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RXRX US Equity

Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Health Care · Biological Products, (No Diagnostic Substances) · CIK 1601830 · FY ends Dec 31
$3.50
+0.41 (+13.27%)
USD · as of 2026-08-19 · marketstack

RXRX · 10-K · period ended 2021-12-31

← all RXRX documents
filed 2022-03-23 · EDGAR original ↗

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Item 1A. Risk Factors.

You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC, before making investment decisions regarding our common stock. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. The occurrence of any of the following risks, or of additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial, could cause our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition to be materially and adversely affected.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR LIMITED OPERATING HISTORY, FINANCIAL POSITION, AND NEED FOR ADDITIONAL CAPITAL

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a limited operating history and no products approved by regulators for commercial sale, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current and future business prospects.

Since our inception in November 2013, we have focused substantially all of our efforts and financial resources on building our drug discovery platform and developing our initial drug candidates. All of our drug candidates are still in the discovery, preclinical development, or clinical stages. Before we can commercialize our drug candidates, they require, among other steps, clinical success; development of internal or external manufacturing capacity and marketing expertise; and regulatory approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other applicable jurisdictions. We have no products approved for commercial sale and we can provide no assurance that we will obtain regulatory approvals to market and sell any drug products in the future. We therefore have never generated any revenue from drug product sales, and we do not expect to generate any revenue from drug product sales in the foreseeable future. Until we successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates, which may never occur, we expect to finance our operations through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, and strategic collaborations or similar arrangements. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. For these and other reasons discussed elsewhere in this Risk Factors section, it may be difficult to evaluate our current business and our future prospects.

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception and anticipate that we will incur continued losses for the foreseeable future.

We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception. We had an accumulated deficit of $399.2 million as of December 31, 2021. Substantially all of our operating losses have resulted from costs incurred in connection with research and development efforts, including clinical studies, and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect our operating expenses to significantly increase as we continue to invest in research and development efforts and the commencement and continuation of clinical trials of our existing and future drug candidates. We also continue to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. As a result, we expect to continue to incur substantial and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our stockholders’ deficit and working capital. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products and new technologies, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all. Even if we do become profitable, we may not be able to sustain or increase our profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

We will need to raise substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we would be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate at least some of our product development programs, business development plans, strategic investments, and potential commercialization efforts, and to possibly cease operations.

Our mission, to decode biology and deliver new drugs to the patients who need them, is broad, expensive to achieve, and will require substantial additional capital in the future. We have programs throughout the stages of development including clinical, preclinical, late discovery and early discovery. We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities as we continue the research and development of, initiate clinical trials of, and potentially seek marketingapproval for, our current drug candidates, and as we add to our pipeline what we believe will be an accelerating number of additional programs. Preclinical and clinical testing is expensive and can take many years, so we will need supplemental funding to complete these undertakings. If our drug candidates are

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eventually approved by regulators, we will require significant additional funding in order to launch and commercialize our products.

Our future capital requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including:

•the number of drug candidates that we pursue and their development requirements;

•the scope, progress, results, and costs of our current and future preclinical and clinical trials;

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

•if we obtain marketing approval for any current or future drug candidates, expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution;

•our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, licensing, and other strategic arrangements on favorable terms, and the success of such collaborations, licensing, and strategic arrangements;

•the impact of any business interruptions to our operations or to the operations of our manufacturers, suppliers, or other vendors, including the timing and enrollment of participants in our planned clinical trials, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain issues or other force majeure events;

•the extent to which we acquire or invest in businesses, products, and technologies;

•the costs of preparing, filing, and prosecuting patent and other applications covering our intellectual property; maintaining, protecting, and enforcing our intellectual property rights; and defending intellectual property-related claims of third parties;

•our headcount growth and associated costs as we expand our business operations and our research and development activities, including into new geographies;

•the increase in salaries and wages and the extension of benefits required to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel;

•the increases in costs of components necessary for our business;

•inflation;

•the costs of any commitments to become carbon neutral by 2030 and other environmental, social and governance goals;

•the costs of operating as a public company.

We historically have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our convertible preferred stock and through the net proceeds from our initial public offering completed on April 20, 2021. We expect that our existing cash position and short-term investments as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. However, identifying potential drug candidates and conducting preclinical development testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive, and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our drug candidates, even if approved, may not achieve commercial success. We do not anticipate that our commercial revenues, if any, will be derived from sales of products for at least several years. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives, and we may need to raise substantial additional funds sooner than expected.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs potentially through a combination of private and public equity offerings and debt financings, as well as strategic collaborations, partnerships, and licensing arrangements. We do not have any committed external source of funds other than amounts payable by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda), by Bayer AG (Bayer) under and by Genentech, Inc. and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (together, Roche Genentech) collaboration agreements. Disruptions in the financial markets in general, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. debt ceiling and budget deficit concerns,

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and other geo-political issues, may make equity and debt financing more difficult to obtain. We cannot be certain that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings, or strategic collaborations or similar arrangements, on a timely basis and satisfactory terms, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay, or discontinue one or more of our research and development programs or the future commercialization of any drug candidate, or we may be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities as desired. Any of these circumstances could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operationsand may cause us to cease operations.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations, require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or drug candidates, and divert management’s attention from our core business.

The terms of any financing we obtain may adversely affect the holdings or rights of our stockholders, and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of Class A common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into Class A common stock, our stockholders’ ownership interests will be diluted. Moreover, the terms of those securities may include liquidation or other preferences that materially and adversely affect our stockholders’ rights as a common stockholder. Debt financing, if available, wouldresult in increased fixed payment obligations. In addition, we may be required to agree to certain restrictive covenants, which could adversely impact our ability to make capital expenditures, declare dividends, or otherwise conduct our business. We also may need to raise funds through additional strategic collaborations, partnerships, or licensing arrangements with third parties at an earlier stage than would be desirable. Such arrangements could require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates, future revenue streams, or research programs, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us. Fundraising efforts have the potential to divert our management’s attention from our core business or create competing priorities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our drug candidates and technologies.

We are engaged in strategic collaborations and we intend to seek to establish additional collaborations, including for the clinical development or commercialization of our drug candidates. If we are unable to establish collaborations on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or if current and future collaborations are not successful, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.

Our product development programs and the potential commercialization of our drug candidates will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. To date our operating revenue has primarily been generated through funded research and development agreements with Roche Genentech, Takeda, and Bayer. For example, in December 2021, we entered into a Collaboration and License Agreement with Roche Genentech (the Roche Genentech Agreement) for discovery of small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat key areas of neuroscience and an oncology indication, and we received a non-refundable upfront payment of $150.0 million in January 2022. We intend to seek additional strategic collaborations, partnerships, and licensing arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In the near term, the value of our company will depend in part on the number and quality of the collaborations and similar arrangements that we create. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, on our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the potential collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include, among others, (i) our technologies and capabilities; (ii) our intellectual property position with respect to the subject drug candidate; (iii) the design or results of clinical trials; (iv) the likelihood of approval by the FDA and similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S.; (v) the potential market for the subject drug candidate; (vi) potential competing products; and (vii) industry and market conditions generally. In addition, the significant number of business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies has resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators.

Collaborations and similar arrangements are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. We may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, intellectual property, or future revenue streams, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us or in instances where it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights. We may be restricted under collaboration agreements from entering into future agreements on certain terms with other potential collaborators. In addition, management of our relationships with collaborators will require (i) significant time and effort from our management team; (ii)

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coordination of our marketing and research and development programs with the marketing and research and development priorities of our collaborators; and (iii) effective allocation of our resources to multiple projects.

Collaborations and similar arrangements may never result in the successful development or commercialization of drug candidates or the generation of sales revenue. The success of these arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborators generally have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations, and they may not pursue or prioritize the development and commercialization of partnered drug candidates in a manner that is in our best interests. Product revenues arising from collaborations are likely to be lower than if we directly marketed and sold products. Disagreements with collaborators regarding clinical development or commercialization matters can lead to delays in the development process or commercialization of the applicable drug candidate and, in some cases, the termination of the collaboration arrangement. These disagreements can be difficult to resolve if neither of the parties has final decision-making authority. Collaborations with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies or other third parties often are terminated or allowed to expire by the other party. Any such termination or expiration would adversely affect us financially and could harm our business reputation. If we were to become involved in arbitration or litigation with any of our collaborators, it would consume time and divert management resources away from operations, damage our reputation, and impact our ability to enter into future collaboration agreements, and may further result in substantial payments from us to our collaborators to settle any disputes.

We may not be able to establish additional strategic collaborations and similar arrangements on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, and to maintain and successfully conclude them. Collaborative relationships with third parties could cause us to expend significant resources and incur substantial business risk with no assurance of financial return. If we are unable to establish or maintain strategic collaborations and similar arrangements on terms favorable to us and realize the intended benefits, our research and development efforts and potential to generate revenue may be limited and our business and operating results could be materially and adversely impacted.

We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. We or our current and future collaborators may never successfully develop and commercialize our drug candidates, which would negatively affect our results of operation and our ability to continue our business operations.

Our ability to become profitable depends upon our ability to generate substantial revenue in an amount necessary to offset our expenses. As of December 31, 2021, we have not generated any revenue from our drug candidates or technologies, other than limited grant revenues, as well as payments under collaboration agreements, including the Roche Genentech Agreement. We expect to continue to derive most of our revenue in the near future from collaborations. We do not expect to generate significant revenue unless and until we progress our drug candidates through clinical trials and obtain marketing approval of, and begin to sell, one or more of our drug candidates, or we otherwise receive substantial licensing or other payments under our collaborations. Even if we obtain market approval for our drug candidates, one or more of them may not achieve commercial success.

