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PEPG US Equity

PepGen Inc.Health Care · Pharmaceutical Preparations · CIK 1835597 · FY ends Dec 31
$3.05
+0.14 (+4.81%)
USD · as of 2026-08-19 · marketstack

PEPG · 10-K · period ended 2024-12-31

← all PEPG documents
filed 2025-02-24 · EDGAR original ↗

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Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully read and consider all of the risks described below, as well as the other information in this 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes and the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and in other documents we file with the SEC when evaluating our business. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Unless otherwise indicated, references to our business being harmed in these risk factors will include harm to our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. The risks described below are not intended to be exhaustive and are not the only risks that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations and the market price of our common stock.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

We have incurred significant losses since our inception, have no products approved for sale and we expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future.

Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. Our net losses were $90.0 million and $78.6million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $271.5million. To date, we have financed our operations primarily with the proceeds raised from the sale of our convertible preferred stock in private placements and common stock in our IPO and our equity offerings in early 2024, described below. We have devoted substantially all of our financial resources and efforts to research and development activities, business planning, establishing and maintaining our intellectual property portfolio, acquiring and developing product and technology rights, hiring personnel, leasing premises and associated capital expenditures, raising capital, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We are still in the early stages of development of our programs and have only advanced two product candidates into clinical development. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our operating expenses and net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:

continue to advance our programs in DMD and DM1 through clinical development and work to resolve the U.S. clinical hold on the initiation in the U.S. of the CONNECT1 Phase 2 study of PGN-EDO51 in DMD;

advance any additional product candidates we identify through our research programs into IND- or CTA-enabling studies and clinical trials following regulatory clearance to commence clinical research;

continue to develop and expand the capabilities of our proprietary EDO platform;

establish manufacturing sources for our product candidates and secure supply chain capacity to provide sufficient quantities for preclinical and clinical development and commercial supply;

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

obtain, expand, maintain, defend and enforce our intellectual property portfolio;

hire additional clinical, regulatory and scientific personnel;

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

add operational, legal, compliance, financial and management information systems and personnel to support our research, product development and future commercialization efforts, as well as to support our operations as a public company.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval of, and are successful in commercializing, one or more of our product candidates, we will continue to incur substantial research and development and other costs to develop and market additional product candidates. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. The size of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue.

We have never generated revenue from product sales and may never achieve or maintain profitability.

While we have completed our Phase 1 clinical trial for PGN-EDO51 and initiated two Phase 2 clinical trials for PGN-EDO51 as well as an additional Phase 1 clinical trial for PGN-EDODM1 and more recently, a Phase 2 clinical trial for PGN-EDODM1, we expect that it will be many years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization. In December 2024, the FDA issued a clinical hold on the initiation of our Phase 2 CONNECT2 trial of PGN-EDO51 in DMD in the U.S. It is unknown

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whether we may be successful in resolving this hold. More recently, Health Canada has requested additional information from us to address safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels may proceed in our CONNECT1 study of PGN-EDO51. It is unknown whether Health Canada will allow us to dose escalate or enroll additional participants in this study. Moreover, even if we are successful in removing the FDA clinical hold, it is unknown whether the FDA may require the conduct of additional preclinical studies or clinical trials beyond those which we had planned to conduct. To become and remain profitable, we must succeed in developing, obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals for and eventually commercializing a product or products that generate significant revenue. The ability to achieve this success will require us to be effective in a range of challenging activities, including:

identifying product candidates and completing preclinical development of our product candidates;

obtaining regulatory clearance to commence clinical trials and initiating and successfully completing such trials;

obtaining marketing approval for our product candidates;

manufacturing (or securing third-party manufacturers to manufacture), marketing and selling any products for which we may obtain regulatory approval;

achieving market acceptance of any products for which we obtain regulatory approval as a viable treatment option; and

satisfying any post-marketing requirements.

We are only in the preliminary stages of most of these activities. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we are unable to accurately estimate or know the nature, timing or costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the preclinical and clinical development and commercialization of our product candidates or when, or if, we will be able to generate revenues or achieve profitability.

If we are successful in obtaining regulatory approval to market one or more of our product candidates, our revenue will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval, the accepted price for the product, the ability to obtain coverage and reimbursement, and whether we own the commercial rights for that territory. If the number of our addressable patients is not as significant as we estimate, the indication approved by regulatory authorities is narrower than we expect, or the treatment population is narrowed by competition, physician choice or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenue from sales of such products, even if approved.

Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or even continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.

We will need to raise substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, scale back or discontinue our product development programs or future commercialization efforts.

We expect our expenses to increase substantially in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we identify, continue the research and development of, continue preclinical testing and initiate clinical trials of, arrange for the manufacturing of, and potentially seek marketing approval for any product candidates that successfully completes clinical testing. To date, we have only completed a Phase 1 clinical trial for our first product candidate, PGN-EDO51, initiated one additional Phase 1 clinical trial for PGN-EDODM1, two Phase 2 clinical trials for PGN-EDO51 and more recently, one Phase 2 clinical trial for PGN-EDODM1. The resolution of the clinical hold in the U.S. on the initiation of the Phase 2 CONNECT2 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51, assuming resolution is reached with the FDA, may require additional capital beyond that we had planned to allocate to this program, and the amount of such capital could be considerable. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for any product candidate, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution. Furthermore, we expect to continue to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, on attractive terms or at all, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts.

As of December 31, 2024, we had cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $120.2 million. Prior to our IPO in May 2022, we raised aggregate gross proceeds of $133.5 million from the private placement of convertible preferred stock. We raised aggregate gross proceeds of $122.9 million from our IPO.

On February 5, 2024, we sold shares of common stock under our at-the-market offering program, or ATM program, pursuant to an At-the-Market Equity Offering Sales Agreement, or Sales Agreement, with Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, or Stifel, resulting in net proceeds of $9.9 million.. On February 9, 2024, we sold shares of common stock in an underwritten follow-on

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offering, or the Follow-on Offering, resulting in net proceeds of $76.4 million after deducting underwriters' fees of $3.7 million. Net proceeds from the ATM program and Follow-on Offering, after deducting underwriters' fees and costs of the offerings, were $86.3 million.

Based on our currently planned operations, we believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities will be sufficient to fund our operations for at least 12 months from the date of the filing of this 10-K. However, we have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and our operating plans may change as a result of many factors, including factors currently unknown to us. As a result, we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we currently expect and could be forced to seek additional funding sooner than planned.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

the scope, progress, costs and results of preclinical and clinical development for our product candidates and any additional product candidates we may develop or any new indications we may pursue;

the scope, costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of our product candidates and any additional product candidates we may develop or any new indications we may pursue;

the cost and timing of manufacturing activities;

the identification of additional research programs and product candidates;

the costs and scope of the continued development of our EDO platform;

the costs and timing of preparing, filing and prosecuting applications for patents, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights and defending any intellectual property-related claims, including claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of third-party intellectual property;

the costs and timing of future commercialization activities, including product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution, for any product candidate that receives marketing approval;

the costs of satisfying any post-marketing requirements;

the revenue, if any, received from commercial sales of our product candidates if marketing approval is received;

the costs of operational, financial and management information systems and associated personnel;

the associated costs in connection with any acquisition of in-licensed products, intellectual property and technologies; and

the costs of operating as a public company.

Identifying potential product candidates and conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials are time-consuming, expensive and uncertain processes requiring years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, even if we successfully develop product candidates and those are approved, we may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenues, if any, may not be sufficient to sustain our operations. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

Any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our operations. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, when needed or at all. We have no committed source of additional capital and, if we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts, when needed or on terms acceptable to us, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay or discontinue one or more of our research or development programs or the commercialization of any product candidate, or be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, as desired, which could materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We could be required to seek collaborators for product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available or relinquish or license on unfavorable terms our rights to product candidates in markets where we otherwise would seek to pursue development or commercialization ourselves. Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause the price of our common stock to decline.

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

We commenced operations in 2018, have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. To date, our operations have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, executing collaborations, raising capital, licensing, conducting research activities, conducting preclinical studies of our programs and clinical trials of our product candidates, filing and prosecuting patent applications and providing general and administrative support for these

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operations. One of our product candidates, PGN-EDO51, completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and we have initiated one additional Phase 1 clinical trial for PGN-EDODM1 and two Phase 2 clinical trials for PGN-EDO51 and more recently, a Phase 2 clinical trial for PGN-EDODM1. In December 2024, the FDA issued a clinical hold on the initiation of our Phase 2 CONNECT2 trial of PGN-EDO51 in DMD in the U.S. It is unknown whether we may be successful in resolving this hold. Moreover, even if we are successful in removing the hold, it is unknown whether the FDA may require the conduct of additional preclinical studies or clinical trials beyond those which we had planned to conduct. More recently, Health Canada has requested additional information from us to address safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels may proceed in our CONNECT1 Phase 2 study of PGN-EDO51 in DMD. It is unknown whether Health Canada will allow us to dose escalate or enroll additional participants in this study. All of our other research programs are still in the research or preclinical stage of development, and their risk of failure is high. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully complete clinical trials consistently, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture product on a commercial scale or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales, marketing and distribution activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, any predictions you make about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing products

Our limited operating history may make it difficult to evaluate our technology and industry and predict our future performance. Our limited history as an operating company makes any assessment of our future success or viability subject to significant uncertainty. We will encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by early-stage companies in rapidly evolving fields. If we do not address these risks successfully, our business will suffer.

In addition, as our business grows, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, restrictions, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors. We will need to continue to transition from a company with a research focus to a company capable of conducting development activities for multiple product candidates and then to a company supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such transitions. If we do not adequately address these risks and difficulties or successfully make such a transition, it could have a material adverse impact on our business.

