union. The provision of benefits or advantages to physicians is governed by the national anti-bribery laws of European Union Member States. Infringement of these laws could result in substantial fines and imprisonment.

Payments made to physicians in certain European Union Member States must be publicly disclosed. Moreover, agreements with physicians often must be the subject of prior notification and approval by the physician’s employer, his or her competent professional organization and/or the regulatory authorities of the individual European Union Member States. These requirements are provided in the national laws, industry codes or professional codes of conduct, applicable in the European Union Member States. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in reputational risk, public reprimands, administrative penalties, fines or imprisonment.

In addition, in most foreign countries, including the European Economic Area, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing drug pricing and reimbursement vary widely from country to country. For example, the European Union provides options for its member states to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. Reference pricing used by various European Union member states and parallel distribution, or arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced member states, can further reduce prices. A member state may approve a specific price for the medicinal product or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the medicinal product on the market. In some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial or other studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of any of our product candidates to other available therapies in order to obtain or maintain reimbursement or pricing approval. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for pharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products. Historically, products launched in the European Union do not follow price structures of the United States and generally prices tend to be significantly lower. Publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries.

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If pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels or if reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, our revenues from sales by us or our strategic partners and the potential profitability of any of our product candidates in those countries would be negatively affected.

European data collection is governed by restrictive regulations governing the use, processing, and cross-border transfer of personal information.

The collection and use of personal health data in the European Union (“EU”), was previously governed by the provisions of the Data Protection Directive, which has been replaced by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) as of May 2018.

The GDPR imposes a broad range of strict requirements on companies subject to the GDPR, such as us, including requirements relating to having legal bases for processing personal information relating to identifiable individuals and transferring such information outside the European Economic Area, (“EEA”), including to the United States, providing details to those individuals regarding the processing of their personal information, keeping personal information secure, having data processing agreements with third parties who process personal information, responding to individuals’ requests to exercise their rights in respect of their personal information, reporting security breaches involving personal data to the competent national data protection authority and affected individuals, appointing data protection officers, conducting data protection impact assessments, and record-keeping. The GDPR substantially increases the penalties to which we could be subject in the event of any non-compliance, including fines of up to 10 million Euros or up to 2% of our total worldwide annual turnover for certain comparatively minor offenses, or up to 20 million Euros or up to 4% of our total worldwide annual turnover for more serious offenses. Given the new law, we face uncertainty as to the exact interpretation of the new requirements, and we may be unsuccessful in implementing all measures required by data protection authorities or courts in interpretation of the new law.

In particular, national laws of member states of the EU are in the process of being adapted to the requirements under the GDPR, thereby implementing national laws which may partially deviate from the GDPR and impose different obligations from country to country, so that we do not expect to operate in a uniform legal landscape in the EU. Also, in the field of handling genetic data, the GDPR specifically allows national laws to impose additional and more specific requirements or restrictions, and European laws have historically differed quite substantially in this field, leading to additional uncertainty.

With respect to our clinical trials in the EEA, we must also ensure that we maintain adequate safeguards to enable the transfer of personal data outside of the EEA, in particular to the United States in compliance with European data protection laws including the GDPR. We expect that we will continue to face uncertainty as to whether our efforts to comply with our obligations under European privacy laws will be sufficient. If we are investigated by a European data protection authority, we may face fines and other penalties. Any such investigation or charges by European data protection authorities could have a negative effect on our existing business and on our ability to attract and retain new clients or pharmaceutical partners. We may also experience hesitancy, reluctance, or refusal by European or multi-national clients or pharmaceutical partners to continue to use our products and solutions due to the potential risk exposure as a result of the current (and, in particular, future) data protection obligations imposed on them by certain data protection authorities in interpretation of current law, including the GDPR. Such clients or pharmaceutical partners may also view any alternative approaches to compliance as being too costly, too burdensome, too legally uncertain, or otherwise objectionable and therefore decide not to do business with us. Any of the foregoing could materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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

Because we have operations outside of the United States, we must dedicate additional resources to comply with numerous laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which we plan to operate. The FCPA prohibits any U.S. individual or business from paying, offering, authorizing payment or offering of anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, political party or candidate for the purpose of influencing any 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 the company 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.

Compliance with the FCPA is expensive and difficult, particularly in countries in which corruption is a recognized problem. We, directly or through our CROs, are conducting clinical trials in countries that Transparency International has identified as “perceived as more corrupt”, including, Brazil, Chile, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine.  In addition, the FCPA presents particular

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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 of 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. If we expand our presence outside of the United States, it 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 of 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 civil and criminal penalties and suspension or debarment from government contracting. The SEC also may suspend or bar issuers from trading securities on U.S. exchanges for violations of the FCPA’s accounting provisions.

We are subject to certain U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, export control, sanctions, and other trade laws and regulations. We can face serious consequences for violations.

Among other matters, U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, export control, sanctions, and other trade laws and regulations, which are collectively referred to as Trade Laws, prohibit companies and their employees, agents, clinical research organizations, legal counsel, accountants, consultants, contractors, and other partners from authorizing, promising, offering, providing, soliciting, or receiving directly or indirectly, corrupt or improper payments or anything else of value to or from recipients in the public or private sector. Violations of Trade Laws can result in substantial criminal fines and civil penalties, imprisonment, the loss of trade privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm, and other consequences. We have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities, and other organizations. We also expect our non-U.S. activities to increase in time. We plan to engage third parties for clinical trials and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, patent registrations, and other regulatory approvals and we can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our personnel, agents, or partners, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have prior knowledge of such activities.

Inadequate funding for the FDA and other government agencies could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, prevent new products and services from being developed or commercialized in a timely manner or otherwise prevent those agencies from performing normal business functions on which the operation of our business may rely, which could negatively impact our business.

The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, statutory, regulatory, and policy changes and the impact of crises that hinder its operations, such as COVID-19. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result. In addition, government funding of other government agencies on which our operations may rely, including those that fund research and development activities, is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.

Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new drugs to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years, including most recently from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, have had to furlough critical FDA and other government employees and stop critical activities. If a prolonged government shutdown occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we do not comply with environmental laws and regulations, we may incur significant costs and potential disruption to our business.

We use or may use hazardous, infectious, and radioactive materials, and recombinant DNA in our operations, which have the potential of being harmful to human health and safety or the environment. We store these hazardous (flammable, corrosive, toxic), infectious, and radioactive materials, and various wastes resulting from their use, at our facilities pending use and ultimate disposal. We are subject to a variety of federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing use, generation, storage, handling, and disposal of these materials. We may incur significant costs complying with both current and future environmental health and safety laws and regulations. In particular, we are subject to regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

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the National Institutes of Health, the International Air Transportation Association, and various state and local agencies. At any time, one or more of the aforementioned agencies could adopt regulations that may affect our operations. We are also subject to regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Resource Conservation Development programs.

Although we believe that our current procedures and programs for handling, storage, and disposal of these materials comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations, we cannot eliminate the risk of accidents involving contamination from these materials. Although we have a workers’ compensation liability policy, we could be held liable for resulting damages in the event of an accident or accidental release, and such damages could be substantially in excess of any available insurance coverage and could substantially disrupt our business.

If we or our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners and vendors fail to comply with laws or regulations, it could adversely impact our reputation, business and stock price.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners and vendors. Misconduct by employees could include intentional and/or negligent failures to comply with FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with manufacturing standards we have established, to comply with federal and state health care fraud and abuse, transparency, and/or data privacy laws and regulations (including the California Consumer Privacy Act) and security laws and regulations, to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices; to promote transparency; and to protect the privacy and security of patient data. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. If we obtain FDA approval of any of our product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the United States, our potential exposure under such laws will increase significantly, and our costs associated with compliance with such laws are also likely to increase. These laws may impact, among other things, our current activities with principal investigators and research patients, as well as proposed and future sales, marketing and education programs.

While we have adopted a corporate compliance program, we may not be able to protect against all potential issues of noncompliance. Efforts to ensure that our business complies with all applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, or case law involving applicable laws and regulations.

Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use or disclosure of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. In addition, during the course of our operations, our directors, executives and employees may have access to material, nonpublic information regarding our business, our results of operations or potential transactions we are considering. We may not be able to prevent a director, executive or employee from trading in our common stock on the basis of, or while having access to, material, nonpublic information. If a director, executive or employee was to be investigated, or an action was to be brought against a director, executive or employee for insider trading, it could have a negative impact on our reputation and our stock price. Such a claim, with or without merit, could also result in substantial expenditures of time and money, and divert the attention of our management team.

Risks associated with doing business internationally could negatively affect our business.

We currently have research and development operations in the United Kingdom (“UK”) and clinical operations in eastern Europe, and we expect to pursue pathways to develop and commercialize our product candidates in both U.S. and ex-U.S. jurisdictions. Various risks associated with foreign operations may impact our success. Possible risks of foreign operations include fluctuations in the value of foreign and domestic currencies, requirements to comply with various jurisdictional requirements such as data privacy regulations, disruptions in the import, export, and transportation of patient tumors and our products or product candidates, the product and service needs of foreign customers, difficulties in building and managing foreign relationships, the performance of our licensees or collaborators, geopolitical instability, unexpected regulatory, economic, or political changes in foreign and domestic markets, including without limitation any resulting from the UK’s planned or actual withdrawal from the EU or our current political regime, and limitations on the flexibility of our operations and costs imposed by local labor laws.  

The exit of the UK from the European Union may materially affect the regulatory regime that governs our handling of EU personal data and expose us to legal and business risks under European data privacy and protection law.

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On January 31, 2020, the UK exited the EU, commonly known as Brexit. Pursuant to the Withdrawal Agreement that has been ratified by both the UK and EU, EU law, including GDPR will continue to apply in the UK until December 31, 2020.  The Withdrawal Agreement provides that the UK and EU can elect to extend such transition period by up to two years.

On and after, January 1, 2021, any transfers of personal data to the United Kingdom will then be subject to the requirements of Chapter V of the GDPR and of the Law Enforcement Directive and absent an adequacy finding under GDPR, transfers of personal data from the EU to the UK, including to our facility in Cambridge, UK, would be illegal without adequate safeguards provided for under EC-approved mechanisms, such as current standard contractual clauses or, if approved in the future, an EU-UK privacy shield similar to the current framework in place between the EU and the United States. The extensive authority of UK intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including to conduct surveillance on personal data flows, could reduce the likelihood that the EC would give the UK an adequacy finding and reduce the likelihood that the EC would approve an EU-UK privacy shield. Accordingly, we would be exposed to legal risk for any of our EU-UK personal data transfers, including those that involve sensitive data such as patient and genetic data. Given the uncertainties surrounding the UK’s departure from the EU, it is difficult to precisely identify or quantify the risks described above.

Additionally, it is possible that, over time, the UK Data Protection Act could become less aligned with the GDPR, which could require us to implement different compliance measures for the UK and the European Union and result in potentially enhanced compliance obligations for EU personal data.

As a result, Bexit adds legal risk, uncertainty,complexity and cost toour handling of EUpersonal information and ourprivacy anddatasecuritycomplianceprograms. If we do not successfully manage such risk, our prospects may be materially harmed.

Comprehensive tax reform legislation could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (the “TCJA”) that significantly reformed the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The TCJA, among other things, includes changes to U.S. federal tax rates, imposes significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and net operating loss carryforwards, allows for the expensing of capital expenditures, and puts into effect the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a territorial system. Our net deferred tax assets and liabilities were revalued at the newly enacted U.S. corporate rate. We did not recognize any tax expense in the year of enactment as our net deferred tax assets have a full valuation allowance recorded. We continue

Our ability to examine the impact this tax reform legislationuse net operating losses and research and development credits to offset future taxable income may have on our business. The impactbe subject to certain limitations.

