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DNTH US Equity

Dianthus Therapeutics, Inc. /DE/Health Care · Pharmaceutical Preparations · CIK 1690585 · FY ends Dec 31
$113.70
-1.84 (-1.59%)
USD · as of 2026-08-19 · marketstack

DNTH · 10-K · period ended 2021-12-31

← all DNTH documents
filed 2022-03-08 · EDGAR original ↗

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Set forth below are the risks that we believe are material to our investors and they should be carefully considered. If any of the following risks and uncertainties actually occurs, our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. The risks described below are not intended to be exhaustive and other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations if they occur. This section contains forward-looking statements. You should refer to the explanation of the qualifications and limitations on forward-looking statements beginning on page three of this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

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

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel medicines to bring the curative power of stem cell transplant to more patients and have a limited operating history. Investment in biopharmaceutical product development is highly speculative because it entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential product candidate will fail to demonstrate adequate effect or an acceptable safety profile, gain regulatory approval and become commercially viable. We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales to date, and we continue to incur significant research and development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations. As a result, we are not profitable and have incurred losses in each period since our inception in June 2015. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we reported net losses of $71.1 million and $74.9 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $325.6 million. We expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect these losses to increase as we continue our research and development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates.

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

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

Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since our inception. We expect to continue to spend substantial amounts of cash (including the net proceeds from our initial public offering, or IPO, and our subsequent public and private equity offerings) to conduct further research and development and preclinical testing and clinical trials of our product candidates, to seek regulatory approvals for our product candidates and to launch and commercialize any product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval, including potentially building our own commercial organization to address the U.S., the European Union and certain other markets. As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $176.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Our monthly spending levels will vary based on new and ongoing development and corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with successful development of our product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for development and any approved marketing and commercialization activities. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

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• the clinical development plans we establish for these product candidates;

• the effect of competing technological and market developments;

• the cost of seeking to attract, hire and retain skilled personnel; and

We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of one or more of our product candidates or one or more of our other research and development initiatives. We also could be required to seek collaborators for one or more of our current or future product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available or relinquish or license on unfavorable terms our rights to technologies or product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves.

Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause the price of our common stock to decline.

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

We may seek additional capital through a combination of public and private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, our stockholder’s ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect our stockholder’s rights. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could involve certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or product candidates or grant licenses on terms unfavorable to us.

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Our company has a limited operating history and no history of commercializing pharmaceutical products, which may make it difficult to evaluate the prospects for our future viability.

We are a clinical-stage company. We were founded and commenced operations in June 2015. Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, acquiring and developing our technology, identifying potential product candidates, and undertaking preclinical studies and clinical trials. Although we have initiated clinical trials for certain of our product candidates, we have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully complete clinical trials of our product candidates; obtain marketing approvals; manufacture a commercial-scale medicine, or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf; or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful commercialization. Typically, it takes about 10 to 15 years to develop a new medicine from the time it is discovered to when it is available for treating patients. Consequently, any predictions we make about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history.

In addition, as a new business, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays, and other known and unknown factors. We will need to transition from a company with a research focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.

We have never generated revenue from product sales and may never be profitable.

Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and achieve profitability depends on our ability, alone or with collaborative partners, to successfully complete the development of, and obtain the regulatory approvals necessary to commercialize, product candidates we may identify for development. We may not generate revenues from product sales for the next several years, if ever. Our ability to generate future revenues from product sales depends heavily on our, or our collaborators’, ability to successfully:

• address competing technological and market developments;

• implement internal systems and infrastructure, as needed;

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• avoid and defend against third-party interference or infringement claims; and

• attract, hire, and retain qualified personnel.

Even if one or more of the product candidates we may develop is approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any approved product candidate. Our expenses could increase beyond expectations if we are required by the FDA, the EMA, or other regulatory authorities to perform clinical and other studies in addition to those that we currently anticipate. Even if we are able to generate revenues from the sale of any approved products, we may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations.

Risks Related to Product Development and Regulatory Approval

We are early in our development efforts. If we are unable to advance our product candidates to obtain regulatory approval and ultimately commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We are early in our development efforts for our product candidates, including

MGTA-145

and

MGTA-117.

Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. We currently generate no revenue from sales of any product, and we may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable product.

Each of our programs and product candidates will require additional preclinical and clinical development; regulatory approval, potentially in multiple jurisdictions; obtaining manufacturing supply, capacity and expertise; building of a commercial organization; substantial investment and significant marketing efforts before we generate any revenue from product sales. Our product candidates must be authorized for marketing by the FDA, or certain other foreign regulatory agencies, such as the EMA, before we may commercialize our product candidates in the U.S. or other countries.

The success of our product candidates will depend on several factors, including the following:

• receipt of regulatory approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;

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• effective competition against other therapies;

• enforcement and defense of intellectual property rights and claims; and

If we do not succeed in one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, which would materially harm our business. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations.

The successful development of biopharmaceuticals and cell-based therapies is highly uncertain.

Successful development of biopharmaceuticals and cell-based therapies is highly uncertain and is dependent on numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control. Blood and immune reset and cell-based therapies that appear promising in the early phases of development may fail to reach the market for several reasons including:

Success in preclinical studies and early clinical trials do not ensure that large-scale clinical trials will be successful. The length of time necessary to complete clinical trials and to submit an application for marketing approval for a final decision by a regulatory authority varies significantly from one therapy to the next, and may be difficult to predict.

Even if we are successful in getting market approval, third-party payers could require us to conduct additional studies, including post-marketing studies related to the cost effectiveness of a product, to qualify for reimbursement, which could be costly and divert our resources.

In addition, if one of our product candidates is approved for marketing, we will be subject to significant regulatory obligations regarding the submission of safety and other post-marketing information and reports and

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registration, and will need to continue to comply (or ensure that our third party providers) comply with the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP, and cGCP requirements for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. In addition, there is always the risk that we or a regulatory authority might identify previously unknown problems with a product post-approval, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency. Compliance with these requirements is costly, and any failure to comply or other issues with our product candidates’ post-market approval could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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

Before obtaining regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of our product candidates, we must demonstrate through lengthy, complex and expensive preclinical testing and clinical trials that our product candidates are both safe and effective for use in each target indication. Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials. There is typically an extremely high rate of attrition from the failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products.

It is impossible to predict when or if any product candidates we may develop will prove safe in humans. If any product candidates we develop are associated with serious adverse events, or undesirable side effects, or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe, or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. It is possible that product candidates that initially showed promise in early-stage testing will later have been found to cause side effects that prevent further clinical development of the product candidates.

If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our current or future clinical trials, we may have difficulty recruiting patients to the clinical trial, patients may drop out of our trial, or we may be required to abandon the trial or our development efforts of that product candidate altogether. We, the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities, or an institutional review board, or IRB, may suspend clinical trials of a product candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage studies have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the drug from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our business, financial condition and prospects.

Stem cell transplant is a high-risk procedure with curative potential that may result in complications or adverse events for patients in our clinical trials or for patients that use any of our product candidates, if approved.

Stem cell transplant can cure patients across multiple diseases, but its use carries with it risks of toxicity, serious adverse events and death. Because many of our therapies are used to prepare or treat patients undergoing stem cell transplant, patients in our clinical trials or patients that use any of our product candidates may be

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subject to many of the risks that are currently inherent to this procedure. In particular, stem cell transplant involves certain known potential post-procedure complications that may manifest several weeks or months after a transplant and which may be more common in certain patient populations. If serious adverse events, undesirable side effects, or unexpected characteristics are identified during the development of any of our product candidates, we may need to limit, delay or abandon our further clinical development of those product candidates, even if such events, effects or characteristics were the result of stem cell transplant or related procedures generally, and not directly or specifically caused or exacerbated by our product candidates.

In addition, patients who are in our clinical studies or undergoing stem cell transplant typically have underlying disorders or compromised immune systems that make them vulnerable or fragile for undergoing additional clinical studies. For example, we began patient enrollment for our Phase 1/2 clinical trial of

MGTA-117

in patients with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, and myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS; however, the patients who we expect to enroll in the initial phase of that trial are subject to underlying disorders that may cause negative outcomes for those patients that could slow down or even suspend the study. As a result, the FDA could put the trial on hold until we can satisfy any potential FDA concerns. If any FDA clinical hold is not lifted or if the process takes an extended period of time, our business and prospects may suffer material adverse consequences.

All serious adverse events or unexpected side effects are continually monitored per the clinical trial’s approved protocol. If serious adverse events are determined to be directly or specifically caused or exacerbated by our product candidates, we would follow the trial protocol’s requirements, which call for our data safety monitoring committee to review all available clinical data in making a recommendation regarding the trial’s continuation.

