Table of Contents

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

For the transition period from to .

Commission file number 001-36076

FATE THERAPEUTICS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(858) 875-1800

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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 ☒ or No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ or 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 ☒ or 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, a 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.

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. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $6,960,000,000 as of June 30, 2021 based upon the closing sale price on The Nasdaq Global Market reported for such date. Shares of common stock held by each executive officer and director and certain holders of more than 10% of the outstanding shares of the registrant’s common stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. Shares of common stock held by other persons, including certain other holders of more than 10% of the outstanding shares of common stock, have not been excluded in that such persons are not deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

The number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, as of February 24, 2022 was 96,427,693.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on or before the date 120 days after the conclusion of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 pursuant to Regulation 14A in connection with the registrant’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this annual report on Form 10-K.

Table of Contents

FATE THERAPEUTICS, INC.

Annual Report on Form 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

RISK FACTOR SUMMARY

Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below under the heading “Risk Factors” and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC before making investment decisions regarding our common stock.

1

Table of Contents

The summary risk factors described above should be read together with the text of the full risk factors below, in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and the other information set forth in this annual report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, as well as in other documents that we file with the SEC. The risks summarized above or described in full below are not the only risks that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not precisely known to us, or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects.

2

Table of Contents

FORWARD–LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, even if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We make such forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these words or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

3

Table of Contents

Any forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K reflect our current views with respect to future events or to our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K also contains estimates, projections and other information concerning our industry, our business, and the markets for certain diseases, including data regarding the estimated size of those markets, and the incidence and prevalence of certain medical conditions. Information that is based on estimates, forecasts, projections, market research or similar methodologies is inherently subject to uncertainties and actual events or circumstances may differ materially from events and circumstances reflected in this information. Unless otherwise expressly stated, we obtained this industry, business, market and other data from reports, research surveys, studies and similar data prepared by market research firms and other third parties, industry, medical and general publications, government data and similar sources.

In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context requires otherwise, “Fate Therapeutics,” “Company,” “we,” “our,” and “us” means Fate Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

4

Table of Contents

PART I

ITEM 1. Business

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for patients with cancer. We are developing first-in-class cell therapy product candidates based on a simple notion: we believe that better cell therapies start with better cells.

To create better cell therapies, we use a therapeutic approach that we generally refer to as cell programming. We use human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate a clonal master iPSC line having preferred biological properties, and we direct the fate of the clonal master iPSC line to create our cell therapy product candidate. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, we believe clonal master iPSC lines can be used as a renewable source for manufacturing cell therapy products which are well-defined and uniform in composition, can be repeatedly mass produced at significant scale in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf to treat many patients.

Utilizing this therapeutic approach, we are advancing a pipeline of programmed cellular immunotherapies, including off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) and T-cell product candidates derived from clonal master iPSC lines for the treatment of cancer. The following table summarizes our programmed cellular immunotherapies currently under development:

Our Approach

The use of human cells as therapeutic entities has disease-transforming potential, and compelling evidence of medical benefit for cell therapy exists across a broad spectrum of severe, life-threatening diseases. Clinical investigation of cell-based cancer immunotherapy has been rapidly expanding. One particular form of cell-based cancer immunotherapy, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, has emerged as a revolutionary and potentially curative therapy for patients with certain hematologic malignancies, including refractory cancers. In fact, multiple CAR T-cell therapies have now been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of relapsed / refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), relapsed / refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and relapsed / refractory multiple myeloma (MM).

5

Table of Contents

Cell-based cancer immunotherapies undergoing clinical investigation today most often rely on the use of autologous, or a patient’s own, cells. The requirement to source, engineer, expand and deliver cells patient-by-patient is logistically complex, resource intensive and expensive, and can result in significant batch-to-batch variability in product identity, purity and potency as well as in manufacturing failures. Significant hurdles remain to ensure that cell-based cancer immunotherapies can be consistently manufactured and reliably delivered, in a cost-effective manner and at the scale necessary, to support broad patient access and wide-spread commercialization.

Rather than rely on the use of a patient’s own cells, we seek to use clonal master iPSC lines to manufacture, develop and commercialize first-in-class cellular immunotherapies. We believe our approach has the potential to improve cell product consistency and potency, reduce manufacturing costs, shorten time to treatment and reach more patients.

Our Strategy

The key pillars of our strategy are to:

We are applying our expertise in iPSC biology to genetically engineer, isolate and select single-cell iPSCs for clonal expansion, characterization and cryopreservation as clonal master iPSC lines. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, we believe clonal master iPSC lines can be made and used as a renewable source for manufacturing cell therapy products which are well-defined and uniform in composition, can be repeatedly mass produced at significant scale in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf to treat many patients.

We have amassed significant expertise in the manufacture of NK cells and T cells from clonal master iPSC lines. Our expertise includes: generating, engineering, isolating and characterizing single-cell iPSC clones; creating and cryopreserving clonal master iPSC lines; differentiating these clonal master cell iPSC lines to produce NK cells and T cells; and regulatory affairs experience to enable clinical investigation of iPSC-derived cell products. We believe our iPSC-derived NK cell and T-cell product candidates have the potential to be administered in multi-dose, multi-cycle treatment regimens, including in combination with other cancer treatments, to drive deeper and more durable responses.

6

Table of Contents

Our Off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived Cellular Immunotherapy Pipeline

NK cells have an innate ability to rapidly seek and destroy abnormal cells, such as cancer or virally-infected cells, and represent one of the body’s first lines of immunological defense. NK cells have the unique ability to selectively identify and destroy abnormal cells through multiple mechanisms while leaving normal healthy cells unharmed. These cytotoxic mechanisms include: direct innate killing by binding to stress ligands expressed by abnormal cells and releasing toxic granules; indirect killing by producing and releasing proinflammatory and chemotactic cytokines that play a pivotal role in orchestrating the adaptive immune response; and antibody-mediated targeted killing by binding to and enhancing the cancer-killing effect of endogenous and therapeutic antibodies through a process known as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC).

T cells, or T-lymphocytes, play a critical role in adaptive immunity and are distinguished from other cells of the immune system by the presence of a T-cell receptor (TCR) on their surface. TCRs are generated by DNA rearrangement and positively selected for their capacity to engage host major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. The majority of T cells, termed alpha beta T cells (αβ T cells), rearrange their alpha and beta chains on the TCR, which confers specificity and enables T cells to recognize non-self molecules, known as non-self antigens, expressed on the surface of transformed or foreign cells. Antigens inside a cell are bound to, and are routinely brought to the surface of a cell, by MHC class I molecules. Upon antigen recognition, T cells bind to the MHC-antigen complex, become activated and destroy the targeted cell. Unlike NK cells, T cells are limited by antigen-specific binding of their TCR in order to induce cellular cytotoxicity.

We are developing off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived NK cell and T-cell cancer immunotherapies, including cell product candidates intended to synergize with checkpoint inhibitor and monoclonal antibody therapies and to target tumor-associated antigens.

FT516: iPSC-derived, hnCD16 Engineered NK Cell Product Candidate

NK cells play a major role in the anti-tumor activity of certain tumor-targeting antibodies. NK cells express CD16, an activating receptor that binds to the Fc domain of IgG antibodies. Once activated through CD16, NK cells are able to destroy antibody-coated tumor cells and secrete cytokines, such as interferon gamma, to potentiate an adaptive immune response. This mechanism of action, referred to as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), is believed to be important for the treatment of a wide range of cancers.

CD16 consists of two genomic variants, 158V and 158F, that confer high or low binding affinity, respectively, to the Fc domain of IgG antibodies. Numerous clinical studies with FDA-approved tumor-targeting antibodies, including rituximab (FDA-approved for certain cancers of the blood and lymphatic system), trastuzumab (FDA-approved for certain breast and gastric cancers) and cetuximab (FDA-approved for certain head and neck, non-small cell lung and colorectal cancers), have demonstrated that patients homozygous for the 158V variant, which is present in only about 15% of patients, have improved clinical outcomes. In addition, the expression of CD16 on NK cells has been shown to undergo considerable down-regulation in cancer patients, which can significantly limit anti-tumor activity.

FT516 is an investigational off-the-shelf NK cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal master iPSC line engineered to express a novel CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor. Our novel CD16 Fc receptor incorporates two unique features designed to augment the anti-tumor activity of FT516: a high-affinity homozygous 158V variant to promote high binding affinity and a modification to block its cleavage and down-regulation upon NK cell activation.

We are studying FT516 in an ongoing, multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial. To our knowledge, FT516 is the first-ever engineered iPSC-derived cell therapy cleared for clinical investigation in the United States. The Phase 1 trial is designed to assess the safety and

7

Table of Contents

determine the maximum dose of FT516 in adult patients with selected hematologic malignancies. The trial assesses two treatment regimens: FT516 as a monotherapy in patients with relapsed / refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) testing three separate dose cohorts (90 million cells per dose; 300 million cells per dose; 900 million cells per dose) (Regimen A); and FT516 in combination with CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody therapy in patients with advanced B-cell lymphoma (BCL) who have previously failed or progressed on CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody therapy testing four separate dose cohorts (30 million cells per dose; 90 million cells per dose; 300 million cells per dose; 900 million cells per dose) (Regimen B). The treatment schedule consists of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody therapy (Regimen B only), and three once-weekly doses of FT516 each with IL-2 cytokine support. For those patients who are clinically stable at Day 29, a second treatment cycle may be administered.

We have reported interim Phase 1 clinical data for both Regimen A in relapsed / refractory AML and Regimen B in relapsed / refractory BCL:

We have completed dose escalation in Regimen B, and have initiated the dose-expansion stage of our Phase 1 study for the treatment of relapsed / refractory BCL at 900 million cells per dose. We are enrolling patients in three disease-specific expansion cohorts: patients with relapsed / refractory aggressive lymphomas who have previously been treated with CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapy; patients with relapsed / refractory aggressive lymphomas who are naïve to treatment with CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapy; and patients with relapsed / refractory follicular lymphoma. In addition, we are also enrolling patients in an expansion cohort, without fludarabine and cyclophosphamide based lympho-conditioning chemotherapy that combines FT516 with rituximab-bendamustine (R-Benda), a standard-of-care regimen for the treatment of BCL.

In December 2021 we announced regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) Designation was granted by the FDA to FT516 for relapsed/refractory DLBCL. RMAT designation is an FDA program designed to expedite the development and review of regenerative medicine therapies, including cell-based cancer immunotherapies, that have demonstrated the potential to address an unmet medical need based on preliminary clinical evidence. The program allows for early and frequent interactions with the FDA, and enables regulatory authority guidance on efficient drug development, pathways for accelerated approval, and approaches to fulfill post-approval requirements. We plan to engage with the FDA to discuss CMC, manufacturing, and clinical development considerations for late-stage development of FT516, including pathways for accelerated approval.

FT596: iPSC-derived, hnCD16, CAR19, IL15-RF Engineered NK Cell Product Candidate

CAR T-cell therapy has recently emerged as a revolutionary and potentially curative therapy for patients with certain hematologic malignancies, including refractory cancers. Since 2017, three CAR T-cell therapies have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of relapsed / refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and relapsed / refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). While most researchers and clinical investigators continue to focus on the development of autologous or allogeneic CAR T-cell therapies, we are developing CAR NK cell product candidates derived from clonal master engineered iPSC lines as off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

8

Table of Contents

FT596 is an investigational off-the-shelf CAR NK cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line. FT596 incorporates three anti-tumor functional modalities: a proprietary CAR optimized for NK cell biology that targets B-cell antigen CD19; a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor that has been modified to augment antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, enabling targeting of tumor-associated antigens such as CD20; and an IL-15/IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF), a potent cytokine complex that promotes survival, proliferation and trans-activation of NK cells and CD8 T cells. Together, these features are intended to enable multi-antigen targeting, of malignant B cells, augment ADCC, and enhance cell persistence.

We are studying FT596 in an ongoing, multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed / refractory B-cell malignancies. The Phase 1 trial is designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT596 in adult patients. The trial includes five treatment regimens, each enrolling patients in up to four dose cohorts (30 million cells per dose; 90 million cells per dose; 300 million cells per dose and 900 million cells per dose): FT596 as a monotherapy for patients with relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphoma (BCL) (Regimen A1); FT596 in combination with rituximab for patients with relapsed / refractory BCL (Regimen B1); FT596 in combination with obinutuzumab for patients with relapsed / refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) (Regimen B2); FT596 as a monotherapy for patients with relapsed / refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (Regimen A2); and FT596 in combination with obinutuzumab for patients with relapsed / refractory CLL (Regimen B3). The treatment schedule consists of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody therapy (Regimens B1, B2, and B3 only), and up to two doses of FT596. For those patients with evidence of clinical benefit at Day 29, a second treatment cycle may be administered.

At the ASH 2021 Annual Meeting, we have reported interim Phase 1 clinical data for both Regimens A1 and B1 as of an October 11, 2021 cutoff date:

Subsequent to the October 11, 2021 cutoff date, data from eight additional patients were reported, including an additional patient in the third single-dose cohort of Regimen B1 who was evaluable for initial anti-tumor response, and seven patients in the fourth single-dose cohorts (n=1 in Regimen A1; n=6 in Regimen B1) who were evaluable for safety and initial anti-tumor response. No DLTs and no events of any grade of CRS, ICANS or GvHD were reported by investigators. Of these eight patients, five patients – all of whom were treated in the fourth single-dose cohort of Regimen B1 – achieved an objective response, including four patients who achieved a complete response, as assessed by PET-CT scan per Lugano 2014 criteria following completion of the first FT596 single-dose cycle.

Enrollment in the dose-escalation stage is currently ongoing in Regimens A1 and B1 in relapsed / refractory BCL and in Regimens A2 and B3 in relapsed / refractory CLL.

9

Table of Contents

In April 2020, the FDA allowed a second IND application for the clinical investigation of FT596 for the prevention of relapse in patients with BCL who have undergone autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and are considered high risk for early relapse. The Phase 1 clinical trial, which is sponsored by investigators from the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, is designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT596 in combination with CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody therapy. The ongoing clinical trial is expected to enroll up to 18 patients in up to three dose cohorts (90 million cells per dose; 300 million cells per dose and 900 million cells per dose). FT596 is administered as a single dose with CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody therapy approximately 30 days following HSCT.

FT538: iPSC-derived, hnCD16, IL15-RF, CD38KO Engineered NK Cell Product Candidate

Multiple myeloma is a hematologic malignancy characterized by the proliferation of malignant plasma cells. In multiple myeloma, malignant plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and produce abnormal antibodies called M proteins, which can cause kidney damage, bone destruction, and impaired immune function. While multiple approved drugs with novel mechanisms have improved disease management over the past decade, multiple myeloma is rarely curable and a significant majority of patients are expected to relapse.

Daratumumab is an IgG1 monoclonal antibody approved by the FDA in November 2015 for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Daratumumab effectively targets CD38, which is expressed on multiple myeloma cells, and induces cell death through multiple mechanisms, including ADCC. However, because CD38 is also expressed on activated NK cells, daratumumab treatment can induce NK cell fratricide, which may impair the effectiveness of ADCC. In addition, NK cell function is often suppressed or absent in patients with multiple myeloma as a result of the cancer itself as well as treatment therapy, further reducing the effectiveness of daratumumab. Collectively, preclinical and clinical observations suggest a potential therapeutic benefit of maintaining NK cell numbers and function to support ADCC in patients with multiple myeloma.