As of this tax reform is uncertain and could be adverse.

Risks Related to Regulation of the Biopharmaceutical Industry

The drug development and approval process is uncertain, time-consuming, and expensive.

Drug development, including non-clinical testing and clinical development, and the process of obtaining regulatory approvals for new therapeutic products, is lengthy, expensive, and uncertain. For example, as of September 30,December 31, 2019, we had spent more than 20 yearsU.S. federal and $940.7state net operating loss, or NOL, carryforwards of $646.3 million on ourand $184.9 million, respectively, which may be available to offset future taxable income. The federal NOLs include $607.7 million which expire at various dates through 2037 and $38.6 million which carryforward indefinitely. The state NOLs expire at various dates through 2038. As of December 31, 2019, we also had U.S. federal and state research and development programs. The developmenttax credit carryforwards of $8.8 million and regulatory approval processes also can vary substantially based on the therapeutic area, type, complexity,$9.4 million, respectively, which may be available to offset future tax liabilities and noveltybegin to expire in 2020 and 2033, respectively. In addition, in general, under Sections 382 and 383 of the product. We must provide regulatory authoritiesCode and corresponding provisions of state law, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards or tax credits, or NOLs or credits, to offset future taxable income or taxes. For these purposes, an ownership change generally occurs where the aggregate stock ownership of one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who owns at least 5% of a corporation’s stock increases its ownership by more than 50 percentage points over its lowest ownership percentage within a specified testing period. Our existing NOLs or credits may be subject to limitations arising from previous ownership changes, including in connection with manufacturing, product characterization,our recent private placements, IPO and pre-clinicalother transactions. In addition, future changes in our stock ownership, many of which are outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Sections 382 and clinical data demonstrating that our product candidates are safe and effective before they can be approved for commercial sale. It may take us many years to complete our testing, and failure can occur at any stage. Results of pre-clinical studies do not necessarily predict clinical results, and promising results in early clinical studies might not be confirmed in later studies. Any pre-clinical or clinical test may fail to produce results satisfactory to regulatory authorities for many reasons, including but not limited to emerging manufacturing or control issues, limitations of pre-clinical assessments, difficulties to enroll a sufficient number of patients, changing therapeutic landscape or failure to prospectively identify the benefit/risk profile383 of the new product. Pre-clinicalCode and clinical data can be interpreted in different ways, which could delay, limit, or prevent regulatory approval. Negative or inconclusive results from a pre-clinical study or clinical trial, adverse medical events during a clinical trial, or safety issues emerging with products of the same class of drug could require additional studies or cause a program to be terminated, even if other studies or trials relating to the program are successful. We or the FDA, other regulatory agencies, or an institutional review board may suspend or terminate human clinical trials at any time on various grounds.

The timing and success of a clinical trial is dependent on obtaining and maintaining sufficient cash resources, successful production of clinical trial material, enrolling sufficient patients in a timely manner, avoiding or mitigating serious or significant adverse patient reactions, and demonstrating efficacy of the product candidate in order to support a favorable risk versus benefit profile, among other considerations. The timing and success of our clinical trials, in particular, are also dependent on clinical sites and regulatory authorities accepting each trial’s protocol, statistical analysis plan, product characterization tests, and final clinical results. In addition, regulatory authorities may request additional information or data that is not readily available. Delays in our ability to respond to such requests would delay, and failure to adequately address concerns would prevent, our commercialization efforts. We have encountered in the past, andutilize NOLs or credits may encounter in the future, delays in initiating trial sites and enrolling patients into our clinical trials. Future enrollment delays will postpone the dates by which we expect to complete the impacted trials and the potential receipt of regulatory approval. There is no guarantee we will successfully initiate and/be impaired. Our NOLs or complete our clinical trials.

Delays or difficulties in obtaining regulatory approvals or clearances for our product candidates may:

adversely affect the marketing of any products we or our licensees or collaborators develop;

impose significant additional costs on us or our licensees or collaborators;

diminish any competitive advantages that we or our licensees or collaboratorscredits may attain;

limit our ability to receive royalties and generate revenue and profits; and

adversely affect our business prospects and ability to obtain financing.

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Delays or failures in our receiving regulatory approval for our product candidates in a timely manner may result in us having to incur additional development expense and subject us to having to secure additional financing. As a result,also be impaired under state law. Accordingly, we may not be able to commercialize themutilize a material portion of our NOLs or credits. Furthermore, our ability to utilize our NOLs or credits is conditioned upon our attaining profitability and generating U. S. federal and state taxable income. As described above under “Risk factors—Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital,” we have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future; and therefore, we do not know whether or when we will generate the U.S. federal or state taxable income necessary to utilize our NOLs or credits that are subject to limitation by Sections 382 and 383 of the Code. The reduction of the corporate tax rate under the TCJA caused a reduction in the time frame anticipated,economic benefit of our net operating loss carryforwards and our businessother deferred tax assets available to us. Under the TCJA, net operating loss carryforwards generated after December 31, 2017 will suffer.

Even if we or our partners receive marketing approval for our product candidates, such product approvals couldnot be subject to restrictions or withdrawals. Regulatory requirements are subject to change. Further, even if we or our partners receive marketing approval, we may not receive sufficient coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products.

Regulatory authorities generally approve products for particular indications. If an approval is for a limited indication, this limitation reduces the size of the potential market for that product. Product approvals, once granted, are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by regulatory authorities. Our operations and practices are subject to regulation and scrutiny by the United States government, as well as governments of any other countries in which we do business or conduct activities. Later discovery of previously unknown problems or safety issues, and/or failure to comply with domestic or foreign laws, knowingly or unknowingly, can result in various adverse consequences, including, among other things, possible delay in approval or refusal to approve a product, warning letters, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, recalls or seizures of products, total or partial suspension of production, refusal of the government to renew marketing applications, complete withdrawal of a marketing application, corrective action requirements, and/or criminal prosecution, withdrawal of an approved product from the market, and/or exclusion from government health care programs. Such regulatory enforcement could have a direct and negative impact on the product for which approval is granted and could have a negative impact on the approval of any pending applications for marketing approval of new drugs or supplements to approved applications.

Because we operate in a highly regulated industry, regulatory authorities could take enforcement action against us in connection with our licensees’ or collaborators’, and/or our business and marketing activities for various reasons. For example, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits U.S. companies and their representatives from offering, promising, authorizing, or making payments to foreign governmental officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business abroad.

From time to time, new legislation is passed into law that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the approval, manufacturing, and marketing of products regulated by the FDA and other foreign health authorities. Additionally, regulations and guidance are often revised or reinterpreted by health agencies in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. It is impossible to predict whether further legislative changes will be enacted, or whether regulations, guidance, or interpretations will change, and what the impact of such changes, if any, may be. For example, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively the “ACA”), enacted in March 2010, substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impacted the pharmaceutical industry. With regard to pharmaceutical products, among other things, ACA is expected to expand, increase, and change the methodology regarding industry rebates for drugs covered under Medicaid programs; impose an annual, nondeductible fee on any entity that manufactures or imports specific branded prescription drugs and biologic agents, apportioned among those entities according to market share in certain government healthcare programs; expand eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs by, among other things, allowing states to offer Medicaid coverage to certain individuals with income at or below 133% of the federal poverty level; expand the entities eligible for discounts under the Public Health Service pharmaceutical pricing program; create a new Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research; and make changes to the coverage requirements under the Medicare D program. Significant legislative changes to the ACA also appear possible in the 115th U.S. Congress under the Trump Administration.

We expect both government and private health plans to continue to require healthcare providers, including healthcare providers that may one day purchase our products, to contain costs and demonstrate the value of the therapies they provide. Even if our product candidates are approved, the commercial success of our products will depend substantially on the extent to which they are covered by third-party payors, including government health authorities and private health insurers. In the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors, and coverage and reimbursement for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. If coverage and reimbursement are not available, or reimbursement is available only to limited levels, we or our collaborators may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates.

New data from our research and development activities, and/or resource considerations could modify our strategy and result in the need to adjust our projections of timelines and costs of programs.

Because we are focused on novel technologies, our research and development activities, including our nonclinical studies and clinical trials, involve the ongoing discovery of new facts and the generation of new data, based on which we determine next steps for a relevant program. These developments can occur with varying frequency and constitute the basis on which our business is conducted. We make determinations on an ongoing basis as to which of these facts or data will influence timelines and costs of programs. We may not always be able to make such judgments accurately, which may increase the costs we incur attempting to

42expiration.

 


commercialize our product candidates. We monitor the likelihood of success of our initiatives and we may need to discontinue funding of such activities if they do not prove to be commercially feasible, due to our limited resources.

We may need to successfully address a number of technological challenges in order to complete development of our product candidates. Moreover, these product candidates may not be effective in treating any disease or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining regulatory approvals or prevent or limit commercial use.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property Rights


If we are unable to obtain and enforce patent protection for our product candidates and related technology, our business could be materially harmed.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our product candidates and technology. Any disclosure to or misappropriation by third parties of our confidential proprietary information could enable competitors to duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, eroding our competitive position in the market. Our patent applications may not result in issued patents, and, even if issued, the patents may be challenged and invalidated. Moreover, our patents and patent applications may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from practicing our technologies or developing competing products. We also face the risk that others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or may design around our proprietary property.

Issued patents may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated or circumvented. In addition, court decisions may introduce uncertainty in the enforceability or scope of patents owned by biotechnology companies. The legal systems of certain countries do not favor the aggressive enforcement of patents, and the laws of foreign countries may not allow us to protect our inventions with patents to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Because patent applications in the United States and many foreign jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all, and because publications of discoveries in scientific literature lag behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our issued patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for protection of the inventions set forth in our patents or patent applications. As a result, we may not be able to obtain or maintain protection for certain inventions. Therefore, the enforceability and scope of our patents in the United States and in foreign countries cannot be predicted with certainty and, as a result, any patents that we own, or license may not provide sufficient protection against competitors. We may not be able to obtain or maintain patent protection from our pending patent applications, from those we may file in the future, or from those we may license from third parties. Moreover, even if we are able to obtain patent protection, such patent protection may be of insufficient scope to achieve our business objectives.

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time. Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its effective filing date. Various extensions may be available; however, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Without patent protection for our product candidates, we may be open to competition from biosimilar or generic versions of our product candidates. Furthermore, the product development timeline for biotechnology products is lengthy and it is possible that our issued patents covering our product candidates in the United States and other jurisdictions may expire prior to commercial launch. For example, if we encounter delays in our development efforts, including our clinical trials, the period of time during which we could market our product candidates under patent protection could be reduced.

Our strategy depends on our ability to identify and seek patent protection for our discoveries. This process is expensive and time consuming, and we and our current or future licensors or licensees may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all jurisdictions where protection may be commercially advantageous. It is also possible that we or our current licensors or licensees, or any future licensors or licensees, may not identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities in time to obtain patent protection on them. Therefore, these and any of our patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. Defects of form in the preparation or filing of our patents or patent applications may exist, or may arise in the future, for example with respect to proper priority claims, inventorship, etc. If we or our current licensors or licensees, or any future licensors or licensees, fail to establish, maintain or protect such patents and other intellectual property rights, such rights may be reduced or eliminated. If our current licensors or licensees, or any future licensors or licensees, are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised. If there are material defects in the form or preparation of our patents or patent applications, such patents or applications may be invalid and unenforceable. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may be able to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. The issuance of a patent does not ensure that it is valid or enforceable, so even if we obtain patents, they may not be valid or enforceable against third parties. In addition, the issuance of a patent does not give us the right

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to practice the patented invention. Third parties may have blocking patents that could prevent us from marketing our own patented product and practicing our own patented technology. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business.

