CBIO US Equity☆

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Our business is subject to numerous risks. You should carefully consider the following risks, as well as general economic and business risks, and all of the other information contained in this Annual Report, together with any other documents we file with the SEC. Any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Needs

We have incurred significant losses since our inception. We expect to continue to incur losses over the next several years and may never achieve or maintain profitability.

Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $309.5 million. In recent years, we have financed our operations with proceeds from registered public offerings of our common stock and upfront and milestone payments under our license and collaboration agreements. We have not generated any meaningful revenue since our inception other than such payments from our license and collaboration agreements.

We have devoted substantially all of our financial resources and efforts to research and development, including preclinical studies and clinical trials. We are still in the early stages of development of our drug candidates, and we have not completed development of any drugs. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses over the next several years. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially as we:

● continue the research and preclinical development of our drug candidates;

● seek to discover and develop additional drug candidates;

● maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;

To become and remain profitable, we must succeed in developing and eventually commercializing drugs that generate significant revenue. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical testing and clinical trials of our drug candidates, obtaining regulatory approval for these drug candidates and manufacturing and commercializing any drugs for which we may obtain regulatory approval, as well as discovering additional drug candidates. We are only in the preliminary stages of most of these activities. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenue that is significant enough to achieve profitability.

In the case of uproleselan and GMI-1687, our ability to generate revenue is partially dependent upon the achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones and sales sufficient to generate royalties under our license agreement with Apollomics, and the achievement of such milestones is largely out of our control. If Apollomics fails, or chooses not to continue, to further develop, to seek regulatory approval for or to commercialize uproleselan in Greater China, our ability to generate revenue with respect to uproleselan may be significantly reduced or eliminated.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with drug development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability. If we are required by regulatory authorities to perform studies in addition to those currently expected, or if there are any delays in completing our clinical trials or the development of any of our drug candidates, our expenses could increase.

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Even 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 depress the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our research and development efforts or even continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely affect our stock price.

We will need substantial additional funding to pursue our business objectives. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our drug development programs or potential commercialization efforts.

We believe that our cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2020 will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the fourth quarter of 2022. However, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

● the costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of our drug candidates;

Identifying potential drug candidates and conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we or any current or future collaborators may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain regulatory approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our drug candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenue, if any, will be derived from the sale of drugs that we do not expect to be commercially available for several years, if at all. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or any future commercialization efforts. For example, our ability to raise additional capital may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and the recent disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenue from the sale of our drugs, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings and license and development agreements. We do not currently have any committed external source of funds other than possible milestone payments and possible royalties under our license agreement with Apollomics. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that could adversely affect your rights as a common stockholder. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends.

If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may be required to relinquish valuable rights to our research programs or drug candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through

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equity or debt financings or other arrangements with third parties when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our drug development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to third parties to develop and market drug candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

Our operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

We commenced operations in 2003, and our operations to date have been largely focused on raising capital, developing our expertise in carbohydrate chemistry and knowledge of carbohydrate biology, identifying potential drug candidates, undertaking preclinical studies and conducting clinical trials. We have two drug candidates in clinical development, but we have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully complete later stage clinical trials, obtain regulatory approvals, manufacture a commercial scale drug, or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful commercialization.

We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known or unknown factors in achieving our business objectives. We will need to transition at some point from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.

We expect our financial condition and operating results to continue to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, you should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual periods as indications of future operating performance

Our ability to use net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to limitations.

As of December 31, 2020, we had federal and state net operating loss carryforwards of $232.0 million, research and development tax credit carryforwards of $9.6 million and $32.4 million of orphan drug tax credit carryforwards. The federal and state net operating loss carryforwards will begin to expire, if not utilized, beginning in 2026, the research and development tax credits in 2023 and the orphan drug tax credit in 2033. These net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. Under federal income tax laws, federal net operating losses incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses is limited. In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provisions of state law, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. We could experience ownership changes in the future that would limit our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards.

Risks Related to the Discovery and Development of Our Drug Candidates

Our research and development is focused on discovering and developing novel glycomimetic drugs, and we are taking an innovative approach to discovering and developing drugs, which may never lead to marketable drugs.

A key element of our strategy is to use and expand our platform to build a pipeline of novel glycomimetic drug candidates and progress these drug candidates through clinical development for the treatment of a variety of diseases. The discovery of therapeutic drugs based on molecules that mimic the structure of carbohydrates is an emerging field, and the scientific discoveries that form the basis for our efforts to discover and develop drug candidates are relatively new. The scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing drug candidates based on these discoveries is both preliminary and limited. Although our research and development efforts to date have resulted in a pipeline of glycomimetic drug candidates, we may not be able to develop drug candidates that are safe and effective. Even if we are successful in continuing to build our pipeline, the potential drug candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development, including as a result of being shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be drugs that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance. If we do not successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates based upon our glycomimetics platform, we will not be able to obtain product revenue in future periods, which likely would result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely affect our stock price.

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We have only two drug candidates that are in active clinical trials. All of our other drug candidates are still in preclinical development. If we or our collaborators are unable to commercialize our drug candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

Uproleselan and GMI-1359 are our only drug candidates that are in clinical trials. Our other drug candidates are still in preclinical development. We have not completed the development of any drug candidates, we currently generate no revenue from the sale of any drugs and we may never be able to develop a marketable drug. We have invested substantially all of our efforts and financial resources in the development of our glycomimetics platform, the identification of potential drug candidates using that platform and the development of our drug candidates. Our ability to generate revenue from our other drug candidates, which we do not expect to occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on their successful development and eventual commercialization. The success of those drug candidates will depend on several factors, including:

● successful completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials;

● receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;

● effectively competing with other therapies;

● obtaining and maintaining healthcare coverage and adequate reimbursement;

● protecting our rights in our intellectual property portfolio; and

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

Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our drug candidates.

All of our drug candidates other than uproleselan and GMI-1359 are in preclinical development, and their risk of failure is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our drug candidates will prove safe or effective in humans or will receive regulatory approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any drug candidate, we or a collaborator must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the drug candidate in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of development. The outcome of preclinical testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. In addition, changes in patient treatment options over time may make the relevance of historical control data for a given indication less relevant to the drug candidate being studied, which could impact the success of the trial or, even if successful, the desirability of a successful drug candidate versus other available treatment options. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their drug candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their drugs.

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We or our current or future collaborators may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our or their ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our drug candidates, including:

If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our drug candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our drug candidates or other testing, if the results of these clinical trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:

● be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our drug candidates;

● not obtain marketing approval at all;

● be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements; or

● have the drug removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval.

Our drug development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our preclinical studies or clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant preclinical study or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our drug candidates or allow our competitors to bring drugs to market before we do, and thereby impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates.

If we or our collaborators experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, or obtaining data on the patients enrolled, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.

We are currently conducting a Phase 3 clinical trial of our drug candidate uproleselan, for which we currently expect to complete enrollment in the second half of 2021. However, the timing for completion of enrollment in this and other clinical trials, or in obtaining relevant clinical data from such trials, could be delayed for a number of reasons. For

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example, we experienced delays in recruitment for this trial early in the pandemic as a result of hospital initiatives to treat COVID patients in the United States and other countries in which our trial is conducted as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As the situation continues to evolve on a daily basis, it is impossible for us to assess whether any such adverse impacts in recruitment will be ongoing in the short- or long-term, or whether our efforts to mitigate any such impacts, if any, will be effective. In addition, we or our collaborators may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our drug candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. In particular, because our drug candidates are intended to treat patients with orphan diseases such as AML, our or our collaborators’ ability to enroll eligible patients may be limited or may result in slower enrollment than we anticipate. In addition, some of our competitors have ongoing clinical trials for drug candidates that treat the same or similar indications as our drug candidates, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ drug candidates. Patient enrollment is also affected by other factors, including:

● the severity of the disease or condition under investigation;

● the eligibility criteria for the trial;

● the perceived risks and benefits of the drug candidate;

● 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; and

Our or our collaborators’ inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for clinical trials would result in significant delays, could lead to incomplete data sets and could require us or them to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in these clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our drug candidates, which would cause the value of our company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing.

Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of health epidemics or pandemics, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in regions where we or third parties on whom we rely have significant manufacturing facilities, clinical trial sites or other business operations.

Our business could be adversely affected by health epidemics or pandemics in regions where we have concentrations of clinical trial sites or other business operations, and could cause significant disruption in the operations of third-party collaborators, manufacturers and CROs upon whom we rely. For example, in December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, causing a disease referred to as COVID-19, was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China. Since then, COVID-19 has spread to multiple countries, including the United States and several European countries. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, and the U.S. government imposed travel restrictions on travel between the United States, Europe and certain other countries. Further, the President of the United States declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, invoking powers under the Stafford Act, the legislation that directs federal emergency disaster response. Similarly, a state of emergency and catastrophic health emergency related to the spread of COVID-19 was declared for the State of Maryland on March 5, 2020, including Rockville, Maryland where our headquarters are located. In March and April 2020, the Governor of Maryland renewed the emergency declarations and issued aggressive proclamations and orders to reduce the spread of the disease, including a stay-at-home order. Although the initial stay-at-home order has been superseded, there continue to be significant restrictions imposed on business activity.

In response to these public health directives and orders, we have implemented a work-from-home policy for most of our employees. The effects of our work-from-home policy may negatively impact productivity, disrupt our business and delay our clinical programs and timelines, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length and severity of the restrictions and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course. These and similar, and perhaps more severe, disruptions in our operations could negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition.

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Quarantines, shelter-in-place, stay-at-home, executive and similar government orders—or the perception that such orders, shutdowns or other restrictions on the conduct of business operations could occur—related to COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, could impact personnel at third-party manufacturing facilities in the United States and other countries, or the availability or cost of materials, which would disrupt our supply chain. For example, any manufacturing supply interruption of uproleselan, which is currently manufactured at facilities in Switzerland and China, could adversely affect our ability to conduct ongoing and future clinical trials of uproleselan.

In addition, our clinical trials may be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical site initiation and patient enrollment may be delayed due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 pandemic. Some patients may not be able to comply with clinical trial protocols if quarantines impede patient movement or interrupt healthcare services. Similarly, our ability to recruit and retain patients and principal investigators and site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure to COVID-19 and adversely impact our clinical trial operations.

The spread of COVID-19, which has caused a broad impact globally, may materially affect us economically. While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, the COVID-19 outbreak may be difficult to assess or predict, a widespread pandemic could result in significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, our clinical trials, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole. However, these effects could have a material impact on our operations, and we will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely.

If serious adverse or unacceptable side effects are identified during the development of our drug candidates, we may need to abandon or limit the development of some of our drug candidates.

If our drug candidates are associated with undesirable side effects in clinical trials or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to abandon their development or limit their development to more narrow uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Many drug candidates that initially showed promise in early stage testing have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development.

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

Because we have limited financial and management resources, we focus on a limited number of research programs and drug candidates. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other drug candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial drugs or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and drug candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable drugs. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular drug candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that drug candidate through collaboration, licensing or other arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights.

Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties

Our success depends in part on current and future collaborations. If we are unable to maintain any of these collaborations, or if these collaborations are not successful, our business could be adversely affected.

We have limited capabilities for drug development and do not yet have any capabilities for sales, marketing or distribution. We cannot assure you that our current or future collaborators will develop our drug candidates in a timely manner, or at all, or, if regulatory approval for a drug candidate is achieved, that such collaborator will successfully commercialize the candidate.

Any collaborations we might enter into may pose a number of risks, including:

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● collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected;

If any collaborations we might enter into do not result in the successful development and commercialization of drugs, 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. For example, in February 2020, Pfizer terminated its license agreement with us for the worldwide development and commercialization of rivipansel, thereby eliminating our right to receive any future development or commercialization milestones or royalty payments for sales of the drug candidate. In addition, even if we are eligible to receive any such payments from a collaborator, they could be substantially delayed. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these agreements, the development of our drug candidates could be delayed and we may need additional resources to develop our drug candidates. All of the risks relating to drug development, regulatory approval and commercialization described in this report also apply to the activities of our collaborators.

If a current or future collaborator of ours is involved in a business combination, the collaborator might deemphasize or terminate development or commercialization of any drug candidate licensed to it by us. If one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may find it more difficult to attract new collaborators and our reputation in the business and financial communities could be adversely affected. We may in the future determine to collaborate with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for their development and potential commercialization of our drug candidates. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a

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definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of a 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 drug candidate, reduce or delay its development 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 fund and undertake 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 and do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities, we may not be able to further develop our drug candidates or bring them to market, which would impair our business prospects.

We expect to rely on third parties to conduct our future clinical trials for drug candidates, and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials.

We have engaged a third-party contract research organization, or CRO, to conduct our ongoing and planned clinical trials for uproleselan and GMI-1359 and expect to engage CROs with respect to any of our other drug candidates that may progress to clinical development. We expect to continue to rely on third parties, such as CROs, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions and clinical investigators, to conduct those clinical trials. Agreements with such third parties might terminate for a variety of reasons, including a failure to perform by the third parties. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, that would delay our drug development activities.

Our reliance on these third parties for research and development activities will reduce our control over these activities, but will not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with standards, commonly referred to as good clinical practices, or GCPs, for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database, ClinicalTrials.gov, within specified timeframes. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity and significant civil and criminal sanctions.

Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for our drug candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize our drug candidates.

We also expect to rely on other third parties to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of our distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our drug candidates or commercialization of our drugs, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential revenue.

We contract with third parties for the manufacturing of our drug candidates for preclinical and clinical testing and expect to continue to do so for commercialization. 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 do not have any manufacturing facilities or personnel. For our drug candidates other than rivipansel, for which manufacturing responsibility will remain with Pfizer until the first anniversary of the effective date of termination of our license agreement with them, we rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the manufacturing of our drug candidates for preclinical and clinical testing, as well as for commercial manufacture if any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval. Disruption to our supply arrangements may arise from unforeseeable events that impact such third parties, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our 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 or quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our ability to timely conduct our clinical trials or our other development or commercialization efforts.

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We also expect to rely on third-party manufacturers or third-party collaborators for the manufacturing of commercial supply of any other drug candidates for which we or our collaborators obtain marketing approval. We may be unable to establish any agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, 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;

Third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, regulations or similar regulatory requirements outside the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of drug candidates or drugs, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our drugs.

In addition, in the event that any of our third-party manufacturers fails to comply with such requirements or to perform its obligations to us in relation to quality, timing or otherwise, or if our supply of components or other materials becomes limited or interrupted for other reasons, we may be forced to manufacture the materials ourselves, for which we currently do not have the capabilities or resources, or enter into an agreement with another third party, which we may not be able to do on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply or a second source for bulk drug substance. If our current contract manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers and we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement. Any replacement of our manufacturers could require significant effort and expertise because there may be a limited number of qualified replacements. If we are required to change manufacturers for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations and guidelines. The delays associated with the verification of a new manufacturer could negatively affect our ability to develop our drug candidates in a timely manner or within budget.

Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacturing of our drug candidates or drugs may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any drugs that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.

We, or our third-party manufacturers, may be unable to successfully scale-up manufacturing of our drug candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from conducting our ongoing and planned clinical trials and developing our drug candidates.