If we are not able to identify a safe and effective dose for any of our antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, including

MGTA-117

utilizing an amanitin toxin not previously tested in humans, we may need to delay, abandon or limit our development of any potential product candidates.

ADCs utilize toxins to kill cells, and we may not be able to identify a safe and effective dose for some of our potential product candidates. ADCs, including those that have received marketing approval, have dose-dependent safety findings that can include liver toxicity, depending on the target of the ADC and the drug used in the conjugate. In addition, ADCs may have other adverse side effects including fatalities. Although our

CD117-ADC,

which was designed to deplete hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs, was generally well tolerated at efficacious doses in

non-human

primate studies, we may not be able to ultimately show that

MGTA-117

can deplete HSCs at a safe and effective dose in humans and we may need to delay, abandon or limit these development efforts. Further,

MGTA-117

utilizes an amanitin toxin that has not been previously tested as an ADC toxin in humans. Other companies, for example Heidelberg Pharma (whether alone or with third parties), are developing ADCs with amanitin toxins and are expected to enter clinical trials. If such other trials encounter safety or efficacy issues, especially if related to the amanitin toxin, then our

MGTA-117

program may be adversely affected.

Clinical 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 any product candidates.

Our product candidates are in the preclinical development and clinical trial stages, and their risk of failure is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our programs will prove effective and safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of any of our future product candidates in humans. Preclinical and clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. We may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider

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clinically meaningful, and a clinical trial can fail at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical studies 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. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products.

Successful completion of clinical trials is a prerequisite to submitting a BLA, or a new drug application, or NDA, to the FDA, a Marketing Authorization Application to the EMA and similar approval filings to comparable foreign regulatory authorities, for each product candidate and, consequently, the ultimate approval and commercial marketing of any product candidates. We do not know whether any of our clinical trials will begin or be completed on schedule, if at all.

We may experience delays in completing our preclinical studies and initiating or completing clinical trials. We also may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any current or future clinical trials that we could conduct that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates, including:

We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, the Data Safety Monitoring Board for such trial or FDA or

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other regulatory authorities. Such authorities may impose such a suspension or termination due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product or treatment, failure to establish or achieve clinically meaningful trial endpoints, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.

In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. Further, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with our clinical trial design and our interpretation of data from clinical trials or may change the requirements for approval even after they have reviewed and commented on the design for our clinical trials.

Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical testing or 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 or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, potentially impairing our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in our preclinical or future clinical development programs may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical trials for a variety of reasons, including impacts that have resulted, or may in the future result, from the

COVID-19

pandemic. The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:

• the patient eligibility criteria defined in the protocol;

• the proximity of patients to trial sites;

• the design of the trial;

• our ability to obtain and maintain patient consents; and

In addition, our clinical trials will compete with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us, because some patients who might have opted to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we expect to conduct some of our clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in such clinical trial site.

Delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our product candidates.

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Results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of results of future clinical trials, and such results do not guarantee approval of a product candidate by regulatory authorities.

The outcome of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of clinical trials do not necessarily predict success in the results of completed clinical trials. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in earlier development, and we could face similar setbacks. The design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. In addition, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. Many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain regulatory approval for their product candidates.

In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different clinical trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial procedures set forth in protocols, differences in the size and type of the patient populations, changes in and adherence to the dosing regimen and other clinical trial procedures and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. If we fail to receive positive results in clinical trials of our product candidates, the development timeline and regulatory approval and commercialization prospects for our most advanced product candidate, and, correspondingly, our business and financial prospects would be negatively impacted.

Additionally, several of our past, planned and ongoing clinical trials utilize an “open-label” trial design. An “open-label” clinical trial is one where both the patient and investigator know whether the patient is receiving the investigational product candidate or either an existing approved drug or placebo. Most typically, open-label clinical trials test only the investigational product candidate and sometimes may do so at different dose levels. Open-label clinical trials are subject to various limitations that may exaggerate any therapeutic effect as patients in open-label clinical trials are aware when they are receiving treatment. Open-label clinical trials may be subject to a “patient bias” where patients perceive their symptoms to have improved merely due to their awareness of receiving an experimental treatment. In addition, open-label clinical trials may be subject to an “investigator bias” where those assessing and reviewing the physiological outcomes of the clinical trials are aware of which patients have received treatment and may interpret the information of the treated group more favorably given this knowledge. The results from an open-label trial may not be predictive of future clinical trial results with any of our product candidates for which we include an open-label clinical trial when studied in a controlled environment with a placebo or active control.

Even if we complete clinical development of

MGTA-145,

MGTA-117

or any other product candidates, there can be no assurance that the FDA, EMA, or other regulatory authorities will approve

MGTA-145,

MGTA-117

or any other product candidates for marketing. Additionally, as of May 2021, the FDA noted it is continuing to ensure timely reviews of applications for medical products during the

COVID-19

pandemic in line with its user fee performance goals, however, the FDA may not be able to continue its current pace and approval timelines could be extended, including where a

pre-approval

inspection or an inspection of clinical sites is required and, due to the

COVID-19

pandemic and travel restrictions, the FDA is unable to complete such required inspections during the review period. In 2020 and 2021, a number of companies announced receipt of Complete Response Letters due to the FDA’s inability to complete required inspections for their applications.

Interim, preliminary, and “topline” data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available following the interim data; preliminary data are subject to audit and verification procedures, and deeper analysis of the data beyond the topline data may provide more color and context to the data, all of which could result in material or other changes in the final data.

From time to time, we may disclose interim data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials, which are based on an interim analysis of then-available data from ongoing studies or trials. Interim data from our

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preclinical studies and clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical observations may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available from the particular study or trial. As a result, interim data should be viewed with caution until final data are available. Adverse differences between interim data and final data could significantly harm the development of our product candidates and our business prospects with respect thereto.

We may also announce or publish preliminary data from our preclinical studies or clinical trials, which are based on a preliminary analysis of final data. Preliminary data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data from the particular preclinical study or trial. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of our preliminary analyses of the data, and we may not have received, or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate, all of the data at the time of making such assumptions, estimations, calculations and/or conclusions. As a result, preliminary data remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being different from the preliminary data we previously announced or published.

We may also announce or publish topline data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials, which are a subset of the total data intended to provide the important results from the study or trial. As a result, deeper analysis of the data beyond the topline data may provide more color and context to the results. Any adverse color and context provided by the broader data to the topline data could significantly harm the development of our product candidate and our business prospects with respect thereto.

Further, third parties, including regulatory agencies, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program, the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate and our business prospects. In addition, the information we announce or publish regarding a particular preclinical study or clinical trial may represent only a portion of extensive information generated from that study or trial, and our shareholders or other third parties may not agree with what we determine is material, important or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure.

If the interim, preliminary, or topline data that we report differ materially from final results, or if third parties, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, our product candidates may be harmed, which could harm our business prospects, operating results or financial condition. Further, announcement of preliminary, interim or topline data by us or differences between that data and the final data could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.

We may not be successful in our efforts to identify additional product candidates. Due to our limited resources and access to capital, we must prioritize development of certain product candidates; these decisions may prove to be wrong and may adversely affect our business.

Although we intend to explore other therapeutic opportunities, in addition to the product candidates that we are currently developing, we may fail to identify successful product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. If we fail to identify additional potential product candidates, our business could be materially harmed.

Research programs to pursue the development of our planned product candidates for additional indications and to identify new product candidates and disease targets require substantial technical, financial and human resources whether or not they are ultimately successful. Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential indications and/or product candidates, yet fail to yield results for clinical development for a number of reasons, including:

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Because we have limited financial and human resources, we intend to initially focus on research programs and product candidates for a limited set of indications. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential or a greater likelihood of success. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities.

Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will ever be able to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our product candidates or to develop suitable potential product candidates through internal research programs, which could materially adversely affect our future growth and prospects. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential product candidates or other potential programs that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.

If we are unable to successfully develop our current programs into a comprehensive portfolio of product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, we may not realize the full commercial potential of our current and future product candidates.

We are developing our product candidates so that they can each be used individually or in combination with each other. In particular, we are focused on a product development strategy that includes leveraging the synergies among a comprehensive portfolio of our product candidates. Our success may depend, in part, on our ability to develop a complementary product portfolio with product candidates that, together or individually, will address the major opportunities inherent in the existing stem cell transplant process. Given our limited experience in developing product candidates that have received marketing approval, we may not be successful in developing some of our product candidates. The failure of one of our product candidates to obtain regulatory approval or market acceptance may affect our ability to expand our market opportunities for our other product candidates or programs. Although we may develop product candidates that ultimately obtain marketing approval, if we are unable to successfully develop our current programs into a comprehensive portfolio of product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, we may not realize the full commercial potential of our current and future product candidates.

