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Gyre Therapeutics, Inc. GYRE US Equity

Health Care · CIK 1124105 · FY ends Dec 31
$6.59
-0.09 (-1.35%)
USD · as of 2026-08-28 · marketstack

Gyre Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GYRE), an SEC filer in Pharmaceutical Preparations, closed at $6.59, -1.3%, on 2026-08-28, with a market cap of $735M, a trailing P/E of 329.5, a return on equity of 11.7%, a net margin of 8.5% and 3-year sales growth of 4.5%. Institutional ownership, earnings history and filed financials are on the tabs below.

GYRE · 10-K · period ended 2024-12-31

← all GYRE documents
filed 2025-03-17 · EDGAR original ↗

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Item 1A. RISK FACTORS.

The following section includes the most significant factors that may adversely affect our business and operations. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and all information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects may be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Moreover, some of the factors, events and contingencies discussed below may have occurred in the past, but the disclosures below are not representations as to whether or not the factors, events or contingencies have occurred in the past and instead reflect our beliefs and opinions as to the factors, events, or contingencies that could materially and adversely affect us in the future.

Summary of Risk Factors

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Below please find a summary of the principal risks we face. These risks are discussed more fully below.

Our business is significantly dependent on the sales of ETUARY®, our marketed product in the PRC, amid a competitive landscape, and there is a possibility that we may not be able to sustain or boost the sales volume, pricing, and profitability of ETUARY.

There is a risk that our marketed product in the PRC, ETUARY, along with any other products that we may commercialize in the future, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, and may receive approval in the future, may not attain sufficient market acceptance among physicians, healthcare facilities, pharmacies, patients, third-party payers, and the broader medical community, which is crucial for their commercial viability.

The future of our business and financial outcomes is largely contingent on the progress and success of our product candidates in clinical and pre-clinical stages, such as ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, F573 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and in additional markets beyond the PRC. We face the risk of not being able to finalize their clinical development, secure necessary regulatory approvals, or accomplish their market launch successfully, or we may encounter substantial setbacks in these processes.

To support the growth of our research and development activities and operations, we require further funding, which might not be obtainable on favorable terms or could be entirely unavailable. If we fail to secure the needed capital at the critical time, we might have to postpone, scale down, or halt some of our development projects, market introduction initiatives, or other operational aspects.

The true market potential for our product and product candidates may be less than expected. Our expansion could be constrained by the current and emerging number of IPF patients in the PRC, pending the approval and profitable launch of expanded applications for ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, and our other product candidates.

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The approval procedures of the NMPA, FDA, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities are extensive, protracted, and inherently uncertain. Failure to secure necessary approvals, or encountering delays in the approval process, will prevent us from marketing our product candidates, such as ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, F573 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and in additional markets beyond the PRC, which may significantly affect our revenue generation.

Should we or our licensors fail to secure, uphold, defend, or extend adequate patent and other intellectual property rights for our products, ETUARY, nintedanib and avatrombopag, which are approved in the PRC, and any product candidates globally, or if the breadth of these intellectual property rights is insufficient, our ability to effectively compete in our markets could be compromised.

We have established, and may continue to establish, collaborative agreements and strategic partnerships. However, there is no guarantee we will fully achieve the anticipated benefits from these collaborations, alliances, or licensing agreements, and conflicts could emerge with our present or prospective partners.

Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process and outcomes are uncertain, and we may not successfully complete clinical trials for drugs under development, including ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, F573 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and in additional markets beyond the PRC, or demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities.

Our ongoing success is reliant on our capacity to retain key executives and to recruit, maintain, and inspire skilled professionals.

If our intangible assets are impaired, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Modifications to laws, regulations, and rules by the PRC government could lead to alterations in our operational processes and business approaches.

There are uncertainties regarding the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws, rules and regulations.

The market price of our common stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile.

We will continue to incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance with regulations related to operating as a public company.

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Capital Requirements

Our business is significantly dependent on the sales of ETUARY, our marketed product in the PRC, amid a competitive landscape, and there is a possibility that we may not be able to sustain or boost the sales volume, pricing, and profitability of ETUARY.

We are a biotechnology company and have only generated revenues from the commercial sale of ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, and certain generic drugs. We only have one product and certain generic drugs for commercial sale and are still in the early stages of development of our other product candidates. We are largely dependent on sales of ETUARY, but we may not be able to maintain ETUARY’s sales volumes, pricing levels or profit margins. Sales of ETUARY accounted for 99.3% and 98.9% of our total revenue in 2024 and 2023, respectively, and we expect that sales of ETUARY will continue to comprise a substantial portion of our total revenue in the near future. As a result, any reduction in sales or profit margins of ETUARY will have a material negative impact on our business and results of operations.

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In addition, the pharmaceutical industries are characterized by rapid changes in technology, constant enhancement of industrial know-how and frequent emergence of new products, which renders our targeted markets highly competitive. Notably, the IPF drug market in the PRC is characterized by increasingly fierce competition, with several pirfenidone and nintedanib products approved and commercialized, in addition to our products ETUARY and nintedanib, which Gyre Pharmaceuticals acquired the commercial rights to in May 2024. There are also several drug candidates that have entered into Phase 2 or more advanced clinical trial stage. With the increase in the penetration rate of IPF drugs and the expansion of the overall market, including past new market participants, we expect that more market players will join the IPF market, and, consequently, the sales of our product ETUARY may decrease. For details, see “—Business—Our Products and Product Pipeline—ETUARY: National Category 1.1 New Drug for IPF Approved in 2011—Market Opportunities and Competition” in this Annual Report. New entrants to the IPF market in the PRC may exert downward pressure on our average selling price of ETUARY, which may negatively impact sales and/or profit of ETUARY.

Many of our competitors, including foreign pharmaceutical companies, may have substantially greater clinical, research, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing, financial and human resources compared to us. Certain of our competitors may be actively engaged in research and development in areas where we have products or where we are developing product candidates or new indications for our existing products. Other companies may discover, develop, acquire or commercialize products more quickly or more successfully than we do. Moreover, there may also be significant consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry among our competitors or ventures among competitors that may increase their market share. Furthermore, our competitors may apply for and obtain marketing approvals in the PRC, United States or other countries for products with the same intended use as our generic products, ETUARY and product candidates more rapidly than we do. The capacity of the relevant authorities, such as the NMPA, FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, to concurrently review multiple marketing applications for the same type of innovative drug may be limited. Therefore, such authorities’ review of our product candidates may be delayed when there is concurrent review of our product candidates with our competitors’ products, and the registration process of our products may be prolonged.

In addition to market competition from generic drugs and other products or therapies indicated for the same disease, many of the factors discussed in this Risk Factors section could adversely affect sales of ETUARY, including but not limited to, pricing pressures caused by government policies and inclusion or removal from the governmental medical insurance coverage, market acceptance among the medical community, disruptions in manufacturing or distribution, issues with product quality or side effects and disputes over intellectual property. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may be unable to develop or acquire new products that would diversify our business and reduce our dependence on ETUARY.

The future of our business and financial outcomes is largely contingent on the progress and success of our product candidates in clinical and pre-clinical stages, such as ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, F573 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and in additional markets beyond the PRC. We face the risk of not being able to finalize their clinical development, secure necessary regulatory approvals, or accomplish their market launch successfully, or we may encounter substantial setbacks in these processes.

We have devoted most of our financial resources to research and development, including our preclinical and clinical development activities. Our ability to generate revenue and realize profitability depends on the successful completion of the development of our product candidates, obtaining necessary regulatory approvals, and manufacturing and commercializing our product candidates, which is contingent upon various factors, including:

the clinical development of ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC;

enhancing our commercial manufacturing capabilities;

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our ability to attract, hire and retain skilled personnel;

the successful enrollment in, and completion of, clinical trials, as well as completion of pre-clinical studies and favorable safety and efficacy data therefrom;

receipt of regulatory approvals;

the performance by contract research organizations (“CROs”), or other third parties, of their duties to us in a manner that complies with our trial protocols and applicable laws and protects the integrity of the resulting data;

our ability to acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies;

obtaining, maintaining, protecting and enforcing patent, trade secret and other intellectual property and proprietary protection and regulatory exclusivity, and ensuring we do not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate the patent, trade secret or other intellectual property and proprietary rights of third parties;

successfully launching commercial sales, including our plan to commercially launch nintedanib and avatrombopag;

obtaining and/or maintaining favorable governmental and private medical reimbursement;

efficiently and cost-effectively enhancing our marketing platform and distribution capabilities;

competition with other products and product candidates;

continued acceptable safety profile following regulatory approval, including of ETUARY;

creating additional infrastructure to support operations as a public company and our product development and planned future commercialization efforts; and

delays or other issues with any of the above.

We may not be able to achieve one or more of the foregoing factors in a timely manner or at all. As a result, we could experience significant delays in or obtaining or not be able to obtain approval for and/or successful commercialization of our product, ETUARY, and product candidates, which would render us unable to achieve our planned milestones and materially harm our drug development prospects. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Failure to sustain or increase profitability would depress the value of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain research and development efforts, diversify product offerings or even continue operations. A decline in the value of our common stock could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.

To support the growth of our research and development activities and operations, we require further funding, which might not be obtainable on favorable terms or could be entirely unavailable. If we fail to secure the needed capital at the critical time, we might have to postpone, scale down, or halt some of our development projects, market introduction initiatives, or other operational aspects.

The development, commercialization, manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of biopharmaceutical products and product candidates is capital-intensive. We have only generated revenues from the commercial sale of ETUARY and certain generic drugs in the PRC and will not be able to generate any product revenues in addition to those generated by ETUARY and certain generic drugs until we receive approval to sell our other product candidates from the NMPA, FDA or other regulatory authorities. As we have only generated revenue from commercial sales of ETUARY and certain generic drugs to date and do not expect to generate any revenue from our other product candidates until they obtain regulatory approval, if ever, we will need to raise

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substantial additional capital in order to fund our future research and development, including any new clinical trials, product development, partnerships with third parties and strategic collaborations. However, we expect to need to raise substantial additional capital to continue the clinical development of ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC, and depending on the availability of capital, may need to delay or cease development of some or all of our product candidates. Even if we raise additional capital, we may elect to focus our efforts on one or more development programs and delay or cease other development programs.