FT538 is an investigational off-the-shelf NK cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line. FT538 incorporates three functional modifications: a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor that has been modified to augment ADCC; an IL-15/IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF), a potent cytokine complex that promotes survival, proliferation and trans-activation of NK cells and CD8 T cells; and the complete elimination of CD38 expression to mitigate the potential for NK cell fratricide. Together, these features are intended to augment ADCC, enhance cell persistence and prevent anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody-induced fratricide.

We are studying FT538 in an ongoing, multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT538 in up to 105 adult patients. The trial includes two treatment regimens, each enrolling patients in up to four dose cohorts (100 million cells per dose; 300 million cells per dose; 1 billion cells per dose; and 1.5 billion cells per dose): FT538 as monotherapy for patients with relapsed / refractory AML (Regimen A); and FT538 in combination with daratumumab for patients with relapsed / refractory multiple myeloma who have failed at least two lines of therapy (Regimen B). The treatment schedule consists of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), daratumumab (Regimen B only), and three once-weekly doses of FT538. Dose escalation is currently ongoing in Regimens A and B.

We have reported interim Phase 1 clinical data for Regimen A in relapsed / refractory AML:

The FDA also allowed a second IND application for the clinical investigation of FT538 for the treatment of relapsed / refractory AML. The Phase 1 clinical trial, which is sponsored and managed by investigators from the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, is designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT538 in combination with daratumumab in up to 50 adult patients. The treatment schedule consists of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), daratumumab, and three once-weekly doses of FT538. Enrollment in the dose-escalation stage is currently ongoing.

In March 2021, the FDA allowed our IND application for the clinical investigation of FT538 in combination with monoclonal antibody therapy for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. We are studying FT538 in an ongoing, multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT538 in up to 189 adult patients. The clinical protocol includes assessment of FT538 in combination with one of four monoclonal antibodies: EGFR-targeted cetuximab; HER2-targeted trastuzumab; PDL1-targeted avelumab; and PD1-targeted pembrolizumab. Each patient is eligible to receive up to two FT538 treatment cycles, with

10

Table of Contents

each cycle consisting of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), monoclonal antibody therapy, and three once-weekly doses of FT538. Enrollment in the dose-escalation stage is currently ongoing.

FT576: iPSC-derived, hnCD16, IL15-RF, CD38-KO, CAR-BCMA Engineered NK Cell Product Candidate

In addition to CD38 targeting in multiple myeloma, targeting of other tumor-associated antigens expressed on malignant plasma cells has been explored. Of these antigens, the TNF-superfamily member B-cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA) is among the most researched and is under development by multiple groups as a CAR target. Several clinical trials in multiple myeloma have shown promising initial results targeting BCMA with CAR T cells; however, there remains significant opportunity to improve both rates of relapse and treatment of relapsed patients.

In August 2019, we entered into a license agreement with the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) under which we were granted certain exclusive rights to intellectual property covering novel humanized CAR constructs that uniquely and specifically bind BCMA. In data published by MDC scientists, anti-BCMA CAR T cells equipped with its unique humanized extracellular antigen-binding domains show higher affinity and greater specificity than other anti-BCMA antigen-binding domains. These differentiated properties conveyed both greater selectivity in recognizing target B cells and more robust killing of target B cells in vitro, including malignant B cells with low expression levels of BCMA. Additionally, in in vivo proof-of-concept studies, MDC scientists demonstrated that anti-BCMA CAR T cells mediated anti-tumor activity in xenotransplant mouse models of multiple myeloma and of mature B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, where BCMA surface expression is up to 4-fold lower as compared to mouse models of multiple myeloma.

FT576 is an investigational off-the-shelf NK cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line. FT576 incorporates four functional modifications: a proprietary CAR that targets BCMA; a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor that has been modified to augment ADCC; an IL-15/IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF), a potent cytokine complex that promotes survival, proliferation and trans-activation of NK cells and CD8 T cells; and the complete elimination of CD38 expression to mitigate the potential for NK cell fratricide. Together, these features are intended to enable multi-antigen targeting of myeloma cells, augment ADCC, enhance cell persistence and prevent anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody-induced fratricide.

We are studying FT576 in an ongoing, multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT576 following outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine) in up to 168 adult patients. The trial includes four treatment regimens: Regimen A as a single dose of FT576; Regimen A1 as two doses of FT576; Regimen B as a single dose of FT576 in combination with daratumumab; and Regimen B1 as two doses of FT576 in combination with daratumumab. Enrollment in the dose-escalation stage is currently ongoing.

FT536: iPSC-derived, hnCD16, IL15-RF, CD38-KO, CAR-MICA/B Engineered NK Cell Product Candidate

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I related proteins A (MICA) and B (MICB) are induced by cellular stress, damage or transformation, and the expression of MICA and MICB proteins has been reported for many tumor types. Cytotoxic lymphocytes, such as NK cells and CD8+ T cells, can detect and bind the membrane-distal alpha-1 and -2 domains of MICA/B, activating a potent cytotoxic response. However, advanced cancer cells frequently evade immune cell recognition by proteolytic shedding of these domains. The clinical importance of proteolytic shedding is reflected in the association of high serum concentrations of shed MICA/B with disease progression in many solid tumors.

Several recent publications have shown that therapeutic antibodies targeting the membrane-proximal alpha-3 domain strongly inhibited MICA/B shedding, resulting in a substantial increase in the cell surface density of MICA/B and restoration of NK cell-mediated tumor immunity. In addition, a recent publication by scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) demonstrated that cancers with B2M and JAK1 inactivating mutations resulting in loss of MHC class I expression can be effectively targeted with alpha-3 domain-specific antibodies to restore NK cell-mediated immunity against solid tumors resistant to cytotoxic T cells. Therapeutic approaches aimed at targeting the alpha-3 domain of MICA/B therefore represent a potentially promising novel strategy to overcome this prominent evasion mechanism as a means of restoring anti-tumor immunity in patients with solid tumors.

In April 2020, we entered into a license agreement with DFCI under which we were granted certain exclusive rights to intellectual property covering novel antibody fragments that uniquely and specifically bind the alpha-3 domain of MICA/B. FT536 is an investigational off-the-shelf NK cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line. FT536 incorporates four functional modifications: a proprietary CAR that targets the alpha-3 domain of MICA/B; a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor that has been modified to augment ADCC; an IL-15/IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF), a potent cytokine complex that promotes survival, proliferation and trans-activation of NK cells and CD8 T cells; and the complete elimination of CD38 expression to mitigate the potential for NK cell fratricide.

In December 2021, the FDA allowed our IND application for the clinical investigation of FT536 as monotherapy and in combination with monoclonal antibody therapy for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. We are initiating a multi-center Phase 1

11

Table of Contents

clinical trial designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT536. The clinical protocol includes assessment of FT536 in combination with one of five monoclonal antibodies: EGFR-targeted cetuximab; HER2-targeted trastuzumab; EGFR- and cMet-targeted amivantamab; PDL1-targeted avelumab; and PD1-targeted pembrolizumab. Each patient is eligible to receive up to two FT536 treatment cycles, with each cycle consisting of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), monoclonal antibody therapy, and three once-weekly doses of FT536.

FT573: iPSC-derived, CAR NK Cell Product Candidate Targeting B7H3

B7H3 (CD276) belongs to the B7 superfamily of immune checkpoint molecules. B7H3 protein is aberrantly overexpressed in a wide variety of cancers, with limited expression at low level in normal tissues, and is often associated with poor prognosis. Recent studies have shown that B7H3 is a critical promoter of tumorigenesis and metastasis, and its expression is a metabolic hallmark of cancer. Multiple modalities targeting B7H3 have shown early clinical activity in patients with advanced solid tumors.

We are developing FT573, a preclinical NK cell product candidate derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line. FT573 incorporates a B7H3-targeted CAR construct comprised of a single-domain targeting sequence derived from a novel anti-B7H3 camelid antibody. Camelid antibody-derived single-domain fragments are desirable antigen binding strategies as they maintain high target affinity and specificity associated with conventional antibodies, while at the same time demonstrate good physiochemical stability, reduced immunogenicity, and preferred agility associated with their reduced size. In in vitro preclinical studies, we have shown that FT573 cells exhibit antigen-specific cytotoxicity as evidenced by enhanced cytokine release and degranulation.

FT819: iPSC-derived, TCR-KO, TRAC-targeted CAR19 Engineered T-Cell Product Candidate

In addition to our development of iPSC-derived CAR NK cell product candidates, we are also developing CAR T-cell product candidates derived from clonal master engineered iPSC lines as off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

In September 2016, we announced a multi-year research partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for the development of off-the-shelf engineered T-cell product candidates using clonal master iPSC lines and, in July 2019, we extended the partnership for an additional three years. Research and development activities under the collaboration are being led by Dr. Michel Sadelain, Director of the Center for Cell Engineering and the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

In connection with the formation of our research partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, we exclusively licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering foundational intellectual property covering iPSC-derived cellular immunotherapy, including T cells and NK cells derived from iPSCs engineered with CARs, for human therapeutic use. We also secured an option to exclusively license intellectual property arising from all research and development activities under the partnership. In May 2018, we licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center additional intellectual property covering compositions of novel CAR constructs, including the 1XX CAR construct, and of genetically engineered CAR T cells, including methods of making these cells using CRISPR for certain targeted gene modifications. Embodiments of this additional intellectual property include preclinical data published by Dr. Sadelain demonstrating that directing a CD19-specific CAR to the T-cell receptor (TCR) alpha constant (TRAC) locus results in uniform CAR expression in human peripheral blood T cells, enhances T-cell potency, and delays effector T-cell differentiation and exhaustion, and that CAR T cells utilizing a novel 1XX CAR signaling domain exhibited enhanced antitumor activity, persistence and long-term cytotoxicity as well as a decrease in T-cell exhaustion.

FT819 is an investigational off-the-shelf CAR T-cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line with complete elimination of TCR expression and the novel 1XX CAR targeting CD19 inserted into the TRAC locus. Together, these features are intended to induce antigen-specific cytotoxicity, enhance CAR activity through TRAC-regulated expression and completely eliminate TCR expression to mitigate GvHD.

In preclinical studies, we have shown that FT819 cells:

12

Table of Contents

We are studying FT819 in an ongoing, multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial designed to assess the safety and determine the maximum dose of FT819 following outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine) in up to 297 adult patients across three types of B-cell leukemias and lymphomas. The trial includes assessment of three treatment regimens, with enrollment to each occurring independently among the three disease types: Regimen A as a single dose of FT819; Regimen B as a single dose of FT819 with IL-2 cytokine support; and Regimen C as three doses of FT819. Enrollment in the dose-escalation stage is currently ongoing.

Initial Proof-of-Concept Clinical Studies

FT500. Our first clinical investigation of an off-the-shelf NK cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal master iPSC line was the conduct of a Phase 1 clinical trial of FT500, which was designed to assess the safety and tolerability of FT500 in adult patients with advanced solid tumors both as a monotherapy and in combination with FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapies in patients that have failed prior ICI therapy. To our knowledge, FT500 was the first-ever iPSC-derived cell therapy cleared for clinical investigation in the United States. In November 2021, we reported clinical data from the dose-expansion stage of the Phase 1 clinical trial of FT500 as of an October 1, 2021 cutoff date. The Phase 1 dose-expansion treatment schedule consisted of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), checkpoint inhibitor therapy, and three once-weekly doses of FT500 each with IL-2 cytokine support. For those patients clinically stable at Day 29, a second treatment cycle, without lympho-conditioning chemotherapy, was available for administration. Ten heavily pre-treated patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were administered FT500. No events of any grade of CRS, ICANS, or GvHD, were reported by investigators. Enrollment in the Phase 1 clinical trial of FT500 is closed, and we do not plan to conduct any further development of FT500.

FT516. We also conducted a Phase 1 clinical trial of FT516 to assess its safety and activity in combination with avelumab, an anti-PDL1 checkpoint inhibitor therapy, in adult patients with advanced solid tumors. In November 2021, we reported clinical data from the dose-escalation stage of the Phase 1 clinical trial of FT516 as of an October 1, 2021 cutoff date. The Phase 1 dose-escalation treatment schedule consisted of outpatient lympho-conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine), avelumab, and three once-weekly doses of FT516 each with IL-2 cytokine support. For those patients clinically stable at Day 29, a second treatment cycle, with lympho-conditioning chemotherapy, was available for administration. Twelve heavily pre-treated patients with advanced solid tumors were administered FT516. No events of any grade of ICANS or GvHD, were reported by investigators. A single case of Grade 1 CRS was reported. Enrollment in the Phase 1 clinical trial of FT516 is closed, and we do not plan to conduct any further development of FT516 in advanced solid tumors.

Our Partnerships

Janssen Biotech

In April 2020, we entered into a collaboration and option agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen), part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, for the development and commercialization of off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR NK cell and CAR T-cell product candidates directed to up to four tumor-associated antigen targets.

We are conducting research and preclinical development of collaboration candidates. We granted to Janssen, during a specified period of time, the right to exercise an exclusive option and obtain an exclusive license under certain intellectual property rights to develop and commercialize each collaboration candidate. Subject to the exercise of such exclusive option, Janssen is solely responsible for the worldwide clinical development and commercialization of such collaboration candidate. Upon attainment of clinical proof-of-concept, we have the right to elect to co-commercialize and share equally in the profits and losses in the United States, subject to sharing in certain development costs, of such collaboration candidate. We are primarily responsible for the manufacture, at Janssen’s cost, of collaboration candidates.

Under the terms of the agreement, we received $100.0 million as of the effective date of the agreement, of which $50.0 million was an upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable cash payment and $50.0 million was in the form of an equity investment by Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc. Additionally, as consideration for our conduct of research, preclinical development and IND-enabling activities for collaboration candidates, Janssen pays us research and development fees as set forth in an annual budget.

We are eligible to receive upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and sales milestones (i) with respect to the first tumor-associated antigen target, payments of up to $898.0 million for the first collaboration candidate and up to $460.0 million for each additional collaboration candidate; and with respect to each of the second, third and fourth tumor-associated antigen targets, payments of up to $706.0 million for each of the first collaboration candidates and up to $340.0 million for each additional collaboration candidate. Certain milestone payments are subject to reduction in the event we elect to co-commercialize and share equally in the profits and losses in the United States of a collaboration candidate. We are further eligible to receive double-digit tiered royalties ranging up to the mid-teens on net sales of collaboration candidates that are commercialized by Janssen, subject to reduction under certain circumstances.

13

Table of Contents

Janssen may terminate the agreement with respect to one or more tumor-associated antigen targets, or in its entirety, at any time on or after the second anniversary of the effective date of the agreement, and we may terminate the agreement with respect to a particular tumor-associated antigen target if a collaboration candidate has not been selected for IND-enabling studies for such tumor-associated antigen target within specified time periods under certain conditions. The agreement contains customary provisions for termination by either party in the event of a material breach of the agreement, subject to cure, by the other party and in the event of any bankruptcy, insolvency or similar events with respect to the other party.