In order to conduct our ongoing and planned clinical trials of our drug candidates, we will need to manufacture them in large quantities. We, or our manufacturing partners, may be unable to successfully increase the manufacturing capacity for any of our drug candidates in a timely or cost-effective manner, or at all. In addition, quality issues may arise during scale-up activities. If we or our manufacturing partners are unable to successfully scale up the manufacture of our drug candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, the development, testing and clinical trials of that drug candidate may be delayed or become infeasible, and marketing approval or commercial launch of any resulting drug may be delayed or not obtained, which could significantly harm our business.

Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Drug Candidates

Even if any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval, it 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 any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval, it may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. If our drug candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant revenue from drug sales and we may not

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become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our drug candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:

● the efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments;

● our ability to offer our drugs for sale at competitive prices;

● the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;

● the strength of marketing and distribution support;

● the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement;

● the prevalence and severity of any side effects; and

● any restrictions on the use of our drugs together with other medications.

If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for our drug candidates, we may not be successful in commercializing those drug candidates if and when they are approved.

We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure and have no experience in the sale, marketing or distribution of pharmaceutical drugs. To achieve commercial success for any drug candidate for which we may obtain marketing approval, we will need to establish a sales and marketing organization to market or co-promote such drugs. There are risks involved with establishing our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a drug candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.

Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our drugs on our own include:

If we are unable to establish our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities and enter into arrangements with third parties to perform these services, our revenue and our profitability, if any, are likely to be lower than if we were to sell, market and distribute any drugs that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell, market and distribute our drug candidates or may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us. We likely will have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our drugs effectively. If we do not establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing our drug candidates.

We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing drugs before or more successfully than we do.

The development and commercialization of new drugs is highly competitive. We face competition with respect to our current drug candidates, and we will face competition with respect to any drug candidates that we may seek to develop or commercialize in the future, from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Should any competitors’ drug candidates receive regulatory or marketing approval prior to ours, they may establish a strong market position and be difficult to displace or diminish the need for our drug candidates.

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The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our drug candidates, if approved, are likely to be their safety, efficacy, convenience, price, the level of generic competition and the availability of coverage and reimbursement from government and other third-party payors. As described above under “Business—Competition,” we expect that our drug candidates will compete with approved therapies and those currently in development by other companies. To the extent that competitive drugs or drug candidates developed by others are successful in treating our target indications, it could reduce the market opportunity for our drug candidates.

Many of the companies against which we are competing, or against which we may compete in the future, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved drugs than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize drugs that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any drugs that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their drugs more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market.

In addition, because we have no patents with respect to our glycomimetics platform, our competitors may use our methods, or acquire similar expertise, in order to develop glycomimetic drug candidates and progress these drug candidates through clinical development and commercialization, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates or otherwise limit our commercial opportunities.

Even if we or our collaborators are able to commercialize any of our drug candidates, the drugs may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations or third-party coverage and reimbursement policies.

Our and our collaborators’ ability to commercialize any of our drug candidates successfully will depend, in part, on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these drugs and related treatments will be available from government payor programs at the federal and state levels authorities, including Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurers, managed care plans 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. A primary trend in the U.S. healthcare industry 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 drugs. Coverage and reimbursement may not be available for any drug that we or our collaborators commercialize and, even if these are available, the level of reimbursement may not be satisfactory. Inadequate reimbursement levels may adversely affect the demand for, or the price of, any drug candidate for which we or our collaborators obtain marketing approval. Obtaining and maintaining adequate reimbursement for our drugs may be difficult. We may be required to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies to justify coverage and reimbursement or the level of reimbursement relative to other therapies. If coverage and adequate reimbursement are not available or reimbursement is available only to limited levels, we or our collaborators may not be able to successfully commercialize any drug candidates for which marketing approval is obtained.

There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the indications for which the drug is approved by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. Moreover, eligibility for coverage and reimbursement does not imply that a drug will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution expenses. 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

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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. However, one payor’s determination to provide coverage for a drug does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage for the drug. Our or our collaborators’ inability to promptly obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved drugs that we develop could adversely affect our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize drugs and our overall financial condition.

The regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing, coverage and reimbursement for new drugs vary widely from country to country. Current and future legislation may significantly change the approval requirements in ways that could involve additional costs and cause delays in obtaining approvals. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or licensing approval is granted. In some foreign markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial approval is granted. As a result, we or our collaborators might obtain marketing approval for a drug in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay commercial launch of the drug, possibly for lengthy time periods, and negatively impact our ability to generate revenue from the sale of the drug in that country. Adverse pricing limitations may hinder our ability to recoup our investment in one or more drug candidates, even if our drug candidates obtain marketing approval.

There can be no assurance that our drug candidates, if they are approved for sale in the United States or in other countries, will be considered medically reasonable and necessary for a specific indication, that they will be considered cost-effective by third-party payors, that coverage or an adequate level of reimbursement will be available or that third-party payors’ reimbursement policies will not adversely affect our ability to sell our drug candidates profitably if they are approved for sale.

Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and to limit commercialization of any drugs that we may develop.

We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of our drug candidates in human clinical trials, and will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any drugs that we may develop. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our drug candidates or drugs caused injuries, we will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

● decreased demand for any drug candidates or drugs that we may develop;

● injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;

● withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

● significant costs to defend the related litigation;

● substantial monetary awards paid to trial participants or patients;

● loss of revenue;

● reduced resources of our management to pursue our business strategy; and

● the inability to commercialize any drugs that we may develop.

We carry clinical trial insurance coverage in an amount that we believe is sufficient in relation to our clinical trials being conducted in the United States and in foreign countries where we have or plan to have sites as part of our clinical trials for uproleselan. The use of our drug candidates in clinical trials may result in liability claims for which our current insurance would not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. In addition, we may need to increase our insurance coverage as we expand our clinical trials or if we commence commercialization of our drug candidates. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.

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Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our drug candidates, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize drug candidates similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates may be impaired.

Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our drug candidates. We seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our drug candidates.

The patent prosecution process is expensive and time consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable 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 before it is too late to obtain patent protection. We may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the rights to patents licensed to third parties. Therefore, these patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business.

The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions and has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, or vice versa. For example, European patent law restricts the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body more than U.S. law does. 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 know with certainty whether we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued that protect our drug candidates, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive drug candidates. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection.

Recent patent reform legislation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents. On September 16, 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently developed new regulations and procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act, and in particular, the first to file provisions, only became effective on March 16, 2013. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business. However, the Leahy-Smith Act 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.

Moreover, we may be subject to a third-party preissuance submission of prior art to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or become involved in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our drug candidates and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize drugs without infringing third-party patent rights. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future drug candidates.

Even if our patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative drug candidates in a non-infringing manner.

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In addition, the issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or freedom to operate or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical drug candidates, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our drug candidates. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new drug candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing drugs similar or identical to ours.

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

Competitors may infringe our issued patents or other intellectual property. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringe their patents. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, construe the patent’s claims narrowly or refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology. An adverse result in any litigation proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly.

We may need to license intellectual property from third parties, and such licenses may not be available or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.

A third party may hold intellectual property, including patent, rights that are important or necessary to the development of our drug candidates. It may be necessary for us to use patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our drug candidates, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or our business could be harmed, possibly materially.

Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.

Our commercial success depends upon our ability, and the ability of our collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market and sell our drug candidates without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. There is considerable intellectual property litigation in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. We may become party to, or threatened with, future adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our drug candidates, including interference or derivation proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future.

If we are found to infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our drug candidates. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease commercializing the infringing drug. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our drug candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business.

We may be subject to claims by third parties asserting that we or our employees have misappropriated their intellectual property, or claiming ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.

Many of our employees were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. Although we try to ensure that our employees do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that these employees or we have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims.