The patent landscapes in the fields of antibody, vaccine, adjuvant and adoptive cell therapy development, manufacture and commercialization are crowded. For example, we are aware of third party patents directed to methods for identifying and producing therapeutic products such as antibodies, vaccines, adjuvants and adoptive cell therapies. We are also aware of third party patents directed to products targeting numerous antigens for which we also seek to identify, develop, and commercialize products. For

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example, some patents claim products based on competitive binding with existing products, some claim products based on specifying sequence or other structural information, and some claim various methods of discovery, production, or use of such products.

These or other third-party patents could impact our freedom to operate in relation to our technology platforms, as well as in relation to development and commercialization of products identified by us as therapeutic candidates. As we discover and develop our candidates, we will continue to conduct analyses of these third-party patents to determine whether we believe we might infringe them, and if so, whether they would be likely to be deemed valid and enforceable if challenged. If we determine that a license for a given patent or family of patents is necessary or desirable, there can be no guarantee that a license would be available on favorable terms, or at all. Inability to obtain a license on favorable terms, should such a license be determined to be necessary or desirable, could, without limitation, result in increased costs to design around the third-party patents, delay product launch, or result in cancellation of the affected program or cessation of use of the affected technology.

Third parties may also seek to market biosimilar versions of any approved products. Alternatively, third parties may seek approval to market their own products similar to or otherwise competitive with our products. In these circumstances, we may need to defend and/or assert our patents, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement. In any of these types of proceedings, a court or agency with jurisdiction may find our patents invalid and/or unenforceable. Even if we have valid and enforceable patents, these patents still may not provide protection against competing products or processes sufficient to achieve our business objectives.

We own, co-own or have exclusive rights to approximately 30 issued United States patents and approximately 40 issued foreign patents. We also own, co-own or have exclusive rights to approximately 35 pending United States patent applications and approximately 250 pending foreign patent applications. However, our patents may not protect us against our competitors. Our patent positions, and those of other biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, are generally uncertain and involve complex legal, scientific, and factual questions. The standards which the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) uses to grant patents, and the standards which courts use to interpret patents, are not always applied predictably or uniformly and can change, particularly as new technologies develop. Consequently, the level of protection, if any, that will be provided by our patents if we attempt to enforce them and they are challenged, is uncertain. In addition, the type and extent of patent claims that will be issued to us in the future is uncertain. Any patents that are issued may not contain claims that permit us to stop competitors from using similar technology.

Through our acquisitions of 4-AB, PhosImmune and certain assets of Celexion, we own, co-own, or have exclusive rights to a number of patents and patent applications directed to various methods and compositions, including methods for identifying therapeutic antibodies and product candidates arising out of such entities’ technology platforms. In particular, we own patents and patent applications relating to our Retrocyte DisplayTM technology platform, a high throughput antibody expression platform for the identification of fully-human and humanized monoclonal antibodies. This patent family is projected to expire between 2029 and 2031. Through our acquisition of PhosImmune, we own, co-own, or have exclusive rights to patents and patent applications directed to various methods and compositions, including a patent directed to methods for identifying phosphorylated proteins using mass spectrometry. This patent is projected to expire in 2023. In addition, as we advance our research and development efforts with our institutional and corporate collaborators, we are seeking patent protection for newly identified therapeutic antibodies and product candidates. We can provide no assurance that any of our patents, including the patents that we acquired or in-licensed in connection with our acquisitions of 4-AB, PhosImmune and certain assets of Celexion, will have commercial value, or that any of our existing or future patent applications, including the patent applications that we acquired or in-licensed in connection with our acquisitions of 4-AB, PhosImmune and certain assets of Celexion, will result in the issuance of valid and enforceable patents.

Our issued patents covering Prophage vaccine and methods of use thereof, alone or in combination with other agents, expired or will expire at various dates between 2015 and 2024. In particular, our issued U.S. patents covering Prophage composition of matter expired in 2015. In addition, our issued patents covering QS-21 Stimulon composition of matter expired in 2008. We continue to explore means of extending the life cycle of our patent portfolio.

The patent position of biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, including ours, is generally uncertain and involves complex legal and factual considerations. The standards which the USPTO and its foreign counterparts use to grant

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patents are not always applied predictably or uniformly and can change. There is also no uniform, worldwide policy regarding the subject matter and scope of claims granted or allowable in biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical or biotechnology patents. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary information to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and many companies have encountered significant problems and costs in protecting their proprietary information in these foreign countries. Outside the United States, patent protection must be sought in individual jurisdictions, further adding to the cost and uncertainty of obtaining adequate patent protection outside of the United States. Accordingly, we cannot predict whether additional patents protecting our technology will issue in the United States or in foreign jurisdictions, or whether any patents that do issue will have claims of adequate scope to provide competitive advantage. Moreover, we cannot predict whether third parties will be able to successfully obtain claims or the breadth of such claims. The allowance of broader claims may increase the incidence and cost of patent interference proceedings, opposition proceedings, post-grant review, inter partes review, and/or reexamination proceedings, the risk of infringement litigation, and the vulnerability of the claims to challenge. On the other hand, the allowance of narrower claims does not eliminate the potential for adversarial proceedings and may fail to provide a competitive advantage. Our issued patents may not contain claims sufficiently broad to protect us against third parties with similar technologies or products or provide us with any competitive advantage.

If any of our owned or in-licensed patent applications do not issue as patents in any jurisdiction, we may not be able to compete effectively.

Changes in either the patent laws or their interpretation in the United States and other countries may diminish our ability to protect our inventions, obtain, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property rights and, more generally, could affect the value of our

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intellectual property or narrow the scope of our owned and licensed patents. With respect to our patent portfolio, as of the date of this filing, we own, co-own or have exclusive rights to approximately 20 issued United States patents and approximately 25 issued foreign patents. We also own, co-own or have exclusive rights to approximately 40 pending United States patent applications and approximately 280 pending foreign patent applications. Our patent positions, and those of other biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, are generally uncertain and involve complex legal, scientific, and factual questions. The standards which the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) uses to grant patents, and the standards which courts use to interpret patents, are not always applied predictably or uniformly and can change, particularly as new technologies develop. Consequently, the level of protection, if any, that will be provided by our patents if we attempt to enforce them and they are challenged, is uncertain. In addition, the type and extent of patent claims that will be issued to us in the future is uncertain. Any patents that are issued may not contain claims that permit us to stop competitors from using similar technology. With respect to both in- licensed and owned intellectual property, we cannot predict whether the patent applications we and our licensors are currently pursuing will issue as patents in any particular jurisdiction or whether the claims of any issued patents will provide sufficient protection from competitors or other third parties.

The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming, and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce, or license all necessary or desirable patents and patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output in time to obtain patent protection. Although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to confidential or patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract research organizations, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach such agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. In addition, our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our inventions and the prior art allow our inventions to be patentable over the prior art. Furthermore, publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to make the inventions claimed in any of our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we or our licensors were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions.

If the scope of any patent protection we obtain is not sufficiently broad, or if we lose any of our patent protection, our ability to prevent our competitors from commercializing similar or identical technology and product candidates would be adversely affected.

The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our approximately 40 pending United States patent applications and approximately 280 pending foreign patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our product candidates or patents which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and product candidates.

No consistent policy regarding the scope of claims allowable in patents in the biotechnology field has emerged in the United States. The patent situation outside of the United States is even more uncertain. Changes in either the patent laws or their interpretation in the United States and other countries may diminish our ability to protect our inventions and enforce our intellectual property rights, and more generally could affect the value of our intellectual property. In particular, our ability to stop third parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing products that infringe our intellectual property will depend in part on our success in obtaining and enforcing patent claims that cover our technology, inventions and improvements. With respect to both licensed and company-owned intellectual property, we cannot be sure that patents will be granted with respect to any of our pending patent applications or with respect to any patent applications filed by us in the future, nor can we be sure that any of our existing patents or any patents that may be granted to us in the future will be commercially useful in protecting our products and the methods used to manufacture those products. Moreover, even our issued patents do not guarantee us the right to practice our technology in relation to the commercialization of our products. The area of patent and other intellectual property rights in biotechnology is an evolving one with many risks and uncertainties, and third parties may have blocking patents that could be used to prevent us from commercializing our patented product candidates and practicing our proprietary technology. Our issued patent and those that may issue in the future may be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented, which could limit our ability to stop competitors from marketing related products or limit the length of the term of patent protection that we may have for our product candidates. In addition, the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with protection or competitive advantages against competitors with similar technology. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop similar technologies. For these reasons, we may have competition for our product candidates. Moreover, because of the extensive time required for development, testing and regulatory review of a potential product, it is possible that, before any particular product candidate can be commercialized, any related patent may expire or remain in force for only a short period following commercialization, thereby reducing any advantage of the patent.


Moreover, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. Even if patent applications we own or license issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Any patents that we own or in-license may be challenged, narrowed, circumvented, or invalidated by third parties. Consequently, we do not know whether our product candidates will be protectable or remain protected by valid and enforceable patents. Our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and patents that we own or license may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. We or our licensors may be subject to a third party preissuance submission of prior art to the USPTO or to foreign patent authorities or become involved in opposition, derivation, revocation, reexamination, post-grant and inter partes review, or interference proceedings or other similar proceedings challenging our owned or licensed patent rights. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate or render unenforceable, our owned or in-licensed patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our product candidates, and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights. Moreover, we, or one of our licensors, may have to participate in interference proceedings declared by the USPTO to determine priority of invention or in post-grant challenge proceedings, such as oppositions in a foreign patent office, that challenge our or our licensor’s priority of invention or other features of patentability with respect to our owned or in-licensed patents and patent applications. Such challenges may result in loss of patent rights, loss of exclusivity, or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated, or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our product candidates. Such proceedings also may result in substantial cost and require significant time from our scientists and management, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us.

In addition, given the amount of time required for the development, testing, and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such product candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. As a result, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.

We may in the future co-own patent rights relating to future product candidates with third parties. Some of our in-licensed patent rights are, and may in the future be, co-owned with third parties. In addition, our licensors may co-own the patent rights we in-license with other third parties with whom we do not have a direct relationship. Our exclusive rights to certain of these patent rights are dependent, in part, on inter-institutional or other operating agreements between the joint owners of such patent rights, who are not parties to our license agreements. If our licensors do not have exclusive control of the grant of licenses under any such third-party co-owners’ interest in such patent rights or we are otherwise unable to secure such exclusive rights, such co-owners may be able to license their rights to other third parties, including our competitors, and our competitors could market competing products and technology. In addition, we may need the cooperation of any such co- owners of our patent rights in order to enforce such patent rights against third parties, and such cooperation may not be provided to us. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.

If we fail to comply with our obligations under our intellectual property licenses with third parties, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

We are currently party to various intellectual property license agreements. These license agreements impose, and we expect that future license agreements may impose, various diligence, milestone payment, royalty, insurance and other obligations on us. These licenses typically include an obligation to pay an upfront payment, yearly maintenance payments and royalties on sales. If we fail to comply with our obligations under the licenses, the licensors may have the right to terminate their respective license agreements, in which event we might not be able to market any product that is covered by the agreements. Termination of the license agreements or reduction or elimination of our licensed rights may result in our having to negotiate new or reinstated licenses with less favorable terms, which could adversely affect our competitive business position and harm our business.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. The requirements for patentability may differ in certain countries, particularly developing countries. For example, China has a heightened requirement for patentability, and specifically requires a detailed description of medical uses of a claimed drug. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States.