While we expect that the implementation of our strategies and business plans will require us to rely in part on external financing sources, including our ATM Program with Jefferies LLC, our ability to obtain additional capital on commercially reasonable terms is subject to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including our future financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, the global economic conditions, industry and competitive conditions, interest rates, prevailing conditions in the credit markets and government policies on lending. Additional funds may not be available when we need them on terms that are acceptable, or at all. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate some or all of our research or development programs, and we may not be able to execute our strategies and business plans as currently contemplated, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Because successful development of our product candidates is uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds required to complete research and development and commercialize our products under development. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

the costs and results of preclinical studies or clinical trials of ETUARY, F351, F573, F528 and F230 or other product candidates, and expenses related to potential clinical development of such candidates;

the expenses associated with promoting academic marketing and expanding our sales and distribution network;

the number and characteristics of product candidates that we pursue;

the terms and timing of any future collaboration, licensing or other arrangements that we may establish;

our need and ability to retain key management and hire scientific, technical, business and medical personnel;

the outcome, timing and cost of regulatory approvals;

our efforts to maintain, expand and defend the scope of our intellectual property portfolio, including the amount and timing of any payments we may be required to make, or that we may receive, in connection with the licensing, filing, prosecution, defense and enforcement of any patents or other intellectual property rights;

the effect of competing technological and market developments;

the costs and timing associated with manufacturing our products, including ETUARY and generic products and product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval, and establishing commercial supplies and sales, marketing and distribution capabilities;

market acceptance of any product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval;

the capital expenditure required to increase our production capacity and to expand and upgrade our facilities;

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the costs of continuing to operate our business, including costs associated with being a public company; and

the extent to which we acquire, license or invest in businesses, products or technologies.

Further, our ability to raise additional capital may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and the disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide resulting from public health crises, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or the conflicts in the Middle East. For details regarding the risks related to the relations between the PRC and the United States, see “—Risks Related to Our Business Operations in the PRC—Changes in the political and economic policies of the PRC government or relations between the PRC and the United States may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.” If we are unable to raise sufficient additional capital, we could be forced to curtail our planned operations and the pursuit of our strategy.

Raising additional funds by issuing securities or through licensing arrangements may cause dilution to stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish proprietary rights.

To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of these new securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of common stockholders. We currently have in place an Open Market Sale AgreementSM with Jefferies LLC that permits us, subject to applicable SEC regulations, to issue up to $50.0 million of shares of our common stock in “at the market” transactions at prevailing market prices.

Debt financing, if available at all, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, product candidates or future revenue streams or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. We may also seek to access the public or private capital markets whenever conditions are favorable, even if we do not have an immediate need for additional capital at that time. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain additional funding if, and when necessary. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis, we could be required to delay, curtail or eliminate one or more, or all, of our development programs or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

We may grow our business in part through acquisitions, which may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities and have material adverse effect on our ability to manage our business, and we may fail to successfully complete such acquisitions or enhance post-acquisition performances in the future.

To enhance our growth and benefit our product development, technology advancement and distribution network, we have in the past and may continue to acquire businesses, products, technologies or know-how or enter into strategic partnerships. Any completed, in-process or potential acquisition or strategic partnership may entail numerous risks, including:

inability to identify suitable acquisition targets and reach agreement on acceptable terms;

lack of access to financing for acquisitions on acceptable terms or at all, or otherwise on assumption of additional indebtedness or contingents and issuance of our equity securities;

failure to obtain or secure the governmental approvals and third-party consents necessary to consummate any proposed acquisition;

increased operating expenses, including research and development expenses due to an increased number of product candidates, administrative expenses and selling expenses;

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assimilation of operations, intellectual property and products of an acquired company, including difficulties associated with integrating new personnel;

diversion of our management’s attention from our existing product programs and initiatives in pursuing such a strategic merger or acquisition;

difficulty in retention of key employees, the loss of key personnel and uncertainties in our ability to maintain key business relationships;

risks and uncertainties associated with the other party to such a transaction, including the prospects of that party and their existing products and product candidates;

inability to generate revenue from acquired technology and/or products sufficient to meet our objectives in undertaking the acquisition or even to offset the associated acquisition and maintenance costs; and/or

deficiencies in internal controls, data adequacy and integrity, product quality and regulatory compliance and product liabilities in the acquired business we discover after such acquisition.

Our plan to grow our business through such acquisitions may not materialize as expected.

Our high gross margin during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 may not be sustainable.

During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, we maintained a high level of gross margin. Our profit margins were 96.3% and 95.9% for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, due to our mature technology and significant cost reduction due to the scale effect. However, there can be no assurance that we will sustain a similarly high gross margin in the future. Various factors may affect our gross margin, many of which are beyond our control. For example, changes in the competitive landscape of the relevant markets may decrease the average selling prices of ETUARY, which may have a negative effect on our gross margin. Moreover, our gross margin will be influenced by various components of our costs, such as the cost of raw materials. For details, see “—Risks Relating to Manufacture and Supply of Our Product—Fluctuations in prices of our raw materials and energy supply, as well as other costs associated with our production processes, may have a material adverse effect on us if we are not able to pass the cost increases on to our customers” in this Risk Factors section.

Our five largest customers accounted for a substantial amount of our revenue during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, which subjects us to concentration risks.

Our five largest customers accounted for a substantial amount of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. As such, we may be exposed to credit risks, and there can be no assurance that we can properly assess and respond in a timely manner to changes in our customers’ credit profile. As of each of December 31, 2024 and 2023, we had certain concentrations of credit risk of 10%. In addition, as of December 31, 2024, 54.3% and 84.9%, and as of December 31, 2023, 50.5% and 85.5%, of our trade receivables were due from our largest customer and our five largest customers, respectively. If such customers’ cash flows, working capital, financial condition or results of operations decrease, they may be unable, or they may otherwise be unwilling, to pay trade receivables owed to us promptly or at all. Any substantial defaults or delays could materially and adversely affect our cash flows, and if we terminate our relationships with our customers as a result of such customers’ default or payment delay, then that may adversely and materially affect our cash flows and operations.

If any of our major customers stop purchasing ETUARY or substantially reduce order size in the future, whether due to the termination or amendment of our contractual relationship with such customer, or due to any other reason unrelated to us, we may not be able to identify and sell ETUARY to an alternative customer in a timely manner, or at all. As a result, our business and financial performance may be materially and adversely affected.

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We may face risk regarding the obsolescence of our inventories.

Our inventories consist of raw materials, works in progress, semi-finished goods and finished goods. As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, our inventories were valued at $6.3 million and $4.3 million, respectively. During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, we did not identify material inventory items requiring impairment provisioning, and we believe that maintaining appropriate levels of inventory helps us meet market demands in a timely manner. We generally purchase supplies based on our estimated demand and manufacturing capacity, and our management system covers each stage of the warehousing process. The storage and distribution of our inventories are closely monitored in order to keep our inventories and logbook consistent. However, as our business expands, our inventory levels may increase and the risk of obsolescence may increase accordingly. Furthermore, any unexpected material fluctuations in the supplies or changes in customers’ preferences may lead to decreased demand and overstocking of supplies and increase the risk of obsolescence.

If our intangible assets are impaired, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We have intangible assets primarily consisting of product development in progress, patents, technological know-how, and computer software, which accounted for a considerable portion of our total assets as of December 31, 2024 and 2023. The value of our intangible assets is based on a number of assumptions made by our management. If any of these assumptions do not materialize, or if the performance of our business is not consistent with such assumptions, we may have to write off a significant portion of our intangible assets and record a significant impairment loss. In addition, our determination on whether intangible assets are impaired requires an estimation of the carrying amount and recoverable amount of an intangible asset. If the carrying amount exceeds its recoverable amount, our intangible assets may be impaired, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be subject to credit risk in collecting trade receivables due from our customers.

As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, our trade receivables amounted to $19.6 million and $15.2 million, respectively, which primarily represented the balances due from our distributors. Our liquidity and cash flow are directly affected by our customers’ ability to pay us in a timely manner, but there can be no assurance that our customers will not default on us in the future, despite our efforts to conduct credit assessments. During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, our trade receivables turnover days were 60 days and 50 days, respectively.

If any of our customers’ business, cash flow, conditions or results of operations decrease, such customers may be unable or unwilling to pay trade receivables owed to us promptly or at all. Bankruptcy or deterioration of the credit condition of our major customers could also materially and adversely affect our collection of trade receivables. For details of the risk associated with concentrations of credit risk that we are exposed to, see “—Our five largest customers accounted for a substantial amount of our revenue during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, which subjects us to concentration risks.” in this Risk Factors section. If significant amounts due to us is not settled in a timely manner, we may incur significant write-offs and our liquidity and cash flow may be adversely affected.

We have historically received government grants and have been entitled to preferential tax treatment, but we may not continue to receive government financial incentives in the future.

We have historically received government grants in connection with certain of our research and development and manufacturing activities, and recognized government grants under other income and gains of $0.1 million and $1.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. For details of the amounts of our other recognized income, see Note 4 to the Audited Financial Statements of Gyre Therapeutics, Inc. in this

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Annual Report. We were also entitled to a preferential corporate income tax rate of 15% for each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 as a High and New Technology Enterprise. In addition, our product ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, has been entitled to a preferential VAT treatment at the tax rate of 3%. However, there can be no assurance of the continued availability of such preferential treatment. Our eligibility for government grants and preferential tax rates depends on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the assessment of our improvement on existing technologies, relevant government policies and the availability of funding at different granting authorities. In addition, the timing, amount and criteria of government financial incentives are determined within the sole discretion of the PRC government authorities. Government financial incentives are non-recurring in nature, and there can be no guarantee that we will continue to receive government incentives. In addition, some government financial incentives may be subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including compliance with the applicable financial incentive agreements and completion of the specific projects therein, which we may not satisfy. Any reduction or elimination of the government financial incentives we currently receive could have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

Risks Related to Our Business Operations and Product Candidates

There is a risk that our marketed product in the PRC, ETUARY, along with any other products that we may commercialize in the future, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, and may receive approval in the future, may not attain sufficient market acceptance among physicians, healthcare facilities, pharmacies, patients, third-party payers, and the broader medical community, which is crucial for their commercial viability.