In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be

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unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who in fact develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. Our and their assignment agreements may not be self-executing or may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property.

If we fail in prosecuting or defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in prosecuting or defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

Intellectual property litigation could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.

Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause us to incur significant expenses, and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such litigation or proceedings adequately. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could compromise our ability to compete in the marketplace.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

In addition to seeking patents for our drug candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. For example, our platform is based on trade secrets that consist largely of expertise in carbohydrate chemistry and knowledge of carbohydrate biology. We do not believe that we can obtain patent protection for our platform. Thus, our competitors may use our methods, or acquire similar expertise, in order to develop glycomimetic drug candidates and progress these drug candidates through clinical development and commercialization, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates.

We seek to protect our trade secrets, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed.

Risks Related to Regulatory Approval of Our Drug Candidates and Other Legal Compliance Matters

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

Our drug candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, and similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. Failure to obtain marketing approval for a drug candidate will prevent us or our collaborators from commercializing the drug candidate. We have not received approval to market any of our drug candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. We have only limited experience in filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain marketing

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approvals and expect to rely on third-party CROs to assist us in this process. Securing marketing approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the drug candidate’s safety and efficacy. Securing marketing approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, applicable regulatory authorities. Our drug 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 ability to obtain marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use. If any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval, the accompanying label may limit the approved use of our drug, which could limit sales of the drug.

The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive and 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 drug 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 drug application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. Regulatory authorities 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. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical and clinical testing could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of a drug candidate. Any marketing approval we ultimately obtain may be limited or subject to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render the approved drug not commercially viable.

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

Even though we have obtained orphan drug designation for several of our drug candidates, we may not be able to obtain orphan drug marketing exclusivity for these or any of our other drug candidates.

Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, or EU, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a drug as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals annually in the United States. We have obtained orphan drug designation from the FDA for uproleselan for the treatment of AML, as well as for rivipansel for the treatment of SCD and GMI-1359 for the treatment of osteosarcoma. However, in order to obtain marketing exclusivity in a particular jurisdiction, we must receive the first marketing approval of the drug for its intended indication. In addition, the orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review or approval process.

Generally, if a drug with an orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the drug is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the FDA or the EMA from approving another marketing application for the same drug for the same indication for that time period. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and 10 years in the EU. The EU exclusivity period can be reduced to six years if a drug no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified. Orphan drug exclusivity may be lost if the FDA or the EMA determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the drug to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition.

Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a drug candidate, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the candidate from competition because different drugs can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve another drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care.

The FDA fast track designation and additional breakthrough therapy designation for uproleselan may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process.

If a drug is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and the drug demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this disease or condition, the drug sponsor may apply for the FDA fast track designation. If fast track designation is obtained, the FDA may initiate review of sections of a new

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drug application, or NDA, before the application is complete. This “rolling review” is available if the applicant provides, and the FDA approves, a schedule for submission of the individual sections of the application.

Although we have obtained a fast track designation from the FDA for uproleselan to treat AML and breakthrough therapy designation for uproleselan to treat AML, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. Our fast track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development programs. Our fast track designation does not guarantee that we will qualify for or be able to take advantage of the expedited review procedures or that we will ultimately obtain regulatory approval of uproleselan.

Failure to obtain marketing approval in international jurisdictions would prevent our drug candidates from being marketed abroad.

In order to market and sell our drugs in the EU and any other jurisdictions, we or our collaborators must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies among countries and can involve additional testing. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the United States generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the United States, it is required that the drug be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that country. We or our collaborators may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the United States on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. However, failure to obtain approval in one jurisdiction may impact our ability to obtain approval elsewhere. We or our collaborators may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our drugs in any market.

A variety of risks associated with developing and marketing our drug candidates internationally could hurt our business.

We or our collaborators may seek regulatory approval for uproleselan and our other drug candidates outside of the United States and, accordingly, we expect that we will be subject to additional risks related to operating in foreign countries if we obtain the necessary approvals, including:

● differing regulatory requirements in foreign countries;

● foreign taxes, including withholding of payroll taxes;

● difficulties staffing and managing foreign operations;

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Pursuant to the terms of our collaboration and license agreement, Apollomics is responsible for the clinical development and commercialization of uproleselan and GMI-1687 in Greater China. The outbreak of the coronavirus, first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, could have a material adverse effect on Apollomics’ ability to develop these drug candidates in a timely manner due to disruptions in the region, travel restrictions, temporary closures of businesses and suspension of services and supplies. Any such delay or disruptions in clinical development could result in the delay of any potential milestone payments to us under the license and collaboration agreement, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations.

Any drug candidate for which we obtain marketing approval could be subject to post-marketing restrictions or recall or withdrawal from the market, and we may therefore be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our drug candidates, when and if any of them are approved.

Any drug candidate for which we obtain marketing approval, along with manufacturing processes, post-approval clinical data, labeling, advertising and promotional activities for such drug candidate, will be subject to continual requirements of and review by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration and listing requirements, cGMP requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and recordkeeping. Even if marketing approval of a drug candidate is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the drug may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, including the requirement to implement a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy. If any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval, the accompanying label may limit the approved use of our drug, which could limit its sales.

The FDA may also impose requirements for costly post-marketing studies or clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the drug. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure drugs are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use, and if we do not market our drugs for their approved indications, we may be subject to enforcement action for off-label marketing. Violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act relating to the promotion of prescription drugs may lead to investigations alleging violations of federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws.

In addition, later discovery of previously unknown adverse events or other problems with our drugs, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may have negative consequences, including:

● restrictions on such drugs, manufacturers or manufacturing processes;

● restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a drug;

● restrictions on product distribution or use;

● requirements to conduct post-marketing studies or clinical trials;

● warning letters;

● recall or withdrawal of the drugs from the market;

● clinical holds;

● fines, restitution or disgorgement of revenue or profit;

● suspension or withdrawal of marketing approvals;

● refusal to permit the import or export of our drugs;

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● product seizure; or

● injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

Non-compliance with the EU requirements regarding safety monitoring or pharmacovigilance, and with requirements related to the development of drugs for the pediatric population, can also result in significant financial penalties. Similarly, failure to comply with the EU’s requirements regarding the protection of personal information can also lead to significant penalties and sanctions.

Our current and future business and relationships with customers and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere may be subject, directly or indirectly, to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims, transparency, health information privacy and security and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to significant penalties, including criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm, administrative burdens and diminished profits and future earnings.

Healthcare providers and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any drug candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with third-party payors and customers may expose us 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, which may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct clinical research, sell, market and distribute any drugs for which we obtain marketing approval. In addition, we may be subject to transparency laws and patient data privacy and security regulation by the U.S. federal and state governments and by governments in foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The applicable federal, state and foreign healthcare laws and regulations that may affect our ability to operate include:

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Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations may 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 fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, including, without limitation, damages, fines, individual imprisonment, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, disgorgement, exclusion from participation in government healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business, including our collaborators, is found not to be in compliance with applicable laws, it may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from participation in government healthcare programs, which could also materially affect our business.

Recently enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our drug candidates and affect the prices we may obtain.

In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of our drug candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell any drug candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.

Among policy makers and payors in the United States and elsewhere, there is significant interest in promoting changes in healthcare systems with the stated goals of containing healthcare costs, improving quality and expanding access. In the United States, the pharmaceutical industry has been a particular focus of these efforts, which include major legislative initiatives to reduce the cost of care through changes in the healthcare system, including limits on the pricing, coverage, and reimbursement of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products, especially under government-funded health care programs, and increased governmental control of drug. In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively PPACA, a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, improve quality of care, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for the healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms.