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

Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus on research programs and product candidates that we identify for specific indications among many potential options. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product 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 medicines or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable medicines. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing, or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. Any such event could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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We have no experience as a company in obtaining regulatory approval for a drug or biologic.

As a company, we have never obtained regulatory approval for, or commercialized, a drug or biologic. It is possible that the FDA may refuse to accept any or all future NDA or BLAs for substantive review or may conclude after review of our data that our application is insufficient to obtain regulatory approval for any current or future product candidates. If the FDA does not approve any future NDAs or BLAs, it may require that we conduct additional costly clinical, preclinical or manufacturing validation studies before it will reconsider our applications. Depending on the extent of these or any

other FDA-required studies,

approval of any NDA or BLA or other application that we submit may be significantly delayed, possibly for several years, or may require us to expend more resources than we have available. Any failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approvals would prevent us from commercializing

MGTA-145,

MGTA-117

or any other product candidate, generating revenues and achieving and sustaining profitability. It is also possible that additional studies, if performed and completed, may not be considered sufficient by the FDA to approve any NDA, BLA or other application that we submit. If any of these outcomes occur, we may be forced to abandon the development of our product candidates, which would materially adversely affect our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations. We face similar risks for our applications in foreign jurisdictions.

Because we are developing product candidates for the treatment of diseases in which there is little clinical experience using new technologies, there is increased risk that the FDA, the EMA, or other regulatory authorities may not consider the endpoints of our clinical trials to provide clinically meaningful results, and these results may be difficult to analyze.

During the regulatory review process, we will need to identify success criteria and endpoints such that the FDA, the EMA, or other regulatory authorities will be able to determine the clinical efficacy and safety profile of any product candidates we may develop. As we are initially seeking to identify and develop product candidates to treat diseases in which there is little clinical experience using new technologies, there is heightened risk that the FDA, the EMA, or other regulatory authorities may not consider the clinical trial endpoints that we propose to provide clinically meaningful results (reflecting a tangible benefit to patients). In addition, the resulting clinical data and results may be difficult to analyze. Even if the FDA does find our success criteria to be sufficiently validated and clinically meaningful, we may not achieve the

pre-specified

endpoints to a degree of statistical significance. This may be a particularly significant risk for many of the genetically defined diseases for which we plan to develop product candidates because many of these diseases have small patient populations and designing and executing a rigorous clinical trial with appropriate statistical power is more difficult than with diseases that have larger patient populations. Further, even if we do achieve the

pre-specified

criteria, we may produce results that are unpredictable or inconsistent with the results of the

non-primary

endpoints or other relevant data. The FDA also weighs the benefits of a product against its risks, and the FDA may view the efficacy results in the context of safety as not being supportive of regulatory approval. Other regulatory authorities in the European Union and other countries may make similar comments with respect to these endpoints and data. Any product candidates we may develop will be based on a novel technology that makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of development and of subsequently obtaining regulatory approval.

Even if we complete the necessary clinical trials, we cannot predict when, or if, we will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate we may develop, and any such approval may be for a narrower indication than we seek.

We cannot commercialize a product candidate until the appropriate regulatory authorities have reviewed and approved the product candidate. Even if any product candidates we may develop meet their safety and efficacy endpoints in clinical trials, the regulatory authorities may not complete their review processes in a timely manner, or we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval. Additional delays may result if an FDA Advisory Committee or other regulatory authority recommends

non-approval

or restrictions on approval. In addition, we may experience delays or rejections based upon additional government regulation from future legislation or

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administrative action, or changes in regulatory authority policy during the period of product development, clinical trials, and the review process.

Regulatory authorities also may approve a product candidate for more limited indications than requested or they may impose significant limitations in the form of narrow indications, warnings or distribution and use restrictions under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS. These regulatory authorities may require precautions or contra-indications with respect to conditions of use, or they may grant approval subject to the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials. In addition, regulatory authorities may not approve the labeling claims that are necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of any product candidates we may develop. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial prospects for any product candidates we may develop and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval of any of our product candidates, the approved products may be subject to post-approval studies and will remain subject to ongoing regulatory requirements. If we fail to comply, or if concerns are identified in subsequent studies, our approval could be withdrawn, and our product sales could be suspended.

If we are successful in obtaining regulatory approval for

MGTA-145,

MGTA-117

or any of our other product candidates, regulatory agencies in the U.S. and other countries where a product will be sold may require extensive additional clinical trials or post-approval clinical trials that are expensive and time-consuming to conduct. Alternatively, we may not be able to conduct such additional trials, which might force us to abandon our efforts to develop or commercialize certain product candidates. Even if post-approval studies are not requested or required, after our products are approved and on the market, there might be safety issues that emerge over time that require a change in product labeling, additional post market studies or clinical trials, imposition of distribution and use restrictions under a REMS, or withdrawal of the product from the market, which would cause our revenue to decline.

Additionally, any products that we may successfully develop will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements after they are approved. These requirements will govern the manufacturing, packaging, marketing, distribution, and use of our products. If we fail to comply with such regulatory requirements, approval for our products may be withdrawn, and product sales may be suspended. We may not be able to regain compliance, or we may only be able to regain compliance after a lengthy delay, significant expense, lost revenues and damage to our reputation.

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

We plan to seek a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for our product candidates if the clinical data support such a designation for one or more product candidates.

Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under

non-expedited

FDA review procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification.

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The regenerative medicine advanced therapy, or RMAT, designation by the FDA for any of our product candidates may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process and it does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval.

We plan to seek an RMAT designation for our product candidates if the clinical data support such a designation for one or more product candidates.

Designation as an RMAT is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a RMAT, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of RMAT designation for our product candidates may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify for RMAT designation, the FDA may later decide that the biological products no longer meet the conditions for qualification.

Accelerated approval by the FDA, even if granted for our current or any other future product candidates, may not lead to a faster development, regulatory review or approval process, and it does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive regulatory approval.

We may seek accelerated approval of our current or future product candidates using the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway. Even if we do receive accelerated approval, however, we may not experience a faster development, regulatory review or approval process, and receiving accelerated approval does not provide assurance of ultimate FDA approval for our product candidates.

Our current product candidates and future product candidates may not be eligible for Orphan Drug status.

The FDA granted Orphan Drug designation to

MGTA-145

for the mobilization of HSCs to the peripheral blood for collection and subsequent transplant in May 2020 and we plan to seek Orphan Drug designation for our other product candidates if the clinical data support such a designation. The U.S. and Europe may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Orphan Drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process, but does make the product eligible for orphan drug exclusivity, reduced filing fees and specific tax credits. Generally, if a company receives the first marketing approval for a product with an Orphan Drug designation in the clinical indication for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity. Orphan drug exclusivity means that the FDA will not approve another application to market the same drug for the same indication, except in limited circumstances, for a period of seven years in the U.S. This exclusivity, however, could block the approval of our proposed product candidates if a competitor obtains marketing approval before us. However, even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for any of our proposed product candidates, we may not be able to maintain it. For example, if a competitive product is shown to be clinically superior to our product candidates, any orphan drug exclusivity we have will not block the approval of such competitive product.

On August 3, 2017, Congress passed the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, or FDARA. FDARA, among other things, codified the FDA’s preexisting regulatory interpretation, to require that a drug sponsor demonstrate the clinical superiority of an orphan drug that is otherwise the same as a previously approved drug for the same rare disease in order to receive orphan drug exclusivity. The law reverses prior precedent holding that the Orphan Drug Act unambiguously requires that the FDA recognize the orphan exclusivity period regardless of a showing of clinical superiority. Moreover, in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, Congress did not further change this interpretation when it clarified that the interpretation codified in FDARA would apply in cases where the FDA issued an orphan designation before the enactment of FDARA but where product approval came after the enactment of FDARA. The FDA may further reevaluate the Orphan Drug Act and its regulations and policies. We do not know if, when, or how the FDA may change the orphan drug regulations and policies in the future, and it is uncertain how any changes might affect our business. Depending on what changes the FDA may make to its orphan drug regulations and policies, our business could be adversely impacted.

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A Fast Track Designation by the FDA, even if granted for any of our product candidates, may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval.

The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant a Fast Track Designation for a particular indication, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for this designation, we cannot assure you that the FDA would decide to grant it. Receipt of Fast Track Designation may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s priority review procedures. In addition, the FDA may withdraw any Fast Track Designation at any time. We may seek Fast Track Designation for our product candidates, but there is no assurance that the FDA will grant this status to any of our proposed product candidates.

