Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. 10-K

10-K UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K (Mark One) ☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 OR ☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO Commission File Number: 001-39509 Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. (Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter) Delaware 36-4883909 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 1560 Trapelo Road Waltham , Massachusetts 02451 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code) Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: ( 781 ) 786-8230 Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share DYN Nasdaq Global Select Market Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES ☒ No ☐ Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. YES ☐ No ☒ Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ NO ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ NO ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐ Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐ Emerging growth company ☐ If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒ If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐ Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b) . ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES ☐ NO ☒ The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant computed by reference to the price of the registrant’s Common Stock as of June 30, 2025, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $ 948 million (based on the last reported sale price on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as of such date). For this computation, the registrant has excluded the market value of all shares of Common Stock reported as beneficially owned by its executive officer and directors; such exclusion shall not be deemed to constitute an admission that any such person is an affiliate of the registrant. The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of February 27, 2026 was 165,027,119. DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE The Registrant intends to file a definitive proxy statement pursuant to Regulation 14A relating to the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders within 120 days of the end of the Registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 . Portions of such definitive proxy statement are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Table of Contents Page PART I Item 1. Business 2 Item 1A. Risk Factors 54 Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 127 Item 1C. Cybersecurity 127 Item 2. Properties 130 Item 3. Legal Proceedings 130 Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 130 PART II Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities 131 Item 6. [Reserved] 132 Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 133 Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 146 Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 146 Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure 146 Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 146 Item 9B. Other Information 149 Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspection 149 PART III Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 150 Item 11. Executive Compensation 150 Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters 150 Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence 150 Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 150 PART IV Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 151 Item 16 Form 10-K Summary 154 i Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Industry Data This Annual Report on Form 10-K, or this Annual Report, contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve substantial risk and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact, contained in this Annual Report, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenue, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” "will," “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report include, among other things, statements about: • the initiation, timing, design, progress and results of our research and development programs, preclinical studies and clinical trials; • the anticipated timing of the submission and clearance of investigational new drug applications, or INDs, and comparable foreign applications for any product candidates we may develop; • the timing of and our ability to submit applications for, obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for any product candidates we may develop; • our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements, need for additional financing and the period over which we believe our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses, debt service obligations and capital expenditure requirements; • our ability to comply with restrictive covenants under our loan agreement, or the Loan Agreement, with Hercules Capital, Inc., or Hercules; • our ability to satisfy interest and principal payments under the Loan Agreement; • our plans to develop and, if approved, subsequently commercialize any product candidates we may develop; • the potential advantages of our FORCE platform; • our commercialization, marketing and manufacturing capabilities and strategy; • our intellectual property position and our expectations regarding our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection; • our ability to identify additional products, product candidates or technologies with significant commercial potential that are consistent with our commercial objectives; • the impact of government laws and regulations; • our competitive position and expectations regarding developments and projections relating to our competitors and any competing therapies that are or become available; and • our ability to establish and maintain collaborations or obtain additional funding. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements we make. We have included important factors in this Annual Report, particularly in Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report, that we believe could cause actual results or events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements that we make. Moreover, we operate in a competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. Our ii forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, collaborations, joint ventures or investments we may make or enter into. You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we have filed or incorporated by reference as exhibits to this Annual Report with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report are made as of the date of this Annual Report, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. This Annual Report includes statistical and other industry and market data that we obtained from independent industry publications and research, surveys and studies conducted by independent third parties as well as our own estimates of the prevalence of certain diseases and conditions. The market data used in this Annual Report involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such data. Industry publications and third-party research, surveys and studies generally indicate that their information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, although they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information. Our estimates of the patient population with the potential to benefit from treatment with any of our product candidates includes several key assumptions based on our industry knowledge, industry publications, third-party research and other surveys, which may be based on a small sample size and may fail to accurately reflect the addressable patient population. While we believe that our internal assumptions are reasonable, no independent source has verified such assumptions. This Annual Report contains references to our trademarks and service marks and to those belonging to other entities. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this Annual Report, including logos, artwork and other visual displays, may appear without the ® or ™ symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate in any way that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensor to these trademarks and trade names. We do not intend our use or display of other entities’ trade names, trademarks or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other entity. iii Risk Factor Summary Our business is subject to a number of risks that, if realized, could materially affect our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. These risks are discussed more fully in the “Risk Factors” section of this Annual Report. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following: • we will need substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts; • our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development, and we have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. We do not expect to have a product candidate ready for commercialization at least until 2027, if ever. If we are unable to advance product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain marketing approval and ultimately commercialize them, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed; • we may encounter substantial delays in commencement, enrollment or completion of our clinical trials and the data from the clinical trials of our product candidates may fail to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy to warrant further development or satisfy the applicable regulatory authorities, which could prevent us from commercializing any product candidates we determine to develop on a timely basis, if at all; • our approach to the discovery and development of product candidates based on our FORCE platform is unproven, and we may not be successful in our efforts to develop our product candidates; • the outcome of preclinical studies and initial data from earlier-stage clinical trials may not be predictive of final results of clinical trials or future clinical trials and data from trials in one indication may not be predictive of results of clinical trials in other indications; • if our product candidates cause undesirable side effects or have other unexpected adverse properties, such side effects or properties could delay or prevent us from conducting clinical trials or seeking or obtaining regulatory approval, limit the commercial potential of our product candidates or result in significant negative consequences to the extent such effects or adverse properties are observed following any marketing approval; • our Loan Agreement contains restrictive and financial covenants that may limit our operating flexibility and our failure to comply with the covenants or other terms of the Loan Agreement, including as a result of events beyond our control, could result in a default under the Loan Agreement that could materially and adversely affect our business; • we rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some or all aspects of our product manufacturing, research, preclinical and clinical testing, and these third parties may not perform satisfactorily; • we face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before us or more successfully than we do; • our rights to develop and commercialize certain of our product candidates are subject or may in the future be subject, in part, to the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by third parties. If we fail to comply with our obligations under current or future intellectual property license agreements or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our current or any future licensors, we could lose intellectual property rights that are important to our business; and • if we or our licensors are unable to obtain, maintain and defend patent and other intellectual property protection for any product candidates or technology, or if the scope of the patent or other intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully develop and commercialize our product candidates or our technology may be adversely affected due to such competition. iv PAR T I Item 1. B usiness. Overview We are a clinical-stage company focused on delivering functional improvement for people living with genetically driven neuromuscular diseases. Our proprietary FORCE platform is designed to leverage the transferrin receptor 1, or TfR1, to deliver targeted therapeutics to muscle tissue and the central nervous system, or CNS. The FORCE platform utilizes an antigen-binding fragment antibody, or Fab, targeting TfR1 conjugated to a payload that we rationally design to target the genetic basis of the disease we are seeking to treat. With our FORCE platform, we have the flexibility to deploy different classes of payloads (such as oligonucleotides and enzymes) with specific mechanisms of action that modify target functions. We currently leverage this modularity to focus on neuromuscular diseases with high unmet need, with etiologic targets and with clear translational potential from preclinical disease models to well-defined clinical development and regulatory pathways. Using our FORCE platform, we are assembling a broad portfolio of product candidates, including product candidates being developed for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, myotonic dystrophy type 1, or DM1, facioscapulohumeral dystrophy, or FSHD, and Pompe disease. In addition, we plan to expand our portfolio through development efforts focused on diseases involving the CNS, rare skeletal muscle diseases, and cardiac and metabolic muscle diseases, including some with larger patient populations. We have identified product candidates for each of our DMD (amenable to skipping exons 51, 53, 45, 44, and 55), DM1, FSHD and Pompe programs that are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development. The following table summarizes our portfolio: Our product candidate zeleciment rostudirsen, or z-rostudirsen (also known as DYNE-251), is currently being evaluated in the DELIVER trial, a global Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with DMD amenable to exon 51 skipping, which is designed to be registrational. We plan to submit a biologics license application, or BLA, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for U.S. Accelerated Approval of z-rostudirsen for DMD patients who have mutations amenable to exon 51 skipping in the second quarter of 2026 based on dystrophin as a surrogate endpoint. We continue to expect a potential U.S. launch of z-rostudirsen in the first quarter of 2027, assuming the FDA grants priority review and FDA approval is received on the anticipated timeline. Further, we plan to initiate a global confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial of z-rostudirsen in the second quarter of 2026, and we have aligned with the FDA on the Phase 3 trial design and protocol. We continue to pursue approval pathways outside of the United States for z-rostudirsen. 2 Our product candidate zeleciment basivarsen, or z-basivarsen (also known as DYNE-101) is being evaluated in the ACHIEVE trial, a global Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with DM1, which is designed to be registrational. We plan to submit a BLA to the FDA for U.S. Accelerated Approval of z-basivarsen for DM1 patients early in the third quarter of 2027. We anticipate a potential U.S. launch of z-basivarsen in the first quarter of 2028, assuming we receive favorable data from the ACHIEVE trial, priority review is granted, and FDA approval is received on the anticipated timeline. We plan to initiate a global confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial of z-basivarsen in March 2026, and we have aligned with the FDA on the Phase 3 trial design and protocol. We continue to pursue approval pathways outside of the United States for z-basivarsen. Our approach We have designed our proprietary FORCE platform using our deep knowledge of muscle biology. Our therapeutics consist of three essential components: a proprietary Fab, a linker and a payload that we attach to our Fab using the linker. We engineered our proprietary Fab to bind to TfR1 to enable targeted delivery to skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle, and TfR1 binding may also enable delivery to the CNS. We connect the proprietary Fab to the therapeutic payload with a linker. We selected the linker for our DMD, DM1, and FSHD product candidates based on its clinically validated safety and efficacy in approved products, its serum stability and its ability to release the therapeutic payload within the muscle cell. For our Pompe product candidate, we selected a linker that effectively connects to the GAA enzyme payload. We attach the Fab and linker to a therapeutic payload that can be a phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer, or PMO, an antisense oligonucleotide, or ASO, a small interfering RNA, or siRNA, a small molecule, or a large molecule such as an enzyme, that we rationally select to target the genetic basis of disease to potentially stop or reverse disease progression. We use the same Fab for our product candidates which enables modularity of the platform. While some therapeutics have been approved for the treatment of neuromuscular diseases, the development of these therapeutics has been limited by challenges in the delivery of the payload to the tissue or area of the CNS that requires therapy. To overcome these limitations, our FORCE platform utilizes the importance of TfR1, which is highly expressed on the surface of muscle cells, as the foundation of our novel approach of linking therapeutic payloads to our TfR1-binding Fab to deliver targeted therapeutics for muscle diseases. The mechanism of FORCE delivery is designed to utilize the natural biology of TfR1. We do not use membrane destabilizing agents to enter the cell or to escape the endosome. As a result, FORCE displays a distinct pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile, with the potential for a wide therapeutic index. We have demonstrated proof-of-concept of our FORCE platform in our DELIVER and ACHIEVE clinical trials as well as in multiple in vitro and in vivo studies. In murine and non-human primate, or NHP, studies, we have delivered PMOs and ASOs to genetic targets within muscle tissue and observed durable, disease-modifying, functional benefit in preclinical models of disease. In DELIVER, z-rostudirsen has demonstrated best-in-class levels of dystrophin expression, exon skipping and percent dystrophin positive fibers while also showing improvement across multiple clinical measures including strength and time function tests. In ACHIEVE, z-basivarsen has demonstrated robust splicing correction and DMPK knockdown while also showing improvement across multiple clinical measures including myotonia, strength, timed function tests, and patient reported outcomes including measurements of the CNS manifestations of DM1. 3 The following graphic illustrates the three components of our therapeutics: FORCE platform Proprietary antibody (Fab) Our proprietary Fab is engineered to bind to TfR1 to enable targeted delivery of nucleic acids and other molecules to skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. A Fab is the region of an antibody that binds to antigens. We selected a Fab antibody over monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, due to its potential significant advantages when targeting TfR1 to enable muscle delivery, including enhanced tissue penetration, increased tolerability due to lower protein load and reduced risk of immune system activation due to the lack of the Fc domain, the portion of an antibody that interacts with the immune system, on the Fab. To identify the proprietary Fab we use in our product candidates, we generated and screened proprietary antibodies for selectivity to TfR1 in order to enhance muscle specificity and for binding to TfR1 without interfering with the receptor’s function of transporting iron into cells. Binding to TfR1 may also enable delivery to the CNS. Linker The role of the linker is to connect, or conjugate, the Fab and the therapeutic payload, such as oligonucleotide or enzyme. As a result, it is critical that the linker maintain stability in serum and provide release kinetics that favor sufficient payload accumulation in the targeted muscle cell. For our DMD, DM1 and FSHD product candidates, we have selected the Val-Cit linker based on its clinically validated safety and efficacy in approved products, its serum stability and its endosomal release attributes. We believe that serum stability is necessary to enable systemic intravenous administration, stability of the conjugated oligonucleotide in the bloodstream, delivery to muscle tissue and internalization of the therapeutic payload in the muscle cells. In preclinical studies, our Val-Cit linker facilitated precise conjugation of multiple types of payloads to our proprietary Fabs, including PMOs, ASOs and siRNAs. For our Pompe product candidate, we selected a linker that effectively connects to the GAA enzyme payload. This broad flexibility enables us to rationally select the appropriate type of payload to address the genetic basis of each muscle disease. Additionally, our linker and conjugation chemistry allow us to optimize the ratio of 4 payload molecules attached to each Fab for each type of payload. We believe that our linker and conjugation chemistry will enable us to rapidly design, produce and screen molecules to enable new muscle disease programs. Optimized payload With our FORCE platform, we have the flexibility to deploy different types of therapeutic payloads with specific mechanisms of action that modify target functions. Using this modularity, we rationally select the therapeutic payload for each program to match the biology of the target, with the aim of addressing the genetic basis of disease and stopping or reversing disease progression. For instance, in our DM1 program, where the genetic driver of DM1 is mutant DMPK pre-mRNA located in the nucleus, we have determined to use an ASO because ASOs have advantages in degrading RNA in the nucleus when compared to siRNAs. In the case of our DMD program, we are utilizing an exon skipping PMO payload with the goal of enhancing dystrophin expression. For our FSHD program, we are utilizing a siRNA payload designed to reduce DUX4 expression. For our Pompe program, we are utilizing enzyme replacement therapy to address the deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, acid alpha glucosidase, or GAA, the genetic basis of Pompe. Advantages of our FORCE platform Our FORCE platform is designed to deliver disease-modifying therapeutics for a broad portfolio of serious muscle diseases. We believe that our FORCE platform may provide the following potential advantages: • Targeted delivery to muscle tissue and the CNS; • Potent targeting of the genetic basis of disease to stop or reverse disease progression; • Enhanced tolerability; • Extended durability; • Redosable administration; • Well-established and scalable manufacturing; and • Accelerated and efficient development enabled by use of a single Fab across multiple product candidates and programs. Our strategy Our goal is to become the leading neuromuscular disease company by advancing innovative life-transforming therapeutics for people living with genetically driven neuromuscular diseases. To accomplish this, we intend to continue building a team that shares our commitment to patients, to continue to enhance our platform and to advance our pipeline. The key elements of our strategy are to: • Advance our co-lead product candidates for DMD and DM1 through development and to commercialization to offer meaningful benefit to patients; • Progress our FSHD program to the clinic with the goal of ultimately offering a therapeutic for a disease with no approved treatments; • Progress our Pompe program to the clinic with the goal of ultimately offering a therapeutic to provide meaningful benefit to patients; • Establish a DMD franchise by expanding our DMD program to reach additional DMD patient populations; • Expand our pipeline to additional product candidates and indications to fully exploit the potential of our proprietary FORCE platform; 5 • Selectively enter into strategic collaborations to maximize the value of our pipeline and our proprietary FORCE platform; and • Build a sustainable leadership position in neuromuscular diseases with a deep connection to patients, caregivers, the research community and physicians. Our culture and team We have established a patient-focused culture that drives our shared mission of developing life-transforming therapeutics for people living with serious neuromuscular diseases. Our shared definition of success is simple: we do what we say we are going to do. We keep our commitments to patients, employees and other Dyne stakeholders. We endeavor to act with integrity and transparency. Our management team is led by John Cox, our President and Chief Executive Officer, who brings over 30 years of leadership experience with life sciences companies; Erick Lucera, our Chief Financial Officer, who has more than 30 years of financial, operational and investment experience in the life science industry; Johanna Friedl-Naderer, our Chief Commercial Officer, who has more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience leading global commercialization and product launches in rare diseases; and Doug Kerr, M.D., our Chief Medical Officer, who has more than 25 years of expertise in early- and late-stage clinical development, with deep experience in neurology. Our organization is comprised of over 250 talented individuals with significant experience across discovery, preclinical research, manufacturing, clinical development, and commercial operations. We have also established scientific and clinical advisory boards comprised of leading experts in the fields of muscle disease drug discovery and development and nucleic acid therapeutics, who share our mission of delivering disease-modifying therapeutics for patients with neuromuscular diseases. Our portfolio We are creating a pipeline of product candidates and programs to address diseases with high unmet need with etiologic targets. Our initial focus is on DMD, DM1, FSHD and Pompe with potential pipeline expansion opportunities in additional diseases involving the CNS and rare skeletal muscle diseases, as well as cardiac and metabolic muscle diseases. In selecting diseases to target with our FORCE platform, we seek diseases with clear translational potential from preclinical disease models to well-defined clinical development and regulatory pathways, and where we believe that we would be able to commercialize any products that we develop and are approved with an efficient, targeted sales force. We have global commercial rights to all of our programs. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) Overview We are developing product candidates under our DMD program to address the genetic basis of DMD by delivering a PMO to muscle tissue to promote the skipping of specific DMD exons in the nucleus, allowing muscle cells to create a more complete, functional dystrophin protein and to potentially stop or reverse disease progression. We believe that PMOs, with their preferential targeting of nuclear mechanisms, are the best payload to address nuclear exon skipping. In in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies, our PMOs when conjugated to a Fab targeting TfR1 have shown increased exon skipping, increased dystrophin expression, reduced muscle damage and increased muscle function. We are seeking to build a global DMD franchise by initially focusing on the development of our product candidate z-rostudirsen for patients with mutations amenable to skipping exon 51. Additionally, we are advancing four development candidates (DYNE-253, DYNE-245, DYNE-244 and DYNE-255) for the treatment of DMD amenable to skipping of exons 53, 45, 44 and 55, respectively, into IND-enabling studies. These programs are designed to enable the production of near full-length dystrophin in patients with DMD amenable to skipping of exons 53, 45, 44, or 55 by utilizing the same FORCE platform (Fab, linker, and payload chemistry) as z-rostudirsen. Z-rostudirsen is currently being evaluated in the DELIVER trial, a Phase 1/2 global clinical trial in males with mutations amenable to skipping exon 51. The DELIVER trial began with a 24-week 6 placebo-controlled multiple ascending dose, or MAD, portion, followed by a 24-week open-label extension, a 192-week long-term extension, and a registrational expansion cohort, or REC, designed to support Accelerated Approval in the United States. In September 2024, we announced the completion of the MAD portion of the trial, and in December 2025, we announced positive topline data from the REC portion of the trial. Disease overview and prevalence DMD is a monogenic, X-linked, disease caused by mutations in the gene that encodes for the dystrophin protein. Dystrophin protein is essential to maintain the structural integrity and normal function of muscle cells for walking, breathing and cardiac function. In patients with DMD, mutations in the dystrophin gene lead to certain exons being misread, resulting in the loss of function of the dystrophin protein. The reduction or absence of dystrophin leads to damage to muscle cell membranes, resulting in muscle cell death and progressive loss of muscle function. DMD symptoms typically begin to manifest with weakness and progressive loss of muscle function beginning in the first few years of life. Young boys experience progressive muscle wasting and have difficulty standing up, climbing stairs, running, breathing and performing daily functions. As the disease progresses the severity of damage to skeletal and cardiac muscles results in patients experiencing total loss of ambulation in the pre-teenage or early teenage years. Progressive loss of upper extremity function is often observed in the mid-to-late teens followed by respiratory and/or cardiac failure, resulting in death before the age of 30. The below graphic highlights the mechanism of exon skipping and resulting dystrophin expression in healthy individuals and in DMD patients and how our DMD program is designed to address the genetic basis of DMD. Targeting the Genetic Basis of DMD We estimate that DMD occurs in approximately one in every 3,500 to 5,000 live male births and that approximately 12,000 patients in the United States, and approximately 16 ,000 patients in Europe, have DMD. Approximately 80% of patients with DMD have DMD mutations amenable to exon skipping in the nucleus. Exons 51, 53, 45 and 44 represent nearly half of the total mutations observed in DMD that are amenable to exon skipping, as illustrated in the figure below. 7 Overview of DMD exons amenable to skipping Current approaches and limitations Currently, patients with DMD are treated with corticosteroids to manage the inflammatory component of the disease. There are four FDA-approved naked PMO-based oligonucleotide therapies, each addressing a specific mutation: EXONDYS 51 (eteplirsen), which is approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 51 skipping, VYONDYS 53 (golodirsen), which is approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 53 skipping, VILTEPSO (vitolarsen), which is approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 53 skipping and AMONDYS 45 (casimersen), which is approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 45 skipping. Additionally, there is one FDA-approved gene therapy for use in ambulatory patients with a confirmed mutation in the dystrophin gene, ELEVIDYS (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl). Each of the four naked PMO-based oligonucleotide therapies requires weekly intravenous infusions and ELEVIDYS requires a one-time intravenous infusion. Eteplirsen, golodirsen and casimersen have demonstrated a less than 1% mean increase in dystrophin in clinical trials and vitolarsen has demonstrated an approximately 5% increase in dystrophin in clinical trials. The FDA-approved labels for all four drugs state that a clinical benefit has not yet been established and that continued approval may be contingent upon the verification of such clinical benefit in confirmatory clinical trials. In Europe, the EMA has rejected an application for approval of eteplirsen citing insufficient evidence of clinical benefit. In addition, a fourth drug, TRANSLARNA (ataluren), has only been conditionally approved in the European Union, or EU, Iceland and South Korea for non-sense mutations in DMD in ambulatory patients aged five years and older. However, the European Commission issued a decision to not renew the conditional marketing authorization for TRANSLARNA in March 2025, following a negative opinion by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, or CHMP. In addition, two recent pivotal Phase 3 trials of other PMO therapies in development for treatment of DMD failed to meet their primary endpoint in function (viltolarsen Phase 3 and golodirsen/casimersen Phase 3). Each of these approved PMO products seeks to address DMD through the exon skipping approach we are pursuing, but we believe their limited efficacy is due to poor muscle uptake and biodistribution. There are a number of product candidates in development, including product candidates in late-stage clinical development, 8 which seek to address DMD through the exon skipping approach we are pursuing, including naked oligonucleotides, targeted oligonucleotides and PMOs conjugated to charged peptides, as well as product candidates that seek to address DMD through gene editing and gene replacement with viral gene therapies and with other approaches. We believe that each of these approaches currently have significant limitations, and that there continues to be a high unmet medical need for new disease-modifying therapies. Our approach Our DMD program is designed to address the genetic basis of DMD by promoting the skipping of specific DMD exons in the nucleus, allowing muscle cells to create more complete, functional dystrophin protein. Under our DMD program, we are developing product candidates that incorporate our proprietary Fab targeting TfR1 conjugated to a PMO designed to promote the skipping of specific DMD exons in the nucleus. Existing clinical data generated by others supports the benefits of utilizing a single stranded ASO or PMO to skip the faulty exon in the nucleus of DMD patient cells. We believe our Fab targeting TfR1 allows for more efficient delivery of a PMO to skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle cells, creating an opportunity to increase dystrophin expression, enable less frequent dosing and provide greater clinical benefit compared to current therapeutic approaches. We plan to develop our program candidates for DMD with a PMO, initially for exon 51 and in the future for other exon mutations including exons 53, 45 and 44. Z-Rostudirsen We are evaluating z-rostudirsen in the global Phase 1/2 DELIVER clinical trial for people living with DMD who are amenable to exon 51 skipping. Z-rostudirsen consists of a PMO conjugated to a Fab that binds to TfR1. Z-rostudirsen has been awarded Breakthrough Therapy, Fast Track, and Rare Pediatric Disease designations by the FDA as well as Orphan Drug designation from the FDA, the EMA and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for the treatment of DMD mutations amenable to exon 51 skipping. Preclinical data We have conducted multiple in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies of our FORCE platform in DMD that have shown increased exon skipping, increased dystrophin expression, reduced muscle damage and increased muscle function. We believe these data support the potential for z-rostudirsen to be a disease-modifying therapy for patients with DMD amenable to skipping exon 51. In studies in the mdx mouse DMD model, a validated and widely accepted mouse model in DMD which has a mutation in exon 23, we observed that single intravenous doses of an exon 23-targeting PMO conjugated to a Fab targeting TfR1 which we refer to as FORCE-M23D, achieved robust, durable exon skipping in cardiac and skeletal muscles after a single dose. In NHPs, z-rostudirsen demonstrated a favorable safety profile and achieved robust exon skipping, especially in the heart and diaphragm muscles which weaken over time leading to mortality in people living with DMD. Phase 1/2 DELIVER Clinical Trial of Z-Rostudirsen in DMD Z-rostudirsen is currently being evaluated in the DELIVER trial, a Phase 1/2 global clinical trial for DMD amenable to exon 51 skipping, which is designed to be registrational. DELIVER enrolled ambulant and non-ambulant males with DMD who are ages 4 to 16 and have mutations amenable to exon 51 skipping. The primary endpoints are safety, tolerability and change from baseline in dystrophin levels as measured by Western blot. Additional endpoints include pharmacokinetics and change from baseline in exon 51 skipping levels, muscle tissue percent dystrophin positive fibers, multiple assessments of muscle function, including rise from floor velocity, or RFF velocity, North Star Ambulatory Assessment, or NSAA, score, Stride Velocity 95th Centile and certain timed functional tests. DELIVER began with a 24-week placebo-controlled MAD portion wherein participants were randomized to receive z-rostudirsen in doses ranging from 0.7 mg/kg to 40 mg/kg (approximate PMO dose) every four or eight weeks intravenously. Following the placebo-controlled period, MAD participants transitioned to 9 z-rostudirsen treatment in the 24-week open-label portion of the trial and the 192-week long-term extension. In September 2024, we announced the completion of the MAD portion of the trial, and in November 2024, we announced the initiation of the 20 mg/kg administered once every four weeks, or Q4W (approximate PMO dose) REC to support submission for Accelerated Approval in the United States. We completed enrollment of 32 participants in the REC, of whom 24 were randomized to receive z-rostudirsen 20 mg/kg Q4W (approximate PMO dose) and eight were randomized to placebo, in March 2025. In December 2025, we reported that the REC met its primary endpoint of demonstrating a statistically significant increase in muscle content-adjusted dystrophin relative to baseline at six months (p<0.0001) with a mean absolute expression of 5.46% of normal, as shown in the image below: 1. Biopsies taken approximately 28 days after most recent dose. 2. Based on geometric mean. 3. One REC placebo participant sample could not be analyzed at week 25. 4. Prespecified nominal p-value with no adjustment for multiplicity. 5. Muscle content-adjusted dystrophin is equal to MHC normalized dystrophin divided by a percentage of muscle content. 6 months corresponds to week 25 for DELIVER. In the image above, REC means registrational expansion cohort; MCA means muscle content-adjusted; MHC means myosin heavy chain; Q4W means every 4 weeks; and SEM means standard error of the mean. In addition, in the REC, functional improvement was observed across multiple clinical endpoints, and lung function (as measured by forced vital capacity percent predicted, or FVC%p) remained stable with clear separation from placebo. Two of these endpoints, RFF Velocity and 10-Meter Walk/Run Velocity, both improved relative to placebo at six months with a nominal p<0.05, even though the study was not powered to demonstrate statistical significance in any of the functional measures (post-hoc analysis; the prespecified statistical analysis plan did not include formal hypothesis testing for any functional endpoint). Importantly, lung function, the loss of which is a leading cause of mortality in DMD, as measured by Forced Vital Capacity Percent Predicted was preserved at six months compared to a decline in placebo. In December 2025, we also reported long-term results from the MAD cohorts, including 24-month functional data from six participants that were randomized to the 10 mg/kg Q4W cohort and escalated to 20 mg/kg Q4W after six months, 18-month functional data from the six participants that were randomized to the 20 mg/kg Q4W cohort, and pooled 18-month functional data from both cohorts, showing sustained functional improvement across multiple functional endpoints out to 24 months. In December 2025, we reported safety and tolerability data from the DELIVER trial based on 86 total participants in the DELIVER trial and followed for up to 36 months, including participants initially enrolled 10 in the MAD cohorts and the REC and who have transitioned to the longer-term extension portions of the trial. As of August 19, 2025, z-rostudirsen continued to demonstrate a favorable safety profile, and most related treatment emergent adverse events, or TEAEs, were mild or moderate. The most commonly reported related TEAEs were pyrexia (fever) and headache. No related serious TEAEs were observed in the REC. We plan to submit a BLA to the FDA for U.S. Accelerated Approval in the second quarter of 2026 based on dystrophin as a surrogate endpoint. We continue to expect a potential U.S. launch of z-rostudirsen in the first quarter of 2027, assuming the FDA grants priority review and approval is received on the anticipated timeline. Further, we plan to initiate a global confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial of z-rostudirsen in the second quarter of 2026, and we have aligned with the FDA on the Phase 3 trial design and protocol. We continue to pursue approval pathways outside of the United States for z-rostudirsen. Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) Overview We are developing our product candidate, z-basivarsen, to address the genetic basis of DM1 by targeting the toxic nuclear DMPK RNA that causes the disease. Z-basivarsen consists of our proprietary Fab conjugated with a clinically-validated linker to an ASO and is designed to reduce the accumulation of DMPK pre-mRNA in the nucleus, release splicing proteins and potentially stop or reverse disease progression. In in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies supporting our DM1 program, we have observed a reduction in nuclear foci and toxic nuclear DMPK RNA, correction of splicing changes, reversal of myotonia, which is a neuromuscular condition in which the relaxation of a muscle is impaired, and enhanced muscle distribution. Z-basivarsen is currently being evaluated in the ACHIEVE trial, a Phase 1/2 global clinical trial of adult patients with DM1. ACHIEVE, which is designed to be a registrational trial, consists of a 24-week MAD randomized, placebo-controlled period, a 24-week OLE, a 96-week long-term extension and a registrational expansion cohort. In January 2025, we announced the completion of the MAD portion of the trial and announced significant splicing correction at three months compared to baseline and observed functional improvement across multiple clinical endpoints at the registration dose of 6.8 mg/kg administered once every eight weeks, or Q8W. In June and October 2025, we reported positive long-term efficacy and safety data from adult DM1 patients enrolled in the MAD portion of the ACHIEVE trial including data from the 6.8 mg/kg Q8W cohort (n=6) at up to 12 months, showing robust and sustained improvement in myotonia as measured by video hand-opening time, or vHOT. Disease overview and prevalence DM1 is a monogenic, autosomal dominant, progressive disease that primarily affects skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscles. DM1 patients can suffer from various manifestations of the disease including myotonia, muscle weakness, CNS manifestations including fatigue, cognition and sleep complications, gastrointestinal, or GI, complications, cardiac arrhythmias, and respiratory problems. DM1 is caused by an abnormal expansion in a region of the DMPK gene. Specifically, DM1 is caused by an increase in the number of CTG triplet repeats found in the 3’ non-coding region of the DMPK gene. The number of repeats ranges from up to approximately 35 in healthy individuals to many thousands in DM1 patients. The higher-than-normal number of triplet repeats form large hairpin loops that entrap the DMPK pre-mRNA in the nucleus and impart toxic activity, referred to as a toxic gain-of-function mutation. The mutant DMPK pre-mRNA sequesters in the nucleus, forming nuclear foci that bind splicing proteins. This inhibits the ability of splicing proteins to perform their normal function in the nucleus of guiding pre-mRNA processing of gene transcripts from many other genes. As a result, multiple pre-mRNAs that encode key proteins are mis-spliced. This mis-splicing in the nucleus results in the translation of atypical proteins which ultimately cause the clinical presentation of DM1. When nuclear DMPK levels are reduced, the nuclear foci that bind splicing proteins are diminished, releasing splicing proteins, allowing normal mRNA processing and translation of normal proteins, and potentially stopping or reversing disease progression. This disease process is illustrated below: 11 DM1: Genetic basis and clinical presentation DM1 is estimated to have a genetic prevalence of 1 in 2,500 to 1 in 8,000 people in the United States and Europe, affecting approximately 40,000 people in the United States and over 55,000 people in the European Union. However, we believe that the patient population is currently underdiagnosed due to lack of available therapies as is observed for other rare diseases. DM1 is highly variable with respect to disease severity, presentation and age of onset. We are advancing our own efforts to better characterize the actual DM1 patient population through a natural history study that we are sponsoring. We believe that the introduction of new therapies for DM1 will cause the diagnosis rate to improve, resulting in an increase in the overall prevalence estimates for the disease. Based on age of onset and severity of symptoms, DM1 is typically categorized into four overlapping phenotypes: late-onset; classical (adult-onset); childhood; and congenital (cDM1): Overview of DM1 phenotypes Phenotype Clinical presentation Estimated % of DM1 patients Age of onset Late-onset • Myotonia • Muscle weakness • Cataracts 10% 40 - 70 years Classical (Adult-onset) • Muscle weakness and wasting • Myotonia • Cardiac conduction abnormalities • Respiratory insufficiency • Fatigue/Excessive daytime sleepiness • GI disturbance • Cataracts 65% Early teens - 50 years Childhood • Psychological problems • Low IQ • Incontinence 15% 1 - 10 years Congenital (cDM1) • Infantile hypotonia • Severe generalized weakness • Respiratory deficits • Intellectual disability • Classic signs present in adults 10% Birth All DM1 phenotypes, except the late-onset form, are associated with high levels of disease burden and premature mortality. The clinical course of DM1 is progressive, and may become extremely disabling, especially when more generalized limb weakness and respiratory muscle involvement develops. Systemic manifestations such as fatigue, GI complications, cataracts and excessive daytime sleepiness greatly impact a patient’s quality of life. As a result, DM1 leads to physical impairment, activity limitations and 12 decreased participation in social activities and work. Excluding congenital DM1 deaths, life expectancy ranges from 45 years to 60 years. Approximately 80% of early mortality is caused by cardiorespiratory complications. Respiratory failure due to muscle weakness (especially diaphragmatic weakness) causes at least 50% of early mortality, and cardiac abnormalities, including sudden death, account for approximately 30% of early mortality. Current approaches and limitations There are currently no disease-modifying therapies to treat DM1 that are approved and treatment is focused largely on symptom management or palliative therapies. There are a number of product candidates in development, including product candidates in late-stage clinical development, that also are focused on symptom management or palliative therapies and do not target toxic nuclear DMPK RNA, which is the genetic basis of the disease. In addition, delpacibart etedesiran is an antibody linked siRNA that targets the genetic basis of DM1 and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial. There remains a high unmet medical need for new disease-modifying therapies. Our approach - Z-Basivarsen Our program is designed to address the genetic basis of DM1 by targeting the toxic nuclear DMPK RNA that is the cause of the disease. Our product candidate, z-basivarsen, consists of our proprietary Fab targeting TfR1 conjugated to an ASO to reduce the levels of mutant DMPK RNA in the nucleus, thereby releasing splicing proteins, allowing normal mRNA processing and translation of normal proteins, and potentially stopping or reversing disease progression. The ASO is a gapmer oligonucleotide that is designed to translocate to the nucleus, bind its complementary sequence on the DMPK RNA, recruit RNAseH1 to degrade DMPK RNA and thus reduce toxic nuclear DMPK RNA. We have chosen to develop our product candidate with an ASO because single-stranded ASOs preferentially target nuclear RNAs, which is essential for degradation of toxic nuclear DMPK RNA. Z-basivarsen has been awarded orphan drug designation for the treatment of DM1 by both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency, or EMA. The FDA has granted Fast Track and Breakthrough designations for z-basivarsen for the treatment of DM1. Preclinical data We have conducted extensive preclinical studies supporting the development of z-basivarsen in multiple preclinical disease models. In in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies, we observed a reduction of nuclear foci, correction of splicing and reversal of myotonia in disease models, as well as reduction of toxic human nuclear DMPK in a hTfR1/DMSXL DM1 mouse model developed by us. In NHPs, z-basivarsen demonstrated a favorable safety profile and achieved enhanced muscle distribution as evidenced by a reduction in wild-type DMPK RNA. Phase 1/2 ACHIEVE Clinical Trial of Z-Basivarsen in DM1 Z-basivarsen is currently being evaluated in the ACHIEVE trial, a global Phase 1/2 clinical trial consisting of a 24-week MAD, randomized, placebo-controlled period, a 24-week OLE, a 96-week long-term extension, and a registrational expansion cohort. The primary endpoints of the MAD portion of the trial were safety and tolerability; with secondary endpoints of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, including change from baseline in splicing as measured by the composite alternative splicing index, or CASI-22, myotonia, as measured by vHOT, as well as multiple measures of muscle strength and function and patient-reported outcomes, including the Myotonic Dystrophy Health Index, or MDHI. In the MAD portion of the ACHIEVE trial, patients were randomized to receive z-basivarsen or placebo intravenously every four weeks or every eight weeks for 24 weeks, depending on cohort. Patient cohorts were dosed from 1.8 mg/kg to 6.8 mg/kg (approximate ASO dose). Following the MAD placebo-controlled period, patients transitioned to z-basivarsen treatment in the OLE portion of the trial and in the long-term extension. In January 2025, we announced the completion of the MAD portion of the ACHIEVE trial in adults with DM1 and reported efficacy and safety data, including data from the 6.8 mg/kg Q8W cohort (n=8) at up to 6 months. At the 6.8 mg/kg Q8W dose, z-basivarsen resulted in significant splicing correction at 3 months 13 compared to baseline, early and robust improvement in myotonia at six months, improvement in multiple functional endpoints, beginning at 3 months and continuing at 6 months, and improvement in patient reported outcomes, including scales assessing CNS disease manifestations, at 6 months. In June and October 2025, we reported positive long-term efficacy and safety data from adult DM1 patients enrolled in the MAD portion of the ACHIEVE trial, including data from the 6.8 mg/kg Q8W cohort (n=6) at up to 12 months. At the 6.8 mg/kg Q8W dose, z-basivarsen demonstrated robust and sustained improvement in myotonia as measured by vHOT as well as sustained improvements across multiple other endpoints. Treatment with z-basivarsen led to an improvement in vHOT of 3.3 seconds as compared to placebo at 6 months, and data demonstrated that mean improvements at 6 months were sustained at 12 months for vHOT, 10-Meter Walk/Run Test, or 10MWR, 5 Times Sit to Stand Test, or 5xSTS, MDHI, and Qualitative Muscle Testing, or QMT, which demonstrated a 10% improvement in strength at 6 months, increasing to 20% at 12 months relative to baseline. Improvements from baseline were also observed in the 9-Hole Peg Test, a measure of upper limb function focused on manual dexterity and coordination; QMT scores across both upper and lower extremities showing robust and sustained improvement; MDHI subscales of mobility, ability to do activities and upper extremity function showing robust and sustained improvement; and the Patient Global Impression of Change, and Clinician Global Impression of Change, scales showing improvement in overall disease burden. In June 2025, we also reported updated safety and tolerability data from the 56 patients enrolled through the MAD and OLE portions of the ACHIEVE trial. As of the data cutoff date of April 23, 2025, z-basivarsen demonstrated a favorable safety profile. Additionally, the majority of treatment-emergent adverse events were mild or moderate, and no related serious treatment-emergent adverse events were identified. The ACHIEVE trial also includes a REC, which is currently ongoing. The primary endpoint in the REC is the change from baseline in middle finger myotonia as measured by vHOT at 6 months compared to placebo, which is intended to serve as an intermediate clinical endpoint for U.S. Accelerated Approval. Secondary endpoints include change from baseline in splicing as measured by CASI-22, muscle strength as assessed by QMT, performance on both the 10MWR and 5xSTS, as well as the MDHI, all at 6 months compared to placebo. We intend that the data from the REC portion and ongoing long-term extension portions of the ACHIEVE trial will support a potential submission for U.S. Accelerated Approval. The ACHIEVE REC is expected to enroll 60 patients at the 6.8 mg/kg Q8W. We expect to complete enrollment in the REC in the second quarter of 2026, with data from this cohort planned for the first quarter of 2027 and potential submission for U.S. Accelerated Approval planned for early in the third quarter of 2027. We plan to initiate a global confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial of z-basivarsen in March 2026, and we have aligned with the FDA on the Phase 3 trial design and protocol. We continue to pursue approval pathways for z-basivarsen outside of the United States. We anticipate a potential launch of z-basivarsen in the first quarter of 2028, assuming we receive favorable data, priority review is granted, and FDA approval is received on the anticipated timeline. Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy (FSHD) Overview We are developing DYNE-302 to address the genetic basis of FSHD by reducing DUX4 expression in muscle tissue. In June 2024 and June 2025, we announced new preclinical data for DYNE-302, our product candidate for FSHD, that demonstrated robust and durable DUX4 suppression and functional benefit in a mouse model. We generated these data using an innovative hTfR1/iFLExD mouse model we developed that expresses TfR1 and enables tunable DUX4 induction in skeletal muscle. In hTfR1/iFLExD mice, a single intravenous dose of DYNE-302 resulted in dose-dependent and robust reduction of the DUX4 transcriptome that lasted up to three months, with benefit on muscle structure and function. DYNE-302 also demonstrated high in vitro potency in FSHD patient-derived myotubes. We are progressing DYNE-302 toward clinical development. 14 Disease overview and prevalence FSHD is one of the most common muscular dystrophies and affects both sexes equally, with onset typically in teens and young adults. FSHD is characterized by progressive skeletal muscle loss that initially causes weakness in muscles in the face, shoulders, arms and trunk and progresses to weakness in muscles in lower extremities and the pelvic girdle. Skeletal muscle weakness results in significant physical limitations, including progressive loss of facial muscles that can cause an inability to smile or communicate, difficulty using arms for activities of daily living and difficulty getting out of bed, with many patients ultimately becoming dependent upon the use of a wheelchair for daily mobility activities. We estimate that the patient population is between 15,000 and 40,000 in the United States and approximately 20,000 to 50,000 in the European Union. We believe that there may be additional patients who are not formally diagnosed due to a perceived difficulty of obtaining a diagnosis and the fact that there are no approved treatments. Approximately two-thirds of cases are familial-inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion and one-third of cases occur randomly or as a result of environmental factors. FSHD affects all ethnic groups with similar incidence and prevalence. FSHD is caused by aberrant expression of the DUX4 gene in muscle resulting in inappropriate presence of the DUX4 protein, a transcription factor causing the expression of other genes. Normally, DUX4-driven gene expression is limited to early embryonic development, after which time the DUX4 gene is silenced. In patients with FSHD, a genetic mutation causes expression of DUX4 protein to continue after embryonic development. The DUX4 protein regulates the expression of multiple genes encoding other proteins, some of which are toxic to muscle. Evidence of aberrant expression of DUX4 and the genes it activates, including ZSCAN4, MBD3L2, and TRIM43, is a major molecular signature that distinguishes muscles affected by FSHD from healthy muscle. The aberrant expression of DUX4 in FSHD results in muscle death and replacement by fat, which leads to the progressive muscle weakness and disability which characterize the disease, as shown in the figure below. FSHD: genetic basis and disease process Current approaches and limitations There are currently no approved therapies for FSHD, and patients are treated with pain management and physical therapy. There are a number of product candidates in clinical development, including delpacibart braxlosiran, an antibody oligonucleotide conjugate which targets DUX4 being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial. To aid in the development of therapies for FSHD, we are sponsoring an ongoing natural history study seeking to validate new clinical outcome assessments and evaluate physiological biomarkers to support the design and implementation of future clinical trials. Pompe Disease 15 Overview We are developing DYNE-401 to deliver an enzyme replacement therapy to address the deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, GAA that causes Pompe disease. We engineered FORCE-GAA by leveraging the FORCE platform and evaluated efficacy in vivo using hTfR1/6 Neo mice that were developed by crossing the well-established 6 Neo mouse model of Pompe with mice expressing human transferrin receptor 1. Using this approach, intravenous, or IV, administration cleared glycogen in muscle and the CNS and normalized lysosomal size in hTfR1/6 Neo mice. This approach reduced serum neurofilament light chain, a biomarker of axonal injury, providing evidence of benefit in the CNS and displayed superior dose potency compared to GAA alone. Additional data with this approach supported the potential for monthly dosing which is less frequent than approved enzyme replacement therapies for Pompe. Disease overview and prevalence Pompe disease is a rare, severe neuromuscular disorder caused by deficiency of GAA. Lack of GAA leads to glycogen accumulation and increase in lysosomal size in muscle and subsequent weakness, cardiomyopathy and respiratory failure. Enzyme replacement therapy with GAA is the standard of care and increases survival but has inadequate efficacy in skeletal muscle. Pompe is also characterized by CNS manifestations, including behavioral and cognitive deficits due to glycogen accumulation in CNS cells, which are not addressed by the standard of care therapy. We estimate that the patient population for Pompe is approximately 4,500 in the United States and 5,500 in the European Union. Current approaches and limitations There are three currently approved treatments for Pompe disease, all of which are enzyme replacement therapies that use recombinant human acid alpha glucosidase (rhGAA): Myozyme/Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa), Nexviazyme/Nexviadyme (avalglucosidase alfa), and Pombiliti + Opfolda (cipaglucosidase alfa-atga in combination with miglustat). The first therapy approved, alglucosidase alfa, has improved the prognosis for Pompe disease patients. However, patients still experience disease progression and significant symptoms, largely attributed to poor delivery and uptake of the enzyme by skeletal muscle. Next-generation therapies, avalglucosidase alfa and the combination of cipaglucosidase alfa-atga with miglustat, were developed to enhance enzyme delivery and uptake by skeletal muscle. Both provide incrementally better clinical outcomes than alglucosidase alfa but failed to demonstrate superiority to alglucosidase alfa in Phase 3 trials, reflecting substantial remaining unmet medical need. Importantly, there is limited evidence that any of these three medicines penetrates the CNS, where Pompe symptoms include decreased processing speed, learning disabilities, and cognitive decline. Beyond these marketed products, the pipeline of drugs in development for the treatment of Pompe consists of early-stage product candidates that aim to address Pompe disease via alternative strategies, including improving muscle targeting of enzyme replacement therapy, reducing glycogen production and modifying liver or muscle cells to express GAA using gene therapy. There remains a high unmet medical need for new disease-modifying therapies for Pompe disease. Discovery Programs and Pipeline Expansion Opportunities We intend to expand our FORCE portfolio by pursuing programs in additional indications, including additional diseases involving the CNS, rare skeletal muscle diseases, as well as cardiac and metabolic muscle diseases. By rationally selecting therapeutic payloads to conjugate with our proprietary FORCE platform, we plan to develop product candidates to address the genetic basis of additional muscle diseases. For example, we plan to prioritize ASOs for indications driven by nuclear genetic targets and siRNAs for indications driven by cytoplasmic targets. We have completed screening and identified potent ASO and siRNA payloads against a number of cardiac and metabolic targets. We may selectively establish strategic collaborations for certain of these programs where we believe we could benefit from the resources or capabilities of other biopharmaceutical companies. We may also seek strategic collaborations where we believe we can utilize our FORCE platform to enhance delivery of third-party payloads to muscle tissue. 16 We have demonstrated in preclinical studies that the FORCE platform achieved delivery to the CNS. Intravenous, or IV, administration of FORCE conjugate, our proprietary Fab antibody conjugated to an ASO, achieved delivery to the CNS via TfR1 in both NHPs and our hTfR1/DMSXL mouse model. The hTfR1/DMSXL model that we developed expresses the human TfR1 and carries a human DMPK gene with more than 1,000 CTG repeats that represents a severe DM1 phenotype. In these studies, FORCE conjugate was generally well tolerated. In NHPs, FORCE conjugate achieved superior delivery compared to unconjugated ASO when both were administered intravenously. In addition, IV administration of FORCE in our preclinical studies showed broader distribution throughout the brain compared to intrathecal administration of unconjugated ASO. FORCE conjugate was also delivered to the brain of hTfR1/DMSXL mice and demonstrated robust knockdown of toxic human nuclear DMPK RNA and foci reduction in hTfR1/DMSXL mice. Manufacturing We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities. We currently rely on third-party contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs, and suppliers for our Fab antibody, linkers and payloads that comprise our program candidates and the conjugation of these components. We plan to use third-party CMOs to support our IND-enabling studies and to fully supply our clinical trials and commercial activities but may also seek to eventually establish our own manufacturing facility for long-term commercial supply. As we scale manufacturing, we intend to continue to expand and strengthen our network of CMOs. We believe there are multiple sources for all of the materials required for the manufacture of our product candidates, as well as multiple CMOs who could assemble the antibody, linker and payload that comprise our program candidates. Manufacturing is subject to extensive regulations that impose procedural and documentation requirements. These regulations govern record keeping, manufacturing processes and controls, personnel, quality control and quality assurance. Our CMOs are required to comply with these regulations and are assessed through regular monitoring and formal audits. Our third-party manufacturers are required to manufacture any product candidates we develop under current Good Manufacturing Practice, or cGMP, requirements and other applicable laws and regulations. We have personnel with extensive technical, manufacturing, analytical and quality experience to oversee all contracted manufacturing and testing activities. Intellectual property We strive to protect our proprietary technology, inventions, improvements, platforms, program candidates, product candidates and components thereof, their methods of use and processes for their manufacture that we believe are important to our business, including by obtaining, maintaining, defending and enforcing patent and other intellectual property rights for the foregoing in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions. We also rely on trade secrets and confidentiality agreements to protect our confidential information and know-how and other aspects of our business that are not amenable to, or that we do not consider appropriate for, patent protection. Our future commercial success depends in part on our ability to: • obtain, maintain, enforce and defend patent and other intellectual property rights for our important technology, inventions and know-how; • preserve the confidentiality of our trade secrets and other confidential information; • obtain and maintain licenses to use and exploit intellectual property owned or controlled by third parties; • operate without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating any valid and enforceable patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties; and 17 • defend against challenges and assertions by third parties challenging the validity or enforceability of our intellectual property rights, or our rights in our intellectual property, or asserting that the operation of our business infringes, misappropriates or otherwise violates their intellectual property rights. As of December 31, 2025, we owned 70 patent application families related to our business, comprised of eleven U.S. provisional patent applications, 54 issued U.S. patents, 53 pending U.S. non-provisional patent applications, six pending Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, patent applications, 472 pending foreign patent applications in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Eurasia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Macau, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa, and fourteen granted foreign patents. We exclusively licensed one patent family, comprised of three issued U.S. patents, two pending U.S. patent applications and one issued European patent that has been validated in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. Our owned and licensed patent estate covers various aspects of our programs and technology, including our FORCE platform, proprietary antibodies, oligonucleotide conjugates, enzyme conjugates, methods of treatment and aspects of manufacturing. Any U.S. or foreign patents issued from national stage filings of our PCT patent applications and any U.S. patents issued from non-provisional applications we may file in connection with our provisional patent applications would be scheduled to expire on various dates from 2039 through 2046, without taking into account any possible patent term adjustments or extensions and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity and other governmental fees. Further details on certain segments of our patent portfolio are included below. Additionally, in December 2025, for no monetary consideration, we entered into a global cross-license agreement with Avidity Biosciences, Inc., pursuant to which each party granted to the other a royalty-free, fully paid up, non-exclusive license with the right to sublicense, to certain of such party’s patent rights for the development, testing, manufacture and commercialization of product candidates and programs in development. FORCE platform With regard to our FORCE platform, as of December 31, 2025, we owned three issued U.S. patents, nine pending U.S. non-provisional patent applications, and 71 pending foreign patent applications in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Eurasia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Macau, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and South Africa. These applications relate to various aspects of our FORCE platform including proprietary antibodies, oligonucleotide conjugates, enzyme conjugates, methods of manufacture and methods of treatment. The three issued U.S. patents are expected to expire in 2042 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. Any additional patents issued from these applications are expected to expire from 2039 to 2042; however, patent term extension may be available. DMD programs (exons 51, 53, 45, 44, 55 and other) With regard to our DMD programs, as of December 31, 2025, we owned 29 issued U.S. patents, 14 pending U.S. non-provisional patent applications, eight granted foreign patents and 170 pending foreign patent applications in Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Europe, Eurasia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and South Africa. These patent filings relate to composition of matter and methods of treating disease involving our FORCE platform in the context of DMD. The 29 issued U.S. patents are expected to expire in 2039 and 2042 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. The eight granted foreign patents are expected to expire in 2039-2041 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. Any additional patents issued from these applications are expected to expire in 2039 and 2041 to 2044; however, patent term extension may be available. 18 DM1 program With regard to our DM1 program, as of December 31, 2025, we owned one pending PCT patent application, 21 issued U.S. patents, ten pending U.S. non-provisional patent applications, ten granted foreign patents, and 102 pending foreign patent applications in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Eurasia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa. These applications relate to composition of matter and methods of treating disease involving our FORCE platform in the context of DM1. The 21 issued U.S. patents are expected to expire in 2039, 2042 and 2043 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. The ten granted foreign patents are expected to expire in 2039-2041 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. Any additional patents issued from these applications are expected to expire from 2039 to 2045; however, patent term extension may be available. FSHD program With regard to our FSHD program, as of December 31, 2025, we owned two pending PCT patent applications, 13 issued U.S. patents, one pending U.S. provisional patent application, eight pending U.S. non-provisional patent applications, five granted foreign patents and 73 pending foreign patent applications in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Eurasia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and South Africa. These patent filings relate to composition of matter and methods of treating disease involving our FORCE platform in the context of FSHD. The 13 issued U.S. patents are expected to expire in 2039 and 2042 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. The five granted foreign patents are expected to expire in 2039 and 2041 without taking into account any possible patent term extensions. Any additional patents issued from these applications are expected to expire in 2039 and 2041 to 2046; however, patent term extension may be available. We also in-license a patent family from the University of Mons, or UMONS, comprising two pending U.S. patent applications. Any patents issued from these applications are expected to expire in 2031; however patent term extension may be available. Pompe Program With regard to our Pompe program, as of December 31, 2025, we owned one pending PCT patent application, two pending U.S. provisional patent applications, and eight pending foreign patent applications in Canada, China, Europe, Eurasia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and South Africa. These patent filings relate to composition of matter and methods of treating disease involving our FORCE platform in the context of Pompe disease. Any patents issued from these applications are expected to expire in 2039, 2045, and 2046; however, patent term extension may be available. Discovery programs With regard to our discovery programs, as of December 31, 2025, we owned seven pending U.S. provisional patent applications, five pending U.S. non-provisional patent applications, and 24 pending foreign patent applications in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Eurasia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and South Africa. These applications relate to composition of matter and methods of treating disease involving our FORCE platform in the context of a variety of additional rare skeletal muscle diseases, as well as cardiac and metabolic muscle diseases and diseases involving the CNS. Any patents issued from these applications are expected to expire in 2039, 2041, 2042, and 2046; however, patent term extension may be available. Patent prosecution A PCT patent application is not eligible to become an issued patent until, among other things, we file one or more national stage patent applications in the jurisdictions in which we seek patent protection and do so within prescribed timelines of the PCT application’s priority date. These prescribed timelines are generally 30 months, 31 months or 32 months, depending on the jurisdiction. If we do not timely file any national stage patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to our PCT patent application and any potential patent protection on the inventions disclosed in such PCT patent application. 19 Moreover, a provisional patent application is not eligible to become an issued patent. A provisional patent application may serve as a priority filing for a non-provisional patent application we file within 12 months of such provisional patent application. If we do not timely file non-provisional patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to our existing provisional patent applications and any potential patent protection on the inventions disclosed in our provisional patent applications. While we intend to timely file additional provisional patent applications and national stage and non-provisional patent applications relating to our PCT patent applications, we cannot predict whether any of our patent applications will result in the issuance of patents. If we do not successfully obtain patent protection, or if the scope of the patent protection we or our licensors obtain with respect to our product candidates or technology is insufficient, we will be unable to use patent protection to prevent others from using our technology or from developing or commercializing technology and products similar or identical to ours or other similar competing products and technologies. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell, importing or otherwise commercializing any of our technology, inventions and improvements, either directly or indirectly, will depend in part on our success in obtaining, maintaining, defending and enforcing patent claims that cover our technology, inventions and improvements. The patent positions of companies like ours are generally uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. The protection afforded by a patent varies on a product-by-product basis, from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction, and depends upon many factors, including the type of patent, the scope of its coverage, the availability of patent term adjustments and regulatory-related patent term extensions, the availability of legal remedies in a particular jurisdiction and the validity and enforceability of the patent. Patent laws and related enforcement in various jurisdictions outside of the United States are uncertain and may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Changes in the patent laws and rules, whether by legislation, judicial decisions or regulatory interpretation, in the United States and other jurisdictions may have uncertain effects that could improve or diminish our ability to protect our inventions and obtain, maintain, defend and enforce our patent rights, and could therefore affect the value of our business in uncertain ways. The area of patent and other intellectual property rights in biotechnology is evolving and has many risks and uncertainties, and third parties may have blocking patents and other intellectual property that could be used to prevent us from commercializing our platform and product candidates and practicing our proprietary technology. Our patent rights may be challenged, narrowed, circumvented, invalidated or ruled unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop third parties from marketing and commercializing related platforms or product candidates or limit the term of patents that cover our platform and any product candidates. In addition, the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with protection or competitive advantages against third parties with similar technology, and third parties may independently develop similar technologies. Moreover, because of the extensive time required for development, testing and regulatory review of a potential product, it is possible that before any of our product candidates can be commercialized, any related patent may expire or remain in force for only a short period following commercialization, thereby reducing any competitive advantage provided by the patent. For this and other risks related to our proprietary technology, inventions, improvements, platforms and product candidates and intellectual property rights related to the foregoing, please see the section entitled “Risk factors—Risks related to our intellectual property.” Patent term The term of individual patents depends upon the laws of the jurisdictions in which they are obtained. In most jurisdictions in which we file, the patent term is 20 years from the earliest date of filing of the first non-provisional patent application to which the patent claims priority. However, the term of U.S. patents may be extended or adjusted for delays incurred due to compliance with FDA requirements or by delays encountered during prosecution that are caused by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the 20 USPTO. For example, in the United States, a patent claiming a new biologic product, its method of use or its method of manufacture may be eligible for a limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, or the Hatch-Waxman Act, for up to five years beyond the normal expiration date of the patent. Patent term extension cannot be used to extend the remaining term of a patent past a total of 14 years from the product’s approval date in the United States. Only one patent applicable to an approved product is eligible for the extension, and the application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent for which extension is sought. A patent that covers multiple products for which approval is sought can only be extended in connection with one of the approvals. During the period of extension, if granted, the scope of exclusivity is limited to the approved product for approved uses. Some foreign jurisdictions, including Europe and Japan, have analogous patent term extension provisions, which allow for extension of the term of a patent that covers a drug approved by the applicable foreign regulatory authority. For more information on patent term extensions, see Item 1. “Business—Government regulation—Patent term restoration and extension” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In the future, if and when any product candidates we may develop receive FDA approval, we expect to apply for patent term extensions on issued patents covering those product candidates. Moreover, we intend to seek patent term adjustments and extensions for any of our issued patents in any jurisdiction where such adjustments and extensions are available. However, there is no guarantee that the applicable authorities, including the USPTO and FDA, will agree with our assessment of whether such adjustments and extensions should be granted, and even if granted, the length of such adjustments and extensions. Trade secrets In addition to patent protection, we also rely on trade secrets, know-how, unpatented technology and other proprietary information to strengthen our competitive position. We currently, and may in the future continue to, rely on third parties to assist us in developing and manufacturing our products. Accordingly, we must, at times, share trade secrets, know-how, unpatented technology and other proprietary information, including those related to our platform, with them. We may in the future also enter into research and development collaborations with third parties that may require us to share trade secrets, know-how, unpatented technology and other proprietary information under the terms of research and development partnerships or similar agreements. Nonetheless, we take steps to protect and preserve our trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information and prevent the unauthorized disclosure of the foregoing, including by entering into non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements with parties who have access to our trade secrets or other confidential and proprietary information, such as employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, contract research and manufacturing organizations, sponsored researchers and other advisors, at the commencement of their employment, consulting or other relationships with us. In addition, we take other appropriate precautions, such as maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems, to guard against any misappropriation or unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information by third parties. Despite these efforts, third parties may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques or otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information. In addition, we cannot provide any assurances that all of the foregoing non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements have been duly executed, and any of the counterparties to such agreements may breach them and disclose our trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information. Although we have confidence in the measures we take to protect and preserve our trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information, they may be inadequate, our agreements or security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for such breaches. Moreover, to the extent that our employees, contractors, consultants, collaborators and advisors use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to our rights in any know-how or inventions arising out of such work. For more information, please see the section entitled “Risk factors—Risks related to our intellectual property.” 21 License agreement with the University of Mons In April 2020, we entered into a license agreement with UMONS, or the UMONS Agreement, pursuant to which UMONS granted to us an exclusive, worldwide license to certain patents and patent applications related to oligonucleotides for our FSHD program and a non-exclusive, worldwide license to existing, related know-how. Each of the issued patents licensed to us under the UMONS Agreement is scheduled to expire in 2031. The licenses under the UMONS Agreement confer on us the right to research, develop and commercialize products, which we refer to as licensed products, and to practice processes, in each case, covered by the licensed patents and existing, related know-how. Under the UMONS Agreement, we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop at least one licensed product and, to the extent regulatory approval is obtained in such jurisdictions, to commercialize at least one licensed product in the United States and the United Kingdom or a member country of the European Union. Unless terminated earlier, the UMONS Agreement will remain in effect until the last to expire of the licensed patent rights on a licensed product-by-licensed product and country-by-country basis. UMONS may terminate the UMONS Agreement in the event of a material breach by us and our failure to cure such breach within a specified time period. We may voluntarily terminate the UMONS Agreement with prior notice to UMONS. In connection with our entry into the UMONS Agreement, we paid UMONS an upfront payment of €50,000. We also agreed to make milestone payments to UMONS upon the achievement of specified development and regulatory milestones up to a maximum aggregate total of €400,000 for the first licensed product to achieve such milestones and up to a maximum aggregate total of €200,000 for each subsequent licensed product to achieve each such milestones, as well as a low single-digit percentage royalty on net sales of licensed products by us, our affiliates and sublicensees. These royalty obligations continue on a licensed product-by-licensed product and country-by-country basis until the expiration of the last licensed patent rights covering such licensed product in such country. In addition, if we sublicense rights under the UMONS Agreement, we are required to pay a low double-digit percentage of the sublicense revenue to UMONS. Additionally, if we choose to file, prosecute or maintain any patents included in the licensed patent rights under the UMONS Agreement, we will be required to bear the full cost and expenses of preparing, filing, prosecuting and maintaining any such patents. Competition The biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries generally, and the muscle disease field specifically, are characterized by rapid evolution of technologies, sharp competition and strong defense of intellectual property. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will have to compete with existing therapies and new therapies that may become available in the future. While we believe that our technology, development experience and scientific knowledge in the field of muscle diseases, oligonucleotide therapeutics and manufacturing provide us with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Currently, patients with DMD are treated with corticosteroids to manage the inflammatory component of the disease. EMFLAZA (deflazacort) is an FDA-approved corticosteroid marketed by PTC Therapeutics, Inc., or PTC. A novel steroid, AGAMREE (vamorolone) has been approved by the FDA for treatment of DMD in patients 2 years of age and older and is marketed by Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Givinostat, a histone deacetylase, or HDAC, inhibitor, received FDA approval for treatment of DMD in patients 6 years of age and older and is marketed in the United States by ITF Therapeutics, LLC. In addition, there are four FDA-approved exon skipping drugs: EXONDYS 51 (eteplirsen), VYONDYS 53 (golodirsen) and AMONDYS 45 (casimersen), which are naked PMOs approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 51, exon 53 and exon 45 skipping, respectively, and are marketed by Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc., or Sarepta, and VILTEPSO (vitolarsen), a naked PMO approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 53 skipping, which is marketed by Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. Additionally, there is one FDA-approved gene therapy for patients with a confirmed mutation in the 22 dystrophin gene, ELEVIDYS (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl), which is marketed by Sarepta. Companies focused on developing treatments for DMD that target dystrophin mechanisms, as does our DMD program, include Wave Life Sciences Ltd. with WVE-N531, a stereopure oligonucleotide being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial for patients amenable to exon 53 skipping; Entrada Therapeutics, Inc. with ENTR-601-44, an endosomal escape vehicle technology for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 44 and exon 45 skipping respectively, currently being evaluated in Phase 1/2 clinical trials; BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. with BMN-351, an ASO for patients amenable to exon 51 skipping which is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial; SQY Therapeutics with SQY-51, a PMO for patients amenable to exon 51 skipping, which is also being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial; NS Pharma, Inc. with NS-050/NCNP-03 and NS-089/NCNP-02, which are PMOs in Phase 1/2 and Phase 2 clinical trials for exon-50 and exon 44 skipping amenable DMD respectively; and Avidity with delpacibart zotadirsen (formerly known as AOC-1044), an antibody oligonucleotide conjugate for patients amenable to exon 44 skipping being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial, which recently reported positive topline data and intent to file for accelerated approval with the FDA in 2026. In addition, gene therapies to treat DMD are in clinical development, including by Solid Biosciences Inc. (SGT-003), REGENXBIO Inc. (RGX-202), Genethon (GNT-0004), and Insmed (INS1201). Gene editing treatments that are in preclinical development are also being pursued by Vertex and Sarepta. We are also aware of several companies targeting non-dystrophin mechanisms for the treatment of DMD. There are currently no approved therapies to treat the underlying cause of DM1. Product candidates currently in clinical development to treat DM1 include: tideglusib, a GSK3-ß inhibitor in late-stage clinical development by AMO Pharma Ltd. for children and adults with DM1; pitolisant, a selective histamine 3 receptor antagonist / inverse agonist being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial for non-muscular symptoms of DM1 by Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc.; delpacibart etedesiran (formerly AOC-1001), an antibody-linked siRNA being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial by Avidity Biosciences, Inc., or Avidity; PGN-EDODM1, a peptide-linked PMO currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial by Pepgen, Inc.; ARO-DM1, a peptide-linked siRNA being evaluated in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in Australia and New Zealand by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; ATX-01, a lipophilic peptide conjugated anti-miR designed to target microRNA 23b currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by ARTHEx Biotech S.L.; VX-670, an endosomal escape vehicle technology with a CUG steric blocker oligonucleotide by Entrada Therapeutics, Inc. in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, or Vertex, being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia; SAR446268, an adeno-associated virus-, or AAV-, medicated gene therapy currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Sanofi S.A., or Sanofi, in the United States and Argentina; and JUV-161, an AKT-signaling activator currently in a Phase 1 single-ascending dose clinical trial in healthy volunteers by Juvena Therapeutics Inc., or Juvena, in Australia. There are currently no therapies approved to treat FSHD. Products currently in development for FSHD include: ARO-DUX4, an siRNA therapy being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial and licensed by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to Sarepta; delpacibart braxlosiran(formerly AOC-1020), an antibody oligonucleotide conjugate being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Avidity and RO7204239, an anti-latent myostatin antibody by Roche Pharmaceuticals that is in a Phase 2 clinical trial. Satralizumab, an anti-IL-6 antibody, is being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial by the University Hospital of Nice. EpiCrispr Biotechnologies is developing an AAV-delivered CRISPR epigenome modification therapy targeting DUX4 that is currently in Phase 1/2 clinical trials. Scholar Rock Holding Corporation cleared its IND application for apitegromab in FSHD with Phase 2 study initiation and patient dosing expected in mid-2026. Several other companies have therapies targeting DUX4 in preclinical development (e.g., Facio Biotherapies Pty Ltd, Kate Therapeutics Inc. (acquired by Novartis), Souffle Therapeutics, and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Ionis). There are three currently approved medicines for Pompe disease, all of which are enzyme replacement therapies: Myozyme/Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa) and Nexviazyme/Nexviadyme (avalglucosidase alfa) by Sanofi, and Pombiliti + Opfolda (cipaglucosidase alfa-atga in combination with miglustat) by Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. Beyond these marketed products, the Pompe clinical pipeline consists of several clinical-stage product candidates that aim to address Pompe disease via alternative strategies. ACTUS-101, a gene therapy delivered to the liver for continuous, endogenous production of GAA, is currently 23 being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by AskBio, Inc., or AskBio. AskBio, which is wholly owned by Bayer AG, also has its AB-1009 gene therapy program that is in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the United States for late-onset Pompe disease, or LOPD. AT-845 is a muscle-targeted gene therapy currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Astellas Pharma US, Inc. for LOPD. In addition, ABX-1100 by ARO Biotherapeutics Co. and MZE-001 by Maze Therapeutics, Inc. are substrate reduction therapies in Phase 1 clinical trials. Denali Therapeutics, Inc. also announced plans to initiate a Phase 1 trial for its enzyme replacement therapy in January 2026. We also expect to compete more generally with other companies developing alternative scientific and technological approaches to the treatment of muscle diseases, including other companies working to develop conjugates with oligonucleotides for extra-hepatic delivery, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Aro Biotherapeutics, Inc., Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Avidity, Novo Nordisk A/S, DTx Pharma, Inc., Gennao Bio, Inc., Ionis and Sarepta, as well as gene therapy and gene editing approaches. Many of our competitors, either independently or with strategic partners, have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources than we do. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful than we are in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval for treatments and achieving widespread market acceptance. Merger and acquisition activity in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries may result in resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. These companies also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials and acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Our commercial opportunity could be substantially limited if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are more effective, safer, less toxic, more convenient or less expensive than products we may develop. In geographies that are critical to our commercial success, competitors may also obtain regulatory approvals before us, resulting in our competitors building a strong market position in advance of the entry of our products. In addition, our ability to compete may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payers seeking to encourage the use of other drugs. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all any products we may develop are likely to be their efficacy, safety, convenience, price and availability of reimbursement. Government regulation Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level and in other countries and jurisdictions, including the European Union, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, pricing, reimbursement, sales, quality control, approval, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting and import and export of pharmaceutical products, including biological products. The processes for obtaining marketing approvals in the United States and in foreign countries and jurisdictions, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other regulatory authorities, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. The regulatory requirements applicable to product development, approval and marketing are subject to change, and regulations and administrative guidance often are revised or reinterpreted by government agencies in ways that may have a significant impact on our business. Licensure and regulation of biologics in the United States In the United States, any product candidates we may develop would be regulated as biological products, or biologics, under the Public Health Service Act, or PHSA, and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, and their implementing regulations and guidance. A company, institution, or organization which takes responsibility for the initiation and management of a clinical development program for such products is referred to as a sponsor. A sponsor seeking approval 24 to market and distribute a new drug or biological product in the United States must typically secure the following: • preclinical laboratory tests, animal studies and formulation studies all performed in accordance with the FDA’s Good Laboratory Practices, or GLP, regulations and other applicable requirements; • completion of the manufacture, under current Good Manufacturing Practice, or cGMP conditions, of the drug substance and drug product that the sponsor intends to use in human clinical trials along with required analytical and stability testing; • design of a clinical protocol and submission to the FDA of an IND application for human clinical testing, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin; • approval by an independent institutional review board, or IRB, representing each clinical site before each clinical trial may be initiated; • performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials to establish the safety, potency and purity of the product candidate for each proposed indication, in accordance with current Good Clinical Practices, or GCP; • preparation and submission to the FDA of a biologics license application, or BLA, for a biologic product candidate requesting marketing for one or more proposed indications, including submission of detailed information on the chemistry, manufacture and controls, or CMC, for the product candidate in clinical development and proposed labeling; • review of the product by an FDA advisory committee, where appropriate or if applicable; • satisfactory completion of one or more FDA inspections of the manufacturing facility or facilities, including those of third parties, at which the product, or components thereof, are produced to assess compliance with current cGMP requirements and to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the product’s identity, strength, quality and purity; • satisfactory completion of any FDA audits of the preclinical studies and clinical trial sites to assure compliance with GLP, as applicable, and GCP, and the integrity of clinical data in support of the BLA; • payment of application and program fees under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA; • securing FDA approval of the BLA and licensure of the new biologic product; and • compliance with any post-approval requirements, including the potential requirement to implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, and any post-approval studies or other post-marketing commitments required by the FDA. Preclinical studies and investigational new drug application Before testing any biologic product candidate in humans, including an antibody, the product candidate must undergo preclinical testing. Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, formulation and stability, as well as studies to evaluate the potential for efficacy and toxicity in animal studies. These studies are generally referred to as IND-enabling studies. The conduct of the preclinical tests and formulation of the compounds for testing must comply with federal regulations and requirements, including GLP regulations and standards and the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal Welfare Act, if applicable. With passage of the FDA’s Modernization Act 2.0 in December 2022, Congress eliminated provisions in both the FDCA and the PHSA that required animal testing in support of a BLA. While animal testing may still be conducted, the FDA was authorized to rely on alternative non-clinical tests, including cell-based assays, microphysiological systems, or bioprinted or computer models. In April 2025, the FDA released a roadmap to replace animal testing in preclinical safety studies with scientifically validated new approach methodologies. 25 The results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information and analytical data, are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND application. An IND is an exemption from the FDCA that allows an unapproved product candidate to be shipped in interstate commerce for use in an investigational clinical trial and a request for FDA authorization to administer such investigational product to humans. The IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time the FDA raises concerns or questions about the product or conduct of the proposed clinical trial, including concerns that human research subjects will be exposed to unreasonable health risks or concerns about the CMC for the product candidate. In that case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding FDA concerns before the clinical trials can begin or recommence. As a result, submission of the IND may result in the FDA not allowing the trials to commence or allowing the trial to commence on the terms originally specified by the sponsor in the IND. If the FDA raises concerns or questions either during this initial 30-day period, or at any time following the clearance of an IND, it may choose to impose a partial or complete clinical hold on the trial. Clinical holds are imposed by the FDA whenever there is concern for patient safety, which may be a result of new data, findings, or developments in clinical, preclinical and/or CMC or where there is non-compliance with regulatory requirements. This order issued by the FDA would delay either a proposed clinical trial or cause suspension of an ongoing trial, until all outstanding concerns have been adequately addressed and the FDA has notified the company that investigations may proceed. This could cause significant delays or difficulties in completing our planned clinical trials or future clinical trials in a timely manner. Expanded access to an investigational drug for treatment use Expanded access, sometimes called “compassionate use,” is the use of investigational products outside of clinical trials to treat patients with serious or immediately life-threatening diseases or conditions when there are no comparable or satisfactory alternative treatment options. The rules and regulations related to expanded access are intended to improve access to investigational products for patients who may benefit from investigational therapies. FDA regulations allow access to investigational products under an IND by the company or the treating physician for treatment purposes on a case-by-case basis for: individual patients (single-patient IND applications for treatment in emergency settings and non-emergency settings); intermediate-size patient populations; and larger populations for use of the investigational product under a treatment protocol or treatment IND application. When considering an IND application for expanded access to an investigational product with the purpose of treating a patient or a group of patients, the sponsor and treating physicians or investigators will determine suitability when all of the following criteria apply: patient(s) have a serious or immediately life-threatening disease or condition, and there is no comparable or satisfactory alternative therapy to diagnose, monitor, or treat the disease or condition; the potential patient benefit justifies the potential risks of the treatment and the potential risks are not unreasonable in the context or condition to be treated; and the expanded use of the investigational drug for the requested treatment will not interfere with initiation, conduct, or completion of clinical investigations that could support marketing approval of the product or otherwise compromise the potential development of the product. There is no obligation for a sponsor to make its drug products available for expanded access. Drug and biologic companies must, however, make publicly available their policies for expanded access for individual patient access to products intended for serious diseases. Sponsors are required to make such policies publicly available upon the earlier of initiation of a Phase 2 or Phase 3 trial; or 15 days after the investigational drug or biologic receives designation as a breakthrough therapy, Fast Track product, or regenerative medicine advanced therapy. In addition, on May 30, 2018, the Right to Try Act was signed into law. The law, among other things, provides a federal framework for certain patients to access certain investigational products that have completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and that are undergoing investigation for FDA approval. Under certain circumstances, eligible patients can seek treatment without enrolling in clinical trials and without obtaining 26 FDA permission under the FDA expanded access program. There is no obligation for a manufacturer to make its investigational products available to eligible patients as a result of the Right to Try Act. Human clinical trials in support of a BLA Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational product candidate to healthy volunteers or patients with the disease or condition to be treated under the supervision of a qualified principal investigator in accordance with GCP requirements. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the trial, inclusion and exclusion criteria, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety, and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A protocol for each clinical trial and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. Further, each clinical trial must be reviewed and approved by an IRB either centrally or individually at each institution at which the clinical trial will be conducted. The IRB will consider, among other things, clinical trial design, patient informed consent, ethical factors, the safety of human subjects, and the possible liability of the institution. An IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations. The FDA, IRB, or the clinical trial sponsor may suspend or discontinue a clinical trial at any time for various reasons, including a finding that the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with FDA requirements or that the participants are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Clinical testing also must satisfy extensive GCP rules and the requirements for informed consent. Additionally, some clinical trials are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical trial sponsor, known either as a data monitoring committee, or DMC. This group may recommend continuation of the trial as planned, changes in trial conduct, or cessation of the trial at designated check points based on certain available data from the trial to which only the DMC has access. Finally, research activities involving infectious agents, hazardous chemicals, recombinant DNA and genetically altered organisms and agents may be subject to review and approval of an Institutional Biosafety Committee, or IBC, in accordance with NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules. Clinical trials typically are conducted in three sequential phases, but the phases may overlap or be combined. Additional studies may be required after approval. • Phase 1 clinical trials are initially conducted in a limited population to test the product candidate for safety, including adverse effects, dose tolerance, absorption, metabolism, distribution, excretion and pharmacodynamics in healthy subjects or patients. • Phase 2 clinical trials are generally conducted in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, evaluate the efficacy of the product candidate for specific targeted indications and determine dose tolerance and optimal dosage. Multiple Phase 2 clinical trials may be conducted by the sponsor to obtain information prior to beginning larger and more costly Phase 3 clinical trials. • Phase 3 clinical trials proceed if the Phase 2 clinical trials demonstrate that a dose range of the product candidate is potentially effective and has an acceptable safety profile. Phase 3 clinical trials are undertaken within an expanded patient population to further evaluate dosage, provide substantial evidence of clinical efficacy and further test for safety in an expanded and diverse patient population at multiple, geographically dispersed clinical trial sites. A well-controlled, statistically robust Phase 3 trial may be designed to deliver the data that regulatory authorities will use to decide whether or not to approve, and, if approved, how to appropriately label a biologic; such Phase 3 studies are referred to as “pivotal.” In some cases, the FDA may approve a BLA for a product but require the sponsor to conduct additional clinical trials to further assess the product’s safety and effectiveness after approval. Such trials are typically referred to as post-approval clinical trials. These studies are used to gain additional experience from the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication and to document a clinical benefit in the case of biologics approved under accelerated approval regulations. If the FDA approves a product 27 while a company has ongoing clinical trials that were not necessary for approval, a company may be able to use the data from these clinical trials to meet all or part of any post-approval clinical trial requirement or to request a change in the product labeling. The failure to exercise due diligence with regard to conducting post-approval clinical trials could result in withdrawal of approval for products. A clinical trial may combine the elements of more than one phase and the FDA often requires more than one Phase 3 trial to support marketing approval of a product candidate. A company’s designation of a clinical trial as being of a particular phase is not necessarily indicative that the study will be sufficient to satisfy the FDA requirements of that phase because this determination cannot be made until the protocol and data have been submitted to and reviewed by the FDA. Moreover, as noted above, a pivotal trial is a clinical trial that is believed to satisfy FDA requirements for the evaluation of a product candidate’s safety and efficacy such that it can be used, alone or with other pivotal or non-pivotal trials, to support regulatory approval. Generally, pivotal trials are Phase 3 trials, but they may be Phase 2 trials if the design provides a well-controlled and reliable assessment of clinical benefit, particularly in an area of unmet medical need. In December 2022, with the passage of Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act, or FDORA, Congress required sponsors to develop and submit a diversity action plan for each Phase 3 clinical trial or any other “pivotal study” of a new drug or biological product. These diversity action plans are meant to encourage the enrollment of more diverse patient populations in late-stage clinical trials of FDA-regulated products. Specifically, diversity action plans must include the sponsor’s goals for enrollment, the underlying rationale for those goals, and an explanation of how the sponsor intends to meet them. In June 2024, as mandated by FDORA, the FDA issued draft guidance outlining the general requirements for Diversity Action Plans, or DAPs. Unlike most guidance documents issued by the FDA, the DAP guidance when finalized will have the force of law because FDORA specifically dictates that the form and manner for submission of DAPs are specified in FDA guidance. On January 27, 2025, in response to an Executive Order issued by President Trump on January 21, 2025, on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, the FDA removed this draft guidance from its website. Subsequently, in July 2025, pursuant to a court order, the FDA restored the draft DAP guidance to its website with a statement that “information on this page may be modified and/or removed in the future subject to the terms of the court’s order and implemented consistent with applicable law.” In light of these ongoing actions, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the draft DAP guidance and how the FDA will consider diversity action plans in connection with its review of new drug applications, or NDAs. Additionally, in September 2025, the FDA issued final guidance with updated recommendations for GCPs aimed at modernizing the design and conduct of clinical trials. The updates are intended to help pave the way for more efficient clinical trials to facilitate the development of medical products. The final guidance is adopted from the International Council for Harmonisation’s recently updated E6(R3) draft guideline that was developed to enable the incorporation of rapidly developing technological and methodological innovations into the clinical trial enterprise. In addition, the FDA issued final guidance outlining recommendations for the implementation of decentralized clinical trials. In October 2025, the FDA issued final guidance that focuses on patient-focused drug development. The guidance outlines how stakeholders, such as patients, caregivers, researchers and medical product developers, can submit patient experience data in support of the development and approval of drug products. To that end, the guidance provides an overview of clinical outcome assessments, or COAs, in clinical trials, and the role that COAs may play in in evaluating the clinical benefit of a medical product. Sponsors of clinical trials are required to register and disclose certain clinical trial information on a public registry (clinicaltrials.gov) maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, or NIH. In particular, information related to the product, patient population, phase of investigation, study sites and investigators and other aspects of the clinical trial is made public as part of the registration of the clinical trial. The NIH’s Final Rule on registration and reporting requirements for clinical trials became effective in 2017. Although the FDA has historically not enforced these reporting requirements, the FDA, as of January 31, 2026, has issued eight notices of non-compliance, thereby signaling the government's willingness to begin enforcing these requirements against non-compliant clinical trial sponsors. While these notices of 28 non-compliance did not result in civil monetary penalties, the failure to submit clinical trial information to clinicaltrials.gov, as required, is a prohibited act under the FDCA with violations subject to potential civil monetary penalties of up to $10,000 for each day the violation continues. Violations may also result in injunctions and/or criminal prosecution or disqualification from federal grants. Interactions with the FDA During the Clinical Development Program During all phases of clinical development, regulatory agencies require extensive monitoring and auditing of all clinical activities, clinical data and clinical trial investigators. Written IND safety reports must be promptly submitted to the FDA, the IRB and the investigators for serious and unexpected adverse events, any findings from other trials, in vivo laboratory tests or in vitro testing that suggest a significant risk for human subjects, or any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. The sponsor must submit an IND safety report within 15 calendar days after the sponsor determines that the information qualifies for reporting. The sponsor also must notify the FDA of any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction within seven calendar days after the sponsor’s initial receipt of the information. A development safety report detailing the results of the clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA on an annual basis. In addition, sponsors are given opportunities to meet with the FDA at certain points in the clinical development program. Specifically, sponsors may meet with the FDA prior to the submission of an IND, or pre-IND application meeting, at the end of a Phase II clinical trial, or EOP2 meeting, and before a BLA is submitted, or pre-BLA meeting. Meetings at other times may also be requested. There are five types of meetings that occur between sponsors and the FDA. Type A meetings are those that are necessary for an otherwise stalled product development program to proceed or to address an important safety issue. Type B meetings include pre-IND application and pre-BLA meetings, as well as Type B end of phase meetings, such as EOP2 meetings. A Type C meeting is any meeting other than a Type A or Type B meeting regarding the development and review of a product. A Type D meeting is focused on a narrow set of issues (should be limited to no more than two focused topics) and should not require input from more than three disciplines or divisions. Finally, INTERACT meetings are intended for novel products and development programs that present unique challenges in the early development of an investigational product. Clinical Studies Outside the United States in Support of FDA Approval In connection with our clinical development program, we are conducting trials, and may conduct trials in the future, at sites outside the United States. When a foreign clinical study is conducted under an IND, all IND requirements must be met unless waived. When a foreign clinical study is not conducted under an IND, the sponsor must ensure that the study complies with certain regulatory requirements of the FDA in order to use the study as support for an IND or application for marketing approval. Specifically, the studies must be conducted in accordance with GCP, including undergoing review and receiving approval by an independent ethics committee, or IEC, and seeking and receiving informed consent from subjects. GCP requirements encompass both ethical and data integrity standards for clinical studies. The FDA’s regulations are intended to help ensure the protection of human subjects enrolled in non-IND foreign clinical studies, as well as the quality and integrity of the resulting data. They further help ensure that non-IND foreign studies are conducted in a manner comparable to that required for IND studies. The acceptance by the FDA of study data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States in support of U.S. approval may be subject to certain conditions or may not be accepted at all. In cases where data from foreign clinical trials are intended to serve as the sole basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will generally not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless (i) the data are applicable to the U.S. population and U.S. medical practice; (ii) the trials were performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence and pursuant to GCP regulations; and (iii) the data may be considered valid without the need for an on-site inspection by the FDA, or if the FDA considers such inspection to be necessary, the FDA is able to validate the data through an on-site inspection or other appropriate means. 29 In addition, even where the foreign study data are not intended to serve as the sole basis for approval, the FDA will not accept the data as support for an application for marketing approval unless the study is well-designed and well-conducted in accordance with GCP requirements and the FDA is able to validate the data from the study through an onsite inspection if deemed necessary. Many foreign regulatory authorities have similar approval requirements. In addition, such foreign trials are subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the trials are conducted. Pediatric Studies Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2003, a BLA or supplement thereto must contain data that are adequate to assess the safety and effectiveness of the product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations, and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. Sponsors must also submit pediatric study plans prior to the assessment data. Those plans must contain an outline of the proposed pediatric study or studies the sponsor plans to conduct, including study objectives and design, any deferral or waiver requests, and other information required by regulation. The sponsor, the FDA, and the FDA’s internal review committee must then review the information submitted, consult with each other, and agree upon a final plan. The FDA or the sponsor may request an amendment to the plan at any time. For products intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, the FDA must, upon the request of a sponsor, meet to discuss preparation of the initial pediatric study plan or to discuss deferral or waiver of pediatric assessments. In addition, FDA will meet early in the development process to discuss pediatric study plans with sponsors and FDA must meet with sponsors by no later than the end-of-phase 1 meeting for serious or life-threatening diseases and by no later than 90 days after FDA’s receipt of the study plan. The FDA may, on its own initiative or at the request of the sponsor, grant deferrals for submission of some or all pediatric data until after approval of the product for use in adults, or full or partial waivers from the pediatric data requirements. A deferral may be granted for several reasons, including a finding that the product or therapeutic candidate is ready for approval for use in adults before pediatric trials are complete or that additional safety or effectiveness data needs to be collected before the pediatric trials begin. The law now requires the FDA to send a PREA Non-Compliance letter to sponsors who have failed to submit their pediatric assessments required under PREA, have failed to seek or obtain a deferral or deferral extension or have failed to request approval for a required pediatric formulation. It further requires the FDA to publicly post the PREA Non-Compliance letter and sponsor’s response. Unless otherwise required by regulation, the pediatric data requirements do not apply to products with orphan designation, although FDA has recently taken steps to limit what it considers abuse of this statutory exemption. In May 2023, the FDA issued new draft guidance that further describes the pediatric study requirements under PREA. Manufacturing and Compliance with cGMP requirements Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional preclinical studies and must also develop additional information about the physical characteristics of the biologic product candidate as well as finalize a process for manufacturing the product candidate in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. To help reduce the risk of introduction of adventitious agents or of causing other adverse events with the use of biologic products, the PHSA emphasizes the importance of manufacturing control for products whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and, among other requirements, the sponsor must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality, potency and purity of the final biologic product. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the biologic product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life. Manufacturers and others involved in the manufacture and distribution of products must also register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies. Both domestic and foreign manufacturing 30 establishments must register and provide additional information to the FDA upon their initial participation in the manufacturing process. Any product manufactured by or imported from a facility that has not registered, whether foreign or domestic, is deemed misbranded under the FDCA. Establishments may be subject to periodic unannounced inspections by government authorities to ensure compliance with cGMPs and other laws. Inspections must follow a “risk-based schedule” that may result in certain establishments being inspected more frequently. Manufacturers may also have to provide, on request, electronic or physical records regarding their establishments. Delaying, denying, limiting, or refusing inspection by the FDA may lead to a product being deemed to be adulterated. The PREVENT Pandemics Act, enacted in December 2022, clarifies that foreign drug manufacturing establishments are subject to registration and listing requirements even if a drug or biologic undergoes further manufacture, preparation, propagation, compounding or processing at a separate establishment outside the United States prior to being imported or offered for import into the United States. In May 2025, the FDA disclosed plans to expand its use of unannounced inspections of foreign manufacturing facilities that produce drugs and biologics distributed in the United States. Subsequently, in August 2025, the FDA introduced a “PreCheck” program with the intention of supporting companies as they build new facilities in the United States. The PreCheck program provides manufacturers with more frequent FDA communication at critical development stages, including facility design, construction, and pre-production. These FDA initiatives flow from an Executive Order issued by President Trump on May 5, 2025, calling for actions to reduce regulatory barriers to pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States. Submission and filing of a BLA The results of product candidate development, preclinical testing and clinical trials, including negative or ambiguous results as well as positive findings, are submitted to the FDA as part of a BLA requesting license to market the product. The BLA must contain extensive manufacturing information and detailed information on the composition of the product and proposed labeling as well as payment of a user fee. Under federal law, the submission of most BLAs is subject to an application user fee, which for federal fiscal year 2026 is approximately $4.7 million for an application requiring clinical data. The sponsor of a licensed BLA is also subject to an annual program fee, which for federal fiscal year 2026 is approximately $0.4 million. Certain exceptions and waivers are available for some of these fees, such as an exception from the application fee for products with orphan designation and a waiver for certain small businesses. The FDA conducts a preliminary review of all applications within 60 days of receipt and must inform the sponsor at that time or before whether an application is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. In pertinent part, FDA’s regulations state that an application “shall not be considered as filed until all pertinent information and data have been received” by the FDA. In the event that FDA determines that an application does not satisfy this standard, it will issue a Refuse to File, or RTF, determination to the sponsor. The FDA may request additional information rather than accept an application for filing. In this event, the application must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application is also subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. In October 2025, the FDA issued internal guidance clarifying that “materially incomplete or inadequately organized” applications that would not permit timely, efficient and complete review will be the subject of an RTF. The internal guidance also provides that the agency will issue an RTF for an application that relies on a single adequate and well-controlled investigation to support approval if prior communications with the FDA determined the need for more than one clinical study and any justification for a single investigation is inadequate. Review and approval of a filed BLA Once the submission of the BLA has been accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth review of the application. Under the goals and policies agreed to by the FDA under the PDUFA, the FDA has ten months in which to complete its initial review of a standard application and respond to the sponsor, and 31 six months for a priority review of the application. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates for standard and priority BLAs. The review process may often be significantly extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification. The review process and the PDUFA goal date may be extended by three months if the FDA requests or if the sponsor otherwise provides additional information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission within the last three months before the PDUFA goal date. In connection with its review of an application, the FDA typically will inspect the facility or facilities where the product candidate is manufactured. The FDA will not approve an application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in full compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. The PHSA emphasizes the importance of manufacturing control for products like biologics whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. Additionally, before approving an application, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP. With passage of FDORA, Congress clarified the FDA’s authority to conduct inspections by expressly permitting inspection of facilities involved in the preparation, conduct, or analysis of clinical and non-clinical studies submitted to the FDA as well as other persons holding study records or involved in the study process. Moreover, the FDA will review a sponsor’s financial relationship with the principal investigators who conducted the clinical trials in support of the BLA. That is because, under certain circumstances, principal investigators at a clinical trial site may also serve as scientific advisors or consultants to a sponsor and receive compensation in connection with such services. Depending on the level of that compensation and any other financial interest a principal investigator may have in a sponsor, the sponsor may be required to report these relationships to the FDA. The FDA will then evaluate that financial relationship and determine whether it creates a conflict of interest or otherwise affects the interpretation of the trial or the integrity of the data generated at the principal investigator’s clinical trial site. If so, the FDA may exclude data from the clinical trial site in connection with its determination of safety and efficacy of the investigational product. Under the PHSA, the FDA may approve a BLA if it determines that the product is safe, pure and potent, and the facility where the product will be manufactured meets standards designed to ensure that it continues to be safe, pure and potent. To reach this determination, the FDA must also conclude that the investigational product is effective and that its expected benefits outweigh its potential risks to patients. This “benefit-risk” assessment is informed by the extensive body of evidence about the product’s safety, purity and potency in the BLA. This assessment is also informed by other factors, including: the severity of the underlying condition and how well patients’ medical needs are addressed by currently available therapies; uncertainty about how the premarket clinical trial evidence will extrapolate to real-world use of the product in the post-market setting; and whether risk management tools are necessary to manage those specific risks. On the basis of the FDA’s evaluation of the application and accompanying information, including the results of the inspection of the manufacturing facilities and any FDA audits of preclinical and clinical trial sites to assure compliance with GCPs, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a complete response letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the product with specific prescribing information for specific indications. If the application is not approved, the FDA will issue a complete response letter, which will contain the conditions that must be met in order to secure final approval of the application, and when possible, will outline recommended actions the sponsor might take to obtain approval of the application. Sponsors that receive a complete response letter may submit to the FDA information that represents a complete response to the issues identified by the FDA. Such resubmissions are classified under PDUFA as either Class 1 or Class 2. The classification of a resubmission is based on the information submitted by a sponsor in response to an action letter. Under the goals and policies agreed to by the FDA under PDUFA, the FDA has two months to review a Class 1 resubmission and six months to review a Class 2 resubmission. The FDA will not approve an application until issues identified in the complete response letter have been addressed. While complete response letters, or CRLs, were previously treated by the 32 FDA as confidential and were only disclosed in action packages for approved products, the FDA announced in September 2025 that it will now release CRLs promptly after they are issued to sponsors. Since that announcement, the FDA has posted a number of CRLs on its website. The FDA may also refer the application to an advisory committee for review, evaluation and recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. In particular, the FDA may refer applications for novel biologic products or biologic products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee. Typically, an advisory committee is a panel of independent experts, including clinicians and other scientific experts, that reviews, evaluates and provides a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions. If the FDA approves a new product, it may limit the approved indication(s) for use of the product. It may also require that contraindications, warnings, or precautions be included in the product labeling. In addition, the FDA may call for post-approval studies, including post-approval clinical trials, to further assess the product’s efficacy and/or safety after approval. The agency may also require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the product after commercialization, or impose other conditions, including distribution restrictions or other risk management mechanisms, including REMS, to help ensure that the benefits of the product outweigh the potential risks. REMS can include medication guides, communication plans for healthcare professionals and elements to assure safe use, or ETASU. ETASU can include, but are not limited to, special training or certification for prescribing or dispensing, dispensing only under certain circumstances, special monitoring and the use of patent registries. The FDA may prevent or limit further marketing of a product based on the results of post-market studies or surveillance programs. After approval, many types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications, manufacturing changes and additional labeling claims, are subject to further testing requirements and FDA review and approval. Fast Track, breakthrough therapy, priority review and regenerative medicine advanced therapy designations The FDA is authorized to designate certain products for expedited review if they are intended to address an unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition. These programs are referred to as Fast Track designation, breakthrough therapy designation, priority review designation and regenerative medicine advanced therapy, or RMAT, designation. These designations are not mutually exclusive, and a product candidate may qualify for one or more of these programs. While these programs are intended to expedite product development and approval, they do not alter the standards for FDA approval. Specifically, the FDA may designate a product for fast-track review if it is intended, whether alone or in combination with one or more other products, for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and it demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for such a disease or condition. For fast-track products, sponsors may have greater interactions with the FDA and the FDA may initiate review of sections of a fast-track product’s application before the application is complete. This rolling review may be available if the FDA determines, after preliminary evaluation of clinical data submitted by the sponsor, that a fast-track product may be effective. The sponsor must also provide, and the FDA must approve, a schedule for the submission of the remaining information and the sponsor must pay applicable user fees. However, the FDA’s time period goal for reviewing a fast-track application does not begin until the last section of the application is submitted. In addition, the Fast Track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if the FDA believes that the designation is no longer supported by data emerging in the clinical trial process. Second, in 2012, Congress enacted the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. This law established a new regulatory scheme allowing for expedited review of products designated as “breakthrough therapies.” A product may be designated as a breakthrough therapy if it is intended, either 33 alone or in combination with one or more other products, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The FDA may take certain actions with respect to breakthrough therapies, including holding meetings with the sponsor throughout the development process; providing timely advice to the product sponsor regarding development and approval; involving more senior staff in the review process; assigning a cross-disciplinary project lead for the review team; and taking other steps to design the clinical trials in an efficient manner. Breakthrough designation may be rescinded if a product no longer meets the qualifying criteria. Third, the FDA may designate a product for priority review if it is a product that treats a serious condition and, if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness. The FDA determines, on a case-by-case basis, whether the proposed product represents a significant improvement when compared with other available therapies. Significant improvement may be illustrated by evidence of increased effectiveness in the treatment of a condition, elimination or substantial reduction of a treatment-limiting product reaction, documented enhancement of patient compliance that may lead to improvement in serious outcomes, and evidence of safety and effectiveness in a new subpopulation. A priority designation is intended to direct overall attention and resources to the evaluation of such applications, and to shorten the FDA’s goal for taking action on a marketing application from ten months to six months. Priority designation may be rescinded if a product no longer meets the qualifying criteria. With passage of the Cures Act in December 2016, Congress authorized the FDA to accelerate review and approval of products designated as regenerative medicine advanced therapies. A product is eligible for RMAT designation if it is a regenerative medicine therapy that is intended to treat, modify, reverse or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product has the potential to address unmet medical needs for such disease or condition. The benefits of a regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation include early interactions with FDA to expedite development and review, benefits available to breakthrough therapies, potential eligibility for priority review, and accelerated approval based on surrogate or intermediate endpoints. RMAT designation may be rescinded if a product no longer meets the qualifying criteria. On June 17, 2025, the FDA announced the creation of the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher, or CNPV, Program. Vouchers issued under this program can be redeemed by sponsors to shorten the review time of a BLA from approximately ten to twelve months to one to two months. The FDA has indicated that the CNPV Program will convene experts from the FDA’s offices for a team-based review rather than using the standard review system. Clinical data will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary team of physicians and scientists who will pre-review the submitted information and convene for a one-day meeting. Vouchers under the CNPV Program will be given to companies aligned with U.S. national priorities. In September 2025, the FDA introduced a framework intended to streamline the approval of new therapies for ultrarare diseases. The Rare Disease Evidence Principles is intended to allow sponsors to rely on a single-arm trial in support of approval of biologics that treat rare diseases with very small patient populations and where the disease is linked to a known genetic defect and characterized by progressive functional deterioration leading to disability or death in a short period of time. The targeted diseases should also lack adequate alternative therapies. Accelerated approval pathway The FDA may grant accelerated approval to a product for a serious or life-threatening condition that provides meaningful therapeutic advantage to patients over existing treatments based upon a determination that the product has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. The FDA may also grant accelerated approval for such a condition when the product has an effect on an intermediate clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality, or IMM, and that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on IMM or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of 34 alternative treatments. Products granted accelerated approval must meet the same statutory standards for safety and effectiveness as those granted traditional approval. For the purposes of accelerated approval, a surrogate endpoint is a marker, such as a laboratory measurement, radiographic image, physical sign, or other measure that is thought to predict clinical benefit but is not itself a measure of clinical benefit. Surrogate endpoints can often be measured more easily or more rapidly than clinical endpoints. An intermediate clinical endpoint is a measurement of a therapeutic effect that is considered reasonably likely to predict the clinical benefit of a product, such as an effect on IMM. The FDA has limited experience with accelerated approvals based on intermediate clinical endpoints but has indicated that such endpoints generally may support accelerated approval where the therapeutic effect measured by the endpoint is not itself a clinical benefit and basis for traditional approval, if there is a basis for concluding that the therapeutic effect is reasonably likely to predict the ultimate clinical benefit of a product. The accelerated approval pathway is most often used in settings in which the course of a disease is long and an extended period of time is required to measure the intended clinical benefit of a product, even if the effect on the surrogate or intermediate clinical endpoint occurs rapidly. Thus, accelerated approval has been used extensively in the development and approval of products for treatment of a variety of cancers in which the goal of therapy is generally to improve survival or decrease morbidity and the duration of the typical disease course requires lengthy and sometimes large trials to demonstrate a clinical or survival benefit. The accelerated approval pathway is usually contingent on a sponsor’s agreement to conduct, in a diligent manner, additional post-approval confirmatory studies to verify and describe the product’s clinical benefit. As a result, a product candidate approved on this basis is subject to rigorous post-marketing compliance requirements, including the completion of Phase 4 or post-approval clinical trials to confirm the effect on the clinical endpoint. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies, confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies or dissemination of false or misleading promotional materials would allow the FDA to withdraw the product from the market on an expedited basis. All promotional materials for product candidates approved under accelerated regulations are subject to prior review by the FDA. With passage of FDORA in December 2022, Congress modified certain provisions governing accelerated approval of drug and biologic products. Specifically, the new legislation authorized the FDA to: require a sponsor to have its confirmatory clinical trial underway before accelerated approval is awarded, require a sponsor of a product granted accelerated approval to submit progress reports on its post-approval studies to the FDA every six months (until the study is completed); and use expedited procedures to withdraw accelerated approval of an NDA or BLA after the confirmatory trial fails to verify the product’s clinical benefit. Further, FDORA requires the FDA to publish on its website “the rationale for why a post-approval study is not appropriate or necessary” whenever it decides not to require such a study upon granting accelerated approval. In March 2023, the FDA issued draft guidance that outlines its current thinking and approach to accelerated approval. The FDA indicated that the accelerated approval pathway is commonly used for approval of oncology drugs due to the serious and life-threatening nature of cancer. Although single-arm trials have been commonly used to support accelerated approval, a randomized controlled trial is the preferred approach as it provides a more robust efficacy and safety assessment and allows for direct comparisons to an available therapy. Subsequently, in December 2024 and January 2025, the FDA issued additional draft guidance relating to accelerated approval. This guidance describes FDA’s latest thinking on what it means to conduct a confirmatory trial with due diligence and how the FDA plans to interpret whether such a study needs to be underway at the time of approval. While this guidance currently only in draft form and will ultimately not be legally binding even when finalized, sponsors typically observe the FDA’s guidance closely to ensure that their investigational products qualify for accelerated approval. 35 Post-approval regulation If regulatory approval for marketing of a product or new indication for an existing product is obtained, the sponsor will be required to comply with all regular post-approval regulatory requirements as well as any post-approval requirements that the FDA have imposed as part of the approval process. The sponsor will be required to report certain adverse reactions and production problems to the FDA, provide updated safety, potency and purity information and comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotional labeling requirements. Manufacturers and certain of their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with ongoing regulatory requirements, including cGMP regulations, which impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon manufacturers. Accordingly, the sponsor and its third-party manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality control to maintain compliance with cGMP regulations and other regulatory requirements. A product may also be subject to official lot release, meaning that the manufacturer is required to perform certain tests on each lot of the product before it is released for distribution. If the product is subject to official lot release, the manufacturer must submit samples of each lot, together with a release protocol showing a summary of the history of manufacture of the lot and the results of all of the manufacturer’s tests performed on the lot, to the FDA. The FDA may in addition perform certain confirmatory tests on lots of some products before releasing the lots for distribution. Finally, the FDA will conduct laboratory research related to the safety, purity, potency and effectiveness of pharmaceutical products. Once an approval is granted, the FDA may withdraw the approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post- market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things: • restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls; • fines, warning letters or holds on post-approval clinical trials; • refusal of the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications, or suspension or revocation of product license approvals; • product recall, seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; or • injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties. Pharmaceutical products may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. Although healthcare providers may prescribe products for uses not described in the drug’s labeling, known as off-label uses, in their professional judgment, drug manufacturers are prohibited from soliciting, encouraging or promoting unapproved uses of a product. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant liability. In September 2021, the FDA published final regulations which describe the types of evidence that the agency will consider in determining the intended use of a biologic. It may be permissible, under very specific, narrow conditions, for a manufacturer to engage in nonpromotional, non-misleading communication regarding off-label information, such as distributing scientific or medical journal information. Moreover, with the passage of the Pre-Approval Information Exchange Act in December 2022, sponsors of products that have not been approved may proactively communicate to payors certain information about products in development to help expedite patient access upon product approval. Previously, such communications were permitted under FDA guidance but 36 the new legislation explicitly provides protection to sponsors who convey certain information about products in development to payors, including unapproved uses of approved products. Additionally, in January 2025, the FDA published final guidance outlining its policies governing the distribution of scientific information to healthcare providers about unapproved uses of approved products. The final guidance calls for such communications to be truthful, non-misleading and scientifically sound and to include all information necessary for healthcare providers to interpret the strengths and weaknesses and validity and utility of the information about the unapproved use. If a company engages in such communications consistent with the guidance’s recommendations, the FDA indicated that it will not treat such communications as evidence of unlawful promotion of a new intended use for the approved product. While this guidance only applies to communications about unapproved uses of approved products, it may be helpful in understanding the FDA’s approach to communications about unapproved products. If a company is found to have promoted off-label uses, it may become subject to adverse public relations and administrative and judicial enforcement by the FDA, the DOJ, or the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as state authorities. This could subject a company to a range of penalties that could have a significant commercial impact, including civil and criminal fines and agreements that materially restrict the manner in which a company promotes or distributes drug products. The federal government has levied large civil and criminal fines against companies for alleged improper promotion and has also requested that companies enter into consent decrees or permanent injunctions under which specified promotional conduct is changed or curtailed. Orphan drug designation Orphan drug designation in the United States is designed to encourage sponsors to develop products intended for treatment of rare diseases or conditions. In the United States, a rare disease or condition is statutorily defined as a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States or that affects more than 200,000 individuals in the United States and for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available the biologic for the disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product in the United States. Orphan drug designation qualifies a company for tax credits and market exclusivity for seven years following the date of the product’s marketing approval if granted by the FDA. An application for designation as an orphan product can be made any time prior to the filing of an application for approval to market the product. A product becomes an orphan when it receives orphan drug designation from the Office of Orphan Products Development at the FDA based on acceptable confidential requests made under the regulatory provisions. The product must then go through the review and approval process like any other product. A sponsor may request orphan drug designation of a previously unapproved product or new orphan indication for an already marketed product. In addition, a sponsor of a product that is otherwise the same product as an already approved orphan drug may seek and obtain orphan drug designation for the subsequent product for the same rare disease or condition if it can present a plausible hypothesis that its product may be clinically superior to the first drug. More than one sponsor may receive orphan drug designation for the same product for the same rare disease or condition, but each sponsor seeking orphan drug designation must file a complete request for designation. If a product with orphan designation receives the first FDA approval for the disease or condition for which it has such designation or for a select indication or use within the rare disease or condition for which it was designated, the product generally will receive orphan drug exclusivity. Orphan drug exclusivity means that the FDA may not approve another sponsor’s marketing application for the same product for the same indication for seven years, except in certain limited circumstances. If a product designated as an orphan drug ultimately receives marketing approval for an indication broader than what was designated in its orphan drug application, it may not be entitled to exclusivity. 37 Orphan drug exclusivity will not bar approval of another product under certain circumstances, including if the company with orphan drug exclusivity is not able to meet market demand or the subsequent product is shown to be clinically superior to the approved product on the basis of greater efficacy or safety, or providing a major contribution to patient care. This is the case despite an earlier court opinion holding that the Orphan Drug Act unambiguously required the FDA to recognize orphan drug exclusivity regardless of a showing of clinical superiority. Under legislation passed in 2020, the requirement for a product to show clinical superiority applies to drug products that received orphan drug designation before enactment of amendments to the FDCA in 2017 but have not yet been approved by FDA. In September 2021, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit held that, for the purpose of determining the scope of market exclusivity, the term “same disease or condition” in the statute means the designated “rare disease or condition” and could not be interpreted by the FDA to mean the “indication or use.” Thus, the court concluded, orphan drug exclusivity applies to the entire designated disease or condition rather than the “indication or use.” Although there have been legislative proposals to overrule this decision, they have not been enacted into law. On January 23, 2023, the FDA announced that, in matters beyond the scope of the court’s order, the FDA will continue to apply its existing regulations tying orphan-drug exclusivity to the uses or indications for which the orphan drug was approved. More recently however, on February 14, 2025, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. fully embraced the reasoning of the Catalyst decision in another decision challenging the scope of orphan drug exclusivity. On April 17, 2025, the FDA appealed this decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The implications of this decision, and its impact on the FDA’s implementation of the Orphan Drug Act, are unclear at this point. Pediatric exclusivity Pediatric exclusivity is another type of non-patent marketing exclusivity in the United States and, if granted, provides for the attachment of an additional six months of regulatory exclusivity to the term of any existing regulatory exclusivity, including orphan exclusivity. This six-month exclusivity may be granted if a BLA sponsor submits pediatric data that fairly respond to a written request from the FDA for such data. The data do not need to show the product to be effective in the pediatric population studied; rather, if the clinical trial is deemed to fairly respond to the FDA’s request, the additional protection is granted. If reports of requested pediatric studies are submitted to and accepted by the FDA within the statutory time limits, whatever statutory or regulatory periods of exclusivity that cover the product are extended by six months. Biosimilars and exclusivity The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or, collectively, the ACA, which was signed into law in March 2010, included a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA. The BPCIA established a regulatory scheme authorizing the FDA to approve biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars. A biosimilar is a biological product that is highly similar to an existing FDA-licensed “reference product.” To date, the FDA has approved a number of biosimilars and the first interchangeable biosimilar product was approved on July 30, 2021 and a second product previously approved as a biosimilar was designated as interchangeable in October 2021. The FDA has also issued numerous guidance documents outlining its approach to reviewing and licensing biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars under the PHSA. Under the BPCIA, a manufacturer may submit an application for licensure of a biologic product that is “biosimilar to” or “interchangeable with” a previously approved biological product or “reference product.” In order for the FDA to approve a biosimilar product, it must find that there are no clinically meaningful differences between the reference product and proposed biosimilar product in terms of safety, purity and potency. For the FDA to approve a biosimilar product as interchangeable with a reference product, the agency must find that the biosimilar product can be expected to produce the same clinical results as the reference product, and (for products administered multiple times) that the biologic and the reference biologic may be switched after one has been previously administered without increasing safety risks or risks of diminished efficacy relative to exclusive use of the reference biologic. In December 2022, Congress clarified through FDORA that the FDA may approve multiple first interchangeable biosimilar 38 biological products so long as the products are all approved on the first day on which such a product is approved as interchangeable with the reference product. An application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date of approval of the reference product. The FDA may not approve a biosimilar product until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was approved. Even if a product is considered to be a reference product eligible for exclusivity, another company could market a competing version of that product if the FDA approves a full BLA for such product containing the sponsor’s own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of their product. The BPCIA also created certain exclusivity periods for biosimilars approved as interchangeable products. There have been government proposals to reduce the 12-year reference product exclusivity period, but none has been enacted to date. At the same time, since passage of the BPCIA, many states have passed laws or amendments to laws, which address pharmacy practices involving biosimilar and interchangeable biosimilar products. Further, the FDA may revise the standards governing approval of biosimilars so as to bring such products to the market more quickly. For example, in October 2025, the FDA issued draft guidance which proposes to eliminate the need for sponsors of biosimilar products to conduct comparative human clinical efficacy studies, allowing them to rely instead on analytical testing to demonstrate product differences from a reference product. Federal and state data privacy and security laws There are multiple privacy and data security laws that may impact our business activities, in the United States and in other countries where we conduct trials or where we may do business in the future. These laws are evolving and may increase both our obligations and our regulatory risks in the future. In the health care industry, generally, under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, has issued regulations to protect the privacy and security of protected health information, or PHI, used or disclosed by covered entities including certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses. HIPAA also regulates standardization of data content, codes and formats used in healthcare transactions and standardization of identifiers for health plans and providers. HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 or HITECH, and their regulations, including the final omnibus rule published on January 25, 2013, also imposes certain obligations on the business associates of covered entities and their subcontractors that obtain protected health information in providing services to or on behalf of covered entities. HIPAA may apply to us in certain circumstances and may also apply to our business partners in ways that may impact our relationships with them. Our clinical trials are regulated by the "common rule," which also includes specific privacy-related provisions. In addition to federal privacy regulations, there are a number of state laws governing confidentiality and security of health information that are applicable to our business. In addition to possible federal administrative, civil and criminal penalties for HIPAA violations, state attorneys general are authorized to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce HIPAA and seek attorney’s fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. Accordingly, state attorneys general have brought civil actions seeking injunctions and damages resulting from alleged violations of HIPAA’s privacy and security rules. State attorneys general also have authority to enforce state privacy and security laws. New laws and regulations governing privacy and security may be adopted in the future as well. In 2018, California passed into law the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, which took effect on January 1, 2020 and imposed many requirements on businesses that process the personal information of California residents. Many of the CCPA’s requirements are similar to those found in the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, including requiring businesses to provide notice to data subjects regarding the information collected about them and how such information is used and shared, and providing data subjects the right to request access to such personal information and, in certain cases, request the erasure of such personal information. The CCPA also affords California residents the right to opt-out of “sales” of their personal information. The CCPA contains significant penalties for companies that violate its requirements. In November 2020, California voters passed a ballot initiative for the 39 California Privacy Rights Act, or the CPRA, which went into effect on January 1, 2023 and significantly expanded the CCPA to incorporate additional GDPR-like provisions including requiring that the use, retention, and sharing of personal information of California residents be reasonably necessary and proportionate to the purposes of collection or processing, granting additional protections for sensitive personal information, and requiring greater disclosures related to notice to residents regarding retention of information. The CPRA also created a new enforcement agency – the California Privacy Protection Agency – whose sole responsibility is to enforce the CPRA, which will further increase compliance risk. The provisions in the CPRA may apply to some of our business activities. In addition to California, a number of other states have passed comprehensive privacy laws similar to the CCPA and CPRA. These laws are either in effect or will go into effect over the next few years. Like the CCPA and CPRA, these laws create obligations related to the processing of personal information, as well as special obligations for the processing of “sensitive” data, which includes health data in some cases. Some of the provisions of these laws may apply to our business activities. There are also states that are strongly considering or have already passed comprehensive privacy laws during the 2024 legislative sessions that went into effect in 2025. Other states will be considering similar laws in the future, and Congress has also been debating passing a federal privacy law. There are also states that are specifically regulating health information that may affect our business. For example, the State of Washington passed the My Health My Data Act in 2023 which specifically regulated health information that is not otherwise regulated by the HIPAA rules, and the law also has a private right of action, which further increases the relevant compliance risk. Connecticut and Nevada have also passed similar laws regulating consumer health data, and more states are considering such legislation in 2024. These laws may impact our business activities, including our identification of research subjects, relationships with business partners and ultimately the marketing and distribution of our products. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are also increasingly using privacy-related statutes at both the state and federal level to bring lawsuits against companies for their data-related practices. In particular, there have been a significant number of cases filed against companies for their use of pixels and other web trackers. These cases often allege violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act and other state laws regulating wiretapping, as well as the federal Video Privacy Protection Act. Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors available under such laws, it is possible that some of our current or future business activities, including certain clinical research, sales and marketing practices and the provision of certain items and services to our customers, could be subject to challenge under one or more of such privacy and data security laws. The heightening compliance environment and the need to build and maintain robust and secure systems to comply with different privacy compliance and/or reporting requirements in multiple jurisdictions could increase the possibility that a healthcare company may fail to comply fully with one or more of these requirements. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the privacy or data security laws or regulations described above that are applicable to us, or any other laws that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including potentially significant criminal, civil and administrative penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting requirements and/or oversight if we become subject to a consent decree or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. To the extent that any product candidates we may develop, once approved, are sold in a foreign country, we may be subject to similar foreign laws. Patent term restoration and extension In the United States, a patent claiming a new biologic product, its method of use or its method of manufacture may be eligible for a limited patent term extension under the Hatch-Waxman Act, which permits a patent extension of up to five years for patent term lost during product development and FDA regulatory review. Assuming grant of the patent for which the extension is sought, the restoration period for a patent covering a product is typically one-half the time between the effective date of the IND involving human beings and the submission date of the BLA, plus the time between the submission date 40 of the BLA and the ultimate approval date. Patent term restoration cannot be used to extend the remaining term of a patent past a total of 14 years from the product’s approval date in the United States. Only one patent applicable to an approved product is eligible for the extension, and the application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent for which extension is sought. A patent that covers multiple products for which approval is sought can only be extended in connection with one of the approvals. The USPTO reviews and approves the application for any patent term extension in consultation with the FDA. Regulation and procedures governing approval of medicinal products in the European Union In order to market any product outside of the United States, a company must also comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries and jurisdictions regarding quality, safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials, marketing authorization, commercial sales and distribution of products. Whether or not it obtains FDA approval for a product, a sponsor will need to obtain the necessary approvals by the comparable foreign regulatory authorities before it can commence clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries or jurisdictions. Specifically, the process governing approval of medicinal products in the European Union generally follows the same lines as in the United States. It entails satisfactory completion of preclinical studies and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of the product for each proposed indication. It also requires the submission to the relevant competent authorities of a marketing authorization application, or MAA, and granting of a marketing authorization by these authorities before the product can be marketed and sold in the European Union. Non-clinical studies Non-clinical studies are performed to demonstrate the health or environmental safety of new chemical or biological substances. Non-clinical (pharmaco-toxicological) studies must be conducted in compliance with the principles of good laboratory practice, or EU GLP, as set forth in EU Directive 2004/10/EC (unless otherwise justified for certain particular medicinal products – e.g., radio-pharmaceutical precursors for radio-labeling purposes). In particular, non-clinical studies, both in vitro and in vivo, must be planned, performed, monitored, recorded, reported and archived in accordance with the EU GLP principles, which define a set of rules and criteria for a quality system for the organizational process and the conditions for non-clinical studies. These EU GLP standards reflect the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development requirements. Clinical trial approval On January 31, 2022, the new Clinical Trials Regulation (EU) No 536/2014, or CTR became effective in the European Union and replaced the prior Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC. The new regulation aims at simplifying and streamlining the authorization, conduct and transparency of clinical trials in the European Union. Under the new coordinated procedure for the approval of clinical trials, the sponsor of a clinical trial to be conducted in more than one Member State of the European Union, or EU Member State, will only be required to submit a single application for approval. The submission will be made through the Clinical Trials Information System, a new clinical trials portal overseen by the EMA and available to clinical trial sponsors, competent authorities of the EU Member States and the public. All clinical trials in the European Union (including those which are ongoing) are subject to the CTR. Beyond streamlining the process, the CTR includes a single set of documents to be prepared and submitted for the application as well as simplified reporting procedures for clinical trial sponsors, and a harmonized procedure for the assessment of applications for clinical trials, which is divided in two parts. Part I is assessed by the competent authorities of all EU Member States in which an application for authorization of a clinical trial has been submitted (EU Member States concerned). Part II is assessed separately by each EU Member State concerned. Strict deadlines have been established for the assessment of clinical trial applications. The role of the relevant ethics committees in the assessment procedure will continue to be governed by the national law of the concerned EU Member State. However, overall related timelines will be defined by the CTR. 41 The CTR did not change the preexisting requirement that a sponsor must obtain prior approval from the competent national authority of the EU Member State in which the clinical trial is to be conducted. If the clinical trial is conducted in different EU Member States, the competent authorities in each of these EU Member States must provide their approval for the conduct of the clinical trial. Furthermore, the sponsor may only start a clinical trial at a specific study site after the applicable ethics committee has issued a favorable opinion. Parties conducting certain clinical trials must, as in the United States, post clinical trial information in the EU at the EU Clinical Trials Register (https://eudract.ema.europa.eu). PRIME designation in the European Union In March 2016, the EMA launched an initiative to facilitate development of product candidates in indications, which are often rare, for which few or no therapies currently exist. The PRIority MEdicines, or PRIME, scheme is intended to encourage drug development in areas of unmet medical need and provides accelerated assessment of products representing substantial innovation reviewed under the centralized procedure. Products from small- and medium-sized enterprises may qualify for earlier entry into the PRIME scheme than larger companies. Many benefits accrue to sponsors of product candidates with PRIME designation, including but not limited to, early and proactive regulatory dialogue with the EMA, frequent discussions on clinical trial designs and other development program elements, and accelerated MAA assessment once a dossier has been submitted. Importantly, a dedicated EMA contact and rapporteur from the CHMP or Committee for Advanced Therapies, are appointed early in the PRIME scheme facilitating increased understanding of the product at the EMA’s Committee level. A kick-off meeting initiates these relationships and includes a team of multidisciplinary experts at the EMA to provide guidance on the overall development and regulatory strategies. Marketing authorization To obtain a marketing authorization for a product under the European Union regulatory system, a sponsor must submit an MAA either under a centralized procedure administered by the EMA or one of the procedures administered by competent authorities in EU Member States (decentralized procedure, national procedure, or mutual recognition procedure). A marketing authorization may be granted only to a sponsor established in the European Union. Regulation (EC) No 1901/2006 provides that prior to obtaining a marketing authorization in the European Union, a sponsor must demonstrate compliance with all measures included in an EMA-approved Pediatric Investigation Plan, or PIP, covering all subsets of the pediatric population, unless the EMA has granted a product-specific waiver, class waiver or a deferral for one or more of the measures included in the PIP. The centralized procedure provides for the grant of a single MAA by the European Commission, or EC, that is valid for all EU Member States. Pursuant to Regulation (EC) No. 726/2004, the centralized procedure is compulsory for specific products, including for medicines produced by certain biotechnological processes, products designated as orphan medicinal products, advanced therapy products and