The commercial success of our existing marketed product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and future approved products, if any, depends upon the degree of market acceptance such products can achieve, particularly among physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and other medical institutions, which is contingent upon a number of factors. Such factors affecting the market acceptance of a current or future approved product, if any, may include:

the clinical indications for which the product is approved;

the safety and efficacy of the product;

the potential and perceived advantages and disadvantages of the product, relative to competing or alternative products or treatments;

the affordability of the product;

the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments and therapies;

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

the strength of our relationships with patient communities;

the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement;

the willingness of patients to pay out-of-pocket in the absence of coverage and adequate reimbursement by third-party payors and government authorities;

the strength of marketing and distribution support;

the prevalence and severity of any side effects;

the current diagnostic conditions of the disease for which the product is indicated, which may be influenced by the number of physicians from the relevant department and their respective experiences, available diagnostic methods and equipment therefor; and

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the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts.

If our existing and future approved products, if any, fail to achieve or maintain widespread market acceptance, or if new products introduced by our competitors are perceived more favorably by healthcare practitioners and patients, are more cost-effective or otherwise render our products obsolete, the demand for our products may decline and our business and profitability may be materially and adversely affected.

If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, we may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. Doctors may not accept or use ETUARY as a treatment for pneumoconiosis even if ETUARY receives marketing approval for such indication. Doctors may not accept or use F351 as a treatment for liver fibrosis even if F351 receives marketing approval. If our product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues from or receive any return on our investment in any such product candidates.

Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process and outcomes are uncertain, and we may not successfully complete clinical trials for drugs under development, including ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, F573 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and in additional markets beyond the PRC, or demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities.

Before obtaining regulatory approval for the sale of our product candidates, we must conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate their safety and efficacy, but there can be no assurance that such trials will be completed in a timely or cost-effective manner, due to the inherently unpredictable nature of clinical drug development. We have only obtained regulatory approval for one product that we developed, ETUARY for the treatment of IPF in the PRC, and it is possible that none of our existing product candidates in development or any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval. Events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development may include:

regulators, institutional review boards or ethics committees not authorizing us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

our inability to reach agreements on acceptable terms with prospective CROs, SMOs and hospitals as trial centers;

manufacturing issues, including problems with manufacturing, supply quality, compliance with GMP, or obtaining sufficient quantities of a product candidate for use in a clinical trial in a timely manner;

clinical trials producing negative or inconclusive results, resulting in additional clinical trials or abandoning drug development programs;

changes to the clinical trial protocol;

our third-party contractors’ failing to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all;

our suspending or terminating clinical trials for various reasons, including negative or inconclusive clinical response or a finding that participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or experiencing adverse effects;

the cost of clinical trials being greater than we anticipate;

the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials being insufficient or inadequate;

delays in having patients complete participation in a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;

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participants choosing an alternative treatment for the indication for which we are developing our product candidates, or participating in competing clinical trials;

occurrence of adverse effects or serious adverse effects associated with the product candidate that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits;

the occurrence of serious adverse events in clinical trials of competing products or conducted by competitors;

third-party clinical investigators losing the licenses or permits necessary to perform our clinical trials, not performing our clinical trials on our anticipated schedule or consistent with the clinical trial protocol or other regulatory requirements or committing fraud; and

the results of pre-clinical studies or early clinical trials not being predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, and initial or interim results of a trial not being predicative of final results.

If we are required to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials of our product candidates, including of ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our product candidates, including ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC or other testing, or if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:

be delayed in obtaining regulatory approval from the NMPA, FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities for our product candidates, including ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC;

not obtain regulatory approval at all and lose our ability to further develop and commercialize our product candidates, including ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC;

be required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing beyond those that we currently contemplate;

obtain regulatory approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired;

continue to be subject to post-marketing testing requirements from the NMPA, FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities;

be unable to be listed in the NRDL in the PRC; or

experience having the product removed from the market after obtaining regulatory approval.

Consequentially, any delays in completing our clinical trials may increase our costs, delay our product candidate development and approval process, and jeopardize our ability to commercialize our approved products and generate revenues.

Liver fibrosis is an area of our focus, and our key product candidate in this area is F351. Our future clinical trials for F351 may not be successful.

We expect to invest a substantial amount of our efforts and financial resources into the research and development of F351. F351 is currently in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the PRC and has the potential to be the world’s first approved drug to treat liver fibrosis associated with CHB. F351 was granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation by the NMPA’s CDE in March 2021 and the patient enrollment for our Phase 3 clinical trial was commenced in January 2022. As of October 2023, the 248 patient Phase 3 clinical trial in the PRC was fully enrolled. However, F351’s Breakthrough Therapy designation does not increase the likelihood that F351 will

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ultimately receive approval from the NMPA or other comparable regulatory authorities. In October 2024, the last patient completed the 52-week pivotal Phase 3 trial, and we expect to report top-line data by the second quarter of 2025.

In addition, we are actively preparing an IND application in the United States that we expect to file by the first half of 2025 for a Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate F351 for the treatment of advanced liver fibrosis associated with noncirrhotic MASH. Following IND clearance, we plan to initiate a Phase 2, PoC clinical trial in 2025 in the United States, subject to positive trends in the Phase 3 trial of F351 in the PRC, to evaluate the safety, tolerability, PK, and PD of F351 for patients with advanced liver fibrosis associated with noncirrhotic MASH. The FDA has provided pre-IND advice on the design of the planned Phase 2 trial of F351 and provided guidance on the contents of the IND filing. Our clinical trials may be adversely affected by the March 2024 marketing approval for Rezdiffra or the potential regulatory approvals for one or more investigational MASH products.

F351 will require additional clinical development, evaluation of clinical, preclinical and manufacturing activities, marketing approval in multiple jurisdictions, substantial investment and significant marketing efforts before we generate any revenues from product sales. We are not permitted to market or promote F351, or any other product candidates, before we receive marketing approval from the NMPA, FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such marketing approvals.

The success of F351 will depend on a variety of factors. We do not have complete control over many of these factors, including certain aspects of clinical development and the regulatory submission process, potential threats to our intellectual property rights and the manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sales efforts of any future collaborator. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we will ever be able to generate revenue through the sale of F351, even if approved. If we are not successful in commercializing F351, or are significantly delayed in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

If we experience delays or difficulties in the commencement of clinical trials or patient enrollment in clinical trials, our regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.

We or our collaborators may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate, enroll and maintain enrollment of a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the NMPA, FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the PRC or the United States.

Furthermore, there are inherent difficulties in enrolling MASH patients, which can currently only be definitively diagnosed through a liver biopsy. Specifically, identifying patients most likely to meet MASH enrollment criteria on biopsy is an on-going challenge, with existing clinical indicators lacking both sensitivity and specificity. As a result, MASH trials often suffer from high levels of screen failure following central review of the baseline liver biopsy, which can lead to lower enrollment. As a result of such difficulties and the significant competition for recruiting MASH patients in clinical trials, we or our future collaborators may be unable to enroll the patients we need to complete clinical trials on a timely basis, or at all. In addition, our competitors, some of whom have significantly greater resources than we do, are conducting clinical trials for the same indications and seek to enroll patients in their studies that may otherwise be eligible for our clinical studies or trials. 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 could further reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in these sites. The availability of other approved products and other products in clinical trials have and may limit the number of patients willing to participate in our clinical trials.

Patient enrollment is affected by other factors including:

the severity of the disease under investigation;

the eligibility criteria for the study in question;

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the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study;

the efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;

clinical trials of other product candidates in the same indication;

laboratory testing and turnaround time for samples needed for eligibility assessments;

the patient referral practices of physicians;

the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment; and

the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients.

Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials will result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in clinical trials conducted by us may also result in increased development costs for our product candidates, which would cause the value of the Company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing.

Our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025 and any other future product, if approved, may be excluded or removed from national, provincial or other government-sponsored medical insurance programs.

Under medical insurance programs in the PRC, patients are entitled to reimbursement of all or a portion of the cost of pharmaceutical products listed in the NRDL, the relevant provincial reimbursement drug lists, or other medical insurance reimbursement lists. However, such inclusion is based on a variety of factors, including clinical needs, use frequency, efficacy, safety and price, which may be outside of our control. Moreover, the relevant PRC government authorities may, from time to time, review and revise, or change the scope of reimbursement for, the products that are included in the medical insurance reimbursement lists.

While our product ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, has been included in the NRDL as a Category B drug for its IPF indication since 2017, there can be no assurance that it will remain so listed, or unimpacted negatively by changes in the scope of reimbursement. To the extent that our future approved product candidates are not included in any medical insurance reimbursement list, or if any such insurance schemes are changed or canceled, which results in the removal of such product candidates from the relevant medical insurance reimbursement lists, patients may choose, and hospitals, pharmacies and other medical institutions may recommend, alternative treatment methods, which may reduce demand for our product, ETUARY, and future products, if approved, and adversely impact our sales.

We may face pressure to lower the prices of our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, and any other future product, if approved, in order for such products to qualify for medical insurance reimbursement or due to market competition.

We may face pressure to lower the prices of our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, and any other future product, if approved, in order to have such product candidates included in the medical insurance reimbursement lists, while such low price and reimbursement may not necessarily lead to increased sales. It is difficult to estimate the net effect of decreased prices and the potential of increased sales on our profitability, and our profits from the sales of our future products may decrease if we significantly lower prices without a greater increase in sales.

In addition, it is typical that the prices of pharmaceutical products will decline over the life of the product as a result of, among other things, increased competition from substitute products, the tender process by the hospitals or the government authorities, pricing policies of the relevant government authorities, or voluntary price adjustments by pharmaceutical companies. Any strategic downward price adjustments of our existing

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or future approved products due to market competition could have a materially adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Moreover, our marketed product ETUARY is subject to the risk of being included in the PRC’s centralized volume-based procurement scheme. For details, see “—In the future, the policies of centralized volume-based procurement set by the PRC government may cover our commercialized product, ETUARY, and any other future products, if approved, and the prices of such product may decrease, which in turn may have a material adverse impact on our revenue, financial condition and results of operation” in this Risk Factors section.

We may fail to win bids to sell our commercialized product, ETUARY, and any other future products, if approved, to PRC public hospitals through the centralized tender process.