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

We may request priority review for our product candidates, however, we cannot assume that our product candidates will meet the criteria for that designation. The FDA has broad discretion with respect to whether or not to grant priority review status to a product candidate, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for such designation or status, the FDA may decide not to grant it. Moreover, a priority review designation does not necessarily mean a faster development or regulatory review or approval process or necessarily confer any advantage with respect to approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. Receiving priority review from the FDA does not guarantee approval within the

six-month

review cycle or at all.

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

The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, and statutory, regulatory and policy changes. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result. Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new product candidates to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. In addition, government funding of the SEC and other government agencies on which our operations may rely, including those that fund research and development activities, is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.

Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new product candidates to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory authorities, such as the FDA and the SEC, have had to furlough critical FDA, SEC and other government employees and stop critical activities. If a prolonged government shutdown occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, future government shutdowns could impact our ability to access the public markets and obtain necessary capital in order to properly capitalize and continue our operations.

Separately, in response to the

COVID-19

pandemic, on March 10, 2020 the FDA announced its intention to postpone most inspections of foreign manufacturing facilities while local, national and international conditions warrant. Since March 2020 when foreign and domestic inspections of facilities were largely placed on hold, the FDA has been working to resume routine surveillance, bioresearch monitoring and

pre-approval

inspections on a

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prioritized basis. Since April 2021, the FDA has conducted limited inspections and employed remote interactive evaluations, using risk management methods, to meet user fee commitments and goal dates. Ongoing travel restrictions and other uncertainties continue to impact oversight operations both domestic and abroad and it is unclear when standard operational levels will resume. The FDA is continuing to complete mission-critical work, prioritize other higher-tiered inspectional needs (e.g.,

for-cause

inspections), and carry out surveillance inspections using risk-based approaches for evaluating public health. Should the FDA determine that an inspection is necessary for approval and an inspection cannot be completed during the review cycle due to restrictions on travel, and the FDA does not determine a remote interactive evaluation to be adequate, the agency has stated that it generally intends to issue, depending on the circumstances, a complete response letter or defer action on the application until an inspection can be completed. During the

COVID-19

pandemic, a number of companies announced receipt of Complete Response Letters due to the FDA’s inability to complete required inspections for their applications. Regulatory authorities outside the U.S. may adopt similar restrictions or other policy measures in response to the ongoing

COVID-19

pandemic and may experience delays in their regulatory activities. If a prolonged government shutdown or other disruption occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Future shutdowns or other disruptions could also affect other government agencies, such as the SEC, which may also impact our business by delaying review of our public filings, to the extent such review is necessary, and our ability to access the public markets.

Risks Related to Reliance on Third Parties and Manufacturing

We rely on third parties to conduct our preclinical and clinical trials and will rely on them to perform other tasks for us. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or comply with regulatory requirements, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

Although we have recruited a team that has experience with clinical trials, as a company we have relied upon, and plan to continue to rely upon medical institutions, clinical investigators, contract laboratories and other third parties, or our CROs, to conduct preclinical studies and future clinical trials for our product candidates. We expect to rely heavily on these parties for execution of preclinical and future clinical trials for our product candidates and control only certain aspects of their activities. Nevertheless, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical and clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements and scientific standards and our reliance on CROs will not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. For any violations of laws and regulations during the conduct of our preclinical studies and clinical trials, we could be subject to warning letters or enforcement action that may include civil penalties up to and including criminal prosecution.

We and our CROs will be required to comply with regulations, including cGCPs for conducting, monitoring, recording and reporting the results of preclinical and clinical trials to ensure that the data and results are scientifically credible and accurate and that the trial patients are adequately informed of the potential risks of participating in clinical trials and their rights are protected. These regulations are enforced by the FDA, the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area and comparable foreign regulatory authorities for any drugs in clinical development. The FDA enforces cGCP regulations through periodic inspections of clinical trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or our CROs fail to comply with applicable cGCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that, upon inspection, the FDA will determine that any of our future clinical trials will comply with cGCPs. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product candidates produced in accordance with the requirements in the FDA’s cGMPs requirements. Our failure or the failure of our CROs to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process and could also subject us to enforcement action.

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Although we intend to design our planned clinical trials for our product candidates, for the foreseeable future CROs will conduct all of our planned clinical trials. As a result, many important aspects of our development programs, including their conduct and timing, will be outside of our direct control. Our reliance on third parties to conduct future preclinical studies and clinical trials will also result in less

day-to-day

control over the management of data developed through preclinical studies and clinical trials than would be the case if we were relying entirely upon our own staff.

If any of our relationships with these third-party CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs. If CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements or for other reasons, any preclinical studies or clinical trials with which such CROs are associated with may be extended, delayed or terminated. In such cases, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our product candidates in the subject indication could be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed.

We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to manufacture our clinical product supplies, and we intend to rely on third parties to produce and process our product candidates, if approved. This reliance increases the risk that we may not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or may not be able to produce such quantities at an acceptable cost or quality level, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.

We do not currently own any facility that may be used as our clinical-scale manufacturing and processing facility and, as a result, we rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the manufacture of our clinical product supplies and product candidates for our clinical development efforts, as well as for the potential commercial manufacture of our product candidates, if approved, and the related label and packaging activities involved in commercialization. We rely on these third parties to produce our clinical product supplies and product candidates at sufficient quality and quantity to support our development and commercialization efforts. Our reliance increases the risk that we will have insufficient quantities of our product candidates or that our product candidates will not be produced at an acceptable cost or quality level, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.

Additionally, 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;

If any CDMO with whom we contract fails to or otherwise becomes unable to perform its obligations, we may be forced to manufacture the materials ourselves, for which we may not have the capabilities, technical knowledge or resources, or enter into an agreement with a different CDMO, which we may not be able to do on reasonable terms, if at all. In addition, if we have a dispute with any of our CDMOs or should any of our agreements with our CDMOs terminate for any reason, in particular our agreements with Bachem Americas, Inc. and Heidelberg Pharma, it could disrupt our supply and replacing these CDMOS would likely be difficult. In these scenarios, our clinical trials could be delayed significantly as we establish alternative supply sources.

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In some cases, the technical skills required to manufacture our products or product candidates may be unique or proprietary to the original CDMO and we may have difficulty, or there may be contractual restrictions prohibiting us from, transferring such skills to a

back-up

or alternative supplier, or we may be unable to transfer such skills at all. In addition, if we are required to change CDMOs for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new CDMO maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations. We will also need to verify, such as through a manufacturing comparability study, that any new manufacturing process will produce our product candidate according to the specifications previously submitted to the FDA or another regulatory authority. We cannot provide any assurance that the technology transfer to another CDMO will be successful in producing our product candidate in sufficient quantities or of acceptable quality, if at all, or that we or another CDMO will produce a comparable product to the satisfaction of the FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities, which could delay, prevent or impair the development or commercialization of our product candidates. In addition, there is typically a transition period when a new CDMO commences work. The delays associated with the verification of a new CDMO could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates or commercialize our products in a timely manner or within budget. Furthermore, a CDMO may possess technology related to the manufacture of our product candidate that such CDMO owns independently. This would increase our reliance on such CDMO or require us to obtain a license from such CDMO in order to have another CDMO manufacture our product candidates. In addition, changes in manufacturers often involve changes in manufacturing procedures and processes, which could require that we conduct bridging studies between our prior clinical supply used in our clinical trials and that of any new manufacture. We may be unsuccessful in demonstrating the comparability of clinical supplies which could require the conduct of additional clinical trials.

The facilities used by our CDMOs to manufacture our product candidates must be approved and may be inspected by the FDA and other comparable regulatory authorities in connection with the submission of our marketing applications to, and review by, the FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities or based on their work for other clinical trial sponsors. While we have contractual relationships with our CDMOs, our oversight of manufacturing activities is limited and we do not and will not control the manufacturing process of, and will be completely dependent on, our CDMOs for compliance with cGMPs and other regulatory requirements in connection with the manufacture of our product candidates. In addition, certain of our CDMOs may themselves rely on other third parties to produce all or a part of our product candidates. If our CDMOs (or any of the third parties upon which they rely) cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions, they will not be able to secure or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities. While we may review the compliance history and performance of our CDMOs, we have no control over the ability of our CDMOs to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved. Further, 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 product candidates, if approved, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business and supplies of our product candidates.