products with a new active substance indicated for the treatment of certain diseases, including products for the treatment of cancer. For products with a new active substance indicated for the treatment of other diseases and products that are highly innovative or for which a centralized process is in the interest of patients, the centralized procedure may be optional. Manufacturers must demonstrate the quality, safety and efficacy of their products to the EMA, which provides an opinion regarding the MAA. The EC grants or refuses marketing authorization in light of the opinion delivered by the EMA. Under the centralized procedure, the CHMP established at the EMA is responsible for conducting an initial assessment of a product. Under the centralized procedure in the EU, the maximum timeframe for the evaluation of an MAA is 210 days, excluding clock stops when additional information or written or oral explanation is to be provided by the sponsor in response to questions of the CHMP. Accelerated evaluation with a time limit of 150 days may be granted by the CHMP in exceptional cases, when a medicinal product is of major interest from the point of view of public health and, in particular, from the viewpoint of therapeutic innovation. If the CHMP accepts such a request, the time limit of 210 days will be reduced to 150 days, but it is possible that the CHMP may revert to the standard time limit for the 42 centralized procedure if it determines that it is no longer appropriate to conduct an accelerated assessment. The decentralized procedure provides for approval by one or more other concerned EU Member States of an assessment of an application for marketing authorization conducted by one EU Member State, known as the reference EU Member State. In accordance with this procedure, a sponsor submits an application for marketing authorization to the reference EU Member State and the concerned EU Member States. On the basis of its review, the CHMP provides a scientific opinion on whether or not an MAA should be granted for a product candidate. Within 15 calendar days of receipt of a final opinion from the CHMP, the EC must prepare a draft decision concerning an MAA. This draft decision must take the CHMP opinion and any relevant provisions of EU law into account. Before arriving at a final decision, the EC must consult the Standing Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use. This committee is composed of representatives of the EU Member States and is chaired by a non-voting EC representative. The decentralized marketing authorization procedure requires a separate application to, and leads to separate approval by, the competent authorities of each EU Member State in which the product candidate is applying to be marketed. This application is identical to the application that would be submitted to the EMA for authorization through the centralized procedure. The reference EU Member State prepares a draft assessment and drafts of the related materials within 120 days after receipt of a valid application. The resulting assessment report is submitted to the concerned EU Member States which, within 90 days of receipt, must decide whether to approve the assessment report and related materials. If the relevant EU Member State cannot approve the reference EU Member State’s assessment report due to concerns relating to a potential serious risk to public health, disputed elements may be referred to the EC, whose decision is binding on all EU Member States. Conditional marketing authorization In specific circumstances, EU legislation on Conditional Marketing Authorizations for Medicinal Products for Human Use, or conditional marketing authorization, enables sponsors to obtain a conditional marketing authorization prior to obtaining the comprehensive clinical data required for an MAA under Article 14-a of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004. Such conditional approvals may be granted for product candidates (including medicines designated as orphan medicinal products) if: (1) the risk-benefit balance of the product candidate is positive, (2) it is likely that the sponsor will be in a position to provide the required comprehensive clinical trial data, (3) the product fulfills unmet medical needs and (4) the benefit to public health of the immediate availability on the market of the medicinal product concerned outweighs the risk inherent in the fact that additional data are still required. A conditional marketing authorization may contain specific obligations to be fulfilled by the marketing authorization holder, including obligations with respect to the completion of ongoing or new studies, and with respect to the collection of pharmacovigilance data. Conditional marketing authorizations are valid for one year, and may be renewed annually, if the risk-benefit balance remains positive, and after an assessment of the need for additional or modified conditions and/or specific obligations. The timelines for the centralized procedure described above also apply with respect to the review by the CHMP of applications for a conditional marketing authorization. Exceptional Circumstances A marketing authorization may also be granted “under exceptional circumstances” when the applicant can show that it is unable to provide comprehensive data on the efficacy and safety under normal conditions of use even after the product has been authorized and subject to specific procedures being introduced. This may arise in particular when the intended indications are very rare and, in the present state of scientific knowledge, it is not possible to provide comprehensive information, or when generating data may be contrary to generally accepted ethical principles. This marketing authorization is close to the conditional marketing authorization as it is reserved to medicinal products to be approved for severe diseases or unmet medical needs and the applicant does not hold the complete data set legally required for the grant of a marketing authorization. However, unlike the conditional marketing authorization, the applicant does not have to provide the missing data and will never have to. Although the marketing authorization “under exceptional circumstances” is granted definitively, the risk-benefit balance of the medicinal product is reviewed annually and the marketing authorization is withdrawn in case the 43 risk-benefit ratio is no longer favorable. Under these procedures, before granting the marketing authorization, the EMA or the competent authorities of the member states make an assessment of the risk-benefit balance of the product on the basis of scientific criteria concerning its quality, safety, and efficacy. Except conditional marketing authorizations, marketing authorizations have an initial duration of five years. After these five years, the authorization may be renewed on the basis of a reevaluation of the risk-benefit balance. Regulatory data protection in the European Union In the EU, new chemical entities approved on the basis of a complete independent data package qualify for eight years of data exclusivity upon marketing authorization and an additional two years of market exclusivity pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, as amended, and Directive 2001/83/EC, as amended. Data exclusivity prevents regulatory authorities in the EU from referencing the innovator’s data to assess a generic (abbreviated) application for a period of eight years. During the additional two-year period of market exclusivity, a generic MAA can be submitted, and the innovator’s data may be referenced, but no generic medicinal product can be marketed until the expiration of the market exclusivity. The overall ten-year period will be extended to a maximum of eleven years if, during the first eight years of those ten years, the marketing authorization holder obtains an authorization for one or more new therapeutic indications which, during the scientific evaluation prior to authorization, is held to bring a significant clinical benefit in comparison with existing therapies. Even if a compound is considered to be a new chemical entity so that the innovator gains the prescribed period of data exclusivity, another company may market another version of the product if such company obtained marketing authorization based on an MAA with a complete independent data package of pharmaceutical tests, preclinical tests and clinical trials. In November 2020, the EC launched a review of the EU’s pharmaceutical legislation, including its provisions governing regulatory exclusivity. The EC’s proposal for revision of several legislative instruments related to medicinal products was published in April 2023 and includes, among other things, provisions that would potentially reduce the duration of regulatory data protection. On December 11, 2025, the European Parliament and Council reached a provisional political agreement on the legislation, which is expected to be adopted by mid-2026. Key changes include updating regulatory exclusivity to a new system with eight years of data exclusivity and a reduced market exclusivity period to one year, which can be extended if specific conditions are fulfilled up to a maximum of eleven years. This measure, and others, are expected to be adopted by mid-2026 and, following a transition period of 24 months, will likely take effect in mid-2028. Patent term extensions in the European Union and other jurisdictions The European Union also provides for patent term extension through Supplementary Protection Certificates, or SPCs. The rules and requirements for obtaining a SPC are similar to those in the United States. An SPC may extend the term of a patent for up to five years after its originally scheduled expiration date and can provide up to a maximum of fifteen years of marketing exclusivity for a drug. In certain circumstances, these periods may be extended for six additional months if pediatric exclusivity is obtained. Although SPCs are available throughout the European Union, sponsors must apply on a country-by-country basis. Similar patent term extension rights exist in certain other foreign jurisdictions outside the European Union. Periods of authorization and renewals An MAA is valid for five years, in principle, and it may be renewed after five years on the basis of a reevaluation of the risk-benefit balance by the EMA or by the competent authority of the authorizing member state. To that end, the marketing authorization holder must provide the EMA or the competent authority with a consolidated version of the file in respect of quality, safety and efficacy, including all variations introduced since the marketing authorization was granted, at least six months before the marketing authorization ceases to be valid. Once renewed, the marketing authorization is valid for an unlimited period, unless the EC or the competent authority decides, on justified grounds relating to pharmacovigilance, to proceed with one additional five-year renewal period. Any authorization that is not 44 followed by the placement of the drug on the EU market (in the case of the centralized procedure) or on the market of the authorizing member state within three years after authorization ceases to be valid. Regulatory requirements after marketing authorization Following approval, the holder of the marketing authorization is required to comply with a range of requirements applicable to the manufacturing, marketing, promotion and sale of the medicinal product. These include compliance with the EU’s stringent pharmacovigilance or safety reporting rules, pursuant to which post-authorization studies and additional monitoring obligations can be imposed. In addition, the manufacturing of authorized products, for which a separate manufacturer’s license is mandatory, must also be conducted in strict compliance with the EMA’s GMP requirements and comparable requirements of other regulatory bodies in the European Union, which mandate the methods, facilities and controls used in manufacturing, processing and packing of drugs to assure their safety and identity. Finally, the marketing and promotion of authorized products, including industry-sponsored continuing medical education and advertising directed toward the prescribers of drugs and/or the general public, are strictly regulated in the European Union under Directive 2001/83EC, as amended. At the same time, the marketing and promotion of authorized drugs, including industry-sponsored continuing medical education and advertising directed toward the prescribers of drugs and/or the general public, are strictly regulated in the European Union under Directive 2001/83EC, as amended, and are also subject to EU Member State laws. Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines is prohibited across the European Union. Orphan drug designation and exclusivity Regulation (EC) No 141/2000 and Regulation (EC) No. 847/2000 provide that a product can be designated as an orphan drug by the European Commission if its sponsor can establish: that the product is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of (1) a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition affecting not more than five in ten thousand persons in the European Union when the application is made, or (2) a life-threatening, seriously debilitating or serious and chronic condition in the European Union and that without incentives it is unlikely that the marketing of the drug in the European Union would generate sufficient return to justify the necessary investment. For either of these conditions, the sponsor must demonstrate that there exists no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment of the condition in question that has been authorized in the European Union or, if such method exists, the drug will be of significant benefit to those affected by that condition. An orphan drug designation provides a number of benefits, including fee reductions, regulatory assistance and the possibility to apply for a centralized EU marketing authorization. Marketing authorization for an orphan drug leads to a ten-year period of market exclusivity. During this market exclusivity period, neither the EMA nor the EC or the member states can accept an application or grant a marketing authorization for a “similar medicinal product.” A “similar medicinal product” is defined as a medicinal product containing a similar active substance or substances as contained in an authorized orphan medicinal product, and which is intended for the same therapeutic indication. The market exclusivity period for the authorized therapeutic indication may, however, be reduced to six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established that the product no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation because, for example, the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify market exclusivity. Recently, many countries in the European Union have increased the amount of discounts required on pharmaceuticals, and these efforts could continue as countries attempt to manage health care expenditures, especially in light of the severe fiscal and debt crises experienced by many countries in the European Union. The downward pressure on health care costs in general, particularly prescription products, has become intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products. 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 trade, such as arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced EU Member States, can further reduce prices. 45 Brexit and the regulatory framework in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU took place on January 31, 2020. The EU and the United Kingdom reached an agreement on their new partnership in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, entered into force on May 1, 2021. As of January 1, 2025, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, or the MHRA, is responsible for approving all medicinal products destined for the U.K. market (i.e., Great Britain and Northern Ireland), and the EMA will no longer have any role in approving medicinal products destined for Northern Ireland. The MHRA relies on the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1916) (as amended), or the HMR, as the primary basis of regulating medicines. The HMR has incorporated into the domestic law the body of EU law instruments governing medicinal products that pre-existed prior to the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union. In April 2025, the U.K. Parliament adopted amendments to improve and strengthen the clinical trials regulatory regime in the United Kingdom. These revisions will take effect on April 28, 2026, and were needed to replace the prior requirements in the United Kingdom. that were based on the repealed EU Clinical Trials Directive (2001/20/EC), which has been replaced by the CTR. As of January 1, 2024 on, a new international recognition procedure, or IRP, applies in the United Kingdom and is intended to facilitate approval of pharmaceutical products in the United Kingdom. The IRP is open to applicants that have already received an authorization for the same product from one of the MHRA’s specified Reference Regulators, or RRs. The RRs notably include EMA and regulators in the EEA member states for approvals in the EU centralized procedure and mutual recognition procedure as well as the FDA (for product approvals granted in the United States). The RR assessment must have undergone a full and standalone review. RR assessments based on reliance or recognition cannot be used to support an IRP application. A CHMP positive opinion or a Mutual Recognition and Decentralised Procedure positive end of procedure outcome is an RR authorization for the purposes of IRP. Furthermore, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, continues to apply in the United Kingdom in substantially unvaried form under the UK GDPR and is complemented by the U.K. Data Protection Act of 2018, which achieved Royal Assent on May 23, 2018 and remains effective in the United Kingdom in amended form. The United Kingdom has already determined that it considers all of the EU Member States and EEA member states to be adequate for the purposes of data protection, ensuring that data flows from the United Kingdom to the EU/EEA remain unaffected. In addition, a recent decision from the EC appears to deem the United Kingdom as being "essentially adequate" for purposes of data transfer from the European Union to the United Kingdom. On December 19, 2025, the EC renewed this decision until December 27, 2031. The United Kingdom and the United States have also agreed to a U.S.- U.K. “Data Bridge,” which functions similarly to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and provides an additional legal mechanism for companies to transfer personal data from the United Kingdom to the United States. General Data Protection Regulation The collection, use, disclosure, transfer or other processing of personal data regarding individuals in the European Union, including personal health data, is subject to the GDPR, which became effective on May 25, 2018. The GDPR is wide-ranging in scope and imposes numerous requirements on companies that process personal data, including requirements relating to processing health and other sensitive data, obtaining consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, providing information to individuals regarding data processing activities, implementing safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data, providing notification of data breaches, and taking certain measures when engaging third-party processors. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data to countries outside the EU, including the United States, and permits data protection authorities to impose large penalties for violations of the GDPR, including potential fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual global revenues, whichever is greater. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations of the GDPR. Compliance with the GDPR is a rigorous and time-intensive process that may increase the cost of doing business or require companies to change their business practices to ensure full compliance. 46 In October 2022, President Biden signed an executive order to implement the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which would legitimize the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States. The EC initiated the process to adopt an adequacy decision for the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework in December 2022 and adopted that decision on July 10, 2023. The adequacy decision permits U.S. companies who self-certify to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework to rely on it as a valid data transfer mechanism for data transfers from the European Union to the United States. However, some privacy advocacy groups have already suggested that they will be challenging the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. If these challenges are successful, they may not only impact the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, but also further limit the viability of the standard contractual clauses and other data transfer mechanisms. The uncertainty around this issue has the potential to impact our business operations in the European Union. For more information on these matters and the GDPR, please see the section entitled “Risk Factors—Risks related to regulatory approval and other regulatory and legal compliance matters—We are subject to stringent privacy laws, information security laws, regulations, policies and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security and changes in such laws, regulations, policies, contractual obligations and failure to comply with such requirements could subject us to significant fines and penalties, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects.” Coverage, pricing and reimbursement Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any product candidates for which we may seek regulatory approval by the FDA or other government authorities. In the United States and markets in other countries, patients who are prescribed treatments for their conditions and providers performing the prescribed services generally rely on third-party payers to reimburse all or part of the associated healthcare costs. Patients are unlikely to use any product candidates we may develop unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of such product candidates. Even if any product candidates we may develop are approved, sales of such product candidates will depend, in part, on the extent to which third-party payers, including government health programs in the United States such as Medicare and Medicaid, commercial health insurers and managed care organizations, provide coverage and establish adequate reimbursement levels for, such product candidates. The process for determining whether a payer will provide coverage for a product may be separate from the process for setting the price or reimbursement rate that the payer will pay for the product once coverage is approved. Third-party payers are increasingly challenging the prices charged, examining the medical necessity, and reviewing the cost-effectiveness of medical products and services and imposing controls to manage costs. Third-party payers may limit coverage to specific products on an approved list, also known as a formulary, which might not include all of the approved products for a particular indication. In order to secure coverage and reimbursement for any product that might be approved for sale, a company may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of the product, in addition to the costs required to obtain FDA or other comparable marketing approvals. Nonetheless, product candidates may not be considered medically necessary or cost-effective. A decision by a third-party payer not to cover any product candidates we may develop could reduce physician utilization of such product candidates once approved and have a material adverse effect on our sales, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, a payer’s decision to provide coverage for a product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Further, one payer’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payers will also provide coverage and reimbursement for the product, and the level of coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payer to payer. Third-party reimbursement and coverage may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to realize an appropriate return on our investment in product development. In addition, any companion diagnostic tests require coverage and reimbursement separate and apart from the coverage and reimbursement for their companion 47 pharmaceutical or biological products. Similar challenges to obtaining coverage and reimbursement, applicable to pharmaceutical or biological products, will apply to any companion diagnostics. The containment of healthcare costs also has become a priority of federal, state and foreign governments and the prices of pharmaceuticals have been a focus in this effort. Governments have shown significant interest in implementing cost-containment programs, including price controls, restrictions on reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products. Adoption of price controls and cost-containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit a company’s revenue generated from the sale of any approved products. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which a company or its collaborators receive marketing approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future. If we obtain approval in the future to market in the United States any product candidates we may develop, we may be required to provide discounts or rebates under government healthcare programs or to certain government and private purchasers in order to obtain coverage under federal healthcare programs such as Medicaid. Participation in such programs may require us to track and report certain drug prices. We may be subject to fines and other penalties if we fail to report such prices accurately. Outside the United States, ensuring adequate coverage and payment for any product candidates we may develop will face challenges. Pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control in many countries. Pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can extend well beyond the receipt of regulatory marketing approval for a product and may require us to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of any product candidates we may develop to other available therapies. The conduct of such a clinical trial could be expensive and result in delays in our commercialization efforts. In the EU, pricing and reimbursement schemes vary widely from country to country. Some countries provide that products may be marketed only after a reimbursement price has been agreed. Some countries may require the completion of additional studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of a particular product candidate to currently available therapies (so called health technology assessments) in order to obtain reimbursement or pricing approval. For example, the EU provides options for its member states to restrict the range of products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. EU member states may approve a specific price for a product or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the product on the market. Other member states allow companies to fix their own prices for products but monitor and control prescription volumes and issue guidance to physicians to limit prescriptions. Recently, many countries in the EU have increased the amount of discounts required on pharmaceuticals and these efforts could continue as countries attempt to manage healthcare expenditures, especially in light of the severe fiscal and debt crises experienced by many countries in the EU. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription products, has become intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products. 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 European Union member states, and parallel trade (arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced member states), can further reduce prices. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for pharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products, if approved in those countries. Healthcare law and regulation Healthcare providers and third-party payers play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of pharmaceutical products that are granted marketing approval. Arrangements with providers, consultants, third-party payers and customers are subject to broadly applicable fraud and abuse, anti-kickback, false claims laws, laws governing the reporting of payments to physicians and teaching hospitals, patient privacy laws and regulations and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain our business 48 and/or financial arrangements. Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations, include the following: • the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons and entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, paying, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order or recommendation of, any good or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid; • the federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the civil False Claims Act, false statement laws and civil monetary penalties laws, which prohibit individuals or entities from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment that are false, fictitious or fraudulent or knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false record or statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government; • the federal regulations relating to pricing and submission of pricing information for government programs, including penalties for knowingly and intentionally overcharging 340b eligible entities and the submission of false or fraudulent pricing information to government entities; • HIPAA, which created additional federal criminal laws that prohibit, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or making false statements relating to healthcare matters; • HIPAA, as amended by HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, including the final omnibus rule published in January 2013, which impose obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, on certain covered healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, as well as their respective business associates that perform services for them, that involve the use, or disclosure of, individually identifiable health information, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information; • the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies and their intermediaries from making, or offering or promising to make improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or otherwise seeking favorable treatment; • the federal transparency requirements known as the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, under the ACA, which requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies to report annually to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, information related to payments and other transfers of value made by that entity to physicians, other healthcare providers and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members; and • analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to healthcare items or services that are reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payers, including private insurers. Some state laws require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government in addition to requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to report information related to payments to physicians and other healthcare providers, drug pricing or marketing expenditures. In addition, certain state and local laws require drug manufacturers to register pharmaceutical sales representatives. State and foreign laws also govern the privacy and security of health information in some circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, imprisonment, integrity oversight and reporting obligations and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. 49 Healthcare reform A primary trend in the United States healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. There have been a number of federal and state proposals during the last few years regarding the pricing of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products, limiting coverage and reimbursement for drugs and other medical products, government control and other changes to the healthcare system in the United States. By way of example, the United States and state governments continue to propose and pass legislation designed to reduce the cost of healthcare. In March 2010, the United States Congress enacted the ACA, which, among other things, includes changes to the coverage and payment for products under government healthcare programs. Since enactment of the ACA, there have been, and continue to be, numerous judicial, administrative, executive, and legislative challenges to certain aspects of the ACA, and we expect there will be additional challenges and amendments to the ACA in the future. It is unclear whether the ACA will be overturned, repealed, replaced, or further amended. We cannot predict what effect further changes to the ACA would have on our business. Further, there have been several U.S. congressional inquiries and proposed federal and proposed and enacted state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, reduce the costs of drugs under Medicare and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. For example, on August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, was signed into law by President Biden. The new legislation has implications for Medicare Part D, which is a program available to individuals who are entitled to Medicare Part A or enrolled in Medicare Part B to give them the option of paying a monthly premium for outpatient prescription drug coverage. Among other things, the IRA requires manufacturers of certain drugs to engage in price negotiations with Medicare (beginning in 2026), with prices that can be negotiated subject to a cap; imposes rebates under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation (first due in 2023); and replaces the Part D coverage gap discount program with a new discounting program (beginning in 2025). The IRA permits the Secretary of the HHS to implement many of these provisions through guidance, as opposed to regulation, for the initial years. Specifically, with respect to price negotiations, Congress authorized Medicare to negotiate lower prices for certain costly single-source drug and biologic products that do not have competing generics or biosimilars and are reimbursed under Medicare Part B and Part D. CMS may negotiate prices for ten high-cost drugs paid for by Medicare Part D starting in 2026, followed by 15 Part D drugs in 2027, 15 Part B or Part D drugs in 2028, and 20 Part B or Part D drugs in 2029 and beyond. This provision applies to drug products that have been approved for at least 9 years and biologics that have been licensed for 13 years. Drugs and biologics that have been approved for a single rare disease or condition were originally categorically excluded from price negotiation but, with passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 3, 2025, Congress extended this exemption to drugs and biologics with multiple orphan drug designations. Further, the legislation subjects drug manufacturers to civil monetary penalties and a potential excise tax for failing to comply with the legislation by offering a price that is not equal to or less than the negotiated “maximum fair price” under the law or for taking price increases that exceed inflation. The legislation also requires manufacturers to pay rebates if they raise prices for certain Part B and Part D drugs faster than the rate of inflation. The new law also caps Medicare out-of-pocket drug costs at an estimated $4,000 a year in 2024 and, thereafter beginning in 2025, at $2,000 a year. The first cycle of negotiations for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program commenced in the summer of 2023 with the negotiated prices for ten selected drug products becoming effective on January 1, 2026. The second cycle of negotiations with participating drug companies occurred during 2025, and 50 the negotiated prices for this second set of 15 drugs will become effective on January 1, 2027. On January 27, 2026, CMS published the list of 15 drugs selected for the third cycle of negotiations. These negotiated prices will become effective on January 1, 2028. On June 6, 2023, Merck & Co. filed a lawsuit against HHS and CMS asserting that, among other things, the IRA’s Drug Price Negotiation Program for Medicare constitutes an uncompensated taking in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Subsequently, a number of other parties also filed lawsuits in various courts with similar constitutional claims. HHS has generally won the substantive disputes in these cases or succeeded in getting claims dismissed for lack of standing or on the merits. For example, on May 8, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected AstraZeneca L.P.’s challenge to the Medicare price negotiation program, finding that the program did not violate the company’s due process rights under the Constitution. Litigation involving these and other provisions of the IRA will continue with unpredictable and uncertain results. Since adoption of the IRA, the Trump Administration has taken a number of actions to reduce the costs of pharmaceutical products. For example, on April 15, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order which directs HHS to take steps to reduce the prices of pharmaceutical products. Further, on May 12, 2025, President Trump issued an additional Executive Order calling on pharmaceutical manufacturers to voluntarily reduce the prices of medicines in the United States. The Order provides that if such actions do not lower the costs of pharmaceuticals, the Secretary of HHS would pursue other actions, including proposing a rulemaking that imposes most favored nation, or MFN, pricing in the United States. Thereafter, on July 31, 2025, the President issued letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies reiterating the requirements of the May 12, 2025 Executive Order and demanding that such companies extend MFN pricing to Medicaid patients. Virtually all of these pharmaceutical companies have entered into agreements with the Administration to provide for lower prices on certain pharmaceuticals. On February 5, 2026, President Trump launched TrumpRx.gov, a website that directs individuals to pharmaceutical manufacturer websites that are offering price discounts based on the Administration’s pricing agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Separately, on December 23, 2025, CMS, through its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, proposed two five-year pilot programs to implement a “reference pricing” regime for drugs paid for under Medicare for 25% of covered beneficiaries. The programs are referred to as the Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing Model for Medicare Part B drugs, referred to as GLOBE, and the Guarding U.S. Medicare Against Rising Drug Costs for Medicare Part D drugs, referred to as GUARD. Under the proposed pilot programs, a manufacturer would owe rebates to Medicare if prices for their drugs exceeded the prices paid by other economically comparable reference countries, defined in the proposed regulations as Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development countries with a GDP of $400 billion and a per capita GDP that is at least 60% of the US per capita GDP (an initial list of 19 reference countries is included in the proposed rule). These pilot programs are proposed to go into effect beginning October 1, 2026. At the state level, individual states are increasingly aggressive in 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. This is increasingly true with respect to products approved pursuant to the accelerated approval pathway. State Medicaid programs and other payers are developing strategies and implementing significant coverage barriers, or refusing to cover these products outright, arguing that accelerated approval drugs have insufficient or limited evidence despite meeting the FDA’s standards for accelerated approval. In addition, regional health care authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription product and other health care programs. These measures could reduce the ultimate demand for our products, once approved, or put pressure on our product pricing. We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare 51 products and services, which could result in reduced demand for any product candidates we may develop or additional pricing pressures. Employees and human capital As of February 27, 2026, we had 258 full-time employees. Of the 258 employees, a total of 77 employees hold M.D. or Ph.D. degrees. Of these employees, 168 employees are engaged in research and development. None of our employees are represented by labor unions or covered by collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good. We are committed to attracting, retaining, and developing our employees through comprehensive initiatives centered on enhancing engagement in our business and culture. We leverage a variety of networks, including our own employees, to recruit potential candidates and have a fair process to evaluate candidates for roles based on technical qualifications as well as fit within our organization. Also, as part of our efforts to develop the next generation of leaders in life sciences, we offer internships and co-op positions. Developing and educating our employees are key to our organizational success. New employees benefit from a robust onboarding program that includes a comprehensive online platform. Employees utilize onboarding modules, including information on Dyne’s platform, pipeline, benefits, and culture. Employees have scheduled one-on-one cross-functional meetings over the first few weeks of joining to ensure they feel welcomed and become familiar with colleagues and their areas of expertise. In addition, new employees work closely with their manager to plan and execute performance and development goals. Beyond onboarding, we offer development opportunities, prioritize regular feedback, and hold development discussions each quarter. We set aside time for these sessions for managers and employees to meet and discuss performance and career development. In addition, we regularly evaluate the effectiveness of our talent management practices through employee surveys and fostering a culture of ongoing feedback. We track important talent metrics such as turnover rate and employee engagement. Voluntary and involuntary turnover rates across all levels are in alignment with, or lower than, the industry average. To recruit and retain a talented, passionate and inclusive workforce with different experiences, perspectives and backgrounds, and to reward strong performance, we have competitive compensation and benefits programs for our employees and their families, including short-term and long-term incentives, exceptional health and wellness benefits along with vacation and leave programs. Our equity and cash incentives are aimed to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating our employees to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our and their objectives. We also provide up to a 100% match on employee contributions (up to 4% with an annual maximum of $6,000) to our 401(k) retirement savings plan. Our full-time U.S. employees are all eligible to participate in our health, vision, dental, and short-term and long-term disability insurance plans. To encourage employees to keep up with routine medical care and participate in our wellness program, we fund a health reimbursement account for participating employees and to help our employees cover medical and dependent care expenses pre-tax, we also offer employees a flexible spending account (FSA), and dependent care FSA. We also have a cross-functional and multi-level team that is charged with identifying ways to reinforce our company values, bring insights from across the business, and drive initiatives, including team building, wellness, community, and patient events, such as toy donation drives, walks to support the neuromuscular disease community, and volunteer days. 52 Our corporate information We were incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware on December 1, 2017 under the name Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 1560 Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451 and our telephone number is (781) 786-8230. We own or have rights to trademarks, service marks and trade names that we use in connection with the operation of our business, including our corporate name, logos and website names. The service marks and trademarks that we own include the marks Dyne Therapeutics® and FORCE™. Other trademarks, service marks and trade names appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, some of the trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are listed without the ® and ™ symbols, but we will assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to our trademarks, service marks and trade names. Available information We file reports and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, as required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. You can review our electronically filed reports and other information that we file with the SEC on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. Our website address is https://www.dyne-tx.com. We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Exchange Act. We make these reports available through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such reports with, or furnish such reports to, the SEC. In addition, we regularly use our website to post information regarding our business, product development programs and governance, and we encourage investors to use our website, particularly the information in the section entitled “Investors & Media,” as a source of information about us. The foregoing references to our website are not intended to, nor shall they be deemed to, incorporate information on our website into this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference. We have included our website address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as an inactive textual reference. 