Because a considerable portion of pharmaceutical products we sell to our distributors are sold to public hospitals and other medical institutions in the PRC, we must submit bids in a centralized tender process to supply our commercialized product, ETUARY, and any other future products, if approved, to these institutions at specified prices. Each public medical institution in the PRC must generally procure drugs through a provincial centralized drug purchase platform and make substantially all of its purchases of pharmaceutical products through a centralized tender process. Our bids submitted in the centralized tender process are generally considered on the basis of price relative to substitute products and the clinical effectiveness of such substitute products, as well as the quality of our product and services, among other things. As a result, our sales volumes and profitability of ETUARY depend on our ability to successfully differentiate our product and price our bids in a manner that enables us to succeed in the centralized tender process at profitable levels.

However, we may fail to win bids in a centralized tender process due to various factors, including reduced demand for the relevant product, noncompetitive bidding price, failure to meet certain quality requirements, or the relevant products being perceived to be less clinically effective than competing products. If our commercialized product, ETUARY, and any other future products, if approved, are not selected in the centralized tender process in one or more regions, our sales of the relevant product to the public hospitals in those regions may encounter difficulties, and our market share, revenues and profitability could be adversely affected.

In the future, the policies of centralized volume-based procurement set by the PRC government may cover our commercialized product, ETUARY, and any other future products, if approved, and the prices of such product may decrease, which in turn may have a material adverse impact on our revenue, financial condition and results of operation.

PRC government authorities have implemented policies that aim to further increase the affordability of pharmaceutical products, including the centralized volume-based drug procurement system. For further details, see “Business—Product Pricing—Centralized Tender Process and Centralized Volume-based Procurement System” and “Business—Regulatory Requirements in the PRC—Other PRC Regulations in Relation to the Pharmaceutical Industry—Centralized Drug Procurement and Use” in this Annual Report.

Future procurement by the PRC government is expected to include drugs listed in the NRDL that have great market demand and high purchase price, and such future procurement is expected to gradually cover all types of domestically marketed drugs in the PRC necessary for clinical use and of reliable quality to the extent possible. As a result, all appropriate drugs may be procured thereunder in the PRC. Appropriate procurement methods for “orphan drugs” and drugs in shortage may be actively explored to ensure stable supply.

Our marketed product, ETUARY, is currently not subject to the centralized volume-based procurement process. However, it is uncertain whether the centralized volume-based procurement scope would be expanded in the future and result in the inclusion of our product ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, or other product candidates if commercialized, which may cause their retail prices to decrease. Moreover, if any

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products comparable or similar to our product, generic drugs or product candidates if commercialized are included in the centralized volume-based procurement, patients’ willingness to use such products may be materially and adversely affected and we may need to change our pricing strategy. If any or all of the foregoing were to occur, our sales revenue may decrease, which in turn would have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, profitability and results of operation.

The true market potential for our product and product candidates may be less than expected. Our expansion could be constrained by the current and emerging number of IPF patients in the PRC, pending the approval and profitable launch of expanded applications for ETUARY for future indications in the PRC, and our other product candidates.

Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products, since the market opportunities for our product candidates may be smaller than we anticipate. Similarly, the actual market size of our product ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, may not be as large as we anticipate. The total addressable market opportunity will depend on, among other things, acceptance of the product by the medical community and patient access, product pricing and reimbursement. Moreover, the number of patients in the addressable markets may be lower than expected, patients may not be amenable to treatment with our product, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or access. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of the diseases that our product candidates target. Any of the above unfavorable developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In particular, if the existing and newly identified cases of IPF patients in the PRC are fewer than we expect, our growth and financial position may be negatively impacted until and if the expanded indications of ETUARY and our other product candidates such as F351 are approved and become profitable.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the prevalence of IPF in the PRC has increased from 89,002 patients in 2018 to 145,776 patients in 2023, and is expected to increase to 238,000 patients by 2028 and 322,000 patients by 2031. Notwithstanding the short term increase in the prevalence of IPF, with strengthening of the public health system as well as medical and technological advancement in the PRC, the potential risks that cause IPF may be lowered or eliminated in the future which in turn may lead to corresponding decrease in the prevalence of IPF in the PRC. The shrinking prevalence of IPF in the PRC, as a result, may have a negative impact on the market size of ETUARY.

We may be unable to conduct effective academic marketing.

Effective marketing and successful sales are crucial for us to increase the market penetration of ETUARY in the PRC, expand our coverage of hospitals, pharmacies and other medical institutions and promote new products, if any, in the future. In particular, we place a strong emphasis on academic marketing, through which we promote ETUARY to medical professionals, hospitals, pharmacies and other medical institutions. While our sales and marketing force actively works with medical professionals, hospitals, pharmacies and other medical institutions and we endeavor to inform them of the distinctive characteristics, advantages, safety and efficacy of ETUARY as compared to our competitors’ products, we may not be able to successfully enhance our product awareness.

We may fail to maintain a qualified sales and marketing force.

In order to successfully market and sell our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, our sales and marketing teams are expected to possess a relatively high level of technical knowledge, up-to-date understanding of industry trends, necessary expertise in the relevant therapeutic areas and products, as well as sufficient promotion and communication abilities. However, there can be no assurance that there will be a sufficient amount of competent sales professionals with the relevant rare disease knowledge and/or academic KOLs or doctor networks available for hire. As a

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result, if we are unable to effectively train our in-house sales representatives or monitor and evaluate their academic marketing performances, our sales and marketing may be less successful than desired.

Moreover, our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of qualified sales professionals is especially important because we primarily rely on our in-house sales force to market our product. As competition for experienced marketing, promotion and sales personnel is intense, we may be unable to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of marketing, promotion and sales professionals. If we fail to maintain a qualified sales and marketing force, sales volume of our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, may be adversely affected and we may be unable to expand our coverage of hospitals, pharmacies and other medical institutions or increase our market penetration.

We may fail to maintain or expand an effective distribution network for our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, or further expand our distribution channel.

As we primarily rely on our network of distributors to distribute commercialized product, ETUARY, in the PRC, and intend to continue engaging distributors to sell our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, in the foreseeable future, our ability to maintain and grow our business depends on our ability to maintain and manage a sufficient number of distributors with an extensive sales network, which we could fail to achieve for several reasons. Our distributors may be unable to maintain or expand their sales network, or may encounter difficulties in selling our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, and any other future products, if approved. Our distributors might elect not to renew their agreements with us or otherwise terminate their business relationships with us for various reasons, such as price controls or other factors that substantially reduce the margins they can obtain through the resale of our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, and any other future products, if approved. Further, we may fail to find an appropriate group of distributors suitable for our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, and any other future products, if approved, or the costs of doing so may become prohibitively high. Any disruption to our distribution network, including our failure to maintain relationships, form new relationships or renew our existing distribution agreements, could negatively affect our ability to sell our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, and any other future products, if approved, and may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

We may fail to sufficiently and promptly respond to clinical demand and market changes in the pharmaceutical industry.

Clinical demand and market conditions for pharmaceutical products may change rapidly and significantly, and our success in part depends on our ability to anticipate product offering lead-times and demand, identify customer preferences and adapt our products to these preferences. We may need to adjust our research and development plan, production scale and schedule, product portfolio and inventory levels based on customer demand, sales trends and other market conditions. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to sufficiently and promptly respond to changes in clinical demand and purchasing patterns in a timely manner or at all.

Geopolitical events and global economic conditions, such as public health crises, the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East may impact our third-party supply of the raw materials and components needed for our product, ETUARY, and product candidates, including ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets

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beyond the PRC, which increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of such product, generic drugs or product candidates or will not have such quantities at an acceptable cost, which will delay, prevent or impair our commercialization, marketing or development efforts, as applicable.

If supplies of the raw materials for our product, ETUARY, or product candidates, including ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC, are significantly delayed, or if the third parties that we engage to supply any materials or to manufacture any products for our preclinical tests and clinical trials should cease to continue to do so for any reason, including due to the effects of global economic conditions, including new or increased tariffs and other barriers to trade, trade and other international disputes, inflation and fluctuating interest rates, slower growth or recession, tighter credit, volatility in financial markets, high unemployment, labor availability constraints, public health crises, significant natural disasters, including as a result of climate change, changes to fiscal and monetary policy or government budget dynamics, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biotech areas, political and military conflict, including the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East, we likely would experience delays in advancing these tests and trials while we identify and qualify replacement suppliers or manufacturers and we may be unable to obtain replacement supplies on terms that are favorable to us.

For example, trade policies and geopolitical disputes (including as a result of China-Taiwan relations) and other international conflicts can result in tariffs, sanctions and other measures that restrict international trade, and can materially adversely affect our business, particularly if these measures occur in regions where we source our components or raw materials. In addition, tensions between the United States and the PRC have led to a series of tariffs being imposed by the United States on imports from China mainland, as well as other business restrictions. Tariffs increase the costs of the components and raw materials we source. Countries may also adopt other measures, such as controls on imports or exports of goods, technology or data, that could adversely impact the Company’s operations and supply chain.

In addition, if we are not able to obtain adequate supplies of our product, generic drugs or product candidates or the substances used to manufacture them, it will be more difficult for us to commercialize, market or develop our product, generic drugs or product candidates, as applicable, and compete effectively.

Our current and anticipated dependence upon third-party suppliers may adversely affect our ability to develop our product, generic drugs, and product candidates and could delay our clinical trials and development programs as well as marketing and commercialization efforts, and otherwise harm our operations and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses. See “—Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties—Because we rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain of our raw materials, we may experience supply interruptions that could harm our ability to manufacture products.”

For details regarding the risks related to the relations between the PRC and the United States, see “—Risks Related to Our Business Operations in the PRC—Changes in the political and economic policies of the PRC government or relations between the PRC and the United States may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

Business disruptions could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.

Our operations, and those of our distributors, suppliers, research institution collaborators and other business partners, could be subject to natural or man-made disasters, health epidemics or business interruptions, for which we are predominantly self-insured. Damage or extended periods of interruption to our and our partners’ administration, development, research, manufacturing or storage facilities due to fire, natural disaster, health epidemic, power loss, communications failure, unauthorized entry or other events could cause us to cease or delay development or commercialization of some or all of ETUARY, our generic products or product

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candidates, seriously harm our and our partners’ operations and financial condition and increase our and our partners’ costs and expenses.

We have limited insurance coverage, and any claims beyond our insurance coverage may result in substantial costs and a diversion of resources.