Commercialization of our drug candidates depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to our ability to:

•successfully complete preclinical studies;

•obtain approval of Investigational New Drug (IND) applications by the FDA and similar regulatory approvals outside the U.S., allowing us to commence clinical trials;

•successfully enroll subjects in, and complete, clinical trials;

•receive regulatory approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;

•establish commercial manufacturing capabilities or make arrangements with third-party manufacturers for clinical supply and commercial manufacturing;

•obtain patent and trade secret protection or regulatory exclusivity for our drug candidates, and maintain, protect, defend, and enforce such intellectual property rights;

•launch commercial sales of our drug products, whether alone or in collaboration with other parties;

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•obtain and maintain acceptance of our drug products by patients, the medical community, and third-party payors, and effectively compete with other therapies;

•obtain and maintain coverage of and adequate reimbursement for our drug products, if and when approved, by medical insurance providers; and

•demonstrate a continued acceptable safety profile of drug products following marketing approval.

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

Our current or future collaborators would similarly need to be effective in the above activities as they pertain to the collaborators in order to successfully develop drug candidates. We and they may never succeed in developing and commercializing drug candidates. And even if we do, we may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability; or even if our collaborators do, we may not receive option fees, milestone payments, or royalties from them that are significant enough for us to achieve profitability. Even if we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would eventually depress our value and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our research and development efforts, develop a pipeline of drug candidates, enter into collaborations, or even continue our operations.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly due to a variety of factors and could fall below our expectations or the expectations of investors or securities analysts, which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.

The amount of our future losses, and when we might achieve profitability, is uncertain, and our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly for various reasons, including the following:

•the timing of, and our levels of investment in, research and development activities relating to our drug candidates;

•the timing of, and status of staffing and enrollment for, clinical trials;

•the results of clinical trials for our drug candidates, including whether there are any unexpected health or safety concerns with our drug candidates and whether we receive marketing approval for them;

•commercialization of competing drug candidates or any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners;

•the timing and cost of manufacturing our drug candidates;

•additions and departures of key personnel;

•the level of demand for our drug candidates should they receive approval, which may vary significantly;

•changes in the regulatory environment or market or general economic conditions;

• the increase in salaries and wages and the extension of benefits required to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel;

•the increases in costs of components necessary for our business; and

•inflation.

The occurrence of one or more of these or other factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet any forecasts we provide to the market, or the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors, for any period. If one or more of these events occur, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially.

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If we engage in future acquisitions or strategic partnerships, this may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders’ equity, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, and subject us to other risks.

We may engage in acquisitions and strategic partnerships in the future, including by licensing or acquiring complementary products, intellectual property rights, technologies, or businesses. Any acquisition or strategic partnership may entail numerous risks, including:

•increased operating expenses and cash requirements;

•the assumption of indebtedness or contingent liabilities;

•the issuance of our equity securities, which would result in dilution to our stockholders’ equity;

•difficulties in assimilating operations, intellectual property, products, and drug candidates of an acquired company, and with integrating new personnel;

•the diversion of our management’s attention from our existing product programs and initiatives, even if we are unable to complete such proposed transaction;

•our ability to retain key employees and maintain key business relationships;

•uncertainties associated with the other party to such a transaction, including the prospects of that party and their existing products or drug candidates and ability to obtain regulatory approvals; and

•our inability to generate revenue from acquired intellectual property, technology, and/or products sufficient to meet our objectives or even to offset the associated transaction and maintenance costs.

In addition, if we undertake such a transaction, we may assume or incur debt obligations, incur a large one-time expense, or acquire intangible assets, which could result in significant future amortization expense and adversely impact our results of operations.

Costs of components necessary for our business increasing more rapidly could reduce profitability.

The costs of components necessary for our business have risen significantly in recent years and will likely continue to increase given stringency of demands. Competition and fixed price contracts may limit our ability to maintain existing operating margins. Costs increasing more rapidly than market prices may increase our net loss and may have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

RISKS RELATED TO THE DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF DRUG CANDIDATES

Our approach to drug discovery is unique and may not lead to successful drug products for various reasons, including but not limited to challenges identifying mechanisms of action for our candidates.

We image cells and use cell morphology to understand how a diseased cell responds to drugs and if or when it appears normal. If studying the shape, structure, form, and size of cells does not prove to be an accurate way to better understand diseases or does not lead to the biological insights or viable drug candidates we anticipate, our drug discovery platform may not be useful or may not lead to successful drug products, or we may have to move to a new business model, any of which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and results of operations. If the mechanism of action of a drug candidate is unknown, it may be more difficult to choose the best lead to optimize from an efficacy standpoint and to avoid potential off-target side effects that could affect safety. Such uncertainty could make it more difficult to form partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies, as the expenses involved in late-phase clinical trials increase the level of risk related to potential efficacy and/or safety concerns and may pose challenges to IND and/or New Drug Application (NDA) approval by the FDA or other regulatory agencies.

Our drug candidates are in preclinical or clinical development, which are lengthy and expensive processes with uncertain outcomes and the potential for substantial delays.

Our current drug candidates are in preclinical or clinical development. Before we can bring any drug candidate to market, we must, among other things, complete preclinical studies, have the candidate manufactured to appropriate

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specifications, conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy in humans, and obtain marketing approval from the FDA and other appropriate regulatory authorities, which we have not yet demonstrated our ability to do. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete, and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of a clinical trial can occur at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical development testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. We may accelerate development from cell models in our drug discovery platform directly to patients without validating results through animal studies or validate results in animal studies at the same time as we conduct Phase 1 clinical trials. This approach could pose additional risks to our success if the effect of certain of our drug candidates on diseases has not been tested in animals prior to testing in humans.

We have several clinical-stage drug candidates focused on rare, monogenic diseases, and we anticipate filing IND applications with the FDA or other regulators for Phase 1 or Phase 2 studies, as applicable, for the drug candidates. We may not be able to file such INDs, or INDs for any other drug candidates, and begin such studies, on the timelines we expect, if at all, and any such delays could impact any additional product development timelines. Moreover, we cannot be sure that submission of an IND will result in the FDA or other regulators allowing further clinical trials to begin or that, once begun, issues will not arise that require us to suspend or terminate clinical trials. Commencing each of these clinical trials is subject to finalizing the trial design based on discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These regulatory authorities could change their guidance at any time, which may require us to complete additional or longer clinical trials, or they may impose stricter approval conditions than we currently expect. Successful completion of our clinical trials is a prerequisite to submitting an NDA to the FDA, as well as a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for each drug candidate and, consequently, to the ultimate approval and commercial marketing of each drug candidate. We do not know whether any of our future clinical trials will begin on time or be completed on schedule, if at all.

We may experience delays in completing our preclinical studies and initiating or completing clinical trials, or numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any clinical trials, that could require us to incur additional costs or delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or to commercialize our drug candidates, including those related to one or more of the following:

•regulators, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or to conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

•we may have difficulty reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective Contract Research Organizations (CROs), the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;

•the number of participants required for clinical trials of our drug candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, or participants may drop out of clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;

•our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements, fail to meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner or at all, deviate from the clinical trial protocol, or drop out of a trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators;

•the supply or quality of our drug candidates or the other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our drug candidates may be insufficient, delayed, or inadequate;

•the occurrence of delays in the manufacturing of our drug candidates;

•reports may arise from preclinical or clinical testing of other therapies that raise safety, efficacy, or other concerns about our drug candidates; and

•clinical trials may produce inconclusive or negative results about our drug candidates, including that candidates have undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics, in which event, we may decide – or our investigators or regulators, IRBs, or ethics committees may require us — to suspend the trials in order to conduct additional studies or to terminate the trials.

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From time to time as we move through the stages of development, we may publish interim top-line or preliminary data from our clinical trials. Interim data from clinical trials are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as enrollment of participants continues and more data become available. Preliminary or top-line data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects.

Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in testing or regulatory approvals. We do not know whether any of our future clinical trials will begin as planned, or whether any of our current or future clinical trials will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, if at all. If we decide or are required to suspend or terminate a clinical trial, we may elect to abandon product development for that program. Significant preclinical study or clinicaltrial delays, including those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our drug candidates or could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates. Any delays in or unfavorable outcomes from our preclinical or clinical development programs may significantly harm our business, operating results, and prospects.

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

We may not be able to initiate, continue, and complete clinical trials for current or future drug candidates if we are unable to locate and timely enroll a sufficient number of eligible participants in these trials as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. The process of finding potential participants may prove costly and our ability to enroll eligible participants may be limited or may result in slower enrollment than we anticipate due to a number of factors, including:

•the severity of the disease under investigation;

•the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial in question, including that participants have specific characteristics or diseases;

•the availability of an appropriate genomic screening test;

•the perceived risks and benefits of the drug candidate under study;

•difficulties in identifying, recruiting, and enrolling a sufficient number of participants to complete our clinical studies;

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

•the referral practices of physicians;

•whether competitors are conducting clinical trials for drug candidates that treat the same indications as ours, and the availability and efficacy of competing therapies;

•our ability to monitor participants adequately during and after the trial and to maintain participant informed consent and privacy;

•the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective participants;

•pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, global political instability, warfare, or other external events that may limit the availability of participants, principal investigators, study staff, or clinical sites; and

•the risk that enrolled participants will not complete a clinical trial.