Among the provisions of PPACA of importance to our business and potential drug candidates are:

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There remain judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of PPACA, as well as efforts by the Trump administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of the PPACA. Since January 2017, President Trump has signed two Executive Orders and other directives designed to delay the implementation of certain provisions of the PPACA or otherwise circumvent some of the requirements for health insurance mandated by the PPACA. Concurrently, Congress has considered legislation that would repeal or repeal and replace all or part of the PPACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, several bills affecting the implementation of certain taxes under the ACA have been signed into law. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or Tax Act, included a provision which repealed, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the PPACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”. In addition, the 2020 federal spending package permanently eliminates, effective January 1, 2020, the ACA-mandated “Cadillac” tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage and medical device tax and, effective January 1, 2021, also eliminates the health insurer tax. On December 14, 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the PPACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the “individual mandate” was repealed by Congress as part of the Tax Act. Additionally, on December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the District Court ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and remanded the case back to the District Court to determine whether the remaining provisions of the PPACA are invalid as well. It is unclear how this decision, future decisions, subsequent appeals, and other efforts to repeal and replace the PPACA will impact the PPACA and our business.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since PPACA was enacted. These changes include aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which began in 2013, pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011. On March 1, 2013, the President signed an executive order implementing the 2% Medicare payment reductions, and on April 1, 2013, these reductions went into effect. Pursuant to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, these reductions will stay in effect through 2029, unless additional Congressional action is taken. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on customers for our drugs, if approved, and, accordingly, our financial operations.

Current and future healthcare reform measures may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved drug. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government-funded programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. There has been

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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 bills designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. At the federal level, the Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 contained further drug price control measures that could be enacted during the budget process or in other future legislation. Further, the Trump administration released a “Blueprint” to lower drug prices and reduce out of pocket costs of drugs that contains additional proposals to increase drug manufacturer competition, increase the negotiating power of certain federal healthcare programs, incentivize manufacturers to lower the list price of their products, and reduce the out of pocket costs of drug products paid by consumers. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, has solicited feedback on some of these measures and has implemented others under its existing authority. While some of these and other measures may require additional authorization to become effective, Congress has indicated that it will continue to seek new legislative and/or administrative measures to control drug costs. At the state level, legislatures are increasingly passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our drugs.

Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for drugs. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our drug candidates, if any, may be. In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s approval process may significantly delay or prevent marketing approval, as well as subject us to more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.

Governments outside the United States tend to impose strict price controls, which may adversely affect our revenue, if any.

In some countries, particularly in the EU, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a drug. To obtain coverage and reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our drug candidate to other available therapies. If reimbursement of our drugs is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business could be harmed, possibly materially.

If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.

We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties for failure to comply with such laws and regulations.

Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological, hazardous or radioactive materials.

In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.

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Risks Related to Employee Matters and Managing Our Growth

Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.

We are highly dependent on the management, research and development, clinical, financial and business development expertise of Rachel King, our President and Chief Executive Officer; John Magnani, our Senior Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer; Eric Feldman, our Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer; Armand Girard, our Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer; and Brian Hahn, our Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, as well as the other members of our scientific and clinical teams. In particular, we are dependent upon Dr. Magnani for key expertise in carbohydrate chemistry and knowledge of carbohydrate biology with respect to our glycomimetics platform, and the loss of his services would materially impair our future drug discovery efforts. Although we have entered into employment agreements with our executive officers, each of them may currently terminate their employment with us at any time. We do not maintain “key person” insurance for any of our executives or employees.

Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and clinical personnel and, if we progress the development of our drug pipeline toward scaling up for commercialization, sales and marketing personnel, will also be critical to our success. The loss of the services of our executive officers or other key employees could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives and seriously harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval for and commercialize our drug candidates. Competition to hire qualified personnel in our industry is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these key personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, our ability to pursue our growth strategy will be limited.

We expect to expand our development and regulatory capabilities and potentially implement sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, and as a result, we may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our operations.

As our development progresses, we expect to experience significant growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of research, drug development, regulatory affairs and, if any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval, sales, marketing and distribution. To manage our anticipated future growth, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the limited experience of our management team in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. The expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.

Our employees and employees of our collaborators may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements.

We and our collaborators are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with the FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with manufacturing standards we have established, to comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse 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. 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. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of individually identifiable information, including, without limitation, information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. We have adopted a code of business

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conduct and ethics, but it is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent improper activities 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. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, or any such actions are instituted against any of our collaborators, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions and diminished royalties.

General Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

An active trading market for our common stock may not be sustained.

Although our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market, we cannot assure you that an active trading market for our shares will be sustained. If an active market for our common stock is not sustained, it may be difficult for investors in our common stock to sell shares without depressing the market price for the shares or to sell the shares at all.

The trading price of our common stock has been and is likely to continue to be volatile.

Our stock price from time to time has been volatile. The stock market in general and the market for biopharmaceutical companies in particular have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, investors may not be able to sell their common stock at or above the price paid for the shares. The market price for our common stock may be influenced by many factors, including:

● actual or anticipated variations in our operating results;

● conditions or trends in our industry;

● capital commitments;

● investors’ general perception of our company and our business;

● disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;

● recruitment or departure of key personnel; and

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies, including recently in connection with the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in volatile stock prices for many companies notwithstanding the lack of a fundamental change in their underlying business models or prospects. These fluctuations have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors, including potentially worsening economic conditions and other adverse effects or developments relating to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, political, regulatory and other market conditions, may negatively affect the market price of shares of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.

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In addition, in the past, stockholders have initiated class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies following periods of volatility in the market prices of these companies’ stock. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could cause us to incur substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.

If equity research analysts do not publish research or reports, or publish unfavorable research or reports, about us, our business or our market, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. We have only limited research coverage by equity research analysts. Equity research analysts may elect not to initiate or continue to provide research coverage of our common stock, and such lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Even if we have equity research analyst coverage, we will not have any control over the analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our stock could decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our stock or issue other unfavorable commentary or research. If one or more equity research analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

The issuance of additional stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our stock incentive plan, our employee stock purchase plan or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.

Our certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue up to 100,000,000 shares of common stock and up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock with such rights and preferences as may be determined by our board of directors. Subject to compliance with applicable rules and regulations, we may issue our shares of common stock or securities convertible into our common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investment, our stock incentive plan, our employee stock purchase plan or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.

If a substantial number of our total outstanding shares are sold into the market, or if the market perceives that such sales may occur, it could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. If our stockholders sell, or if the market perceives that our stockholders intend to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the market price of our common stock could decline significantly. All of our outstanding shares of common stock are available for sale in the public market, subject only to the restrictions of Rule 144 under the Securities Act in the case of our affiliates.

In addition, we have filed registration statements on Form S-8 registering the issuance of shares of common stock subject to options or other equity awards issued or reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans. Shares registered under these registration statements are available for sale in the public market subject to vesting arrangements and exercise of options, as well as Rule 144 in the case of our affiliates. If these additional shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

Provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to change our management and hinder efforts to acquire a controlling interest in us, and the market price of our common stock may be lower as a result.

There are provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws that may make it difficult for a third party to acquire, or attempt to acquire, control of our company, even if a change in control was considered favorable by some or all of our stockholders. For example, our board of directors has the authority to issue up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock. The board of directors can fix the price, rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the preferred stock without any further vote or action by our stockholders. The issuance of shares of preferred stock may delay or prevent a change in control transaction. As a result, the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of our stockholders may be adversely affected. An issuance of shares of preferred stock may result in the loss of voting control to other stockholders.

Our charter documents also contain other provisions that could have an anti-takeover effect, including:

● only one of our three classes of directors is elected each year;

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● stockholders are not permitted to take actions by written consent;

● stockholders cannot call a special meeting of stockholders; and

In addition, we are subject to the anti-takeover provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which regulates corporate acquisitions by prohibiting Delaware corporations from engaging in specified business combinations with particular stockholders of those companies. These provisions could discourage potential acquisition proposals and could delay or prevent a change in control transaction. They could also have the effect of discouraging others from making tender offers for our common stock, including transactions that may be in your best interests. These provisions may also prevent changes in our management or limit the price that investors are willing to pay for our stock.