Risks Related to Discovery, Development, Preclinical and Clinical Testing

We are early in our development efforts. We have only completed a Phase 1 clinical trial for our lead product candidate and initiated several additional clinical trials, and as a result it will be years before we commercialize a product candidate, if ever. If we are unable to advance our product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain marketing approval and ultimately commercialize them, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We are early in our development efforts and have invested our research efforts to date in developing our EDO platform. We have a portfolio of research programs, and we have two product candidates in clinical trials — PGN-EDO51 for DMD and PGN-EDODM1 for DM1. We have completed a Phase 1 clinical trial for our first product candidate, PGN-EDO51 in HVs. We have initiated our Phase 2 CONNECT1 trial for PGN-EDO51 in Canada and began dosing participants in January of 2024. In July 2024, we reported initial data from the low dose cohort (5 mg/kg) in this trial. Based on this data, we have amended the CONNECT1 study protocol to implement several changes. Following notification of the FDA clinical hold referenced below, Health Canada requested additional information from us to address safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels may proceed in our CONNECT1 study. It is unknown whether Health Canada will allow us to dose escalate or enroll additional participants in this study. We received clearance from the MHRA to initiate our Phase 2 CONNECT2 trial for PGN-EDO51 in the U.K. In December 2024, the FDA issued a clinical hold on the initiation of the CONNECT2 clinical trial in the U.S. We have initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial, designated FREEDOM, for our second product candidate, PGN-EDODM1, and began dosing participants in December 2023. On February 24, 2025, we reported initial single-dose data for each of the first two cohorts (5 and 10 mg/kg) in the Phase 1 FREEDOM study. We have also opened a Phase 2 clinical trial, FREEDOM2, in Canada and the U.K.

We are evaluating additional product candidates in preclinical studies, but have not completed IND- or CTA-enabling activities for any of our other product candidates or advanced any of our other product candidates into clinical trials. Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful clinical development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. We currently generate no revenue from sales of any product, and we may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable product.

Commencing clinical trials in the U.S. is subject to authorization by the FDA of an IND and finalizing the trial design based on discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities. In the event that the FDA requires us to complete additional preclinical studies, or we are required to satisfy other FDA or other regulator requests prior to commencing clinical trials, the start of our clinical trials may be delayed. As noted above, in December 2024, we announced that FDA had placed a clinical hold on the initiation of our planned Phase 2 CONNECT2 trial in the U.S. In addition, previously, in May 2023, we announced that FDA had placed a clinical hold on our planned Phase 1 FREEDOM clinical trial of PGN-EDODM1 in the U.S. We submitted a response to the FDA and in

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October 2023, we announced that the FDA had lifted the clinical hold, allowing us to initiate FREEDOM in the U.S. Even after initiating FREEDOM in the U.S., the FDA or other regulatory authorities could disagree that we have satisfied their requirements to commence any clinical trial, including our FREEDOM2 study of PGN-EDODM1, or disagree with or change their position on the acceptability of our trial design or the clinical endpoints selected, which may require us to complete additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or impose stricter approval conditions than we currently expect. There are equivalent processes and risks applicable to CTAs in other countries, including Canada and countries in Europe. Moreover, regulatory authorities in other countries could request that we pause dosing or further enrollment in one or more of our ongoing studies based in whole or in part on a clinical hold in the U.S.

Commercialization of our product candidates will require preclinical and clinical development; regulatory approval; manufacturing supply, capacity and expertise; a commercial organization; and significant marketing efforts. The success of our product candidates will depend on many factors, including the following:

timely and successful completion of preclinical studies, including toxicology studies, biodistribution studies and minimally efficacious dose studies in animals, where applicable;

regulatory clearance to initiate clinical trials under INDs, CTAs or comparable foreign applications that allow commencement of our planned clinical trials or future clinical trials for our product candidates;

successful initiation, enrollment and completion of clinical trials, including under the FDA’s GCP, GLP, and any additional regulatory requirements from foreign regulatory authorities;

positive results from our clinical trials that support a finding of safety and effectiveness and an acceptable risk-benefit profile in the intended populations to the satisfaction of the applicable regulatory authorities;

receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities, including the completion of any required post-marketing studies or trials;

establishment of arrangements through our own facilities or with third-party manufacturers for clinical supply and, where applicable, commercial manufacturing capabilities;

establishment, maintenance, defense and enforcement of patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property protection or regulatory exclusivity for our product candidates;

commercial launch of our product candidates, if approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;

acceptance of the benefits and use of our product candidates, including method of administration, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors;

effective competition with other therapies;

maintenance of a continued acceptable safety, tolerability and efficacy profile of our product candidates following marketing approval, including acceptable results from any post-approval studies or clinical trials agreed to by us or required by FDA or other regulatory authorities; and

establishment and maintenance of healthcare coverage and adequate reimbursement by payors.

Many of these factors are beyond our control and if we do not succeed in one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize any product candidates, which would materially harm our business. If we are unable to advance our product candidates to clinical development or successfully complete clinical trials, obtain regulatory approval and ultimately commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

Our approach to the discovery and development of product candidates based on our EDO platform is unproven, and we may not be successful in our efforts to identify, discover or develop potential product candidates.

The success of our business depends upon our ability to identify, develop and commercialize products based on our proprietary EDO platform. Our current product candidates that have been developed through our EDO platform are peptide-conjugated oligonucleotides designed to have a disease-modifying impact on degenerative neuromuscular diseases.

Our lead product candidates are currently in clinical-stage development, while our other product candidates are still in the research or preclinical stage of development and our approach to treating muscle disease is unproven. Our research programs may fail to identify potential product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. Our research methodology may be unsuccessful in identifying potential product candidates and our potential product candidates may be shown to have harmful side effects in preclinical in vitro experiments or in vivo animal model studies, or in future clinical studies. In addition, our potential

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product candidates may not show promising signals of therapeutic effect in such experiments or studies or they may have other characteristics that may make the product candidates impractical to manufacture, unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval. Further, because all of our development programs are based on our EDO platform, adverse developments with respect to one of our programs may have a significant adverse impact on the actual or perceived likelihood of success and value of our other programs. In addition, we may be negatively impacted by the decision of other companies to discontinue development of products using technology similar to our technology. For example, recently, Sarepta announced that it was discontinuing its SRP-5051 peptide-linked PMO development program, based on the risk-benefit of the program, including some patients experiencing hypomagnesemia even after treatment with SRP-5051 was discontinued, feedback from the FDA, and the evolving therapeutic landscape for DMD.

We have advanced our first two product candidates, PGN-EDO51 and PGN-EDODM1, into the clinic, and have completed a Phase 1 trial of PGN-EDO51 in HVs. However, the positive results we have observed in our preclinical studies and in the completed Phase 1 trial may not be repeated in future clinical trials, including in patients with DMD amenable to an exon-51 skipping approach, and regulatory authorities may disagree with the interpretation of data from our trials.

Although we are advancing our initial programs in DMD and DM1, our EDO platform may fail to yield additional product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons, including those discussed in these risk factors. In addition:

we may not be able to assemble sufficient resources to acquire or discover product candidates;

competitors may develop alternatives that render our potential product candidates obsolete or less attractive;

potential product candidates we develop may be covered by third parties’ patents or other intellectual property rights;

potential product candidates may, on further study, be shown to have harmful side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be products that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance;

potential product candidates may not be effective in treating their targeted diseases or disorders;

the market for a potential product candidate may change so that the continued development of that product candidate is no longer reasonable;

a potential product candidate may not be capable of being produced in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, or at all; or

the regulatory pathway for a potential product candidate may be too complex and difficult to navigate successfully or economically.

If we are unable to identify and discover suitable product candidates for clinical development, this would adversely impact our business strategy and our financial position and share price and could potentially cause us to cease operations.

Drug development is a lengthy and expensive process, and preclinical and clinical testing is uncertain as to the outcome. We may encounter substantial delays in the commencement, enrollment or completion of our clinical trials and may never advance to clinical trials, or we may fail to demonstrate safety and effectiveness to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities, which could prevent us from advancing or commercializing our product candidates on a timely basis, if at all.

The risk of failure in developing product candidates is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any product candidate would prove effective or safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, we must complete preclinical development, obtain regulatory clearance to commence clinical trials, and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of product candidates in humans. To date, we have only completed a Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51 and initiated an additional Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDODM1, two Phase 2 clinical trials of PGN-EDO51 and more recently, a Phase 2 clinical trial of PGN-EDODM1.

Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate that our product candidates are safe for humans and effective for indicated uses, and earlier results, both preclinical and clinical, may not be indicative of future clinical trial results. Even if the clinical trials are successful, changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment or promulgation of additional statutes, regulations or guidance, varying interpretations of clinical data or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application.

Before we can commence clinical trials for a product candidate, we must complete extensive preclinical testing and studies that support clearance of our INDs, CTAs and other similar regulatory filings. We cannot be certain if the outcome of our preclinical studies and clinical trials will ultimately support further development of our product candidates or future programs, or future regulatory approval and commercialization. Although we have completed a Phase 1 study of our lead product candidate, PGN-EDO51, initiated two Phase 2 studies of PGN-EDO51 and initiated an additional Phase 1 and a Phase 2 clinical trial of our second candidate, PGN-EDODM1, we cannot be certain of the completion or outcome of our preclinical testing and studies for our other

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product candidates and cannot predict whether the FDA, European Medicines Agency, or EMA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities will accept our proposed clinical programs for PGN-EDO51 or PGN-EDODM1, or whether the outcome of our preclinical testing and studies will ultimately support the further development of our other product candidates. For example, Health Canada has recently requested additional information from us to address safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels may proceed in our Phase 2 CONNECT1 study of PGN-EDO51 in DMD. It is unknown whether Health Canada will allow us to dose escalate or enroll additional participants in this study. In addition, in December 2024, the FDA issued a clinical hold on the initiation of our Phase 2 CONNECT2 trial of PGN-EDO51 in DMD planned to be initiated in the U.S. It is unknown whether we may be successful in resolving this hold. Moreover, even if we are successful in removing the hold, it is unknown whether the FDA may require the conduct of additional preclinical studies or clinical trials beyond those which we are conducting or plan to conduct. Conducting preclinical testing is a lengthy, time-consuming and expensive process. The length of time may vary substantially according to the type, complexity and novelty of the program, and often can be several years or more per program. In addition, the progress and timing of our preclinical studies, including pharmacology and toxicology studies, may be impacted by the limited supply of NHPs needed for such studies. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs, CTAs and other similar regulatory filings for our programs on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of such regulatory filings will result in the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities allowing clinical trials to begin, including in the case of our CONNECT2 clinical study for PGN-EDO51 and our FREEDOM2 clinical study for PGN-EDODM1. For example, in May 2023, we announced that we received a clinical hold notice from the FDA regarding our IND application to initiate our Phase 1 FREEDOM study, and in June 2023, we provided an update on our plans with respect to this program. In October 2023, we announced that the FDA lifted the clinical hold on our Phase 1 FREEDOM study, allowing this study to proceed in the U.S.