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If individuals are unwilling to participate in or complete our studies for any reason, or we experience other difficulties with enrollment or participation, the timeline for recruiting participants, conducting studies, and obtaining regulatory approval of potential products may be delayed.

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

Before obtaining regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any products, we must demonstrate through preclinical studies and clinical trials that our drug candidates are both safe and effective for use in each target indication. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our drug candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, and initial success in clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained when such trials are completed. There is typically an extremely high rate of attrition from the failure of drug candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Drug candidates in later stages of clinical trials also may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile despite having progressed through nonclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Most drugcandidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products, and there can be no assurance that any of our current or future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of any of our drug candidates.

As is the case with many treatments for rare diseases and other conditions, there have been, and it is likely that in the future there may be, side effects associated with the use of our drug candidates. Moreover, if we develop drug candidates in combination with one or more disease therapies, it may be more difficult to accurately predict side effects.

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

We conduct clinical trials for our drug candidates outside the United States, and the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.

We have started to conduct additional clinical trials outside the United States in the Netherlands, and may in the future choose to conduct additional clinical trials outside the United States in locations that may include Australia, Europe, Asia, or other jurisdictions. FDA acceptance of trial data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States may be subject to certain conditions. In cases where data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States are intended to serve as the sole basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will generally not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless (i) the data are applicable to the United States population and United States medical practice; (ii) the trials are performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence; and (iii) the data may be considered valid without the 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. Additionally, the FDA’s clinical trial requirements, including a sufficiently large size of trial populations and statistical powering, must be met. Many foreign regulatory bodies have similar approval requirements. In addition, such foreign trials would be subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the trials are conducted. There can be no assurance that the FDA or any similar foreign regulatory authority will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States or the applicable jurisdiction. If the FDA or any similar foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would result in the need for

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additional trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay aspects of our business plan, and which may result in our drug candidates not receiving approval or clearance for commercialization in the applicable jurisdiction.

Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU (referred to as Brexit) on January 31, 2020, and the end of the “transition period” on December 31, 2020, the EU and the United Kingdom entered into a trade and cooperation agreement that governs certain aspects of their future relationship, including the assurance of tariff-free trade for certain goods and services. As the regulatory framework for pharmaceutical products in the United Kingdom is derived from EU directives and regulations, Brexit will materially impact the future regulatory regime that applies to products and the approval of drug candidates in the United Kingdom. Longer term, the United Kingdom is likely to develop its own legislation that diverges from that in the EU.

It is difficult to establish with precision the incidence and prevalence for target patient populations of our drug candidates. If the market opportunities for our drug candidates are smaller than we estimate, or if any approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our revenue and ability to achieve profitability will be adversely affected, possibly materially.

Even if approved for commercial sale, the total addressable market for our drug candidates will ultimately depend upon, among other things, (i) the diagnosis criteria included in the final label and whether our drug candidates are approved for these indications; (ii) acceptance by the medical community; and (iii) patient access, product pricing, andreimbursement by third-party payors. The number of patients targeted by our drug candidates may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be amenable to treatment with our products, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business. Due to our limited resources and access to capital or for other reasons, we must prioritize development of certain drug candidates, which may prove to be the wrong choice and may adversely affect our business.

Although we intend to explore other therapeutic opportunities in addition to the drug candidates that we are currently developing, we may fail to identify viable new drug candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons.

Research programs to pursue the development of our existing and planned drug candidates for additional indications, and to identify new drug candidates and disease targets, require substantial technical, financial, and human resources whether or not they are ultimately successful. For example, under the Roche Genentech Agreement, we are collaborating with Roche Genentech to develop various projects related to the discovery of small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat “key areas” of neuroscience and an oncology indication. There can be no assurance that we will find potential targets using this approach, that any such targets will be tractable, or that clinical validations will be successful. Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential indications and/or drug candidates, yet fail to yield results for clinical development for a number of reasons, including:

•the research methodology used may not be successful in identifying potential indications and/or drug candidates, including as a result of the limited patient sample represented in our databases and the validity of extrapolating based on insights from a particular cellular context that may not apply to other, more relevant cellular contexts;

•potential drug candidates may, after further study, be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate they are unlikely to be effective products; or

•it may take greater human and financial resources than we can allocate to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our drug candidates or to develop suitable potential drug candidates through internal research programs, thereby limiting our ability to develop, diversify, and expand our product portfolio.

Because we have limited financial and human resources, we will have to prioritize and focus on certain research programs, drug candidates, and target indications while forgoing others. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other drug candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential or a greater likelihood of success. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities.

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Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will ever be able to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our drug candidates or to develop suitable potential drug candidates through internal research programs, which could materially adversely affect our future growth and prospects.

If we are unable to obtain or there are delays in obtaining required regulatory approvals for our drug candidates in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, or if approval is subject to limitations, we will be unable to commercialize, or will be delayed or limited in commercializing, the drug candidates in such jurisdiction and our ability to generate revenue may be materially impaired.

Our drug candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization — including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import, and export — are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Before we can commercialize any of our drug candidates, we must obtain marketing approval. As of December 31, 2021, all of our drug candidates are in development and we have not received approval to market any of our drug candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. It is possible that our current and future drug candidates will never obtain regulatory approval.

We have only limited experience in filing and supporting applications to regulatory authorities and expect to rely on CROs and/or regulatory consultants to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the drug candidate’s safety and efficacy. It also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Given our novel approach to drug discovery that uses our platform to generate data, regulatory authorities may not approve any of our drug candidates derived from our platform or they may elect to inspect our platform.

The process of obtaining regulatory approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive and often takes many years. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority requires that we perform additional preclinical or clinical trials, approval, if obtained at all, may be delayed. The FDA and comparable authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application, or they may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical, or other studies. Our drug candidates could be delayed in receiving, or fail to receive, regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

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

•we may not be able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical studies;

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

•a drug candidate may be only moderately effective or may have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics;

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

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

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

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

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

•the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change such that our clinical or manufacturing data are insufficient for approval.

Even if we obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our drug candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, thereby narrowing the commercial potential of the drug candidate. In addition, regulatory authorities may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials or may approve a drug candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that drug candidate.

If are unable to obtain or experience delays in obtaining approval of our current and future drug candidates in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, or if approval is subject to limitations, the commercial prospects for the drug candidates may be harmed, and our reputation and ability to generate revenues may be materially impaired.

We may never realize a return on our investment of resources and cash in our drug discovery collaborations.

We conduct drug discovery activities for or with collaborators who are also engaged in drug discovery and development, which include pre-commercial biotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical companies. Under these collaborations, we typically provide the benefit of our drug discovery platform and platform experts who identify molecules that have activity against one or more specified targets, among other resources. In consideration, we have received, and expect to receive in the future, (i) equity investments; (ii) upfront fees; and/or (iii) the right to receive option fees, cash milestone payments upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory, or commercial sales milestones for the drug discovery targets, and potential royalties. Our ability to receive fees and payments and realize returns from our drug discovery collaborations in a timely manner, or at all, is subject to a number of risks, including but not limited to the following:

•our collaborators may incur unanticipated costs or experience delays in completing, or may be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of any drug candidates;

•collaborators have significant discretion in determining the amount and timing of efforts and resources that they will apply to our collaborations and may not perform their obligations as expected;

•collaborators may decide not to pursue development or commercialization of drug candidates for various reasons, including results of clinical trials or other studies, changes in the collaborator’s strategic focus or available funding, their desire to develop products that compete directly or indirectly with our drug candidates, or external factors (such as an acquisition or industry slowdown) that divert resources or create competing priorities;

•existing collaborators and potential future collaborators may begin to perceive us to be a competitor more generally, particularly as we advance our internal drug discovery programs, and therefore may be unwilling to continue existing collaborations, or enter into new collaborations, with us;

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

•disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over intellectual property or proprietary rights, contract interpretation, or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or terminations of the research, development, or commercialization of drug candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration;

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•collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, enforce, defend, or protect our intellectual property or proprietary rights, or they may use our proprietary information in such a way as to potentially lead to disputes or legal proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our or their intellectual property or proprietary rights;

•collaborators may infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability; and

•drug discovery collaborations may be terminated prior to our receipt of any significant value.

In addition, we may be over-reliant on our partners to provide information for molecules that we in-license, or such molecules may not be well-protected because the composition of matter patents that once protected them have expired. Moreover, we may have difficulty obtaining the quality and quantity of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for use in drug candidates, or we may be unable to ensure the stability of the molecule, all of which is needed to conduct clinical trials or bring a drug candidate to market. For those molecules that we are attempting to repurpose for other indications, our partners may not have sufficient data, may have poor quality data, or may not be able to help us interpret data, any of which could cause our collaboration to fail.

If any drug discovery collaborations that we enter into do not result in the successful development and commercialization of drug products that result in option fees, milestone payments, royalties, or other payments to us, we may not receive an adequate return on the resources we have invested in such collaborations, which would have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Further, we may not have access to, or may be restricted from disclosing, certain information regarding our collaborators’ drug candidates being developed or commercialized and, consequently, may have limited ability to inform our stockholders about the status of, and likelihood of achieving, milestone payments or royalties under such collaborations.

