STRO US Equity☆

Item 1A. Risk Factors

RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Before making your decision to invest in shares of our common stock, you should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this annual report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. References to past events are provided by way of example only and are not intended to be a complete listing or a representation as to whether or not such factors have occurred in the past or their likelihood of occurring in the future. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that affect us. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed below will not occur. These events could have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If that were to happen, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We are a clinical stage oncology company with no products approved for commercial sale. We have a history of significant losses, expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability, which could result in a decline in the market value of our common stock.

We are a clinical stage oncology company. Biotechnology product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk.

To date, we have no products approved for commercial sale, have not generated any revenue from commercial product sales and, as of December 31, 2025, had an accumulated deficit of $978.0 million. For the years ended December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, our net loss was $191.1 million and $227.5 million, respectively. Substantially all of our losses have resulted from expenses incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. In addition, our expenses could increase beyond expectations if we are required by the FDA, or foreign regulatory agencies, to perform studies or clinical trials in addition to those studies and clinical trials that we currently anticipate conducting for our product candidates, or if there are any delays in our or our partners completing clinical trials or the development of any of our product candidates. Our technologies and product candidates are in varying stages of development, and we are subject to the risks of failure inherent in the development of product candidates based on novel technologies. In addition, we have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully overcome many of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving fields, particularly in the biotechnology industry. Furthermore, we do not expect to generate any revenue from commercial product sales for the foreseeable future, and we expect to continue to incur significant operating losses for the foreseeable future due to the cost of research and development, preclinical studies and clinical trials and the regulatory approval process for our product candidates and manufacturing clinical and early commercial supply of our product candidates. We expect our net losses to increase substantially as we progress further into development of our lead programs and create additional infrastructure to support operations as a public company. However, the amount of our future losses is uncertain. We may never generate revenues from the commercial sale of our or our collaborators’ products. Our ability to achieve profitability, if ever, will depend on, among other things, our, or our existing or future collaborators’, successful development of product candidates, evaluating the related commercial opportunities, obtaining regulatory approvals to market and commercialize product candidates, manufacturing any approved products on commercially reasonable terms, establishing a sales and marketing organization or suitable third-party alternatives for any approved product, and raising sufficient funds to finance business activities. If we, or our existing or future collaborators, are unable to develop our technologies and commercialize one or more of our product candidates or if sales revenue from any product candidate that receives approval is insufficient, we will not achieve profitability, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods.

We will need substantial additional funds to advance development of our product candidates and failure to obtain sufficient funding may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development programs, commercialization efforts or other operations. We may have difficulty accessing additional capital on reasonable, or even any, terms to continue our product and platform development or other operations and have made and may have to make again in the future difficult prioritization decisions regarding development and potential partnering of our clinical and preclinical product candidates.

The development of biopharmaceutical product candidates is capital-intensive. As our product candidates advance through preclinical studies and clinical trials, we will need substantial additional funds to expand our development, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities. We have used substantial funds to develop our technology and product candidates and will require significant funds to conduct further research and development and preclinical testing and clinical trials of our product candidates, to seek regulatory approvals for our product candidates, to manufacture extract and products, if any, which may be approved for commercial sale, to establish marketing and sales capabilities to commercialize our product candidates, and to provide support to our collaborators in the development of their products. In addition, we expect to continue to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company.

Since our inception, we have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in research and development activities for our preclinical and clinical-stage product candidates and the development of our technology platform. Preclinical studies and clinical trials for our product candidates have required substantial funds to date and will continue to require substantial funds to complete. As of December 31, 2025, we had $141.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. We expect to incur substantial expenditures in the foreseeable future as we seek to advance multiple product candidates through clinical development, manufacturing, the regulatory approval process and, if approved, commercial launch activities, as well as in connection with the continued development of our technology platform. Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our available cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will be sufficient to fund our operations through at least the next 12 months. However, our future capital requirements and the period for which we expect our existing resources to support our operations may vary significantly from what we expect, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. Our monthly spending levels vary based on new and ongoing research and development and other corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with successful research and development of our product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for development and any marketing and commercialization activities for approved products. For example, the timing and amount of our operating expenditures will depend largely on:

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the timing, progress and results of preclinical and worldwide clinical development activities;

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the costs associated with the development of our external manufacturing and research and development facilities and processes;

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the number and scope of preclinical and clinical programs we decide to pursue;

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the progress of the development efforts of parties with whom we have entered or may in the future enter into collaborations and research and development agreements;

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the timing and amount of milestone and other payments we may receive under our collaboration and/or research and development agreements;

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our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, strategic partnerships or marketing, distribution, licensing or other strategic arrangements with third parties on favorable terms, if at all;

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our ability to achieve sufficient market acceptance, adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors and adequate market share and revenue for any approved product candidates;

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the costs involved in prosecuting, defending and enforcing patent and other intellectual property claims;

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the costs of manufacturing our product candidates and those of our collaborators using our proprietary XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms;

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the cost of pursuing and timing of obtaining regulatory approvals;

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the cost of commercialization activities if our product candidates or any future product candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs;

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our efforts to enhance operational systems and hire and retain key personnel, including personnel to support development of our product candidates and satisfy our obligations as a public company; and

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general economic, industry and market conditions, including market volatility, high levels of inflation, changes in interest rates, changes in tariffs and trade restrictions, uncertainty with respect to the federal debt ceiling and budget and government shutdowns.

If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, we may have to delay, reduce or terminate our research and development programs and preclinical studies or clinical trials, limit strategic opportunities or undergo additional reductions in our workforce or other corporate restructuring activities beyond the reductions in our workforce announced in March 2025 and September 2025. We also could be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborators or others that may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates that we would otherwise pursue on our own. We cannot provide assurance that anticipated collaborator payments will, in fact, be received. We do not expect to realize revenue from sales of commercial products or royalties from licensed products in the foreseeable future, if at all, and, in no event, before our product candidates are clinically tested, approved for commercialization and successfully marketed. To date, we have primarily financed our operations through payments received under our collaboration and other associated agreements, the sale of equity securities, debt financing and a royalty monetization agreement. We will be required to seek additional funding in the future and currently intend to do so through additional collaborations and/or licensing agreements, public or private equity offerings or debt financings, credit or loan facilities, royalty monetization or a combination of one or more of these funding sources. Additional funds may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.

If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will suffer dilution and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. If we raise additional funds through licensing or collaboration arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. In addition, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, rights superior to those of existing stockholders. Any future debt financings, if available, are likely to involve, restrictive covenants limiting our flexibility in conducting future business activities, and, in the event of insolvency, debt holders would be repaid before holders of our equity securities receive any distribution of our corporate assets. Adverse macro-economic conditions, including volatility in equity capital markets, fluctuating interest rates, tariffs, actual or perceived instability in the U.S. and global banking systems, and fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, could prevent us from raising additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, or at all. Failure to obtain capital when needed on acceptable terms may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development and commercialization of our current or future product candidates, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our product candidates are in varying development stages and may fail in development or be impacted by competitive products or suffer delays that materially and adversely affect their commercial viability. If we or our collaborators are unable to complete development of or commercialize our product candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We have no products on the market and most of our internal product candidates for cancer therapy are in preclinical development, including STRO-006 and STRO-227. Additionally, we have partnered-programs that are being evaluated in earlier stages of preclinical development and may never advance to clinical-stage development. Our ability to achieve and sustain profitability depends on obtaining regulatory approvals for and successfully commercializing our product candidates, either alone or with third parties, and we cannot guarantee you that we will ever obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. We have limited experience in conducting and managing the clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approvals, including approval by the

FDA. Before obtaining regulatory approval for the commercial distribution of our product candidates, we or an existing or future collaborator must conduct extensive preclinical tests and clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy in humans of our product candidates.

We may not have the financial resources to continue development of, or to modify existing or enter into new collaborations for, a product candidate if we experience any issues that delay or prevent regulatory approval of, or our ability to commercialize, product candidates, including:

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negative or inconclusive results from our, or our licensees’ clinical trials, or the clinical trials of others for product candidates similar to ours, leading to a decision or requirement to conduct additional preclinical testing or clinical trials or abandon a program;

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side effects experienced by patients in our clinical trials or by individuals using drugs or therapeutic biologics similar to our product candidates;

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difficulty achieving successful continued development, or transfer to third-parties, of our internal manufacturing processes, including process development and scale-up activities to supply products for preclinical studies, clinical trials and commercial sale;

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delays in submitting INDs or comparable foreign applications or delays or failures in obtaining the necessary approvals from regulators to commence a clinical trial, or a suspension or termination of a clinical trial once commenced;

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conditions imposed by the FDA or comparable foreign authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials;

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delays in enrolling patients or high drop-out rates in our clinical trials;

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inadequate supply or quality of product candidate components or materials or other supplies necessary for the conduct of our clinical trials;

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inability to obtain alternative sources of supply for which we have a single source for product candidate components or materials, if necessary;

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occurrence of epidemics, pandemics or contagious diseases and potential effects on our business, clinical trial sites, highly complex supply chain and manufacturing facilities;

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greater than anticipated costs of our preclinical studies and clinical programs;

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failure to demonstrate in our clinical trials a sufficient response rate or duration of response or other applicable clinical endpoint, which can be unpredictable even in light of earlier non-clinical and clinical data;

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failure to demonstrate a benefit-risk profile acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory agencies;

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failure to demonstrate the ability of our CMOs to manufacture a potent and consistent product;

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unfavorable FDA or other regulatory agency inspection and review of one or more of our clinical trial sites or the manufacturing facilities of our CMOs;

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

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delays and changes in regulatory requirements, policy and guidelines, including the imposition of additional regulatory oversight around clinical testing generally or with respect to our technology in particular;

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varying interpretations of our data by the FDA and similar foreign regulatory agencies; and

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delays in FDA or other regulatory agency review of our submissions due to a government shutdown, epidemic, pandemic, or natural disaster.