53 Item 1A. Ri sk Factors. Our business is subject to numerous risks. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto in evaluating our company. The risks described below are not the only risks facing our company. The occurrence of any of the following risks, or of additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial, could cause our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition to suffer materially. Risks related to our financial position and need for additional capital We have incurred significant losses since our inception, have no products approved for sale and we expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future. Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. Our net losses were $446.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 and $317.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. As of December 31, 2025, we had an accumulated deficit of $1.4 billion. To date, we have financed our operations with the proceeds raised from the sale of equity securities and borrowing under the Loan Agreement with Hercules. We have devoted substantially all of our financial resources and efforts to research and development. Our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development and we have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our operating expenses and net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we: • advance our product candidates for DMD, DM1, FSHD and Pompe and any additional product candidates we may develop; • expand the capabilities of our proprietary FORCE platform; • seek marketing approvals for any product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials; • obtain, expand, maintain, defend and enforce our intellectual property portfolio; • hire additional clinical, regulatory and scientific personnel; • establish manufacturing sources for any product candidate we may develop, including the Fab antibody, linker and therapeutic payload that will comprise the product candidate, and secure supply chain capacity to provide sufficient quantities for preclinical and clinical development and commercial supply; • establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any products for which we may obtain marketing approval; and • add operational, legal, compliance, financial and management information systems and personnel to support our research, product development and future commercialization efforts, as well as to support our operations as a public company. Even if we obtain regulatory approval of, and are successful in commercializing, one or more of any product candidates we may develop, we will continue to incur substantial research and development and other costs to develop and market additional product candidates. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. The size of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue. We have never generated revenue from product sales and may never achieve or maintain profitability. Our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development. We have not completed clinical development of any product candidate, and we do not expect to have a product candidate ready for commercialization at least until 2027, if ever. To become and remain profitable, we 54 must succeed in developing, obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals for, and eventually commercializing a product or products that generate significant revenue. The ability to achieve this success will require us to be effective in a range of challenging activities, including: • identifying product candidates and completing preclinical and clinical development of any product candidates we may identify and determine to develop; • obtaining regulatory approval for any product candidates we may develop; • manufacturing, marketing and selling any products for which we may obtain regulatory approval; • achieving market acceptance of any products for which we obtain regulatory approval as a viable treatment option; and • satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We are only in the preliminary stages of most of these activities. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability. Our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development, and we have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we are unable to accurately estimate or know the nature, timing or costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the preclinical and clinical development and commercialization of any product candidate we may develop or when, or if, we will be able to generate revenues or achieve profitability. If we are successful in obtaining regulatory approval to market one or more of our products, our revenue will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval, the accepted price for the product, the ability to obtain coverage and reimbursement, and whether we own the commercial rights for that territory. If the number of our addressable patients is not as significant as we estimate, the indication approved by regulatory authorities is narrower than we expect, or the treatment population is narrowed by competition, physician choice or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenue from sales of such products, even if approved. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or even continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause our stockholders to lose all or part of their investment. We will need substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development activities or commercialization efforts. We expect our expenses to increase substantially in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we advance the clinical development of z-rostudirsen and z-basivarsen, and the preclinical and clinical development of DYNE-302, our FSHD product candidate, DYNE-401, our Pompe disease product candidate, and DYNE-253, DYNE-245, DYNE-244 and DYNE-255, our product candidates for DMD amenable to skipping exons 53, 45, 44 and 55, respectively, and any additional product candidates we may develop, and arrange for the manufacturing of, and potentially seek marketing approval for any product candidates we may develop. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for any product candidates we may develop, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, on attractive terms or at all, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts. As of December 31, 2025, we had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.1 billion. 55 We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will enable us to fund our operating expenses, debt service obligations and capital expenditure requirements into the first quarter of 2028. However, we have based these estimates on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us. As a result, we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we currently expect and could be forced to seek additional funding sooner than planned. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including: • the identification of additional product candidates; • the scope, progress, costs and results of preclinical and clinical development of any product candidates we may develop; • the costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of any product candidates we may develop; • our decision to initiate a clinical trial, not to initiate a clinical trial or to terminate an existing clinical trial; • changes in laws or regulations applicable to any product candidates we may develop, including but not limited to clinical trial requirements for approvals; • the cost and timing of obtaining materials to produce adequate product supply for any preclinical or clinical development of any product candidate we may develop; • the costs and timing of future commercialization activities, including product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution, for any product candidate we may develop for which we obtain marketing approval; • the legal costs involved in prosecuting patent applications and enforcing patent claims and other intellectual property claims; • additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel; • our ability to establish and maintain collaborations on favorable terms, if at all, as well as the costs and timing of any collaboration, license or other arrangement, including the terms and timing of any milestone payments thereunder; and • the costs of operating as a public company. Identifying product candidates and conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, even if we successfully identify and develop product candidates and those are approved, we may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenues, if any, may not be sufficient to sustain our operations. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. Any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our operations. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, when needed or at all. Other than the Loan Agreement with Hercules, we have no committed source of additional capital and, if we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts, when needed or on terms acceptable to us, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay or discontinue one or more of our research or development programs or the commercialization of any product candidates we may develop, or be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, as desired, which could materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We could be required to seek collaborators for product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available or relinquish or license on unfavorable terms our rights to product candidates in markets where we otherwise would seek to pursue development or commercialization ourselves. Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause the price of our common stock to decline. 56 Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates. Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances and/or licensing arrangements, and terms loans under our Loan Agreement with Hercules. For example, in June 2025, we entered into the Loan Agreement with Hercules providing for term loans in an aggregate principal amount of up to $275.0 million under multiple tranches, available as follows: (i) an initial term loan tranche funded on the closing date of the Loan Agreement in aggregate principal amount of $100.0 million; (ii) subject to the achievement of specified clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, three additional term loan tranches totaling up to $115.0 million; and (iii) subject to approval by the Lenders’ investment committee in their discretion, a final term loan tranche of up to $60.0 million. In December 2025, we entered into the First Amendment to the Loan Agreement, or the First Amendment, pursuant to which a second term loan tranche was funded in an aggregate principal amount of $50.0 million. Following entry into the First Amendment and the borrowing of the second term loan tranche, we have two additional term loan tranches we may borrow pursuant to the Loan Agreement, totaling up to $75.0 million, which are available subject to the achievement of specified clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, and a final term loan tranche of up to $50.0 million, which is available subject to approval by the Hercules investment committee in its discretion. However, if we do not satisfy the specified clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones or the Lenders do not otherwise approve the discretionary tranche, we may not have access to the remaining amounts under the term loans. Other than the Loan Agreement with Hercules, we do not have any committed external source of funds. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, our stockholders’ ownership interests will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of common stockholders. Any debt financing or preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, selling or licensing our assets, making capital expenditures, declaring dividends or encumbering our assets to secure future indebtedness. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings or other arrangements when needed or on terms acceptable to us, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or eliminate some or all of our research and development programs, pipeline expansion or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves. Our limited operating history may make it difficult to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability. We commenced operations in 2017, and our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, conducting research and development activities and filing and prosecuting patent applications. Our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development, and their risk of failure is high. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to complete the clinical development of any product candidate, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture product on a commercial scale or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales, marketing and distribution activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, any predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing products. Our limited operating history may make it difficult to evaluate our technology and industry and predict our future performance. Our limited history as an operating company makes any assessment of our future success or viability subject to significant uncertainty. We will encounter risks and difficulties frequently 57 experienced by clinical-stage companies in rapidly evolving fields. If we do not address these risks successfully, our business will suffer. In addition, as our business grows, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, restrictions, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors. We are in the process of transitioning from a company focused on conducting development activities to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition. Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be subject to limitations. We have a history of cumulative losses and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses in the foreseeable future; thus, we do not know whether or when we will generate taxable income necessary to utilize our net operating losses, or NOLs, or research and development tax credit carryforwards. As of December 31, 2025, we had federal NOL carryforwards of $981.6 million and state NOL carryforwards of $1.0 billion. In general, under Sections 382 and 383 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, and corresponding provisions of state law, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs and pre-change research and development tax credit carryforwards to offset post-change taxable income. We completed a Section 382 study of transactions in our stock through December 10, 2025 and concluded that we have experienced ownership changes since inception that we believe under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code will result in limitations in our ability to use certain pre-change NOLs and credits. We will continue to analyze the impacts of Section 382 from future transactions in our stock. In the future, we may experience additional ownership changes as a result of equity offerings or other changes in the ownership of our stock, some of which are beyond our control. As a result, if, and to the extent that, we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our NOL carryforwards and research and development tax credit carryforwards to offset such taxable income may be subject to limitations. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs, or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise become unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. In addition, state NOLs generated in one state cannot be used to offset income generated in another state. For these reasons, even if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use a material portion of our NOLs and other tax attributes. Risks related to our indebtedness Our Loan Agreement contains restrictive and financial covenants that may limit our operating flexibility. On June 27, 2025, we entered into the Loan Agreement with Hercules and the other lenders party thereto, which we refer to as the Lenders, providing for term loans in an aggregate principal amount of up to $275.0 million available as follows: (i) an initial term loan tranche funded on June 27, 2025 in an aggregate principal amount of $100.0 million; (ii) subject to the achievement of specified clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, three additional term loan tranches totaling up to $115.0 million; and (iii) subject to approval by the Lenders’ investment committee in their discretion, a final term loan tranche of up to $60.0 million. In December 2025, we entered into the First Amendment, pursuant to which a second term loan tranche was funded in an aggregate principal amount of $50.0 million. Following entry into the First Amendment and the borrowing of the second term loan tranche, we have two additional term loan tranches we may borrow pursuant to the Loan Agreement, totaling up to $75.0 million, which are available subject to the achievement of specified clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, and a final term loan tranche of up to $50.0 million, which is available subject to approval by the Lenders’ investment committee in their discretion. Our obligations under the Loan Agreement are secured by a first-priority security interest in substantially all of our property, inclusive of intellectual property, subject to customary permitted liens and other exceptions set forth in the Loan Agreement. 58 The Loan Agreement contains customary representations and warranties, events of default and affirmative and negative covenants, including a minimum cash covenant, which we refer to as the Minimum Cash Covenant, requiring that we maintain specified levels of cash in accounts subject to a control agreement in favor of Hercules, or the Qualified Cash, during the period commencing on January 1, 2027. The Minimum Cash Covenant will initially be set at 60% of the then outstanding obligations under the Loan Agreement, is subject to adjustment and will not be tested at any time when our market capitalization is greater than $1.65 billion. We are also required to maintain minimum net product revenue from the sale of z-rostudirsen and z-basivarsen starting nine months after FDA approval of z-rostudirsen or z-basivarsen, which we refer to as the Minimum Revenue Covenant, if the outstanding obligations under the Loan Agreement exceed $100.0 million. The Minimum Revenue Covenant will not be tested for any month to the extent that for each day during such month either (i) Qualified Cash is at least 100% of our outstanding obligations under the Loan Agreement or (ii) our market capitalization is greater than $1.65 billion and Qualified Cash is at least 50% of our outstanding obligations under the Loan Agreement. Certain negative covenants under the Loan Agreement limit our ability, among other things, to incur future debt, grant liens, make investments, make acquisitions, distribute dividends, enter into transactions with affiliates, make payments on other indebtedness and sell assets, subject in each case to certain exceptions. Our business may be adversely affected by these restrictions on our ability to operate our business. If we raise any additional debt financing, as permitted by the Loan Agreement, the terms of such additional indebtedness could further restrict our operating and financial flexibility. We may not be able to generate sufficient cash flow or sales to meet the Minimum Cash Covenant or the Minimum Revenue Covenant or pay the outstanding obligations under the Loan Agreement when due. Furthermore, our future working capital, borrowings or equity financings could be unavailable to repay or refinance the amounts outstanding under the Loan Agreement. In the event of a liquidation of our business, we would be required to repay all outstanding obligations under the Loan Agreement prior to the distribution of assets to unsecured creditors, and the holders of our common stock would receive a portion of any liquidation proceeds only if all of our creditors then existing, including the lenders under our Loan Agreement with Hercules, were first repaid in full. If we fail to comply with the Minimum Cash Covenant, the Minimum Revenue Covenant or the other covenants under the Loan Agreement, it will result in an event of default. Upon the occurrence of an event of default, and subject to any specified cure periods, all amounts owed under the Loan Agreement may be declared immediately due and payable by the Lenders, and the Lenders may foreclose on collateral. Our failure to comply with the covenants or other terms of the Loan Agreement, including as a result of events beyond our control, could result in a default under the Loan Agreement that could materially and adversely affect our business. We may be required to repay the outstanding indebtedness under the Loan Agreement if an event of default occurs under the Loan Agreement or, if applicable, any future debt facility. The Loan Agreement includes customary events of default, including payment defaults, breaches of covenants following any applicable cure period, the occurrence of certain events that could reasonably be expected to have a “material adverse effect” as set forth in the Loan Agreement and cross acceleration. We may not have enough available cash or be able to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings to repay such indebtedness at the time any such event of default occurs. In this case, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or commercialization efforts or grant to others rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected as a result of any of these events. Risks related to discovery and development Our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development and we have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. We do not expect to complete the 59 commercialization of any product candidate at least until 2027, if ever. If we are unable to identify and advance product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain marketing approval and ultimately commercialize them, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed. We have focused our efforts to date on developing our platform, identifying our programs and conducting the clinical development of our product candidates. Our product candidates are in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development, and we have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur until at least 2027, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. We currently generate no revenue from sales of any product, and we may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable product. Commencing clinical trials in the United States is subject to acceptance by the FDA, of an IND and finalizing the trial design based on discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities. In the event that the FDA requires us to complete additional preclinical studies or we are required to satisfy other FDA requests prior to commencing clinical trials, the start of any future clinical trials may be delayed. Even after we receive and incorporate guidance from the FDA, the FDA could disagree that we have satisfied their requirements to commence any clinical trial or change their position on the acceptability of our trial design or the clinical endpoints selected, which may require us to complete additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or impose stricter approval conditions than we currently expect. For example, the FDA placed on clinical hold our IND application to initiate a clinical trial of z-rostudirsen in patients with DMD amenable to skipping exon 51. We received a clinical hold letter from the FDA in January 2022 requesting additional clinical and non-clinical information for z-rostudirsen, which we submitted before the FDA ultimately cleared the IND in July 2022. There are equivalent processes and risks applicable to clinical trial applications in other countries, including countries in the European Union. Commercialization of any product candidates we may develop will require preclinical and clinical development; regulatory and marketing approval in any jurisdiction where we seek to commercialize such product candidates, such as the FDA and the European Medicines Agency, or EMA; manufacturing supply, capacity and expertise; a commercial organization; and significant marketing efforts. The success of product candidates we may develop will depend on many factors, including the following: • timely and successful completion of preclinical studies; • effective INDs or comparable foreign applications that allow commencement of clinical trials or future clinical trials for any product candidates we may develop; • successful enrollment and completion of clinical trials, including under the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practices, or cGCPs, current Good Laboratory Practices, or cGLPs, and any additional regulatory requirements from foreign regulatory authorities; • positive results from our clinical trials or future clinical trials that support a finding of safety and effectiveness and an acceptable risk-benefit profile in the intended populations; • receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities; • establishment of arrangements through our own facilities or with third-party manufacturers for clinical supply and, where applicable, commercial manufacturing capabilities; • establishment, maintenance, defense and enforcement of patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property protection or regulatory exclusivity for any product candidates we may develop; • commercial launch of any product candidates we may develop, if approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others; 60 • acceptance of the benefits and use of our product candidates we may develop, including method of administration, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payers; • effective competition with other therapies; • maintenance of a continued acceptable safet y, tolerability and efficacy profile of any product candidates we may develop following approval; and • establishment and maintenance of healthcare coverage and adequate reimbursement by payers. If we do not succeed in one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize any product candidates we may develop, which would materially harm our business. If we are unable to advance our product candidates into and through clinical development, obtain regulatory approval and ultimately commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed. We may encounter substantial delays in commencement, enrollment or completion of our clinical trials and the data from the clinical trials of our product candidates may fail to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities, which could prevent us from commercializing any product candidates on a timely basis, if at all. The risk of failure in developing product candidates is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any product candidate would prove effective or safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of product candidates in humans. We have not yet completed clinical development of any product candidate. Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate that our product candidates are safe for humans and effective for indicated uses. Even if the clinical trials are successful, changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment or promulgation of additional statutes, regulations or guidance or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. Before we can commence clinical trials for a product candidate, we must complete extensive preclinical testing and studies that support our INDs and other regulatory filings. We cannot be certain of the timely identification of a product candidate or the completion or outcome of our preclinical testing and studies and cannot predict whether the FDA will accept our proposed clinical programs or whether the outcome of our preclinical testing and studies will ultimately support the further development of any product candidates. Conducting preclinical testing is a lengthy, time-consuming and expensive process. The length of time may vary substantially according to the type, complexity and novelty of the program, and often can be several years or more per program. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs for our preclinical product candidates on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of INDs will result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to begin in the United States. Furthermore, product candidates are subject to continued preclinical safety studies, which may be conducted concurrently with our clinical testing. The outcomes of these safety studies may delay the launch of or enrollment in clinical trials and could impact our ability to continue to conduct our clinical trials. Clinical testing is expensive, is difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. We cannot guarantee that any clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, or at all. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing, which may result from a multitude of factors, including, but not limited to, flaws in trial design, dose selection issues, patient enrollment criteria and failure to demonstrate favorable safety or efficacy traits. Other events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include: • delays in reaching a consensus with regulatory authorities on trial design; 61 • delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective contract research organizations, or CROs, and clinical trial sites; • delays in opening clinical trial sites or obtaining required institutional review board, or IRB, or independent ethics committee approval, or the equivalent review groups for sites outside the United States, at each clinical trial site; • imposition of a clinical hold by regulatory authorities as a result of a serious adverse event or after an inspection of our clinical trial operations or trial sites; • negative or inconclusive results observed in clinical trials, including failure to demonstrate statistical significance, which could lead us, or cause regulators to require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs; • failure by us, any CROs we engage or any other third parties to adhere to clinical trial requirements; • failure to perform in accordance with the FDA’s cGCPs; • failure by physicians to adhere to delivery protocols leading to variable results; • delays in the testing, validation, manufacturing and delivery of any product candidates we may develop to the clinical sites, including delays by third parties with whom we have contracted to perform certain of those functions; • failure of our third-party contractors to comply with regulatory requirements or to meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all; • delays in having patients complete participation in a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up; • clinical trial sites or patients dropping out of a trial; • selection of clinical endpoints that require prolonged periods of clinical observation or analysis of the resulting data; • occurrence of serious adverse events associated with the product candidate that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits; • occurrence of serious adverse events associated with a product candidate in development by another company, which are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits, and which may negatively impact the perception of our product due to a similarity in technology or approach; • changes in regulatory requirements and guidance that require amending or submitting new clinical protocols; • changes in the legal or regulatory regimes domestically or internationally related to patient rights and privacy; or • lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Any inability to successfully complete preclinical studies and clinical trials could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenues from product sales, regulatory and commercialization milestones and royalties. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to any product candidates, we may need to conduct additional studies or trials to bridge our modified product candidates to earlier versions. Clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize any product candidates we may develop or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize any product candidates we may develop and may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Additionally, if the results of our clinical trials are inconclusive or if there are safety concerns or serious adverse events associated with any product candidates we may develop, we may: • be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for product candidates, if at all; • obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired; 62 • obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings; • be subject to changes in the way the product is administered; • be required to perform additional clinical trials to support approval or be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements; • have regulatory authorities withdraw, or suspend, their approval of the product or impose restrictions on its distribution in the form of a modified risk evaluation and mitigation strategy; • be subject to the addition of labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications; • be sued; or • experience damage to our reputation. In particular, each of the conditions for which we plan to develop product candidates are rare genetic diseases with limited patient pools from which to draw for clinical trials. Further, because it can be difficult to diagnose these diseases in the absence of a genetic screen, we may have difficulty finding patients who are eligible to participate in our studies. The eligibility criteria of our clinical trials will further limit the pool of available study participants. Additionally, the process of finding and diagnosing patients may prove costly. The treating physicians in our clinical trials may also use their medical discretion in advising patients enrolled in our clinical trials to withdraw from our studies to try alternative therapies. In addition, if we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies governing clinical trials, our development plans may be impacted. For example, in December 2022, with the passage of FDORA, Congress required sponsors to develop and submit a Diversity Action Plan, or DAP, for each phase 3 clinical trial or any other “pivotal study” of a new drug or biological product. These plans are meant to encourage the enrollment of more diverse patient populations in late-stage clinical trials of FDA-regulated products. In June 2024, as mandated by FDORA, the FDA issued draft guidance outlining the general requirements for the DAPs. Unlike most guidance documents issued by the FDA, the DAP guidance, when finalized, will have the force of law as FDORA specifically dictates that the form and manner for submission of DAPs are specified in FDA guidance. On January 27, 2025, in response to an executive order issued by President Trump on January 21, 2025 on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the FDA removed the draft DAP guidance from its website. Subsequently, in July 2025, pursuant to a court order, the FDA restored the draft DAP guidance to its website with a statement that “information on this page may be modified and/or removed in the future subject to the terms of the court’s order and implemented consistent with applicable law.” Accordingly, in light of these ongoing actions, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the draft DAP guidance and how the FDA will consider diversity action plans in connection with its review of applications for marketing approval. The regulatory landscape related to clinical trials in the European Union has also evolved. The EU Clinical Trials Regulation, or CTR, which was adopted in April 2014 and repeals the EU Clinical Trials Directive, became applicable on January 31, 2022. While the Clinical Trials Directive required a separate clinical trial application, or CTA, to be submitted in each member state, to both the competent national health authority and an independent ethics committee, the CTR introduced a centralized process and only requires the submission of a single application to all member states concerned. If we are not able to fulfill these requirements, our ability to conduct clinical trials may be delayed or halted. Our approach to the discovery and development of product candidates based on our FORCE platform is unproven, and we may not be successful in our efforts to identify, discover or develop potential product candidates. The success of our business depends upon our ability to identify, develop and commercialize products based on our proprietary FORCE platform. Our therapeutics are constructed from three components: a proprietary Fab, a linker and a therapeutic payload that we attach to our Fab using the linker. The Fab is 63 engineered to bind to TfR1 to enable targeted delivery of nucleic acids and other molecules to skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. All of our product candidates are still in varying stages of preclinical and clinical development, and our approach to treating muscle disease is unproven. Our research programs may fail to identify additional product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. Our research methodology may be unsuccessful in identifying additional potential product candidates and our potential product candidates may be shown to have harmful side effects in preclinical in vitro experiments or animal model studies. In addition, our product candidates may not show promising signals of therapeutic effect in such experiments or studies or they may have other characteristics that may make the product candidates impractical to manufacture, unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval. Further, because all of our product candidates and programs are based on our FORCE platform, adverse developments with respect to one of our product candidates and programs may have a significant adverse impact on the actual or perceived likelihood of success and value of our other product candidates and programs. In addition, we have not completed clinical development of any product candidate or successfully developed any product candidates, and our ability to identify and develop product candidates may never materialize. The process by which we identify and develop product candidates may fail to yield product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons, including those discussed in these risk factors. In addition: • we may not be able to assemble sufficient resources to acquire or discover product candidates; • competitors may develop alternatives that render our product candidates obsolete or less attractive; • product candidates we develop may nevertheless be covered by third parties’ patents or other intellectual property rights; • product candidates may, on further study, be shown to have harmful side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be products that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance; • product candidates may not be effective in treating their targeted diseases or disorders; • the market for a product candidate may change so that the continued development of that product candidate is no longer reasonable; • a product candidate may not be capable of being produced in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, or at all; or • the regulatory pathway for a product candidate may be too complex and difficult to navigate successfully or economically. If we are unable to identify and discover suitable product candidates for clinical development, this would adversely impact our business strategy and our financial position and share price and could potentially cause us to cease operations. The outcome of preclinical studies and data from earlier-stage clinical trials may not be predictive of final results or future results of clinical trials or the success of later clinical trials and data from clinical trials in one indication may not be predictive of results of clinical trials in other indications. We have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. As a result, our belief in the capabilities of our platform, including our belief that we have demonstrated proof of concept of our FORCE platform, is based on early research, preclinical studies and data from clinical trials of our product candidates. However, the results of preclinical studies may not be predictive of the results of later preclinical studies or clinical trials, and the initial results of any clinical trials, such as initial results of DELIVER and ACHIEVE that we have reported, may not be predictive of the final results of those trials or the results of any later clinical trials, and may also not be predictive of results of clinical trials in other indications. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and 64 analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. Further, certain of our hypotheses regarding the potential benefits of our product candidates compared to alternative therapies and treatments are based on cross-trial comparisons of results that were not derived from head-to-head clinical trials. Such clinical trial data may not be directly comparable due to differences in study protocols, conditions and patient populations. Accordingly, these cross-trial comparisons may not be reliable predictors of the relative efficacy or other benefits of our product candidates compared to other product candidates that may have been approved previously. Our clinical trials may not ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of any product candidates we may develop. There is a high failure rate for product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical development even after achieving encouraging results in earlier studies. Any such setbacks in our clinical development could materially harm our business and results of operations. If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our ability to complete clinical trials may be adversely impacted. Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in clinical trials of any product candidates we may develop is critical to our success. We may not be able to identify, recruit and enroll a sufficient number of patients, or those with required or desired characteristics, to complete our clinical trials in a timely manner. Patient enrollment and trial completion is affected by factors including: • perceived risks and benefits of novel unproven approaches; • size of the patient population, in particular for rare diseases such as the diseases on which we are initially focused, and process for identifying patients; • design of the trial protocol; • eligibility and exclusion criteria; • perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study; • availability of competing therapies and clinical trials; • severity of the disease or disorder under investigation; • proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients; • ability to obtain and maintain patient consent; • risk that enrolled patients will drop out before completion of the trial; • patient referral practices of physicians; and • ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment. Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for clinical trials would result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in these clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates, which would cause the value of our company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing. Furthermore, we rely on and expect to continue to rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials and we will have limited influence over their performance. Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials, we may have difficulty maintaining patients in our clinical trials. Many of the patients who end up receiving placebo may perceive that they are not receiving the product candidate being tested, and they may decide to withdraw from our clinical trials to pursue other alternative therapies rather than continue the trial with the perception that they are receiving placebo. If we have difficulty enrolling or maintaining a sufficient number of patients to conduct our clinical trials, we may need to delay, limit or terminate clinical trials, any of which would harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. 65 If any product candidates we may develop cause undesirable side effects or have other unexpected adverse properties, such side effects or properties could delay or prevent us from conducting clinical trials or seeking or obtaining regulatory approval, limit the commercial potential of our product candidates or result in significant negative consequences to the extent such effects or adverse properties are observed following any marketing approval. We have not completed clinical development of any product candidate. It is impossible to predict when or if any product candidates we may develop will prove safe in humans. There can be no assurance that our technologies will not cause undesirable side effects. Although other oligonucleotide therapeutics have received regulatory approval, our approach for our DMD and DM1 programs, which combine oligonucleotides with a Fab, is a novel approach to oligonucleotide therapy. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the safety profile of product candidates we may develop compared to more well-established classes of therapies, or oligonucleotide therapeutics on their own. Moreover, there have been only a limited number of clinical trials involving the use of conjugated oligonucleotide therapeutics. If any product candidates we develop are associated with serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or unexpected characteristics, we may need to abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Many product candidates that initially showed promise in early-stage testing have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further clinical development of the product candidates. If in the future we are unable to demonstrate that such side effects were caused by factors other than our product candidates, the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of, or deny approval of, any product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Even if we are able to demonstrate that any future serious adverse events are not product-related and regulatory authorities do not order us to cease further development of our product candidates, such occurrences could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial. Moreover, if we elect, or are required, to delay, suspend or terminate any clinical trial of any product candidate, the commercial prospects of such product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate product revenues from any of these product candidates may be delayed or eliminated. Any of these occurrences may harm our ability to develop other product candidates, and may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly. We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular program, product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on programs, product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success. Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus on research programs and product candidates that we identify for specific indications among many potential options. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential, or we may choose to focus our efforts and resources on a potential product candidate that ultimately proves to be unsuccessful. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable medicines. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. Any such event could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. 66 Clinical trial and product liability lawsuits against us could divert our resources, could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit commercialization of our product candidates. We will face an inherent risk of clinical trial and product liability exposure related to the testing of our product candidates in clinical trials, and we will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop. While we currently have no product candidates that have been approved for commercial sale, the use of product candidates by us in clinical trials, and the sale of any approved products in the future, may expose us to liability claims. These claims might be made by patients that use the product, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling such products. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our product candidates or products caused injuries, we will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in: • decreased demand for any product candidates we may develop; • injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention; • withdrawal of clinical trial participants; • significant costs to defend any related litigation; • substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients; • loss of revenue; • reduced resources of our management to pursue our business strategy; and • the inability to commercialize any product candidates we may develop. We have increased our insurance coverage in countries in which we plan to conduct clinical trials and will need to increase our insurance coverage if we conduct clinical trials in additional countries or of additional product candidates or if we commence commercialization of any product candidates. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise. If a successful clinical trial or product liability claim or series of claims is brought against us for uninsured liabilities or in excess of insured liabilities, our assets may not be sufficient to cover such claims and our business operations could be impaired. Risks related to our dependence on third parties We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some or all aspects of our product manufacturing, or our research and preclinical and clinical testing, and these third parties may not perform satisfactorily. We do not expect to independently conduct all aspects of our product manufacturing, or our research and preclinical and clinical testing. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties with respect to many of these items, including CMOs, for the manufacturing of any product candidates we test in preclinical or clinical development, as well as CROs for portions of our animal testing, preclinical research and for the conduct of our clinical trials. Any of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us at any time. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, it could delay our product development activities. Our reliance on these third parties for research and development activities will reduce our control over these activities but will not relieve us of our responsibility to ensure compliance with all required regulations and study protocols. For example, for product candidates that we develop and commercialize on our own, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our IND/CTA-enabling studies and clinical trials are conducted in accordance with the study plan and protocols. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with cGCPs for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database, ClinicalTrials.gov, within specified timeframes. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity and civil and criminal sanctions. If we or 67 any of our CROs or other third parties, including trial sites, fail to comply with applicable cGCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials complies with cGCP regulations. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under conditions that comply with the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices. Our failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. Although we design the clinical trials for our product candidates, CROs conduct some or all of the clinical trials. As a result, many important aspects of our development programs, including their conduct and timing, will be outside of our direct control. Our reliance on third parties to conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials will also result in less direct control over the management of data developed through preclinical studies and clinical trials than would be the case if we were relying entirely upon our own staff. Communicating with outside parties can also be challenging, potentially leading to mistakes as well as difficulties in coordinating activities. Outside parties may: • have staffing difficulties; • fail to comply with contractual obligations; • experience regulatory compliance issues; • undergo changes in priorities or become financially distressed; or • form relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. These factors may materially adversely affect the willingness or ability of third parties to conduct our preclinical studies and clinical trials and may subject us to unexpected cost increases that are beyond our control. In addition, any third parties conducting our clinical trials will not be our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties, we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our clinical programs. If the CROs and other third parties do not perform preclinical studies and clinical trials in a satisfactory manner, if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, or if they breach their obligations to us or fail to comply with regulatory requirements, the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of any product candidates we may develop may be delayed, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our product candidates or our development programs may be materially and irreversibly harmed. If we are unable to rely on preclinical and clinical data collected by our CROs and other third parties, we could be required to repeat, extend the duration of or increase the size of any preclinical studies or clinical trials we conduct and this could significantly delay commercialization and require greater expenditures. If third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our studies in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated study plans and protocols, we will not be able to complete, or may be delayed in completing, the preclinical studies and clinical trials required to support future IND submissions and approval of any product candidates we may develop. We currently depend on a small number of third-party suppliers for the manufacture of our Fab, the linkers and payloads. The loss of these or future third-party suppliers, or their inability to provide us with sufficient supply, could harm our business. We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities and have no current plans to develop our own clinical or commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities. In the future, we may seek to establish our own manufacturing facility for the long-term commercial supply of any product candidates we may develop and which receive regulatory approval. We rely on a small number of third-party suppliers for the manufacture of our Fab, linkers and payloads. We expect to continue to depend on third-party suppliers for the manufacture of any product candidates that we evaluate in preclinical studies and clinical trials, as well as for commercial manufacture if those product candidates receive marketing approval. The facilities used by third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the FDA and any 68 comparable foreign regulatory authority pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit a biologics license application, or BLA, to the FDA or any comparable filing to a foreign regulatory authority. We do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, third-party manufacturers for compliance with cGMP requirements for manufacture of products. If these third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority, they will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities. Our product candidates consist of a proprietary Fab conjugated with a linker to a payload. Our Fab is manufactured by starting with cells which are stored in a cell bank. If we lose multiple cell banks, our manufacturing will be adversely impacted by the need to replace the cell banks. In addition, we have no control over the ability of third-party manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of any product candidates we may develop or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market any product candidates we may develop, if approved. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of product candidates or products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our product candidates. In addition, certain Chinese biotechnology companies and CMOs that supply us with drug components may become subject to trade restrictions, sanctions, and other regulatory requirements by the U.S. government, which could restrict or even prohibit our ability to work with such entities, thereby potentially disrupting the supply of material to us. Such disruption could have adverse effects on the development of our product candidates and our business operations. We may also seek to eventually establish our own manufacturing facility for the long-term commercial supply of any product candidates we may develop and which receive regulatory approval. If we determine to establish our own manufacturing facility and manufacture our products on our own, we will need to obtain the resources and expertise in order to build such manufacturing capabilities and to conduct such manufacturing operations. In addition, our conduct of such manufacturing operations will be subject to the extensive regulations and operational risks to which our third-party suppliers are subject. If we are not successful in building these capabilities or complying with the regulations or otherwise operating our manufacturing function, our commercial supply could be disrupted and our business could be materially harmed. Our or a third party’s failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements on commercially reasonable terms and in compliance with cGMP could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including: • an inability to initiate preclinical studies or clinical trials of product candidates; • delays in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving marketing approvals, for product candidates; • subjecting third-party manufacturing facilities or our manufacturing facilities to additional inspections by regulatory authorities; • requirements to cease development or to recall batches of product candidates; and • in the event of approval to market and commercialize any product, an inability to meet commercial demands for the product. We are party to manufacturing agreements with a number of third-party manufacturers. We may be unable to maintain these agreements or establish any additional agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to maintain or establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including: 69 • failure of third-party manufacturers to comply with regulatory requirements and maintain quality assurance; • breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party; • failure to manufacture according to our specifications; • failure to manufacture according to our schedule or at all; • misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and • termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us. We may compete with third parties for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply or a second source for all required raw materials. If our existing or future third-party manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers and we may be unable to replace them on a timely basis or at all. Additionally, if supply from one approved manufacturer is interrupted, there could be a significant disruption in supply. An alternative manufacturer would need to be qualified through a BLA supplement which could result in further delay. The regulatory agencies may also require additional studies or trials if a new manufacturer is relied upon for commercial production. Switching manufacturers may involve substantial costs and is likely to result in a delay in our desired clinical and commercial timelines. These factors could cause the delay of clinical trials, regulatory submissions, required approvals or commercialization of our product candidates, cause us to incur higher costs and prevent us from commercializing our products successfully. Furthermore, if our suppliers fail to meet contractual requirements, and we are unable to secure one or more replacement suppliers capable of production at a substantially equivalent cost, our clinical trials may be delayed or we could lose potential revenue. Our current and anticipated future dependence upon third parties for the manufacture of any product candidates we develop may adversely affect our development programs and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis. We may from time to time be dependent on single-source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in the product candidates we may develop. We may from time to time depend on single-source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in any product candidate we may develop. For instance, we currently use a single or limited number of suppliers for each of our Fab, linkers and payloads. We cannot ensure that these suppliers or service providers will remain in business, have sufficient capacity or supply to meet our needs or that they will not be purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is not interested in continuing to work with us. Our use of single-source suppliers of raw materials, components, key processes and finished goods could expose us to several risks, including disruptions in supply, price increases or late deliveries. There are, in general, relatively few alternative sources of supply for substitute components. These vendors may be unable or unwilling to meet our future demands for our clinical trials or commercial sale. Establishing additional or replacement suppliers for these components, materials and processes could take a substantial amount of time and it may be difficult to establish replacement suppliers who meet regulatory requirements. Any disruption in supply from any single-source supplier or service provider could lead to supply delays or interruptions which would damage our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we have to switch to a replacement supplier, the manufacture and delivery of any product candidates we may develop could be interrupted for an extended period, which could adversely affect our business. Establishing additional or replacement suppliers, if required, may not be accomplished quickly. If we are 70 able to find a replacement supplier, the replacement supplier would need to be qualified and may require additional regulatory authority approval, which could result in further delay. While we seek to maintain adequate inventory of the single source components and materials used in our products, any interruption or delay in the supply of components or materials, or our inability to obtain components or materials from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could impair our ability to meet the demand for our investigational medicines. We may enter into collaborations with third parties for the research, development and commercialization of certain of the product candidates we may develop. If any such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of those product candidates. We may seek third-party collaborators for the research, development and commercialization of certain of the product candidates we may develop. If we enter into any such arrangements with any third parties, we will likely have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of any product candidates we may seek to develop with them. Our ability to generate revenues from these arrangements will depend on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements. We cannot predict the success of any collaboration that we enter into. Collaborations involving our research programs or any product candidates we may develop pose numerous risks to us, including the following: • collaborators would have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations; • collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of any product candidates we may develop or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical trial results, changes in the collaborator’s strategic focus or available funding or external factors such as an acquisition that diverts resources or creates competing priorities; • collaborators may delay programs, preclinical studies or clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for programs, preclinical studies or clinical trials, stop a preclinical study or clinical trial or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing; • collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with any product candidates we may develop if the collaborators believe that competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours; • collaborators may be acquired by a third party having competitive products or different priorities, causing the emphasis on our product development or commercialization program under such collaboration to be delayed, diminished or terminated; • collaborators with marketing and distribution rights to one or more products may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product or products; • collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, enforce or defend our intellectual property or proprietary rights or may use our proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our proprietary information or expose us to potential litigation; • disputes may arise between the collaborators and us that result in the delay or termination of the research, development, or commercialization of any product candidates we may develop or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources; • we may lose certain valuable rights under certain circumstances, including if we undergo a change of control; • collaborations may be terminated and, if terminated, may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable product candidates we may develop; and 71 • collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of product candidates in the most efficient manner or at all. If our collaborations do not result in the successful development and commercialization of product candidates, or if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research funding or milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these agreements, our development of product candidates could be delayed, and we may need additional resources to develop product candidates. In addition, if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may find it more difficult to find a suitable replacement collaborator or attract new collaborators, and our development programs may be delayed or the perception of us in the business and financial communities could be adversely affected. All of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval and commercialization described in this “Risk Factors” section apply to the activities of our collaborators. These relationships, or those like them, may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing stockholders, or disrupt our management and business. If we license rights to any product candidates we or our collaborators may develop, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture. If conflicts arise between us and our potential collaborators, these parties may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies. If conflicts arise between us and our potential collaborators, the other party may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies. Our collaborators may develop, either alone or with others, products in related fields that are competitive with the product candidates we may develop that are the subject of these collaborations with us. Competing products, either developed by the collaborators or to which the collaborators have rights, may result in the withdrawal of support for our product candidates. Some of our future collaborators could also become our competitors. Our collaborators could develop competing products, preclude us from entering into collaborations with their competitors, fail to obtain timely regulatory approvals, terminate their agreements with us prematurely, fail to devote sufficient resources to the development and commercialization of products, or merge with or be acquired by a third party who may do any of these things. Any of these developments could harm our product development efforts. If we are not able to establish collaborations on commercially reasonable terms, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans. Our research programs and product candidates and the potential commercialization of any product candidates we may develop will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. For some of the product candidates we may develop, we may decide to collaborate with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the development and potential commercialization of those product candidates. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators, and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA, the EMA or 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. The collaborator may also consider alternative 72 product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us. Collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators. We may not be able to negotiate collaborations on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to do so, we may have to curtail the development of the product candidate for which we are seeking to collaborate, reduce or delay its development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay its potential commercialization, reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our own expenditures on the development of the product candidate. We are dependent on third-party vendors to provide certain licenses, products and services and our business and operations, including clinical trials, could be disrupted by any problems with our significant third-party vendors. We engage a number of third-party suppliers and service providers to supply critical goods and services, such as contract research services, contract manufacturing services and IT services. Disruptions to the business, financial stability or operations of these suppliers and service providers, including due to strikes, labor disputes or other disruptions to the workforce or to their willingness and ability to produce or deliver such products or provide such services in a manner that satisfies the requirements put forth by the authorities, or in a manner that satisfies our own requirements, could affect our ability to develop and market our future product candidates on a timely basis. If these suppliers and service providers were unable or unwilling to continue to provide their products or services in the manner expected, or at all, we could encounter difficulty finding alternative suppliers. Even if we are able to secure appropriate alternative suppliers in a timely manner, costs for such products or services could increase significantly. Any of these events could adversely affect our results of operations and our business. Risks related to commercialization We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before us or more successfully than we do. The development and commercialization of new drug products is highly competitive. We face competition with respect to any product candidates that we may develop from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. There are a number of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that currently market and sell products or are pursuing the development of products for the treatment of many of the disorders for which we are conducting research and development programs. Some of these competitive products and therapies are based on scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach, and others are based on entirely different approaches. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than our product candidates or that would render any product candidates that we may develop obsolete or non-competitive. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Additionally, technologies developed by our competitors may render our product candidates uneconomical or obsolete, and we may not be successful in marketing any product candidates we may develop against competitors. Currently, patients with DMD are treated with corticosteroids to manage the inflammatory component of the disease. EMFLAZA (deflazacort) is an FDA-approved corticosteroid marketed by PTC Therapeutics, 73 Inc.. A novel steroid, AGAMREE (vamorolone) has also been approved by the FDA for treatment of DMD in patients 2 years of age and older and is marketed by Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Givinostat, an HDAC inhibitor, received FDA approval for treatment of DMD in patients 6 years of age and older and is marketed in the United States by ITF Therapeutics, LLC. In addition, there are four FDA-approved exon skipping drugs: EXONDYS 51 (eteplirsen), VYONDYS 53 (golodirsen) and AMONDYS 45 (casimersen), which are naked PMOs approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 51, exon 53 and exon 45 skipping, respectively, and are marketed by Sarepta, and VILTEPSO (vitolarsen), a naked PMO approved for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 53 skipping, which is marketed by Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. Additionally, there is one FDA-approved gene therapy for patients with a confirmed mutation in the dystrophin gene, ELEVIDYS (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl), which is marketed by Sarepta. Companies focused on developing treatments for DMD that target dystrophin mechanisms, as does our DMD program, include Wave Life Sciences Ltd. with WVE-N531, a stereopure oligonucleotide being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial for patients amenable to exon 53 skipping; Entrada Therapeutics, Inc. with ENTR-601-44, an endosomal escape vehicle technology for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 44 and exon 45 skipping, respectively, currently being evaluated in Phase 1/2 clinical trials; BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. with BMN-351, an ASO for patients amenable to exon 51 skipping which is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial; SQY Therapeutics with SQY-51, a PMO for patients amenable to exon 51 skipping, which is also being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial; NS Pharma, Inc. with NS-050/NCNP-03 and NS-089/NCNP-02, which are PMOs in Phase 1/2 and Phase 2 clinical trials for exon-50 and exon 44 skipping amenable DMD respectively; and Avidity with delpacibart zotadirsen (formerly known as AOC-1044), an antibody oligonucleotide conjugate for patients amenable to exon 44 skipping being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial, which recently reported positive topline data and intent to file for accelerated approval with the FDA in 2026. In addition, gene therapies to treat DMD are in clinical development, including Solid Biosciences Inc. (SGT-003), REGENXBIO Inc. (RGX-202), Genethon (GNT-0004), and Insmed Inc. (INS1201). Gene editing treatments that are in preclinical development are also being pursued by Vertex and Sarepta. We are also aware of several companies targeting non-dystrophin mechanisms for the treatment of DMD. There are currently no approved therapies to treat the underlying cause of DM1. Product candidates currently in clinical development to treat DM1 include: tideglusib, a GSK3-ß inhibitor in late-stage clinical development by AMO Pharma Ltd. for children and adults with DM1; pitolisant, a selective histamine 3 receptor antagonist / inverse agonist being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial for non-muscular symptoms of DM1 by Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc.; delpacibart etedesiran (formerly AOC-1001), an antibody-linked siRNA being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial by Avidity; PGN-EDODM1, a peptide-linked PMO, currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial by Pepgen, Inc.; ARO-DM1, a peptide-linked siRNA being evaluated in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in Australia and New Zealand by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; ATX-01, a lipophilic peptide conjugated anti-miR designed to target microRNA 23b currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by ARTHEx Biotech S.L.; VX-670, an endosomal escape vehicle technology with a CUG steric blocker oligonucleotide by Entrada Therapeutics, Inc. in collaboration with Vertex being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia; SAR446268, an AAV-medicated gene therapy currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Sanofi in the United States and Argentina; and JUV-161, an AKT-signaling activator currently in a Phase 1 single-ascending dose clinical trial in healthy volunteers by Juvena in Australia. There are currently no therapies approved to treat FSHD. Products currently in development for FSHD include: ARO-DUX4, an siRNA therapy being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial and licensed by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to Sarepta; delpacibart braxlosiran (formerly AOC-1020), an antibody oligonucleotide conjugate being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Avidity and RO7204239, an anti-latent myostatin antibody by Roche Pharmaceuticals that is in a Phase 2 clinical trial. Satralizumab, an anti-IL-6 antibody, is being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial by the University Hospital of Nice. EpiCrispr Bio is developing an AAV-delivered CRISPR epigenome modification therapy targeting DUX4 that is currently in Phase 1/2 clinical trials. Scholar Rock Holding Corporation cleared its IND application for apitegromab in FSHD with Phase 2 study initiation and patient dosing expected mid-2026. Several other companies have therapies targeting DUX4 in preclinical development (e.g., Facio Biotherapies Pty Ltd, Kate Therapeutics Inc. (acquired by Novartis), Souffle Therapeutics, and Ionis). 74 There are three currently approved medicines for Pompe disease, all of which are enzyme replacement therapies: Myozyme/Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa) and Nexviazyme/Nexviadyme (avalglucosidase alfa) by Sanofi, and Pombiliti + Opfolda (cipaglucosidase alfa-atga in combination with miglustat) by Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. Beyond these marketed products, the Pompe clinical pipeline consists of several clinical-stage product candidates that aim to address Pompe disease via alternative strategies. ACTUS-101, a gene therapy delivered to the liver for continuous, endogenous production of GAA currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by AskBio. AskBio, which is wholly owned by Bayer AG, also has its AB-1009 gene therapy program that is in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the United States for LOPD. AT-845 is a muscle-targeted gene therapy currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Astellas Pharma US, Inc. for LOPD. In addition, ABX-1100 by ARO Biotherapeutics Co. and MZE-001 by Maze Therapeutics, Inc. are substrate reduction therapies in Phase 1 clinical trials. Denali Therapeutics, Inc. also announced plans to initiate a Phase 1 trial for its enzyme replacement therapy in January 2026. We also expect to compete more generally with other companies developing alternative scientific and technological approaches to the treatment of muscle diseases, including other companies working to develop conjugates with oligonucleotides for extra-hepatic delivery, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Aro Biotherapeutics, Inc., Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Avidity, Novo Nordisk A/S, DTx Pharma, Inc., Gennao Bio, Inc., Ionis and Sarepta, as well as gene therapy and gene editing approaches. Many of the companies against which we compete or against which we may compete in the future have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful than us in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining approval for treatments and achieving widespread market acceptance, rendering our treatments obsolete or non-competitive. Additionally, mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. 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, 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 more effective, safer, more convenient, less expensive or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Competitive products or technological approaches may make any products we develop, or our FORCE platform, obsolete or noncompetitive before we recover the expense of developing and commercializing our product candidates. If we are unable to compete effectively, our opportunity to generate revenue from the sale of our products we may develop, if approved, could be adversely affected. Even if any product candidate that we may develop receives marketing approval, it may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payers and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success. If any product candidate we may develop receives marketing approval, it may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payers and others in the medical community. Sales of medical products depend in part on the willingness of physicians to prescribe the treatment, which is likely to be based on a determination by these physicians that the products are safe, 75 therapeutically effective and cost-effective. In addition, the inclusion or exclusion of products from treatment guidelines established by various physician groups and the viewpoints of influential physicians can affect the willingness of other physicians to prescribe the treatment. We cannot predict whether physicians, physicians’ organizations, hospitals, other healthcare providers, government agencies or private insurers will determine that our product is safe, therapeutically effective and cost-effective as compared with competing treatments. Efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payers on the benefits of any product candidates we may develop may require significant resources and may not be successful. If any product candidates we may develop do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of any product candidates we may develop, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including: • the efficacy and safety of such product candidates as demonstrated in clinical trials; • the potential advantages and limitations compared to alternative treatments; • the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts; • the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments; • the clinical indications for which the product is approved; • the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments; • the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies; • the strength of marketing and distribution support; • the timing of market introduction of competitive products; • the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement; • the prevalence and severity of any side effects; and • any restrictions on the use of our products, if approved, together with other medications. If the market opportunities for any product candidates we develop are smaller than we believe they are, our revenue may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer. Because the target patient populations of our programs are small, and the addressable patient population even smaller, we must be able to successfully identify patients and capture a significant market share to achieve profitability and growth. We focus our research and product development on treatments for rare diseases. Given the small number of patients who have the diseases that we are targeting, it is critical to our ability to grow and become profitable that we continue to successfully identify patients with these rare diseases. Our projections of both the number of people who have these diseases, as well as the subset of people with these diseases who have the potential to benefit from treatment with any product candidates we may develop, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including the scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations or market research that we conducted, and may prove to be incorrect or contain errors. New studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than expected. The effort to identify patients with diseases we seek to treat is in early stages, and we cannot accurately predict the number of patients for whom treatment might be possible. Additionally, the potentially addressable patient population for each of our product candidates may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with our product candidates, and new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business. Further, even if we obtain significant market share for our product candidates, because the potential target populations are very small, we may never achieve profitability despite obtaining such significant market share. Our target patient populations are relatively small, and there is currently no standard of care treatment directed at some of our target indications, such as FSHD. As a result, the pricing and reimbursement of 76 any product candidates we may develop, if approved, is uncertain, but must be adequate to support commercial infrastructure. If we are unable to obtain adequate levels of reimbursement, our ability to successfully market and sell product candidates will be adversely affected. The pricing, insurance coverage and reimbursement status of newly approved products is uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for our future product candidates, if approved, could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate product revenue. The initial target platforms in our pipeline are indications with small patient populations. For product candidates that are designed to treat smaller patient populations to be commercially viable, the reimbursement for such product candidates must be higher, on a relative basis, to account for the lack of volume. Accordingly, we will need to implement a coverage and reimbursement strategy for any approved product candidate that accounts for the smaller potential market size. If we are unable to establish or sustain coverage and adequate reimbursement for any future product candidates from third-party payers, the adoption of those product candidates and sales revenue will be adversely affected, which, in turn, could adversely affect the ability to market or sell those product candidates, if approved. We expect that coverage and reimbursement by third-party payers will be essential for most patients to be able to afford these treatments. Accordingly, sales of our future product candidates will depend substantially, both domestically and internationally, on the extent to which the costs of our product candidates will be paid by health maintenance, managed care, pharmacy benefit and similar healthcare management organizations, or will be reimbursed by government authorities, private health coverage insurers and other third-party payers. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be high enough to allow us to establish or maintain pricing sufficient to realize a sufficient return on our investment. There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement by government authorities for new products are typically made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, since CMS decides whether and to what extent a new product will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private payers tend to follow CMS to a substantial degree. However, one payer’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payers will also provide coverage for the drug product. Further, a payer’s decision to provide coverage for a drug product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Reimbursement agencies in the European Union may be more conservative than CMS. Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe, Canada and other countries has and will continue to put pressure on the pricing and usage of therapeutics such as any product candidates we may develop. In many countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. As a result, we might obtain marketing approval for a product in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay or might even prevent our commercial launch of the product, possibly for lengthy periods of time. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product candidate to other available therapies. In general, the prices of products under such systems are substantially lower than in the United States. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for products but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for product candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for any product candidates we may develop may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits. 77 Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payers, in the United States and internationally, to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and level of reimbursement for new products approved and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for any product candidates we may develop. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any product candidates we may develop due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of certain third-party payers, such as health maintenance organizations, and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products into the healthcare market. There have been instances in which third-party payers have refused to reimburse treatments for patients for whom the treatment is indicated in the FDA-approved product label. Even if we are successful in obtaining FDA approvals to commercialize our product candidates, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to secure reimbursement for all patients for whom treatment with our product candidates is indicated. In addition to CMS and private payers, professional organizations, such as the American Medical Association, can influence decisions about reimbursement for new products by determining standards for care. In addition, many private payers contract with commercial vendors who sell software that provide guidelines that attempt to limit utilization of, and therefore reimbursement for, certain products deemed to provide limited benefit to existing alternatives. Such organizations may set guidelines that limit reimbursement or utilization of our product candidates. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more product candidates for which we or our collaborators receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future. If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities or enter into sales, marketing and distribution agreements with third parties, we may not be successful in commercializing any product candidates we may develop if and when they are approved. We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure and have no experience in the sale, marketing or distribution of pharmaceutical products. To achieve commercial success for any product for which we have obtained marketing approval, we will need to establish a sales, marketing and distribution organization, either ourselves or through collaborations or other arrangements with third parties. In the future, we may build a sales and marketing infrastructure to market some of the product candidates we may develop if and when they are approved. There are risks involved with establishing our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a 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. These efforts may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel. Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our products on our own include: • our inability to recruit, train and retain adequate numbers of effective sales, marketing, coverage or reimbursement, customer service, medical affairs and other support personnel; • the inability of sales personnel to educate adequate numbers of physicians on the benefits of any future products; • the inability of reimbursement professionals to negotiate arrangements for formulary access, reimbursement and other acceptance by payers; • the inability to price our products at a sufficient price point to ensure an adequate and attractive level of profitability; • restricted or closed distribution channels that make it difficult to distribute our products to segments of the patient population; • the lack of complementary products to be offered by sales personnel, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies with more extensive product lines; and 78 • unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating an independent sales and marketing organization. If we are unable to establish our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities and we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform these services, our product revenues and our profitability, if any, are likely to be lower than if we were to market, sell and distribute any products that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell, market and distribute any product candidates we may develop or may be unable to do so on terms that are acceptable to us. We likely will have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively. If we do not establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing any product candidates we may develop. The biologic product candidates for which we intend to seek approval may face competition sooner than anticipated. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Amendment, or the ACA, includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed reference biological product. In December 2022, Congress clarified through FDORA that the FDA may approve multiple first interchangeable biosimilar biological products so long as the products are all approved on the first day on which such a product is approved as interchangeable with the reference product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first licensed by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a full BLA for the competing product containing the sponsor’s own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of their product. There is a risk that any product candidates we may develop that are approved as a biological product under a BLA would not qualify for the 12-year period of exclusivity or that this exclusivity could be shortened due to U.S. congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider any product candidates we may develop to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for generic competition sooner than anticipated. Further, the FDA may revise the standards governing approval of biosimilars so as to bring such products to the market more quickly. For example, in October 2025, the FDA issued draft guidance which proposes to eliminate the need for sponsors of biosimilar products to conduct comparative human clinical efficacy studies, allowing them to rely instead on analytical testing to demonstrate product differences from a reference product. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for nonbiological products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing. Risks related to our intellectual property If we or our licensors are unable to obtain, maintain and defend patent and other intellectual property protection for any product candidates or technology, or if the scope of the patent or other intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully develop and commercialize any product candidates we may develop or our technology may be adversely affected due to such competition. 79 Our success depends in large part on our and our licensors’ ability to obtain and maintain patent and other intellectual property protection in the United States and other jurisdictions. We currently own and license patents and patent applications relating to our FORCE platform technology, including our Fabs, payloads and Fab-payload conjugates, as well as aspects of our manufacturing and methods of treatment. We and our licensors have sought, and will seek, to protect our proprietary position by filing additional patent applications in the United States and abroad related to certain technologies and our platform that are important to our business. However, while much of our patent portfolio is at an early stage, we own 54 issued U.S. patents and fourteen granted foreign patents, and exclusively license three issued U.S. patents and one issued European patent. Moreover, there can be no assurance as to whether or when our patent applications will issue as granted patents. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using, selling, marketing, offering to sell, importing and commercializing any product candidates we may develop and our technology is dependent upon the extent to which we have rights under valid and enforceable patents and other intellectual property that cover our platform and technology. If we are unable to secure, maintain, defend and enforce patents and other intellectual property with respect to any product candidates we may develop and technology, it would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Our pending Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, patent applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a national stage patent application within 30 to 32 months, depending on the jurisdiction, from such application’s priority date in the jurisdictions in which we are seeking patent protection. Similarly, our pending provisional patent applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of such provisional patent application’s filing date. If we do not timely file such national stage patent applications or non-provisional patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to such PCT or provisional patent applications, respectively, and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in such PCT or provisional patent applications, respectively. While we and our licensors intend to timely file selected national stage and non-provisional patent applications relating to our PCT and provisional patent applications, respectively, we cannot predict whether any such patent applications will result in the issuance of patents. If we or our licensors do not successfully obtain issued patents, or, if the scope of any patent protection we or our licensors obtain is not sufficiently broad, we will be unable to prevent others from using any product candidates we may develop or our technology or from developing or commercializing technology and products similar or identical to ours or other competing products and technologies. Any failure to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to our product candidates or our FORCE platform would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming and complex, and we and our licensors may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, defend, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We and our licensors may not be able to obtain, maintain or defend patents and patent applications due to the subject matter claimed in such patents and patent applications being in the public domain. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. 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, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach these agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. Consequently, we would not be able to prevent any third party from using any of our technology that is in the public domain to compete with any product candidates we may develop. The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions and has, in recent years, been the subject of much litigation. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future owned and licensed patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our technology or product candidates, effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and product or otherwise provide any competitive advantage. 80 In fact, patent applications may not issue as patents at all, and even if such patent applications do issue as patents, they may not issue in a form, or with a scope of claims, that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent others from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. In addition, the scope of claims of an issued patent can be reinterpreted after issuance, and changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other jurisdictions may diminish the value of our patent rights or narrow the scope of our patent protection. Furthermore, our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. Third parties have developed technologies that may be related or competitive to our own technologies and product candidates and may have filed or may file patent applications, or may have obtained issued patents, claiming inventions that may overlap or conflict with those claimed in our owned or licensed patent applications or issued patents. We may not be aware of all third-party intellectual property rights potentially relating to our current and future product candidates and technology. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag 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 know for certain whether the inventors of our owned or licensed patents and patent applications were the first to make the inventions claimed in any owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. If a third party can establish that we or our licensors were not the first to make or the first to file for patent protection of such inventions, our owned or licensed patent applications may not issue as patents and even if issued, may be challenged and invalidated or ruled unenforceable. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and other jurisdictions. For example, we may be subject to a third-party submission of prior art to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, challenging the validity of one or more claims of our owned or licensed patents. Such submissions may also be made prior to a patent’s issuance, precluding the granting of a patent based on one of our owned or licensed pending patent applications. We may become involved in opposition, derivation, re-examination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference proceedings and similar proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (for example, opposition proceedings) challenging our owned or licensed patent rights. In addition, a third party may claim that our owned or licensed patent rights are invalid or unenforceable in a litigation. An adverse result in any litigation or patent office proceeding could put one or more of our owned or licensed patents at risk of being invalidated, ruled unenforceable or interpreted narrowly and could allow third parties to commercialize products identical or similar to any product candidates we may develop and compete directly with us, without payment to us. Moreover, we, or one of our licensors, may have to participate in interference proceedings declared by the USPTO to determine priority of invention or in post-grant challenge proceedings, such as oppositions in a foreign patent office, that challenge priority of invention or other features of patentability. Such challenges and proceedings may result in loss of patent rights, exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and any product candidates we may develop. Such challenges and proceedings may also result in substantial cost and require significant time from our scientists and management, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us. Moreover, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments related to such challenges and proceedings. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Furthermore, patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from the earliest date of filing of the first non-provisional patent application to which the patent claims priority. Patent term adjustments and extensions may be available; however, the overall term of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such product candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent and other intellectual property rights may not provide us with sufficient rights to 81 exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to our technology and any product candidates we may develop. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Our rights to develop and commercialize any product candidates are subject and may in the future be subject, in part, to the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by third parties. If we fail to comply with our obligations under our current or future intellectual property license agreements or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our current or any future licensors, we could lose intellectual property rights that are important to our business. We are and expect to continue to be reliant upon third-party licensors for certain patent and other intellectual property rights that are important or necessary to the development of our technology and product candidates. For example, we are party to a license from the UMONS to certain patent rights and know-how of UMONS. Our license agreement with UMONS imposes, and we expect that any future license agreement will impose, specified diligence, milestone payment, royalty, commercialization, development and other obligations on us and require us to meet development timelines, or to exercise diligent or commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize licensed products, in order to maintain the licenses. For more information on the terms of the license agreement with UMONS, see Item 1. “Business—Intellectual Property—License Agreement with the University of Mons” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Furthermore, our licensors have, or may in the future have, the right to terminate a license if we materially breach the agreement and fail to cure such breach within a specified period or in the event we undergo certain bankruptcy events. In spite of our best efforts, our current or any future licensors might conclude that we have materially breached our license agreements and might therefore terminate the license agreements. If our license agreements are terminated, we may lose our rights to develop and commercialize product candidates and technology, lose patent protection, experience significant delays in the development and commercialization of our product candidates and technology, and incur liability for damages. If these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying intellectual property fails to provide the intended exclusivity, our competitors or other third parties could have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products and technologies identical or competitive to ours and we may be required to cease our development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates and technology. In addition, we may seek to obtain additional licenses from our licensors and, in connection with obtaining such licenses, we may agree to amend our existing licenses in a manner that may be more favorable to the licensors, including by agreeing to terms that could enable third parties, including our competitors, to receive licenses to a portion of the intellectual property that is subject to our existing licenses and to compete with any product candidates we may develop and our technology. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including: • the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues; • our or our licensors’ ability to obtain, maintain and defend intellectual property and to enforce intellectual property rights against third parties; • the extent to which our technology, product candidates and processes infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate the intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the license agreement; • the sublicensing of patent and other intellectual property rights under our license agreements; • our diligence, development, regulatory, commercialization, financial or other obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations; • the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our current or future licensors and us and our partners; and • the priority of invention of patented technology. 82 In addition, our license agreement with UMONS is, and future license agreements are likely to be, complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our diligence, development, regulatory, commercialization, financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement. In addition, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed or any other dispute related to our license agreements prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current license agreements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates and technology. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. License agreements we may enter into in the future may be non-exclusive. Accordingly, third parties may also obtain non-exclusive licenses from such licensors with respect to the intellectual property licensed to us under such license agreements. Accordingly, these license agreements may not provide us with exclusive rights to use such licensed patent and other intellectual property rights, or may not provide us with exclusive rights to use such patent and other intellectual property rights in all relevant fields of use and in all territories in which we may wish to develop or commercialize our technology and any product candidates we may develop in the future. Moreover, some of our in-licensed patent and other intellectual property rights may in the future be subject to third party interests such as co-ownership. If we are unable to obtain an exclusive license to such third-party co-owners’ interest, in such patent and other intellectual property rights, such third-party co-owners may be able to license their rights to other third parties, including our competitors, and our competitors could market competing products and technology. We or our licensors may need the cooperation of any such co-owners of our licensed patent and other intellectual property rights in order to enforce them against third parties, and such cooperation may not be provided to us or our licensors. Additionally, we may not have complete control over the preparation, filing, prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and defense of patents and patent applications that we license from third parties. It is possible that our licensors’ filing, prosecution and maintenance of the licensed patents and patent applications, enforcement of patents against infringers or defense of such patents against challenges of validity or claims of enforceability may be less vigorous than if we had conducted them ourselves, and accordingly, we cannot be certain that these patents and patent applications will be prepared, filed, prosecuted, maintained, enforced and defended in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. If our licensors fail to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce and defend such patents and patent applications, or lose rights to those patents or patent applications, the rights we have licensed may be reduced or eliminated, our right to develop and commercialize any of our technology and any product candidates we may develop that are the subject of such licensed rights could be adversely affected and we may not be able to prevent competitors or other third parties from making, using and selling competing products. Furthermore, our owned and in-licensed patent rights may be subject to a reservation of rights by one or more third parties. When new technologies are developed with government funding, in order to secure ownership of patent rights related to the technologies, the recipient of such funding is required to comply with certain government regulations, including timely disclosing the inventions claimed in such patent rights to the U.S. government and timely electing title to such inventions. A failure to meet these obligations may lead to a loss of rights or the unenforceability of relevant patents or patent applications. In addition, the U.S. government may have certain rights in such patent rights, including a non-exclusive license authorizing the U.S. government to use the invention or to have others use the invention on its behalf. If the U.S. government decides to exercise these rights, it is not required to engage us as its contractor in connection with doing so. The U.S. government’s rights may also permit it to disclose the funded inventions and technology, which may include our confidential information, to third parties and to exercise march-in rights to use or allow third parties to use the technology that was developed using U.S. government funding. The U.S. government may exercise its march-in rights if it determines that action is necessary because we or our licensors failed to achieve practical application of the U.S. government-funded technology, because action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs, to meet requirements 83 of federal regulations, or to give preference to U.S. industry. In addition, our rights in such U.S. government-funded inventions may be subject to certain requirements to manufacture any product candidates we may develop embodying such inventions in the United States. Any of the foregoing could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects significantly. We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world. Filing, prosecuting, maintaining, enforcing and defending patents and other intellectual property rights on our technology and any product candidates we may develop in all jurisdictions throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and accordingly, our intellectual property rights in some jurisdictions outside the United States could be less extensive than those in the United States. In some cases, we or our licensors may not be able to obtain patent or other intellectual property protection for certain technology and product candidates outside the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign jurisdictions do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we and our licensors may not be able to obtain issued patents or other intellectual property rights covering any product candidates we may develop and our technology in all jurisdictions outside the United States and, as a result, may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our and our licensors’ inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Third parties may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we and our licensors have not pursued and obtained patent or other intellectual property protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing, misappropriating or violating products to territories where we have patent or other intellectual property protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with any product candidates we may develop and our technology and our or our licensors’ patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing. Additionally, many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain jurisdictions, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our patent and other intellectual property rights or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property rights generally. For example, an April 2019 report from the Office of the United States Trade Representative identified a number of countries, including China, Russia, Argentina, Chile and India, where challenges to the procurement and enforcement of patent rights have been reported. Proceedings to enforce our or our licensors’ patent and other intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patent and other intellectual property rights at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We or our licensors may not prevail in any lawsuits that we or our licensors initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license. As another example, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws have also increased in recent years. In Europe, a new unitary patent system went into effect on June 1, 2023, which significantly impacts European patents, including those granted before the introduction of such system. Under the unitary patent system, European applications have the option, upon grant of a patent, of becoming a Unitary Patent which will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Unitary Patent Court (UPC). Existing European patents and published applications may be opted out of the jurisdiction of the UPC at any time before the end of a transitional period (at least seven years from the UPC Agreement which went into effect on June 1, 2023), unless an action has already been brought before the UPC in which case an opt-out request cannot be filed. As the UPC is a new court system, there is no precedent for the court, increasing the uncertainty of any litigation. Patents granted before the implementation of the UPC will have the option of opting out of the jurisdiction of the UPC and remaining as national patents in the UPC countries. Patents that remain under the jurisdiction of the UPC will be potentially vulnerable to a single 84 UPC-based revocation challenge that, if successful, could invalidate the patent in all countries who are signatories to the UPC. We cannot predict with certainty the long-term effects of any potential changes. Many jurisdictions have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many jurisdictions limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these jurisdictions, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patents. If we or any of our licensors is forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected. Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements. Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other government fees on patents and/or patent applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various government patent agencies outside of the United States over the lifetime of our owned or licensed patent rights. We rely on our outside counsel and other professionals or our licensing partners to pay these fees due to the USPTO and non-U.S. government patent agencies. The USPTO and various non-U.S. government patent agencies also require compliance with several procedural, documentary and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We rely on our outside counsel and other professionals to help us comply and we are also dependent on our licensors to take the necessary action to comply with these requirements with respect to our licensed intellectual property. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. There are situations, however, in which non-compliance can result in abandonment, loss of priority or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, potential competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. We may not be successful in obtaining necessary rights to product candidates we may develop through acquisitions and in-licenses. We currently have rights to certain intellectual property through licenses from third parties. Because our product candidates may require the use of additional intellectual property rights held by third parties, the growth of our business likely will depend, in part, on our ability to acquire, in-license or use these intellectual property rights. In addition, with respect to any patent or other intellectual property rights that we co-own with third parties, we may require exclusive licenses to such co-owners’ interest in such patent or other intellectual property rights. However, we may be unable to secure such licenses or otherwise acquire or in-license any intellectual property rights related to compositions, methods of use, processes or other components from third parties that we identify as necessary for any product candidates we may develop and our technology on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Even if we are able to in-license any such necessary intellectual property, it could be on non-exclusive terms, thereby giving our competitors and other third parties access to the same intellectual property licensed to us, and the applicable licensors could require us to make substantial licensing and royalty payments. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment. We sometimes collaborate with non-profit and academic institutions to accelerate our preclinical research or development under written agreements with these institutions. Typically, these institutions provide us 85 with an option to negotiate a license to any of the institution’s rights in technology resulting from the collaboration. Regardless of such option, we may be unable to negotiate a license within the specified timeframe or under terms that are acceptable to us. If we are unable to do so, the institution may offer the intellectual property rights to third parties, potentially blocking our ability to pursue our research program and develop and commercialize our product candidates. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have licensed, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to redesign any product candidates we may develop or the methods for manufacturing them or to develop or license replacement technology, all of which may not be feasible on a technical or commercial basis. If we are unable to do so, we may be unable to develop or commercialize the affected product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Issued patents covering any product candidates we may develop could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad. Our owned and licensed patent rights may be subject to priority, validity, inventorship and enforceability disputes. If we or our licensors are unsuccessful in any of these proceedings, such patent rights may be narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, we may be required to obtain licenses from third parties, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or we may be required to cease the development, manufacture and commercialization of one or more of our product candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we or one of our licensors initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering any of the product candidates we may develop or our technology, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering the product candidate or technology is invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, lack of written description or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld information material to patentability from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties also may raise similar claims before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination, interference proceedings, derivation proceedings, post grant review, inter partes review and equivalent proceedings such as opposition, invalidation and revocation proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. Such proceedings could result in the revocation or cancellation of or amendment to our patents in such a way that they no longer cover any product candidates we may develop or our technology or prevent third parties from competing with any product candidates we may develop or our technology. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which the patent examiner and we or our licensing partners were unaware during prosecution. If a third party were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we could lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on one or more of our product candidates or technology. Such a loss of patent protection could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed. In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable or that we elect not to patent, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our product candidate discovery and development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect and some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. We seek to protect our 86 proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors, contractors and other parties who have access to such technology and processes. However, we may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical know-how or other trade secrets by the parties to these agreements. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. If any of the collaborators, scientific advisors, employees and consultants who are parties to these agreements breach or violate the terms of any of these agreements, we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach or violation. In such circumstances, third parties could potentially use our trade secrets to compete with any product candidates we may develop and our technology. Additionally, we cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or has had access to our trade secrets or proprietary technology and processes. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and trade secrets by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems; however, such systems and security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors or other third parties. Competitors or third parties could purchase any product candidates we may develop or our technology and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts, willfully infringe our intellectual property rights, design around our intellectual property rights or develop their own competitive technologies that fall outside the scope of our intellectual property rights. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate such trade secrets, from using that technology or information to compete with us. If our trade secrets are not adequately protected so as to protect our market against competitors’ products, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could harm our business. Our commercial success depends upon our ability and the ability of our collaborators to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by extensive and complex litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. We may become party to, or be threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation in which third parties may assert infringement, misappropriation or other violation claims against us, alleging that any product candidates we may develop, manufacturing methods, formulations or administration methods are covered by their patents. Given the vast number of patents and other intellectual property in our field of technology, we cannot be certain or guarantee that we do not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate patents or other intellectual property. Other companies and institutions have filed, and continue to file, patent applications that may be related to our technology and, more broadly, to gene therapy and related manufacturing methods. Some of these patent applications have already been allowed or issued and others may issue in the future. Since this area is competitive and of strong interest to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, there will likely be additional patent applications filed and additional patents granted in the future, as well as additional research and development programs expected in the future. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are pursuing development candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that we may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties. If a patent holder believes the manufacture, use, sale or importation of any product candidates we may develop or our technology infringes its patent, the patent holder may sue us even if we have licensed other patent rights for our technology. 87 We are aware of certain patents in the United States and other jurisdictions owned by third parties that claim subject matter that relates to our program candidates and the FORCE platform. Although we believe that these patents are invalid and/or not infringed, such third parties may assert these patents against us in litigation in the United States or other jurisdictions. The outcome of any such litigation is uncertain and, even if we prevail, the costs of such litigation could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, result in disclosure of our trade secrets, distract key personnel from the continued development of our business, and adversely affect our ability to enter or maintain commercial relationships with collaborators, clients or customers. If we are unsuccessful in such litigation, we could be prevented from commercializing products or could be required to take licenses from such third parties which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. It is also possible that we have failed to identify relevant third-party patents or applications. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, may be confidential for 18 months or more after filing and can be revised before issuance, there may be applications now pending which may later result in issued patents that may be infringed by the manufacture, use, sale or importation of any product candidates we may develop or our technology and we may not be aware of such patents. Furthermore, applications filed before November 29, 2000 and certain applications filed after that date that will not be filed outside the United States may remain confidential until a patent issues. Moreover, it is difficult for industry participants, including us, to identify all third-party patent rights that may be relevant to any product candidates we may develop and our technologies because patent searching is imperfect due to differences in terminology among patents, incomplete databases and the difficulty in assessing the meaning of patent claims. We may fail to identify relevant patents or patent applications or may identify pending patent applications of potential interest but incorrectly predict the likelihood that such patent applications may issue with claims of relevance to our technology. In addition, we may incorrectly conclude that a third-party patent is invalid, unenforceable or not infringed by our activities. Additionally, pending patent applications that have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our technologies, any product candidates we may