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

The development and commercialization of new products in the biopharmaceutical and related industries is highly competitive. There are other companies focusing on technology-enabled drug discovery to identify and develop new chemical entities that have not previously been investigated in clinical trials (NCEs) and/or known chemical entities that have been previously investigated (KCEs). Some of these competitive companies are employing scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach, and others are using entirely different approaches. These companies include large pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology companies of various sizes worldwide. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies, and other public and private research organizations. Many of the companies that we compete against, or which we may compete against in the future, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals, and marketing approved products than we do. They may also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, in establishing clinical trial sites and patient recruitment for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

Within the field of tech-enabled drug discovery, we believe that our approach utilizing a combination of wet-lab biology to generate our proprietary dataset, and the in silico tools in our closed-loop system, sets us apart and affords us a competitive advantage in initiating and advancing drug development programs. We further believe that the principal competitive factors to our business include (i) the accuracy of our computations and predictions; (ii) the ability to integrate experimental and computational capabilities; (iii) the ability to successfully transition research programs into clinical development; (iv) the ability to raise capital; and (v) the scalability of our platform, pipeline, and business.

Any drug candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with currently-approved therapies, and new therapies that may become available in the future, from segments of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other related industries. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our drug candidates, if approved, are likely to be (i) their efficacy, safety, convenience, and price; (ii) the level of non-generic and generic competition; and (iii) the availability and amount of reimbursement from government

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healthcare programs, commercial insurance plans, and other third-party payors. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if competing products are more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient, or are less expensive than products that we or our collaborators may develop, or if competitors obtain FDA or other regulatory approval more rapidly than us and are able to establish a strong market position before we or our collaborators are able to enter the market.

If our proprietary tools and technology and other competitive advantages do not remain in place and evolve appropriately as barriers to entry in the future, or if we and our collaboration partners are not otherwise able to effectively compete against existing and potential competitors, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Because we have multiple programs and drug candidates in our development pipeline and are pursuing a variety of target indications and treatment modalities, we may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular drug candidate and fail to capitalize on development opportunities or drug candidates that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.

We currently focus on the development of drug candidates regardless of the treatment modality or the particular target indication. Because we have limited financial and personnel resources, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with potential target indications or drug candidates that later prove to have greater commercial potential than our current and planned development programs and drug candidates. 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 other future drug candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable future drug candidates.

We and our collaborators may not achieve projected discovery and development milestones and other anticipated key events in the time frames that we or they announce, which could have an adverse impact on our business and could cause our stock price to decline.

From time to time we have made, and in the future are likely to make, public statements regarding the expected timing of certain milestones and key events, such as the commencement and completion of preclinical and clinical studies in our internal drug discovery programs as well as developments and milestones under our collaborations. Our collaborators, such as Roche Genentech, have also made public statements regarding expectations for the development of programs under collaborations with us and may in the future make additional statements about their goals and expectations for collaborations with us. The actual timing of these events can vary dramatically due to a number of factors, such as (i) delays or failures in our or our current and future collaborators’ drug discovery and development programs; (ii) the amount of time, effort, and resources committed by us and our current and future collaborators; and (iii) the numerous uncertainties inherent in the development of drugs. As a result, there can be no assurance that our or our current and future collaborators’ programs will advance or be completed in the time frames we or they announce or expect. If we or any collaborators fail to achieve one or more of these milestones or other key events as planned, our business and reputation could be materially adversely affected.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR PLATFORM AND DATA

We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in research and development efforts to further enhance our drug discovery platform, which is central to our mission. If the return on these investments is lower or develops more slowly than we expect, our business and operating results may suffer.

Our drug discovery platform is central to our mission to decode biology by integrating technological innovations across biology, chemistry, automation, data science, and engineering. The platform includes the Recursion Operating System, which combines an advanced infrastructure layer to generate proprietary biological and chemical datasets, and the Recursion Map, a suite of custom software, algorithms, and machine learning tools. Our platform depends upon the continuous, effective, and reliable operation of our software, hardware, databases, and related tools and functions, as well as the integrity of our data. Our ability to develop drug candidates and increase revenue depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our platform. The success of any enhancement depends on several factors, including (i) innovation in hardware solutions; (ii) increased computational storage and processing capacity; (iii) development of more advanced algorithms; and (iv) generation of additional biological and chemical data, such as that necessary to our ability to identify important and emerging use cases and quickly develop new and effective innovations to address those use cases.

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We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in research and development efforts that further enhance our platform. These investments may involve significant time, risks, and uncertainties, including the risks that any new software or hardware enhancement may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner; may not keep pace with technological developments; or may not achieve the functionality necessary to generate significant revenues.

Our proprietary software tools, hardware, and data sets are inherently complex. We have from time to time found defects, vulnerabilities, or other errors in our software and hardware that produce the data sets we use to discover new drug candidates, and new errors with our software and hardware may be detected in the future. The risk of errors is particularly significant when new software or hardware is first introduced or when new versions or enhancements of existing software or hardware are implemented. Errors may also result from the interface of our proprietary software and hardware tools with our data or with third-party systems and data.

If we are unable to successfully enhance our drug discovery platform, or if there are any defects or disruptions in our platform that are not timely resolved, our ability to develop new innovations and ultimately gain market acceptance of our products and discoveries could be materially and adversely impacted, and our reputation, business, and operating results could be materially harmed.

Our information technology systems and infrastructure may fail or experience security breaches that could adversely impact our business and operations and subject us to liability.

We have experienced significant growth in the complexity of our data and the software tools that our hardware infrastructure supports. We rely significantly upon information technology systems and infrastructure owned and maintained by us or by third party providers to generate, collect, store, and transmit confidential information and data (including but not limited to intellectual property, proprietary business information, and personal information) and to operate our business. We also outsource elements of our operations to, and obtain products and services from, third parties and engage in collaborations for drug discovery with third parties, each of which has or could have access to our confidential information.

We deploy and operate an array of technical and procedural controls to reduce the risks to our information technology systems and infrastructure and to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of our data, and we expect to continue to incur significant costs on detection and prevention efforts. Despite these measures, our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems face the risk of failures, security breaches, or other harm from various causes or sources, and third parties with whom we share confidential information may also experience similar events that materially impact us. These causes or sources include:

•service interruptions;

•system malfunctions;

•computer viruses;

•natural disasters;

•global political instability;

•warfare;

•telecommunication and electrical failures;

•inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees or third-party providers; and

•cyber-attacks by malicious third parties, including the deployment of malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

With respect to cyber-attacks, the techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including outside groups and individuals with a range of motives (including industrial espionage) and expertise, such as organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, or hostile foreign governments or agencies. The costs to us to investigate and mitigate cybersecurity incidents in particular could be significant. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats and

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implement preventive measures effective against all such threats. In addition, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an increased amount of work is occurring remotely, including through the use of mobile devices. This could increase our cybersecurity risk, create data accessibility concerns, and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions.

We have experienced, and may continue to experience, cyber-attacks, security breaches, and other system failures, although to our knowledge we have not experienced any material interruption or incident as of December 31, 2021. The loss, corruption, unavailability of, or damage to our data would interfere with and undermine the insights we draw from our platform or impair the integrity of our clinical trial data leading to regulatory delays or the inability to get our drug candidates approved. If we do not accurately predict and identify our infrastructure requirements and failures and timely enhance our infrastructure, or if our remediation efforts are not successful, it could result in a material disruption of our business operations and development programs, including the loss or unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets, individuals’ personal information, or other proprietary or sensitive data. A security breach that leads to unauthorized disclosure of our intellectual property or other proprietary information could also affect our intellectual property rights and enable competitors to compete with us more effectively. Likewise, as we rely on third parties for the manufacture of our drug candidates and to conduct clinical trials, similar events relating to their systems and operations could also have a material adverse effect on our business and lead to regulatory agency actions.

Moreover, any security breach or other event that leads to loss, unauthorized access to, or disclosure of personal information, including personal information regarding clinical trial subjects, contractors, directors, or employees, could harm our reputation, compel us to comply with federal and/or state notification laws and foreign law equivalents, subject us to mandatory corrective action, and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information. For more information see “Risk Factors— We are subject to U.S. and foreign laws regarding privacy and data security that could entail substantial compliance costs, while the failure to comply could subject us to significant liability” set forth below.

To the extent that failures, disruptions, security breaches, cyber-attacks, or other harmful events result in a loss of or damage to our information technology systems or infrastructure – or the inappropriate acquisition or disclosure of confidential, proprietary, or personal information – we could be exposed to a risk of loss, enforcement measures, regulatory agency actions, penalties, fines, indemnification claims, litigation, potential civil or criminal liability, collaborators’ loss of confidence, damage to our reputation, and other consequences, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations. While we maintain insurance coverage for certain expenses and liabilities related to failures or breaches of our information technology systems, it may not be adequate to cover all losses associated with such events. In addition, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on satisfactory terms or at all. Furthermore, if the information technology systems of third parties with whom we do business become subject to disruptions or security breaches, we may have insufficient recourse against them.

Interruptions in the availability of server systems or communications with internet or cloud-based services, or failure to maintain the security, confidentiality, accessibility, or integrity of data stored on such systems, could harm our business.