We operate in the pharmaceutical industry, which involves numerous operating risks and occupational hazards. The insurance policies we maintain are required under the applicable laws and regulations as well as based on our assessment of our operational needs and industry practice. However, there can be no assurance that the existing insurance coverage is sufficient to compensate for actual losses suffered or incurred. In addition, there are certain types of losses, such as losses from war, acts of terrorism, health or public security hazards, earthquakes, typhoons, flooding and other natural disasters, for which we cannot obtain insurance at a reasonable cost or at all. If an uninsured loss or a loss in excess of insured limits were to occur, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected. For details of the specific risks of inadequate insurance coverage in the event of product liability claims and environmental liabilities, see “—We may be subject to product liability claims that could expose us to costs and liabilities” and “—If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business,” respectively, in this section.

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

We may be unable to identify, discover, or develop new product candidates, or to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our product candidates, in order to expand or maintain our product pipeline.

We may not be able to continue to identify and develop new product candidates to enrich our current pipeline. Research programs to pursue the development of our product candidates for additional indications and to identify new product candidates and product targets require substantial technical, financial and human resources. Even if we are successful in continuing to build our pipeline, the potential product candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development. For example, product candidates may be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be successfully developed, much less receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance. If we do not successfully develop and commercialize product candidates based upon our approach, we will materially and adversely affect our future growth and prospects, which likely would result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely affect our stock price.

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Results from preclinical or early stage clinical trials, including the results of our preclinical testing and early clinical trials of ETUARY, F351 and F573, may not be confirmed in later trials or be predictive of the success of later clinical trials.

The outcome of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later-stage clinical trials. Trials of our product candidates in larger numbers of patients may not have similar efficacy results and could result in adverse effects that were not observed in the earlier trials with smaller numbers of patients.

We will be required to demonstrate substantial evidence through well-controlled clinical trials that our product candidates are safe and effective before we can seek marketing approvals for their commercial sale. Demonstrations of efficacy or an acceptable safety profile in our prior preclinical studies does not mean that future clinical trials will yield the same results. For instance, while ETUARY is approved in the PRC for the treatment of IPF, it may not be approved for the treatment of other indications, such as PD or DKD, or in other markets. In addition, we do not know whether F351 will perform in future clinical trials as F351 has performed in preclinical studies and early clinical trials conducted by us in the PRC, and, despite F351’s Phase 1 trial in the United States showing promising evidence of tolerability and PK and our Phase 2 clinical trial in the PRC demonstrating results in the reversal of CHB-associated fibrosis. To date, there are no approved therapies for CHB-associated liver fibrosis. We also do not know whether F573 will perform in its Phase 2 clinical trial for ALF/ACLF as it has performed in its Phase 1 clinical observation of tolerability and PK. Product candidates, including ETUARY, F351 and F573, may fail to demonstrate in later-stage clinical trials sufficient safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the NMPA, FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities despite having progressed through preclinical studies and earlier stage clinical trials. Regulatory authorities may also limit the scope of later-stage trials until we have demonstrated satisfactory safety or efficacy results in earlier-stage trials. In particular, although ETUARY is approved in the PRC for the treatment of IPF, it may not perform in the Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of pneumoconiosis or Phase 1 clinical trial of ETUARY for the DKD Program. In addition, we are actively preparing an IND application that we expect to file in the first half of 2025 for a Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate F351 for the treatment of advanced liver fibrosis associated with noncirrhotic MASH. Following IND clearance, we plan to initiate a Phase 2, PoC clinical trial in 2025 in the United States, subject to positive trends in the Phase 3 trial of F351 in the PRC, to evaluate the safety, tolerability, PK, and PD of F351 for patients with advanced liver fibrosis associated with noncirrhotic MASH. The FDA has reviewed the planned Phase 2 trial of F351 in the United States and provided comments on the design, trial assessment, and the contents of the IND filing. Although data from liver fibrosis associated with CHB patients in our Phase 2 clinical trial in the PRC demonstrated F351 has the potential to improve liver fibrosis, the efficacy of F351 in prior preclinical studies in a MASH model does not mean that future clinical trials will yield the same results.

In addition to the pre-IND guidance provided, at the time of review of the IND application, the NMPA, FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require additional investigations (nonclinical) and analyses (both nonclinical and clinical, including the analysis of the supportive clinical trials conducted in the PRC) before it accepts the IND file to ensure that there is sufficient and adequate information on the risks to human subjects. Such additional requests may delay the timelines for the IND filing and initiation of the planned Phase 2 trial in MASH-associated liver fibrosis. Furthermore, if the NMPA or FDA believes that additional data is necessary to supplement our clinical study data and Phase 2 clinical trial data, then the NMPA or the FDA may require us to conduct additional trials before expanding into a broader Phase 2 clinical trial. There is no guarantee that the NMPA, FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities will consider the data that is expected to be obtained in the planned Phase 2 trial in the United States sufficient to allow us to expand the development of F351 in a larger Phase 2 or confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial. There is no guarantee that we will be able to complete such trials on the timelines we anticipate or that such trials will produce positive results. Any limitation on our ability to conduct clinical trials could delay or prevent regulatory approval or limit the size of the patient population to which we may market our product candidates, if approved.

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Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage MASH clinical trials after achieving positive results in earlier development, and we may face similar setbacks. Many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and early clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval for the product candidates. Even if we believe that the results of clinical trials for our product candidates warrant marketing approval, the NMPA, FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree and may not grant marketing approval of our 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 protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. Any Phase 2, Phase 3 or other clinical trials that we may conduct may not demonstrate the efficacy and safety necessary to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates.

Preliminary, “top-line” or interim data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures.

We have publicly disclosed and may in the future publicly disclose preliminary or top-line data from our clinical trials, which are based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of our analyses of these data without the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate complete data. As a result, the preliminary or top-line results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated or subsequently made subject to audit and verification procedures.

Any preliminary or top-line data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. From time to time, we have also disclosed and may in the future disclose interim data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials. Interim data are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available or as patients from our clinical trials continue other treatments. Further, others, 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 likelihood of approval or commercialization of the particular product candidate and our company in general. In addition, from time to time we may disclose top line or summary information regarding a particular preclinical study or clinical trial. Such summary information is necessarily based on more fulsome and extensive information, and investors or regulators may not agree with what we determine is material or otherwise determine is appropriate information to include in our disclosure. If the preliminary, top-line or interim data that we report differ from actual results, or if others, 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, operating results, prospects or financial condition.

Our product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, and product candidates, including ETUARY for future indications, F573, F528, and F230 in the PRC, and F351 in the PRC and potentially additional markets beyond the PRC, may cause or be perceived to cause significant adverse events, toxicities or other undesirable side effects that may result in a safety profile that could interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials, delay or prevent regulatory approval, marketing approval or market acceptance, limit their commercial potential and profile of an approved label, adversely affect our reputation and results of operations or result in significant negative consequences following any regulatory approval.

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If our product candidates, including ETUARY, F351, F573, F528 and F230, are associated with undesirable side effects or have unexpected characteristics in preclinical studies or clinical trials when used alone or in combination with other approved products or INDs, we may need to interrupt, delay or abandon their development or limit development to more narrow uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. Many times, side effects are only detectable after investigational product candidates are tested in large-scale, Phase 3 trials or, in some cases, after they are made available to patients on a commercial scale after approval. If additional clinical experience indicates that any of our current product candidates and any future product candidates has serious or life-threatening side effects or other side effects that outweigh the potential therapeutic benefit, the development of the product candidate may fail or be delayed, or, if the product candidate has received marketing approval, such approval may be revoked, which would harm our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition.

Any adverse events or serious adverse events reported in our clinical trials caused by our product candidates could give rise to significant negative consequences. Such consequences may include:

regulatory authorities may order us to cease further development of, or deny approval of, our product candidates for any or all targeted indications;

regulatory authorities may seek an injunction against our product candidates manufacture or distribution;

regulatory authorities may withdraw approvals or revoke licenses of an approved product candidate, or we may determine to do so even if not required;

regulatory authorities may require additional warnings on the label, including “boxed” warnings, of an approved product candidate or impose other limitations on an approved product candidate;

regulatory authorities may issue safety alerts, require press releases or other communications containing warnings or other safety information about the product;

regulatory authorities may require us to change the way such product is administered;

we may be required to develop a REMS for the product candidate, which could include a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients, or to incorporate additional requirements under REMS;

we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials or post-market studies;

we could be subject to litigation proceedings and held liable for harm caused to patients;

we could be found in breach of contract with our major customers;

patient enrollment may be insufficient or slower than we anticipate or patients may drop out or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than anticipated;

our commercialized products could be removed from medical insurance reimbursement lists or be rendered unable to participate in the centralized tender process in the PRC;

regulatory authorities may impose fines, injunctions or criminal penalties;

we may fail to achieve or maintain market acceptance of a particular product candidate, if approved, which may cause serious harm to our business; and

our reputation may suffer.

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Undesirable or unintended side effects may be a result of a number of factors that are outside of our control, including potential side effects not revealed in clinical testing, unusual but severe side effects in isolated cases, defective products not detected by our quality management system, and misuse of our products by end-users.

Further, our product, generic drugs and future products, if approved, may be perceived to cause severe side effects if other pharmaceutical companies’ products containing the same or similar active pharmaceutical ingredients, raw materials or delivery technologies as our product, generic drugs and future products, if approved, cause or are perceived to have caused severe side effects, or if regulators or international institutions determine that products containing the same or similar pharmaceutical ingredients as our product, generic drugs and future products, if approved, cause severe side effects. Our product, generic drugs and future products, if approved, may also be perceived to cause severe side effects when a conclusive determination as to the cause of the severe side effects is not obtained or is unobtainable.

In general, the anticipated clinical trials of F351 will include patients with advanced liver fibrosis who are at risk of further progression to cirrhosis and deterioration, but are not critically ill. A certain percentage of patients with HBV-induced liver fibrosis treated with F351 have experienced adverse events, including gastrointestinal diseases, ear and labyrinth diseases, systemic diseases, metabolic and nutritional diseases, skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases, heart organ diseases, and hepatobiliary system diseases. However, the risk/benefit of F351 in MASH may differ from that shown in HBV liver fibrosis patients and there is always a risk that the severity and frequency of the adverse events may worsen. See the section entitled “—Business—Our Product Candidate For Liver Fibrosis: F351 (Hydronidone).”

In addition, the patient populations treated with our product candidates in our various Phase 3 clinical trials have serious diseases that make them susceptible to significant health risks. Therefore, these patients may experience adverse events, including serious adverse events.