Our product candidates may compete with other product candidates and approved products for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. Furthermore, given the limited number of available manufacturing slots and the long lead times needed to reserve them, manufacturers require monetary commitments in connection with such reservations as well as fees for changes or cancellations in the reserved manufacturing slots. As a result, we may wait to reserve manufacturing slots until we can be informed by data from the clinical trials of our product candidates, which may be several months from the time we request manufacturing slots. Any

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significant delay in the supply of clinical materials for our product candidates could considerably delay conducting our clinical trials and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. Alternatively, we may project when we may need additional clinical material for our product candidates and reserve manufacturing time-slots

“at-risk”

prior to our product candidates having generated data from their then current clinical trials. Such projections involve risks and uncertainties and may result in additional costs or delays in manufacturing clinical materials for our product candidates when and if we actually need them.

Any contamination in our or our third parties’ manufacturing process, shortages of raw materials or reagents or failure of any of our key suppliers to deliver necessary components of our product candidates could result in delays in our clinical development or marketing schedules.

Given the nature of biologics manufacturing, there is a risk of contamination. Any contamination could materially adversely affect our or our third-party vendors’ ability to produce our product candidates on schedule and could therefore harm our results of operations and cause reputational damage.

The raw materials required in our and our third-party vendors’ manufacturing processes are derived from biological sources. We cannot assure you that we or our third-party vendors have, or will be able to obtain on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, sufficient rights to these materials derived from biological sources. Such raw materials are difficult to procure and may also be subject to contamination or recall or be of insufficient quality. A material shortage, contamination, recall, or restriction on the use of biologically derived substances in the manufacture of our product candidates could adversely impact or disrupt the clinical and commercial manufacturing of our product candidates, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results and development timelines. We rely on third-party suppliers for the supply and manufacture of certain components of our technology and product candidates, including a single supplier in some cases. Should our ability to procure the necessary components for our product candidates from our suppliers be compromised, our ability to continuously operate would be impaired until an alternative supplier is sourced, qualified and tested, which could delay or limit our ability to produce a clinical and commercial supply of our product candidates and harm our business.

Moreover, if there is a disruption to our manufacturing operations or one or more of our third-party manufacturers’ or suppliers’ relevant operations, such as due to the impact of the

COVID-19

pandemic, including due to staffing shortages or reprioritizations, production slowdowns or stoppages or interruptions in global shipping, the supply of the related product candidate will be delayed until we or such manufacturer or supplier restores the affected facilities or we or they procure alternative manufacturing facilities or sources of supply. Our ability to progress our preclinical and clinical programs could be materially and adversely impacted if any of the third-party suppliers upon which we rely for preclinical and clinical stage product candidate supply were to experience a significant business challenge, disruption or failure due to issues such as financial difficulties or bankruptcy, issues relating to other customers such as regulatory or quality compliance issues, or other financial, legal, regulatory or reputational issues. Additionally, any damage to or destruction of our third-party manufacturers’ or suppliers’ facilities or equipment may significantly impair our ability to manufacture our product candidates on a timely basis.

If we handle biological materials in a manner that causes injury, we may be liable for damages.

Our research and development activities involve the use of biological and hazardous materials. Although we believe our safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials complies with federal, state and local laws and regulations, we cannot entirely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials. We do not carry specific biological waste insurance coverage or property and casualty and general liability insurance policies that include coverage for damages and fines arising from biological exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical trials or regulatory approvals could be suspended or terminated.

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Third-party manufacturers and any third-party collaborators may be unable to successfully

scale-up

manufacturing of our current or future product candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from developing our product candidates and commercializing approved products, if any.

In order to conduct clinical trials of

MGTA-145,

MGTA-117,

and our other current and future product candidates, we will need to work with third-party manufacturers to manufacture them in sufficient quantities. We have not yet manufactured or processed on a commercial scale and may not be able to do so for any of our product candidates. Our manufacturing partners or our third-party collaborators may be unable to successfully increase the manufacturing capacity of

MGTA-145,

MGTA-117,

and our other current or future product candidates in a timely or cost-effective manner, or at all. We will make changes as we work to optimize the manufacturing process, and we cannot be sure that even minor changes in the process will result in therapies that are safe and effective. The process of making these changes could delay, prevent or impair the clinical development or commercialization of our product candidates. In addition, quality issues may arise during

scale-up

activities. If our manufacturing partners or collaborators are unable to successfully scale up the manufacture of our current or future product candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, the development, testing, and clinical trials of that product candidate may be delayed or infeasible, and marketing approval or commercial launch of any resulting product may be delayed or not obtained, which could significantly harm our business.

Risks Related to Commercialization, Government Regulation and Competition

We may never obtain FDA approval for any of our product candidates in the U.S., and even if we do, we may never obtain approval for or commercialize any of our product candidates in any other jurisdiction, which would limit our ability to realize their full market potential.

In order to eventually market any of our product candidates in any particular foreign jurisdiction, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements on a

jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction

basis regarding safety and efficacy. Approval by the FDA in the U.S., if obtained, does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions. In addition, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not guarantee regulatory approval in any other country. Approval processes vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and validation and additional administrative review periods. Seeking foreign regulatory approval could result in difficulties and costs for us and require additional preclinical studies or clinical trials which could be costly and time-consuming. Regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in those countries. The foreign regulatory approval process involves all of the risks associated with FDA approval. We do not have any product candidates approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in international markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our products will be unrealized.

Failure to obtain marketing approval in foreign jurisdictions would prevent any product candidates we may develop from being marketed in such jurisdictions, which, in turn, would materially impair our ability to generate revenue.

In order to market and sell any product candidates we may develop in the European Union and many other foreign jurisdictions, we or our third-party 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 U.S. generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the U.S., it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. We or these

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third parties may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the U.S. 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 U.S. does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our medicines in any jurisdiction, which would materially impair our ability to generate revenue.

Even if we obtain marketing approvals for any product candidates we develop, the terms of approvals and ongoing regulation of our products could require the substantial expenditure of resources and may limit how we manufacture and market our products, which could materially impair our ability to generate revenue.

Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval, along with the manufacturing processes, post-approval clinical data, labeling, advertising, and promotional activities for such medicine, 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 quality control, applicable product tracking and tracing requirements, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, and requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and recordkeeping. Even if marketing approval of a product candidate is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the medicine may be marketed or to the conditions of approval or contain requirements for costly post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the medicine.

Accordingly, assuming we, or any collaborators we may have, receive marketing approval for one or more product candidates we develop, we, and such collaborators, and our and their contract manufacturers will continue to expend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, product surveillance, and quality control. If we and such collaborators are not able to comply with post-approval regulatory requirements, we and such collaborators could have the marketing approvals for our products withdrawn by regulatory authorities and our, or such collaborators’, ability to market any future products could be limited, which could adversely affect our ability to achieve or sustain profitability. Further, the cost of compliance with post-approval regulations may have a negative effect on our business, operating results, financial condition, and prospects.

Even if our product candidates are approved by government regulators, the commercial success of any of our product candidates will depend upon the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community.

Even with the requisite approvals from the FDA in the U.S., the EMA in the European Union and other regulatory authorities internationally, the commercial success of our product candidates will depend, in part, on the acceptance of physicians, patients and health care payors of our product candidates as medically necessary, cost-effective and safe. Even before receiving any potential regulatory approval for a product candidate, we may determine that the clinical trial results for a product candidate suggest that it does not have a product profile that would be competitive compared to other therapeutic options. Any product that we develop or commercialize may not have or gain acceptance by physicians, patients, health care payors and others in the medical community. If these products do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue and may not become profitable. Efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources, including management time and financial resources, and may not be successful. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on several factors, including:

• the cost of treatment relative to alternative treatments;

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• our ability to offer the product for sale at competitive prices;

• the willingness of physicians to prescribe new therapies;

• the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies;

• the prevalence and severity of any side effects;

• relative convenience and ease of administration;

• the strength of marketing and distribution support;

• the timing of market introduction of competitive products;

• publicity concerning our products or competing products and treatments;

• sufficient third-party payor coverage and adequate reimbursement.

In addition, we analyze these factors with respect to our product candidates before they are approved by conducting market research. Even if a potential product displays a favorable efficacy and safety profile in preclinical studies and clinical trials, market acceptance of the product will not be fully known until after it is launched. Any current or potential product candidate of ours that does not have a competitive product profile compared to other therapeutic options, including those that obtain regulatory approval but fail to achieve market acceptance or commercial success, would adversely affect our business prospects.

We currently have no marketing and sales organization and have no experience in marketing products. If we are unable to establish marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may not be able to generate product revenue.