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Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement on infringing activities is inadequate. These products may compete with our product candidates, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. In addition, certain countries in Europe and certain developing countries, including India and China, have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In those countries, we may have limited remedies if our patents are infringed or if we are compelled to grant a license to our patents to a third party, which could materially diminish the value of those patents. This could limit our potential revenue opportunities. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we own or license. Finally, our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights may be adversely affected by unforeseen changes in foreign intellectual property laws.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, documentary, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to the USPTO and various foreign patent offices at various points over the lifetime of our patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we rely on our outside counsel or service providers to pay these fees when due. Additionally, the USPTO and various foreign patent offices require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with rules applicable to the particular jurisdiction. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we are responsible for the payment of patent fees for patent rights that we have licensed from other parties.

If any licensor of these patents does not itself elect to make these payments, and we fail to do so, we may be liable to the licensor for any costs and consequences of any resulting loss of patent rights.

Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates.

Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involves both technological and legal complexity, and therefore, is costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the United States has enacted and implemented wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Further, recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have either narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained.

For our U.S. patent applications containing a claim not entitled to priority before March 16, 2013, there is a greater level of uncertainty in the patent law. In September 2011, AIA was signed into law. The AIA includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law, including provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted and also affect patent litigation. The USPTO has developed regulations and procedures to govern administration of the AIA, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the AIA. It is not clear what other, if any, impact the AIA will have on the operation of our business. Moreover, the AIA and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

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An important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a “first-inventor-to- file” system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after that date but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by the third party. This requires us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application. Furthermore, our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our technology and the prior art allow our technology to be patentable over the prior art. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain that we were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our product candidates or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our patents or patent applications.

Among some of the other changes introduced by the AIA are changes that limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and providing opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. This applies to all of our U.S. patents, even those issued before March 16, 2013. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal court necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information, the value of our technology and products could be adversely affected.

In addition to patent protection, we also rely on other proprietary rights, including protection of trade secrets, and other proprietary information. To maintain the confidentiality of trade secrets and proprietary information, we enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, collaborators and others upon the commencement of their relationships with us. These agreements require that all confidential information developed by the individual or made known to the individual by us during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties. Our agreements with employees and our personnel policies also provide that any inventions conceived by the individual in the course of rendering services to us shall be our exclusive property. However, we may not obtain these agreements in all circumstances, and individuals with whom we have these agreements may not comply with their terms. Thus, despite such agreement, such inventions may become assigned to third parties. In the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets or proprietary information, these agreements, even if obtained, may not provide meaningful protection, particularly for our trade secrets or other confidential information. To the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use technology or know-how owned by third parties in their work for us, disputes may arise between us and those third parties as to the rights in related inventions. To the extent that an individual who is not obligated to assign rights in intellectual property to us is rightfully an inventor of intellectual property, we may need to obtain an assignment or a license to that intellectual property from that individual, or a third party or from that individual’s assignee. Such assignment or license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Adequate remedies may not exist in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our proprietary information. The disclosure of our trade secrets would impair our competitive position and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position. In addition, others may independently discover or develop our trade secrets and proprietary information, and the existence of our own trade secrets affords no protection against such independent discovery.

Depending upon the nature of the product and the specifics of the related FDA marketing approval, data exclusivity under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) or related laws in the U.S. or certain foreign countries and territories may be available for our products.  The BPCIA provides that FDA shall not approve certain biosimilars from the date of first licensure of a reference product for 12 years, subject to certain restrictions.  However, we may not obtain or be eligible for data exclusivity because of, for example, the nature of the product with respect to other products on the market, our relationships with our partners (including our licensors and licensees), failing to claim the exclusivity at the appropriate time or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. If we are unable to obtain data exclusivity, our competitors may obtain earlier approval of competing products, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.

We may have received confidential and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biopharmaceutical, biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. We may be subject to claims that we or

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our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise improperly used or disclosed confidential information of these third parties or our employees’ former employers. Further, we may be subject to ownership disputes in the future arising, for example, from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. We may also be subject to claims that former employees, consultants, independent contractors, collaborators or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents or other intellectual property. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging our right to and use of confidential and proprietary information. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose our rights therein. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial cost and be a distraction to our management and employees.

Our commercial success depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. Other entities may have or obtain patents or proprietary rights that could limit our ability to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import our future approved products or impair our competitive position. In particular, the patent landscapes around the discovery, development, manufacture and commercial use of our product candidates are crowded.

Third parties may have or obtain valid and enforceable patents or proprietary rights that could block us from developing product candidates using our technology. Our failure to obtain a license to any technology that we require may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, our failure to maintain a license to any technology that we require may also materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, we would be exposed to a threat of litigation.

In the biopharmaceutical industry, significant litigation and other proceedings regarding patents, patent applications, trademarks and other intellectual property rights have become commonplace. The types of situations in which we may become a party to such litigation or proceedings include:

we or our collaborators may initiate litigation or other proceedings against third parties seeking to invalidate the patents held by those third parties or to obtain a judgment that our products or processes do not infringe those third parties’ patents;

if our competitors file patent applications that claim technology also claimed by us or our licensors or licensees, we or our licensors or licensees may be required to participate in interference, derivation or other proceedings to determine the priority of invention, which could jeopardize our patent rights and potentially provide a third party with a dominant patent position;

if third parties initiate litigation claiming that our processes or products infringe their patent or other intellectual property rights, we and our collaborators will need to defend against such proceedings; and

if a license to necessary technology is terminated, the licensor may initiate litigation claiming that our processes or products infringe or misappropriate their patent or other intellectual property rights and/or that we breached our obligations under the license agreement, and we and our collaborators would need to defend against such proceedings.

These lawsuits would be costly and could affect our results of operations and divert the attention of our management and scientific personnel. There is a risk that a court would decide that we or our collaborators are infringing the third party’s patents and would order us or our collaborators to stop the activities covered by the patents. In that event, we or our collaborators may not have a viable alternative to the technology protected by the patent and may need to halt work on the affected product candidate or cease commercialization of an approved product. In addition, there is a risk that a court will order us or our collaborators to pay the other party damages. An adverse outcome in any litigation or other proceeding could subject us to significant liabilities to third parties and require us to cease using the technology that is at issue or to license the technology from third parties. We may not be able to obtain any required licenses on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Any of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The biopharmaceutical industry has produced a significant number of patents, and it may not always be clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of products or methods of use. The coverage of patents is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform or predictable. If we are sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claims are invalid, and we may not be able to do this. Proving invalidity is difficult. For example, in the United States, proving invalidity requires a showing of clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Even if we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and divert management’s time and attention in pursuing

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these proceedings, which could have a material adverse effect on us. If we are unable to avoid infringing the patent rights of others, we may be required to seek a license, defend an infringement action or challenge the validity of the patents in court. Patent litigation is costly and time consuming. We may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion. In addition, if we do not obtain a license, develop or obtain non-infringing technology, fail to defend an infringement action successfully or have infringed patents declared invalid, we may incur substantial monetary damages, encounter significant delays in bringing our product candidates to market and be precluded from manufacturing or selling our product candidates.

The cost of any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the cost of such litigation and proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time.

We may not identify relevant third-party patents or may incorrectly interpret the relevance, scope or expiration of a third-party patent which might adversely affect our ability to develop and market our product candidates.

We cannot guarantee that any of our or our licensors’ patent searches or analyses, including the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending patent application in the United States and abroad that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our product candidates in any jurisdiction. For example, U.S. patent applications filed before November 29, 2000 and certain U.S. patent applications filed after that date that will not be filed outside the United States remain confidential until patents issue. Patent applications in the United States and elsewhere are published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date. Therefore, patent applications covering our product candidates could have been filed by third parties without our knowledge. Additionally, pending patent applications that have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our product candidates or the use of our product candidates. The scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of a patent or a pending application may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to market our product candidates. We may incorrectly determine that our product candidates are not covered by a third-party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third party’s pending application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our product candidates. Our failure to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our product candidates.

If we fail to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents, we may be subject to infringement claims. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully settle or otherwise resolve such infringement claims. If we fail in any such dispute, in addition to being forced to pay damages, which may be significant, we may be temporarily or permanently prohibited from commercializing any of our product candidates that are held to be infringing. We might, if possible, also be forced to redesign product candidates so that we no longer infringe the third-party intellectual property rights. Any of these events, even if we were ultimately to prevail, could require us to divert substantial financial and management resources that we would otherwise be able to devote to our business and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

Third parties may infringe or misappropriate our intellectual property, including our existing patents, patents that may issue to us in the future, or the patents of our licensors or licensees to which we have a license. As a result, we may be required to file infringement claims to stop third-party infringement or unauthorized use. Further, we may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors or licensees, misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States.

If we or one of our licensors or licensees were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering our product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product candidates is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace, and there are numerous grounds upon which a third party can assert invalidity or unenforceability of a patent.

In addition, within and outside of the United States, there has been a substantial amount of litigation and administrative proceedings, including interference and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO or oppositions and other comparable

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proceedings in various foreign jurisdictions, regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the biopharmaceutical industry. Notably, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the American Invents Act (“AIA”), introduced new procedures, including inter partes review and post grant review. These procedures may be used by competitors to challenge the scope and/or validity of our patents, including those patents perceived by our competitors as blocking entry into the market for their products, and the outcome of such challenges.

Even after they have been issued, our patents and any patents which we license may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated or circumvented. If our patents are invalidated or otherwise limited or will expire prior to the commercialization of our product candidates, other companies may be better able to develop products that compete with ours, which could adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects and financial condition.

The following are non-exclusive examples of litigation and other adversarial proceedings or disputes that we could become a party to involving our patents or patents licensed to us:

we or our collaborators may initiate litigation or other proceedings against third parties to enforce our patent rights;

we or our collaborators may initiate litigation or other proceedings against third parties to enforce our patent rights;

third parties may initiate litigation or other proceedings seeking to invalidate patents owned by or licensed to us or to obtain a declaratory judgment that their product or technology does not infringe our patents or patents licensed to us;

third parties may initiate opposition proceedings, post-grant review, inter partes review, or reexamination proceedings challenging the validity or scope of our patent rights, requiring us or our collaborators and/or licensors or licensees to participate in such proceedings to defend the validity and scope of our patents;

there may be a challenge or dispute regarding inventorship or ownership of patents currently identified as being owned by or licensed to us;

the USPTO may initiate an interference or derivation proceeding between patents or patent applications owned by or licensed to us and those of our competitors, requiring us or our collaborators and/or licensors or licensees to participate in an interference or derivation proceeding to determine the priority of invention, which could jeopardize our patent rights; or

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third parties may initiate litigation or other proceedings seeking to invalidate patents owned by or licensed to us or to obtain a declaratory judgment that their product or technology does not infringe our patents or patents licensed to us;

third parties may initiate opposition proceedings, post-grant review, inter partes review, or reexamination proceedings challenging the validity or scope of our patent rights, requiring us or our collaborators and/or licensors or licensees to participate in such proceedings to defend the validity and scope of our patents;

there may be a challenge or dispute regarding inventorship or ownership of patents currently identified as being owned by or licensed to us;

the USPTO may initiate an interference or derivation proceeding between patents or patent applications owned by or licensed to us and those of our competitors, requiring us or our collaborators and/or licensors or licensees to participate in an interference or derivation proceeding to determine the priority of invention, which could jeopardize our patent rights; or

third parties may seek approval to market biosimilar versions of our future approved products prior to expiration of relevant patents owned by or licensed to us, requiring us to defend our patents, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement.