Furthermore, product candidates are subject to continued preclinical safety studies, which may be conducted concurrently with our clinical testing. The outcomes of these safety studies may delay the launch of, or enrollment in clinical trials and could impact our ability to continue to conduct our clinical trials.

Clinical testing is expensive, is difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. We cannot guarantee that any clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, or at all. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing, which may result from a multitude of factors, including, but not limited to, flaws in trial design, dose selection issues, patient enrollment criteria and failure to demonstrate favorable safety or efficacy traits.

Other events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include:

delays in reaching a consensus with regulatory authorities on trial design;

delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective clinical research organizations, or CROs, and clinical trial sites;

delays in opening clinical trial sites or obtaining required IRB, or independent ethics committee approval, or the equivalent review groups for sites outside the U.S., at each clinical trial site;

imposition of a clinical hold by regulatory authorities as a result of a serious adverse event or manufacturing concerns or after an inspection of our clinical trial operations or trial sites;

negative or inconclusive results observed in clinical trials, including failure to demonstrate statistical significance, which could lead us, or cause regulators to require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs;

failure by us, any CROs we engage or any other third parties to adhere to clinical trial requirements;

failure to perform in accordance with the FDA’s GCPs or those of other regulatory authorities;

failure by physicians to adhere to delivery protocols leading to variable results;

delays in the testing, validation, manufacturing and delivery of our product candidates to the clinical sites, including delays by third parties with whom we have contracted to perform certain of those functions;

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

inability to recruit patients to participate in a clinical trial, including as a result of competition with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and the patient population size for our product candidates;

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

clinical trial sites or patients dropping out of a trial;

selection of clinical endpoints that require prolonged periods of clinical observation or analysis of the resulting data;

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

occurrence of serious adverse events associated with a product candidate in development by another company, which are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits, and which may negatively impact the perception of our product due to a similarity in technology or approach;

changes in regulatory requirements and guidance that require amending or submitting new clinical protocols;

changes in the legal or regulatory regimes domestically or internationally related to patient rights and privacy;

lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial; or

lack of diminished revenue potential of the program(s) due to competition.

Clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with the FDA and other applicable regulatory authorities’ legal requirements, regulations or guidelines, and are subject to oversight by these governmental agencies and IRBs or ethics committees at the medical institutions where the clinical trials are conducted. We could encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the DSMB for such trial or by the FDA or any other regulatory authority, or if the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted suspend or terminate the participation of their clinical investigators and sites subject to their review. Such authorities may suspend or terminate a clinical trial due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.

In addition, disruptions caused by the effects of any epidemics or pandemics may increase the likelihood that we encounter such difficulties or delays in initiating, enrolling, conducting or completing our planned and ongoing clinical trials.

Moreover, principal investigators for our clinical trials may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and receive compensation in connection with such services. Under certain circumstances, we may be required to report some of these relationships to the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities. The FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authority may conclude that a financial relationship between us and a principal investigator has created a conflict of interest or otherwise affected interpretation of the trial. The FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authority may therefore question the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site and the utility of the clinical trial itself may be jeopardized. This could result in a delay in approval, or rejection, of our marketing applications by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authority, as the case may be, and may ultimately lead to the denial of marketing approval of our product candidates.

Any inability to successfully complete preclinical studies and clinical trials could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenues from product sales, regulatory and commercialization milestones and royalties. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we may need to conduct additional studies to bridge our modified product candidates to earlier versions. Clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Further, conducting clinical trials in foreign countries, as we plan to continue to do for our product candidates, presents additional risks that may delay completion of our clinical trials. These risks include the failure of enrolled patients in foreign countries to adhere to clinical protocol as a result of differences in healthcare services or cultural customs, managing additional administrative burdens associated with foreign regulatory schemes, as well as political and economic risks relevant to such foreign countries.

Additionally, if the results of clinical trials are inconclusive or if there are safety concerns or serious adverse events associated with our product candidates, we may:

be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for product candidates, if at all;

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

obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings;

be subject to changes in the way the product is administered;

be required to perform additional clinical trials to support approval or be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements;

have regulatory authorities withdraw, or suspend, their approval of the product or impose restrictions on its distribution in the form of a REMS;

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be subject to the addition of labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications;

be sued; or

experience damage to our reputation.

In particular, each of the conditions for which we plan to develop or are developing product candidates is a rare genetic disease with limited patient pools from which to draw for clinical trials. Further, because it can be difficult to diagnose these diseases in the absence of a genetic screen, we may have difficulty finding patients who are eligible to participate in our studies. The eligibility criteria of our clinical trials will further limit the pool of available study participants. Additionally, the process of finding and diagnosing patients may prove costly. The treating physicians in our clinical trials may also use their medical discretion in advising patients enrolled in our clinical trials to withdraw from our studies or to try alternative therapies. Finally, we must compete with other companies with either approved therapies or investigational therapies in development for the conditions which we are developing product candidates for, which may further limit the pool of potential patients.

The outcome of preclinical studies and earlier-stage clinical trials may not be predictive of future results or the success of later preclinical studies and clinical trials.

We are in the early stages of our programs and have successfully completed a Phase 1 HV clinical trial in Canada for our lead product candidate, PGN-EDO51, reported early data from the low dose cohort of our first Phase 2 trial of PGN-EDO51 in DMD patients, initiated Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials for our PGN-EDODM1 product candidate and reported initial data from the first two cohorts of our Phase 1 trial of PGN-EDODM1, but we have not completed IND- or CTA-enabling activities for our other product candidates or advanced any other product candidates into clinical development. As a result, our belief in the capabilities of our platform is based on early research, preclinical studies, our completed Phase 1 clinical trial in HVs and early data from our Phase 2 study of PGN-EDO51 and our Phase 1 study of PGN-EDODM1. However, the results of preclinical studies may not be predictive of the results of later preclinical studies or clinical trials, and the results of any early-stage clinical trials may not be predictive of the results of later clinical trials. For example, we may not see the same levels of exon skipping, oligonucleotide delivery or dystrophin production in DMD patients as was observed in our preclinical studies or, with respect to exon skipping and oligonucleotide delivery, in our Phase 1 HV study of PGN-EDO51. While we saw high mean levels of exon skipping (2.15%) in all participants at the 5 mg/kg starting dose of our CONNECT1 Phase 2 study after four doses and three months of treatment, we did not achieve the level of dystrophin that we had anticipated. With a longer treatment period and higher doses of PGN-EDO51, we expect to see higher levels of exon skipped transcript potentially resulting in significant increases in dystrophin, but this may not be the case. Given Health Canada’s recent request for additional information from us to address safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels may proceed in our CONNECT1 study, we may be unable to further advance the CONNECT1 study beyond dosing of the currently enrolled participants at current dose levels. In addition, with the current clinical hold on initiation of our CONNECT2 clinical trial in the U.S. for PGN-EDO51 in DMD, we may be unable to advance development of PGN-EDO51 for DMD in the U.S. On February 24, 2025, we reported initial single-dose data for each of the first two cohorts (5 and 10 mg/kg) in the Phase 1 FREEDOM study. While we observed robust and dose-dependent mean splicing correction (29.1%) at the 10 mg/kg dose level, we observed limited change in functional outcomes after a single dose over one month. We believe robust splicing correction with PGN-EDODM1 has the potential to lead to meaningful functional improvements with repeat dosing over time, but this may not be the case. Initial success in clinical trials, including in our CONNECT1 and FREEDOM studies, may not be indicative of results obtained when such trials are completed. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. Our clinical trials may not ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of our product candidates. There is a high failure rate for product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical development even after achieving encouraging results in earlier studies. Any such setbacks in our clinical development could materially harm our business and results of operations.

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

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If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our ability to complete clinical trials may be adversely impacted.

Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in clinical trials of our product candidates is critical to our success. We may not be able to identify, recruit and enroll a sufficient number of patients, or those with required or desired characteristics, to complete our clinical trials in a timely manner. Patient enrollment and trial completion is affected by factors including:

perceived risks and benefits of novel unproven approaches;

size of the patient population, in particular for rare diseases such as the diseases on which we are initially focused, and process for identifying patients;

design of the trial protocol;

eligibility and exclusion criteria;

perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study;

availability of competing therapies and clinical trials;

severity of the disease or disorder under investigation;

proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients;

ability to obtain and maintain patient consent;

risk that enrolled patients will drop out before completion of the trial;

ability to recruit clinical trial investigators of appropriate competencies and experience;

patient referral practices of physicians;

ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment; and

other factors outside of our control, such as the potential effects of any epidemics, pandemics or health crisis.