During 2021, we achieved a pre-defined research milestone associated with a product candidate directed to a first tumor-associated antigen under the Janssen Agreement and received a cash payment of $3.0 million.

Ono Pharmaceutical

In September 2018, we entered into a collaboration and option agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Ono) for the joint development and commercialization of two off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR T-cell product candidates. The first off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR T-cell candidate (Candidate 1) targets an antigen expressed on certain lymphoblastic leukemias, and the second off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR T-cell candidate (Candidate 2) targets a novel antigen identified by Ono expressed on certain solid tumors (each a Candidate and, collectively, the Candidates). We granted to Ono, during a specified period of time, an option to obtain an exclusive license under certain intellectual property rights to develop and commercialize (a) Candidate 1 in Asia, where we retained rights for development and commercialization in all other territories of the world and (b) Candidate 2 in all territories of the world, where we retain rights to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 2 in the United States and Europe under a joint arrangement with Ono under which we are eligible to share at least 50% of the profits and losses. For each Candidate, the option expires upon the earliest of: (a) the achievement of the pre-defined preclinical milestone, (b) termination by Ono of research and development activities for the Candidate and (c) the date that is the later of (i) four years after the effective date and (ii) completion of all applicable activities contemplated under the joint development plan. We maintain worldwide rights of manufacture for Candidates.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ono paid us an upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $10.0 million in connection with entering into the agreement. Additionally, as consideration for our conduct of research and preclinical development under a joint development plan, Ono pays us annual research and development fees set forth in the annual budget included in the joint development plan, which fees are estimated to be $20.0 million in aggregate over the course of the joint development plan.

In December 2020, we entered into a letter agreement with Ono pursuant to which Ono nominated and delivered to us proprietary antigen binding domains targeting an antigen expressed on certain solid tumors for incorporation into Candidate 2. In connection with such nomination and delivery, Ono paid us a milestone fee of $10.0 million for further research and development of Candidate 2. In addition, Ono terminated further development with respect to Candidate 1, and we retain all rights to research, develop and commercialize Candidate 1 throughout the world without any obligation to Ono.

Ono has agreed to pay us up to an additional $20.0 million, subject to the exercise by Ono of its option to develop and commercialize Candidate 2. Subject to Ono’s exercise of the option and to the achievement of certain clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones with respect to Candidate 2 in specified territories, we are entitled to receive an aggregate of up to $885.0 million in milestone payments for Candidate 2, with the applicable milestone payments for the United States and Europe subject to reduction by 50% if we elect to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 2 as described above. We are also eligible to receive tiered royalties ranging from the mid-single digits to the low-double digits based on annual net sales by Ono of Candidate 2 in specified territories, with such royalties subject to certain reductions.

The agreement will terminate with respect to a Candidate if Ono does not exercise its option for a Candidate within the option period, or in its entirety if Ono does not exercise any of its options for the Candidates within their respective option periods. In addition, either party may terminate the agreement in the event of breach, insolvency or patent challenges by the other party; provided, that Ono may terminate the agreement in its sole discretion (x) on a Candidate-by-Candidate basis at any time after the second anniversary of the effective date of the agreement or (y) on a Candidate-by-Candidate or country-by-country basis at any time after the expiration of the option period, subject to certain limitations. The agreement will expire on a Candidate-by-Candidate and country-by-country basis upon the expiration of the applicable royalty term, or in its entirety upon the expiration of all applicable payment obligations under the agreement.

Our Intellectual Property

Overview

We seek to protect our product candidates and our cell programming technology through a variety of methods, including seeking and maintaining patents intended to cover our products and compositions, their methods of use and processes for their manufacture, our platform technologies and any other inventions that are commercially important to the development of our business. We seek to obtain domestic and international patent protection and, in addition to filing and prosecuting patent applications in the

14

Table of Contents

United States, we typically file counterpart patent applications in additional countries where we believe such foreign filing is likely to be beneficial, including Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia and China. We continually assess and refine our intellectual property strategy in order to best fortify our position, and file additional patent applications when our intellectual property strategy warrants such filings. We also rely on know-how, continuing technological innovation and in-licensing opportunities to develop and maintain our proprietary position. We have entered into exclusive license agreements with various academic and research institutions to obtain the rights to use certain patents for the development and commercialization of our product candidates.

As of February 18, 2022, our intellectual property portfolio is composed of over 400 issued patents and 150 patent applications that we license from academic and research institutions, and over 300 issued patents or pending patent applications that we own. These patents and patent applications generally provide us with the rights to develop our product candidates in the United States and worldwide. This portfolio covers compositions of programmed cellular immunotherapies, our cell programming approach for enhancing the therapeutic function of cells ex vivo, and our platform for industrial-scale iPSC generation and engineering. We believe that we have a significant intellectual property position and substantial know-how relating to the programming of hematopoietic and immune cells and to the derivation, genetic engineering, and differentiation of iPSCs.

We cannot be sure that patents will be granted with respect to any of our owned or licensed pending patent applications or with respect to any patent applications we may own or license in the future, nor can we be sure that any of our existing patents or any patents we may own or license in the future will be useful in protecting our technology. Please see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property” for additional information on the risks associated with our intellectual property strategy and portfolio.

Intellectual Property Relating to iPSC Technology and Platform

As of February 18, 2022, we own over 20 patent families directed to programming the fate of somatic cells ex vivo, including patent applications pending in the U.S. and internationally related to our platform for industrial-scale iPSC generation and applications related to differentiation of iPSCs into specialized cells with therapeutic potential. These patent applications cover our proprietary small molecule-enhanced iPSC platform, including novel reprogramming factors and methods of reprogramming to obtain iPSCs. Our intellectual property portfolio also includes gene editing compositions and methods of genetic engineering, as well as methods of directing the fate of cells to obtain homogenous cell populations in the hematopoietic lineage, including CD34+ cells, T cells and NK cells. Our proprietary intellectual property enables highly-efficient iPSC derivation, selection, engineering, and clonal expansion while maintaining genomic stability. Any U.S. patents issued from these patent applications are expected to have statutory expiration dates ranging from 2031 to 2042.

Additionally, we have licensed from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research a portfolio of four patent families including issued patents and pending applications broadly applicable to the reprogramming of somatic cells. Our license is exclusive in commercial fields, including for drug discovery and therapeutic purposes. This portfolio covers the generation of human iPSCs from somatic cells and, as of February 18, 2022, includes 16 issued U.S. patents (including U.S. Patents 8,071,369, 7,682,828 and 9,497,943) claiming compositions used in the reprogramming of mammalian somatic cells to a less differentiated state (including to a pluripotent state), and methods of making a cell more susceptible to reprogramming. Specifically, the portfolio includes a composition of matter patent issued in the United States covering a cellular composition comprising a somatic cell having an exogenous nucleic acid that encodes an OCT4 protein. OCT4 is the key pluripotency gene most commonly required for the generation of iPSCs. These issued patents and any U.S. patents that may issue from these pending patent applications are expected to have statutory expiration dates ranging from 2024 to 2029.

We also have exclusive licenses from The Scripps Research Institute to a portfolio of seven patent families relating to compositions and methods for reprogramming mammalian somatic cells, which covers non-genetic and viral-free reprogramming mechanisms, including the use of various small molecule classes and compounds and the introduction of cell-penetrating proteins to reprogram mammalian somatic cells. This portfolio includes issued U.S. patents (including U.S. Patents 8,044,201 and 8,691,573) that provide composition of matter protection for a class of small molecules, including thiazovivin, that is critical for inducing the generation, and maintaining the pluripotency, of iPSCs, and compositions and methods of using the small molecule. Any issued U.S. patents and any U.S. patents that may issue from patent applications pending in this portfolio are expected to have statutory expiration dates ranging from 2026 to 2031.

We also have exclusively licensed from the J. David Gladstone Institutes (Gladstone) intellectual property covering the generation of iPSCs using CRISPR-mediated gene activation. This approach for inducing pluripotency uses CRISPR to directly target a specific location of the genome and activate endogenous gene expression, and does not rely on established methods of cellular reprogramming that require the transduction of multiple transcription factors. Any U.S. patents that may issue from patent applications pending in the U.S. and internationally in this portfolio are expected to have a statutory expiration date in 2038.

We also have licensed exclusive rights to four families of patent applications from the University of Minnesota. As of February 18, 2022 this portfolio includes over 70 issued patents or pending patent applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions directed to compositions of NK cells, including adaptive memory NK cells and genetically-engineered NK cells, and therapeutic

15

Table of Contents

strategies for the treatment of cancer using these NK cells. These applications also describe methods of enhancing NK cell cytotoxicity by genetically engineering the CD16 Fc receptor in immune cells, including iPSC-derived NK cells, and describe methods of increasing NK cell tumor specificity and cytotoxicity by incorporating CARs on NK cells. Any U.S. patents that may issue from patent applications pending in this portfolio are expected to have statutory expiration dates between 2035 and 2038.

We also have exclusively licensed from The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) intellectual property covering the production and composition of iPSC-derived T cells and their use in cellular immunotherapy, and have a license from MSK to two patent families covering novel CAR constructs as well as off-the-shelf CAR T cells, including the use of CRISPR and other innovative technologies for their production. Collectively, this portfolio covers compositions of CAR constructs, compositions of T cells and NK cells derived from pluripotent cells which are engineered with CARs, methods of engineering pluripotent cell lines, methods of deriving CAR-T cells from CAR expressing pluripotent stem cells, and methods of using CRISPR for producing off-the-shelf T-cell immunotherapies. Any U.S. patents that may issue from patent applications pending in this portfolio are expected to have statutory expiration dates between 2034 and 2038.

In addition, we have licensed exclusive rights from the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) to intellectual property directed to novel humanized antibody fragments, antigen-binding domains and CAR constructs that uniquely target and specifically bind B-cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA). Under the license agreement, we are granted an exclusive license for use in allogeneic engineered pluripotent stem cells. Any patents issuing from patent applications pending in the U.S. and internationally in this portfolio are expected to have statutory expiration dates between 2033 and 2037.

We have also licensed exclusive rights from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to certain intellectual property covering novel antibody fragments that uniquely and specifically bind the alpha-3 domain of MICA/B. We are granted exclusive worldwide rights for use in iPSC-derived cellular therapeutics for the treatment of human disease under the license agreement. Any patents that may issue from patent applications pending in this portfolio are expected to have statutory expiration dates in 2038.

Intellectual Property Relating to CRISPR Engineering

In August 2019, we entered into a license agreement with Inscripta, Inc. Under the license agreement, we obtained a royalty-free, irrevocable license to a patent portfolio covering the composition, production and use of MAD7, a novel gene-editing CRISPR endonuclease from the Eubacterium rectale genome. The intellectual property includes issued patents and pending applications broadly applicable to MAD7 and the editing of mammalian cells. Our license covers the making and using of MAD7 for editing iPSCs, making master engineered iPSC lines and using master engineered iPSC lines to manufacture human therapeutic products. We expect U.S. patents related to this work to have statutory expiration dates starting in 2037.

Intellectual Property Relating to the Programming of Hematopoietic Cells

As of February 18, 2022, we own 16 families of U.S. and foreign patents and pending patent applications covering our cell programming technology and compositions of programmed cellular immunotherapies. This portfolio includes over 150 issued patents or pending patent applications relating to methods of programming the biological properties and therapeutic function of cells ex vivo, and the resulting therapeutic compositions of hematopoietic and immune cells. Patents and patent applications in this portfolio include claims covering (i) therapeutic compositions of hematopoietic and immune cells, including T cells, NK cells, and CD34+ cells, that have been programmed ex vivo with one or more agents to optimize their therapeutic function for application in oncology and immune disorders and (ii) methods of programming cells including by the activation or inhibition of therapeutically-relevant genes and cell-surface proteins, such as those involved in the homing, proliferation and survival of hematopoietic cells or those involved in the persistence, proliferation and reactivity of immune cells. Any U.S. patents within this portfolio that have issued or may yet issue from pending patent applications will have statutory expiration dates between 2030 and 2042.

Our Material Technology License Agreements

The University of Minnesota

In December 2016, we entered into a license agreement with the Regents of the University of Minnesota for rights relating to compositions and methods relating to NK cells, to modifications of cytotoxic receptors naturally expressed on NK cells including the CD16 Fc receptor, and to CARs for expression on NK cells. Under our agreement with the University of Minnesota, we acquired an exclusive royalty-bearing, sublicensable, worldwide license to make, use and sell licensed products in all fields for commercial purposes. The licensed patent rights are described in more detail above under “Intellectual Property Relating to the Programming of Hematopoietic Cells.” The University of Minnesota retains the right to practice the patent rights for research, teaching and educational purposes, including in corporate-sponsored research subject to certain limitations during the initial three years of the license agreement. The University of Minnesota also retains the right to license other academic and non-profit research institutes to practice

16

Table of Contents

the patent rights for research, teaching and educational purposes, but not for corporate-sponsored research. Our license is also subject to pre-existing rights of the U.S. government.

Under the terms of the license agreement, we are required to pay the University of Minnesota an annual license maintenance fee during the term of the agreement, and are also required to make payments of up to $4.6 million for development, regulatory and commercial milestones achieved with respect to each of the first three licensed products. If commercial sales of a licensed product commence, we will also be required to pay royalties at percentage rates in the low-single digits on net sales of licensed products. Our royalty payments are subject to reduction for any third-party payments required to be made until a minimum royalty percentage has been reached. In the event that we sublicense the patent rights, the University of Minnesota is also entitled to receive a percentage of the sublicensing income received by us.

Under the license agreement with the University of Minnesota, we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and make commercially available licensed products. In particular, we are required to conduct activities toward specific development milestones of licensed products on an annual basis.

The agreement will continue until the abandonment of all patent rights or expiration of the last to expire licensed patent. The University of Minnesota may terminate the agreement if we default in the performance of any of our obligations and fail to cure the default within a specified grace period. The University of Minnesota may also terminate the agreement if we cease to carry out our business or become bankrupt or insolvent. We may terminate the agreement for any reason upon prior written notice to the University of Minnesota and payment of all amounts due to the University of Minnesota through the date of termination.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

In May 2018, we entered into an amended and restated license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The agreement amends and restates the exclusive license agreement we entered into with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in August 2016, under which we obtained rights relating to compositions and methods covering iPSC-derived cellular immunotherapy, including T cells and NK cells derived from iPSCs engineered with CARs. Pursuant to the amended and restated license agreement, we continue to hold exclusive rights to the foregoing patents and patent applications, and obtained additional licenses to certain patents and patent applications relating to compositions and methods covering novel CAR constructs as well as off-the-shelf CAR T cells, including the use of CRISPR and other innovative technologies for their production.

Under our amended and restated agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, we have royalty-bearing worldwide licenses to make, use and sell licensed products in all fields for human therapeutic uses. The licensed patent rights are described in more detail above under “Intellectual Property Relating to iPSC Technology.” For those patent families where our rights are exclusive, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center retains the right to practice the patent rights for research, teaching and non-clinical research purposes, and to license other academic and non-profit research institutes to practice the patent rights for research, teaching and non-clinical research purposes. Our licenses are also subject to pre-existing rights of the U.S. government.