We currently have no sales, marketing or distribution capabilities and have no experience in marketing products. We intend to develop an

in-house

marketing organization and sales force, which will require significant capital expenditures, management resources and time. We will have to compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel. If we are unable or decide not to establish internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, we will pursue collaborative arrangements regarding the sales and marketing of our products, however, there can be no assurance that we will be able to establish or maintain such collaborative arrangements, or if we are able to do so, that they will have effective sales forces. Any revenue we receive will depend upon the efforts of such third parties, which may not be successful. We may have little or no control over the marketing and sales efforts of such third parties and our revenue from product sales may be lower than if we had commercialized our product candidates ourselves. We also face competition in our search for third parties to assist us with the sales and marketing efforts of our product candidates. There can be no assurance that we will be able to develop

in-house

sales and distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to commercialize any product in the U.S. or overseas.

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

The success of our product candidates, if approved, depends on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors. For additional information regarding laws and regulations related to

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reimbursement, see “Item 1. Business – Reimbursement” in this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

In addition, because our product candidates represent new approaches to blood and immune reset, we cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement will be available for, or accurately estimate the potential revenue from our product candidates or assure that coverage and reimbursement will be available for any product that we may develop.

In the U.S. and markets in other countries, patients who are provided medical treatment for their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their treatment. Adequate coverage and reimbursement from governmental healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and commercial payors are critical to new product acceptance. If government and other health care payers were not to provide adequate coverage and reimbursement levels for any of our products if approved, market acceptance and commercial success could be reduced.

Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which drugs and treatments they will cover and the amount of reimbursement. Coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the medicine is approved by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities. In the U.S., the principal decisions about reimbursement for new medicines are typically made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. CMS decides whether and to what extent a new medicine will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare and private payors tend to follow CMS to a substantial degree. Coverage and reimbursement by a third-party payor may depend upon a number of factors, including the third-party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

• a covered benefit under its health plan;

• safe, effective and medically necessary;

• appropriate for the specific patient;

• cost-effective; and

• neither experimental nor investigational.

Further, in the U.S., no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors. As a result, obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval of a product from a government or other third-party payor is a time-consuming and costly process that could require us to provide to each payor supporting scientific, clinical and cost-effectiveness data for the use of our products on a

payor-by-payor

basis, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained. Even if we obtain coverage for a given product, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate for us to maintain pricing sufficient to achieve or sustain profitability or may require

co-payments

that patients find unacceptably high. Additionally, third-party payors may not cover, or provide adequate reimbursement for, long-term

follow-up

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

Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors in the U.S. and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for newly approved products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. There has been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the U.S. with respect to specialty drug pricing practices. Specifically, there have been several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. We expect to experience pricing

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pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, cost containment initiatives and additional legislative changes.

Even if we are able to commercialize any product candidates, such products may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices, or healthcare reform initiatives, which would harm our business.

The regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing, and reimbursement for new medicines vary widely from country to country. For additional information regarding these variations from country to country, see “Item 1. Business – Governmental Regulation” and “Item 1. Business – Reimbursement” in this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

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

Our ability to commercialize any medicines successfully also will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement for these medicines and related treatments will be available from government health administration authorities, private health insurers, and other organizations. Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which medications they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. 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.

Individual states in the U.S. have also increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.

Also, increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. We cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any medicine that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, the level of reimbursement. Reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. If reimbursement is not available or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.

There may be significant delays in obtaining reimbursement for newly approved medicines, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the medicine is approved by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S. Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement does not imply that any medicine will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale, and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new medicines, 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 medicine and the clinical setting in which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost medicines and may be incorporated into existing payments for other services. Net prices for medicines 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 medicines from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the U.S.

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

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

Failure to comply with the requirements under European Union and U.K. laws and regulations could result in reputational risk, public reprimands, administrative penalties, fines or imprisonment. For additional information regarding applicable government regulations, see “Item 1. Business – Governmental Regulation” in this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

Historically, products launched in the European Union do not follow price structures of the U.S. and generally prices tend to be significantly lower. Publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries. If pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels or if reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, our revenues from sales by us or our strategic partners and the potential profitability of any of our product candidates in those countries would be negatively affected.

Foreign governments often impose strict price controls on approved products, which may adversely affect our future profitability in those countries, and recent federal legislation and actions by federal, state and local governments may permit reimportation of drugs from foreign countries into the U.S., including foreign countries where the drugs are sold at lower prices than in the U.S., which could adversely affect our future profitability.

Frequently foreign governments impose strict price controls on newly approved therapeutic products. If we obtain regulatory approval to sell products in foreign countries, we may be unable to obtain a price that provides an adequate financial return on our investment. Furthermore, we may face competition in the U.S. for our development candidates and investigational medicines, if approved, from therapies sourced from foreign countries that have placed price controls on pharmaceutical products. In the U.S., the FDA issued a final guidance document outlining a pathway for manufacturers to obtain an additional National Drug Code, for an

FDA-approved

drug that was originally intended to be marketed in a foreign country and that was authorized for sale in that foreign country. The market implications of the final guidance is unknown at this time. Proponents of drug reimportation may attempt to pass legislation that would directly allow reimportation under certain circumstances. Legislation or regulations allowing the reimportation of drugs, if enacted, could decrease the price we receive for any products that we may develop and adversely affect our future revenues and prospects for profitability.

Ongoing healthcare legislative and regulatory reform measures may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates, and may affect the prices we may set.

In the U.S. and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could, among other things, prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell any products for which we obtain marketing approval. Changes in regulations, statutes or the interpretation of existing regulations could impact our business in the future by requiring, for example: (1) changes to our manufacturing arrangements; (2) additions or modifications to product labeling; (3) the recall or discontinuation

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of our products; or (4) additional record-keeping requirements. If any such changes were to be imposed, they could adversely affect the operation of our business. For additional information regarding these regulations, statutes or their interpretations, see “Item 1. Business – Governmental Regulation” in this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

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

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

In the event we decide to conduct clinical trials or continue to enroll subjects in our ongoing or future clinical trials in the European Union or the U.K., we may be subject to additional privacy restrictions. The collection, use, storage, transfer, and other processing of personal data, including personal health data, regarding individuals in the European Economic Area is governed, as of May 2018, by the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. Achieving and maintaining compliance with the GDPR and the U.K. GDPR is a rigorous and time-intensive process that may increase our cost of doing business or require us to change our business practices, and despite those efforts, there is a risk that we may be subject to fines and penalties, litigation, and reputational harm in connection with any future European or U.K. activities. For additional information regarding GDPR, see “Item 1. Business – Governmental Regulation” in this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

In the U.S., the data protection landscape is rapidly growing and evolving, and achieving and maintaining compliance with current and future U.S. state and federal privacy laws will be similarly onerous and may adversely affect our business. For example, if we fail to comply with the CCPA, we could be subject to civil penalties. Further, if we experience a data breach that results in the loss of personal information of California residents, we may be subject to a private right of action under the CCPA. While there are currently exemptions under the CCPA for protected health information that is subject to HIPAA and for patient information subject to clinical trial regulations, the CCPA may still negatively impact our business activities. There continues to be uncertainty surrounding the enforcement and implementation of the CCPA, which exemplifies the vulnerability of our business to the evolving regulatory environment related to personal data and protected health information.

Additionally, as recently passed U.S. state laws, such as the California Privacy Rights Act come into effect, we may become subject to or affected by new or additional data protection requirements and face increased scrutiny or attention from regulatory authorities. The effects of these laws are potentially significant and may require us to modify our data collection or processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply and increase our potential exposure to regulatory enforcement and/or litigation.

We also anticipate that more states may enact legislation similar to the CCPA, which has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state-level privacy legislation. Such proposed legislation, if enacted, may add additional complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk, require additional investment of resources in compliance programs, impact strategies and the availability of previously useful data and could result in increased compliance costs and/or changes in business practices and policies.

Additionally, HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, and its implementing regulations, imposes certain requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information. Among other things, HITECH makes HIPAA’s privacy and security standards directly applicable to “business associates,” those independent contractors or agents of covered entities that create, receive, maintain, transmit or obtain protected health information in connection with providing a service on behalf of a covered entity. HITECH also increased the civil and criminal penalties that may be imposed against covered entities, business associates and possibly other persons, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce

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the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorney’s fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. In addition, there may be additional federal, state and

non-U.S.

laws which govern the privacy and security of health and other personal information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts.