We rely on third-party data centers and telecommunications solutions, including cloud infrastructure services such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, to host substantial portions of our technology platforms and to support our business operations. We have no control over these cloud-based service or other third-party providers, although we attempt to reduce risk by minimizing reliance on any single third party or its operations. We have experienced, and expect we may in the future again experience, system interruptions, outages, or delays due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions, and capacity constraints. A prolonged service disruption affecting our cloud-based solutions could damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business.

Further, if the security measures of our third-party data center or cloud infrastructure providers are breached by cyber-attacks or other means and unauthorized access to our information technology systems or data occurs, it could result in interruptions to our operations and the loss of proprietary or confidential information, which could damage our reputation, cause us to incur substantial costs, divert our resources from other tasks, and subject us to significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities, any one of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and prospects. Such third-party providers may also be subject to natural disasters, global political instability, warfare, power losses, telecommunications failures, or other disruptive events that could negatively affect our business and require us to incur significant costs to secure alternate cloud-based

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solutions. In addition, any changes in our providers’ service levels or features that we utilize or a termination of our agreements could also adversely affect our business.

Our solutions utilize third-party open source software (OSS), which presents risks that could adversely affect our business and subject us to possible litigation.

Our solutions include software that is licensed from third parties under open source licenses, and we expect to continue to incorporate such OSS in our solutions in the future. We cannot ensure that we have effectively monitored our use of OSS, validated the quality or source of such software, or are in compliance with the terms of the applicable open source licenses or our policies and procedures. Use of OSS may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software as open source licensors generally do not provide support, updates, or warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. OSS may also be more susceptible to security vulnerabilities. Third-party OSS providers could experience service outages, data loss, privacy breaches, cyber-attacks, and other events relating to the applications and services they provide, which could diminish the utility of these services and harm our business. We also could be subject to lawsuits by third parties claiming that what we believe to be licensed OSS infringes such parties’ intellectual property rights, which could be costly for us to defend and require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR OPERATIONS/COMMERCIALIZATION

The COVID-19 pandemic may materially and adversely affect our business and operating results and could disrupt the development of our drug candidates.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the related adverse public health developments, have disrupted the normal operations of businesses across industries, including the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. National, state, and local governments in regions affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have implemented, or may implement or reinstitute, measures such as quarantines, shelter-in-place policies, travel restrictions, and other public safety protocols. The health effects of the pandemic, along with these initiatives, have adversely affected workforces, organizations, government entities, healthcare communities, regional and national economies, and financial markets, leading to economic slowdowns and increased market volatility from time to time.

We continue to monitor applicable government recommendations and have made some modifications to our normal operations. For example, we have instituted a hybrid remote work policy for certain personnel. Although we believe that these and the other safety measures we have taken have not substantially impacted our productivity or business activities, it is not certain that this will continue to be the case. Moreover, the risk of cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents may be heightened as a result of the increased number of personnel working remotely, which may be less secure and lead to the release of confidential or proprietary information that could adversely affect our business. And notwithstanding governmental precautionary measures or those implemented by us, the COVID-19 pandemic or other similar outbreak could affect the health and availability of our workforce, as well as that of the third parties from whom we obtain goods and services.

In addition, the global spread of COVID-19 — including any variants that are more contagious, have more severe effects, or are resistant to treatments or vaccinations — could adversely impact our preclinical or clinical trial operations in the U.S. and other countries, including our ability to recruit and retain trial participants as well as principal investigators and site staff. As may be the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, we could experience protocol deviations, difficulties in enrolling participants, and delays in activating new trial sites and in initiating and concluding preclinical and clinical studies. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic could make it more difficult or costly to source products needed for the trials, or to engage with CROs and regulators regarding our drug candidates. Any negative impact COVID-19 has on enrollment in or the execution of our drug trials, or our interactions with CROs or regulators, could cause costly delays, adversely affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval for and to commercialize our drug candidates, increase our operating expenses, and have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.

The ultimate direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on our operations, including our research and development activities and preclinical and clinical trials, or the operations of our third-party partners, will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and difficult to predict. If these impacts are more severe than we anticipate or our countermeasures are insufficient, it could disrupt our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approvals for, and commercialize drug candidates, and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operation. Further, uncertainty around these and related issues could lead to adverse effects on the economies of the U.S.

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and other countries, which could impact our ability to raise the capital needed to develop and commercialize our drug candidates.

Even if any drug candidates we develop receive marketing approval, they may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors, and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

The commercial success of our drug candidates that receive marketing approval will depend upon their degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors, and others in the medical community. The degree of market acceptance will depend on a number of factors, including:

•their efficacy and safety as demonstrated in pivotal clinical trials and published in peer-reviewed journals;

•their potential and perceived advantages compared to alternative treatments, including any similar generic treatments;

•the prevalence and severity of any side effects or adverse events;

•our ability to offer these products for sale at competitive prices;

•our ability to offer appropriate patient access programs, such as co-pay assistance;

•their convenience and ease of dosing and administration compared to alternative treatments;

•the clinical indications for which the drug candidate is approved by the FDA or comparable regulatory agencies;

•product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, including any limitations, contraindications, or warnings;

•restrictions on how the product is distributed;

•the timing of market introduction of competitive products;

•publicity concerning these products or competing products and treatments;

•the strength of marketing and distribution support; and

•favorable third-party coverage and sufficient reimbursement.

Sales of medical products also depend on the willingness of physicians to prescribe the treatment, which is likely to be based on a determination by these physicians that the products are safe, therapeutically-effective, and cost-effective. In addition, the inclusion or exclusion of products from treatment guidelines established by various physician groups, as well as the viewpoints of influential physicians, can affect the willingness of other physicians to prescribe the treatment. We cannot predict whether physicians, physicians’ organizations, hospitals, other healthcare providers, government agencies, or private insurers will determine that any product we may develop is safe, therapeutically effective and cost-effective as compared with competing treatments. If any drug candidateswe develop do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue, and we may not become profitable.

If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market any drug candidates we may develop, we may not be successful in commercializing those drug candidates, if and when they are approved.

We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure and have little experience in the sale, marketing, or distribution of pharmaceutical products. To achieve commercial success for any approved product for which we retain sales and marketing responsibilities, we must either develop a sales and marketing organization, develop sales and marketing software solutions, or outsource these functions to third parties. In the future, we may choose to build a focused sales, marketing, and commercial support infrastructure to market and sell our drug candidates, if and when they are approved. We may also elect to enter into collaborations or strategic partnerships with third parties to engage in commercialization activities with respect to selected drug candidates, indications, or geographic territories, including territories outside the United States, although there is no guarantee we will be able to enter into these arrangements.

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There are risks involved with both establishing our own commercial capabilities and entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force or reimbursement specialists is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a drug candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing and other commercialization capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition commercialization personnel. Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize any approved product on our own include:

•the inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective sales, marketing, reimbursement, customer service, medical affairs, and other support personnel;

•the inability of sales personnel or software tools to obtain access to physicians or persuade adequate numbers of physicians to prescribe any future approved products;

•the inability of reimbursement professionals to negotiate arrangements for formulary access, reimbursement, and other acceptance by payors;

•the inability to price products at a sufficient price point to enable an adequate and attractive level of profitability;

•restricted or closed distribution channels that make it difficult to distribute our products to segments of the patient population;

•the lack of complementary products to be offered by sales personnel, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies with more extensive product lines; and

•unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating an independent commercialization organization.

If we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales, marketing, commercial support, and distribution services, they may also experience many of the above challenges. In addition, our product revenue or the profitability of product revenue may be lower than if we were to market and sell any products we may develop internally. We may not be successful in entering into such arrangements, or we may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us or them. We also may have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively, or they may expose us to legal and regulatory risk by not adhering to regulatory requirements and restrictions governing the sale and promotion of prescription drug products, including those restricting off-label promotion. If we do not establish commercialization capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing any future approved drug candidates.

We are subject to regulatory and operational risks associated with the physical and digital infrastructure at both our internal facilities and those of our external service providers.

Our facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah have not been reviewed or pre-approved by any regulatory agency, such as the FDA. An inspection by the FDA could disrupt our ability to generate data and develop drug candidates. Our laboratory facilities are designed to incorporate a significant level of automation of equipment, with integration of several digital systems to improve efficiency of research operations. We have attempted to achieve a high level of digitization for a research operation relative to industry standards. While this is meant to improve operational efficiency, this may pose additional risk of equipment malfunction and even overall system failure or shutdown due to internal or external factors including, but not limited to, design issues, system compatibility, or potential cybersecurity breaches. This may lead to delay in potential drug candidate identification or a shutdown of our facility. Any disruption in our data generation capabilities could cause delays in advancing new drug candidates into our pipeline, advancing existing programs, or enhancing the capabilities of our platform, including expanding our data, the occurrence of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

In the future, we may manufacture drug substances or products at our facilities for preclinical and clinical use, and we may face risks arising from our limited prior manufacturing capability and experience.

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We do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture drug substances or products for preclinical, clinical, or commercial use. If, in the future, we decide to produce drug substances or products for preclinical and clinical use, the costs of developing suitable facilities and infrastructure and implementing appropriate manufacturing processes may be greater than expected. We may also have difficulty implementing the full operational state of the facility, causing delays to preclinical or clinical supply or the need to rely on third-party service providers, resulting in unplanned expenses.

As we expand our development and commercial capacity, we may establish manufacturing capabilities inside the Salt Lake City area or in other locations or geographies, which may lead to regulatory delays or prove costly. If we fail to select the correct location, complete construction in an efficient manner, recruit the appropriate personnel, and generally manage our growth effectively, the development and production of our investigational medicines could be delayed or curtailed.