For example, DMD amenable to exon 51 skipping is a rare disease, and there are several therapies approved in certain territories or in clinical development, which can make enrollment in our CONNECT1 and CONNECT2 trials more challenging. Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials, including our ongoing trials for PGN-EDO51 and PGN-EDODM1, would result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in these clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates, which would cause the value of our company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing. Furthermore, we rely on and expect to continue to rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials and we will have limited influence over their performance.

Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials, we may have difficulty maintaining patients in our clinical trials. Many of the patients who end up receiving placebo may perceive that they are not receiving the product candidate being tested, and they may decide to withdraw from our clinical trials to pursue other alternative therapies rather than continue the trial with the perception that they are receiving placebo. If we have difficulty enrolling or maintaining a sufficient number of patients to conduct our clinical trials, we may need to delay, limit or terminate clinical trials, any of which would harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

From time to time, we may publicly disclose preliminary or topline data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials, which is based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. For example, in September 2022, we announced results from our Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51, in July 2024, we announced initial results from our CONNECT1 Phase 2 trial from the low dose (5 mg/kg) cohort as well as high level safety information for the ongoing 10 mg/kg dose cohort, and more recently, we provided additional safety information from the ongoing CONNECT1 trial. On February 24, 2025, we announced initial results from our FREEDOM Phase 1 trial from the 5 and 10 mg/kg dose cohorts. The topline or preliminary 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. Topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, topline data and preliminary results should be viewed with caution until the final data are available.

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From time to time, we may also disclose interim data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available or as patients from our clinical trials continue other treatments for their disease. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects. Further, disclosure of interim data could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.

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 approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate or product and our company in general. In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure.

If the interim, topline, or preliminary 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.

If any of our product candidates cause undesirable side effects or have other unexpected adverse properties, such side effects or properties could delay or prevent the initiation or completion of clinical trials, regulatory approval, limit the commercial potential or result in significant negative consequences following any potential marketing approval.

We have completed dosing up to 15 mg/kg in a Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51, in which PGN-EDO51 was observed to be generally well-tolerated in HVs at clinically active doses, and are dosing participants at 5 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg in an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51, in which we believe PGN-EDO51 has continued to demonstrate a favorable safety profile as of January 23, 2025, but there can be no assurance that our product candidates will not cause undesirable side effects in patients. For example, in preclinical toxicology studies of PGN-EDO51 in normal NHPs, we observed transient, clinical signs of hypotension in some animals treated at a dose level higher than that which we intend to evaluate in the clinic. In addition, in our Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51, at 15 mg/kg, we observed mild, transient, reversible changes in kidney biomarkers that resolved without intervention in all but one participant who experienced a non-life threatening serious adverse event. While the trial was not halted by the safety review committee nor put on hold by Health Canada, under the protocol for this Phase 1 clinical trial, any non-life-threatening SAE was considered a DLT. This participant was admitted to the hospital for less than 24 hours, received intravenous hydration, and then was re-admitted to the Phase 1 unit and completed the study. We also observed transient mild to moderate hypomagnesemia in two participants in the Phase 1 trial, which did not require intervention. Based on published data and other publicly available information, such adverse events are consistent with the types of events reported with this class of oligonucleotides in general. In the ongoing CONNECT1 Phase 2 study, based on the totality of data in both the 5 mg/kg cohort and the ongoing 10 mg/kg cohort as of January 23, 3025, we continue to believe PGN-EDO51 has a favorable emerging safety profile. Magnesium levels in two of the participants in the 10 mg/kg cohort, who were previously reported as having asymptomatic hypomagnesemia, have returned to levels within normal limits with administration of ongoing low-dose oral magnesium supplementation. Dosing of one of these two participants was paused due to a reduction of his eGFR. This event did not meet the pre-specified criteria for a DLT. A subsequent nuclear scan indicated measured glomerular filtration rate was in the normal range. The participant’s eGFR is improving and the investigator is evaluating for the resumption of dosing as this value returns to baseline levels. We are continuing to review the event and associated potential confounding factors to better understand its manifestation. There have been no treatment-related SAEs, and all treatment-related adverse events have been mild. There was no sustained elevation in kidney biomarkers. There were also no cases of hypokalemia, anemia or thrombocytopenia. We have received communication from Health Canada that dosing of participants in the 5 and 10 mg/kg cohorts may continue at their current dose levels. Health Canada has requested additional information from us to address its safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels.

On February 24, 2025, we reported initial data from the 5 and 10 mg/kg dose cohorts in our FREEDOM Phase 1 study in DM1 patients. We believe PGN-EDODM1 has a favorable emerging safety profile. Through the data cutoff date of December 3, 2024, PGN-EDODM1 was observed to be generally well-tolerated, with most TEAEs being mild or moderate in severity. There were no adverse events related to electrolytes or renal biomarkers. There can be no assurance that PGN-EDODM1 will not cause undesirable side effects in patients with further dosing and dose escalation, including safety events similar to those observed in our studies with PGN-EDO51.

Although other oligonucleotide therapeutics have received regulatory approval, ours is a novel approach to oligonucleotide therapy. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the safety profile of our product candidates compared to more well-established classes of therapies, or oligonucleotide therapeutics on their own. Moreover, there have been only a limited number of clinical trials involving the use of peptide conjugated oligonucleotide therapeutics and only one completed trial involving the proprietary technology used in our EDO platform.

Despite the outcome of our Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDO51 and the early results from our Phase 2 CONNECT1 study, as well as the initial results from our Phase 1 clinical trial of PGN-EDODM1, further results from our CONNECT1 or FREEDOM trials or future results from our CONNECT2 Phase 2 clinical trials for PGN-EDO51 or our FREEDOM2 Phase 2 clinical trial of PGN-EDODM1, or studies of any other product candidate could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects or

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unexpected characteristics than previously anticipated. If any product candidates we develop are associated with serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or unexpected characteristics, we may need to abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, regulatory authorities may draw different conclusions, require additional testing to confirm these determinations, require more restrictive labeling or deny regulatory approval of the product candidate. Many product candidates that initially showed promise in early-stage testing have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further clinical development of the product candidates.

It is possible that, as we test our product candidates in larger, longer and more extensive clinical trials, including with different dosing regimens, or as the use of our product candidates becomes more widespread following any regulatory approval, illnesses, injuries, discomforts and other adverse events that were observed in earlier trials, as well as conditions that did not occur or went undetected in previous trials, will be reported by patients. If such side effects become known later in development or upon approval, if any, such findings may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects significantly.

In addition, if our product candidates receive marketing approval, and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by treatment with such drug, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

regulatory authorities may suspend, limit or withdraw approvals of such product, or seek an injunction against its manufacture or distribution;

we may be required to recall a product or change the way the drug is administered to patients;

regulatory authorities may require additional warnings in the labeling, such as a contraindication or a boxed warning, or issue safety alerts, Dear Healthcare Provider letters, press releases or other communications containing warnings or other safety information about the product;

we may be required to change the way the product is administered or conduct additional clinical trials or post-approval studies;

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

additional restrictions may be imposed on the marketing or promotion of the particular product or the manufacturing processes for the product or any component thereof;

we may be subject to fines, injunctions or the imposition of criminal penalties;

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

the drug could become less competitive; and

our reputation may suffer.

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

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

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

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The increasing use of social media platforms presents new risks and challenges.

Social media is increasingly being used to communicate about pharmaceutical companies’ clinical development activities, and we intend to utilize appropriate social media in connection with our development efforts. Additionally, patients may use social media channels to comment on their experience in an ongoing blinded clinical trial or to report an alleged adverse event. If such disclosures occur in the future in connection with any of our sponsored clinical trials, there is a risk that trial enrollment may be adversely impacted, that we may fail to monitor and comply with applicable adverse event reporting obligations or that we may not be able to defend our business or the public’s legitimate interests in the face of the political and market pressures generated by social media due to restrictions on what we may say about our product candidates. There is also a risk of inappropriate disclosure of sensitive or confidential information or negative or inaccurate posts or comments about us on any social networking website. In addition, we may encounter attacks on social media regarding our company, management or our product candidates, and fraudsters could and have attempted to illegally use our name on social media platforms to defraud the public. It is also possible for individuals or groups to target companies with disruptive social media campaigns related to a request for access to unapproved drugs for patients with significant unmet medical need. If we experience a similar social media campaign regarding our decision to provide or not provide access to any of our product candidates under an expanded access policy, our reputation may be negatively affected and our business may be harmed. If any of these events were to occur or we fail to comply with applicable regulations, we could incur liability, face regulatory actions or incur other harm to our business.

Clinical trial and product liability lawsuits against us could divert our resources, could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit commercialization of our product candidates.

We face an inherent risk of clinical trial and product liability exposure related to the testing of product candidates that have entered or eventually proceed to clinical trials, and we will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that receive marketing approval. While we currently have only two product candidates in clinical development and none that have been approved for commercial sale, the future use of product candidates by us in clinical trials, and the sale of any approved products in the future, may expose us to liability claims. These claims might be made by patients that use the product, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling such products. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our product candidates or products caused injuries, we may incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

decreased demand for our product candidates;

injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;

withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

significant costs to defend any related litigation;

substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

loss of revenue;

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

the inability to commercialize our product candidates.

We have insurance coverage in place that we believe to be appropriate for our current phase of clinical development, but we may need to further increase this coverage for subsequent clinical trials, or if we commence commercialization of any product candidates. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise. If a successful clinical trial or product liability claim or series of claims is brought against us for uninsured liabilities or in excess of insured liabilities, our assets may not be sufficient to cover such claims and our business operations could be impaired.

We intend to conduct certain clinical trials for our product candidates outside of the U.S. However, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials, in which case our development plans will be delayed, which could materially harm our business.