In addition, there may be additional federal, state and

non-U.S.

laws which govern the privacy and security of health and other personal information in certain circumstances. These laws may differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts. The scope and enforcement of each of these laws is uncertain and subject to rapid change in the current environment of healthcare reform, especially in light of the lack of applicable precedent and regulations. Federal and state enforcement bodies have recently increased their scrutiny of interactions between healthcare companies and healthcare providers, which has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry. 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 laws and regulations governing the processing of data by healthcare entities. 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, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion of drugs from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business is found to not be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs. Ensuring business arrangements comply with applicable laws, as well as responding to possible investigations by government authorities, can be time- and resource-consuming and can divert a company’s attention away from the business.

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

If we further expand our operations outside of the U.S., we must dedicate additional resources to comply with numerous laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which we plan to operate. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, prohibits any U.S. individual or business from paying, offering, authorizing payment or offering of anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, political party or candidate for the purpose of influencing any act or decision of the foreign entity in order to assist the individual or business in obtaining or retaining business. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the U.S. to comply with certain accounting provisions requiring the company to maintain books and records that accurately and fairly reflect all transactions of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls for international operations.

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

Various laws, regulations and executive orders also restrict the use and dissemination outside of the U.S., or the sharing with certain

non-U.S.

nationals, of information classified for national security purposes, as well as certain products and technical data relating to those products. If we expand our presence outside of the U.S., it will require us to dedicate additional resources to comply with these laws, and these laws may preclude us from developing, manufacturing, or selling certain products and product candidates outside of the U.S., which could limit our growth potential and increase our development costs.

The failure to comply with laws governing international business practices may result in substantial civil and criminal penalties and suspension or debarment from government contracting. The SEC also may suspend or bar issuers from trading securities on U.S. exchanges for violations of the FCPA’s accounting provisions.

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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 have a material adverse effect on the success of 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, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts and business operations, environmental damage resulting in costly

clean-up

and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance. 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. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions. We do not currently carry biological or hazardous waste insurance coverage.

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 or other work-related injuries, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities.

We are competing against numerous large, established companies that have substantially greater financial, technical, research, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and other resources than us, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.

The pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by intense competition and rapid and significant technological changes and advancements. Our potential competitors include major multinational pharmaceutical companies, established biotechnology companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and universities and other research institutions. Many companies, research institutions and universities are doing research and development work in a number of areas similar to those that we focus on that could lead to the development of new products which could compete with and be superior to our product candidates. We expect technological developments in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical and related fields to occur at a rapid rate, and we believe competition will intensify as advances in these fields are made. Accordingly, we will be required to continue to devote substantial resources and efforts to research and development activities in order to potentially achieve and maintain a competitive position in this field. Products that we develop may become obsolete before we are able to market them or to recover all or any portion of our research and development expenses.

Most of the companies with which we compete have substantially greater financial, technical, research, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and other resources than we do, including staff, experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations, and well-established sales forces. In addition, smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. We will be competing with respect to our products with companies that have significantly more experience and expertise in undertaking preclinical testing and human clinical trials with new or improved therapeutic products and obtaining regulatory approvals of such products. A number of these companies already market and may be in advanced phases of clinical testing of various drugs that will or may compete with our

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current product candidates or other future potential product candidates. Our competitors may develop or commercialize products more rapidly than we do or with significant advantages over any products we develop. Our competitors may therefore be more successful in commercializing their products than we are, which could adversely affect our competitive position and business.

In addition to larger pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical companies that may develop different competing technologies or technologies, we will be competing with a number of smaller biotechnology companies. We are aware that collaborations between smaller companies and larger established companies may compete with our programs. Colleges, universities, governmental agencies and other public and private research organizations are becoming more active in seeking patent protection and licensing arrangements to collect royalties for use of technologies that they have developed, some of which may be directly competitive with our programs and product candidates. For additional information regarding our competition, see “Item 1. Business – Competition” in this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors, either alone or with collaborative partners, may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing on an exclusive basis drug or biologic products that are more effective, safer, more easily commercialized or less costly than our product candidates or may develop proprietary technologies or secure patent protection that we may need for the development of our technologies and products. We believe the key competitive factors that will affect the development and commercial success of our product candidates are efficacy, safety, tolerability, reliability, convenience of use, price and reimbursement.

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

Our competitors include companies focused on developing technologies to improve the distinct steps of stem cell transplant. For additional information regarding our competition, see “Item 1. Business – Competition” In this Annual Report on Form

10-K.

Our product candidates for which we intend to seek approval may face competition from generic drugs or biosimilars sooner than anticipated.

With the enactment of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, an abbreviated pathway for the approval of biosimilar and interchangeable biological products was created. The abbreviated regulatory pathway establishes legal authority for the FDA to review and approve biosimilar biologics, including the possible designation of a biosimilar as interchangeable based on its similarity to an existing reference product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product cannot be approved by the FDA until 12 years after the original branded product is approved under a BLA. On March 6, 2015, the FDA approved the first biosimilar product under the BPCIA. However, the law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty. While it is uncertain when such processes intended to implement BPCIA may be fully adopted by the FDA, any such processes could have a material adverse effect on the future commercial prospects for our biological products.

We believe that if any of our product candidates are approved as a biological product under a BLA it should qualify for the

12-year

period of exclusivity. However, there is a risk that the FDA will not consider any of our product candidates to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for biosimilar competition sooner than anticipated. Additionally, this period of regulatory exclusivity does not apply

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to companies pursuing regulatory approval via their own traditional BLA, rather than via the abbreviated pathway. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for

non-biological

products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing. Finally, there has been public discussion of potentially decreasing the period of exclusivity from the current 12 years. If such a change were to be enacted, our product candidates, if approved, could have a shorter period of exclusivity than anticipated.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

We are highly dependent on intellectual property licensed from third parties and termination of any of these licenses could result in the loss of significant rights, which would harm our business.

In November 2016, we entered into a license agreement with Harvard University, or Harvard, pursuant to which we were granted a worldwide license to research, develop and commercialize one or more therapeutic products under certain conditioning- and mobilization-related patents and patent applications owned or controlled by Harvard. We are dependent on the patents,

know-how

and proprietary technology, licensed from Harvard. In addition, in March 2018, we entered into a research, development option and license agreement with Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH, or Heidelberg Pharma, pursuant to which we intend to combine our proprietary antibodies and Heidelberg Pharma’s amanitin conjugates platform, including our

MGTA-117

product candidate. If we commercialize any products utilizing Heidelberg Pharma’s amanitin conjugates platform, we will be dependent on the intellectual property rights we license from Heidelberg Pharma. Any disputes with these licensors or termination of these licenses, or a finding that such intellectual property lacks legal effect, could result in the loss of significant intellectual property rights and could harm our ability to commercialize our current or future product candidates.

Certain of our license agreements, including our agreements with Harvard and Heidelberg Pharma, require us to use diligent efforts or meet development thresholds, to maintain the license, including establishing a set timeline for developing and commercializing products. If we fail to comply with any of the obligations under our license agreements, including payment terms and diligence terms, our licensors may have the right to terminate our agreements, in which event we may lose intellectual property rights and may not be able to develop, manufacture, market or sell the products covered by our agreements or may face other penalties under our agreements. In addition, such a termination could result in the licensor reacquiring the intellectual property rights and subsequently enabling a competitor to access the technology. Any such occurrence could materially adversely affect the value of the product candidate being developed under any such agreement. Termination of our license agreements or reduction or elimination of our rights under them may result in our having to negotiate a new or reinstated agreement, which may not be available to us on equally favorable terms, or at all, which may mean we are unable to develop or commercialize the affected product candidate or cause us to lose our rights under the agreement.

Further, the agreements under which we currently license intellectual property or technology from third parties are complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. Accordingly, disputes may arise between us and our licensor, or our licensor and its licensors, regarding intellectual property subject to a license agreement, including those relating to:

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The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement. If disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on acceptable terms, or are insufficient to provide us the necessary rights to use the intellectual property, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates. If we or any such licensors fail to adequately protect this intellectual property, our ability to commercialize our products could suffer. Any disputes with our licensors or any termination of the licenses on which we depend could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our commercial success depends on our ability to obtain, maintain and protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology.

Our commercial success depends in large part on our ability to obtain, maintain and protect intellectual property protection through patents, trademarks, and trade secrets in the U.S. and other countries with respect to our proprietary product candidates. If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property rights, competitors may be able to erode, negate or preempt any competitive advantage we may have, which could harm our business and ability to achieve profitability.