We or our collaborators’ inability to complete development of or commercialize our product candidates or significant delays in doing so due to one or more of these factors, could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our business is dependent on the success of our product candidates, including STRO-004, STRO-006 and STRO-227, which are generated from our proprietary XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms. Existing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates may not be successful. If we are unable to commercialize our product candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in the development of our proprietary XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms and our proprietary product candidates, including STRO-004, STRO-006 and STRO-227. Our ability to generate commercial product revenues, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates. We have not previously submitted a new drug application, or NDA, or a biologics license application, or BLA, to the FDA, or similar regulatory approval filings to comparable foreign authorities, for any product candidate, and we cannot be certain that our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Further, our product candidates may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical trials. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market our product candidates, our revenues will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights. Our revenue may also be dependent, in part, on any third-party collaborator’s ability to co-commercialize such product candidate or to commercialize any companion diagnostic for such product candidate, as applicable. If the markets for patient subsets that we are targeting are not as significant as we estimate, we may not generate significant revenues from sales of such products, if approved.

We plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates both in the United States and in selected foreign countries. While the scope of regulatory approvals generally is similar in other countries, in order to obtain separate regulatory approvals in other countries, we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety and efficacy. Other countries also have their own regulations governing, among other things, clinical trials and commercial sales, as well as pricing and distribution of our product candidates, and we may be required to expend significant resources to obtain regulatory approval and to comply with ongoing regulations in these jurisdictions. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the U.S. or abroad.

The success of STRO-004, STRO-006, STRO-227 and our other future proprietary product candidates will depend on many factors, including the following:

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timely completion of successful preclinical studies, including toxicology studies, biodistribution studies, pharmacology studies and other studies in animals, where applicable;

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successful enrollment of patients in, and the timely completion of, successful clinical trials, including in compliance with the FDA’s GCPs and any additional regulatory requirements from foreign regulatory authorities;

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receiving required regulatory approvals for the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of our product candidates;

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making arrangements with third-party manufacturers for commercial manufacturing of our product candidates;

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establishing successful technology transfers and collaborations to develop our product candidates with potential licensees;

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obtaining and maintaining patent, trademark and trade secret protection and non-patent exclusivity for our product candidates and their components;

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enforcing and defending our intellectual property rights and claims and avoiding or defending against intellectual property rights and claims from third parties;

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achieving and demonstrating desirable therapeutic properties for our product candidates’ intended indications;

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launching commercial sales of our product candidates, if and when approved, whether alone or in collaboration with third parties;

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

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effectively competing with other therapies, including those that have not yet entered the market;

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maintaining an acceptable safety and efficacy profile of our product candidates through clinical trials and following regulatory approval; and

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achieving commercially relevant success in the market post approval.

Many of these factors are out of our control and if we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, which would materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Patient enrollment, a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, is affected by many factors including the size and nature of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, competing clinical trials and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or therapeutic biologics that may be approved for the indications being investigated by us. Furthermore, we expect to rely on our collaborators, CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials and, while we expect to enter into agreements governing their committed activities, we have limited influence over their actual performance.

We could encounter delays if prescribing physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in clinical trials of our product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles.

Additionally, we have in the past and may in the future create benchmark molecules for comparative purposes. For example, we have created a benchmark Tissue Factor, or TF, targeting antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, using conventional technology. However, we cannot be certain that any benchmark molecule that we create is the same as the molecule we are attempting to recreate, and the results of the tests comparing any such benchmark molecule to any other potential or current product candidate may be different than the actual results of a head-to-head test of any such other potential or current product candidate against a competitor molecule. Additional preclinical and clinical testing will be needed to evaluate the therapeutic index of our potential or current product candidates, and to understand their therapeutic potential relative to other product candidates in development. While we believe our ADCs may be superior to other investigative agents in development, without head-to-head comparative data, we will not be able to make claims of superiority to other products in our promotional materials, if our product candidates are approved.

If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the timeframes we anticipate and project, the commercialization of our products may be delayed and our stock price may decline.

From time to time, we estimate the timing of the anticipated accomplishment of various scientific, clinical, regulatory, commercial and other product development goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones. These milestones may include the commencement or completion of scientific studies and clinical trials, and the submission of regulatory filings. From time to time, we may publicly announce the expected timing of some of these milestones. All of these milestones are and will be based on numerous assumptions. The actual timing of these milestones can vary dramatically compared to our estimates, in some cases for reasons beyond our control, such as health epidemics and pandemics, government shutdowns, natural disasters, global instability and geopolitical conflicts within regions where our clinical trials are conducted. For example, we may open clinical trial sites in jurisdictions that may face enrollment, operational or other difficulties due to conflicts within the region. In addition, we rely on third party vendors, contractors and consultants to provide services in connection with our clinical trials. If these third parties do not perform their services in a timely or workmanlike manner, our clinical studies may be delayed. If we do not meet these milestones as publicly announced, or at all, the commercialization of our products may be delayed or never achieved and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

Our approach to the discovery and development of our therapeutic treatments is based on novel technologies, including unprecedented dual-payload ADC technology, which includes Immunostimulatory ADCs, that are unproven and may not result in marketable products.

We are developing a pipeline of product candidates using our proprietary XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms. We believe that product candidates identified with our product discovery platform may offer an improved therapeutic approach by taking advantage of precision design and rapid empirical optimization, thereby reducing the dose-limiting toxic effects associated with existing products. However, the scientific research that forms the basis of our efforts to develop product candidates based on our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms is ongoing. Further, the scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing therapeutic treatments based on our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms is both preliminary and limited.

Our current and prior product candidates have been tested in a relatively limited number of clinical trial patients. We may ultimately discover that our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms and any product candidates resulting therefrom do not possess certain properties required for therapeutic effectiveness. XpressCF® and XpressCF+® product candidates may also be unable to remain stable in the human body for the period of time required for the drug to reach the target tissue or they may trigger immune responses that inhibit the ability of the product candidate to reach the target tissue or that cause adverse side effects in humans. We currently have only limited data, and no conclusive evidence, to suggest that we can introduce these necessary properties into these product candidates derived from our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms. We may spend substantial funds attempting to introduce these properties and may never succeed in doing so. In addition, product candidates based on our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms may demonstrate different chemical and pharmacological properties in patients than they do in laboratory studies. Although our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms and certain product candidates have produced successful results in animal studies, they may not demonstrate the same chemical and pharmacological properties in humans and may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen, ineffective or harmful ways. These unknowns and other emerging findings from our clinical trials and preclinical studies may result in protocol amendments, which may result in additional costs and may also delay our anticipated clinical timelines.

Results of our clinical trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects or unexpected characteristics. Undesirable side effects could result in the delay, suspension or termination of clinical trials by us or regulatory authorities for a number of reasons. It is possible that, as we test our product candidates in larger, longer and more extensive clinical trials or as the use of our product candidates becomes more widespread following any regulatory approval, illnesses, injuries, discomforts and other adverse events that were observed in earlier trials, as well as conditions that did not occur or went undetected in previous trials, will be reported by patients. If such side effects become known later in development or upon approval, if any, such findings may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects significantly.

If product candidates based on our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms are unable to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy data to obtain marketing approval, we may never succeed in developing a

marketable product, we may not become profitable and the value of our common stock will decline. The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates such as ours can be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or extensively studied product candidates. We are not aware of any company currently developing a therapeutic using our approach to ADC or dual-payload ADC development and no regulatory authority has granted approval for such a therapeutic. We believe the FDA has limited experience with therapeutics in oncology or other disease areas developed in cell-free-based synthesis systems, which may increase the complexity, uncertainty and length of the regulatory approval process for our product candidates. For example, our product candidates contain cleavable or non-cleavable linker-payload combinations or novel payloads that may result in unforeseen events when administered in a human. We and our existing or future collaborators may never receive approval to market and commercialize any product candidate. Even if we or an existing or future collaborator obtains regulatory approval, the approval may be for targets, disease indications or patient populations that are not as broad as we intended or desired or may require labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings. We or an existing or future collaborator may be required to perform additional or unanticipated clinical trials to obtain approval or be subject to post-marketing testing requirements to maintain regulatory approval. If the products resulting from our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms prove to be ineffective, unsafe or commercially unviable, our platforms and pipeline would have little, if any, value, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of results of future clinical trials.

The outcome of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and preliminary results of clinical trials do not necessarily predict success in future clinical trials. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in earlier development, and we could face similar setbacks. The design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product, and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced or completed. While certain relevant members of our company have significant clinical experience, we in general have limited experience in designing clinical trials and may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support marketing approval. In addition, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. Many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval for the product candidates. Even if we, current or future collaborators, believe that the results of clinical trials for our product candidates warrant marketing approval, the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree and may not grant marketing approval of our product candidates.

In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different clinical trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial procedures set forth in protocols, differences in the size and type of the patient populations, changes in and adherence to the dosing regimen and other clinical trial protocols, and the rate of dropout among clinical trial patients.Any Phase 2 or 3 trial results may not be representative of Phase 1 results, and such Phase 2 or 3 trial results may not be accepted by the FDA as pivotal and sufficient for approval, and additional trials may be required to establish that our product candidates are safe and effective. Further, in our oncology clinical trials to date, we have used achievement of stable disease as evidence for disease control (stable disease, partial response or complete response) by our product candidates; however, the FDA does not view stable disease as an objective response for the purposes of FDA approval. If we fail to receive positive results in clinical trials of our product candidates, the development timeline and regulatory approval and commercialization prospects for our most advanced product candidates, and, correspondingly, our business and financial prospects would be negatively impacted.