Under the terms of the amended and restated agreement, we are required to pay Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center an annual license maintenance fee during the term of the agreement, and are also required to make payments of up to $12.5 million for development, regulatory and commercial milestones achieved with respect to each licensed products. If commercial sales of a licensed product commence, we will also be required to pay royalties at percentage rates up to the high-single digits on net sales of licensed products. Our royalty payments are subject to reduction for any third-party payments required to be made until a minimum royalty percentage has been reached. In the event that we sublicense the patent rights, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is also entitled to receive a percentage of the sublicensing income received by us. Additionally, in the event a licensed product achieves a specified clinical milestone, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is then eligible to receive additional milestone payments, where the amount of such payments owed to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are contingent upon certain increases in the price of our common stock following the date of achievement of such clinical milestone.

Under the amended and restated agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and make commercially available licensed products. In particular, we are required to conduct activities and commit a minimum amount of funding toward specific development milestones of licensed products on an annual basis.

The agreement will continue until the abandonment of all patent rights or expiration of the last to expire licensed patent. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center may terminate the agreement if we default in the performance of any of our obligations and fail to cure the default within a specified grace period, if we cease to carry out our business or become bankrupt or insolvent, or if we institute a proceeding to challenge the patent rights. We may terminate the agreement for any reason upon prior written notice to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

17

Table of Contents

Max Delbruck Center

In December 2018, we entered into a license agreement with Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) for rights relating to novel humanized antibody fragments, antigen-binding domains and CAR constructs that uniquely target and specifically bind B-cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA). Under our license agreement with MDC, we acquired an exclusive royalty-bearing, sublicensable, worldwide license to make, use and sell products covered by the licensed patent rights, and to perform licensed processes, in each case, using cells derived from allogeneic engineered stem cells. MDC retains a non-exclusive right to use the technology for its own internal research, teaching, and educational purposes.

Under the terms of the license agreement, we are required to pay to MDC an annual license maintenance fee during the term of the agreement. We also are required to make product development, regulatory and sales milestones payments to MDC of up to $11 million per product. If commercial sales of a licensed product commence, we will pay MDC royalties at percentage rates ranging in the low single digits on net sales of licensed products in countries where such product is protected by patent rights. Our obligation to pay royalties continues on a country-by-country basis until the expiration of all licensed patent rights covering licensed products in such country, and our royalty payments will be reduced by other payments we are required to make to third parties in certain circumstances until a minimum royalty percentage has been reached. In the event that we sublicense the patent rights, MDC is also entitled to receive a percentage of the sublicensing income received by us.

Under the license with MDC, we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and obtain approval of a licensed product.

The agreement will expire concurrently with patent rights on a country-by-country basis. We may terminate the agreement by providing prior written notice to MDC, and MDC has the right to terminate the agreement if we materially breach the agreement and fail to cure such breach within a specified grace period.

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

In February 2009, we entered into a license agreement with the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, as amended in October 2009 and September 2010, for rights relating to compositions and methods for reprogramming somatic cells to a less differentiated or pluripotent state. Under our agreement with the Whitehead Institute, we acquired an exclusive royalty-bearing, sublicensable, worldwide license to make, use and sell licensed products in all fields for commercial purposes, excluding the sale or distribution of reagents for basic research use. The licensed patent rights are described in more detail above under “Intellectual Property Relating to iPSC Technology.” The Whitehead Institute retains the right to practice the patent rights for research, teaching and educational purposes, including in corporate-sponsored research under limited circumstances and in some cases only after obtaining our consent. The Whitehead Institute also retains the right to license other academic and non-profit research institutes to practice the patent rights for research, teaching and educational purposes, but not for corporate-sponsored research. Our license is also subject to pre-existing rights of the U.S. government.

Under the terms of the license agreement, we are required to pay the Whitehead Institute an annual license maintenance fee during the term of the agreement, and are also required to make payments of up to $2.3 million for development and regulatory milestones achieved with respect to licensed products. If commercial sales of a licensed product commence, we will also be required to pay royalties at percentage rates in the low-single digits on net sales of licensed products. Our royalty payments are subject to reduction for any third-party payments required to be made until a minimum royalty percentage has been reached. In the event that we sublicense the patent rights, the Whitehead Institute is also entitled to receive a percentage of the sublicensing income received by us.

Under the license agreement with the Whitehead Institute, we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize licensed products, and to make licensed products or processes reasonably available to the public. In particular, we are required to commit a minimum amount of funding toward the development of a licensed product on an annual basis or conduct activities toward specific development milestones.

The agreement will continue until the abandonment of all patent rights or expiration of the last to expire licensed patent. The Whitehead Institute may terminate the agreement if we default in the performance of any of our obligations and fail to cure the default within a specified grace period, or if we institute a proceeding to challenge the patent rights. The Whitehead Institute may also terminate the agreement if we cease to carry out our business or become bankrupt or insolvent. We may terminate the agreement for any reason upon prior written notice to the Whitehead Institute and payment of all amounts due to the Whitehead Institute through the date of termination.

18

Table of Contents

The Scripps Research Institute

We have entered into various license agreements with The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) for rights relating to compositions and methods for reprogramming somatic cells, including the use of various small molecule classes and compounds in the reprogramming and maintenance of iPSCs. Under our agreements with TSRI (the TSRI License Agreements), we acquired exclusive royalty-bearing, sublicensable, worldwide licenses to make, use and sell products covered by the licensed patent rights, and to perform licensed processes, in each case, in all fields. The licensed patent rights are described in more detail above under “Intellectual Property Relating to iPSC Technology.” TSRI retains a non-exclusive right to practice and use the patent rights for non-commercial educational and research purposes, and to license other academic and non-profit research institutions to practice the patent rights for internal basic research and education purposes. Under certain of our TSRI License Agreements, other third parties maintain a right to practice the patent rights for their internal use only. Our license is also subject to pre-existing rights of the U.S. government.

Under the terms of the TSRI License Agreements, we are required to pay to TSRI annual minimum fees during the term of each agreement. Additionally, upon the achievement of specific regulatory and commercial milestones, we are required to make payments to TSRI of up to approximately $1.8 million under each of the TSRI License Agreements. We will also be required to pay TSRI royalties at percentage rates ranging in the low- to mid-single digits on net sales of licensed products. In the event that we sublicense the patent rights, TSRI is also entitled to receive a percentage of the sublicensing income received by us.

Under the TSRI License Agreements, we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to meet the development benchmarks set out in development plans under each of the TSRI License Agreements, or otherwise expend a minimum specified amount per year for product development. TSRI has the right to terminate any TSRI License Agreement if we fail to perform our obligations under the applicable agreement, including failure to meet any development benchmark or to use commercially reasonable efforts and due diligence to develop a licensed product, or if we otherwise breach the agreement, challenge the licensed patent rights, are convicted of a felony involving the development or commercialization of a licensed product or process, or become insolvent. We may terminate any of our TSRI License Agreements by providing ninety days’ written notice to TSRI. Each TSRI License Agreement otherwise terminates upon the termination of royalty obligations under such agreement.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

In April 2020, we entered into a license agreement with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) for rights relating to novel antibody fragments that uniquely and specifically bind the alpha-3 domain of MICA/B. Under our license agreement with DFCI, we acquired an exclusive royalty-bearing, sublicensable, worldwide license to make, use and sell products covered by the licensed patent rights in the field of iPSC-derived cellular therapeutics for the treatment of human disease, and a non-exclusive royalty-bearing, sublicensable, worldwide license to make, use and sell products covered by the licensed patent rights in the field of cellular therapeutics for the treatment of human disease. DFCI retains the right to practice and to license to other academic, government and non-profit institutes to practice the patent rights for research, teaching and education purposes, as well as to license third parties to practice the patents rights to make or sell research reagents or other research tools solely for use in research. Our licenses are also subject to pre-existing rights of the U.S. government.

Under the terms of the license agreement, we are required to make minimum annual payments to DFCI throughout the term of the agreement. We also are required to make development, commercialization and sales milestones payments to DFCI of up to $25 million per licensed product. If commercial sales of a licensed product commence, we will pay DFCI royalties at percentage rates ranging in the low single digits on net sales of licensed products in countries where such product is protected by licensed patent rights. Our obligation to pay royalties continues on a country-by-country basis until the expiration of all licensed patent rights covering licensed products in such country, and our royalty payments will be reduced by other payments we are required to make to third parties in certain circumstances until a minimum royalty percentage has been reached. In the event that we sublicense the patent rights, DFCI is also entitled to receive a percentage of the sublicensing income received by us.

Under our agreement with DFCI, we are obligated to use reasonable efforts to develop and bring one or more licensed products to the marketplace through a program of development, production and distribution, including by meeting certain diligence benchmarks with respect to exclusively licensed products.

The agreement will continue until the expiration of the last to expire licensed patent. DFCI may terminate the agreement for cause, including if we default in the performance of any of our obligations and fail to cure the default within a specified grace period, if an officer of ours (or of an affiliate or sublicensee) is convicted of a felony related to the manufacture, use, sale or important or a licensed product, if we cease to carry out our business or become bankrupt or insolvent, and if we institute a proceeding to challenge the patent rights. DFCI may also terminate our exclusive license if we fail to materially comply with our diligence obligations. We may terminate the agreement for any reason in its entirety or on a product-by-product or country-by-country basis upon prior written notice to DFCI and payment of all amounts due to DFCI through the date of termination.

19

Table of Contents

Manufacturing

Off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived Cellular Immunotherapies

The manufacture of our off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived cellular immunotherapy product candidates involves a three-stage process:

As part of our manufacturing process, we endeavor to utilize current Good Manufacturing Process (cGMP) grade materials and reagents, if commercially available; however, certain critical materials and reagents are currently qualified for research use only. Additionally, we obtain key components required for the manufacture of our iPSC-derived cell product candidates from third-party manufacturers and suppliers, which include, in some instances, sole source manufacturers and suppliers. We do not currently have long-term commitments or supply agreements in place to obtain certain key components used in the manufacture of our iPSC-derived cell product candidates.

We are manufacturing our iPSC-derived cell product candidates for use in research, preclinical development, and clinical development. In September 2019, we opened our first cGMP compliant manufacturing facility for the clinical production of our iPSC-derived cell product candidates. This cGMP facility, located in San Diego, California, is custom designed for the manufacture of off-the-shelf cell product candidates using clonal master iPSC lines as the starting cell source. The state-of-the-art facility has been commissioned and qualified, and we have been issued a drug manufacturing license by the State of California, Department of Health Services, Food and Drug Branch. In January 2020, we entered into a new lease agreement for office, laboratory, and manufacturing space (the Premises), which is also designed to include cGMP manufacturing. The Premises are located in San Diego, California and we moved our corporate headquarters to the Premises in August 2021. We intend to extend the manufacture of our iPSC-derived cell product candidates to this facility starting in 2022.

We also contract with third parties, including medical center cell therapy facilities and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), for the conduct of some or all of the activities required for manufacturing our iPSC-derived cell product candidates for use in clinical investigation. We expect that we will continue to contract with third parties, including medical center cell therapy facilities and CMOs, for the conduct of some or all of the activities required for manufacturing our iPSC-derived cell product candidates.

Marketing, Market Access, & Sales

We currently intend to commercialize any products that we may successfully develop. We currently have no experience in marketing, market access or selling therapeutic products. We may need to further evaluate and generate evidence beyond what is generated in our clinical program that would satisfy the needs of payers and healthcare technology assessment (HTA) bodies. To market any of our products independently would also require us to develop a sales force with technical expertise along with establishing commercial infrastructure and capabilities. Our commercial strategy for marketing our product candidates also may include the use of strategic partners, distributors, a contract sales force or the establishment of our own commercial infrastructure. We plan to further evaluate these alternatives as we approach approval for the first of our product candidates.

20

Table of Contents

Government Regulation

In the United States, the FDA regulates biological products under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FDCA) and the Public Health Service Act (the PHS Act) and related regulations, and drugs under the FDCA and related regulations. Biological products and drugs are also subject to other federal, state, local, and foreign statutes and regulations. The FDA and comparable regulatory agencies in state and local jurisdictions and in foreign countries impose substantial requirements upon the clinical development, manufacture and marketing of biological products and drugs. These agencies and other federal, state, local, and foreign entities regulate research and development activities and the testing, manufacture, quality control, safety, effectiveness, packaging, labeling, storage, distribution, record keeping, reporting, approval or licensing, advertising and promotion, and import and export of our products. Failure to comply with the applicable U.S. regulatory requirements at any time during the product development process or after approval may subject an applicant to administrative or judicial sanctions. FDA sanctions include refusal to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval or suspension or revocation of a license, clinical hold, warning or untitled letters, voluntary or mandatory product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, mandated corrective advertising or communications with doctors, debarment, restitution, disgorgement of profits, or civil or criminal penalties. In addition, government regulation may delay or prevent marketing of product candidates for a considerable period of time and impose costly procedures upon our activities.

Marketing Approval

The process required by the FDA before biological products and drugs may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:

U.S. Biological Products and Drug Development Process

Before testing any biological product or drug candidate in humans, nonclinical tests, including laboratory evaluations and animal studies to assess the potential safety and activity of the product candidate, are conducted. The conduct of the nonclinical tests must comply with federal regulations and requirements including GLPs.

Prior to commencing the first clinical trial, the trial sponsor must submit the results of the nonclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature and a proposed clinical protocol, to the FDA as part of an initial IND application. Some nonclinical testing may continue even after the IND application is submitted. The IND application

21

Table of Contents

automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA unless the FDA, within the 30-day time period, raises concerns or questions about the conduct of the clinical trial and places the trial on a clinical hold. In such case, the sponsor of the IND application must resolve any outstanding concerns with the FDA before the clinical trial may begin. The FDA also may impose a clinical hold on ongoing clinical trials due to safety concerns or non-compliance. If a clinical hold is imposed, a trial may not recommence without FDA authorization and then only under terms authorized by the FDA. A clinical hold may either be a full clinical hold or a partial clinical hold that would limit a trial, for example, to certain doses or for a certain length of time or to a certain number of subjects. Further, an independent IRB for each site proposing to conduct the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial before it commences at that site. An IRB is charged with protecting the welfare and rights of study subjects and considers such items as whether the risks to individuals participating in the clinical trials are minimized and are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits. The IRB also approves the form and content of the informed consent that must be signed by each clinical trial subject or his or her legal representative and must monitor the clinical trial until completed. Some trials are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the trial sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board or committee. This group provides authorization as to whether or not a trial may move forward at designated check points based on access that only the group maintains to available data from the trial and may recommend halting the clinical trial if it determines that there is an unacceptable safety risk for subjects or other grounds, such as no demonstration of efficacy.

Clinical trials involve the administration of the product candidate to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of qualified investigators, generally physicians not employed by or under the trial sponsor’s control. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the clinical trial, dosing procedures, subject selection and exclusion criteria, and the parameters to be used to monitor subject safety, including rules that assure a clinical trial will be stopped if certain adverse events occur. Each protocol and any amendments to the protocol must be submitted to the FDA and to the IRB. Information about certain clinical studies must be submitted with specific timeframes to the National Institutes of Health for public dissemination at www.clinicaltrials.gov.