We conducted our first clinical trial in Canada, and we intend to conduct one or more of our subsequent clinical trials for our product candidates outside the U.S., including our ongoing CONNECT1 Phase 2 trial in Canada, and our ongoing CONNECT2, FREEDOM and FREEDOM2 clinical trials, each of which has or will have sites in multiple countries outside of the U.S. Although the FDA may accept data from clinical trials conducted outside the U.S., acceptance of this data is subject to certain conditions imposed by the FDA. Where data from foreign clinical trials are intended to serve as the basis for marketing approval in the U.S., the FDA will not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless those data are applicable to the U.S. population and U.S. medical practice; the studies were performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence; and the data are considered valid without the

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need for an on-site inspection by the FDA or, if the FDA considers such an inspection to be necessary, the FDA is able to validate the data through an on-site inspection or other appropriate means. For studies that are conducted only at sites outside of the U.S. and not subject to an IND, the FDA generally does not provide advance comment on the clinical protocols for the studies, and therefore there is an additional potential risk that the FDA could determine that the study design or protocol for a non-U.S. clinical trial was inadequate, which could require us to conduct additional clinical trials. In addition, even where the foreign study data are not intended to serve as the sole basis for approval, the FDA will not accept the data as support for an application for marketing approval unless the study is well-designed and well-conducted in accordance with GCP and the FDA is able to validate the data from the study through an onsite inspection if deemed necessary. Many foreign regulatory authorities have similar approval requirements. There can be no assurance the FDA will accept data from clinical trials conducted outside of the U.S. If the FDA does not accept data from our clinical trials of our product candidates, it would likely result in the need for additional clinical trials, which would be costly and time consuming and delay or permanently halt our development of our product candidates.

Conducting clinical trials outside the U.S. also exposes us to additional risks, including risks associated with:

additional foreign regulatory requirements;

foreign exchange fluctuations;

compliance with foreign manufacturing, customs, shipment and storage requirements;

cultural differences in medical practice and clinical research; and

diminished protection of intellectual property in some countries.

Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties

We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some or all aspects of our product manufacturing, research and preclinical and clinical testing, and these third parties may not perform satisfactorily.

We do not expect to independently conduct all aspects of our product manufacturing, research and preclinical and clinical testing. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties with respect to many of these items, including CDMOs, for the manufacturing of any product candidates we test in preclinical or clinical development, as well as CROs for the conduct of our animal testing and research and for the conduct of our current and planned clinical trials. Any of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us at any time. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, it could delay our product development activities.

Our reliance on these third parties for research and development activities will reduce our control over these activities but will not relieve us of our responsibility to ensure compliance with all required regulations and study protocols. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our IND- and CTA-enabling studies and clinical trials are conducted in accordance with the study plan and protocols. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with GCPs for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database, ClinicalTrials.gov, within specified timeframes. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity and civil and criminal sanctions. If we or any of our CROs or other third parties, including trial sites, fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials complies with GCP regulations. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under conditions that comply with the FDA’s cGMPs. Our failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Although we intend to design the preclinical studies and clinical trials for our product candidates, CROs will conduct some or all of the preclinical studies and clinical trials. As a result, many important aspects of our development programs, including their conduct and timing, will be outside of our direct control. Our reliance on third parties to conduct future preclinical studies and clinical trials will also result in less direct control over the management of data developed through preclinical studies and clinical trials than would be the case if we were relying entirely upon our own staff. Communicating with outside parties can also be challenging, potentially leading to mistakes as well as difficulties in coordinating activities. Outside parties may:

have staffing difficulties;

fail to comply with contractual obligations;

experience regulatory compliance issues;

undergo changes in priorities or become financially distressed; or

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form relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors.

These factors may materially adversely affect the willingness or ability of third parties to conduct our preclinical studies and clinical trials and may subject us to unexpected cost increases that are beyond our control. In addition, any third parties conducting our clinical trials will not be our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties, we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our clinical programs. If the CROs and other third parties do not perform preclinical studies and clinical trials in a satisfactory manner, if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, or if they breach their obligations to us or fail to comply with regulatory requirements, the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates may be delayed, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our product candidates or our development programs may be materially and irreversibly harmed. If we are unable to rely on preclinical and clinical data collected by our CROs and other third parties, we could be required to repeat, extend the duration of or increase the size of any preclinical studies or clinical trials we conduct and this could significantly delay commercialization and require greater expenditures.

If third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our studies in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated study plans and protocols, we will not be able to complete, or may be delayed in completing, the preclinical studies and clinical trials required to support future IND, CTA and other similar regulatory filings and potential approval of our product candidates.

In addition, there are few CDMOs that have the capability to manufacture oligonucleotides and peptides, the key intermediates in the synthesis of the final active pharmaceutical ingredient, both of which are critical to the development and production of our product candidates. We are aware that one or more of our competitors are using either oligonucleotides, peptides, or both in their product candidates, and that they have engaged with many of these CDMOs, which may hinder our ability to also contract with those CDMOs. As a result, we may have difficulty finding and engaging sufficient third-party manufacturers to develop and manufacture our product candidates, which may affect our ability to conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials. Moreover, legislative proposals are pending that, if enacted, could negatively impact U.S. funding for certain biotechnology providers, including some of our vendors, that may have relationships with certain foreign governments or are viewed as posing a threat to national security. If certain of these vendors are unable to continue to provide services or we are unable to contract with such vendors, this could further constrain our ability to find and engage third-party manufacturers to develop and manufacture our product candidates, which could adversely affect our business.

We currently depend on a small number of third-party suppliers to supply the product candidates that we are evaluating in our research programs. The loss of these or future third-party suppliers, or their inability to provide us with sufficient supply, could harm our business.

We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities and have no current plans to develop our own clinical or commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities. We rely on a small number of third-party suppliers for the manufacture of the product candidates that we are evaluating in our research programs. We expect to continue to depend on third-party suppliers for the manufacture of any product candidates we advance into preclinical and clinical development, as well as for commercial manufacture if those product candidates receive marketing approval. The facilities used by third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the FDA, the EMA and any comparable foreign regulatory authority pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit an NDA to the FDA or any comparable filing to the EMA or other foreign regulatory authority. We do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, third-party manufacturers for compliance with cGMP requirements for the manufacture of products. If these third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA, the EMA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority, we may incur delays in our clinical trials or regulatory submissions, and they will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities.

In addition, we have no control over the ability of third-party manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA, the EMA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of product candidates or products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our product candidates.

We may also seek to eventually establish our own manufacturing facility for the long-term commercial supply of our product candidates for which receive regulatory approval, if any. If we determine to establish our own manufacturing facility and manufacture our products on our own, we will need to obtain the resources and expertise in order to build such manufacturing capabilities and to conduct such manufacturing operations. In addition, our conduct of such manufacturing operations will be subject to the extensive

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regulations and operational risks to which our third-party suppliers are subject. If we are not successful in building these capabilities or complying with the regulations or otherwise operating our manufacturing function, our commercial supply could be disrupted and our business could be materially harmed.

Our or a third party’s failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements on commercially reasonable terms and in compliance with cGMP could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including:

an inability to initiate or conduct preclinical studies or clinical trials of product candidates;

delays in initiating or completing preclinical studies or clinical trials of product candidates or in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving marketing approvals, for product candidates;

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

requirements to cease development or to recall batches of product candidates; and

in the event of approval to market and commercialize any product, an inability to meet commercial demands for the product.

We are party to manufacturing agreements with a number of third-party manufacturers. We may be unable to maintain these agreements or establish any additional agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to maintain or establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:

failure of third-party manufacturers to comply with regulatory requirements and maintain quality assurance;

breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;

failure to manufacture according to our specifications;

failure to manufacture according to our schedule or at all;

misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and

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

We compete with third parties for access to manufacturing facilities, in particular for the manufacture of oligonucleotides. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us.

We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply or a second source for all required raw materials. If our existing or future third-party manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers and we may be unable to replace them on a timely basis or at all.

Additionally, if supply from one approved manufacturer is interrupted, there could be a significant disruption in supply. An alternative manufacturer would need to be qualified and authorized pursuant to a submission to our approved NDA or NDA supplement which could result in further delay. Further, we will also need to verify, such as through comparability or bridging studies, that any new or modified manufacturing processes will produce our product candidate according to the specifications previously submitted to the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities. The delays associated with the verification of a new third-party manufacturer could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates or commercialize our products in a timely manner or within budget. Furthermore, a third-party manufacturer may possess technology related to the manufacture of our product candidate that such third-party manufacturer owns independently. This would increase our reliance on such third-party manufacturer or require us to obtain a license from such third-party manufacturer in order to have another third-party manufacturer manufacture our product candidates. We may be unsuccessful in demonstrating the comparability of clinical supplies to those previously allowed into clinical development by the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities which could require the conduct of additional studies or clinical trials.

Switching manufacturers may involve substantial costs and is likely to result in a delay in our desired clinical and commercial timelines. These factors could cause the delay of clinical trials, regulatory submissions, required approvals or commercialization of our product candidates, cause us to incur higher costs and prevent us from commercializing our products successfully. Furthermore, if our suppliers fail to meet contractual requirements, and we are unable to secure one or more replacement suppliers capable of production at a substantially equivalent cost, our clinical trials may be delayed or we could lose potential revenue.

Finally, legislative proposals are pending that, if enacted, could negatively impact U.S. funding for certain biotechnology providers, including some of our vendors, that may have relationships with certain foreign governments or are viewed as posing a threat to national security. This could result in our inability to continue to engage with one or more of our vendors or impair our ability

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to contract with new vendors, which could result in supply delays or shortages, clinical trial delays and the need to engage new vendors in a competitive marketplace.

Our current and anticipated future dependence upon third parties for the manufacture of any product candidates we develop may adversely affect our development programs and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.

We may from time to time be dependent on single-source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in our product candidates.