Interim, top-line, or preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.

From time to time, we have publicly disclosed, and in the future may disclose, interim, top-line, or preliminary data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials, which are based on preliminary analyses of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review and/or maturation of the data related to the particular study or trial. We also make assumptions,

estimations, calculations, and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. Therefore, final results from the studies may differ from the top-line results initially reported, and the final results may indicate different conclusions once additional data have been evaluated. As such, top-line data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available.

Early-stage clinical trials of novel products also commonly include a dose exploration phase, during which adverse effects of treatment may emerge at higher doses that are new, unexpected, or occur at higher-than-expected frequencies or severity and may limit our ability to develop such products in one or more target indications or patient populations. Similarly, in dose expansion phases, we may discover that adverse effects, either known or novel, may negatively impact the emerging overall benefit-risk profile of our product candidates and may lead to the discontinuation or other significant alteration to the development plan.

In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive data, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure. If the final results differ from the interim, top-line, or preliminary data, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and to commercialize, our product candidates may be harmed, which may negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Further, disclosure of interim data by us or by our competitors could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.

Further, others, including regulatory agencies, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions, or analyses, or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could negatively affect the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate.

The market may not be receptive to our product candidates, and we may not generate any future revenue from the sale or licensing of product candidates.

Even if regulatory approval is obtained for a product candidate, we may not generate or sustain revenue from sales of the product due to factors such as whether the product can be sold at a competitive cost, competition in the therapeutic area(s) we have received or may receive approval, and whether it will otherwise be accepted in the market. Historically, there have been concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of ADCs, and an ADC drug was voluntarily withdrawn from the market for an extended period of time, although it has since been re-approved by the FDA. These historical concerns may negatively impact the perception market participants have on ADCs, including our product candidates, though advances in ADC technology have ameliorated these concerns to some degree. Additionally, the product candidates that we are developing are based on our proprietary XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms, which are new technologies. Market participants with significant influence over acceptance of new treatments, such as physicians and third-party payors, may not adopt an ADC product, or a product or treatment based on our novel cell-free production technologies, and the medical community and third-party payors may not be compelled to accept and use, or to provide favorable reimbursement for, any product candidates developed by us or our existing or future collaborators. Market acceptance of our product candidates will depend on the following, among other factors:

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the timing of our receipt of any marketing and commercialization approvals;

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the terms of any approvals and the countries in which approvals are obtained;

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the safety and efficacy of our product candidates;

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the prevalence and severity of any adverse side effects associated with our product candidates;

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limitations or warnings contained in any labeling approved by the FDA or other regulatory authority;

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relative convenience and ease of administration of our product candidates;

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the willingness of patients to accept any new methods of administration;

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the success of our physician education programs;

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the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from government and third-party payors;

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the availability of a commercially approved companion diagnostic or assay or biomarker to appropriately identify patients that will benefit from treatment;

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the pricing of our products, particularly as compared to alternative treatments; and

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the availability of alternative effective treatments for the disease indications our product candidates are intended to treat and the relative risks, benefits and costs of those treatments.

Dual-payload ADC technology is novel, which makes it difficult to predict the time, risks and cost of development and of subsequently obtaining regulatory approval of these potential product candidates.

Our future success depends, in part, on the successful development of our proprietary dual-payload ADC technology and products derived from it. To our knowledge, no regulatory authority has granted approval to any person or entity, including us, to market and commercialize therapeutics using any dual-payload ADC technology, including our novel dual-payload ADC technology. We may never receive approval to market and commercialize any potential dual-payload ADC product candidate.

Because our product candidates are based on new technology, we expect that they will require extensive research and development and have substantial manufacturing and processing costs. In addition, our estimates regarding potential market size for any indication may be materially different from what we discover to exist at the time we commence commercialization, if any, for a product, which could result in significant changes in our business plan and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If any product candidate we commercialize fails to achieve market acceptance, we may not generate or derive sufficient revenue from that product candidate, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

If we uncover any previously unknown risks related to our dual-payload ADC technology, or if we experience unanticipated or unsolvable problems or delays in developing our dual-payload ADC product candidates, we may be unable to complete our preclinical studies and clinical trials, meet the obligations of our collaboration and license agreements, or commercialize our product candidates on a timely or profitable basis. Alternatively, we may be required to make amendments to our trial protocol, which could result in additional costs and may also delay our anticipated clinical development timelines. If serious adverse events or unacceptable side effects are observed in preclinical studies or clinical trials of a product candidate based on our dual-payload ADC technology, or if dual-payload ADCs were shown to have limited efficacy, our ability to develop other product candidates based on our dual-payload ADC technology would be adversely affected.

We have entered, and may in the future seek to enter, into collaborations with third parties for the development and commercialization of our product candidates using our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms. If we fail to enter into such collaborations, or such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms and resulting product candidates.

Since 2014, we have entered into several collaborations to develop and commercialize certain cancer and other therapeutics. Our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms have also supported a spin-out company, now known as Vaxcyte Inc., focused on discovery and development of vaccines for the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious disease. In addition, we may in the future seek third-party collaborators for research, development and commercialization of other therapeutic technologies or product candidates. Biopharmaceutical companies have been, and will likely continue to be, our principal partners for marketing, distribution, development, licensing and broader collaboration arrangements. Under our existing collaboration agreements, and we expect, any future collaboration agreements, our ability to influence the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of our product candidates is, and will likely remain, limited. Moreover, our ability to generate revenues from these arrangements will depend on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements.

Collaborations involving our product candidates currently pose, and will continue to pose, the following risks to us:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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collaborators may infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability;

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

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

As a result of the foregoing, our current and any future collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of our product candidates in the most efficient manner or at all. Moreover, if a collaborator of ours were to be involved in a business combination, the continued pursuit and emphasis on our product development or commercialization program could be delayed, diminished or terminated. Any failure to successfully develop or commercialize our product candidates pursuant to our current or any future collaboration agreements could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Our existing collaborations with Astellas and Vaxcyte are important to our business. If our collaborators cease development efforts under our existing or future collaboration agreements, fail to fulfill their contract obligations, or if any of those agreements are terminated, these collaborations may fail to lead to commercial products and we may never receive milestone payments or future royalties under these agreements.

We have entered into collaborations with other biotechnology companies to develop or commercialize several of our product candidates, and such collaborations currently represent a significant portion of our product pipeline and discovery and preclinical programs. A substantial portion of our revenue to date has been derived from our collaborations, and a significant portion of our future revenue and cash resources is expected to be derived from some of these agreements, along with our royalty monetization agreement, or Purchase Agreement, with an affiliate of Blackstone Life Sciences, or Blackstone, or other similar agreements into which we may enter in the

future. Revenue from research and development collaborations depends upon continuation of the collaborations, payments for research and development and other services and product supply, and the achievement of milestones, contingent payments and royalties, if any, derived from future products developed from our research. If we are unable to successfully advance the development of our product candidates, achieve milestones or earn contingent payments under our collaboration agreements or royalty monetization agreement, future revenue and cash resources will be substantially less than expected.

We are unable to predict the success of our collaborations and we may not realize the anticipated benefits of our strategic collaborations. Our collaborators have discretion in determining and directing the efforts and resources, including the ability to discontinue all efforts and resources, they apply to the development and, if approval is obtained, commercialization and marketing of the product candidates covered by such collaborations. As a result, our collaborators may elect to de-prioritize our programs, change their strategic focus or pursue alternative technologies in a manner that results in reduced, delayed or no revenue to us. For example, each of EMD Serono, BMS, Merck and Ipsen elected not to continue the development of their licensed product candidates, and our existing collaborator, Astellas, decided not to nominate a third program under our collaboration; each such decision was noted as based on strategic portfolio considerations. Our collaborators may have other marketed products and product candidates under collaboration with other companies, including some of our competitors, and their corporate objectives may not be consistent with our best interests. Our collaborators may also be unsuccessful in developing or commercializing our products. If our collaborations are unsuccessful, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected. Our collaborators may fail to live up to the terms of their agreements with us, which would require us to seek to enforce our agreements in accordance with the dispute resolution procedures set forth in such agreements. These procedures may require us to engage in litigation or arbitration to enforce our rights, which can be expensive, time-consuming and distracting to our management and Board of Directors. Further, the type and timing of resolution of such disputes are difficult to predict; and there is the potential that we could fail to enforce our rights either in whole or in part. Lastly, even if we successfully enforce our rights under our agreements with our collaborators, there is the possibility that we could fail to recover our expectancy following the litigation or arbitration, particularly for collaborators that are not subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

In addition, from time to time we may have disputes with our collaborators. Any dispute or litigation proceedings we may have with our collaborators could delay development programs, reduce or eliminate potential milestone or other payments, create uncertainty as to ownership of intellectual property rights, distract management from other business activities and generate substantial expense.

Moreover, to the extent that any of our existing or future collaborators were to terminate a collaboration agreement, we may be forced to independently develop these product candidates, including funding preclinical studies or clinical trials, assuming marketing and distribution costs and defending intellectual property rights, or, in certain instances, abandon product candidates altogether, any of which could result in a change to our business plan and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may not successfully engage in strategic transactions, including any additional collaborations we seek, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize product candidates, impact our cash position, increase our expenses and present significant distractions to our management.