For purposes of BLA or NDA approval, human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap:

During all phases of clinical development, regulatory agencies require extensive monitoring and auditing of all clinical activities, clinical data, and clinical trial investigators. Annual progress reports detailing the results of the clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA. Within 15 calendar days after the sponsor determines that the information qualifies for reporting, written IND safety reports must be submitted to the FDA and the investigators for serious and unexpected adverse events; any findings from other studies, tests in laboratory animals 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 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.

Regulatory authorities, a data safety monitoring board or the sponsor may suspend a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the participants are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if

22

Table of Contents

the investigated product has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients, and the trial may not recommence without the IRB’s authorization.

Typically, if a product is intended to treat a chronic disease, safety and efficacy data must be gathered over an extended period of time, which can range from six months to three years or more.

Concurrently with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and must also develop additional information about the physical characteristics of the investigational product and finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. To help reduce the risk of the introduction of adventitious agents with the use of biological products, the PHS Act 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 things, the sponsor must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality, potency, and purity of the final biological product. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the biological product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.

A drug being studied in clinical trials may be made available to individual patients in certain circumstances. Pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act (the Cures Act), as amended, the manufacturer of an investigational drug for a serious disease or condition is required to make available, such as by posting on its website, its policy on evaluating and responding to requests for individual patient access to such investigational drug. This requirement applies on the earlier of the first initiation of a Phase 2 or Phase 3 trial of the investigational drug, or as applicable, 15 days after the drug receives a designation as a breakthrough therapy, fast track product, or RMAT. Further, the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act of 2017 (the Right to Try Act) among other things, provides a federal framework for certain patients to request access to certain investigational new drug products that have completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and that are undergoing investigation for FDA approval. There is no obligation for a pharmaceutical manufacturer to make its drug products available to eligible patients as a result of the Right to Try Act. We review each individual request for access through the Cures Act, the Right to Try Act and similar state laws, and may or may not provide access depending upon the facts of each request.

U.S. Review and Approval Processes

In order to obtain approval to market a biological product in the United States, a BLA must be submitted to the FDA that provides data establishing to the FDA’s satisfaction the safety, purity and potency of the investigational product for the proposed indication. Similarly, for a drug, an NDA must be submitted to the FDA that provides data demonstrating the drug is safe and effective. Both a BLA and an NDA include all data available from nonclinical studies and clinical trials, together with detailed information relating to the product’s manufacture and composition, and proposed labeling.

Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), as amended, each BLA and NDA must be accompanied by a user fee. The FDA adjusts the PDUFA user fees on an annual basis. According to the FDA’s fee schedule, effective through September 30, 2022, the user fee for an application requiring clinical data, such as a BLA and an NDA, is $3,117,218. PDUFA also imposes an annual prescription drug product program fee for biologics and drugs ($369,413). Fee waivers or reductions are available in certain circumstances, including a waiver of the application fee for the first application filed by a small business having fewer than 500 employees. Additionally, no user fees are assessed on BLAs or NDAs for products designated as orphan drugs, unless the product also includes a non-orphan indication.

The FDA has 60 days from its receipt of a BLA or NDA to determine whether the application will be accepted for filing based on the agency’s threshold determination that the application is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. The FDA may refuse to file any BLA or NDA that it deems incomplete or not properly reviewable at the time of submission and may request additional information. In this event, the BLA or NDA must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. After the BLA or NDA submission is accepted for filing, the FDA reviews the BLA or NDA to determine, among other things, whether the proposed product is safe and effective for its intended use, and has an acceptable purity profile, and whether the product is being manufactured in accordance with cGMPs to assure and preserve the product’s identity, safety, strength, quality, potency, and purity, and for a biological product, whether it meets the biological product standards. The FDA may refer applications for novel products or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically comprised of clinicians and other experts, for evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and, if so, under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.

Before approving a BLA or NDA, the FDA will inspect the facilities at which the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the product unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. For a human cellular or tissue product, the FDA also will not approve the product if the manufacturer is not in compliance with cGTPs. FDA regulations also require tissue establishments to register and list their human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue based products (HCT/Ps) with the FDA and, when applicable, to evaluate donors through screening and testing. Additionally, before approving a BLA or NDA, the FDA may inspect clinical sites to assure that the clinical trials were conducted in compliance with IND study requirements and GCPs. If the FDA determines the manufacturing process or manufacturing facilities are not acceptable, it typically will outline the deficiencies and often

23

Table of Contents

will require the facility to take corrective action and provide documentation evidencing the implementation of such corrective action, which may delay further review of the application. If the FDA finds that a clinical site did not conduct the clinical trial in accordance with GCPs, the FDA may determine the data generated by the site should be excluded from the primary efficacy analyses provided in the BLA or NDA, and request additional testing or data. Additionally, the FDA ultimately may still decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval.

The FDA also has authority to require a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) from manufacturers to ensure that the benefits of a biological product or drug outweigh its risks. A sponsor may also voluntarily propose a REMS as part of the BLA or NDA submission. The need for a REMS is determined as part of the review of the BLA or NDA. Based on statutory standards, elements of a REMS may include “dear doctor letters,” a medication guide, more elaborate targeted educational programs, and in some cases restrictions on distribution. These elements are negotiated as part of the BLA or NDA approval, and in some cases may delay the approval date. Once adopted, REMS are subject to periodic assessment and modification.

After the FDA completes its initial review of a BLA or NDA, it will communicate to the sponsor that the biological product will either be approved, or it will issue a complete response letter to communicate that the BLA or NDA will not be approved in its current form. The complete response letter usually describes all of the specific deficiencies in the BLA or NDA identified by the FDA. The deficiencies identified may be minor, for example, requiring labeling changes, or major, for example, requiring additional clinical trials. Additionally, the complete response letter may include recommended actions that the applicant might take to place the application in a condition for approval. If a complete response letter is issued, the applicant may either resubmit the BLA or NDA to address all of the deficiencies identified in the letter, or withdraw the application, or request a hearing.

One of the performance goals of the FDA under PDUFA is to review 90% of standard BLAs and NDAs in 10 months and 90% of priority BLAs and NDAs in six months, whereupon a review decision is to be made. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates for standard and priority BLAs and NDAs and its review goals are subject to change from time to time. The review process and the PDUFA goal data may be extended by three months if the FDA requests or the BLA or NDA applicant otherwise provides additional information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission within the last three months before the PDUFA goal date.

Even if a product candidate receives regulatory approval, the approval may be limited to specific disease states, patient populations and dosages, or the indications for use may otherwise be limited. Further, the FDA may require that certain contraindications, warnings, or precautions be included in the product labeling. The FDA may impose restrictions and conditions on product distribution, prescribing, or dispensing in the form of a risk management plan, or otherwise limit the scope of any approval. In addition, the FDA may require Phase 4 post-marketing clinical trials and testing and surveillance programs to monitor the safety of approved products that have been commercialized. Further, even after regulatory approval is obtained, later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product may result in the imposition of new restrictions on the product or complete withdrawal of the product from the market.

Post-Approval Requirements

Products manufactured or distributed pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to monitoring, record-keeping, advertising and promotion, reporting of adverse experiences, and limitations on industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities. Further, if there are any modifications to the drug or biologic, including changes in indications, labeling or manufacturing processes or facilities, the applicant may be required to submit and obtain FDA approval of a new BLA or NDA or a BLA or NDA supplement, which may require the development of additional data or preclinical studies and clinical trials.

FDA regulations require that approved products be manufactured in specific approved facilities and in accordance with cGMP regulations which require, among other things, quality control and quality assurance, the maintenance of records and documentation, and the obligation to investigate and correct any deviations from cGMP. Manufacturers and other entities involved in the manufacture and distribution of approved drugs or biologics are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies, and are subject to periodic announced and unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with cGMP requirements and other regulatory requirements. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the area of production and quality control to maintain cGMP compliance. The discovery of violative conditions, including failure to conform to cGMP regulations, could result in enforcement actions.

The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of products that are placed on the market. Drugs may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA does not regulate behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments and physicians may legally prescribe available products for uses that are not described in the product’s labeling and that differ from those approved by the FDA. However, the FDA does restrict an applicant’s communications on the subject of off-label use of their products. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws prohibiting the marketing and promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly marketed or promoted off-label use

24

Table of Contents

may be subject to significant liability, including criminal and civil penalties under the FDCA and False Claims Act, exclusion from participation in federal healthcare programs, and mandatory compliance programs.

The FDA also may require post-marketing testing, known as Phase 4 testing, and surveillance to monitor the effects of an approved product. Discovery of previously unknown problems with a product or the failure to comply with applicable FDA requirements can have negative consequences, including adverse publicity, restrictions on a product, and judicial or administrative enforcement.

Expedited Development and Review Programs

The FDA is authorized to designate certain products for expedited review if they demonstrate the potential to address an unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition for which there is no effective treatment. These programs are referred to as fast track designation, priority review, accelerated approval, breakthrough therapy designation, and regenerative advanced therapy designation.

Fast Track Designation. The FDA may grant “fast track” status to product candidates that are intended to treat serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions and demonstrate the potential to address an unmet medical need for the condition. Fast track is a process designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of such product candidates by providing, among other things, more frequent meetings with the FDA to discuss the product candidate’s development plan and rolling review, which allows submission of individually completed sections of an NDA or BLA for FDA review before the entire submission is completed. Fast track designation applies to the combination of the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a product candidate may request the FDA to designate the product as a fast track product at any time during clinical development. Fast track status does not ensure that a product will be developed more quickly or receive FDA approval. 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, or if the designated drug development program is no longer being pursued.

Priority Review. The FDA may give a priority review designation to a product candidate if it has the potential to provide safe and effective therapy where no satisfactory alternative therapy exists or to provide a significant improvement in the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of a disease compared to marketed products. Priority review is intended to reduce the time it takes for the FDA to review a BLA, with the goal to take action on the application within six months from when the application is filed, compared to ten months for a standard review. The FDA will attempt to direct additional resources to the evaluation of an application for a biological product or drug designated for priority review in an effort to facilitate the review.

Accelerated Approval. Additionally, a product may be eligible for accelerated approval. Drug or biological products studied for their safety and effectiveness in treating serious or life-threatening illnesses and that provide meaningful therapeutic benefit over existing treatments may receive accelerated approval, which means that they may be approved on the basis of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials establishing that the product has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit, or on the basis of an effect on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. As a condition of approval, the FDA may require that a sponsor of a biological product or drug receiving accelerated approval perform adequate and well-controlled post-marketing clinical trials. In addition, the FDA currently requires, unless otherwise informed by the agency, pre-approval of promotional materials for products being considered for accelerated approval.

Breakthrough Therapy Designation. A product candidate intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition may also be eligible for breakthrough therapy designation if preliminary clinical evidence indicates that it may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints. If so designated, the FDA will expedite the development and review of the product candidate’s marketing application, including by meeting with, and providing advice to, the sponsor throughout the product candidate’s development, and taking steps to facilitate an efficient review of the development program and to ensure that the design of the clinical trials is as efficient as practicable.

RMAT Designation. As part of the Cures Act, Congress amended the FDCA to create an accelerated approval program for regenerative advanced therapies. To qualify for this program, and be granted regenerative advanced medicine therapy (RMAT) designation, a product must be a cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering product, human cell and tissue product, or a combination of such products, and not a product solely regulated as a human cell and tissue product. This program is intended to facilitate efficient development and expedite review of regenerative advanced therapies, which are intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence must indicate that the product candidate has the potential to address an unmet need for such disease or condition. A BLA for a product candidate that has received RMAT designation may be eligible for priority review or accelerated approval through (1) surrogate or intermediate endpoints reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit or (2) reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites. Benefits of such designation also include early interactions with FDA to discuss any potential surrogate or intermediate endpoint to be used to support accelerated approval. A

25

Table of Contents

designated RMAT product candidate that is granted accelerated approval and is subject to post approval requirements may fulfill such requirements through the submission of clinical evidence, clinical studies, patient registries, or other sources of real world evidence, such as electronic health records; the collection of larger confirmatory data sets; or post approval monitoring of all patients treated with such therapy prior to its approval.

Fast Track designation, priority review, accelerated approval, breakthrough therapy designation, and RMAT designation do not change the standards for approval but may expedite the development or approval process. Moreover, even if a product candidate qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product candidate no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

U.S. Patent Term Restoration and Marketing Exclusivity

Under certain circumstances, U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, commonly referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. Patent term restoration can compensate for time lost during product development and the regulatory review process by returning up to five years of patent life for a patent that covers a new product or its use. However, patent term restoration cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the product’s approval date. The period of patent term restoration is generally one-half the time between the effective date of an IND application (falling after issuance of the patent) and the submission date of a BLA or NDA, plus the time between the submission date of the BLA or NDA and the approval of that application, provided the sponsor acted with diligence. 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. The application for patent term extension is subject to approval by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in consultation with the FDA. A patent term extension is only available when the FDA approves a biological product or drug for the first time.

With the Hatch-Waxman Amendments, Congress authorized the FDA to approve generic drugs that are the same as drugs previously approved by the FDA under the NDA provisions of the FDCA. To obtain approval of a generic drug, an applicant must submit to the agency an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) which relies on the preclinical and clinical testing previously conducted for a drug approved under an NDA, known as the reference listed drug (RLD). For the ANDA to be approved, the FDA must find that the generic version is identical to the RLD with respect to the active ingredients, the route of administration, the dosage form, and the strength of the drug. The FDA must also determine that the generic drug is bioequivalent to the innovator drug.

An abbreviated approval pathway for biological products shown to be biosimilar to, or interchangeable with, an FDA-licensed reference biological product was created by the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, which was part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). This amendment to the PHS Act attempts to minimize duplicative testing. Biosimilarity, which requires that there be no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of safety, purity, and potency, can be shown through analytical studies, animal studies, and a clinical trial or trials. Interchangeability requires that a biological product is biosimilar to the reference biological product and the product must demonstrate that it can be expected to produce the same clinical results as the reference product and, for products administered multiple times, the product and the reference product 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 biological product.

A reference biological product is granted twelve years of exclusivity from the time of first licensure of the reference product. The first biological product submitted under the abbreviated approval pathway that is determined to be interchangeable with the reference product has exclusivity against other biologics submitting under the abbreviated approval pathway for the lesser of (i) one year after the first commercial marketing, (ii) 18 months after approval if there is no legal challenge, (iii) 18 months after the resolution in the applicant’s favor of a lawsuit challenging the biologic’s patents if an application has been submitted, or (iv) 42 months after the application has been approved if a lawsuit is ongoing within the 42-month period.

A biological product or drug can obtain pediatric market exclusivity in the United States. Pediatric exclusivity, if granted, adds six months to existing exclusivity periods and patent terms. This six-month exclusivity, which runs from the end of other exclusivity protection or patent term, may be granted based on the voluntary completion of a pediatric study in accordance with an FDA-issued “Written Request” for such a study.