Although we currently do not use any single-source supplier, we may from time to time depend on such suppliers for some of the components and materials used in our product candidates. We cannot ensure that these suppliers or service providers will remain in business, have sufficient capacity or supply to meet our needs or that they will not be purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is not interested in continuing to work with us. Our use of single-source suppliers of raw materials, components, key processes and finished goods could expose us to several risks, including disruptions in supply, price increases or late deliveries. There are, in general, relatively few alternative sources of supply for substitute components. These vendors may be unable or unwilling to meet our future demands for our clinical trials or commercial sale. Establishing additional or replacement suppliers for these components, materials and processes could take a substantial amount of time and it may be difficult to establish replacement suppliers who meet regulatory requirements. Any disruption in supply from any single-source supplier or service provider could lead to supply delays or interruptions which would damage our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If we are required to switch to a replacement supplier, the manufacture and delivery of our product candidates could be interrupted for an extended period, which could adversely affect our business. Establishing additional or replacement suppliers, if required, may not be accomplished quickly. If we are able to find a replacement supplier, the replacement supplier would need to be qualified and may require additional regulatory authority approval, which could result in further delay. In the event that we should depend on single-source suppliers, we would seek to maintain adequate inventory of the single source components and materials used in our products; however, any interruption or delay in the supply of components or materials, or our inability to obtain components or materials from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could impair our ability to meet the demand for our investigational medicines.

We may enter into collaborations with third parties for the research, development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates. If any such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of those product candidates.

We may seek third-party collaborators for the research, development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates. If we enter into any such arrangements with any third parties, we will likely have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of any product candidates we may seek to develop with them. Our ability to generate revenues from these arrangements will depend on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements. We cannot predict the success of any collaboration that we enter into.

Collaborations involving our research programs or our product candidates pose numerous risks to us, including the following:

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

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

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

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

collaborators may be acquired by a third party having competitive products or different priorities, causing the emphasis on our product development or commercialization program under such collaboration to be delayed, diminished or terminated;

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

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

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

we may lose certain valuable rights under certain circumstances, including if we undergo a change of control;

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

collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of product candidates in the most efficient manner or at all.

If our collaborations do not result in the successful development and commercialization of product candidates, or if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research funding or milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these agreements, our development of product candidates could be delayed, and we may need additional resources to develop product candidates. In addition, if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may find it more difficult to find a suitable replacement collaborator or attract new collaborators, and our development programs may be delayed or the perception of us in the business and financial communities could be adversely affected. All of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval and commercialization described in this 10-K apply to the activities of our collaborators.

These relationships, or those like them, may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing stockholders, or disrupt our management and business. In addition, we could face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators, and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Our ability to reach a definitive collaboration agreement 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 several factors. If we license rights to any product candidates we or our collaborators may develop, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture.

If conflicts arise between us and our potential collaborators, these parties may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies.

If conflicts arise between us and our potential collaborators, the other party may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies. Our collaborators may develop, either alone or with others, products in related fields that are competitive with our product candidates that are the subject of these collaborations with us. Competing products, either developed by the collaborators or to which the collaborators have rights, may result in the withdrawal of support for our product candidates.

Some of our future collaborators could also become our competitors. Our collaborators could develop competing products, preclude us from entering into collaborations with their competitors, fail to obtain timely regulatory approvals, terminate their agreements with us prematurely, fail to devote sufficient resources to the development and commercialization of products, or merge with or be acquired by a third party who may do any of these things. Any of these developments could harm our product development efforts.

If we are not able to establish collaborations on commercially reasonable terms, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.

Our product development and research programs and the potential commercialization of our product candidates will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. For some of our product candidates, we may decide to collaborate with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the development and potential commercialization of those product candidates.

We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge, and industry and market conditions generally. The collaborator may also consider alternative product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us.

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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 its potential commercialization, reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our own expenditures on the development of the product candidate.

We are dependent on third-party vendors to provide certain licenses, products and services and our business and operations, including clinical trials, could be disrupted by any problems with our significant third-party vendors.

We engage a number of third-party suppliers and service providers to supply critical goods and services, such as contract research services, contract manufacturing services and information technology services. Disruptions to the business, financial stability or operations of these suppliers and service providers, including due to strikes, labor disputes or other disruptions to the workforce, for instance, if, as a result of a pandemic or health epidemic, employees are not able to come to work, or to their willingness and ability to produce or deliver such products or provide such services in a manner that satisfies the requirements put forth by the authorities, or in a manner that satisfies our own requirements, could affect our ability to develop and market our future product candidates on a timely basis. If these suppliers and service providers were unable or unwilling to continue to provide their products or services in the manner expected, or at all, we could encounter difficulty finding alternative suppliers. Even if we are able to secure appropriate alternative suppliers in a timely manner, costs for such products or services could increase significantly. Any of these events could adversely affect our results of operations and our business.

Risks Related to Regulatory Approval and Other Regulatory and Legal Compliance Matters

Our lead product candidates are in clinical development, while all of our other product candidates are still in preclinical development. As an organization, we have only completed one clinical trial and initiated one other Phase 1 clinical trial and three Phase 2 clinical trials and may be unable to do so for any of our other product candidates nor carry out or complete further studies for our lead candidate.

Although we are currently in clinical development for two product candidates, we have no experience as a company in conducting, completing and managing the full suite of clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approvals, including approval by the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, or in obtaining approval of any of our product candidates. We are early in our development efforts for our product candidates, and we have successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and initiated Phase 2 trials for our lead product candidate, PGN-EDO51, except in the U.S. where the FDA issued a clinical hold on the initiation of our planned CONNECT2 clinical trial, and initiated an additional Phase 1 and a Phase 2 clinical trial for our second product candidate, PGN-EDODM1. We will need to successfully complete IND- or CTA-enabling activities, early-stage, later-stage and pivotal clinical trials, in order to obtain FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory approval to market PGN-EDO51, PGN-EDODM1, and any future product candidates.

Carrying out clinical trials and the submission of a successful NDA is a complicated process. We completed our first Phase 1 clinical trial for PGN-EDO51 in the third quarter of 2022, and we began dosing participants in CONNECT1 in Canada in January 2024. We received clearance from the MHRA in February 2024 to initiate CONNECT2 in the U.K. in boys and young men living with DMD.

Based on the observed high tissue concentrations of oligonucleotide and exon skipping in muscle in our Phase 1 trial of PGN-EDO51 in HVs, as well as the early data from the low dose (5 mg/kg) cohort in our CONNECT1 Phase 2 trial of PGN-EDO51, we believe that these results could signal the potential for the accumulation of exon 51 skipped transcript and higher production of dystrophin protein in muscle tissue with repeated doses of PGN-EDO51 in DMD patients over a longer treatment period. However, our belief based on this data may be erroneous and, to date, the FDA has not allowed the initiation of the planned CONNECT2 clinical trial in the U.S., placing that trial on clinical hold. Moreover, we have received communication from Health Canada that dosing of participants in the 5 and 10 mg/kg cohorts in our CONNECT1 Phase 2 study may continue at their current dose levels. Health Canada has requested additional information from us to address its safety concerns before any further dose escalation or enrollment of any additional participants at the current dose levels in the CONNECT1 study. It is unknown whether Health Canada will allow us to further dose escalate or enroll additional participants in this study. There can be no assurance that our expectations of higher exon skipping and dystrophin production will be reflected in continued Phase 2 clinical evaluation of PGN-EDO51 in DMD patients.

In addition, based on our observations in preclinical studies that treatment with PGN-EDODM1 led to robust correction of mis-splicing and myotonia, as well as the robust dose-dependent splicing correction observed in the initial data from the 5 and 10 mg/kg cohorts in our FREEDOM Phase 1 study, we believe PGN-EDODM1 has the potential to lead to meaningful functional improvements with repeat dosing over time. However, our belief based on this data may be erroneous. There can be no assurance that our

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expectations of robust splicing correction and improved functional outcomes will be reflected in continued clinical evaluation of PGN-EDODM1 in DM1 patients, including in our ongoing FREEDOM2 MAD study.

Although we completed a Phase 1 clinical trial for our lead product candidate and have several additional clinical trials ongoing, we have not completed any additional clinical trials, and have limited experience as a company in preparing, submitting and prosecuting regulatory filings. In addition, we have had limited interactions with the FDA, the EMA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities and cannot be certain how many clinical trials of PGN-EDO51, PGN-EDODM1, or any other product candidates will be required or how such trials should be designed. For example, the FDA has approved at least four drugs based on their minimal dystrophin production, and it is our belief that we may be able to pursue an accelerated approval pathway for PGN-EDO51 on that same basis, assuming we continue to see increases in exon skipping and dystrophin production with higher doses and a longer treatment period. The FDA has previously provided feedback on our clinical trials for PGN-EDO51, as well as for PGN-EDODM1, and we have addressed their feedback in our clinical trial designs. To date, we have not received FDA feedback on any potential accelerated approval pathway for PGN-EDO51 and currently a clinical hold is in place for the initiation of CONNECT2 in the U.S. We may be unable to successfully resolve our current clinical hold and efficiently execute and complete necessary clinical trials for our product candidates in a way that leads to regulatory submission and approval of any of our product candidates, including potentially any accelerated approval. We may require more time and incur greater costs than our competitors and may not succeed in obtaining regulatory approvals of product candidates that we develop. Failure to commence or complete, or delays in, our current or planned clinical trials, could prevent us from or delay us in submitting NDAs for and commercializing our product candidates.

Even if we complete the necessary preclinical studies and clinical trials, the marketing approval process is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain and may prevent us from obtaining approvals for the commercialization of our product candidates. If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.

Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the U.S., the EMA and comparable authorities in other countries. Failure to obtain marketing approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate in a given jurisdiction. We have not received approval to market any product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction.

We have no experience as a company in submitting and supporting the applications necessary to gain marketing approvals and may need to rely on third parties to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the product candidate’s safety and effectiveness. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Our product candidates may not be effective, may be only moderately effective or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use.