From time to time, we may consider strategic transactions, such as additional collaborations, acquisitions of companies, asset purchases or sales and out- or in-licensing of product candidates or technologies that we believe will complement or augment our existing business. In particular, we will evaluate and, if strategically attractive, seek to enter into additional collaborations, including with major biotechnology or biopharmaceutical companies. The competition for collaborators is intense, and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Any new collaboration may be on terms that are not optimal for us, and we may not be able to maintain any new collaboration if, for example, development or approval of a product candidate is delayed, sales of an approved product candidate do not meet expectations, or the collaborator terminates the collaboration. In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future strategic partners. Additionally, antitrust or other competition laws including increased enforcement within the United States in the healthcare space may also limit our ability to enter into collaborations with certain businesses or to fully realize the benefits of strategic transactions. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the strategic partner’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed

collaboration and the proposed strategic partner’s evaluation of a number of factors. These factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States, the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership, without regard to the merits of the challenge, and industry and market conditions generally. Moreover, if we acquire assets with promising markets or technologies, we may not be able to realize the benefit of acquiring such assets due to an inability to successfully integrate them with our existing technologies and may encounter numerous difficulties in developing, manufacturing and marketing any new products resulting from a strategic acquisition that delay or prevent us from realizing their expected benefits or enhancing our business.

We cannot assure you that following any such collaboration, or other strategic transaction, we will achieve the expected synergies to justify the transaction. For example, such transactions may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures and pose significant integration or implementation challenges or disrupt our management or business. These transactions would entail numerous operational and financial risks, including exposure to unknown liabilities, disruption of our business and diversion of our management’s time and attention in order to manage a collaboration or develop acquired products, product candidates or technologies, incurrence of substantial debt or dilutive issuances of equity securities to pay transaction consideration or costs, higher than expected collaboration, acquisition or integration costs, write-downs of assets or goodwill or impairment charges, increased amortization expenses, difficulty and cost in facilitating the collaboration or combining the operations and personnel of any acquired business, impairment of relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers or customers of any acquired business due to changes in management and ownership and the inability to retain key employees of any acquired business.

Accordingly, although there can be no assurance that we will undertake or successfully complete any transactions of the nature described above, any transactions that we do complete may be subject to the foregoing or other risks and would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Conversely, any failure to enter any additional collaboration or other strategic transaction that would be beneficial to us could delay the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates and have a negative impact on the competitiveness of any product candidate that reaches market.

To date, no product developed on a cell-free manufacturing platform has received approval from the FDA, so the requirements for the manufacturing of products using our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms are uncertain.

Before we may initiate a clinical trial or commercialize any of our product candidates, we must demonstrate to the FDA that the chemistry, manufacturing and controls for our product candidates meet applicable requirements, and in the European Union, or EU, a manufacturing authorization must be obtained from the appropriate EU regulatory authorities. The FDA has allowed our cell-free product candidates, and others of our or our partners’ product candidates, to proceed through clinical trials; however, because no product manufactured on a cell-free manufacturing platform has yet been approved in the United States, there is no manufacturing facility that has demonstrated the ability to comply with FDA requirements for later stage clinical development or commercialization, and, therefore, the timeframe for demonstrating compliance to the FDA’s satisfaction is uncertain. Despite completed technology transfers to our contract manufacturing organization, we could still experience unexpected or unplanned supply chain issues that may delay or disrupt our development efforts.

We have conducted technology transfers to enable large scale manufacture of extract and the reagents necessary to manufacture our products using our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms and are likely to conduct additional similar technology transfers in the future. These large-scale technology transfers may fail or be delayed, resulting in impacts to our development timelines and the costs associated with manufacturing our development products.

We expect to rely on third parties to conduct certain of our preclinical studies or clinical trials. If those third parties do not perform as contractually required, fail to satisfy regulatory or legal requirements or

miss expected deadlines, our development program could be delayed with potentially material and adverse effects on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We do not have the ability to independently conduct all aspects of our preclinical testing or clinical trials ourselves. We have accordingly relied in some cases and intend to rely in the future on third-party clinical investigators, CROs, clinical data management organizations and consultants to assist or provide the design, conduct, supervision and monitoring of preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates. Because we intend to rely on these third parties and will not have the ability to conduct all preclinical studies or clinical trials independently, we will have less control over the timing, quality and other aspects of preclinical studies and clinical trials than we would have had we conducted them on our own. These investigators, CROs and consultants will not be our employees and we will have limited control over the amount of time and resources that they dedicate to our programs. These third parties may have contractual relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors, which may draw time and resources from our programs. The third parties with which we may contract might not be diligent, careful or timely in conducting our preclinical studies or clinical trials, resulting in the preclinical studies or clinical trials being delayed or unsuccessful.

If we cannot contract with acceptable third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or if these third parties do not carry out their contractual duties, satisfy legal and regulatory requirements for the conduct of preclinical studies or clinical trials or meet expected deadlines, our clinical development programs could be delayed and otherwise adversely affected. In all events, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical studies and clinical trials are conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial. The FDA requires preclinical studies to be conducted in accordance with good laboratory practices and clinical trials to be conducted in accordance with good clinical practices, including for designing, conducting, recording and reporting the results of preclinical studies and clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of clinical trial participants are protected. Our reliance on third parties that we do not control will not relieve us of these responsibilities and requirements. Any adverse development or delay in our preclinical studies or clinical trials as a result of our reliance on third parties could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We expect to rely on third parties to manufacture our drug supplies. If those third-parties are unable to manufacture sufficient quantities of our product candidates, or we lose such suppliers, or they fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or to supply sufficient quantities at acceptable quality levels or prices, or at all, our business would be materially and adversely affected.

Following our March 2025 and September 2025 restructurings, we use a product supply approach wherein all elements of our product candidates, including raw and intermediate materials, are manufactured at qualified third-party CMOs.

Since the winding down of manufacturing activities at our own manufacturing facilities, we rely on third-party contract manufacturers to manufacture such clinical trial product materials and supplies for our or our collaborators’ needs. There can be no assurance that our preclinical and clinical development product supplies will not be limited, interrupted, or of satisfactory quality or continue to be available at acceptable prices. Further, while efforts are made to diversify our sources of raw and intermediate materials, we acquire certain raw and intermediate materials from a sole supplier. In particular, any replacement of our manufacturer could require significant effort and expertise because there may be a limited number of qualified replacements. In addition, replacement of a manufacturer may require a technology transfer to the new manufacturer, which involves technical risk that the transfer may not succeed or may be delayed, and can result in significant costs. To the extent we elect to transfer manufacturing between third-party CMOs, we will be required to demonstrate that the product manufactured in the new facility is comparable and/or non-inferior to the product manufactured in the original facility.

The manufacturing process for a product candidate is subject to FDA and foreign regulatory authority review. We, and our suppliers and manufacturers, must meet applicable manufacturing requirements and undergo rigorous facility and process validation tests required by regulatory authorities in order to comply with regulatory standards, such as cGMPs. If we or our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, we may not be able to rely on our or their manufacturing facilities for the manufacture of elements of

our product candidates. Moreover, we do not control the manufacturing process at our contract manufacturers and are completely dependent on them for compliance with current regulatory requirements. In the event that any of our manufacturers fails to comply with such requirements or to perform its obligations in relation to quality, timing or otherwise, or if our supply of components or other materials becomes limited or interrupted for other reasons, we may be forced to manufacture the materials ourselves or enter into an agreement with another third party, which we may not be able to do on reasonable terms, if at all. In some cases, the technical skills or technology required to manufacture our product candidates may be unique or proprietary to the original manufacturer and we may have difficulty applying such skills or technology ourselves, or in transferring such to another third party. These factors would increase our reliance on such manufacturer or require us to obtain a license from such manufacturer in order to enable us, or to have another third party, manufacture our product candidates. If we are required to change manufacturers for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations and guidelines; and we may be required to repeat some of the development program. The delays associated with the verification of a new manufacturer could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates in a timely manner or within budget.

We expect to continue to rely on third-party manufacturers if we receive regulatory approval for any product candidate. To the extent that we have existing, or enter into future, manufacturing arrangements with third parties, we will depend on these third parties to perform their obligations in a timely manner consistent with contractual and regulatory requirements, including those related to quality control and assurance. If we are unable to obtain or maintain third-party manufacturing for product candidates, or to do so on commercially reasonable terms, we may not be able to develop and commercialize our product candidates successfully. Our or a third party’s failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements and comply with cGMPs could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including:

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an inability to initiate or continue clinical trials of product candidates under development;

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delay in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving regulatory approvals, for product candidates;

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loss of an existing or future collaborator;

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losses resulting from an inability to utilize reserved manufacturing capacity because of delays or difficulties encountered in the supply chain;

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

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requirements to cease distribution or to recall batches of our product candidates; and

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in the event of approval to market and commercialize a product candidate, an inability to meet commercial demands for our products.

Additionally, our contract manufacturers may experience manufacturing difficulties due to changes in tariffs and other trade restrictions, resource constraints or as a result of labor disputes, unstable political environments, epidemics, pandemics, or contagious diseases, or failures or delays in our manufacturing supply chain. For example, restrictions on travel imposed by governments, including China, or restrictions on person-in-plant permissions imposed by our contract manufacturers may limit the ability of our subject matter experts to visit our manufacturers and assist with technology transfers. Further, legislation has been enacted in Congress to limit federal agencies and contractors from using equipment or services produced or provided by select Chinese biotechnology companies, which may affect U.S. biotechnology companies that are recipients of federal funding. We cannot predict what actions may ultimately be taken with respect to trade relations between the United States and China or other countries, what products and services may be subject to such actions or what actions may be taken by the other countries in retaliation. If we or our contract manufacturers were to encounter interruptions from any of these events or other unforeseen events, our ability to provide our product candidates to patients in clinical trials, or to provide product for treatment of patients once approved, would be jeopardized.

U.S.-China trade relations may adversely impact our supply chain operations and business.