Our certificate of incorporation also provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders.

If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired.

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the rules and regulations of The Nasdaq Global Market. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting and perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This requires that we incur substantial additional professional fees and internal costs to expand our accounting and finance functions and that we expend significant management efforts.

We may in the future discover areas of our internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that need improvement. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.

If we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls in the future, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements, and we may conclude that our internal controls over financial reporting are not effective. If that were to happen, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities.

We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future and our stock may not appreciate in value.

We have not declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock to date. We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. In addition, the terms of any future debt agreements may preclude us from paying dividends. There is no guarantee that shares of our common stock will appreciate in value or that the price at which our stockholders have purchased their shares will be able to be maintained.

We incur increased costs and demands upon management as a result of being a public company.

As a public company listed in the United States, we incur, and will continue to incur now that we have ceased to be an “emerging growth company,” significant legal, accounting and other costs. These costs could negatively affect our financial results. In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including regulations implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq, may increase legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies.

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We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If we do not comply with new laws, regulations and standards, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.

Failure to comply with these rules might also make it more difficult for us to obtain some types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we might be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these events could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, on committees of our board of directors or as members of senior management.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Our principal offices occupy approximately 42,000 square feet of leased office space in Rockville, Maryland, pursuant to a lease agreement that expires in October 2023. We believe that our properties are generally in good condition, well maintained, suitable and adequate to carry on our business. We believe our capital resources are sufficient to lease any additional facilities required to meet our expected growth needs.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we are subject to litigation and claims arising in the ordinary course of business. We are not currently a party to any material legal proceedings and we are not aware of any pending or threatened legal proceeding against us that we believe could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, cash flows or financial condition.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II

Market Information for Common Stock

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “GLYC.”

Dividend Policy

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

Stockholders

As of February 26, 2021, we had 51,493,571 shares of common stock outstanding held by 24 holders of record. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders of record also does not include stockholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.

Performance Graph

The following graph compares the five-year cumulative total return of our common stock with the Nasdaq Composite Index (U.S.) and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index. The comparison assumes a $100 investment on December 31, 2015 in our common stock, the stocks comprising the Nasdaq Composite Index, and the stocks comprising the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, and assumes reinvestment of the full amount of all dividends, if any. Historical stockholder return is not necessarily indicative of the performance to be expected for any future periods.

Comparison of Cumulative Total Return

Among GlycoMimetics, Inc., the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index

The performance graph shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference by means of any general statement incorporating by reference this Form 10-K into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended or the Exchange Act, except to the extent that we specifically incorporate such information by reference, and shall not otherwise be deemed filed under such acts.

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Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Parties

None.

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

Not applicable.

​

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You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should review Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this Annual Report for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

For the discussion of our financial condition and results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the SEC on February 28, 2020.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel glycomimetic drugs to address unmet medical needs resulting from diseases in which carbohydrate biology plays a key role. We are developing a pipeline of proprietary glycomimetics, which are small molecules that mimic the structure of carbohydrates involved in important biological processes, to inhibit disease-related functions of carbohydrates such as the roles they play in inflammation, cancer and infection. We believe this represents an innovative approach to drug discovery to treat a wide range of diseases. We are focusing our efforts on drug candidates for diseases that we believe will qualify for orphan drug designation.

Our proprietary glycomimetics platform is based on our expertise in carbohydrate chemistry and our understanding of the role carbohydrates play in key biological processes. Most human proteins are modified by the addition of complex carbohydrate structures to the surface of such proteins, which affects the functions of the proteins and their interactions with other molecules. Our initial research and development efforts have focused on drug candidates targeting selectins, which are proteins that serve as adhesion molecules and bind to carbohydrates that are involved in the inflammatory component and progression of a wide range of diseases, including hematologic disorders, cancer and cardiovascular disease. For example, we believe that members of the selectin family play a key role in tumor metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy. Inhibiting specific carbohydrates from binding to selectins has long been viewed as a potentially attractive approach for therapeutic intervention. The ability to successfully develop drug-like compounds that inhibit binding with selectins, known as selectin antagonists, has historically been limited by the complexities of carbohydrate chemistry. We believe our expertise in carbohydrate chemistry and our understanding of carbohydrate protein binding interactions enable us to design selectin antagonists and other glycomimetics that may inhibit the disease-related functions of certain carbohydrates in order to develop novel drug candidates to address orphan diseases with high unmet medical need.

Our lead glycomimetic drug candidate, uproleselan, is a specific E-selectin inhibitor that we are developing to be used in combination with chemotherapy to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, a life-threatening hematologic cancer, and potentially other hematologic cancers. In 2018, we commenced a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 pivotal clinical trial to evaluate uproleselan in individuals with relapsed/refractory AML, the design of which was based on guidance received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. We intend to enroll approximately 380 adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML at centers in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. We expect to complete enrollment of the trial in the second half of 2021. In 2018, we also signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, with the National Cancer Institute, or NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a Phase 2/3 randomized, controlled clinical trial testing the addition of uproleselan to a standard chemotherapy regimen. The trial opened for enrollment in early 2019 and enrolled the first patient in April 2019.

We previously developed a glycomimetic drug candidate, rivipansel, a pan-selectin antagonist for the potential treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis, or VOC, a debilitating and painful condition that occurs periodically throughout the life of a person with sickle cell disease, or SCD. Our former collaborator Pfizer conducted a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of rivipansel in patients aged six and older with SCD who were hospitalized for VOC

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and required treatment with intravenous opioids. The clinical trial did not meet its primary or key secondary efficacy endpoints. Pfizer terminated our exclusive license agreement effective as of April 2020, resulting in the transfer of development and commercialization rights, including the IND application for rivipansel, back to us. Based on input received from the FDA regarding rivipansel, as well as feedback from key opinion leaders with respect to sickle cell disease, we have determined not to proceed with the development of rivipansel as a potential treatment for the acute VOC setting.

We have rationally designed an innovative antagonist of E-selectin, GMI-1687, that could be a subcutaneously administered treatment. Initially developed as a potential life-cycle extension to uproleselan, we believe that GMI-1687 could be developed to broaden the clinical usefulness of an E-selectin antagonist to conditions where outpatient treatment is preferred or required. We are currently conducting preclinical activities and studies with GMI-1687 to support our planned submission of an investigational new drug application, or IND, to the FDA.

We are also developing a drug candidate, GMI-1359, that simultaneously targets both E-selectin and a chemokine receptor known as CXCR4. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we initiated a Phase 1b trial of GMI-1359 in hormone receptor positive breast cancer patients whose tumors have spread to bone, and the first patient was dosed in January 2020. We are also advancing other preclinical-stage programs, including small-molecule glycomimetic compounds that inhibit the protein galectin-3, which we believe may have potential to be used for the treatment of fibrosis, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

We have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our securities, up-front and milestone payments under our license and collaboration agreements and the net proceeds from public offerings of common stock, including sales of common stock under at-the-market sales facilities with Cowen and Company LLC, or Cowen. We have no approved drugs currently available for sale, and substantially all of our revenue to date has been revenue from up-front and milestone payments under license and collaboration agreements with Pfizer and Apollomics.

Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. We had an accumulated deficit of $309.5 million as of December 31, 2020, and we expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses over at least the next several years. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year, depending on the timing of our clinical trials and our expenditures on other research and development activities. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially as we:

● seek to discover and develop additional drug candidates;

● maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;

To fund further operations, we will need to raise capital. We may obtain additional financing in the future through the issuance of our common stock, through other equity or debt financings, potentially including the use of our at-the-market sales facility with Cowen, or through collaborations or partnerships with other companies. We may not be able to

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raise additional capital on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and any failure to raise capital as and when needed could compromise our ability to execute on our business plan. For example, the current global COVID-19 pandemic presents material uncertainty and its disruption of the capital markets may have a material adverse impact on our ability to raise additional capital if we decide to do so. Although it is difficult to predict future liquidity requirements, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operations into the fourth quarter of 2022. However, our ability to successfully transition to profitability will be dependent upon achieving a level of revenues adequate to support our cost structure. We cannot assure you that we will ever be profitable or generate positive cash flow from operating activities.

Impact of COVID-19 on Our Business

The imposition of “lockdown,” “social distancing” and “shelter in place” directives by state and federal governments in the United States as well as governments in other regions of the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including in locations in which our Phase 3 clinical trial of uproleselan is being conducted, resulted in slowed clinical site initiation, patient recruitment and enrollment rates early in the pandemic. Enrollment rates have returned to forecasted rates since the beginning of the lockdowns. However, COVID-19 infection rates continue to fluctuate, which could negatively affect enrollment going forward. We cannot at this time fully assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on our continued enrollment and whether the pandemic would potentially materially adversely impact the timing of completion of enrollment of our Phase 3 clinical trial. We continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation and any potential impact to our planned activities.

We have also implemented business continuity plans designed to address and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our employees and our business. While to date we have experienced limited impacts beyond the earlier delays in recruitment in our ongoing uproleselan Phase 3 clinical trial, given the global economic slowdown, the overall disruption of global healthcare systems and the other risks and uncertainties associated with the pandemic, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected. We continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation as we evolve our business continuity plans and response strategy. In March 2020, our workforce transitioned to working remotely in accordance with federal and state declarations. We have partially reopened to allow certain employees to return to the office based on a phased approach that is consistent with federal and state guidelines, with a focus on employee safety and optimal work environment.

Our Collaboration and License Agreements

Apollomics

In January 2020, we entered into an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Apollomics (Hong Kong) Limited, or Apollomics, for the development and commercialization of uproleselan and GMI-1687 in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, also known as Greater China. Under the terms of the agreement, Apollomics will be responsible for clinical development and commercialization in Greater China. We will also collaborate with Apollomics to advance the preclinical and clinical development of GMI-1687. We received an upfront cash payment of $9.0 million and in September 2020 received a $1.0 million development milestone payment. Subject to the terms of the agreement, will be eligible to receive potential further milestone payments totaling approximately $179.0 million, as well as tiered royalties ranging from the high single digits to 15%, as a percentage of net sales. Apollomics will be responsible for all costs related to development, regulatory approvals, and commercialization activities for uproleselan and GMI-1687 in Greater China, and we and Apollomics expect to enter into clinical and commercial supply agreements with respect to our provision of uproleselan and GMI-1687 to Apollomics. We retain all rights for both compounds in the rest of the world.

In September 2020, the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) granted IND approval for uproleselan (APL-106) enabling the initiation of a Phase 1 PK and tolerability study and includes acceptance of a Phase 3 bridging study of APL-106 in combination with chemotherapy in relapsed/refractory AML. In January 2021, APL-106 was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation from the China NMPA CDE for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

In June 2020, we entered into a clinical supply agreement with Apollomics under which we will manufacture and supply uproleselan product to Apollomics at agreed upon prices. Apollomics has the option to begin manufacture after appropriate material transfer requirements are met. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized $163,000 in revenue from the sale of clinical supplies to Apollomics under the clinical supply agreement.

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Pfizer

In October 2011, we entered into an exclusive license agreement with Pfizer, or the Pfizer Agreement. Pfizer terminated the Pfizer Agreement, effective as of April 5, 2020, and we now hold all rights to the potential future development and commercialization of rivipansel and are free to commercialize any product for treatment or prevention of VOC in SCD. We did not earn any revenue or receive any payments from Pfizer during the year ended December 31, 2020 or 2019 and will not be eligible to receive any future payments from Pfizer following the termination of the Pfizer Agreement.

In August 2020, we entered into a separate agreement with Pfizer with respect to certain post-termination commitments, including, among other things, Pfizer’s transfer of certain raw materials and inventory that could potentially be utilized in subsequent development or commercialization activities. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Pfizer may be eligible to receive a milestone payment of $25.0 million upon achievement of specified levels of cumulative net sales of rivipansel, as well as a low single-digit royalty on net sales of the product for a period of ten years from first commercial sale.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates, judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the dates of the balance sheets and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting periods. In accordance with GAAP, we base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances at the time such estimates are made. Actual results may differ materially from our estimates and judgments under different assumptions or conditions. We periodically review our estimates in light of changes in circumstances, facts and experience. The effects of material revisions in estimates are reflected in our financial statements prospectively from the date of the change in estimate.

We define our critical accounting policies as those accounting principles generally accepted in the United States that require us to make subjective estimates and judgments about matters that are uncertain and are likely to have a material impact on our financial condition and results of operations, as well as the specific manner in which we apply those principles. While our significant accounting policies are more fully described in Note 2 to our financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report, we believe the following are the critical accounting policies used in the preparation of our financial statements that require significant judgments and estimates.

Revenue Recognition

We apply Accounting Standard Codification, or ASC, Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, to all contracts with customers, except for contracts that are within the scope of other standards, such as leases, insurance, collaboration agreements and financial instruments. Under Topic 606, an entity recognizes revenue when its customer obtains control of promised goods and services, in an amount that reflects the consideration which the entity expects to receive in exchange for those goods and services. To determine revenue recognition for an arrangement that an entity determines is within the scope of Topic 606, we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with the customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligation in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation. We only apply the five-step model to contracts when it is probable that we will collect the consideration we are entitled to in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer. At contract inception, once the contract is determined to be within the scope of Topic 606, we assess the goods or services promised within each contract and identify, as a performance obligation, and assess whether each promised good or service is distinct. We then recognize as revenue the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.

We enter into licensing agreements which are within the scope of Topic 606, under which we license certain of our product candidates’ rights to third parties. The terms of these arrangements typically include payment of one or more of the following: non-refundable, up-front license fees; development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments; and royalties on net sales of the licensed product. In determining the appropriate amount of revenue to be recognized as we fulfill our obligation under our agreements, we perform the five steps described above. As part of the accounting for

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these arrangements, we must develop assumptions that require judgment to determine the stand-alone selling price, which may include forecasted revenues, development timelines, reimbursement of personnel costs, discount rates and probabilities of technical and regulatory success.

Licensing of Intellectual Property: If the license to our intellectual property is determined to be distinct from the other performance obligations identified in the arrangement, we will recognize revenue from non-refundable, up-front fees allocated to the license when the license is transferred to the licensee and the licensee is able to use and benefit from the license. For licenses that are bundled with other promises, we utilize judgment to assess the nature of the combined performance obligation to determine whether the combined performance obligation is satisfied over time or at a point in time and, if over time, the appropriate method of measuring progress for purposes of recognizing revenue from non-refundable, up-front-fees. We evaluate the measure of progress each reporting period, and, if necessary, adjust the measure of performance and related revenue recognition.

Milestone Payments: At the inception of each arrangement that includes development milestone payments, we evaluate whether the milestones are considered probable of being reached and estimate the amount to be included in the transaction price using the most likely amount method. If it is probable that a significant revenue reversal will not occur, the associated milestone value is included in the transaction price. Milestone payments that are not within our control or the licensee’s control, such as regulatory approvals, are not considered probable of being achieved until those approvals are received. The transaction price is then allocated to each performance obligation on a relative stand-alone selling price basis, for which we recognize revenue as or when the performance obligations under the contract are satisfied. At the end of each subsequent reporting period, we re-evaluate the probability of achievement of such development milestones and any related constraint, and if necessary, adjust our estimate of the overall transaction price. Any such adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis, which would affect license, collaboration and other revenues and earnings in their period of adjustment.