In conducting drug research and development, we face potential liabilities; in particular, product liability claims or lawsuits that could cause us to incur substantial liabilities.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of clinical trials if our product candidates cause, or are perceived to cause, injury, or are found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical testing. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, such liability claims may, among others, result in:

decreased demand for our product candidates after commercialization;

injury to our reputation;

withdrawal of clinical trial participants and inability to continue clinical trials;

initiation of investigations by regulators;

costs to defend the related litigation;

a diversion of management’s time and our resources; and

substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients.

To cover such liability claims arising from clinical trials, we have clinical trial insurance for all of our trials, which are necessary for the approval of commercialization of our pipeline products. However, it is possible that our liabilities could exceed our insurance coverage or that our insurance will not cover all situations in which a claim against us could be made. We may also not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or obtain insurance coverage that will be adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.

Adverse drug reactions and negative results from off-label use of our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag,

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which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, could materially harm our business reputation, product brand name, and financial condition and expose us to liability.

Products distributed or sold in the pharmaceutical market may be subject to off-label drug use, and may be prescribed for an indication, dosage or in a dosage form that is not in accordance with regulatory approved usage and labeling. As such, our product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and future products, if approved, may be subject to off-label drug use and may be prescribed to a patient population, or in a dosage or dosage form that has not been approved by competent authorities, which may render our product, generic drugs and future products, if approved, less effective or entirely ineffective and cause adverse drug reactions. Any of these occurrences can create negative publicity and significantly harm our business reputation, product brand name, commercial operations and financial condition, including our share price. These occurrences may also expose us to liability and cause, or lead to, a delay in the progress of our clinical trials and may ultimately result in failure to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA for any product candidate may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and it does not increase the likelihood that the product candidate will receive marketing approval.

F351 was granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation by the PRC’s NMPA’s CDE in March 2021 and the patient enrollment for its Phase 3 clinical trial was commenced in January 2022. However, F351’s Breakthrough Therapy designation does not increase the likelihood that F351 will ultimately receive approval from the NMPA or other comparable regulatory authority.

We may, in the future, apply for Breakthrough Therapy designation in the United States, or the equivalent thereof in other foreign jurisdictions (where available), for our product candidates, depending on robustness of the clinical benefit in clinical trials. In the United States, Breakthrough Therapy is defined as a product candidate that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product candidate may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For product candidates that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor of the trial can help to identify the most efficient path for clinical development while minimizing the number of patients placed in ineffective control regimens. Product candidates designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA are also eligible for priority review if supported by clinical data at the time of the submission of the NDA.

Designation as a Breakthrough Therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe that 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 product candidates considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and it would 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 candidate no longer meets the conditions for qualification or it may decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

Risks Relating to Manufacture and Supply of Our Product and Product Candidates

Manufacturing pharmaceutical products on a large commercial scale is highly exacting and complex, and we and our third-party manufacturers may encounter problems during the process.

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The manufacturing of pharmaceutical products is highly complex, and problems may arise during manufacturing for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to:

equipment malfunction;

failure to follow specific protocols and procedures;

changes in product specification;

low quality or insufficient supply of raw materials;

delays in the construction of new facilities or the expansion of our existing manufacturing facilities and limits to manufacturing capacity due to regulatory requirements;

changes in the types of products produced;

advances in manufacturing techniques;

physical limitations that may inhibit continuous supply;

man-made or natural damages, other disasters and environmental factors; and

shortage of qualified personnel or key contractors.

Despite our quality control and assurance system and procedures, we may not be able to eliminate such risks, which may delay or suspend our manufacturing activities, and we may not be able to secure temporary, alternative manufacturers for our product, generic drugs or product candidates with the terms, quality and costs acceptable to us, or at all. If we encounter any manufacturing problems, including those listed above, our clinical trials and/or the availability of our product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, generic drugs and future products, if approved, for commercial sale may be delayed, and we may spend significant time and costs in order to rectify such problems and maintain production at our manufacturing facilities. Moreover, products with quality issues may have to be discarded, resulting in product shortages or additional expenses.

Furthermore, manufacturing methods and formulation are sometimes altered through the development of product candidates from clinical trials to approval, and further to commercialization, in an effort to optimize manufacturing processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause the product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials conducted with the altered materials. This could delay the commercialization of product candidates and require bridging studies or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, which may result in increases in clinical trial costs, delays in product approvals and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue.

We plan to use F351 capsules manufactured by Wuxi Biologics, and may continue to use foreign CROs and CMOs in the future. Wuxi Biologics has completed manufacturing one lot of the F351 capsules for our planned Phase 2 clinical trial in the U.S. WuXi Biologics is identified in the U.S. legislation known as the BIOSECURE Act, which was proposed in the 118th Congress, as a “biotechnology company of concern.” The version of the BIOSECURE Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 118th Congress would prohibit federal agencies from entering into procurement contracts with, as well as providing grants and loans to, an entity that uses biotechnology equipment or services from a biotechnology company of concern, and includes a grandfathering provision allowing biotechnology equipment and services provided or produced by named “biotechnology companies of concern” under a contract or agreement entered into before the effective date until January 1, 2032. The pathway and timing for the BIOSECURE Act or its provisions to become law are uncertain. Foreign CMOs may be subject to U.S. legislation, including the proposed BIOSECURE Act, sanctions and trade restrictions and requirements by foreign regulators, which could increase the cost or reduce the supply of material available to us, delay the procurement or supply of such material or have an adverse effect on our ability to secure significant commitments from governments to purchase our potential therapies.

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For example, the biopharmaceutical industry in the PRC is strictly regulated by the Chinese government. Changes to Chinese regulations or government policies affecting biopharmaceutical companies are unpredictable and may have a material adverse effect on our collaborators in the PRC which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Evolving changes in the PRC’s public health, economic, political, and social conditions and the uncertainty around the PRC’s relationship with other governments, such as the United States and the U.K., could also negatively impact our ability to manufacture our product candidates for our planned clinical trials or have an adverse effect on our ability to secure government funding, which could adversely affect our financial condition and cause us to delay our clinical development programs. For more details, see “—Risks Related to Our Business Operations in the PRC—Changes in the political and economic policies of the PRC government or relations between the PRC and the United States may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

In addition, we plan to enter into various development, manufacturing and clinical supply services agreements with third-party manufacturers for drug substance and drug product manufacturing of our other product candidates. If our third-party manufacturers are not able to provide sufficient quantities or quality of our product candidates on a timely basis, or at all, whether due to production shortages or other supply delays or interruptions resulting from public health crises or otherwise, our preclinical trials, clinical trials or regulatory approvals, as applicable, may be delayed. Significant portions of our research and development resources are focused on manufacturing. If any of our third-party manufacturers experiences difficulties in scaling production or experiences product loss due to contamination, equipment failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error or improper storage conditions, the potential trials of the affected product candidate would be delayed, perhaps substantially, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

We and our contract manufacturers will be subject to significant regulation with respect to manufacturing our product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, and our product candidates. Delays in completing and receiving regulatory approvals for our and our third-party manufacturing facilities could delay our development plans or commercialization efforts.

All entities involved in the preparation of therapeutics for clinical studies or commercial sale, including us and any contract manufacturers for ETUARY and our other product candidates, are subject to extensive regulation. Components of a finished therapeutic product approved for commercial sale or used in late-stage clinical studies must be manufactured in accordance with GMP. These regulations govern manufacturing processes and procedures (including record keeping) and the implementation and operation of quality systems to control and assure the quality of investigational products and products approved for sale. Poor control of production processes can lead to the introduction of adventitious agents or other contaminants, or to inadvertent changes in the properties or stability of our product, generic drugs or product candidates that may not be detectable in final product testing.

Our existing and planned manufacturing facilities, as well as our manufacturing process, and our third-party manufacturing facilities and process, will be subject to ongoing, periodic inspection by the NMPA, the FDA or other comparable regulatory agencies to ensure compliance with GMP, which is usually the prerequisite to obtain marketing approval. Moreover, we and our third-party manufacturers must obtain various permits, certificates and other approvals for our manufacturing facilities and other premises from the relevant administrative authorities at various stages of property development, including, planning permits, construction permits, land use rights certificates, environmental assessments, fire control assessments, construction completion inspections and ownership certificates. Failure to comply with applicable regulations could lead to:

increased expense and result in sanctions being imposed on us (including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, requirements to suspend or pause one or more of our clinical trials);

failure to obtain marketing approval of our product candidates;

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delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals; supply disruptions;

license revocation; seizures or recalls of product, generic drugs or product candidates; and

operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could materially and adversely harm our business.

We may experience substantial disruption to our production sites and problems in manufacturing our product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, and future products, if approved.

We are dependent on our manufacturing facilities in Beijing, PRC and Cangzhou, PRC. The continued operation of our manufacturing facilities and our production safety may be substantially interrupted due to a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control. These factors may include fire, flood, earthquakes, power outages, fuel shortages, mechanical breakdowns, terrorist attacks and wars, or other natural disasters, as well as loss of licenses, certifications and permits, changes in governmental planning for the land underlying these facilities or their vicinity and regulatory changes. Moreover, the production activities on our manufacturing facilities may be suspended on a temporary basis due to governmental policies or regulations, including that on environmental protection or organizing public events. If the operation of any of our manufacturing facilities is substantially disrupted, we may not be able to replace the equipment or inventories at such facilities, or use different sites or a third-party contractor to continue our production in a legal, timely and cost-effective manner or at all. Although we maintain property insurance for certain properties, machinery and equipment and other assets owned, operated or deemed important for us, in line with industry practice in the PRC, we do not have certain types of insurance, such as business interruption insurance. The amount and nature of our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover any substantial losses in the event of a significant disruption to any of our manufacturing facilities.

Since September 2021, as a result of the shortage of coal supply combined with high electricity demand from manufacturers, the PRC has experienced widespread power outages. The PRC government has imposed power curbs, including imposing power restrictions on factories in a number of provinces in the PRC to deal with an imbalance in energy supply and demand. As of December 31, 2024, we have not received any notice from relevant government authorities ordering us to temporarily suspend or limit production, and our Beijing and Cangzhou production centers were not subject to any power restrictions. The PRC government imposed power restrictions did not have a material adverse impact on our business operations or financial performance during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023.

We may not be able to meet the increasing demand for our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, maintain adequate manufacturing capacity or successfully manage our anticipated growth.