The U.S. and Chinese governments have taken certain actions that change trade policies, including tariffs that affect certain products which are manufactured in China and mutual exchange of certain types of data. It is unknown whether and to what extent new tariffs, laws or regulations will be adopted that increase the cost or feasibility of importing and/or exporting products, components and information from China to the United States and vice versa. Further, the effect of any such new tariffs or actions on our industry and customers is unknown and difficult to predict. As additional new tariffs, legislation and/or regulations are implemented, or if existing trade agreements are renegotiated or if China or other affected countries take retaliatory trade actions, such changes could have a material adverse effect on our clinical development plans, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Our third-party manufacturers may be unable to successfully scale-up manufacturing of our product candidates or materials used to manufacture components of our product candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from developing our product candidates and commercializing approved products, if any.

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

Scaling up a biologic manufacturing process is a difficult and uncertain task, and we may not be successful in transferring our production system or our third-party manufacturers may not have the necessary capabilities to complete the implementation and development process. If we are unable to adequately validate or scale-up the manufacturing process at our own manufacturing facilities or those of our current manufacturers, we will need to transfer to another manufacturer and complete the manufacturing validation process, which can be lengthy and costly. To the extent we elect to transfer manufacturing, we will be required to demonstrate that the product manufactured in the new facility is comparable and/or non-inferior to the product manufactured in the original facility. Our inability to demonstrate to the FDA or other comparable regulatory authority that acceptable drug product was manufactured could delay the development of our product candidates or availability of additional product supplies.

If we are able to adequately validate and scale-up the manufacturing process for our product candidates with a contract manufacturer, we will still need to negotiate with such contract manufacturer an agreement for commercial supply and it is not certain we will be able to come to agreement on terms acceptable to us.

The manufacture of biologics is complex and our third-party manufacturers may encounter difficulties in production. If any of our third-party manufacturers encounter such difficulties, our ability to provide supply of our product candidates for clinical trials, our ability to obtain marketing approval, or our ability to provide supply of our products, if approved, for patients, could be delayed or stopped.

Our product candidates are considered to be biologics and the process of manufacturing biologics and materials used to manufacture components of our products can be complex, time-consuming, highly-regulated and subject to multiple risks. We and our contract manufacturers must comply with cGMPs, regulations and guidelines for the manufacturing of biologics used in clinical trials and, if approved, marketed products. To date, our contract manufacturers have limited experience in the manufacturing of cGMP batches of our product candidates and materials used to manufacture components of our product candidates.

Manufacturing biologics is highly susceptible to product loss due to contamination, equipment failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, inconsistency in yields, variability in product characteristics and difficulties in scaling the production process. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, product defects and other supply disruptions. If microbial, viral or other contaminations are discovered at our manufacturing facilities or those of our third-party

manufacturers, such facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination, which could delay clinical trials and adversely harm our business. Moreover, if the FDA determines that the manufacturing facilities of our third-party manufacturers are not in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including those governing cGMPs, the FDA may deny BLA approval until the deficiencies are corrected or we replace the manufacturer in our BLA with a manufacturer that is in compliance.

In addition, there are risks associated with large scale manufacturing for clinical trials or commercial scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, compliance with cGMPs and specifications, lot consistency, timely availability of raw materials and other technical challenges. We have previously, and may continue to, source certain of the raw materials needed for our product candidates from outside the United States. Although we have not experienced any material supply interruptions to date, it is possible that political, economic or public health events could cause such interruptions in the future. Even if we or our collaborators obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that manufacturers will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product or to meet potential future demand. If our manufacturers are unable to produce sufficient quantities for clinical trials or for commercialization, commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of any of our product candidates or products will not occur in the future. If our third-party manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide any product candidates to patients in planned clinical trials and products, if approved, to patients, would be jeopardized. Any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial supplies could delay the completion of planned clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at additional expense or terminate clinical trials completely. Any adverse developments affecting clinical or commercial manufacturing of our product candidates or products may result in shipment delays, inventory shortages, lot failures, product withdrawals or recalls, or other interruptions in the supply of our product candidates or products. We may also have to take inventory write-offs and incur other charges and expenses for product candidates or products that fail to meet specifications, undertake costly remediation efforts or seek more costly manufacturing alternatives. Accordingly, failures or difficulties faced at any level of our supply chain could adversely affect our business and delay or impede the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates or products, if approved, and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

As part of our process development efforts, we also may make changes to our manufacturing processes at various points during development, for various reasons, such as controlling costs, achieving scale, decreasing processing time, increasing manufacturing success rate or other reasons. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve their intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of our ongoing clinical trials or future clinical trials. In some circumstances, changes in the manufacturing process may require us to perform ex vivo comparability studies and to collect additional data from patients prior to undertaking more advanced clinical trials. For instance, changes in our process during the course of clinical development may require us to show the comparability of the product used in earlier clinical phases or at earlier portions of a trial to the product used in later clinical phases or later portions of the trial.

We may not be successful in our efforts to use our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms to expand our pipeline of product candidates and develop marketable products.

The success of our business depends in large part upon our ability to identify, develop and commercialize products based on our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms. STRO-004, STRO-006 and STRO-227 are our most advanced clinical and preclinical stage programs, and our preclinical and research programs may fail to identify other potential product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. Our research methodology may be unsuccessful in identifying potential product candidates or our potential product candidates may be shown to have insufficient efficacy, harmful side effects or may have other characteristics that may make the products unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval. If any of these events occur, we may be forced to abandon our development efforts for a program or for multiple programs, which would materially harm our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations. Research programs to identify new product

candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential programs or product candidates that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.

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

Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus our research and development efforts on certain selected product candidates. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable product candidates. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. For example, in June 2023, we announced our Purchase Agreement with Blackstone.

Failure to successfully validate, develop and obtain regulatory approval for companion diagnostics for our product candidates could harm our drug development strategy and operational results.

If companion diagnostics are developed in conjunction with clinical programs, the FDA may require regulatory approval of a companion diagnostic as a condition to approval of the product candidate. Companion diagnostics are subject to regulation by the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities as medical devices and require separate regulatory approval or clearance prior to commercialization. To approve a companion diagnostic or the associated product candidate, FDA may require clinical data demonstrating that the diagnostic can reliably identify patients who are most likely to benefit from the therapeutic product. We may also be required to demonstrate the predictive utility of the companion diagnostic to the FDA. Specifically, we must demonstrate the way in which the diagnostic selects patients for whom the biologic therapy will be effective or more effective compared to patients not selected by the diagnostic.

If we or our collaborators, or any third party, are unable to successfully develop companion diagnostics for our product candidates, or experience delays in doing so:

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the development of our product candidates may be adversely affected if we are unable to appropriately select patients for enrollment in our planned clinical trials;

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our product candidates may not receive marketing approval if their safe and effective use depends on a companion diagnostic, or, though our product candidate may be authorized, we may not be able to commercialize effectively until authorization of a companion diagnostic; and

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we may not realize the full commercial potential of any product candidates that receive marketing approval if, among other reasons, we are unable to appropriately identify patients with the specific patient selection criteria targeted by our product candidates.

In addition, although we believe genetic testing and other patient selection schema are becoming more prevalent in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and conditions, our product candidates may be perceived negatively compared to alternative treatments that do not require the use of companion diagnostics, either due to the additional cost of the companion diagnostic or the need to complete additional procedures to identify genetic markers prior to administering our product candidates. If any of these events were to occur, our business would be harmed, possibly materially.

We face competition from entities that have developed or may develop product candidates for cancer, including companies developing novel treatments and technology platforms. If these companies develop technologies or product candidates more rapidly than we do or their technologies are perceived to be

more effective, our ability to develop and successfully commercialize product candidates may be adversely affected.

The development and commercialization of drugs and therapeutic biologics is highly competitive. Our product candidates, if approved, will face significant competition and our failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration. Most of our competitors have significantly greater resources, including financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, sales, supply, human resources, or general experience than we do and we may not be able to successfully compete. We compete with a variety of multinational biopharmaceutical companies, specialized biotechnology companies and emerging biotechnology companies, as well as with technologies and product candidates being developed at universities and other research institutions. Our competitors have developed, are developing or will develop product candidates and processes competitive with our product candidates and processes. Competitive therapeutic treatments include those that have already been approved and accepted by the medical community and any new treatments, including those based on novel technology platforms, that enter the market. We believe that a significant number of products are currently under development, and may become commercially available in the future, for the treatment of conditions for which we are trying, or may try, to develop product candidates. There is intense and rapidly evolving competition in the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and antibody and immunoregulatory therapeutics fields. While we believe that our XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms, associated intellectual property and our scientific and technical know-how give us a competitive advantage in this space, competition from many sources exists or may arise in the future. Moreover, we also compete with current and future therapeutics developed at research-stage biotechnology companies, universities and other research institutions.

We are aware of several companies that are developing ADCs, bispecific antibodies and cancer immunotherapies, including companies developing ADCs directed to the same targets as STRO-004, STRO-006 and STRO-227. For example, Pfizer has an approved ADC targeting TF, TIVDAK® and is developing sigvotatug vedotin, an ADC targeting Integrinβ6, alongside PF-08046876, another ITGB6-targeting ADC currently in pre-clinical development. In addition, large pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotechnology companies are developing other ADCs, including TF-targeting ADCs; and we anticipate more TF-targeting ADCs, other potential TF-targeting modalities, and possibly more ITGB6-targeting therapeutics will be evaluated in the clinic in the coming years. Further, other companies may develop ADCs targeting receptors other than TF or ITGB6 for the treatment of the same indications for which we are developing STRO-004 and/or STRO-006. Moreover, we are aware of several companies that are also pursuing dual-payload ADCs for oncology indications, including some that have initiated clinical development and other companies that are clinically developing ADCs that target PTK7, the target of STRO-227. Many of these companies are well-capitalized and, unlike us, have significant clinical experience, and may include our existing or future collaborators. In addition, these companies compete with us in recruiting scientific and managerial talent.