These lawsuits and proceedings would be costly and could affect our results of operations and divert the attention of our managerial and scientific personnel. There is a risk that a court or administrative body could decide that our patents are invalid or not infringed by a third party’s activities, or that the scope of certain issued claims must be further limited. An adverse outcome in a litigation or proceeding involving our own patents could limit our ability to assert our patents against these or other competitors, affect our ability to receive royalties or other licensing consideration from our licensees, and may curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making, using and selling similar or competitive products. An adverse outcome may also put our pending patent applications at risk of not issuing, or issuing with limited and potentially inadequate scope to cover our product candidates. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. Additionally, it is also possible that prior art of which we are aware, but which we do not believe affects the validity or enforceability of a claim, may, nonetheless, ultimately be found by a court of law or an administrative panel to affect the validity or enforceability of a claim, for example, if a priority claim is found to be improper. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we could lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our relevant product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection could have a material adverse impact on our business.

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or administrative proceedings, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure. In addition, during the course of litigation or administrative proceedings, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments or public access to related documents. If investors perceive these results to be negative, the market price for our common stock could be significantly harmed. Any of these occurrences could adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects, and financial condition.

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Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our competitive advantage. The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain because legal means afford only limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. For example:

others may be able to develop a platform that is similar to, or better than, ours in a way that is not covered by the claims of our patents;

others may be able to make compounds that are similar to our product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of our patents;

we might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by patents or pending patent applications;

we might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions;

any patents that we obtain may not provide us with any competitive advantages or may ultimately be found invalid or unenforceable; or

we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable.

others

If we do not obtain patent term extension and/or data exclusivity for any product candidates we may develop, our business may be able tomaterially harmed.

Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of any FDA marketing approval of any product candidates we may develop, a platform that is similar to,one or better than, ours in a way that is not covered by the claimsmore of our patents;

othersowned or in-licensed U.S. patents may be ableeligible for limited patent term extension under the Hatch-Waxman Act. The Hatch-Waxman Act permits a patent term extension of up to make compounds that are similar to ourfive years as compensation for patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of our patents;

we might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by patents or pendingapproval, only one patent applications;

we might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions;

any patents that we obtain may not provide us with any competitive advantages or may ultimately be found invalid or unenforceable; or

we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable.

Our commercial success depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. Other entities may have or obtain patents or proprietary rights that could limit our ability to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import our future approved products or impair our competitive position. In particular, the patent landscapes around the discovery, development, manufacture and commercial use of our product candidates are crowded.

Third parties may have or obtain valid and enforceable patents or proprietary rights that could block us from developing product candidates using our technology. Our failure to obtain a license to any technology that we require may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, our failure to maintain a license to any technology that we require may also materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, we would be exposed to a threat of litigation.

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In the biopharmaceutical industry, significant litigation and other proceedings regarding patents, patent applications, trademarks and other intellectual property rights have become commonplace. The types of situations in which we may become a party to such litigation or proceedings include:

we or our collaborators may initiate litigation or other proceedings against third parties seeking to invalidate the patents held by those third parties or to obtain a judgment that our products or processes do not infringe those third parties’ patents;

if our competitors file patent applications that claim technology also claimed by us or our licensors or licensees, we or our licensors or licensees may be required to participate in interference, derivationextended and only those claims covering the approved drug, a method for using it, or other proceedings to determine the priority of invention, which could jeopardize our patent rights and potentially provide a third party with a dominant patent position;

if third parties initiate litigation claiming that our processes or products infringe their patent or other intellectual property rights, we and our collaborators will need to defend against such proceedings; and

if a license to necessary technology is terminated, the licensor may initiate litigation claiming that our processes or products infringe or misappropriate their patent or other intellectual property rights and/or that we breached our obligations under the license agreement, and we and our collaborators would need to defend against such proceedings.

These lawsuits would be costly and could affect our results of operations and divert the attention of our management and scientific personnel. There is a risk that a court would decide that we or our collaborators are infringing the third party’s patents and would order us or our collaborators to stop the activities covered by the patents. In that event, we or our collaborators may not have a viable alternative to the technology protected by the patent and may need to halt work on the affected product candidate or cease commercialization of an approved product. In addition, there is a risk that a court will order us or our collaborators to pay the other party damages. An adverse outcome in any litigation or other proceeding could subject us to significant liabilities to third parties and require us to cease using the technology that is at issue or to license the technology from third parties. We may not be able to obtain any required licenses on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Any of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The biopharmaceutical industry has produced a significant number of patents, andmethod for manufacturing it may not always be clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of products or methods of use. The coverage of patents is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform or predictable. If we are suedextended. Similar extensions as compensation for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claimsterm lost during regulatory review processes are invalid,also available in certain foreign countries and territories, such as in Europe under a Supplementary Patent Certificate. However, we may not be able to do this. Proving invalidity is difficult. For example,granted an extension in the United States proving invalidity requires a showingand/or foreign countries and territories because of, clear and convincing evidencefor example, failing to overcomeexercise due diligence during the presumptiontesting phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Even ifrelevant patents, or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and divert management’s time and attention in pursuing these proceedings, which could have a material adverse effect on us.request. If we are unable to avoid infringingobtain patent term extension or the patent rights of others, we may be required to seek a license, defend an infringement action or challenge the validity of the patents in court. Patent litigation is costly and time consuming. We may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion. In addition, if we do not obtain a license, develop or obtain non-infringing technology, fail to defend an infringement action successfully or have infringed patents declared invalid, we may incur substantial monetary damages, encounter significant delays in bringing our product candidates to market and be precluded from manufacturing or selling our product candidates.

The costterm of any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some ofsuch extension is shorter than what we request, our competitors may be able to sustain the costobtain approval of such litigationcompeting products following our patent expiration, and proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time.  

If we fail to comply with our obligations under our intellectual property licenses with third parties, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

We are currently party to various intellectual property license agreements. These license agreements impose, and we expect that future license agreements may impose, various diligence, milestone payment, royalty, insurance and other obligations on us. These licenses typically include an obligation to pay an upfront payment, yearly maintenance payments and royalties on sales. If we fail to comply with our obligations under the licenses, the licensors may have the right to terminate their respective license agreements, in which event we might not be able to market any product that is covered by the agreements. Termination of the license agreements or reduction or elimination of our licensed rights may result in our having to negotiate new or reinstated licenses with less favorable terms, which could adversely affect our competitive business position and harm our business.

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If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information, the value of our technology and products could be adversely affected.

In addition to patent protection, we also rely on other proprietary rights, including protection of trade secrets, and other proprietary information. To maintain the confidentiality of trade secrets and proprietary information, we enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, collaborators and others upon the commencement of their relationships with us. These agreements require that all confidential information developed by the individual or made known to the individual by us during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties. Our agreements with employees and our personnel policies also provide that any inventions conceived by the individual in the course of rendering services to us shall be our exclusive property. However, we may not obtain these agreements in all circumstances, and individuals with whom we have these agreements may not comply with their terms. Thus, despite such agreement, such inventions may become assigned to third parties. In the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets or proprietary information, these agreements, even if obtained, may not provide meaningful protection, particularly for our trade secrets or other confidential information. To the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use technology or know-how owned by third parties in their work for us, disputes may arise between us and those third parties as to the rights in related inventions. To the extent that an individual who is not obligated to assign rights in intellectual property to us is rightfully an inventor of intellectual property, we may need to obtain an assignment or a license to that intellectual property from that individual, or a third party or from that individual’s assignee. Such assignment or license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Adequate remedies may not exist in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our proprietary information. The disclosure of our trade secrets would impair our competitive position and may materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Costlyoperations and time-consuming litigationprospects could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position. In addition, others may independently discover or develop our trade secrets and proprietary information, and the existence of our own trade secrets affords no protection against such independent discovery.

As is common in the biopharmaceutical industry, we employ individuals who were previously or concurrently employed at research institutions and/or other biopharmaceutical, biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees, or we, have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers, or that patents and applications we have filed to protect inventions of these employees, even those related to one or more of our product candidates, are rightfully owned by their former or concurrent employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, documentary, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to the USPTO and various foreign patent offices at various points over the lifetime of our patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we rely on our outside counsel or service providers to pay these fees when due. Additionally, the USPTO and various foreign patent offices require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with rules applicable to the particular jurisdiction. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we are responsible for the payment of patent fees for patent rights that we have licensed from other parties.

If any licensor of these patents does not itself elect to make these payments, and we fail to do so, we may be liable to the licensor for any costs and consequences of any resulting loss of patent rights.

Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates.

Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involves both technological and legal complexity, and therefore, is costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the United States has enacted and implemented wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Further, recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have either narrowed the scope of patent protection

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available in certain circumstances or weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained.

For our U.S. patent applications containing a claim not entitled to priority before March 16, 2013, there is a greater level of uncertainty in the patent law. In September 2011, AIA was signed into law. The AIA includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law, including provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted and also affect patent litigation. The USPTO has developed regulations and procedures to govern administration of the AIA, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the AIA. It is not clear what other, if any, impact the AIA will have on the operation of our business. Moreover, the AIA and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

An important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a “first-inventor-to- file” system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after that date but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by the third party. This requires us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application. Furthermore, our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our technology and the prior art allow our technology to be patentable over the prior art. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain that we were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our product candidates or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our patents or patent applications.

Among some of the other changes introduced by the AIA are changes that limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and providing opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. This applies to all of our U.S. patents, even those issued before March 16, 2013. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal court necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action.

We may be subject to claims thatchallenging the inventorship of our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.patents and other intellectual property.

We may have received confidential and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biopharmaceutical, biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. Weour licensors may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our owned or in-licensed patent rights, trade secrets, or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we or our employees, consultants or independent contractorslicensors may have inadvertently or otherwise improperly used or disclosed confidential information of these third parties or our employees’ former employers. Further, we may be subject to ownershipinventorship disputes in the future arising, for example,arise from conflicting obligations of employees, consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. We may also be subject to claims that former employees, consultants, independent contractors, collaborators or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents or other intellectual property. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or our right to and uselicensors’ ownership of confidential and proprietary information.our owned or in-licensed patent rights, trade secrets or other intellectual property. If we or our licensors fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, intellectual property that is important to our rights therein. Such an outcomeproduct candidates. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even ifbusiness, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we are successfulmay not be able to build name recognition in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costour markets of interest and our business may be a distractionadversely affected.

Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented or declared generic or determined to our management and employees.

be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughoutto these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition among potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors or other third parties may adopt trade names or trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. We also have partners who may market or refer to our trademarks or trade names and may use the world.

Filing, prosecutingtrademarks or trade names is ways that impair our branding strategy.  Recepta and defending patents on our product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. The requirements for patentability may differBetta Pharmaceuticals have rights to balstilimab and zalifrelimab in certain South American countries particularly developing countries. For example,and greater China, respectively, and each may adopt a marketing strategy, including use or registration of trademarks and tradenames, that could impair our brand identity or strategy and possibly cause market confusion.  If we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the marks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the

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party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has a heightened requirement for patentability, and specifically requires a detailed description of medical uses of a claimed drug. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual propertysuperior rights to the same extent as lawsmarks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. Over the United States. Consequently,long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement on infringing activities is inadequate. These products may compete with our product candidates,effectively and our patentsbusiness may be adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to trademarks, trade secrets, domain names, copyrights or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

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Many companies have encountered significant problems in protectingineffective and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our effortsdiversion of resources and attention from other aspects ofcould adversely affect our business, could put our patents at riskfinancial condition, results of being invalidated or interpreted narrowlyoperations and our patent applications at riskprospects.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.