Orphan Drug Designation and Exclusivity

Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to biological products and drugs intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or more than 200,000 individuals in the United States and for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making a biological product or drug in the United States for this type of disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting a BLA or NDA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the identity of the applicant, the name of the therapeutic agent and its designated orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process.

26

Table of Contents

If a biological product or drug that receives orphan drug designation is the first such product approved by FDA for the orphan indication, it receives orphan product exclusivity, which for seven years prohibits the FDA from approving another application to market the same product for the same indication. Orphan product exclusivity will not bar approval of another product under certain circumstances, including if the new product is shown to be clinically superior to the approved product on the basis of greater efficacy or safety or a demonstration that the new product otherwise makes a major contribution to patient care. More than one product may also be approved by the FDA for the same orphan indication or disease as long as the products are different. If a biological product or drug designated as an orphan product receives marketing approval for an indication broader than what is designated, it may not be entitled to orphan product exclusivity. Orphan drug status in the European Union has similar, but not identical, benefits.

Pediatric Research Equity Act

Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA), as amended, a BLA or NDA or supplement must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the biological product or drug 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. The intent of PREA is to compel sponsors whose products have pediatric applicability to study those products in pediatric populations. The FDCA requires manufacturers of biological products and drugs that include a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration to submit a pediatric study plan to the FDA as part of the IND application. The plan must be submitted not later than 60 days after the end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA; or if there is no such meeting, before the initiation of any Phase 3 trials or a combined Phase 2 and Phase 3 trial; or if no such trial will be conducted, no later than 210 days before submitting a marketing application or supplement. The FDA may grant deferrals for submission of data or full or partial waivers. Generally, PREA does not apply to any biological product or drug for an indication for which orphan designation has been granted.

Coverage and Reimbursement

Sales of our products, when and if approved, will depend, in part, on the extent to which our products will be covered by third-party payors, such as government health programs, commercial insurance and managed healthcare organizations. In the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for drug or biological products exists. Accordingly, decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided for any of our products will be made on a payor-by-payor basis. Additionally, coverage determinations often require generating additional evidence related, for example, to the relative costs and benefits of new therapies versus standard of care – which goes beyond the data able to be generated within our clinical programs.

In the United States, for example, principal decisions about reimbursement for new products are typically made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, which decides whether and to what extent a new product will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private third-party payors often follow CMS’s decisions regarding coverage and reimbursement to a substantial degree. However, one third-party payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product candidate does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage for the product candidate. Further, no uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement exists in the United States, and coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, coverage determination is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained. Further, coverage policies and third-party payor reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.

The U.S. government, state legislatures and foreign governments have shown significant interest in implementing cost containment programs to limit the growth of government-paid health care costs, including price-controls, restrictions on reimbursement and requirements for substitution of biosimilars for branded prescription drugs. Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the United States.

Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. We cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any product candidate that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, the level of reimbursement.

Healthcare Reform and Other Regulatory Changes

In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been, and likely will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system directed at broadening the availability of healthcare, improving the quality of healthcare, and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare.

For example, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, each as amended, collectively known as the ACA was enacted in the United States. The ACA includes measures that have significantly changed, and are expected to continue to significantly change, the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers. The ACA contained a number of provisions, including those governing enrollment in federal

27

Table of Contents

healthcare programs, reimbursement adjustments and changes to fraud and abuse laws. Among the provisions of the ACA of greatest importance to the pharmaceutical industry are that the ACA:

Since its enactment, there have been 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. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the most recent judicial challenge to the ACA brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA. Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, President Biden issued an Executive Order to initiate a special enrollment period from February 15, 2021 through August 15, 2021 for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the ACA marketplace. The Executive Order also instructed certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the ACA. It is unclear how other healthcare reform measures of the Biden administrations or other efforts, if any, to challenge repeal or replace the ACA, will impact our business.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the Affordable Care Act was enacted:

28

Table of Contents

At the federal level, President Biden signed an Executive Order on July 9, 2021 affirming the administration’s policy to (i) support legislative reforms that would lower the prices of prescription drug and biologics, including by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, by imposing inflation caps, and, by supporting the development and market entry of lower-cost generic drugs and biosimilars; and (ii) support the enactment of a public health insurance option. Among other things, the Executive Order also directs HHS to provide a report on actions to combat excessive pricing of prescription drugs, enhance the domestic drug supply chain, reduce the price that the Federal government pays for drugs, and address price gouging in the industry; and directs the FDA to work with states and Indian Tribes that propose to develop section 804 Importation Programs in accordance with the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, and the FDA’s implementing regulations. FDA released such implementing regulations on September 24, 2020, which went into effect on November 30, 2020, providing guidance for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. On September 25, 2020, CMS stated drugs imported by states under this rule will not be eligible for federal rebates under Section 1927 of the Social Security Act and manufacturers would not report these drugs for “best price” or Average Manufacturer Price purposes. Since these drugs are not considered covered outpatient drugs, CMS further stated it will not publish a National Average Drug Acquisition Cost for these drugs. If implemented, importation of drugs from Canada may materially and adversely affect the price we receive for any of our product candidates. Further, on November 20, 2020 CMS issued an Interim Final Rule implementing the Most Favored Nation, or MFN, Model under which Medicare Part B reimbursement rates would have been calculated for certain drugs and biologicals based on the lowest price drug manufacturers receive in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with a similar gross domestic product per capita. However, on December 29, 2021 CMS rescinded the Most Favored Nations rule. Additionally, on November 30, 2020, HHS published a regulation removing safe harbor protection for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The rule also creates a new safe harbor for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers. Pursuant to court order, the removal and addition of the aforementioned safe harbors were delayed and recent legislation imposed a moratorium on implementation of the rule until January 1, 2026. Although a number of these and other proposed measures may require authorization through additional legislation to become effective, and the Biden administration may reverse or otherwise change these measures, both the Biden administration and Congress have indicated that they will continue to seek new legislative measures to control drug costs.

At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical 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. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs. This could reduce the ultimate demand for our drugs or put pressure on our drug pricing, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Other Healthcare Laws and Compliance Requirements

Pharmaceutical companies are subject to additional healthcare regulation and enforcement by the federal government and by authorities in the states and foreign jurisdictions in which they conduct their business that may constrain the financial arrangements and relationships through which we research, as well as sell, market and distribute any products for which we obtain marketing authorization. Arrangements with third-party payors and customers can expose pharmaceutical manufactures to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the federal False Claims Act, or the FCA, which may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which companies research, sell, market and distribute pharmaceutical products. In addition, transparency laws and patient privacy laws can apply to the activities of pharmaceutical manufactures. The applicable federal, state and foreign healthcare laws and regulations that can affect a pharmaceutical company’s operations include without limitation:

29

Table of Contents

The scope and enforcement of each of these laws is uncertain and subject to rapid change in the current environment of healthcare reform, especially in light of the lack of applicable precedent and regulations with respect to certain laws. Federal and state enforcement bodies have recently increased their scrutiny of interactions between healthcare companies and healthcare providers, which has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry. Prohibitions or restrictions on sales or withdrawal of future marketed products could materially affect our business in an adverse way. Changes in

30

Table of Contents

regulations, statutes or the interpretation of existing regulations could impact our business in the future by requiring, for example: (i) changes to our manufacturing arrangements; (ii) additions or modifications to product labeling; (iii) the recall or discontinuation of our products; or (iv) additional record-keeping requirements. If any such changes were to be imposed, they could adversely affect the operation of our business. Ensuring our business arrangements comply with applicable healthcare laws, as well as responding to possible investigations by government authorities, can be time- and resource-consuming and can divert a company’s attention from the business.

The failure to comply with any of these laws or regulatory requirements subjects companies to possible legal or regulatory action. Depending on the circumstances, failure to meet applicable regulatory requirements can result in significant penalties, including civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, possible exclusion from participation in federal and state funded healthcare programs, contractual damages and the curtailment or restricting of our operations, as well as additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws. Any action for violation of these laws, even if successfully defended, could cause a pharmaceutical company to incur significant legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of the business.

Regulations Governing Data Collection and the Use, Processing and Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Information

We also may be or may become subject to various state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

For example, California has enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which created new individual privacy rights for California consumers (as defined in the law) and placed increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. Effective as of January 2020, the CCPA requires covered companies to provide certain disclosures to consumers about its data collection, use and sharing practices, and to provide affected California residents with ways to opt out of certain sales or transfers of personal information, and also regulates employee information. On November 3, 2020, California passed the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) which builds on the CCPA and expands consumer privacy rights. The CPRA will go into effect on January 1, 2023 and will apply to information collected on or after January 1, 2022. While there is currently an exception in the CCPA and CPRA for protected health information that is subject to HIPAA, the CCPA and CPRA may impact our business activities. Virginia and Colorado have also passed comprehensive privacy laws that will become effective in 2013 and other U.S. states also are considering omnibus privacy legislation, and industry organizations regularly adopt and advocate for new standards in these areas.

In addition, as of May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates the collection and use of personal data in the European Union (EU). The GDPR covers any business, regardless of its location, that provides goods or services to residents in the EU and, thus, could incorporate any activities we undertake in EU member states. The GDPR imposes strict requirements on controllers and processors of personal data, including special protections for “sensitive information,” which includes health and genetic information of individuals residing in the EU. The GDPR grants individuals the opportunity to object to the processing of their personal information, allows them to request deletion of personal information in certain circumstances, and provides the individual with an express right to seek legal remedies in the event the individual believes his or her rights have been violated. Further, the GDPR imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data out of the EU to regions that have not been deemed to offer “adequate” privacy protections, such as the U.S. currently. Failure to comply with the requirements of the GDPR and the related national data protection laws of the EU member states, which may deviate slightly from the GDPR, may result in warning letters, mandatory audits and financial penalties, including fines of up to 4% of global revenues, or €20,000,000, whichever is greater.

Further to the United Kingdom's (UK) exit from the EU on January 31, 2020, the GDPR ceased to apply in the UK at the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020. However, as of January 1, 2021, the UK’s European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 incorporated the GDPR (as it existed on December 31, 2020 but subject to certain UK specific amendments) into UK law (referred to as the 'UK GDPR'). The UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 set out the UK’s data protection regime, which is independent from but aligned to the EU’s data protection regime. Non-compliance with the UK GDPR may result in monetary penalties of up to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. Although the UK is regarded as a third country under the EU’s GDPR, the European Commission (“EC”) has now issued a decision recognizing the UK as providing adequate protection under the EU GDPR and, therefore, transfers of personal data originating in the EU to the UK remain unrestricted. Like the EU GDPR, the UK GDPR restricts personal data transfers outside the UK to countries not regarded by the UK as providing adequate protection. The UK government has confirmed that personal data transfers from the UK to the EEA remain free flowing.

31

Table of Contents

Other Regulations

We are also subject to numerous federal, state and local laws relating to such matters as safe working conditions, manufacturing practices, environmental protection, fire hazard control, and disposal of hazardous or potentially hazardous substances. We may incur significant costs to comply with such laws and regulations now or in the future.

Competition

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by rapid innovation, intense and dynamic competition and a strong emphasis on proprietary products. While we believe that our technology, scientific knowledge and experience in the field of cellular immunotherapy 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, as well as standard-of-care treatments, new products undergoing development and combinations of existing and new therapies. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with existing therapies and new therapies, including combinations thereof, that may become available in the future.

Cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer have recently been an area of significant research and development by academic institutions and biopharmaceutical companies. Novartis AG (Novartis) and Kite Pharma, Inc. (Kite) were the first to obtain FDA approval for autologous CAR T-cell therapies for the treatment of certain cancers. Novartis obtained FDA approval to commercialize Kymriah in August 2017 for the treatment of children and young adults with relapsed / refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and, in May 2018, for the treatment of adults with relapsed / refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In October 2017, Kite obtained FDA approval to commercialize Yescarta for the treatment of adults with relapsed / refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. More recently Bristol-Myers Squibb received FDA approval in 2021 for two new, autologous T-cell therapy products – Breyanzi for the treatment of relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, and Abecma for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

We are developing our off-the-shelf NK- and T-cell product candidates for the treatment of cancer. While we believe our use of clonal master iPSC lines for the production of our off-the-shelf NK- and T-cell product candidates is highly differentiated, a number of clinical-stage companies are currently focused on the development of cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, including Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Caribou Biosciences, Inc., Cellectis SA, Celularity, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Gilead Sciences, Inc., ImmunityBio, Inc., Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Legend Biotech Corporation, Nkarta, Inc., Novartis AG, Precision Biosciences, Inc., Sanofi SA, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, and 2seventy bio, Inc. Preclinical-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies.

We compete against our competitors in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and subject enrollment for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Many of our competitors, either alone or with their collaboration partners, have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources than we do and significantly greater experience in the discovery and development of product candidates, obtaining FDA and other regulatory approvals of treatments and commercializing those treatments. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful than us in obtaining approval for treatments and achieving widespread market acceptance.

We anticipate that we will face intense and increasing competition as new products enter the market and advanced technologies become available. We expect any treatments that we develop and commercialize to compete on the basis of, among other things, efficacy, safety, convenience of administration and delivery, price, the level of generic competition and the availability of reimbursement from government and other third-party payers. 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 any products that we may develop. 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.

Insurance

We maintain product liability insurance for our clinical trials. We intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products if marketing approval is obtained for products in development. However, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive, and we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. In addition, we may not be able to obtain commercially reasonable product liability insurance for any products approved for marketing.

32

Table of Contents

Human Capital

Our success as a company depends upon the innovation, drive, and dedication of our employees, and we seek to attract, incentivize, and reward creative and performance-driven employees. We believe our commitment to our human capital resources is an important component of our business that enables us to deliver superior performance in our industry.

We focus on identifying, recruiting, developing and retaining a team of highly talented and motivated employees. As of December 31, 2021, we employed 449 employees, all of whom are full-time employees, including 174 in research and development, 190 in clinical development, manufacturing and regulatory affairs and 85 in general and administrative. We have never had a work stoppage, and none of our employees is represented by a labor organization or under any collective bargaining arrangements. We believe that our relationship with our employees is good, and we provide all employees with the opportunity to share their opinions in open dialogues with our human resources department and senior management.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

We believe that an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workforce is a necessary foundation for innovation and dedication of our employees. Accordingly, we strive to promote diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity across the organization. We are committed to actively seeking out highly qualified women and minority candidates, as well as candidates with diverse backgrounds, skills and experiences. As of December 31, 2021, women made up 49% of our workforce and represented 47% of leadership positions at the Director level and above.

Health and Safety

The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being, health and safety of our employees, and we are committed to providing a safe, healthy and secure workplace for our employees. We have an environmental health and safety program and maintain various compliance programs to support this commitment. We routinely train and educate our employees on workplace safety and security. Early in the pandemic we formed a COVID-19 task force dedicated to monitoring ongoing developments and guidance issued by local, state and public health authorities. Our COVID-19 task force provides regular updates and recommendations to our executive team, and provides timely communication and training to our employee base about the various safety measures we have put into place to protect their health and wellbeing. We took proactive action early on, implementing site enhancements and risk protocols, instituting remote working arrangements and adjusting our sick leave policies, and in our effort to support the safe occupancy of our sites, reconfigured work and common spaces to allow for social distancing increased office cleaning protocols, instituted daily health screenings and COVID-19 testing. As testing has become more readily available, we have offered both onsite testing and memberships to local medical clinics that offer testing. We continue to monitor and adjust our safety training and protocols as the pandemic continues to evolve.