Our success will depend partially on our ability to develop and protect therapeutics that are safer and more effective than competing products. Our commercial opportunity and success will be reduced or eliminated if competing products are perceived to be safer, more effective, or less expensive than the therapeutics we develop.

If our product candidates are approved, they will compete with a range of therapeutic treatments that are either in development or currently marketed. Currently marketed oncology therapeutics include a range of biologic modalities with the top selling products by class spanning tumor targeting monoclonal antibodies, to ADCs, to immune checkpoint inhibitors, to T cell-engager immunotherapies, and to CAR-T cell therapies. In addition, numerous compounds are in clinical development for cancer treatment. The clinical development pipeline for cancer includes small molecules, antibodies, vaccines, cell therapies and immunotherapies from a variety of companies and institutions.

Further, if we successfully obtain approval for any product candidate, we will face competition based on many different factors, including the safety and effectiveness of our products, the ease with which our products can be administered and the extent to which patients accept relatively new routes of administration, the timing and scope of regulatory approvals for these products, any awarded exclusivity, the availability and cost of manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities, price, reimbursement, coverage and patent position. Competing products could present superior treatment alternatives, including by being perceived to be more effective, safer, less expensive, or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Competitive products may make any

products we develop obsolete or noncompetitive before we recover the expense of developing and commercializing our product candidates.

Any inability to attract and retain qualified key management and technical personnel would impair our ability to implement our business plan.

We are highly dependent on the research and development, clinical development, manufacturing, and business development expertise of our management team, advisors and other specialized personnel. The loss of one or more members of our management team or other key employees or advisors could delay our research and development programs and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The relationships that our key managers have cultivated within our industry make us particularly dependent upon their continued employment with us. We are dependent on the continued service of our technical personnel because of the highly technical nature of our product candidates and XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platform technologies and the specialized nature of the regulatory approval process. Because our management team and key employees are not obligated to provide us with continued service, they could terminate their employment with us at any time without penalty. Our future success will depend in large part on our continued ability to attract and retain highly qualified scientific, technical and management personnel, as well as personnel with expertise in clinical testing, manufacturing, governmental regulation and commercialization. We face competition for personnel from other companies, universities, public and private research institutions, government entities and other organizations, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we are headquartered. Should our competitors recruit our key employees, our level of expertise and ability to execute our business plan would be negatively impacted. Further, if we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can discover and develop product candidates will be limited, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the stock awards they receive

in connection with their employment. If the perceived benefits of our stock awards decline, it may harm our ability to recruit and retain highly-skilled employees. Our employees may be more likely to leave us if the shares they own have significantly appreciated in value relative to the original purchase prices of the shares, or if the exercise prices of the options that they hold are significantly below the market price of our common stock.

Moreover, in each of March 2025 and September 2025, management approved a restructuring plan, each with an associated reduction in workforce as a result of a review of current strategic priorities, resource allocation, and cost reduction intended to reduce operating costs, streamline operations and extend our cash runway. These reductions in workforce may also make retention of current personnel both more important and more challenging. The workforce reductions resulted in the loss of longer-term employees, the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise, and the reallocation and combination of certain roles and responsibilities across the organization, all of which could adversely affect our operations. Our inability to continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, manage our facilities and continue to recruit and retain qualified personnel could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

We expect we will need to grow our organization in the future, and we may experience difficulties in managing our growth and expanding our operations.

As of December 31, 2025, we had 137 full-time employees. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, we expect to expand our employee base for managerial, operational, financial and other resources. In addition, we have limited experience in product development. As our product candidates enter and advance through preclinical studies and clinical trials, we will need to expand our development, regulatory and manufacturing capabilities or contract with other organizations to provide these capabilities for us. In the future, we expect to have to manage additional relationships with collaborators or partners, suppliers and other organizations. Our ability to manage our operations and future growth will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures. We may not be able to implement improvements to our management information and control systems in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing systems and controls. Our inability to successfully manage our growth and expand our operations could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If any of our product candidates are approved for marketing and commercialization and we are unable to develop sales, marketing and distribution capabilities on our own or enter into agreements with third parties to perform these functions on acceptable terms, we will be unable to commercialize successfully any such future products.

We currently have limited sales, marketing and distribution capabilities or experience. If any of our product candidates are approved, we will need to develop additional sales, marketing and distribution capabilities to commercialize such products, which would be expensive and time consuming, or enter into collaborations with third parties to perform these services. If we decide to market our products directly, we will need to commit significant financial and managerial resources to develop a marketing and sales force with technical expertise and support distribution, administration and compliance capabilities. Additionally, if the commercial launch of any product candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition such sales and marketing personnel.

If we rely on third parties with such capabilities to market our products or decide to co-promote products with collaborators, we will need to establish and maintain marketing and distribution arrangements with third parties, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms or at all. In entering third-party marketing or distribution arrangements, any revenue we receive will depend upon the efforts of the third parties and there can be no assurance that such third parties will establish adequate sales and distribution capabilities or be successful in gaining market acceptance or adoption of any approved product. If we are not successful in commercializing any product approved in the future, either on our own or through third parties, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Our future growth may depend, in part, on our ability to operate in foreign markets, where we would be subject to additional regulatory burdens and other risks and uncertainties.

Our future growth may depend, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates in foreign markets, for which we may rely on collaboration with third parties. We are not permitted to market or promote any of our product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the applicable regulatory authority in that foreign market and may never receive such regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. To obtain separate regulatory approval in many other countries, we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials and commercial sales, pricing and distribution of our product candidates, and we cannot predict success in these jurisdictions. Geographic variations in genetics, comorbidities, environmental factors, treatment patterns, and healthcare practices may impact the safety profile or efficacy of our product candidates in different jurisdictions, which could affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval.

If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and do not receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our product candidates will be harmed and our business will be adversely affected. We may not obtain foreign regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all. Our failure to obtain approval of any of our product candidates by regulatory authorities in another country may significantly diminish the commercial prospects of that product candidate and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, even if we obtain approval of our product candidates and ultimately commercialize our product candidates in foreign markets, we would be subject to the risks and uncertainties, including the burden of complying with complex and changing foreign regulatory, tax, accounting and legal requirements, unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers, price and exchange controls, and other requirements, including escalating trade tensions, and reduced protection of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries, which may impact our cost of goods and ability to commercial our product candidates internationally.

Price controls imposed in either the U.S. or foreign markets may adversely affect our future profitability.

Recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in recent Executive Orders, several Congressional inquiries

and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. Current and future presidential budget proposals and future legislation may contain further drug price control measures that could be enacted. For example, on May 12, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order that, among other things, required HHS, within 30 days, to establish and communicate to drug manufacturers most-favored-nation, or MFN, price targets designed to bring drug prices for American patients in line with those in comparably developed nations. If significant progress towards MFN pricing is not achieved, the Executive Order requires HHS to propose a rulemaking to implement MFN pricing. Recently, on December 23, 2025, CMS issued proposed regulations to establish, under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, two mandatory MFN pricing demonstration models under Medicare Part B and Part D. If these rules or other MFN pricing rules are finalized, they are likely to mandate reduced prices of at least some drugs in the United States, if they are also sold in comparator countries. Even if we do not market drugs in such countries, we will be indirectly affected if our drugs compete with drugs that were reduced by MFN pricing.

Congress and current and future U.S. presidential administrations may continue to seek new legislative and/or administrative measures to control drug costs. At the state level, legislatures are increasingly passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. If such pricing controls are enacted and are set at unsatisfactory levels, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Additionally, in some countries, particularly member states of the EU, the pricing of prescription drugs is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after receipt of marketing approval for a product. In addition, there can be considerable pressure by governments and other stakeholders on prices and reimbursement levels, including as part of cost containment measures. Political, economic and regulatory developments may further complicate pricing negotiations, and pricing negotiations may continue after reimbursement has been obtained. Reference pricing used by various EU member states and parallel distribution, or arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced member states, can further reduce prices. In some countries, we or current or future collaborators may be required to conduct a clinical trial or other studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of our therapeutic candidates to other available therapies in order to obtain or maintain reimbursement or pricing approval. Publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries. If reimbursement of any product candidate approved for marketing is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Our business entails a significant risk of product liability and our ability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

As we are conducting clinical trials of our product candidates, we may be exposed to significant product liability risks inherent in the development, testing, manufacturing and marketing of therapeutic treatments. Product liability claims could delay or prevent completion of our development programs. If we succeed in marketing products, such claims could result in an FDA investigation of the safety and effectiveness of our products, our manufacturing processes and facilities or our marketing programs and potentially a recall of our products or more serious enforcement action, limitations on the approved indications for which they may be used or suspension or withdrawal of approvals. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may also result in decreased demand for our products, injury to our reputation, withdrawal of clinical trial participants, clinical holds or termination of clinical study sites or entire study programs, costs to defend the related litigation, a diversion of management’s time and our resources, substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients and a decline in our stock price. While we currently have product liability insurance that we believe is appropriate for our stage of development, we may need to obtain higher levels prior to later stages of clinical development or marketing any of our product candidates. Any insurance we have or may obtain may not provide sufficient coverage against potential liabilities. Furthermore, clinical trial and product liability insurance is becoming increasingly expensive. As a result, we may be unable to obtain sufficient insurance at a reasonable cost to protect us against losses

caused by product liability claims that could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our employees may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements.

As with all companies, we are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with FDA regulations, provide accurate information to the FDA, comply with manufacturing standards we may establish, comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, inappropriately share confidential and proprietary information externally, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing, and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, loss of eligibility to obtain approvals from the FDA, exclusion from participation in government contracting, healthcare reimbursement or other government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, integrity oversight and reporting obligations, or reputational harm.