The degree of not issuing, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. In addition, certain countries in Europe and certain developing countries, including India and China, have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In those countries, we may have limited remedies if our patents are infringed or if we are compelled to grant a license to our patents to a third party, which could materially diminish the value of those patents. This could limit our potential revenue opportunities. Accordingly, our efforts to enforcefuture protection afforded by our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we own or license. Finally, our ability to protect and enforce ouris uncertain because intellectual property rights may be adversely affected by unforeseen changes in foreign intellectual property laws.

Risks Related to Litigation

We may face litigation or regulatory investigations that could result in substantial damageshave limitations and may divert management’s time and attention fromnot adequately protect our business.business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:

From time to time we may become a party to legal proceedings,

others may be able to make products that are similar to our product candidates or utilize similar technology but that are not covered by the claims and investigations that arise in the ordinary course of business such as, but not limited to, patent, employment, securities, commercial and environmental matters. While we currently believe that the ultimate outcome of the patents that we license or may own;

we, or our current or future licensors or collaborators, might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by the issued patent or pending patent application that we license or own now or in the future;

we, or our current or future licensors or collaborators, might not have been the first to file patent applications covering certain of our or their inventions;

others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our owned or licensed intellectual property rights;

it is possible that our current or future pending owned or licensed patent applications will not lead to issued patents;

issued patents that we hold rights to may be held invalid or unenforceable, including as a result of legal challenges by our competitors or other third parties;

our competitors or other third parties might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;

we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable;

the patents of others may harm our business; and

we may choose not to file a patent in order to maintain certain trade secrets or know-how, and a third party may subsequently file a patent covering such intellectual property.

Should any of these proceedings will notevents occur, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position,condition, results of operations or liquidity, litigation is subjectand prospects.

Risks Related to inherent uncertainty. Furthermore, litigationBusiness Operations, Employee Matters and regulatory investigations consume both cash and management attention.Managing Growth

We maintain propertyhave undergone significant growth across multiple locations over the past few years, and general commercial insurance coverageare focusing on further enhancing core areas and capabilities as well as errors and omissions insurance policies. This insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover us for all potential claims or a claim may be made for which we are not covered by insurance, in which case the damages could have a material and adverse effect on the business.

If we or our employees fail to comply with laws or regulations, it could adversely impact our reputation, business and stock price.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional and/or negligent failures to comply with FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with manufacturing standardsmove toward commercialization. In addition, we have established,consolidated certain sites while expanding others to comply with federalfocus on our core priorities and state health care fraudfuture needs. We may encounter difficulties in managing these growth and/or consolidation efforts, either of which could disrupt our operations.

Over the past few years we have more than tripled our headcount, in part through various acquisitions and abuse, transparency, and/or data privacythe expansion of our research and security lawsdevelopment activities both nationally and regulations, to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices; to promote transparency; and to protect the privacy and security of patient data. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements.

internationally. While we have adopted a corporate compliance program,restructured our organization over the past few years, we expect to continue increasing our headcount in certain core areas as we continue to build our development, manufacturing and commercialization capabilities and integrate our acquired technology platforms. To manage these organizational changes, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems and continue to recruit, train and retain

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qualified personnel. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our timelines may be delayed, our ability to generate revenue could be reduced, and we may not be able to protect against all potential issues of noncompliance. Efforts to ensure thatimplement our business compliesstrategy.

As part of our efforts to optimize efficiency across our organization, we previously closed offices in Germany and Switzerland and consolidated these operations in the UK. In January 2020, our subsidiary AgenTus closed its Waterloo, Belgium office and consolidated those operations in our Lexington, MA facility.  In March 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we completed a company-wide reduction in force. If these transition efforts prove to be unsuccessful, or if we identify management or operational gaps in connection with all applicable healthcare lawsour changes, it could cause delays in discovery timelines and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude thatincreased costs for certain of our internal and partnered programs, which also could have an adverse effect on our business, practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, or case law involving applicable lawsfinancial condition and regulations.

Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use or disclosureresults of information obtainedoperations. We are still in the courseprocess of clinical trials,liquidating 4-AB and transferring intellectual property rights from Switzerland to the United States or elsewhere. There could be adverse tax consequences resulting from this migration of intellectual property rights, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. In addition, during the course of our operations, our directors, executives and employees may have access to material, nonpublic information regardingan adverse effect on our business our results of operations or potential transactions we are considering. We may not be able to prevent a director, executive or employee from trading in our common stock on the basis of, or while having access to, material, nonpublic information. If a director, executive or employee was to be investigated, or an action was to be brought against a director, executive or employee for insider trading, it could have a negative impact on our reputation and our stock price. Such a claim, with or without merit, could also result in substantial expenditures of time and money, and divert the attention of our management team.operations.

Product liability and other claims against us may reduce demand for our products and/or result in substantial damages.

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We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to testing our product candidates in human clinical trials and manufacturing antibodies in our Berkeley, CA facility and may face even greater risks if we ever sell products commercially. An individual may bring a product liability claim against us if one of our product candidates causes, or merely appears to have caused, an injury. Product liability claims may result in:

regulatory investigations;

regulatory investigations;

injury to our reputation;

injury to our reputation;

withdrawal of clinical trial volunteers;

withdrawal of clinical trial volunteers;

costs of related litigation;

costs of related litigation;

substantial monetary awards to plaintiffs; and

substantial monetary awards to plaintiffs; and

decreased demand for any future products.

decreased demand for any future products.

We manufacture the Prophage vaccines from a patient’s cancer cells, and medical professionals must inject the vaccines into the same patient from which they were manufactured. A patient may sue us if a hospital, a shipping company, or we fail to receive the removed cancer tissue or deliver that patient’s vaccine. We do not have any other insurance that covers loss of or damage to the Prophage vaccines or tumor material, and we do not know whether such insurance will be available to us at a reasonable price or at all. We have limited product liability coverage for use of our product candidates. Our product liability policy provides $10.0 million aggregate coverage and $10.0 million per occurrence coverage. This limited insurance coverage may be insufficient to fully cover us for future claims.

We are also subject to laws generally applicable to businesses, including but not limited to, federal, state and local wage and hour, employee classification, mandatory healthcare benefits, unlawful workplace discrimination and whistle-blowing. Any actual or alleged failure to comply with any regulation applicable to our business or any whistle-blowing claim, even if without merit, could result in costly litigation, regulatory action or otherwise harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flow and future prospects.

We are highly reliant on certain members of our management team. In addition, we have limited internal resources and if we fail to recruit and/or retain the services of key employees and external consultants as needed, we may not be able to achieve our strategic and operational objectives.

Both Garo H. Armen, Ph.D., the Chairman of our Board of Directors and our Chief Executive Officer who co-founded the Company in 1994, and Jennifer Buell, Ph.D., our President and Chief Operating Officer, are integral to building our company and developing our technology. If either Dr. Armen or Dr. Buell is unable or unwilling to continue his or her relationship with Agenus, our business may be adversely impacted. We have employment agreements with Dr. Armen and Dr. Buell. They both play an important role in our day-to-day activities, and we do not complycarry key employee insurance policies for Dr. Armen, Dr. Buell or any other employee. The loss of the services of Dr. Armen or Dr. Buell, other key employees, and other scientific and medical advisors, and our inability to find suitable replacements could result in delays in product development and harm our business.

The bulk of our operations are conducted at our facilities in Cambridge, UK, Lexington, MA and Berkeley, CA. The Cambridge, New England and Northern California regions are headquarters to many other biopharmaceutical companies and many

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academic and research institutions. 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.

Our future growth success depends to a significant extent on the skills, experience and efforts of our executive officers and key members of our clinical and scientific staff. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from other pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as academic and other research institutions. To attract and retain employees at our company, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided stock options that vest over time. The value to employees of stock options that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control, and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management, scientific and development teams may terminate their employment with environmental lawsus on short notice. Employment of our key employees is at-will, which means that any of our employees could leave our employment at any time, with or without notice.  We may be unable to retain our current personnel or attract or assimilate other highly qualified management and regulations,clinical personnel in the future on acceptable terms. The loss of any or all of these individuals could harm our business and could impair our ability to support our collaboration partners or our growth generally.

Our internal computer systems, or those of our third-party CROs, CMOs, licensees, collaborators or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could result in a material disruption in our business and operations or could subject us to sanctions and penalties that could have a material adverse effect on our reputation or financial condition.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our current and future CROs, CMOs, licensees, collaborators and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Potential vulnerabilities can also be exploited from inadvertent or intentional actions of our employees, third-party vendors, business partners, or by malicious third parties. Attacks of this nature are increasing in their frequency, levels of persistence, sophistication and intensity, and are being conducted by sophisticated and organized groups and individuals with a wide range of motives (including, but not limited to, industrial espionage) and expertise, including organized criminal groups, “hacktivists,” nation states and others. In July 2020, the United States Government charged a pair of Chinese hackers working on behalf of China’s intelligence service in relation to the hacking of U.S. based biotechnology companies researching COVID-19 vaccines.  In addition to the extraction of sensitive information, such attacks could include the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices increases the risk of data security incidents. While we may incurare not aware of any such material system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed, on-going or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significant costs to recover or reproduce the data. Likewise, we rely on third parties to manufacture certain of our drug candidates and potentialconduct clinical trials, and similar events relating to their computer systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our business.data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liabilities and the further development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed. We do not maintain cyber liability insurance, and would therefore have no coverage for any losses resulting from any data security incident.

We use or may use hazardous, infectious, and radioactive materials,store customer, vendor, employee and recombinant DNAbusiness partner and, in certain instances patient, personally identifiable information in the ordinary course of our operations, which have the potential of being harmful to human health and safety or the environment. We store these hazardous (flammable, corrosive, toxic), infectious, and radioactive materials, and various wastes resulting from their use, at our facilities pending use and ultimate disposal.business. We are subject to various domestic and international privacy and security regulations, including but not limited to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), which mandates, among other things, the adoption of uniform standards for the electronic exchange of information in common healthcare transactions, as well as standards relating to the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information, which require the adoption of administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect such information. In addition, many states have enacted comparable laws addressing the privacy and security of health information, some of which are more stringent than HIPAA. Failure to comply with these standards, or a varietycomputer security breach or cyber-attack that affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of federal, state,proprietary or personally identifiable information, could subject us to criminal penalties and local lawscivil sanctions, and regulations governing use, generation, storage, handling,our reputation could be materially damaged, and disposalour operations could be impaired. We may also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Natural or man-made calamities, or public health crises, could disrupt our business and materially adversely affect our operations and those of our strategic partners.

Our operations, and those of our CROs, CMOs, and other contractors and consultants together with regulatory agencies such as the FDA or EMA, could be subject to earthquakes, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, floods, hurricanes,

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typhoons, fires, extreme weather conditions, medical epidemics and other natural or man-made disasters or business interruptions. The occurrence of any of these materials.business disruptions could prevent us, or our collaborators and business partners or regulators, from using all or a significant portion of our, or their, facilities or disrupt our supply chain, and, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue certain activities, such as for example our manufacturing capabilities, for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur significant costs complying with both currentsubstantial expenses and future environmental health and safety laws and regulations. In particular, we are subject to regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the International Air Transportation Association, and various state and local agencies. At any time, one or moredelays as a result of the aforementioned agencieslimited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which could adopt regulations that may affecthave a material adverse effect on our operations.business. We are also subjectrely in part on third-party manufacturers to regulation underproduce and process some of our product candidates. Our ability to obtain some of our clinical supplies of our product candidates could be disrupted if the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Resource Conservation Development programs.