Compensation and Benefits

We offer competitive pay, with performance-based bonuses and equity awards. The principal purposes of our equity and cash incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based and cash-based compensation awards in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives. We have a comprehensive benefits program offering flexibility for our employees’ individual needs and requirements. Our benefits program includes a choice of medical plans, vision and dental coverage, flexible spending accounts for health and dependent day care needs, and income protection through life, AD&D, short term and long term disability coverage, sick leave, paid family leave, and generous paid time off. We offer a 401(k) retirement plan with company matching, an employee assistance program, and onsite fitness centers at no cost to our employees.

Employee Development and Engagement

We are focused on attracting and retaining a team of highly talented and motivated employees. We invest in and develop all levels of employees by engaging in ongoing career pathing and professional development conversations throughout an employee’s tenure. In addition, we provide targeted leadership development programs for frontline leaders through executive leadership programs and offer a number of professional, management and leadership development training programs to help our employees develop cross-functional skills and tools to grow their careers.

Employees are incentivized for key contributions through awards programs that recognize their commitment and dedication by demonstrating our Fate Pathways to Success.

We focus on identifying, recruiting, developing and retaining a team of highly talented and motivated employees. We believe that our relationship with our employees is good. We believe our commitment to our human capital resources is an important component of our business that enables us to deliver superior performance in our industry. We provide all employees with the opportunity to share their opinions in open dialogues with our human resources department and senior management. We provide all

33

Table of Contents

employees a wide range of professional development experiences, both formal and informal. The safety and wellbeing of our employees is a paramount value for us. Further, the health and wellness of our employees are critical to our success. We provide our employees with access to a variety of flexible and convenient health and wellness programs. Such programs are designed to support employees' physical and mental health by providing tools and resources to help them improve or maintain their health status and encourage engagement in healthy behaviors. Additionally, we provide competitive compensation and benefits. In addition to salaries, these programs, can include annual bonuses, stock-based compensation awards, a 401(k) plan with employee matching opportunities, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid time off, family leave, and family care resources. Further, in an effort to protect the health and safety of our employees, we took proactive action from the earliest signs of the COVID-19 outbreak, which included implementing social distancing policies at our facilities, facilitating remote working arrangements and imposing employee travel restrictions.

Corporate Information

We were incorporated in Delaware in 2007, and are headquartered in San Diego, CA. Our principal executive office is located at 12278 Scripps Summit Drive, San Diego, California 92131, and our telephone number is (858) 875-1800. Our website address is www.fatetherapeutics.com. We do not incorporate the information on or accessible through our website into this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and you should not consider any information on, or that can be accessed through, our website a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We own various U.S. federal trademark registrations and applications, and unregistered trademarks, including Fate Therapeutics®, our corporate logo. All other trademarks or trade names referred to in this document are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this document are referred to without the symbols® and ™, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto.

Available Information

We post our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, on the Investors section of our public website (www.fatetherapeutics.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. In addition, you can read our SEC filings over the Internet at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The contents of these websites are not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Further, our references to the URLs for these websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the following risk factors, as well as the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in our other public filings. The occurrence of any of these risks could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or growth prospects or cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements we have made in this report and those we may make from time to time. You should consider all of the risk factors described in our public filings when evaluating our business.

Risks Related to the Discovery, Development and Regulation of Our Product Candidates

If we fail to complete the preclinical or clinical development of, or to obtain regulatory approval for, our product candidates, our business would be significantly harmed.

All of our product candidates are currently in research or early clinical development. We have not completed clinical development of or obtained regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. Only a small percentage of research and development programs ultimately result in commercially successful products, and we cannot assure you that any of our product candidates will demonstrate the safety, purity and potency, or efficacy profiles necessary to support further preclinical study, clinical development or regulatory approval.

We may delay or cancel our ongoing and planned clinical development activities or research and development activities for any of our product candidates for a variety of reasons, including:

34

Table of Contents

Additionally, we will only be able to obtain regulatory approval to market a product candidate if we can demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, in well-designed and conducted clinical trials that such product candidate is manufactured in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, is safe, pure and potent, or effective, and otherwise meets the appropriate standards required for approval for a particular indication. Our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates depends on, among other things, completion of additional preclinical studies, process development and manufacturing activities, and clinical trials, whether our clinical trials demonstrate statistically significant efficacy with safety profiles that do not potentially outweigh the therapeutic benefit, and whether regulatory agencies agree that the data from our clinical trials and our manufacturing operations are sufficient to support approval. In addition, the approval by the FDA of new products in the same indications that we are studying may change the standard of care, and this may result in the FDA or other regulatory agencies requesting that we conduct additional studies to show that our product candidate is superior to the new standard of care. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about product manufacturing operations to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. The final results of our current and future clinical trials may not meet the FDA’s or other regulatory agencies’ requirements to approve a product candidate for marketing, and the regulatory agencies may otherwise determine that our manufacturing operations are insufficient to support approval. We may need to conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials that we currently do not anticipate, including as a result of changes in the standard of care. If we fail to complete preclinical or clinical development of, or obtain regulatory approval for, our product candidates, we will not be able to generate any revenues from product sales and our ability to receive milestone or other payments under any collaboration agreements may be impaired, which will harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We may face delays in initiating, conducting or completing our clinical trials, and we may not be able to initiate, conduct or complete them at all.

We are heavily dependent on our ability to complete the clinical development of, and obtain regulatory approval for, our product candidates. We have not completed the clinical trials necessary to support an application for approval to market any of our product candidates. We, or any investigators who initiate or conduct clinical trials of our product candidates, may experience delays in our current or future clinical trials, and we do not know whether we or our investigators will be able to initiate, enroll patients in, or complete, clinical trials of our product candidates on time, if at all. Current and future clinical trials of our product candidates may be delayed, unsuccessful or terminated, or not initiated at all, as a result of many factors, including factors related to:

35

Table of Contents

36

Table of Contents

If there are delays in initiating or conducting any clinical trials of our product candidates or any of these clinical trials are terminated before completion, the commercial prospects of our product candidates will be harmed. In addition, any delays in initiating, conducting or completing our clinical trials or adjustments to certain of our study protocols and procedures, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, will increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and regulatory approval process, and jeopardize our ability to gain regulatory approval, commence product sales and generate revenues. Furthermore, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the initiation, conduct or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. Any of these occurrences would significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations, and market price of shares of our common stock.

The manufacture and distribution of our cell product candidates, particularly our iPSC-derived cell product candidates, is complex and subject to a multitude of risks. These risks could substantially increase our costs and limit the clinical and commercial supply of our product candidates, and the development and commercialization of our product candidates could be substantially delayed or restricted if the FDA or other regulatory authorities impose additional requirements on our manufacturing operations or if we are required to change our manufacturing operations to comply with regulatory requirements.

The manufacture and supply of our cell product candidates involve novel processes that are more complex than those required for most small molecule drugs and other cellular immunotherapies, and accordingly present significant challenges and are subject to multiple risks. For our iPSC-derived product candidates, these complex processes include reprogramming human fibroblasts to obtain iPSCs, in some cases genetically engineering these iPSCs, and differentiating the iPSCs to obtain the desired cell product candidate. As a result of the complexities in manufacturing biologics and distributing cell therapies, the cost to manufacture and distribute biologics and cell therapies in general, and our cell product candidates in particular, is generally higher than traditional small molecule chemical compounds. In addition, our cost of goods development is at an early stage. The actual cost to manufacture and process our product candidates could be greater than we expect and could materially and adversely affect the commercial viability of our product candidates.

We have limited experience in the manufacture of cell-based therapies. We are still developing optimized and reproducible manufacturing processes for clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing of our product candidates, and none of our manufacturing processes have been validated for commercial production of our product candidates. We may face several challenges as we scale our manufacturing for large-scale clinical trials or commercial-scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, compliance with good manufacturing practices, lot consistency and timely availability of raw materials. In addition, we are still optimizing our protocols for the supply and transport of our product candidates for distribution to clinical trial sites. Although we are working to develop reproducible and commercially viable manufacturing processes for our product candidates, and effective protocols for the supply and transport of our product candidates, doing so is a difficult and uncertain task.

We may make changes or be required by the FDA to make changes to our manufacturing processes, including materials used in manufacturing our product candidates, as we continue to develop and refine the manufacturing and distribution processes for our product candidates for advanced clinical trials and commercialization, and we cannot be sure that even minor changes in these processes will not cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of our ongoing and planned clinical trials or the performance of the product once commercialized. In some circumstances, changes in our manufacturing operations, including to our protocols, processes, materials or facilities used, may require us to perform additional preclinical or comparability studies, or to collect additional clinical data from patients prior to undertaking additional clinical studies or filing for regulatory approval for a product candidate. These requirements may lead to delays in our clinical development and commercialization plans for our product candidates, and may increase our development costs substantially.

The manufacturing processes for any products that we may develop are subject to FDA and foreign regulatory authority approval requirements, and we will need to meet, and our contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) or other third party manufacturers will need to meet, all applicable FDA and foreign regulatory authority requirements on an ongoing basis. Our existing product candidates are currently manufactured by us or by third-party cell processing facilities or CMOs, including facilities operated by or affiliated with our clinical sites, and our current manufacturing operations, including protocols, processes, materials, and facilities, may not support regulatory approval of our existing product candidates. We may be required to identify alternative protocols, processes, materials or facilities for the manufacture of any of these product candidates in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. In addition, we may be required to make changes to our protocols for the supply and transport of our product candidates to enable effective distribution of our product candidates. Any modifications to our manufacturing and supply protocols,

37

Table of Contents

processes, materials or facilities, and any delays in, or inability to, establish acceptable manufacturing and supply operations for our product candidates could require us to incur additional development costs or result in delays to our clinical development. If we or our CMOs or other third-party manufacturers are unable to reliably produce products to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the regulatory approvals we need to commercialize such products. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that either we or our CMOs or other third-party manufacturers will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product, or to meet potential future demand. Additionally, changes in regulatory requirements may require us or our third-party manufacturers to perform additional studies or to modify protocols, processes, materials or facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or any components thereof. Any of these challenges could delay initiation or completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidates, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods, and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

A disruption to our manufacturing operations, or our or our third-party suppliers’ or manufacturers’ inability to manufacture sufficient quantities of our product candidates at acceptable quality levels or costs, or at all, would materially and adversely affect our business.

Developing manufacturing processes to support clinical studies and commercialization requirements is a difficult and uncertain task, and there are risks associated with scaling to the level required for clinical trials or commercialization, including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-out, process reproducibility, stability and purity issues, lot consistency, and timely availability of acceptable reagents and raw materials. If we are unable to scale to the level required for the conduct of clinical trials or commercialization, we may not be able to produce our product candidates in a sufficient quantity to conduct our ongoing and planned clinical trials, or to meet demand if any product candidates are approved for commercialization. We have not yet caused any of our product candidates to be manufactured or processed on a commercial scale and may not be able to do so for any of our product candidates.

We are substantially dependent on our own internal manufacturing facilities in San Diego, California for the production of our product candidates, and we rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the manufacture of certain components and also to manufacture our product candidates for use in conducting clinical trials. The facilities used to manufacture our product candidates, including our own facilities, must be evaluated by the FDA or other foreign regulatory agencies pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit an application to the FDA or other foreign regulatory agencies. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority finds deficiencies with or does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it later finds deficiencies or withdraws any such approval in the future, we may not be able to locate additional or replacement facilities to produce such product candidates or materials in a timely manner and on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. This would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved.

Because we rely on our own manufacturing facility to produce our product candidates and on third parties for the manufacture of certain components and the product candidates themselves, we are required to transfer certain manufacturing process know-how and certain intermediates to third parties, including larger-scale facilities operated by a CMO or by us, to facilitate manufacture of our product candidates for clinical trials and commercialization. Transferring manufacturing testing and processes and know-how is complex and involves review and incorporation of both documented and undocumented processes that may have evolved over time. In addition, transferring production to different facilities may require utilization of new or different processes to meet the specific requirements of a given facility. We and any CMOs or third parties that we engage for manufacturing our product candidates will need to conduct significant development work to transfer these processes and manufacture each of our product candidates for clinical trials and commercialization. In addition, we may be required to demonstrate the comparability of material generated by any CMO or third parties that we engage for manufacturing our product candidates with material previously produced and used in testing. Any inability to manufacture comparable drug product by us or our CMOs could delay the continued development of our product candidates.

In addition to relying on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates, we also manufacture certain of our product candidates ourselves, and intend to manufacture some or all of the clinical supply of our iPSC-derived NK-cell and T-cell product candidates for our ongoing and planned clinical trials. To do so, we will need to scale up our own manufacturing operations, as we do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture sufficient quantities of each of our product candidates to support the conduct of each of our clinical trials or commercialization of each of our product candidates, if approved. Accordingly, we will be required to make significant investments to expand our existing GMP manufacturing capabilities and facilities, establish additional GMP manufacturing facilities, conduct GMP production, and process and scale up development and technology transfer activities for the manufacture of our product candidates, and our efforts to scale our own manufacturing operations may not succeed.

Even if we are successful in developing manufacturing capabilities sufficient for clinical and commercial supply, problems with our manufacturing operations or those of the third-party manufacturers upon which we rely, including difficulties with production

38

Table of Contents

costs and yields, quality control, stability of the product, quality assurance testing, operator error, shortages of qualified personnel, facility shutdowns due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters or other reasons, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations, could result in product defects or manufacturing failures that result in lot failures, product recalls, product liability claims or insufficient supplies of our product candidates for our ongoing and planned clinical trials or eventual commercialization. For example, in response to governmental shelter-in-place orders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we or our third-party manufacturers have been, and may from time to time be required to limit our or their on-site staff’s availability to conduct manufacturing activities at our or their respective facilities, and we and our third-party manufacturers may encounter problems with shortages of qualified personnel and key contractors, and delays or pauses in the production and delivery of laboratory equipment, materials and supplies necessary for the manufacture of our product candidates. These problems may include workforce reductions, employee absenteeism and attrition, and supply chain failures or delays relating to the COVID-19 pandemic or other events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities. Several vaccines for COVID-19 have been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA, and two of those later received marketing approval. Additional vaccines may be authorized or approved in the future. The resultant demand for vaccines and potential for manufacturing facilities and materials to be commandeered under the Defense Production Act of 1950, or equivalent foreign legislation, may make it more difficult to obtain materials or manufacturing slots for the product candidates needed for our clinical trials, which could lead to delays in these trials. Further, delays in regulatory inspections, commissioning and receiving regulatory approvals for our manufacturing capabilities or facilities, including new facilities, as a result of limited governmental resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, could delay our development plans, including the initiation and conduct of our ongoing and planned clinical trials. In addition, we and our third-party manufacturers may have limited manufacturing capacity for certain product candidates or components, and we may fail to locate suitable additional or replacement manufacturing capacity, including for the manufacture of our product candidates in compliance with cGMP or cGTP, on a reasonable basis or at all. Any such failure could be the basis for the FDA to issue a warning letter, withdraw approvals for product candidates previously granted to us, or take other regulatory or legal action, including recall or seizure of outside supplies of the product candidate, total or partial suspension of production, suspension of ongoing clinical trials, refusal to approve pending applications or supplemental applications, detention of product, refusal to permit the import or export of products, injunction or imposing civil and criminal penalties.