Moreover, our employees are increasingly utilizing social media tools and our website as a means of communication. Despite our efforts to monitor social media communications, there is risk that the unauthorized use of social media by our employees to communicate about our products or business, or any inadvertent disclosure of material, nonpublic information through these means, may result in violations of applicable laws and regulations, which may give rise to liability and result in harm to our business. In addition, there is also risk of inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information, which could result in significant legal and financial exposure and reputational damages that could potentially have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Our employees could also inappropriately utilize artificial intelligence, or AI, in connection with their social media or other internal communications and workplace processes, introducing another potential source of reputational damage or other potential legal or financial exposure.

We depend on our information technology systems, and any failure of these systems, or those of our CROs, CDMOs, third-party vendors, or other contractors or consultants we may utilize, could adversely affect our business. Security breaches, cyber-attacks, loss of data, and other disruptions could compromise sensitive information related to our business or other personal information or prevent us from accessing critical information and expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business, reputation, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, use, store and transmit large amounts of confidential and sensitive information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information (including health related information). We have established physical, electronic and organizational measures designed to safeguard and secure our systems to prevent a security incident (which may include, for example, data breaches, viruses or other malicious code, coordinated attacks, data loss, phishing attacks, ransomware, distributed denial of service attacks, or other security or information technology incidents caused by threat actors, technological vulnerabilities or human error), and rely on commercially available systems, software, tools, and monitoring to provide security for our information technology systems and the processing, transmission and storage of information. We have also outsourced elements of our information technology infrastructure, and as a result, a number of third-party vendors have access to our information. Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of our current and any future collaborators, CROs, CDMOs, third-party vendors, contractors and consultants and other third parties on which

we rely, are vulnerable to breach, breakdown, damage from computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the internet, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization, or persons with access to systems inside our organization.

The risk of a formal security breach or disruption or data loss, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. Sophisticated machine-learning and large language model tools are being used to create more persuasive and dangerous cyber-attacks or phishing attempts that place our data and systems at risk. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property. The costs to us or our collaborators, CROs, CDMOs, third party vendors, or contractors or consultants or other third parties on which we rely to mitigate a data security incident and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and while we have implemented security measures designed to protect our data security and information technology systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position. We have incurred successful phishing attempts in the past, although we believe that these attempts were detected and neutralized without any compromise to our data and prior to any significant impact to our business. We have also implemented measures to prevent such attacks, but we may still be subject to similar attacks in the future. We are also aware of publicly disclosed security breaches at certain third parties on which we rely, though we believe that such security breaches did not compromise our data or materially impact our business. Such security events, whether impacting our systems directly or impacting those of a third party on which we rely, could cause interruptions in our operations, and could result in a material disruption of our product development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Further, if we are unable to generate or maintain access to essential patient samples or data for our research, development, and manufacturing activities for our programs, our business could be materially adversely affected.

We take steps designed to detect, mitigate, and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems. We have not and may not in the future, however, detect and remediate all such vulnerabilities in our information technology systems, including on a timely basis, because such threats and techniques change frequently, are often sophisticated in nature, and may not be detected until after a security incident has occurred. Unremediated high risk or critical vulnerabilities pose material risks to our business that may be exploited and could result in a security incident. Further, we have experienced and may in the future experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures designed to address any such identified vulnerabilities. In addition, as many of our employees work from home at least part of the time and utilize network connections outside our premises, including while at home, or in transit and in public locations, this poses increased risks to our information technology systems and data.

Moreover, if a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of personal information, our reputation could be materially damaged, we may be required to formally notify governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal and state privacy and security laws. We could also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability under laws, regulations and contracts that protect the privacy and security of personal information that may result in regulatory scrutiny, fines, private right of action settlements, and other consequences. Compliance with applicable privacy and data security laws and regulations is a rigorous and time-intensive process, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms ensuring compliance with the new data protection rules and possible government oversight. Our failure to comply with such laws or to adequately secure the information we hold could result in significant liability or reputational harm and, in turn, a material adverse effect on our client base, member base and revenue.

Applicable data privacy and security obligations and public company disclosure obligations may require us, or we may voluntarily choose, to notify relevant stakeholders, including affected individuals, regulators and investors, of certain security incidents. Whether a cybersecurity incident is reportable to our investors may not be straightforward, may take considerable time to determine, and may be subject to change as the investigation of the incident progresses, including changes that may significantly alter any initial disclosure that we provide. Moreover, experiencing a material cybersecurity incident and any mandatory disclosures could lead to negative publicity, loss of investor or partner confidence in the effectiveness of our cybersecurity measures, diversion of

management's attention, governmental investigations, lawsuits, and the expenditure of significant capital and other resources.

In addition to experiencing a security incident, third parties may gather, collect, or infer sensitive information about us from public sources, data brokers, or other means that reveals competitively sensitive details about our organization and could be used to undermine our competitive advantage or market position. Additionally, sensitive information could be leaked, disclosed, or revealed as a result of or in connection with the use of generative artificial intelligence technologies by our employees, personnel, or vendors.

Our information technology systems could face serious disruptions that could adversely affect our business.

Our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems, including corporate firewalls, servers, leased lines, and connection to the Internet, face the risk of systemic failure that could disrupt our operations. A significant disruption in the availability of our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems could cause interruptions and delays in our research and development and manufacturing work.

Further, some of our employees work remotely, which presents certain risks to our business. For example, remote work presents significant demands on our information technology resources and systems and can be at risk for phishing and other malicious activity, which can result in an increase to the number of points of potential exposure, such as laptops and mobile devices, that need to be secured. Any failure to effectively manage these risks, including to timely identify and appropriately respond to any security incidents, may adversely affect our business.

In our ongoing efforts to innovate and optimize operational efficiency, we have integrated AI into various aspects of our workplace. For example, we have implemented AI machine learning for email behavioral monitoring. While AI presents opportunities for enhanced productivity and innovation, it also introduces inherent risks, including legal and regulatory, that could adversely impact our business and reputation. Proper use of AI can lead to improved decision-making, cost reduction, and competitive advantage. However, improper use, including algorithmic biases, ethical considerations, data privacy issues, unknown or zero-day software vulnerabilities, and potential regulatory non-compliance, could result in reputational damage, legal liabilities, and financial losses. The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape surrounding AI also poses a risk, as new laws and regulations could impose additional compliance burdens, resulting in increased operational costs. We are committed to implementing robust governance and control mechanisms to mitigate these risks, but there can be no assurance that such measures will adequately prevent or mitigate the adverse effects that the integration and use of AI may have on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If we do not comply with laws regulating the protection of the environment and health and human safety, our business could be affected adversely.

Our research, development and manufacturing involve the use of hazardous chemicals and materials, including radioactive materials. We maintain quantities of various flammable and toxic chemicals in our facilities that are required for our research, development and manufacturing activities. 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. We and our third-party contractors are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous chemicals and materials. We believe our and our third-party contractors’ procedures for storing, handling and disposing these materials in our facilities comply with the relevant guidelines of the two municipalities, the county of San Mateo, the state of California and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor. Although we believe that our safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials comply with the standards mandated by applicable regulations, including employee and contractor training and procedures regarding safe handling and disposal, the risk of accidental or mistaken contamination or injury from these materials cannot be eliminated. If an accident occurs, we could be held liable for resulting damages, which could be substantial and exceed any available insurance. We are also subject to numerous environmental, health and workplace safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures, exposure to blood-borne pathogens and the handling of animals and biohazardous materials. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of these materials or from other hazards potentially present in our workplaces, such as high voltage

electricity, process steam or other hot material, liquid nitrogen or other cold material, materials stored under pressure, laboratory instruments that incorporate powerful lasers or magnets, sonic resonance, heavy machinery, and the like, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. While we maintain pollution legal liability insurance for our manufacturing facility in San Carlos, California, we do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological or hazardous materials in our other locations. Additional federal, state and local laws and regulations affecting our operations may be adopted in the future and existing laws and regulations could become more stringent. Further, we may incur substantial costs to comply with, and substantial fines or penalties if we violate, any of these laws or regulations.

We are subject to certain U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, export control, sanctions and other trade laws and regulations. We can face serious consequences for violations.

U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, export control, sanctions and other trade laws and regulations prohibit, among other things, companies and their employees, agents, CROs, CMOs, legal counsel, accountants, consultants, contractors and other partners from authorizing, promising, offering, providing, soliciting, or making or receiving directly or indirectly, corrupt or improper payments or anything else of value to or from recipients in the public or private sector. Violations of these laws can result in substantial criminal fines and civil penalties, imprisonment, the loss of trade privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm and other consequences. We have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities and other organizations. We also expect our non-U.S. activities to increase over time. We expect to rely on third parties for research, preclinical studies and clinical trials and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, patent registrations and other marketing authorizations. We can be held liable for corrupt or other illegal activities of our personnel, agents, or partners, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have prior knowledge of such activities.

Any violations of the laws and regulations described above may result in substantial civil and criminal fines and penalties, imprisonment, the loss of export or import privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm and other consequences.

Our current operations are in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we, or the third parties upon whom we depend, may be adversely affected by earthquakes, other natural disasters, pandemics, or other catastrophic events and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.

Our current operations are located in our facilities in South San Francisco and San Carlos, California. Any unplanned event, such as earthquake, flood, fire, explosion, extreme weather condition, epidemic, pandemic or contagious disease, power shortage, telecommunication failure or other natural or man-made accidents or incidents that result in us being unable to fully utilize our facilities, or the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers, may have a material and adverse effect on our ability to operate our business, particularly on a daily basis, and have significant negative consequences on our financial and operating conditions. Loss of access to these facilities may result in increased costs, delays in the development of our product candidates or interruption of our business operations. Earthquakes, epidemics, pandemics or contagious diseases, or other natural disasters could further disrupt our operations, and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If a natural disaster, power outage, epidemics, pandemics or contagious disease, or other events occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as our research or manufacturing facilities or the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. 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 as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. As part of our risk management policy, we maintain insurance coverage at levels that we believe are appropriate for our business. However, in the event of an accident or incident at these facilities, we cannot assure you that the amounts of insurance will be sufficient to satisfy any damages and losses. In addition, the long-term effects of climate change on general economic conditions and the pharmaceutical industry in particular are unclear, and may heighten or intensify existing risk of natural disasters. If our facilities, or the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers, are unable to operate because of an accident or incident or for any other

reason, even for a short period of time, any or all of our research and development programs may be harmed. Further, many of our employees conduct business outside of our leased or owned facilities and these locations may be subject to additional security risks outside of our control. Any business interruption could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition or results of operations.