Recursion, or the third parties upon whom we depend, may be adversely affected by natural disasters, and our business continuity plans and insurance coverage may not be adequate.

Our current operations are located in Salt Lake City, Utah; Milpitas, California; and Montreal, Canada. A natural disaster or other serious unplanned event, such as flood, fire, explosion, earthquake, extreme weather condition, pandemic (including COVID-19), power shortage, telecommunications failure, global political instability, warfare, or man-made incident, could result in us being unable to fully utilize our facilities, delays in the development of our drug candidates, interruption of our business operations, or unexpected increased costs, which may have a material and adverse effect on our business. Our collaboration partners, as well as suppliers to us or our collaboration partners, are similarly subject to some or all of these events. If a natural disaster, power outage, or other event occurs that (i) prevents us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters or our datacenters; (ii) damages critical infrastructure or our robots, such as our research facilities or the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers; or (iii) otherwise significantly disrupts operations, it may be difficult, or in certain cases impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time.

Furthermore, the disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place may prove inadequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses, business interruptions, and harm to our research and development programs as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans. As part of our risk management policy, we maintain insurance coverage at levels that we believe are appropriate for our business to the extent it is available on commercially reasonable terms. However, in the event of an accident or incident at these facilities, the amounts of insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our damages and losses.

In addition, our facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah are located in a busy downtown area. Although we believe we have taken the necessary steps to ensure our operations are safe to the surrounding area, there could be a risk to the public if we were to conduct hazardous material research, including use of flammable chemicals and materials, at our facilities. If the surrounding community perceives our facility as unsafe, it could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation and operations.

If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety, or other laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines, penalties, or personal injury or property damages.

We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety, and other laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for significant damages for harm to persons or property, as well as civil or criminal fines and penalties. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover costs and expenses arising from injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities.

Our insurance policies are expensive and protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.

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We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter and insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive. We do not know if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage in the future, and any liability insurance coverage we acquire in the future may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. If we obtain marketing approval for any drug candidates that we or our collaborators may develop, we intend to acquire insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products, but we may be unable to obtain such insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. The coverage or coverage limits currently maintained under our insurance policies may not be adequate. If our losses exceed our insurance coverage, our financial condition would be adversely affected. Clinical trials or regulatory approvals for any of our drug candidates could be suspended, which could adversely affect our results of operations and business, including by preventing or limiting the development and commercialization of any drug candidates that we or our collaborators may identify. Additionally, operating as a public company will make it more expensive for us to obtain directors and officers liability insurance. If we do not have adequate levels of directors and officers liability insurance, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors.

Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

We have substantial federal net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses as expected, unused losses will carry forward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire, except under certain circumstances. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” its ability to use pre-change NOL carryforwards and certain other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income could be subject to an annual limitation. An “ownership change” is generally defined as a greater than 50%change by value in the ownership of the corporation’s equity by over a three-year period. Such annual limitation could result in the expiration of a portion of our NOL carryforwards before utilization. If not utilized, the carryforwards will begin to expire in the future. We may have experienced ownership changes within the meaning of Section 382 in the past and we may experience some ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, such as a result of our initial public offering, follow-on offerings, or subsequent shifts in our stock ownership (some of which shifts are outside our control. We have not conducted a study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred due to the significant complexity and cost associated with such a study. Future legislative or regulatory changes could also negatively impact our ability to utilize our NOL carryforwards or other tax attributes. Similar provisions of state tax law may also suspend or otherwise limit the ability to use NOLs and accumulated state tax attributes. As a result, if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes for federal and state tax purposes, which could result in increased tax liability and adversely affect our future cash flows.

If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (U.S. GAAP) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include stock-based compensation and valuation of our equity investments in early-stage biotechnology companies. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions.

Additionally, we regularly monitor our compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and drafts thereof that are relevant to us. As a result of new standards, changes to existing standards, or changes in their interpretation, we might be required to change our accounting policies, alter our operational policies, and implement new or enhanced systems so that they reflect new or amended financial reporting standards, or we may be required to restate our published financial statements, which may have an adverse effect on our financial position and reputation.

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

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

•decreased demand for any drug candidates or therapeutics that we may develop;

•injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;

•withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

•significant costs to defend the litigation;

•substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

•loss of revenue; and

•the inability to commercialize our drug candidates.

Although we maintain product liability insurance, including coverage for clinical trials that we sponsor, it may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage as we commence additional clinical trials and if we successfully commercialize any drug candidates. The market for insurance coverage can be challenging, and the costs of insurance coverage will increase as our clinical programs increase in size. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost and with adequate limits to satisfy any and all liability that may arise.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR RELIANCE ON THIRD PARTIES

Third parties that perform some of our research and preclinical testing or conduct our clinical trials may not perform satisfactorily or their agreements may be terminated.

We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some aspects of research and preclinical testing and clinical trials. The third parties include clinical research organizations, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions, and principal investigators. Any of these third parties may fail to fulfill their contractual obligations, including by not meeting deadlines for the completion of research, testing, or trials, or we or they may terminate their engagements with us. If any of our relationships with these third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, it could delay product development activities.

Our reliance on third parties for research and development activities reduces our control over these activities, but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our respective clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial, as well as applicable legal, regulatory, and scientific standards. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database within certain timeframes. In addition, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities require compliance with good clinical practices (GCP) guidelines for conducting, recording, and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible, reproducible, and accurate, and that the rights, integrity, and confidentiality of trialparticipants are protected. Regulatory authorities enforce GCP compliance through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators, and trial sites.

If we or any of the third parties fail to comply with applicable GCP regulations, some or all of the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional nonclinical or clinical trials or to enroll additional patients before approving our marketing applications. In addition, if we or the third parties fail to comply with our stated protocols or applicable laws and regulations during the conduct of clinical trials, we could be subject to warning letters or enforcement

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actions by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, which could result in civil penalties or criminal prosecution, as well as adverse publicity that harms our business.

We also will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for any drug candidates we may develop if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines, or conduct clinical trials in accordance with our stated protocols or regulatory requirements. As a result, we may be delayed or unable to successfully commercialize our medicines.

Third parties that manufacture our drug candidates for preclinical development, clinical testing, and future commercialization may not provide sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or products at an acceptable cost, which could delay, impair, or prevent our development or commercialization efforts.

We do not currently own or operate any manufacturing facilities and have no manufacturing personnel, although we are in the process of securing a facility to establish production capabilities for preclinical animal studies and early human clinical trials. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for drug supplies for our clinical trials, the manufacture of many of our drug candidates for preclinical development and clinical testing, as well as the commercial manufacture of our products if any of our drug candidates receive marketing approval. We may be unable to establish necessary agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or products, or have sufficient quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, impair, or prevent our development or commercialization efforts.

In addition, the facilities used by our contract manufacturers to manufacture our drug candidates must be inspected by the FDA pursuant to pre-approval inspections that will be conducted after we submit our marketing applications to the FDA. We do not expect to control the manufacturing process of, and will be completely dependent on, our contract manufacturers for compliance with current good manufacturing practice guidelines (cGMP) in connection with the manufacture of our drug candidates in the near to intermediate term, or possibly the long term. If our contract manufacturers cannot maintain adequate quality control and qualified personnel to successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, they will not be able to pass regulatory inspections and/or maintain regulatory compliance for their manufacturing facilities.

If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority finds deficiencies with, does not approve, or withdraws approval of these facilities for the manufacture of our drug candidates, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, or market our drug candidates, if approved. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. Our drug candidates and any other products that we may develop may compete with the drug candidates and approved products of other companies for access to manufacturing facilities or capacity, which may further restrict our ability to secure manufacturing sites.

Further, our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of drug candidates or products that may be approved, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business and supplies of our drug candidates.

Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:

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

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

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

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

Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval. If it is necessary to replace any such manufacturer, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any a replacement. In addition, any performance failure on the part of our distributors

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could delay clinical development or marketing approval of any drug candidates we may develop or seek to commercialize, producing additional losses and depriving us of product revenue.

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

If we are unable to adequately source clinical and commercial supplies, equipment, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from third party vendors as our drug development pipeline matures, it could significantly harm our business.

We procure raw materials, components, parts, consumables, reagents, and equipment used in the development and operation of our platform and the development of our drug candidates from third party vendors. We also rely on third party vendors to perform quality testing. Particular risks to our platform include reliance on third-party equipment and instrument suppliers and consumable and reagent suppliers. As we increase development of drug products and commence clinical testing and commercialization, we will require expanded capacity across our supply chain. We face risks regarding our sourcing of products and quality-testing services, including:

•the inability of suppliers and service providers to grow their capacity to meet demand, whether from us or other drug manufacturers, particularly if the field of technology-enabled drug discovery continues to expand;

•termination or non-renewal of supply and service agreements with third parties in a manner or at a time that is costly or damaging to us;

•disruptions to the operations of these suppliers and service providers caused by conditions unrelated to our business or operations, including the bankruptcy of the supplier or service provider or force majeure events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, global political instability, natural disasters, supply chain issues, or warfare; and

•inspections of third-party facilities by regulatory authorities that could have a negative outcome and result in delays in, or termination of, their ability to meet our requirements.