Although we believe that our current procedures and programs for handling, storage, and disposaloperations of these materials comply with federal, state,suppliers are affected by a man-made or natural disaster or other business interruption.

We own an antibody pilot plant manufacturing facility and local lawslease additional office space in Berkeley, CA. This location is in an area of seismic activity near active earthquake faults and regulations, we cannot eliminateactive wildfire activity. In October 2019, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”), the utility supplier for our Berkeley, CA facility provided notice to all residents and businesses in Almeda County (where Berkeley, CA is located) that it would shut off power to the county for a multiday period due to the risk of accidents involving contamination from these materials. Although wewildfires. The emergency backup generators located at our Berkeley, CA facility are not able to power the entire facility and only have enough fuel capacity to provide emergency power for a workers’ compensation liability policy, we could be held liable for resulting damagesfew hours. We have plans in place to maintain the fuel supply of our generators in the event of an accidentextended power interruption, but there is no guarantee that such plans will be adequate to maintain emergency power at our Berkeley, CA facility. In addition, many of our employees reside in Alameda County and may be unable to leave home for the duration of any power shut off. While PG&E did not shut off power to our facility in October 2019, PG&E may do so in the future on short notice.

In March 2020, we put in place a number of protective measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures include cancelling all commercial business travel, requesting employees to limit non-essential personal travel, asking some employees to self-quarantine at home, adjusting our facilities janitorial and sanitary policies, encouraging employees to work from home to the extent their job function enables them to do so, staggering the working hours of employees that are unable to perform their duties remotely and reconfiguring our facilities for physical distancing. We are revisiting these measures on a regular basis as the pandemic evolves, and we are likely to take additional action as we learn more and as instruction is provided by national, state and local governmental agencies. These measures have resulted, and any future actions are likely to result, in a disruption to our business. Our employees are also impacted by the closures of their children’s schools for lengthy periods of time. For instance, in both California and Massachusetts, all public and private elementary and secondary schools were closed for the duration of the 2019-2020 academic year, leaving many of our employees with no choice but to work from home while also caring for their children, which caused a loss in employee productivity.  We expect this state of affairs to continue at least into 2021 as many schools have announced plans for a partially, or accidental release,fully, remote 2020-2021 academic year.  In addition, in March 2020, the United States government announced that it would suspend air travel between the United States and parts of Europe for a 30-day period and subsequently revised this suspension to include the UK, where we have an office and employees. In July 2020, the European Union banned entry by Americans, and, at present, the U.K. is requiring Americans to self-quarantine for 14-days after arrival.  In the event the governments in Massachusetts, California or the UK further extend their shelter in place orders, travel bans, or otherwise prohibit employees from going to work for a longer period of time, our business will be disrupted and our programs and timelines are likely to be delayed, depending on the ultimate length and severity of the mandate. Not all of our employees are able to perform their duties or function remotely.

The operations of our strategic partners could also be impacted by calamities or public health crises, which could materially adversely affect our cash resources and operations. At the beginning of 2020, we projected receipt of approximately $60.0 million of cash milestone payments from existing partners before the end of the year.  Although we did receive $15.1 million of this in the first half of 2020, as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on our partner’s programs and trials, the remaining $45.0 million is now delayed and unlikely to be received this year, which impacts our cash runway and ability to fund our operations. Additional delays resulting from COVID-19 or other crises are likely to materially adversely affect our business.  

Failure to realize the anticipated benefits of our strategic acquisitions and licensing transactions could adversely affect our business, operations and financial condition.

An important part of our business strategy has been to identify and advance a pipeline of product candidates by acquiring and in-licensing product candidates, technologies and businesses that we believe are a strategic fit with our existing business. Since we acquired 4-AB in 2014, we have completed numerous additional strategic acquisitions and licensing transactions. The ultimate success of these strategic transactions entails numerous operational and financial risks, including:

higher than expected development and integration costs;

difficulty in combining the technologies, operations and personnel of acquired businesses with our technologies, operations and personnel;

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exposure to unknown liabilities;

difficulty or inability to form a unified corporate culture across multiple office sites both nationally and internationally;

inability to retain key employees of acquired businesses;

disruption of our business and diversion of our management’s time and attention; and

difficulty or inability to secure financing to fund development activities for such acquired or in-licensed product candidates, technologies or businesses.

We have limited resources to integrate acquired and in-licensed product candidates, technologies and businesses into our current infrastructure, and we may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of our strategic transactions. Any such damagesfailure could have an adverse effect on our business, operations and financial condition.

We intend to advance our cell therapy business through our subsidiary, AgenTus Therapeutics, eventually with separate funding. Moving intellectual property assets into AgenTus Therapeutics in foreign jurisdictions could have adverse tax consequences, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to attract external funding. Moreover, even if the business is funded, there is no guarantee that it will be successful.

We are currently in the process of pursuing external funding and partnership opportunities to advance AgenTus Therapeutics, but Agenus is currently funding such operations. There is no guarantee that external funding will be available. If funding is available, there is no guarantee that it will be on attractive or acceptable terms, or that it will be adequate to advance the business to an inflection point for additional funding, including any potential initial public offering. Similarly, there is no guarantee that partnership opportunities will be available on attractive terms, if at all. If external funding is not available, we may be forced to either retire these programs or continue to use internal resources to advance them. In addition, our cell therapy assets are pre-clinical. Even if adequate funding and partnership opportunities are available, there is no guarantee that we or AgenTus Therapeutics will be successful in advancing one or more product candidates into and through clinical development. In addition, most of the efforts being made on behalf of AgenTus Therapeutics are being led by a separate AgenTus chief executive officer, utilizing several members of Agenus’ management team and Agenus’ internal general and administrative resources. The current structure could distract management and divert Agenus resources from Agenus’ own core pipeline and programs.

The cell therapy assets necessary to enable AgenTus Therapeutics are currently owned or controlled by Agenus in the United States and Switzerland. In connection with capitalizing AgenTus Therapeutics, these assets will be transferred or licensed to new legal entities within the United States and Europe and potentially others. Transferring these assets or licensing them on an exclusive basis would require that taxes be paid based on the fair market value of the assets. We may not have adequate net operating losses to offset any tax liabilities in the relevant jurisdictions. Moreover, we have previously disclosed our interest in potentially issuing a tax-free dividend to Agenus’ stockholders in the form of stock of AgenTus Therapeutics. There is no guarantee that any such dividend will be tax-free or that it will be issued at all, or the timing thereof. If we issue a dividend in the form of stock, there could be substantially in excessadverse tax consequences for certain of any available insurance coverage and could substantially disrupt our business.stockholders.

Risks Related to our Common Stock

Provisions in our organizational documents could prevent or frustrate attempts by stockholders to replace our current management.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us without the consent of our Board of Directors. Our certificate of incorporation provides for a staggered board and removal of directors only for cause. Accordingly, stockholders may elect only a minority of our Board at any annual meeting, which may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in management. In addition, under our certificate of incorporation, our Board of Directors may issue additional shares of preferred stock and determine the terms of those shares of stock without any further action by our stockholders.

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Our issuance of additional preferred stock could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire a majority of our outstanding voting stock and thereby effect a change in the composition of our Board of Directors. Our certificate of incorporation also provides that our stockholders may not take action by written consent. Our bylaws require advance notice of stockholder proposals and director nominations and permit only our president or a majority of the Board of Directors to call a special stockholder meeting. These provisions may have the effect of preventing or hindering attempts by our stockholders to replace our current management. In addition, Delaware law prohibits a corporation from engaging in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock until the holder has held the stock for three years unless, among other possibilities, the board of directors approves the transaction. Our Board of Directors may use this provision to prevent changes in our management. Also, under applicable Delaware law, our Board of Directors may adopt additional anti-takeover measures in the future.

Our stock has historically had low trading volume, and its public trading price has been volatile.

During the period from our initial public offering on February 4, 2000 to SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, and the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 2019,2020, the closing price of our common stock has fluctuated between $1.59 (or $0.27 pre-reverse stock split) and $315.78 (or $52.63 pre-reverse stock split) per share and $2.17$1.92 and $3.73$4.39 per share, respectively. The average daily trading volume for the ninesix months ended SeptemberJune 30, 20192020 was approximately 1,189,0062,677,035 shares, while the average daily trading volume for the year ended December 31, 20182019 was approximately 1,538,510.1,191,940 shares. The market may experience significant price and volume fluctuations that are often unrelated to the operating performance of individual companies. In addition to general market volatility, many factors may have a significant adverse effect on the market price of our stock, including:

continuing operating losses, which we expect over the next several years as we continue our development activities;

continuing operating losses, which we expect over the next several years as we continue our development activities;

announcements of decisions made by public officials or delays in any such announcements;

announcements of decisions made by public officials or delays in any such announcements;

results of our pre-clinical studies and clinical trials or delays in anticipated timing;

results of our pre-clinical studies and clinical trials or delays in anticipated timing;

delays in our regulatory filings or those of our partners;

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delays in our regulatory filings or those of our partners;

announcements of new collaboration agreements with strategic partners or developments by our existing collaboration partners;

announcements of new collaboration agreements with strategic partners or developments by our existing collaboration partners;

announcements of acquisitions;

announcements of acquisitions;

announcements of technological innovations, new commercial products, failures of products, or progress toward commercialization by our competitors or peers;

announcements of technological innovations, new commercial products, failures of products, or progress toward commercialization by our competitors or peers;

failure to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions;

failure to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions;

developments concerning proprietary rights, including patent and litigation matters;

developments concerning proprietary rights, including patent and litigation matters;

publicity regarding actual or potential results with respect to product candidates under development;

publicity regarding actual or potential results with respect to product candidates under development;

quarterly fluctuations in our financial results, including our average monthly cash used in operating activities;

quarterly fluctuations in our financial results, including our average monthly cash used in operating activities;

variations in the level of expenses related to any of our product candidates or clinical development programs;

variations in the level of expenses related to any of our product candidates or clinical development programs;

additions or departures of key management or scientific personnel;

additions or departures of key management or scientific personnel;

conditions or trends in the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries generally;

conditions or trends in the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries generally;

other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters or responses to these events;

other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters or responses to these events;

changes in accounting principles;

changes in accounting principles;

general economic and market conditions and other factors that may be unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including changes in market valuations of similar companies; and

general economic and market conditions and other factors that may be unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including changes in market valuations of similar companies; and

sales of common stock by us or our stockholders in the future, as well as the overall trading volume of our common stock.

sales of common stock by us or our stockholders in the future, as well as the overall trading volume of our common stock.

In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a significant decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because many biopharmaceutical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies experience significant stock price volatility.

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock, or publishes inaccurate or

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unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which could cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

The sale of a significant number of shares could cause the market price of our stock to decline.