The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the U.S. and abroad, is expensive, may take many years if additional clinical trials are required, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. Of the large number of products in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA, EMA or foreign regulatory approval processes and are commercialized. Even if our product candidates demonstrate safety and efficacy in clinical trials, the regulatory agencies may not complete their review processes in a timely manner, or we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval. Additional delays may result if an FDA Advisory Committee or other regulatory authority recommends non-approval or restrictions on approval. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations, or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application, may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. The FDA, the EMA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data is insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical and clinical testing could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of a product candidate. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 2024 decision to overturn prior established case law giving deference to regulatory agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutory language has introduced uncertainty regarding the extent to which FDA’s regulations, policies, and decisions may become subject to increasing legal challenges, delays, and/or changes. If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for those product candidates may be harmed, and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired.

The FDA also has substantial discretion in the approval process. The number and types of preclinical studies and clinical trials that will be required for NDA approval varies depending on the product candidate, the disease or the condition that the product candidate is designed to treat and the regulations applicable to any particular product candidate. Despite the time and expense associated with preclinical studies and clinical trials, failure can occur at any stage.

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Clinical trial failure may result from a multitude of factors including flaws in trial design, dose selection, patient enrollment criteria and failure to demonstrate favorable safety or efficacy traits, and failure in clinical trials can occur at any stage. Companies in the drug development industry frequently suffer setbacks in the advancement of clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Based upon negative or inconclusive results, we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or preclinical studies. In addition, data obtained from clinical trials is susceptible to varying interpretations, and regulators may not interpret our data as favorably as we do, which may further delay, limit or prevent marketing approval.

The FDA or any foreign regulatory authority could delay, limit or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons, including because the FDA or such other regulatory authority:

may disagree with the design or implementation of our trials;

may not deem a product candidate to be safe or effective for its intended uses;

determines that the product candidate does not have an acceptable benefit-risk profile;

may not agree that the data collected from preclinical studies and clinical trials are acceptable or sufficient to support the submission of an NDA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval, and may impose requirements for additional preclinical studies or clinical trials;

may determine that adverse events experienced by participants in our clinical trials represent an unacceptable level of risk;

may determine that the population studied in the clinical trial may not be sufficiently broad or representative to assure safety in the full population for which we seek approval;

may not accept clinical data from trials that are conducted at clinical facilities or in countries where the standard of care is potentially different from that of the U.S.;

may disagree regarding the formulation, labeling and/or specifications;

may not approve the manufacturing processes associated with a product candidate or may determine that a manufacturing facility does not have an acceptable compliance status;

may change approval policies or adopt new regulations; or

may not file a submission due to, among other reasons, the content or formatting of the submission.

Even if we eventually complete clinical testing and receive approval of an NDA or foreign marketing application for any product candidates, the FDA, EMA or applicable foreign regulatory authority may grant approval or other marketing authorization contingent on the performance of costly additional clinical trials, including post-market clinical trials. For example, we expect that the FDA will require a confirmatory trial of PGN-EDO51, if it is approved under the accelerated approval regulations. The FDA, EMA or the applicable foreign regulatory authority also may approve or authorize for marketing a product candidate for a more limited indication or patient population that we originally request, and the FDA, EMA or applicable foreign regulatory authority may not approve or authorize the labeling that we believe is necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of a product candidate. Any of these restrictions or commitments could render an approved product not commercially viable, which would materially adversely impact our business and prospects.

Obtaining and maintaining marketing approval or commercialization of our product candidates in the U.S. does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining marketing approval of our product candidates in other jurisdictions. Failure to obtain marketing approval in foreign jurisdictions would prevent our product candidates from being marketed in such jurisdictions, which, in turn, would materially impair our ability to generate revenue.

In order to market and sell our product candidates in the EU and many other foreign jurisdictions, we or our collaborators must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies among countries and can involve additional testing. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the U.S. generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the U.S., it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. We or these third parties may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the U.S. on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by the EMA or regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the U.S. does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. Furthermore, now that the U.K. is no longer part of the EU, a separate authorization is needed to market medicinal products in the U.K. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive the necessary approvals to commercialize our medicines in any jurisdiction, which would materially impair our ability to generate revenue.

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Any delay in obtaining, or an inability to obtain, any marketing approvals would prevent us from commercializing any product candidates in the U.K. and/or the EU and/or other foreign jurisdictions and restrict our ability to generate revenue and achieve and sustain profitability. If any of these outcomes occur, we may be forced to restrict or delay efforts to seek regulatory approval in the U.K. and/or the EU and/or other foreign jurisdictions for our product candidates, which could significantly and materially harm our business.

We may attempt to seek approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, where applicable, under the accelerated approval pathways. We may fail to obtain approval under such accelerated approval pathways. Moreover, these pathways may not lead to a faster development, regulatory review or approval process and do not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval.

We may in the future seek accelerated approval, where applicable, under the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway. A product may be eligible for accelerated approval if it treats a serious or life-threatening condition, generally provides a meaningful advantage over available therapies, and demonstrates an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than IMM, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on IMM or other clinical benefit. As a condition of accelerated approval, the FDA likely would require that we perform adequate and well-controlled post-marketing clinical trials to confirm the product’s clinical benefit. These confirmatory trials must be completed with due diligence. Under FDORA, the FDA is permitted to require, as appropriate, that a post-approval confirmatory study or studies be underway prior to approval or within a specified time period after the date of accelerated approval was granted. FDORA also requires sponsors to send updates to the FDA every 180 days on the status of such studies, including progress toward enrollment targets, and the FDA must promptly post this information publicly. FDORA also gives the FDA increased authority to withdraw approval of a drug or biologic granted accelerated approval on an expedited basis if the sponsor fails to conduct such studies in a timely manner, send the necessary updates to the FDA, or if such post-approval studies fail to verify the drug’s predicted clinical benefit. Under FDORA, the FDA is empowered to take action, such as issuing fines, against companies that fail to conduct with due diligence any post-approval confirmatory study or submit timely reports to the agency on their progress. We have reported encouraging early results from the first cohort in our Phase 2 CONNECT1 study of PGN-EDO51 and believe that with a longer treatment period and higher doses of PGN-EDO51, we may see higher levels of exon skipped transcript potentially resulting in significant increases in dystrophin. If we continue to receive positive results from our CONNECT1 study and receive positive results from the CONNECT2 study for PGN-EDO51 that show an acceptable safety and tolerability profile; a clinically meaningful increase in dystrophin levels, a surrogate endpoint, in the biceps of DMD patients; and robust exon skipping levels in the same tissue; we intend to pursue this accelerated approval pathway subject to discussions with the FDA. However, we have received communication from Health Canada that dosing of participants in the 5 and 10 mg/kg cohorts may continue at their current dose levels, but currently Health Canada will not allow us to dose escalate or enroll additional participants in our CONNECT1 Phase 2 trial and the initiation of our CONNECT2 Phase 2 trial is on clinical hold in the U.S. Even if we obtain clearance from Health Canada to further dose escalate and enroll more participants in the CONNECT1 trial and we obtain clearance from the FDA to initiate our CONNECT2 Phase 2 trial in the U.S., these Phase 2 trials may fail to produce such supportive clinical data, and we may be unable to pursue the accelerated approval pathway as planned. To date we have not received FDA feedback on any potential accelerated approval pathway for PGN-EDO51.

In addition, the FDA currently requires, unless otherwise informed by the agency, pre-approval of promotional materials for products receiving accelerated approval, which could adversely impact the timing of the commercial launch of the product. Thus, even if we seek to utilize the accelerated approval pathway, we may not be able to obtain accelerated approval and, even if we do, we may not experience a faster development, regulatory review or approval process for that product. In addition, receiving accelerated approval does not assure that the product’s accelerated approval will eventually be converted to a full approval.

In the EU, under the centralized procedure, the EMA’s CHMP may perform an accelerated assessment of a marketing authorization application. Applicants requesting an accelerated assessment procedure must justify that the product candidate is expected to be of major public health interest, particularly from the point of view of therapeutic innovation. Prior to seeking accelerated approval for any of our product candidates, we intend to seek feedback from the FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities and will otherwise evaluate our ability to seek and receive accelerated approval. There can be no assurance that after our evaluation of the feedback and other factors we will decide to pursue or submit an NDA or similar application for accelerated approval or any other form of expedited development or review. Similarly, there can be no assurance that after subsequent FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities feedback we will continue to pursue or apply for accelerated approval or any other form of expedited development or review, even if we initially decide to do so. Furthermore, if we decide to submit an application for accelerated approval or other expedited development or review for our product candidates, there can be no assurance that such submission or application will be accepted or that any expedited development or review will be granted on a timely basis, or at all. The FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities could also require us to conduct further studies prior to considering our application or granting approval of any type. A failure to obtain accelerated approval or any other form of expedited development or review for our product candidate would result in a longer time period to commercialization of such product candidate, if any, could increase the cost of development of such product candidate, and could harm our competitive position in the marketplace.

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We may seek one or more designations or expedited programs for one or more of our product candidates, but we might not receive such designations or be allowed to proceed on expedited program pathways, and even if we do and proceed on such expedited program pathways in the future, such designations or expedited programs may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and each designation does not increase the likelihood that any of our product candidates will receive marketing approval in the U.S.

We have received fast-track designation for PGN-EDODM1 for the treatment of DM1 and may seek fast-track designation for some of our other product candidates. If a drug is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and nonclinical or clinical data for the drug demonstrates the potential to address an unmet medical need for such a condition, the drug sponsor may apply for fast-track designation. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant this designation, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for this designation, we cannot assure you that the FDA would decide to grant it for any of our other product candidates. Even with fast-track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may withdraw fast-track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. Fast-track designation alone does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s priority review procedures.