Moreover, certain of our specialized equipment, as well as the API used in our drug candidates, are obtained from single-source suppliers. Our ability to successfully develop our drug candidates, and to ultimately supply our commercial products in quantities sufficient to meet the market demand, depends in part on our ability to obtain equipment and the API for these products in accordance with regulatory requirements and in sufficient quantities for clinical testing and commercialization. We do not currently have arrangements in place for a redundant or second-source supply of any such equipment or ingredients in the event any of our current suppliers fails or is unable to meet our requirements. While our single-source suppliers have generally met our demand for their products on a timely basis in the past, we are not certain that they will be able to meet our future demand, whether due to any of the above factors, the nature of our agreements with those suppliers, our limited experience with those suppliers, our relative importance as a customer, or any other reason. For all of our drug candidates, we intend to identify and qualify additional vendors and manufacturers, as available, to provide such equipment and API prior to our submission of an NDA to the FDA and/or an MAA to the EMA, which may require additional regulatory inspection or approval and result in further delay.

Any interruption or delay in the supply of components, materials, specialized equipment, API, and quality-testing sources at acceptable prices and in a timely manner could impede, delay, limit, or prevent our development efforts, which could harm our business, results of operations, and prospects.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Our success significantly depends on our ability to obtain patents of adequate scope covering our proprietary technology and products. Obtaining and maintaining patent assets is inherently challenging, and our pending and future patent applications may not issue with the scope we need, if at all.

We protect our products, product candidates, and platform technologies, in both the U.S, and internationally, with patents and patent applications owned by or licensed to us, and we plan to file additional patent applications in the future. Our commercial success will depend in significant part on our ability to obtain, maintain, protect, and enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights in the U.S. and other countries for our drug candidates and our core technologies important to the development and implementation of our business, including our phenomics platform, preclinical and clinical assets, and related know-how.

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Patent prosecution is a complex, expensive, and lengthy process, with no guarantee that a patent will issue in a timely fashion or at all, or with sufficiently broad claims to protect our drug candidates and core technologies. Further, the laws and regulations for obtaining and maintaining patents are subject to change by legislative or judicial action in the relevant jurisdictions. The patent positions of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other life sciences companies in particular can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology patents has emerged to date in the U.S., and tests used for determining the patentability of patent claims in all technologies are in flux. The pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other life sciences patent situation outside the U.S. can be even more uncertain. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and patent offices in other jurisdictions have often required that patent applications concerning pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions be limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges.

The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the patent offices and courts in the United States and abroad. Third parties may invent, publish, or file patents of their own in ways which overlap or conflict with our patent rights. Moreover, even if unchallenged, our owned patent portfolio and any patent portfolio we license may not provide us with any meaningful protection or prevent competitors from designing around our patent claims to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. For example, a third party may develop a competitive product that provides benefits similar to one or more of our drug candidates, but that has a different composition that falls outside the scope of our patent protection. In addition, patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective, non-provisional filing date, and patents protecting drug candidates might expire before or shortly after the candidates are commercialized given the amount of time required for development, testing, and regulatory review. The various governmental patent agencies also require compliance with extensive rules and fee obligations. Failure to do so can, under certain circumstances, result in the abandonment of a patent application or the termination of patent rights. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include a failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees, and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents.

We have patent applications pending before the USPTO and other patent offices, and we plan to file new applications in the future. Patent offices may require us to significantly narrow our claims based upon prior art discovered by the USPTO or through third-party submissions. Moreover, we do not always have the right to control the preparation, filing, prosecution, and maintenance of licensed patents and applications under arrangements with collaborators or licensors. We may become involved in procedural challenges, including inter parties review, which could result in the narrowing or elimination of our patent rights or those of our licensors. This could limit our ability to stop others from freely using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection covering our technology and drug candidates. Such challenges may also result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize our drug candidates without infringing third-party patent rights. Further, inadvertent or intentional public disclosures of our inventions prior to the filing of a patent application have precluded us, and in the future may preclude us, from obtaining patent protection in certain jurisdictions. We also could fail to identify patentable aspects of our technology and research and development output in time to obtain patent protection.

We also currently own a number of U.S. provisional patent applications. These provisional applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of filing one or more of our related provisional patent applications. If we do not timely file any non-provisional patent applications, we may lose our priority dates with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in such applications.

We presently do not own or in-license any issued patents with respect to certain of our programs, including our product candidate for the treatment of GM2 gangliosidosis (REC-3599); lead molecules for the treatment of C. difficile colitis (REC-163964, REC-164014, and REC-164067); lead molecules for the treatment of neuroinflammation (REC-648455, REC-648597, and REC-648677); lead molecules for the treatment of Batten disease (REC-648190, REC-259618, and REC-648647); lead molecules for the treatment of CMT2A (REC-64810, REC-648458, REC-1262, and REC-150357); lead molecules for the treatment of STK11-mutant immune checkpoint resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (REC-64151); and MYC inhibitory molecules for the treatment of solid and hematological malignancies.

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We cannot provide any assurances that any of our or our licensors’ pending or future patent applications will issue, or that any pending or future patent applications that mature into issued patents will include claims with a scope sufficient to protect our drug candidates from competition. If we fail to obtain and maintain adequate intellectual property protection covering any technology, invention, or improvement that is important to our business, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to prevent third parties from launching generic versions of our products, from using our proprietary technologies, or from marketing products that are very similar or identical to ours. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications are threatened, it could also dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop, or commercialize current or future drug candidates. This could have a material, adverse effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our technology and products, and on our business and results of operations.

Our current proprietary position for certain drug candidates depends upon our owned or in-licensed patent filings covering components of such drug candidates, manufacturing-related methods, formulations, and/or methods of use, which may not adequately prevent a competitor or other third party from using the same drug candidate for the same or a different use.

Composition of matter patent protection is generally considered to be desirable for drug products because it provides protection without regard to any particular method of use or manufacturing, or formulation. For some of the molecules that we in-license from our collaboration partners, we cannot rely on composition of matter patent protection as the term on those patents has expired or is close to expiring.

Method of use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method and formulation patents cover formulations to deliver therapeutics. While we file applications covering method of use for our programs at appropriate times in the development process, we cannot be certain that claims in any future patents issuing from these applications will cover all commercially-relevant applications of molecules in competing uses. These types of patents do not prevent a competitor or other third party from developing, marketing, or commercializing a similar or identical product for an indication that is outside the scope of the patented method, or from developing a different formulation that is outside the scope of the patented formulation. Moreover, with respect to method of use patents, even if competitors or other third parties do not actively promote their product for our targeted indications or uses for which we may obtain patents, physicians may recommend that patients use these products off-label, or patients may do so themselves. Although off-label use may infringe or contribute to the infringement of method of use patents, the practice is common and this type of infringement is difficult to prevent or enforce. Additionally, some commercially-relevant jurisdictions do not allow for patents covering a new method of use of an otherwise-known molecule. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in the United States or abroad, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we do not obtain patent term extension and data exclusivity for any drug candidates we may develop, our business may be materially harmed.

Depending upon the timing, duration, and specifics of any FDA marketing approval of any drug candidates we may develop, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Action of 1984, referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent extension term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond 14 years from the date of product approval. Only one patent may be extended and only those claims covering the approved drug, a method for using it, or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents, or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.

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

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A third party may hold intellectual property that are important or necessary to the development of our products. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our products, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or our business could be harmed, possibly materially. For example, when we explore repurposing molecules owned by our collaboration partners or other third parties, we in-license the rights to use those molecules for our use. If we are not able to obtain a license, or to obtain one on commercially reasonable terms and with sufficient breadth to cover the intended use of third-party intellectual property, our business could be materially harmed.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights, and particularly those arising from patents, is uncertain because these rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. Examples where our intellectual property rights may not further our competitive advantage include the following:

•others may be able to duplicate or utilize similar technology in a manner that infringes our patents but is undetectable or done in a jurisdiction where we have not secured, or cannot secure or enforce, patent rights;

•others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our owned or licensed intellectual property rights;

•our competitors or other third parties might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;

•we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; and

•we may choose not to file a patent in order to maintain certain trade secrets or know-how, and a third party may subsequently file a patent covering such intellectual property.

Should any of these events occur, they could have a material, adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

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

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and contractual arrangements to protect proprietary know-how, information, and technology that is not covered by our patents. With respect to curating our data and our library of small molecules generally, we consider trade secrets and know-how to be our primary intellectual property. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our collaborators, scientific advisors, employees, and consultants. Our agreements with our employees and consultants also require them to acknowledge ownership by us of inventions they may conceive as a result of their work for us and to perfect such ownership by assignment. However, we may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our trade secrets or other confidential information through these agreements or other preventative measures. In addition, third parties, including our competitors, could independently develop and lawfully use the same or substantially equivalent trade secrets and know-how.

Unpatented proprietary rights, including trade secrets and know-how, can be difficult to protect and may lose their value if their secrecy is lost or they are independently developed by a third party. Any loss of trade secret protection or other unpatented proprietary rights could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We may be subject to claims that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of third parties or are in breach of their non-competition or non-solicitation agreements with third parties.

We take efforts intended to ensure that our employees and consultants do not use the intellectual property, proprietary information, know-how, or trade secrets of others in their work for us, or breach any applicable non-competition or non-solicitation agreement. However, we may in the future be subject to claims that we or these

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individuals have, inadvertently or otherwise, used or disclosed the alleged trade secrets or other proprietary information of a third party, including a former employer or competitor, or that we caused an employee or contractor to breach the terms of their non-competition or non-solicitation agreement with a third party. In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in obtaining such agreements or an assignment of rights to us.