New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws, including adding a requirement to capitalize research and development expenditures and amortize domestic expenditures over five years and foreign expenditures over fifteen years. Beginning with our 2025 tax year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, restored immediate deductibility of domestic expenditures, while foreign expenditures will continue to be capitalized and amortized over fifteen years. We cannot predict whether, when, in what form, or with what effective dates, tax laws, regulations and rulings may be enacted, promulgated or issued. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating loss carryforwards is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. For example, California imposed limits of the usability of California state net operating losses to offset taxable income in tax years beginning after 2023 and before 2027. Future changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net deferred tax assets relating to our operations, deductibility of expenses under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the OBBBA, or future tax legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets, could result in significant one-time charges, and could increase our future U.S. tax expense.

Our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards to offset taxable income could be limited.

Under current law, our net operating loss carryforwards generated in tax years ending on or prior to December 31, 2017, are permitted to be carried forward for 20 years and our federal net operating losses generated in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses, is limited to 80% of taxable income (without regard to certain deductions).

In addition, under Section 382 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provisions of state law, if we experience an “ownership change” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in our equity ownership over a three-year period, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset our post-change income may be limited. Based on Section 382 studies performed for certain prior periods, we experienced ownership change on each of November 20, 2019 and December 31, 2022, which imposed limitations on the use of our net operating losses arising before those dates. In addition, we may have experienced other ownership changes in the past and may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of equity offerings or other shifts in our stock ownership, some of which are outside our control. As a result, our use of federal NOL carryforwards could be further limited.

State net operating loss carryforwards may be similarly limited. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating losses is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. Any such limitations may result in greater tax liabilities than we would incur in the absence of such limitations and any increased liabilities could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows.

Our cash and investments could be adversely affected if the financial institutions in which we hold our cash and investments fail.

We regularly maintain cash balances at third-party financial institutions in excess of the FDIC insurance limit and similar regulatory insurance limits outside the United States, and governments may not guarantee all depositors if such financial institutions were to fail, in the event of bank closures and instability in the global banking system. Any future adverse developments in the global banking system could directly or indirectly negatively impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Further, if we enter into a credit, loan or other similar facility with a financial institution, certain covenants included in such facility may

require as security that we keep a significant portion of our cash with the institution providing such facility. If a depository institution where we maintain deposits fails or is subject to adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets, we may not be able to recover all, if any, of our deposits, which could adversely impact our operating liquidity and financial performance.

Our financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or U.S. GAAP, are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. For example, in May 2014, the FASB issued accounting standards update No. 2014-09 (Topic 606), Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which supersedes nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance under U.S. GAAP. We adopted this new accounting standard as of January 1, 2019. Any difficulties in implementing this guidance could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline and harm investors’ confidence in us. Additionally, the implementation of this guidance or a change in other principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

If we are not able to obtain, maintain and enforce sufficient patent and other intellectual property protection for our technologies or product candidates, development and commercialization of our product candidates may be adversely affected.

Our success depends in part on our, our licensors’ and our collaborators’ ability to obtain and maintain patents and other forms of intellectual property rights, including in-licenses of intellectual property rights of others that cover our product candidates, methods used to manufacture our product candidates, methods for treating patients using our product candidates, pharmaceutical compositions, as well as our ability to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing upon our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. We, our licensors and collaborators may not be able to apply for patents on certain aspects of our product candidates in a timely fashion or at all. Further, we, our licensors and collaborators may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications, or maintain, enforce and license any patents that may issue from such patent applications, at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we, our licensors and collaborators will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. It is also possible that we, our licensors, and our collaborators will fail to file patent applications covering inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before a competitor or another third-party files a patent application covering, or publishes information disclosing, a similar, independently-developed invention. Such competitor’s patent application may pose obstacles to our ability to obtain or limit the scope of patent protection we may obtain. We may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of all patent applications that we license from third parties, or to maintain the rights to patents licensed to third parties. Therefore, these patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. If our licensors or collaborators fail to establish, maintain or protect such patents and other intellectual property rights, such rights may be reduced or eliminated. If our licensors, licensees or collaborators are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised. Also, although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to confidential or patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, collaborators, CROs, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. In addition, publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we, our licensors or collaborators were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications, or were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions, or if such patents rights may otherwise become invalid. Composition of matter patents for biological and pharmaceutical therapeutic candidates often provide a strong form of intellectual property protection for those types of products, as such patents provide protection without regard to any method of use. We cannot be certain that the claims in our pending patent

applications directed to composition of matter of our therapeutic candidates will be considered patentable by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, or by patent offices in foreign countries, or that the claims in any of our issued patents will be considered valid and enforceable by courts in the United States or foreign countries. Method of use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method. This type of patent does not prevent a competitor from making and marketing a product that is identical to our therapeutics for an indication that is outside the scope of the patented method. Moreover, even if competitors do not actively promote their product for our targeted indications, clinicians may prescribe these products “off-label.” Although off-label prescriptions may infringe or contribute to the infringement of method of use patents, the practice is common and such infringement is difficult to prevent or prosecute. Our existing issued and granted patents and any future patents we obtain may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from using our technology or from developing competing products and technology. There is no guarantee that any of our pending patent applications will result in issued or granted patents, that any of our issued or granted patents will not later be found to be invalid or unenforceable or that any issued or granted patents will include claims that are sufficiently broad to cover our product candidates or to provide meaningful protection from our competitors. Moreover, the patent position of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies can be highly uncertain because it involves complex legal and factual questions. We will be able to protect our proprietary rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our current and future proprietary technology and product candidates are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. If third parties disclose or misappropriate our proprietary rights, it may materially and adversely affect our position in the market.

The USPTO, and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other provisions during the patent process. There are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, competitors might be able to enter the market earlier than would otherwise have been the case. The standards applied by the USPTO and foreign patent offices in granting patents are not always applied uniformly or predictably. For example, there is no uniform worldwide policy regarding patentable subject matter or the scope of claims allowable in biotechnology and biopharmaceutical patents. As such, we do not know the degree of future protection that we will have on our proprietary products and technology. While we will endeavor to try to protect our product candidates with intellectual property rights such as patents, as appropriate, the process of obtaining patents is time consuming, expensive and sometimes unpredictable.

Once granted, patents may remain open to opposition, interference, re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, nullification or derivation action in court or before patent offices or similar proceedings for a given period after allowance or grant, during which time third parties can raise objections against such initial grant. In the course of such proceedings, which may continue for a protracted period of time, the patent owner may be compelled to limit the scope of the allowed or granted claims thus attacked, or may lose the allowed or granted claims altogether. In addition, there can be no assurance that:

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others will not or may not be able to make, use or sell compounds that are the same as or similar to our product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we own or license;

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we or our licensors, or our existing or future collaborators are the first to make the inventions covered by each of our issued patents and pending patent applications that we own or license;

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we or our licensors, or our existing or future collaborators are the first to file patent applications covering certain aspects of our inventions;

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others will not independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights;

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a third party may not challenge our patents and, if challenged, a court would hold that our patents are valid, enforceable and infringed;

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any issued patents that we own or have licensed will provide us with any competitive advantages, or will not be challenged by third parties;

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we may develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable;

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the patents of others will not have a material or adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects; and

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our competitors may conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have enforceable patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets.

If we or our licensors or collaborators fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our product candidates, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In addition, our in-licensed patents may be subject to a reservation of rights by the licensor, its affiliates and one or more third parties. When new technologies are developed with government funding, the government generally obtains certain rights in any resulting patents, including a non-exclusive license authorizing the government to use the invention for noncommercial purposes. These rights may permit the government to disclose our confidential information to third parties or allow third parties to use our licensed technology. In addition, the United States federal government retains certain rights in inventions produced with its financial assistance under the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, or the Bayh-Dole Act. The federal government retains a “nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license” for its own benefit. The Bayh-Dole Act also provides federal agencies with “march-in rights.” The government can exercise its march-in rights if it determines that action is necessary because we fail to achieve practical application of the government-funded technology, because action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs, to meet requirements of federal regulations, or to give preference to U.S. industry. In addition, our rights in such inventions may be subject to certain requirements to manufacture products embodying such inventions in the United States. Any of the foregoing could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

In addition to seeking patent protection for certain aspects of our product candidates, we also consider trade secrets, including confidential and unpatented know-how important to the maintenance of our competitive position. We protect trade secrets and confidential and unpatented know-how, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to such knowledge, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, CROs, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants that obligate them to maintain confidentiality and assign their inventions to us. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts in the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Other companies or organizations may challenge our or our licensors’ patent rights or may assert patent rights that prevent us from developing and commercializing our products.

Therapeutics in oncology or other disease areas developed in cell-free-based synthesis systems are a relatively new scientific field. We have obtained grants and issuances of, and have obtained a license from a third party on an exclusive basis to, patents related to our proprietary XpressCF® and XpressCF+® platforms. The issued patents and pending patent applications in the United States and in key markets around the world that we own or license claim many different methods, compositions and processes relating to the discovery, development, manufacture and commercialization of antibody-drug conjugates, or components thereof.