To protect our proprietary position, we own and have

in-licensed

certain issued patents and have filed and may file provisional and

non-provisional

patent applications in the U.S. or abroad related to our product candidates that are important to our business. Provisional patent applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a

non-provisional

patent application within 12 months of the filing of one or more of our related provisional patent applications. If we do not timely file

non-provisional

patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in our provisional patent applications. While we intend to timely file

non-provisional

patent applications relating to our provisional patent applications, we cannot predict whether any such patent applications will result in the issuance of patents that provide us with any competitive advantage. Moreover, the patent application and approval process is expensive and time-consuming. We may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner.

In some instances, agreements through which we license patent rights may not give us control over patent prosecution or maintenance, so that we may not be able to control which claims or arguments are presented, how claims are amended, and may not be able to secure, maintain, or successfully enforce necessary or desirable patent protection from those patent rights. We have not had and do not have primary control over patent prosecution and maintenance for certain of the patents and patent applications we license, and therefore cannot guarantee that these patents and applications will be prosecuted or maintained in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. We cannot be certain that patent prosecution and maintenance activities by our licensors have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or will result in valid and enforceable patents. Moreover, some of our

in-licensed

patents and patent applications are, and our future owned and licensed patents may be,

co-owned

with third parties. If we are unable to obtain an exclusive license to any such third-party

co-owners’

interest in such patents or patent applications, such

co-owners

may be

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able to license their rights to other third parties, including our competitors, and our competitors could market competing products and technology. In addition, we may need the cooperation of any such

co-owners

of our patents in order to enforce such patents against third parties, and such cooperation may not be provided to us.

If the scope of the patent protection we or our licensors obtain is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to prevent others from developing and commercializing technology and products similar or identical to ours. The degree of patent protection we require to successfully compete in the marketplace may be unavailable or severely limited in some cases and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. We cannot provide any assurances that any of our licensed patents have, or that any of our pending owned or licensed patent applications that mature into issued patents will include, claims with a scope sufficient to protect our product candidates or otherwise provide any competitive advantage, nor can we assure you that our licenses will remain in force. Other parties have developed or may develop technologies that may be related or competitive with our approach, and may have filed or may file patent applications and may have been issued or may be issued patents with claims that overlap or conflict with our patent applications, either by claiming the same compounds, formulations or methods or by claiming subject matter that could dominate our patent position. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. Furthermore, patents have a limited lifespan. In the U.S., the natural expiration of a patent is generally twenty years after it is filed. Various extensions may be available; however, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product 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 adequate and continuing patent protection sufficient to exclude others from commercializing products similar to our product candidates. In addition, the patent portfolio licensed to us is, or may be, licensed to third parties, such as outside our field, and such third parties may have certain enforcement rights. Thus, our owned and licensed patents and any patents we own or license in the future could be put at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly in litigation filed by or against another licensee or in administrative proceedings brought by or against another licensee in response to such litigation or for other reasons.

The patent protection we obtain for our product candidates may not be sufficient to provide us with any competitive advantage or our patents may be challenged.

Our owned and licensed patents and pending patent applications, if issued, may not provide us with any meaningful protection or prevent competitors from designing around our patent claims to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or therapeutics in

a non-infringing manner.

For example, a third party may develop a competitive therapy that provides benefits similar to one or more of our product candidates but falls outside the scope of our patent protection or license rights. If the patent protection provided by the patents and patent applications we hold or pursue with respect to our product candidates is not sufficiently broad to impede such competition, our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates could be negatively affected, which would harm our business. Currently, a significant portion of our patents and patent applications

are in-licensed, though

similar risks would apply to any patents or patent applications that we now own or may own

or in-license in

the future.

We, or any future partners, collaborators, or licensees, may fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection on them. Therefore, we may miss potential opportunities to strengthen our patent position.

It is possible that defects of form in the preparation or filing of our patents or patent applications may exist, or may arise in the future, for example with respect to proper priority claims, inventorship, claim scope, or requests for patent term adjustments. If we or our partners, collaborators, licensees, or licensors, whether current or future, fail to establish, maintain or protect such patents and other intellectual property rights, such rights may be reduced or eliminated. If our partners, collaborators, licensees, or licensors, are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could

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be compromised. If there are material defects in the form, preparation, prosecution, or enforcement of our patents or patent applications, such patents may be invalid and/or unenforceable, and such applications may never result in valid, enforceable patents. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business.

The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies carries uncertainty. In addition, the determination of patent rights with respect to pharmaceutical compounds commonly involves complex legal and factual questions, which are dependent upon the current legal and intellectual property context, extant legal precedent and interpretations of the law by individuals. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are characterized by uncertainty.

Pending patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology claimed in such applications unless and until a patent issues from such applications. Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, currently, the first to file a patent application is generally entitled to the patent. However, prior to March 16, 2013, in the U.S., the first to invent was entitled to the patent. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the U.S. and other jurisdictions are not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that 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. Similarly, we cannot be certain that parties from whom we do or may license or purchase patent rights were the first to make relevant claimed inventions, or were the first to file for patent protection for them. If third parties have filed prior patent applications on inventions claimed in our patents or applications that were filed on or before March 15, 2013, an interference proceeding in the U.S. can be initiated by such third parties to determine who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by the patent claims of our applications. If third parties have filed such prior applications after March 15, 2013, a derivation proceeding in the U.S. can be initiated by such third parties to determine whether our invention was derived from theirs.

Moreover, because the issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, our owned and licensed patents or pending patent applications may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the U.S. and abroad. There is no assurance that all of the potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications has been found. If such prior art exists, it may be used to invalidate a patent, or may prevent a patent from issuing from a pending patent application. For example, such patent filings may be subject to a third-party submission of prior art to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, or to other patent offices around the world. Alternately or additionally, we may become involved in post-grant review procedures, oppositions, derivation proceedings,

ex parte

reexaminations,

inter partes

review, supplemental examinations, or interference proceedings or challenges in district court, in the U.S. or in various foreign patent offices, including both national and regional, challenging patents or patent applications in which we have rights, including patents on which we rely to protect our business. An adverse determination in any such challenges may result in loss of the patent or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, or in denial of the patent application or loss or reduction in the scope of one or more claims of the patent application, any of which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. In addition, given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized.

Pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued that protect our business, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive products. Competitors may also be able to design around our patents. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the U.S. and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the U.S. For example, patent laws in various jurisdictions, including significant

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commercial markets such as Europe, restrict the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body more than U.S. law does. Any of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue.

The patent application process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we or any of our future development partners will be successful in protecting our product candidates by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:

• patent applications may not result in any patents being issued;

Issued patents that we have, may obtain or license may not 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 technologies or products in

a non-infringing manner.

Our competitors may also seek approval to market their own products similar to or otherwise competitive with our products. Alternatively, our competitors may seek to market generic versions of any approved products by submitting Abbreviated New Drug Applications to the FDA in which they claim that patents owned or licensed by us are invalid, unenforceable or not infringed. In these circumstances, we may need to defend or assert our patents, or both, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement. In any of these types of proceedings, a court or other agency with jurisdiction may find our patents invalid or unenforceable, or that our competitors are competing in

a non-infringing manner.

Thus, even if we have valid and enforceable patents, these patents still may not provide protection against competing products or processes sufficient to achieve our business objectives. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely upon trade secret protection,

know-how

and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our contractors, collaborators, scientific advisors, employees and consultants and invention assignment agreements with our consultants and employees. However, we may not obtain these agreements in all circumstances, and individuals with whom we have these agreements may not comply with their terms. The assignment of intellectual property rights under these agreements may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we

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may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. In addition, we may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical

know-how

or other trade secrets by the parties to these agreements despite the existence of confidentiality agreements and other contractual restrictions. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. If any of the contractors, collaborators, scientific advisors, employees and consultants who are parties to these agreements breaches or violates the terms of any of these agreements, we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach or violation. As a result, we could lose our trade secrets. Enforcing a claim against a third party that illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets, like patent litigation, is expensive and time-consuming and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the U.S. are sometimes less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets.

Moreover, our trade secrets could otherwise become known or be independently discovered by our competitors or other third parties. Competitors and other third parties could purchase our product candidates and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts, willfully infringe our intellectual property rights, design around our protected technology or develop their own competitive technologies that fall outside of our intellectual property rights. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, 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 our trade secrets are not adequately protected or sufficient to provide an advantage over our competitors, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our business. Additionally, if the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are deemed inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating our trade secrets.

If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.

Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition among potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors or other third parties may adopt trade names or trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. If we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the marks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has superior rights to the marks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to trademarks, trade secrets, domain names, copyrights or other intellectual property may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation or other violations may prevent or delay our product discovery and development efforts and have a material adverse effect on our business.

Source: SEC EDGAR (public domain) · 10-K for the period ended 2021-12-31, filed 2022-03-08 · accession 0001193125-22-068759

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