The sale by us or the resale by stockholders of a significant number of shares of our common stock could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. As of November 1, 2019, we had 137,361,477 shares of common stock outstanding. All of these shares, except 11,111,111 shares of common stock sold to Gilead in January 2019, are eligible for sale on Nasdaq, although certain of the shares are subject to sales volume and other limitations. We have filed registration statements to permit the sale of approximately 36,000,000 shares of common stock under our equity incentive plans, and to permit the sale of 1,500,000 shares of common stock under our 2015 Inducement Equity Plan. We have also filed registration statements to permit the sale of approximately 667,000 shares of common stock under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, to permit the sale of 425,000 shares of common stock under our Directors’ Deferred Compensation Plan, to permit the sale of approximately 31,100,319 shares of common stock pursuant to various private placement agreements and to permit the sale of up to 50,000,000 shares of our common stock pursuant to our At Market Issuance Sales Agreement. As of the date of filing, an aggregate of approximately 73,449,779 of these shares remained available for sale. In October 2018, we completed a private placement of 18,459 shares of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock, convertible into 18,459,000 shares of common stock. The resale of all 18,459,000 shares of common stock underlying the 18,459 shares of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock was registered with the SEC pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the SEC on November 8, 2018 and declared effective on December 10, 2018. As part of our collaboration with Gilead, we completed a private placement of 11,111,111 shares of common stock in January 2019, and on October 25, 2019, we filed a Registration Statement on Form S-3 to register the resale of these shares by Gilead, as required under our agreement. As of the date of this filing, such registration statement has not yet been declared effective by the SEC and Gilead is also prohibited from selling the shares before January 2020. In connection with our acquisition of 4-AB in February 2014, we are obligated to make contingent milestone payments to the former shareholders of 4-AB, payable in cash or shares of our common stock at our option, as follows (i) $10.0 million upon our market capitalization exceeding $750.0 million for 30 consecutive trading days prior to the earliest of (a) February 12, 2024, (b) the sale of 4-AB or (c) the sale of Agenus and (ii) $10.0 million upon our market capitalization exceeding $1.0 billion for 30 consecutive trading days prior to the earliest of (a) February 12, 2024, (b) the sale of 4-AB or (c) the sale of Agenus. In connection with our acquisition of PhosImmune in December 2015, we issued 1,631,521 shares of our common stock to the shareholders of PhosImmune and other third parties having a fair market value of approximately $7.4 million at closing. In addition, we may be obligated in the future to pay certain contingent milestones payments, payable at our election in cash or shares of our common stock of up to $35.0 million in the aggregate. If we elect to pay any of these contingent milestones in shares, we are obligated to file registration statements covering any such shares. The market price of our common stock may decrease based on the expectation of such sales.

As of September 30, 2019, warrants to purchase approximately 1,400,000 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price per share of $5.10 were outstanding.

As of September 30, 2019, options to purchase 24,890,137 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price per share of $3.62 were outstanding. These options are subject to vesting that occurs over a period of up to four years following the date of grant. As of September 30, 2019, we had 12,710,229 vested options and 2,117,285 non-vested shares outstanding.

As of September 30, 2019, our outstanding shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock were convertible into 333,333 shares of our common stock.

As of September 30, 2019, our outstanding shares of Series C-1 Convertible Preferred Stock were convertible into 12,459,000 shares of our common stock.

We may issue additional common stock, preferred stock, restricted stock units, or securities convertible into or exchangeable for our common stock. Furthermore, substantially all shares of common stock for which our outstanding stock options or warrants are exercisable are, once they have been purchased, eligible for immediate sale in the public market. The issuance of additional common stock, preferred stock, restricted stock units, or securities convertible into or exchangeable for our common stock or the exercise of stock options or warrants would dilute existing investors and could adversely affect the price of our securities. In addition, such securities may have rights senior to the rights of securities held by existing investors.

53

 


We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our common stock and, consequently your ability to obtain a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common stock and do not intend to do so in the foreseeable future. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business. Therefore, the success of an investment in shares of our common stock will depend upon any future appreciation in their value. There is no guarantee that shares of our common stock will appreciate in value or maintain their current value.

Failure to maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and to comply with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and the price of our common stock.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and rules adopted by the SEC and Nasdaq have resulted in significant costs to us. In particular, our efforts to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related regulations regarding the required assessment of our internal control over financial reporting, and our independent registered public accounting firm’s audit of internal control over financial reporting, have required commitments of significant management time. We expect these commitments to continue.

Our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15 of the Exchange Act) is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all deficiencies or weaknesses in our financial reporting. While our management has concluded that there were no material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018,2019, our procedures are subject to the risk

80


that our controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or as a result of a deterioration in compliance with such procedures. No assurance is given that our procedures and processes for detecting weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting will be effective.

Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, are creating uncertainty for companies. Laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in some cases due to their lack of specificity, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided, which could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs caused by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to comply with these laws, regulations and standards, our reputation may be harmed, and we might be subject to sanctions or investigation by regulatory authorities, such as the SEC. Any such action could adversely affect our operating results and the market price of our common stock.

The sale of a significant number of shares could cause the market price of our stock to decline.

The sale by us or the resale by stockholders of a significant number of shares of our common stock could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. As of August 3, 2020, we had 183,442,653 shares of common stock outstanding. Except for the 4,962,779 shares of common stock recently issued to Betta Pharmaceuticals, substantially all of these shares are eligible for sale on Nasdaq, although certain of the shares are subject to sales volume and other limitations. We have filed registration statements to permit the sale of approximately 36,000,000 shares of common stock under our equity incentive plans, and to permit the sale of 1,500,000 shares of common stock under our 2015 Inducement Equity Plan. We have also filed registration statements to permit the sale of approximately 667,000 shares of common stock under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, to permit the sale of 425,000 shares of common stock under our Directors’ Deferred Compensation Plan, to permit the sale of approximately 31,100,319 shares of common stock pursuant to various private placement agreements and to permit the sale of up to 100,000,000 shares of our common stock pursuant to our At Market Issuance Sales Agreement. As of August 3, 2020, an aggregate of approximately 132,745,356 of these shares remained available for sale. In October 2018, we completed a private placement of 18,459 shares of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock, convertible into 18,459,000 shares of common stock. The resale of all 18,459,000 shares of common stock underlying the 18,459 shares of Series C-1 convertible preferred stock was registered with the SEC pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the SEC on November 8, 2018 and declared effective on December 10, 2018. As part of our collaboration with Betta Pharmaceuticals, we completed a private placement of 4,962,779 shares of common stock in July 2020, the resale of which must be registered with the SEC by June 2021. As part of our collaboration with Gilead, we completed a private placement of 11,111,111 shares of common stock in January 2019, and on October 25, 2019, we filed a Registration Statement on Form S-3 to register the resale of these shares by Gilead, as required under our agreement. In connection with our acquisition of 4-AB in February 2014, we are obligated to make contingent milestone payments to the former shareholders of 4-AB, payable in cash or shares of our common stock at our option, as follows (i) $10.0 million upon our market capitalization exceeding $750.0 million for 30 consecutive trading days prior to the earliest of (a) February 12, 2024, (b) the sale of 4-AB or (c) the sale of Agenus and (ii) $10.0 million upon our market capitalization exceeding $1.0 billion for 30 consecutive trading days prior to the earliest of (a) February 12, 2024, (b) the sale of 4-AB or (c) the sale of Agenus. In connection with our acquisition of PhosImmune in December 2015, we issued 1,631,521 shares of our common stock to the shareholders of PhosImmune and other third parties having a fair market value of approximately $7.4 million at closing. In addition, we may be obligated in the future to pay certain contingent milestones payments, payable at our election in cash or shares of our common stock of up to $35.0 million in the aggregate. If we elect to pay any of these contingent milestones in shares, we are obligated to file registration statements covering any such shares. The market price of our common stock may decrease based on the expectation of such sales.

As of June 30, 2020, warrants to purchase approximately 1,950,000 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price per share of $4.89 were outstanding.

As of June 30, 2020, options to purchase 26,079,300 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price per share of $3.69 were outstanding. These options are subject to vesting that occurs over a period of up to four years following the date of grant. As of June 30, 2020, we had 12,863,425 vested options and 872,530 non-vested shares outstanding.

As of June 30, 2020, our outstanding shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock were convertible into 333,333 shares of our common stock.

As of June 30, 2020, our outstanding shares of Series C-1 Convertible Preferred Stock were convertible into 12,459,000 shares of our common stock.

We may issue additional common stock, preferred stock, restricted stock units, or securities convertible into or exchangeable for our common stock. Furthermore, substantially all shares of common stock for which our outstanding stock options or warrants are exercisable are, once they have been purchased, eligible for immediate sale in the public market. The issuance of additional common stock, preferred stock, restricted stock units, or securities convertible into or exchangeable for our common stock or the exercise of

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stock options or warrants would dilute existing investors and could adversely affect the price of our securities. In addition, such securities may have rights senior to the rights of securities held by existing investors.

Anti-takeover provisions under our charter documents and Delaware law could delay or prevent a change of control which could limit the market price of our common stock and may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us without the consent of our Board of Directors. Our certificate of incorporation provides for a staggered board and removal of directors only for cause. Accordingly, stockholders may elect only a minority of our Board at any annual meeting, which may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in management. In addition, under our certificate of incorporation, our Board of Directors may issue additional shares of preferred stock and determine the terms of those shares of stock without any further action by our stockholders. Our issuance of additional preferred stock could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire a majority of our outstanding voting stock and thereby effect a change in the composition of our Board of Directors. Our certificate of incorporation also provides that our stockholders may not take action by written consent. Our bylaws require advance notice of stockholder proposals and director nominations and permit only our president or a majority of the Board of Directors to call a special stockholder meeting. These provisions may have the effect of preventing or hindering attempts by our stockholders to replace our current management. In addition, Delaware law prohibits a corporation from engaging in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock until the holder has held the stock for three years unless, among other possibilities, the board of directors approves the transaction. Our Board of Directors may use this provision to prevent changes in our management. Also, under applicable Delaware law, our Board of Directors may adopt additional anti-takeover measures in the future.

These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to obtain control of our board of directors or initiate actions that are opposed by the then-current board of directors and could also delay or impede a merger, tender offer or proxy contest involving our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for our stockholders and other stockholders to elect directors of their choosing or cause us to take other corporate actions they desire. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction or changes in our board of directors could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

We have broad discretion in the use of our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments and may not use them effectively.

Our management has broad discretion in the application of our cash, cash equivalents and investments. Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of our cash, cash equivalents and investments, their ultimate use may vary substantially from their currently intended use. Our management might not apply our cash, cash equivalents and investments in ways that ultimately increase the value of our stockholders investment. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could harm our business. Pending their use, we may invest our cash in short-term, investment- grade, interest-bearing securities. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our stockholders. If we do not use our resources in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

If securities or industry analysts do not continue to publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price may decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

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Item 6.

Exhibits

 

Exhibit No.

 

Description

4.1

Stock Purchase Agreement, dated as of June 20, 2020, by and among Agenus Inc., Betta Investment (Hong Kong) Limited, and Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Filed herewith.

10.1(1)

License and Collaboration Agreement, dated as of June 20, 2020, by and between Agenus Inc. and Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Filed herewith.

 

 

 

31.1

 

Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to Rules 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Filed herewith.

 

 

 

31.2

 

Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to Rules 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Filed herewith.

 

 

 

32.1

 

Certification of Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350 as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Submitted herewith.

 

 

 

101.INS

 

XBRL Instance Document (the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document)

 

 

 

101.SCH

 

Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document

 

 

 

101.CAL

 

Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document

 

 

 

101.DEF

 

Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document

 

 

 

101.LAB

 

Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document

 

 

 

101.PRE

 

Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

104

Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document and included in Exhibit 101)

 

(1) Certain material contained in this exhibit has been redacted pursuant to Item 601(b)(10)(iv) of Regulation S-K of the Securities Act of 1933.

 

5483

 


AGENUS INC.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

 

Date:

 

November 7, 2019August 10, 2020

 

AGENUS INC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/s/ CHRISTINE M. KLASKIN

 

 

 

 

Christine M. Klaskin

VP, Finance, Principal Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer

 

 

 

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