To produce ETUARY, nintedanib, avatrombopag and our increasing number of product candidates, if approved, in the quantities that we believe will be required to meet anticipated market demand, we may need to increase our production capacity over the initial level of production by constructing new manufacturing facilities and production lines. However, our ability to successfully implement our expansion plan for increasing production capacities is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risk of construction delays and delays in equipment procurement, and our ability to timely recruit sufficient qualified staff to support the increase in our production capacity. If we are unable to do so, are delayed, face costs that are not economically feasible or cannot find a third-party manufacturer, we may not be able to produce ETUARY and our future approved product candidates, if any, in sufficient quantities to meet future demand. Moreover, our plans to increase our production capacities require significant capital investment and the actual costs of our expansion plan may exceed our original estimates, which could adversely affect the return on our expenditure.

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Furthermore, given the size of our existing and planned manufacturing facilities, we may not be able to fully utilize within a reasonable period of time after we commence operation. During the construction and ramp-up period, there may be significant changes in the macroeconomics of the pharmaceutical industry, including, among other things, market demand, product and supply pricing trends and customer preferences. Any adverse trends in this area could result in operational inefficiency and unused capacity in our facilities.

Fluctuations in prices of our raw materials and energy supply, as well as other costs associated with our production processes, may have a material adverse effect on us if we are not able to pass the cost increases on to our customers.

In order to manufacture our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, and any other future products, if approved, we must obtain sufficient quantities of high-quality raw materials and stable supply of energy and power at commercially acceptable prices and in a timely manner, which exposes us to risks associated with fluctuations in prices of raw materials. The prices of such materials may be affected by a number of factors, including market supply and demand, the PRC, the United States or international environmental and regulatory requirements, natural disasters and the global and local economic conditions. In addition, we may be subject to fluctuations in other costs associated with our production processes, such as costs of waste disposal, which are beyond our control. We may have limited capability to increase our revenue in a timely manner, and a significant increase in such costs may increase our cost of sales and negatively affect our profit margins.

Failure to maintain optimal inventory levels could increase our operating costs or lead to unfulfilled customer orders.

We are required to maintain optimal inventory levels in order to satisfy demand coming from our distribution network and successfully meet our customers’ demand. However, we may not be able to maintain proper inventory levels of our commercialized product, ETUARY, which is approved in the PRC, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, which we expect to commercialize in 2025, generic drugs and any other future products, if approved, as a result of rapid changes in product life cycles, changing clinical demands and uncertainty of product developments and launches, as well as the volatile economic environment in the PRC. There can be no assurance that we can accurately predict these trends and events and avoid over-stocking or under-stocking our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, generic drugs and any other future products, if approved. Further, demand for our commercialized product, ETUARY, future commercialized products, including nintedanib and avatrombopag, generic drugs and any other future products, if approved, could change significantly between the time when the products are ordered and the time they are ready for delivery.

Inventory levels in excess of demand may result in inventory write-downs, expiration of our product or an increase in inventory holding costs and a potential negative effect on our liquidity. On the other hand, if we underestimate demand, we may experience inventory shortages which may, in turn, result in unfulfilled customer orders, leading to a negative impact on our customer relationships.

Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties

We have established, and may continue to establish, collaborative agreements and strategic partnerships. However, there is no guarantee we will fully achieve the anticipated benefits from these collaborations, alliances, or licensing agreements, and conflicts could emerge with our present or prospective partners.

We have in the past formed, and may in the future seek and form, strategic alliances, joint ventures or other collaborations, including entering into licensing arrangements with third parties that we believe will complement or augment our development and commercialization efforts with respect to our existing commercialized products, ETUARY, nintedanib and avatrombopag, which are approved in the PRC, generic

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drugs and product candidates, including ETUARY, F351, F573, F528, F230, and any future product candidates that we may develop. Our strategic collaboration with partners involves numerous risks. We may not achieve the revenue and cost synergies expected from the transactions, as such synergies are inherently uncertain and subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are difficult to predict and are beyond our control. In addition, the synergies from our collaboration with our partners may be offset by other costs incurred during the collaboration, including increases in other expenses, operating losses or problems in the business unrelated to our collaboration.

Moreover, disputes may arise between us and our current or future collaboration partners. Such disputes or our partners’ failure to fully perform their obligations may cause delay or termination of the research, development or commercialization of our product, generic drugs or product candidates, or result in costly litigation or arbitration that may divert management attention and resources. In particular, international business relationships subject us to additional risks that may materially and adversely affect our ability to attain or sustain profitable operations, including, difficulty of effective enforcement of contractual provisions in local jurisdictions, and third-party collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, protect or enforce our patent, trade secret and other intellectual property rights and regulatory exclusivity for our product, generic drugs or product candidates or may use our intellectual property that exposes us to potential litigation or other intellectual property-related proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property.

We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Whether we can reach a definitive agreement with a collaborator will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include the design or results of preclinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the NMPA, FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities and the regulatory pathway for any such approval, the potential market for the product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering the product to patients and the potential of competing products. The collaborator may also consider alternative products, product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available for collaboration and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us. There can also be no assurance that we will enter into any collaboration agreements, or that any such agreements will be on favorable terms.

Collaborations are complex and time consuming to negotiate and document. In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators. We may not be able to negotiate collaborations on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to do so, we may have to curtail the development of the product candidate for which we are seeking to collaborate, reduce or delay its development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay our potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, and increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we elect to increase our expenditures to fund development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we do not have sufficient funds, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or bring them to market and generate product revenue.

Our rights to develop and commercialize some of our product candidates, are subject, in part, to the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by others.

The success of our collaborations with our partners depends on each party’s performing its respective obligations under the relevant collaboration agreement. Such agreements may impose on us diligence obligations in product development or commercialization, payment obligations when certain development or regulatory milestones and sales are achieved and other obligations. If we fail to comply with our obligations under our current or future agreements, our counterparties may have the right to terminate these agreements, in which event we may not be able to develop, manufacture or market the product candidate that is covered

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under the agreements. Termination of the licenses or assignments provided for under these agreements or reduction or elimination of our rights under these agreements may result in us having to negotiate new or amended agreements with less favorable terms, or cause us to lose our rights under these agreements, including our rights to important intellectual property or technology.

In addition, we may not have the exclusive right to control the preparation, filing, prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and defense of patents and patent applications covering the product or product candidates that we are licensed or assigned from third parties. In the event that these patents and patent applications are not prepared, filed, prosecuted, maintained, enforced and defended in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business, our rights to the relevant intellectual property may be reduced or eliminated, and our right to develop and commercialize the product, generic drugs or product candidates covered under the agreement could be adversely affected.

Moreover, the third parties on whom we rely with respect to licenses to certain patent rights and other intellectual property rights that are important or necessary to the development, manufacture or commercialization of our product, generic drugs or product candidates may themselves rely on upstream licenses from other third parties. Such sub-licenses may not provide exclusive rights to use the covered intellectual property in all relevant fields of use or in all territories in which we may wish to develop or commercialize our product candidates, and add further uncertainties and complications as to the scope of our rights under the relevant agreement.

Further, the license or assignment agreements we have entered into, or will enter into in the future, are complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. 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, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our advancement through our collaboration relationship with its partners.

We rely on third parties to conduct certain aspects of our preclinical studies and any clinical trials, and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such tasks or trials.

We rely on third parties such as CROs, medical institutions and clinical investigators to conduct certain aspects of preclinical development, including assay development and testing, and to enroll qualified patients and conduct, supervise and monitor clinical trials. For more details, see “—Business—Our Research and Development” in this Annual Report. Our reliance on these third parties for preclinical and clinical development activities reduces our control over these activities. Our reliance on these third parties, however, will not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities, including ensuring that our clinical studies are conducted in accordance with good clinical practices, and the investigational plan and protocols contained in the relevant regulatory application, such as an IND. In addition, the CROs with whom we contracts may not complete activities on schedule or may not conduct our preclinical studies or clinical studies in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical study design. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, compromise the quality or accuracy of the clinical data obtained by CROs or our investigators due to failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements, or the quality of the products manufactured fails to comply with GMP, our efforts to complete development and obtain regulatory approvals for, and to commercialize, our product, generic drugs and product candidates may be delayed or prevented.

In addition, we, our CROs for clinical programs and our investigators are required to comply with GCP for all of our product candidates in clinical development. If we or any of our CROs or investigators fail to comply with applicable GCP, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the NMPA, FDA or comparable regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before considering whether to approve our marketing applications, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

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If our distributors act in violation of the relevant agreements, or if sub-distributors with whom we have not entered into distribution agreements do not comply with policies and measures that our distributors agree to comply with, our business, prospects and reputation could be materially and adversely affected.

While we rely on the distribution agreements and the policies and measures we have in place to manage our distributors, we cannot guarantee that these agreements, policies and measures will be able to effectively manage our distributors, or that our distributors will comply with our agreements and policies. If our distributors take one or more of the following actions, our business, results of operations, prospects and reputation may be adversely affected:

failing to distribute our product, generic drugs and future products, if approved, in the manner we contemplate, impairing the effectiveness of our distribution network;

breaching the distribution agreements or our policies and measures;

failing to maintain the requisite licenses, permits or approvals or failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements; and

violating any applicable anti-corruption, anti-bribery, competition or other laws and regulations.

Any such actual or alleged violation or non-compliance by our distributors of the distribution agreements, our policies or any applicable laws and regulations could result in the erosion of our goodwill, expose us to liabilities, disrupt our distribution network and create an unfavorable public perception about the quality of our product, ETUARY, generic drugs and future products, if approved.

Moreover, some of our distributors engage sub-distributors to distribute our product, and we do not engage these sub-distributors directly or maintain contractual relationships with them. Instead, we mainly rely on our distributors to manage and control their sub-distributors in accordance with regulatory requirements, the terms of the distribution agreements between us and our distributors and our policies for our distributors. Since our control is limited over these sub-distributors, there is no assurance that the sub-distributors will comply with the geographical restrictions agreed to with our distributors or other distribution requirements under our distribution agreements and policies. As a result, there can be no assurance that we will be able to identify or remediate any practices by any sub-distributors’ that may be detrimental to our business in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect our results of operations and reputation.

Because we rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain of our raw materials, we may experience supply interruptions that could harm our ability to manufacture products.

During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, we had a small number of suppliers, with whom we believe we have stable relationships. However, the stability of operations and business strategies of our suppliers are beyond our control, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain a stable relationship and high-quality outsourced raw materials or services with our large suppliers.