We may seek a breakthrough therapy designation for some of our product candidates. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug 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 drug 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 drugs 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. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA may also be eligible for priority review and accelerated approval. Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a breakthrough therapy designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to therapies considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that such product candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

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

We may pursue orphan drug designation for certain of our product candidates, and we may not be able to obtain such designation, or obtain or maintain the benefits of such designation including orphan drug exclusivity, and even if we do, that exclusivity may not prevent regulatory authorities from approving other competing products.

In September 2023, the FDA granted orphan drug designation to PGN-EDODM1 for the treatment of DM1 and in March 2024, the FDA granted orphan drug designation to PGN-EDO51 for the treatment of DMD patients whose mutations are amenable to an exon 51-skipping approach. We intend to seek orphan drug designation for some of our other product candidates; however, we may never receive such designations. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a product as an orphan drug if it is a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition, defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 in the U.S., or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the U.S. where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug will be recovered from sales in the U.S. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA. A similar regulatory scheme governs orphan products in the EU.

Orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and application fee waivers. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the drug and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. In addition, if a product candidate with an orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the FDA from approving another marketing application for the same product for the same therapeutic indication for seven years.

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Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different products can be approved for the same condition. In addition, even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve the same product for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later product is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug exclusivity may also be lost if the FDA determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the product to meet the needs of the patients with the rare disease or condition. Further, even if we obtain orphan drug designation, we may not be the first to obtain marketing approval for any particular orphan indication due to the uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products.

The FDA may further reevaluate the Orphan Drug Act and its regulations and policies. We do not know if, when, or how the FDA may change the orphan drug regulations and policies in the future, and it is uncertain how any changes might affect our business. Depending on what changes the FDA may make to its orphan drug regulations and policies, our business could be adversely impacted.

A marketing application for a product candidate with RPDD, if approved, may not meet the eligibility criteria for a Priority Review Voucher, or PRV, or the RPDD program may sunset before the FDA is able to consider eligibility for a voucher.

Designation of a drug as a product for a rare pediatric disease does not guarantee that a marketing application for such drug will meet the eligibility criteria for a rare pediatric disease PRV at the time the application is approved. While we have received RPDD from the FDA for PGN-EDO51 for the treatment of DMD patients who are amenable to exon 51 skipping, we would need to request a rare pediatric disease PRV in the marketing application of PGN-EDO51. The FDA may determine that any such marketing application, if approved, does not meet the eligibility criteria for a PRV. The FDA’s rare pediatric disease priority review voucher program began to sunset on December 20, 2024 on failure to pass a continuing resolution package that included its reauthorization. Under the amended statutory provisions, after December 20, 2024, the FDA may award rare pediatric disease PRVs for an approved rare pediatric disease product application only if the sponsor has rare pediatric disease designation for the drug and if that designation was granted by December 20, 2024. After September 30, 2026, the FDA may not award any rare pediatric disease priority review vouchers. We understand that the FDA continues to review designation requests despite this program beginning to sunset. Congress may vote to reauthorize this program, but its future remains unknown at this time. If a marketing application for PGN-EDO51 is not approved prior to September 30, 2026 for any reason, regardless of whether it meets the criteria for a rare pediatric disease PRV, it will not be eligible for a PRV, unless the authority for FDA to award rare pediatric disease PRVs is further extended through federal lawmaking.

We may seek designation for our EDO platform as a designated platform technology, but we might not receive such designation, and even if we do, such designation may not lead to a faster regulatory review or approval process.

We may seek designation for our EDO platform as a designated platform technology. Under FDORA, a platform technology incorporated within or utilized by a drug or biological product is eligible for designation as a designated platform technology if (1) the platform technology is incorporated in, or utilized by, a drug approved under an NDA; (2) preliminary evidence submitted by the sponsor of the approved or licensed drug, or a sponsor that has been granted a right of reference to data submitted in the application for such drug, demonstrates that the platform technology has the potential to be incorporated in, or utilized by, more than one drug without an adverse effect on quality, manufacturing, or safety; and (3) data or information submitted by the applicable person indicates that incorporation or utilization of the platform technology has a reasonable likelihood to bring significant efficiencies to the drug development or manufacturing process and to the review process. A sponsor may request the FDA to designate a platform technology as a designated platform technology concurrently with, or at any time after, submission of an IND application for a drug that incorporates or utilizes the platform technology that is the subject of the request. If so designated, the FDA may expedite the development and review of any subsequent original NDA for a drug that uses or incorporates the platform technology. Even if we believe our EDO platform meets the criteria for such designation, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to grant such designation. In addition, the receipt of such designation for a platform technology does not ensure that a drug will be developed more quickly or receive FDA approval. Moreover, the FDA may revoke a designation if the FDA determines that a designated platform technology no longer meets the criteria for such designation.

Even if we receive regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense. Additionally, our product candidates, if approved, could be subject to post-market study requirements, marketing and labeling restrictions, and even recall or market withdrawal if unanticipated safety issues are discovered following approval. In addition, we may be subject to penalties or other enforcement action if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements.

The FDA, the EMA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority may not approve any of our product candidates derived from our platform. However, if the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of our product candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and recordkeeping

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for the product will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, conformance with applicable product tracking and tracing requirements, establishment registration and listing, as well as continued compliance with cGMPs and GCPs for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our product candidates may also be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing studies, and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product. Additionally, under FDORA, sponsors of approved drugs and biologics must provide six months’ notice to the FDA of any changes in marketing status, such as the withdrawal of a drug, and failure to do so could result in the FDA placing the product on a list of discontinued products, which would revoke the product’s ability to be marketed. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:

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

restrictions on our ability to conduct clinical trials, including full or partial clinical holds on ongoing or planned trials;

restrictions on product distribution or use, or requirements to conduct post-marketing studies or clinical trials;

fines, warning letters or other regulatory enforcement action;

refusal by the FDA, the EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us;

product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; and

injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our product candidates and generate revenue and could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity.

In addition, the FDA’s, EMA’s and other foreign regulatory authorities’ policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained, which would adversely affect our business, prospects and ability to achieve or sustain profitability.

Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval will be subject to restrictions, such as the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, or may need to be withdrawn from the market, and we may be subject to substantial penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our medicines, when and if any of them are approved.

The FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities closely regulate the post-approval marketing and promotion of medicines to ensure that they are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities impose stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. If we receive marketing approval for a product candidate, physicians may nevertheless prescribe it to their patients in a manner that is inconsistent with the approved label. If we are found to have promoted such off-label uses, we may be subject to enforcement action for off-label marketing by the FDA and other federal and state enforcement agencies, including the Department of Justice. Violation of the FDCA and other statutes, including the False Claims Act, relating to the promotion and advertising of prescription products may also lead to investigations or allegations of violations of federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and state consumer protection laws. The federal government has levied large civil and criminal fines against companies for alleged improper promotion of off-label use and has enjoined several companies from engaging in off-label promotion. The government has also required companies to enter into consent decrees and/or imposed permanent injunctions under which specified promotional conduct is changed or curtailed. If we cannot successfully manage the promotion of our product candidates, if approved, we could become subject to significant liability, which would materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.

In addition, later discovery of previously unknown problems with our medicines, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may yield various results, including:

restrictions on such medicines, manufacturers or manufacturing processes;

restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a medicine;

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restrictions on the distribution or use of a medicine;

requirements to conduct post-marketing clinical trials;

receipt of warning or untitled letters;

withdrawal of the medicines from the market;

refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit;

recall of medicines;

fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenue;

suspension or withdrawal of marketing approvals;

suspension of any ongoing clinical trials;

refusal to permit the import or export of our medicines;

product seizure; and

injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize any product candidates we develop and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

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

regulatory authorities may require additional warnings on the label;

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

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

our reputation may suffer.

We and our contract manufacturers are subject to significant regulation. The manufacturing facilities on which we rely may not continue to meet regulatory requirements, which could materially harm our business.

All entities involved in the preparation of product candidates for clinical trials or commercial sale, including any contract manufacturers, are subject to extensive regulation. Components of a finished therapeutic product approved for commercial sale or used in late-stage clinical trials must be manufactured in accordance with cGMP regulations. 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 candidates that may not be detectable in final product testing. We or our contract manufacturers must supply all necessary documentation in support of an NDA on a timely basis and must adhere to the FDA’s cGMP regulations enforced through its facilities inspection program. Our facilities and quality systems and the facilities and quality systems of some or all of our third-party contractors must pass a pre-approval inspection for compliance with the applicable regulations as a condition of regulatory approval of our product candidates. In addition, the regulatory authorities may, at any time, audit or inspect a manufacturing facility involved with the preparation of our product candidates or our other potential products or the associated quality systems for compliance with the regulations applicable to the activities being conducted. If these facilities do not pass a pre-approval plant inspection, FDA approval of the products will not be granted.

The regulatory authorities also may, at any time following approval of a product for sale, audit any of our future manufacturing facilities or those of our third-party contractors. If any such inspection or audit identifies a failure to comply with applicable regulations or if a violation of our product specifications or applicable regulations occurs independent of such an inspection or audit, we or the relevant regulatory authority may require remedial measures that may be costly and/or time-consuming for us or a third party to implement and that may include the temporary or permanent suspension of a clinical trial or commercial sales or the

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temporary or permanent closure of a facility. Any such remedial measures imposed upon us or third parties with whom we contract could materially harm our business.

If we or any of our third-party manufacturers fail to maintain regulatory compliance, the FDA can impose regulatory sanctions including, among other things, refusal to approve a pending application for a new product, or revocation of a pre-existing approval. Any such consequence would severely harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we or any contract manufacturers and suppliers we engage fail to comply with environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur significant costs.

Source: SEC EDGAR (public domain) · 10-K for the period ended 2024-12-31, filed 2025-02-24 · accession 0000950170-25-025226

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