Royalties: For arrangements that include sales-based royalties, including milestone payments based on the level of sales, for which the license is deemed to be the predominant item to which royalties relate, we recognize revenue at the later of (i) when the related sales occur, or (ii) when the performance obligation to which some of all of the royalty has been allocated has been satisfied (or partially satisfied). To date, we have not recognized any royalty revenue from our license agreements.

Manufacturing and Supply: Our agreements may include providing clinical and commercial manufacturing products to the counterparties. The services are generally determined to be distinct from the other promises or performance obligations identified in the arrangement. We recognize the transaction price allocated to these services as revenue at a point in time when transfer of control of the related products to the customer occurs.

Stock-Based Compensation

We issue stock-based compensation awards to our employees and non-employee directors, including stock options. We measure stock-based compensation expense related to these awards based on the fair value of the award, utilizing the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing model, on the date of grant and recognize stock-based compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the awards, which generally equals the vesting period. We account for forfeitures as they occur. We grant stock options with exercise prices equal to the estimated fair value of our common stock on the date of grant. The Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing model requires the input of various assumptions that require management to apply judgment and make assumptions and estimates, including:

Risk-Free Interest Rate—The risk-free interest rate assumption is based on observed interest rates for constant maturity U.S. Treasury securities consistent with the expected life of our employee stock options.

Expected Term—The expected life represents the period of time the stock options are expected to be outstanding and is based on the simplified method. Under the simplified method, the expected life of an option is presumed to be the midpoint between the vesting date and the end of the contractual term. We used the simplified method due to the lack of sufficient historical exercise data to provide a reasonable basis upon which to otherwise estimate the expected life of the stock options.

Expected Volatility— Expected volatility is based on the historical volatilities of a peer group of comparable publicly traded companies with drug candidates in similar stages of development along with our historical volatility since our public offering. Effective January 1, 2020, we base the expected volatility on the historical volatility of our common stock. Prior to January 1, 2020, we utilized the historical volatilities of a peer group (e.g., several public entities of

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similar size, complexity, and stage of development), along with our historical volatility since our initial public offering, to determine our expected volatility.

Expected Dividend Yield—We have assumed no dividend yield because we do not expect to pay dividends in the future, which is consistent with our history of not paying dividends.

Accruals for Clinical Trial Expenses

Clinical trial costs primarily consist of expenses incurred under agreements with contract research organizations (CROs), investigative sites, laboratory testing expenses, data management and consultants that conduct our clinical trials. Clinical trial expenses are a significant component of research and development expenses, and we outsource a significant portion of these clinical trial activities to third parties.The accrual for site and patient costs includes inputs such as estimates of patient enrollment, patient cycles incurred, clinical site activations, estimated project duration and other pass-through costs. These inputs are required to be estimated due to a lag in receiving the actual clinical information from third parties. Payments for these activities are based on the terms of the individual arrangements, which may differ from the pattern of costs incurred, and are reflected on the balance sheets as prepaid assets or accrued expenses. These third-party agreements are generally cancellable, and related costs are recorded as research and development expenses as incurred. Except for payments made in advance of services, clinical trial costs are expensed as incurred. Non-refundable advance clinical payments for goods or services that will be used or rendered for future research and development activities are recorded as a prepaid asset and recognized as expense as the related goods are delivered or the related services are performed. When evaluating the adequacy of the accrued expenses, management assessments include: (i) an evaluation by the project manager of the work that has been completed during the period; (ii) measurement of progress prepared internally and/or provided by the third-party service provider; (iii) analyses of data that justify the progress; and (iv) our judgment. Significant judgments and estimates may be made in determining the accrued balances at the end of any reporting period. Actual results could differ from the estimates made. Our historical clinical accrual estimates have not been materially different from the actual costs. Clinical trial accruals that are due longer than one year are classified as noncurrent accrued expenses.

Components of Operating Results

Revenue

To date, we have not generated any revenue from the sale of our drug candidates and do not expect to generate any revenue from the sale of drugs in the near future. Substantially all of our historical revenue consisted of upfront and milestone payments under license and collaboration agreements.

Research and Development

Research and development expenses consist of expenses incurred in performing research and development activities, including compensation and benefits for full-time research and development employees, facilities expenses, overhead expenses, cost of laboratory supplies, clinical trial and related clinical manufacturing expenses, fees paid to CROs and other consultants and other outside expenses. Other preclinical research and platform programs include activities related to exploratory efforts, target validation, lead optimization for our earlier programs and our proprietary glycomimetics platform. Our research and development expenses have related primarily to the development of rivipansel, uproleselan and our other drug candidates.

We do not currently utilize a formal time allocation system to capture expenses on a project-by-project basis because we are organized and record expense by functional department and our employees may allocate time to more than one development project. Accordingly, we only allocate a portion of our research and development expenses by functional area and by drug candidate.

Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Non-refundable advance payments for goods or services to be received in the future for use in research and development activities are deferred and capitalized. The capitalized amounts are expensed as the related goods are delivered or the services are performed.

Research and development activities are central to our business model. Drug candidates in later stages of clinical development generally have higher development costs than those in earlier stages of clinical development, primarily due to the increased size and duration of later stage clinical trials. We expect our research and development expenses to increase over the next several years as we seek to progress uproleselan, GMI-1359 and our other drug candidates into and through clinical development. However, it is difficult to determine with certainty the duration and completion costs

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of our current or future preclinical studies and clinical trials of our drug candidates, or if, when or to what extent we will generate revenues from the commercialization and sale of any of our drug candidates that obtain regulatory approval. We may never succeed in achieving regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates.

The duration, costs and timing of clinical trials and development of our drug candidates will depend on a variety of factors that include:

● per patient trial costs;

● the number of patients that participate in the trials;

● the number of sites included in the trials;

● the countries in which the trial is conducted;

● the length of time required to enroll eligible patients;

● the number of doses that patients receive;

● the drop-out or discontinuation rates of patients;

● the duration of patient follow-up; and

● the safety and efficacy profile of the drug candidate.

In addition, the probability of success for each drug candidate will depend on numerous factors, including competition, manufacturing capability and commercial viability. We will determine which programs to pursue and how much to fund each program in response to the scientific and clinical success of each drug candidate, as well as an assessment of each drug candidate’s commercial potential.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and other related costs, including stock-based compensation, for personnel in executive, finance, accounting, business development and human resources functions. Other significant costs include facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expenses, legal fees relating to patent and corporate matters and fees for accounting and consulting services. We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase in the future to support our continued research and development activities.

Interest Income

Other income consists of interest income earned on our cash and cash equivalents.

Results of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

​

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

​ YEAR ENDED ​ PERIOD-TO

​ DECEMBER 31, ​ PERIOD

Costs and expenses: ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Revenue

During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized revenue of $10.2 million, all of which was the result of payments received under our agreements with Apollomics for the development and commercialization of uproleselan

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and GMI-1687 in Greater China. In January 2020, we recognized $9.0 million in revenue from an upfront payment under our collaboration agreement, and in September 2020, we earned a $1.0 million clinical development milestone payment. There was no revenue recognized during the year ended December 31, 2019.

Research and Development Expense

The following table summarizes our research and development expense by functional area for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019:

​

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

​ ​ YEAR ENDED ​ PERIOD-TO

​ DECEMBER 31, ​ PERIOD

Contract research services, consulting and other costs ​ 1,907 ​ 2,644 ​ (737)

The following table summarizes our research and development expense by drug candidate for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019:

​

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

​ YEAR ENDED ​ PERIOD-TO

​ DECEMBER 31, ​ PERIOD