Risks Related to Employee Matters, Managing Growth and Our Business Operations

Our ongoing success is reliant on our capacity to retain key executives and to recruit, maintain, and inspire skilled professionals.

Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on our executive management and scientific personnel. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the lives of these individuals or the lives of any of our other employees. In addition, we will need to add personnel to achieve our business objectives. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers,

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other key employees, and our inability to find suitable replacements, or our inability to hire new clinical development and manufacturing personnel, could result in delays in product development and harm our business.

We conduct our U.S. operations at our facility in San Diego, California. This region is headquarters to many other biopharmaceutical companies and many academic and research institutions. Competition for skilled personnel in our market is intense and may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all. In the PRC, we compete for qualified personnel with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities and research institutions. The pool of suitable candidates is limited, and we may not be able to hire and retain enough skilled and experienced scientists or other technical personnel at the current level of wages, and may need to offer higher compensation and other benefits, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

To induce valuable employees to remain with us, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided stock options that vest over time. The value to employees of stock options that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of management and scientific and development teams have terminated and may terminate their employment with us on short notice. Our employees are under at-will employment arrangements, which means that any of our employees can leave employment with us at any time, with or without notice. Failure to retain, replace or recruit personnel could harm our business.

Our future performance will also depend, in part, on our ability to successfully integrate newly hired executive officers into our management team and our ability to develop an effective working relationship among senior management. Our failure to integrate these individuals and create effective working relationships among them and other members of management could result in inefficiencies in the development and commercialization of our product, generic drugs and product candidates, harming future marketing approvals, sales of our product, generic drugs and product candidates and our results of operations.

Our employees, principal investigators, consultants and commercial partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.

We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, principal investigators, consultants and collaborators. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional failures to comply with the regulations of the NMPA, FDA, SEC and non-PRC and non-U.S. regulators, to provide accurate information to the NMPA, FDA and non-PRC and non-U.S. regulators, to comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations in the PRC, United States and abroad, to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Such misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained during clinical studies that could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with these laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

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We will continue to incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance with regulations related to operating as a public company.

As a public company, we have and will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses, including costs associated with public company reporting and corporate governance requirements, in order to comply with the rules and regulations imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection, as well as rules implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq. Stockholder activism, the political environment and the current high level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways that are not currently anticipated. Our management and other personnel need to devote a substantial amount of time to compliance with regulations related to operating as a public company. In addition, these rules and regulations make it difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to incur substantial costs to maintain our current levels of such coverage. We expect that we will annually incur significant expenses to comply with the requirements imposed on us as a public company.

Our management team has not previously managed and operated a U.S. public company. These executive officers and other personnel will need to devote substantial time to gaining expertise related to public company reporting requirements and compliance with applicable laws and regulations to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements. These reporting requirements, rules and regulations, coupled with the increase in potential litigation exposure associated with being a public company, could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on the board of directors or on board committees or to serve as executive officers, or to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ insurance, on acceptable terms.

Increased labor costs negatively affect our operations and have an adverse impact on our profitability.

Our strategies and business growth may require us to hire additional employees, and we may also hire additional employees as a result of acquisitions. The average cost of labor in the PRC has been steadily increasing in recent years as a result of inflation, government-mandated wage increases and other changes in PRC labor laws, as well as competition for talent and qualified employees among pharmaceutical companies. As a result, increased labor costs could have negative effects on our growth and decrease our profitability.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Should we or our licensors fail to secure, uphold, defend, or extend adequate patent and other intellectual property rights for our products, ETUARY, nintedanib and avatrombopag, which are approved in the PRC, and any product candidates globally, or if the breadth of these intellectual property rights is insufficient, our ability to effectively compete in our markets could be compromised.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our products, ETUARY, nintedanib and avatrombopag, which are approved in the PRC, and product candidates. In order to protect the technologies, products and product candidates that we consider commercially important, we have filed and continue to file patent applications in the PRC, United States and other countries. However, applying for patent protection is an expensive and time-consuming process, and we may not be able to successfully file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We may not be able to prevent competitors from developing and commercializing competitive products in all such fields and territories.

The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. For example, there can be no assurance that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications because of the delay between publications

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of discoveries in scientific or patent literature and actual discoveries and patent applications. Under the “first-to-file” system adopted by the PRC, and the United States, even after reasonable investigation, we may be unable to determine with certainty whether our product, product candidates, processes, technologies, improvement and other related matters are or may become unpatentable because a third party filed or may file a patent application earlier than we have or do for inventions thereunder that are the same or substantially similar to our inventions. Additionally, the USPTO and patent offices in other jurisdictions have often required that patent applications directed to pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions be limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges. Accordingly, even if we or our licensors are able to obtain patents, the patents might be substantially narrower than anticipated. Thus, there is no assurance as to the degree and range of protections any of our patents, if issued, may afford us or whether patents will be issues. Third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope of our patents, which may result in those patents being narrowed or invalidated. The patent applications that we own may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our product and product candidates in the PRC, United States or in other foreign countries. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property, provide exclusivity for our product or product candidates or prevent others from designing around our claims. Certain of our patents also cover processes, for which enforcement can be difficult. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties that may have an adverse impact on our business.

If the patents or patent applications we hold or have in-licensed for ETUARY, our programs or product candidates are invalidated or fail to issue, if their breadth or strength of protection is threatened, or if they fail to provide meaningful exclusivity for our product or product candidates, it could threaten our ability to commercialize future products. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product candidate under patent protection could be reduced. In addition, patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after it is filed. In the PRC, the amendment to the PRC Patent Law (the “Amended PRC Patent Law”) provides for patent term extension and patent linkage. The Amended PRC Patent Law and relevant implementing regulations provide a cause of action to allow a patent holder to initiate a declarative action during the regulatory review process of a drug to determine whether the drug in review falls within the relevant scope of the patent of such patent holder, which may be comparable to the patent linkage system in the United States. The system requires that the NMPA continue to review the potentially infringing follow-on application during any lawsuit by the innovator. However, the NMPA may not approve the follow-on application pending resolution of the patent litigation in favor of the follow-on application or for a specified period of time, whichever is shorter. The Amended PRC Patent Law and relevant implementing regulations also provide patent term extension, similar to the United States, for the patent term lost during the regulatory review process of a new drug upon the patent holder’s request. The extended term shall not exceed five years, and the total patent term of the new drug from the date of its market approval shall not exceed 14 years. However, subject to the decision of relevant authorities, the patents we have in-licensed or own in the PRC may not be eligible to be extended for any patent term lost during the regulatory review process. Various extensions may be available; however the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Once the patent life has expired for a product, we may be subject to competition from generic medications.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable or that we elect not to patent and other elements of our product candidate discovery and development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors and contractors. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and trade secrets by maintaining the physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets is challenging and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside of the United States may be less willing to protect trade secrets. While we have

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confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems, agreements or security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors.

Although we expect all of our employees and consultants to assign their applicable inventions to us, and all of our employees, consultants, advisors and any third parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information or technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, we cannot provide guarantee that all such agreements have been duly executed or that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Misappropriation or unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets could impair our competitive position and may have a material adverse effect on 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 the trade secret. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information. Moreover, some of our employees, including senior management, may have been employed at other pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Such employees may have executed proprietary rights, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements in connection with such previous employment. We may be subject to claims these employees have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s former employer. In the event that litigation is necessary to defend against such claims, we may be subject to monetary damages and lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel.

Further, filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our product, ETUARY, and product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the PRC and United States are less extensive than those in the PRC and United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the PRC or United States. As a result, we may encounter significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property in the PRC, United States and abroad. If we are unable to prevent material disclosure of the non-patented intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties, and there is no guarantee that we will have any such enforceable trade secret protection, we may not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, we may be involved in claims and disputes of intellectual property infringement in other jurisdictions, and the defense of these claims or disputes, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business.

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

The China National Intellectual Property Administration (the “CNIPA”) and other governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. For example, in several stages over the lifetime of a patent, periodic maintenance fees are due to be paid to the CNIPA and other patent agencies. Although an inadvertent lapse can, in many cases, be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, non-compliance could result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Such non-compliance events may include failure to respond to official actions in a timely manner, non-payment of fees, and failure to properly submit formal documents. In addition, under PRC patent law, any applicant that applies for a patent in a foreign country for an invention or utility model accomplished in the PRC must report to the CNIPA for confidentiality examination. If the applicant fails to report to the CNIPA for confidentiality examination, the patent right may not be granted if an application is later filed in the PRC.

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The scope of our patent protection may be uncertain, and third-party claims of intellectual property infringement or challenging the inventorship or ownership of our patents may prevent or delay our development and commercialization efforts.

The coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. Even if patent applications we license or own currently or in the future are to be issued as patents, they may not be issued in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. In addition, the patent position of medical device companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain.

Our commercial success depends in part on avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the PRC and United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, third-party submissions of prior art to the CNIPA, USPTO or other related intellectual property offices, oppositions, inter partes reexamination proceedings before the CNIPA, USPTO, and corresponding foreign patent offices and post-grant proceedings such as opposition, derivation, revocation, invalidation, re-examination or inter partes review, or interference proceedings or similar proceedings in foreign jurisdictions challenging the priority of our invention or other features of patentability of our patents and patent applications. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are pursuing development candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product, ETUARY, and product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties.

Third parties may assert that the manufacture, use or sale of our product, ETUARY, and our product candidates infringes patents held by such third parties, or that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to compositions of matter, materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product, generic drugs and product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our product candidates or current product may infringe.

Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief that could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product, ETUARY, and our product candidates unless we redesigned infringing products (which may be impossible) or obtained a license under the applicable patents (which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all), or until such patents expire.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents.

Competitors may infringe our patents. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we or our collaborators may be required to file infringement claims that can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that one of our patents is not valid, is unenforceable and/or is not infringed, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse determination or outcome of a third-party submission, proceeding or litigation may result in loss of patent rights or exclusivity, or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to prevent competitors from using or commercializing similar or identical technologies and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technologies, product, ETUARY, and product candidates.

Interference proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by us may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our licensors. An unfavorable

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outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the PRC or United States.

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

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

Source: SEC EDGAR (public domain) · 10-K for the period ended 2024-12-31, filed 2025-03-17 · accession 0000950170-25-040279

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