Litigation may be necessary to defend against or enforce these claims, which may be costly, a distraction to management, and of uncertain outcome. If we are found liable for disclosure or misuse of a third party’s proprietary information, or are unable to secure rights to intellectual property developed by an employee or contractor, in addition to requiring us to pay damages, a court could prohibit us from using technologies or features that may be essential to our drug candidates that incorporate or are derived from such proprietary information, in addition toawarding damages. Moreover, any such litigation could also adversely affect our ability to hire or retain employees or contractors. If we are unable to establish our rights to valuable intellectual property or retain key personnel, it may prevent us from successfully commercializing our drug candidates and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operation.

Litigation to defend against third party claims that we are infringing their intellectual property rights, or to

enforce our intellectual property rights, presents numerous risks.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by extensive and frequent litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Intellectual property litigation or other legal proceedings, with or without merit, is generally expensive and time consuming, potentially distracting to technical and management personnel, and subject to uncertain outcomes. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios.

Our commercial success depends upon our ability, and that of our collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market, and sell our drug candidates, and to use our proprietary technologies, without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties. Given the vast and continually increasing number of patents in our field of technology, we cannot be certain that we do not infringe existing patents or that we will not infringe patents granted in the future. We may in the future become party to, or threatened with, litigation or adversarial proceedings initiated by our competitors or other third parties alleging that our products or technologies are covered by their patents.

Many companies have obtained patents or filed patent applications in areas important to our business, including artificial intelligence and deep learning, technology-aided drug discovery, CRISPR, high-throughput screening, and combinations of any or all of these fields. For example, we sublicense CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology from a licensed vendor, which provides critical tools upon which portions of our drug discovery process relies. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is a field that is highly active for patent filings and there are ongoing disputes between third parties, which we are not party to, regarding the ownership of and licensing rights related to the technology. The extensive patent filings related to CRISPR and Cas make it difficult for us to assess the full extent of relevant patents and pending applications that may cover this technology, and there may be third-party patents, or pending patent applications with claims that may issue in the future, covering our use of CRISPR-Cas9.

If we or our collaborators are found to infringe a third party’s patent or other intellectual property rights, it could result in significant damages and costs. In addition, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our drug candidates and technology, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or to cease developing and commercializing the infringing technology or drug candidates. If we are prevented from commercializing our drug candidates or forced to cease some of our business operations, it could materially harm our reputation and have a significant adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

Alternatively, we may initiate litigation, or file counterclaims, to protect or enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights if we believe competitors or other third parties have infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated our rights. Our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights is subject to litigation risks, including that the opposing party may seek counterclaims against us, as well as uncertainty as to the protection and enforceability of those rights in some countries. If we seek to enforce our intellectual property

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rights, we may be subject to findings that our patents should be interpreted narrowly and do not cover the technology at issue, or that they are invalid or unenforceable. If we are unable to enforce and protect our intellectual property rights, or if they are circumvented, invalidated, or rendered obsolete by the rapid pace of technological change, it could have an adverse impact on our competitive position, business, and financialposition.

Competing products may also be sold in other countries in which our patent coverage might not exist or be as strong. The legal systems of some countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights, while other jurisdictions may have limited enforcement rights for patent holders. This could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents, if obtained, or the misappropriation of our other intellectual property rights. Consequently, we and our licensors may have limited remedies in those foreign countries if patents are infringed, or we or our licensors may be compelled to grant a license to a third party, which could materially diminish the value of those patents and could limit our potential revenue opportunities. In addition, competitors may use our technologies to develop their own products that compete with ours in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection or where we have patent protection but limited enforcement rights. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we own or license.

If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we collaborate with or license intellectual property rights from third parties, or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our collaborators or licensors, we could lose rights that are important to our business.

We license certain intellectual property that is important to our business and in the future we may enter into additional agreements that provide us with licenses to valuable intellectual property or technology. Our current license agreements impose, and we expect our future license agreements will impose, various development, diligence, commercialization, and other obligations on us in order to maintain the licenses. In spite of our efforts, a licensor might conclude that we have materially breached our obligations under a license agreement and seek to terminate the agreement, thereby removing or limiting our ability to develop and commercialize products and technology covered by the agreement. If these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying patent rights licensed thereunder fail to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors or other third parties would have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products identical to ours and we may be required to cease our development and commercialization of certain of our drug candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.

Moreover, disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including:

•the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;

•the extent to which our technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;

•the sublicensing of patent and other rights under our collaborative development relationships;

•our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;

•the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners; and

•the priority of invention of patented technology.

The agreements under which we license intellectual property or technology from third parties may be complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or it could increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected drug candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.

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These and similar issues may arise with respect to our collaboration agreements, such as the Bayer Agreement and the Roche Genentech agreements. Our collaboration with Bayer and Roche Genentech are two of our key collaborations, and there can be no assurance that these collaborations will continue past their current terms, on favorable terms or at all, or that at any time while the collaborations are in effect the parties will operate under the agreements without disputes.

Some of our intellectual property has been, and in the future may be, discovered through government-funded programs and thus may be subject to federal regulations such as “march-in” rights, certain reporting requirements, and a preference for U.S.-based companies, and compliance with such regulations may limit our exclusive rights and our ability to contract with non-U.S. manufacturers.

Our intellectual property rights may be subject to a reservation of rights by one or more third parties. For example, certain intellectual property rights that we have licensed, or may in the future license, have been generated through the use of U.S. government funding. As a result, the U.S. government may have certain rights to intellectual property embodied in our current or future processes and related products and services. These U.S. government rights include a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable worldwide license to use inventions for any governmental purpose. In addition, the U.S. government has the right, under certain limited circumstances, to require the licensor to grant exclusive, partially exclusive, or non-exclusive licenses to any of these inventions to a third party if it determines that (1) adequate steps have not been taken to commercialize the invention and achieve practical application of the government-funded technology, (2) government action is necessary to meet public health or safety needs, (3) government action is necessary to meet requirements for public use under federal regulations or (4) we fail to meet requirements of federal regulations (also referred to as “march-in rights”).

The U.S. government also has the right to take title to these inventions if we or our licensors fail to disclose the invention to the government or fail to file an application to register the intellectual property within specified time limits. These rights may permit the government to disclose our confidential information to third parties. In addition, our rights in such inventions may be subject to requirements to manufacture products embodying such inventions in the United States. Intellectual property generated under a government-funded program is also subject to certain reporting requirements, compliance with which may require us to expend substantial resources.

Any exercise by the government of such rights could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, results of operations and financial condition.

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

Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic, or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition among potential collaborators or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors may adopt trade names or trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to our intellectual property may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

RISKS RELATED TO GOVERNMENT REGULATION

Even if we receive FDA or other regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and other conditions that may result in significant additional expense, as well as the potential recall or market withdrawal of an approved product if unanticipated safety issues are discovered.

Even if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of our drug candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion, and recordkeeping for the product will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements.

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These requirements also include submission of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, 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 drug 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 they may contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing studies and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product.

Any failure to comply with regulatory requirements, or any discovery of previously unknown problems with a product — including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency — orwith our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, 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;

•clinical trial holds;

•fines, warning letters or other regulatory enforcement action;

•refusal by the FDA 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 of the foregoing actions could materially and adversely affect our reputation, business,

results of operation, and prospects.

We may seek orphan drug designation for certain of our drug candidates, and we may be unsuccessful or unable to maintain the benefits associated with such a designation, including the potential for market exclusivity.

As part of our business strategy, we may seek orphan drug designation for certain of our drug candidates. Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and Europe, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. The FDA may designate a drug as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition. In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers. We have received orphan drug designation from the FDA for at one of our drug candidates, but we may be unsuccessful with respect to other drug candidates.

Similarly in Europe, the European Commission, upon the recommendation of the EMA’s Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, grants orphan drug designation for drugs intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening, seriously debilitating or serious and chronic condition and when, without incentives, it is unlikely that sales of the drug in Europe would be sufficient to justify the necessary investment in developing the drug. In Europe, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers.

Generally, if a drug with an orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the drug is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the FDA or the EMA from approving another marketing application for the same drug and indication for that time period, except in limited circumstances. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in Europe. The European exclusivity period can be reduced to six years if a drug no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified.

Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a drug, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the drug from competition because different drugs can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve a different drug for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective, or makes a major contribution to patient care. In addition, a designated orphan drug may not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the indication for which it received orphan designation. Moreover, orphan drug exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the drug to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition or if another drug with the same active part of the molecule is determined to be safer, more effective, or represents a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug, nor gives the drug any advantage in the regulatory review or

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approval process. While we may seek orphan drug designation for our drug candidates, we may never receive such designations. Even if we do receive such designations, there is no guarantee that we will enjoy the benefits of those designations.

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

We may submit marketing applications in countries other than the United States. Regulatory authorities in jurisdictions outside of the United States have requirements for approval of drug candidates with which we must comply prior to marketing in those jurisdictions. For example, our trials to date have consisted of small patient populations and some international regulatory filings may require larger patient populations or additional nonclinical studies or clinical trials.

Source: SEC EDGAR (public domain) · 10-K for the period ended 2021-12-31, filed 2022-03-23 · accession 0001601830-22-000012

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