Furthermore, certain of the components currently used in manufacturing our product candidates are research-grade only, and we may encounter problems obtaining or achieving adequate quantities and quality of clinical grade materials that meet FDA, European Medicines Agency, or other applicable standards or specifications with consistent and acceptable production yields and costs. In addition, if contaminants are discovered in our supply of product candidates or in our manufacturing facilities or those of our third-party suppliers and manufacturers, such manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination. Any such events could delay or prevent our ability to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to risks associated with the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), and the global pandemic could seriously impact the research and development of our product candidates.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has broadly affected the global economy, resulted in significant travel and work restrictions in many regions and put a significant strain on healthcare resources. The pandemic has had, and we expect it will continue to have, an impact on our operations and on the operations of our collaborators, third-party contractors and other entities, including governmental agencies with which we interact. In particular, state and local regulations requiring during certain periods that a significant portion of our employees work remotely has had an impact on our operations and research and development of our product candidates. We have also experienced delays in obtaining materials and supplies needed to maintain our operations and manufacture our product candidates as a result of production shortages experienced by our suppliers. Additionally, at times we have been subject to temporary pauses in enrollment and dosing implemented by some clinical trial sites due to COVID-19, and some clinical trial sites have also restricted initiation of new trials at times as well as visits by sponsors and clinical research organizations (CROs) for ongoing trials to protect both site staff and patients from possible COVID-19 exposure.

The COVID-19 pandemic, including the emergence of new variants, has impacted, and may in the future impact, the clinical development of our product candidates if we are subject to restrictions or limitations on, or delays in, the performance of study procedures (particularly any procedures that may be deemed non-essential), participant dosing, distribution of our product candidates or clinical trial materials, study monitoring, or site inspections and data analysis, including as a result of changes in hospital or research institution policies, federal, state or local regulations, prioritization of hospital and other medical resources toward pandemic efforts, reduced availability of site staff supporting the conduct of clinical trials, heightened risks of exposure of study participants, principal investigators or site staff to COVID-19 if an outbreak occurs in their geographic region, or other reasons related to the pandemic. Quarantine or other travel limitations (whether voluntary or required) also may impede participant movement, affect access to study sites, or interrupt healthcare services.

Furthermore, the pandemic could cause delays in review and response times by the FDA and other regulatory agencies, or such health regulatory agencies may refuse to accept data from our clinical trials due to mitigation strategies we implement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and current regulatory guidance. In addition, our ability to manufacture and ship our product candidates for

39

Table of Contents

our clinical trials may be impacted if we, or any third parties which manufacture and supply materials used in either the manufacture of our product candidates or the conduct of our research and development activities, or which perform certain testing relating to our product candidates, are adversely impacted by restrictions resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. There is also the potential that manufacturing facilities, equipment, and materials required for manufacture or administration of our product candidates could be commandeered under the Defense Production Act of 1950, or equivalent foreign legislation, which may make it more difficult to obtain materials, equipment, or manufacturing slots necessary for the clinical supply of our product candidates.

The extent to which the pandemic affects our operations and the research and development of our product candidates will depend on continuously changing circumstances, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the duration of the pandemic, including the emergence of new variants of the virus, such as the Delta and Omicron variants, which may impact rates of infection and vaccination efforts, developments or perceptions regarding the safety of vaccines, future waves of infection, and the effectiveness of actions taken to contain the pandemic or mitigate its impact, including vaccination campaigns. While the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business is highly uncertain, any negative impacts that materialize could materially adversely affect our clinical development and operations, financial performance and stock price.

Because our approach to the development of product candidates is based on novel and unproven technologies, it is subject to a substantial degree of technological uncertainty and we may not succeed in developing any of our product candidates.

All of our current product candidates are based on our novel iPSC platform, and some of our product candidates utilize novel genome editing technologies. To date, no iPSC-derived therapeutic product candidates have been approved in the United States or worldwide, and there have been only a limited number of regulatory approvals of genome edited therapeutics, and similarly a limited number of clinical trials involving the use of a therapeutic product candidate manufactured using a master iPSC line or genome edited cells. The development of such complex cell therapies is a relatively new and emerging field, and the scientific research that forms the basis of our efforts to discover and develop iPSC-derived and genome edited cellular immunotherapies is ongoing. We may determine to incorporate information learned from this research into the design of our ongoing Phase 1 clinical trials of our iPSC product candidates, as well as our planned future clinical trials, which could delay or impair our clinical development activities. We may ultimately discover that our product candidates do not possess certain properties required for therapeutic effectiveness or protection from toxicity in our target patient populations, or they may exhibit undesirable side effects as more patient data become available. In addition, our product candidates may demonstrate different chemical and pharmacological properties in patients than they do in laboratory studies. It may take many years before we develop a full understanding of the pharmacological properties of our product candidates, and we may never know precisely how they function in vivo. Moreover, our genome editing approach may cause unintended changes to the DNA such as a non-target site gene editing, a large deletion or a DNA translocation, any of which could lead to oncogenesis or other adverse effects. As with any new biologic or product developed using novel technologies, our product candidates have an unknown immunogenicity profile. As a result, our cellular immunotherapy product candidates may trigger immune responses that inhibit their therapeutic effects or cause adverse side effects. In addition, one or more of our product candidates may:

Any such problems that affect one of our product candidates may have an unfavorable impact on all of our product candidates. As a result, we may never succeed in developing a marketable product and we may never become profitable, which would have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations, and market price of shares of our common stock.

If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

We are required to identify and enroll a sufficient number of patients with the disease under investigation for each of our ongoing and planned clinical trials of our product candidates, and we may not be able to identify and enroll a sufficient number of patients, or those with required or desired characteristics and who meet certain criteria, in a timely manner. In addition, we will be competing with other clinical trials of product candidates being developed by our competitors in the same therapeutic areas, and potential patients who might be eligible for enrollment in one of our clinical trials may instead choose to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors.

40

Table of Contents

Our ability, and the ability of investigators, to enroll patients in our ongoing and planned clinical trials of our product candidates is affected by factors including:

In addition, certain of our clinical trial sites at times have delayed or paused patient enrollment in clinical trials as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and quarantines or other travel limitations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic may impede patient movement and affect access to study sites, which may further impact patient enrollment in our clinical trials. The extent and duration of such delays and disruptions, and the overall impact on the timing and conduct of our clinical trials, are uncertain. If we have difficulty enrolling a sufficient number of patients to conduct our clinical trials as planned, we may need to delay or terminate ongoing or planned clinical trials, either of which would have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations, and market price of shares of our common stock.

The clinical development of our product candidates could be substantially delayed if we are required to conduct unanticipated studies, including preclinical studies or clinical trials, or if the FDA imposes other requirements or restrictions including on the manufacture, of our product candidates.

The FDA may require us to generate additional preclinical, product, manufacturing, or clinical data as a condition to continuing our current clinical trials, or initiating and conducting any future clinical trials of our current product candidates or other cell product candidates that we may identify. Additionally, the FDA may in the future have comments, or impose requirements, on the conduct of our clinical trials or the initiation of clinical trials or any of our other iPSC-derived cell product candidates, including the protocols, processes, materials and facilities we use to manufacture our product candidates and potential future product candidates in support of clinical trials. Any requirements to generate additional data, or redesign or modify our protocols, processes, materials or facilities, or other additional comments, requirements or impositions by the FDA, may cause delays in the initiation or conduct of the current or future clinical trials for our product candidates and subsequent development activities for our product candidates, and could require us to incur additional development or manufacturing costs and resources, seek funding for these increased costs or resources or delay our timeline for, or cease, our preclinical or clinical development activities for our product candidates, or could create uncertainty and additional complexity in our ability to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

Further, if the results of our clinical trials are inconclusive, or if there are safety concerns or adverse events associated with our existing product candidates or any other product candidates we may identify, we may:

41

Table of Contents

Even if our current and planned clinical trials are successful, we will need to conduct additional clinical trials, which may include registrational trials, trials in additional patient populations or under different treatment conditions, and trials using different manufacturing protocols, processes, materials or facilities or under different manufacturing conditions, before we are able to seek approvals for our product candidates from the FDA and regulatory authorities outside the United States to market and sell these product candidates. If we fail to meet the requirements to support continued clinical development, our clinical development activities for any of our product candidates are delayed or suspended, or we fail to obtain or maintain regulatory approvals with an acceptable scope, our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations will be harmed.

We are pursuing multiple programs and product candidates in our novel cell therapy development pipeline using an approach that is designed to enable rapid incorporation of new product features. If we elect to incorporate these new features into next-generation product candidates, this may render our existing product candidates obsolete, and we may devote our limited resources in pursuit of a particular program for which there is a greater potential for success and fail to capitalize on development opportunities or product candidates including those which may be more advanced in development.

We focus on the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for patients with cancer, including off-the-shelf NK- and T-cell product candidates derived from clonal master engineered iPSC lines. Because our iPSC product platform is designed to enable rapid incorporation of novel functional product features in an evolving clinical setting, we may elect to incorporate these discoveries into next-generation product candidates that render our existing product candidates, including product candidates under clinical development, obsolete. Additionally, because we have limited financial and personnel resources, we may elect or be required to abandon or delay the pursuit of opportunities with existing or future product candidates, including those that may be more advanced in development than those we ultimately elect to pursue. Due to these factors, our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates and the scientific innovation arising from these expenditures, may not yield commercially viable product candidates.

We study our product candidates in patient populations with significant comorbidities that may result in deaths or serious adverse events or unacceptable side effects and require us to abandon or limit our clinical development activities.

Patients treated with our current product candidates may also receive chemotherapy, radiation, and/or other high dose or myeloablative treatments in the course of treatment of their disease, and may therefore experience side effects or adverse events, including death, that are unrelated to our product candidates. While these side effects or adverse events may be unrelated to our product candidates, they may still affect the success of our clinical studies. The inclusion of critically ill patients in our clinical studies may result in deaths or other adverse medical events due to underlying disease or to other therapies or medications that such patients may receive. Any of these events could prevent us from advancing our product candidates through clinical development, and from obtaining regulatory approval, and would impair our ability to commercialize our product candidates. Any inability to advance our existing product candidates or any other product candidate through clinical development would have a material adverse effect on our business, and the value of our common stock would decline.

Because our product candidates are based on novel technologies, it is difficult to predict the regulatory approval process and the time, the cost and our ability to successfully initiate, conduct and complete clinical development, and obtain the necessary regulatory and reimbursement approvals, required for commercialization of our product candidates.

Our cell programming technology and platform for generating cell therapy products using iPSCs represent novel therapeutic approaches, and to our knowledge there are currently no iPSC-derived cell products approved anywhere in the world for commercial sale. As such, it is difficult to accurately predict the type and scope of challenges we may incur during development of our product candidates, and we face uncertainties associated with the preclinical and clinical development, manufacture and regulatory requirements for the initiation and conduct of clinical trials, regulatory approval, and reimbursement required for successful commercialization of these product candidates. In addition, because our iPSC-derived cell product candidates are all in the early clinical or preclinical stage, we are currently assessing safety in humans and have not yet been able to assess the long-term effects of treatment. Animal models and assays may not accurately predict the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in our target patient populations, and appropriate models and assays may not exist for demonstrating the safety and purity of our product candidates, as required by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for ongoing clinical development and regulatory approval.

The preclinical and clinical development, manufacture, and regulatory requirements for approval of novel product candidates such as ours can be more expensive and take longer than for other more well-known or extensively studied pharmaceutical or

42

Table of Contents

biopharmaceutical product candidates due to a lack of prior experiences on the side of both developers and regulatory agencies. Additionally, due to the uncertainties associated with the preclinical and clinical development, manufacture, and regulatory requirements for approval of our product candidates, we may be required to modify or change our preclinical and clinical development plans or our manufacturing activities and plans, or be required to meet stricter regulatory requirements for approval. Any such modifications or changes could delay or prevent our ability to develop, manufacture, obtain regulatory approval or commercialize our product candidates, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Cellular immunotherapies, and iPSC-derived cell therapies in particular, represent relatively new therapeutic areas, and the FDA has cautioned consumers about potential safety risks associated with cell therapies. To date, there are relatively few approved cell therapies, and in October 2021, it was reported that the FDA placed a clinical hold on all allogeneic CAR T-cell clinical studies being conducted by a company that reported a chromosomal abnormality in a patient treated with one of their product candidates highlighting the technical and regulatory risk of working with new technology. As a result, the regulatory approval process for product candidates such as ours is uncertain and may be more expensive and take longer than the approval process for cell therapy product candidates based on other, better known or more extensively studied technologies and therapeutic approaches.

Regulatory requirements in the United States and in other countries governing cell therapy products have changed frequently and the FDA or other regulatory bodies may change the requirements, or identify different regulatory pathways, for approval for any of our product candidates. For example, within the FDA, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, restructured and created a new Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies to better align its oversight activities with FDA Centers for Drugs and Medical Devices. It is possible that over time new or different divisions may be established or be granted the responsibility for regulating cell and/or gene therapy products, including iPSC-derived cell products, such as ours. As a result, we may be required to change our regulatory strategy or to modify our applications for regulatory approval, which could delay and impair our ability to complete the preclinical and clinical development and manufacture of, and obtain regulatory approval for, our product candidates. Changes in regulatory authorities and advisory groups, or any new requirements or guidelines they promulgate, may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies, increase our development and manufacturing costs, lead to changes in regulatory pathways, positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of our product candidates or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. As we advance our product candidates, we will be required to consult with the FDA and other regulatory authorities, and our product candidates will likely be reviewed by an FDA advisory committee. We also must comply with applicable requirements, and if we fail to do so, we may be required to delay or discontinue development of our product candidates. Delays or unexpected costs in obtaining, or the failure to obtain, the regulatory approval necessary to bring a potential product to market could impair our ability to generate sufficient product revenues to maintain our business.

Preliminary data and interim results we disclose may change as more patient data becomes available or as we make changes to our protocols or manufacturing processes, and such interim results and results from earlier studies may not be predictive of the final results, or of later studies or future clinical trials.

We may from time to time disclose results from preclinical testing or preliminary data or interim results from clinical studies of our product candidates. Such results from preclinical testing, process development and manufacturing activities, and clinical studies, including interim clinical trial results as of specified data cutoff dates and results of earlier clinical studies with similar product candidates, are not necessarily predictive of future results, including later clinical trial results.

The results of our current and future clinical trials may differ from results achieved in earlier preclinical and clinical studies for a variety of reasons, including:

Additionally, some clinical trials of our product candidates performed to date were generated from open-label studies and are being conducted at a limited number of clinical sites on a limited number of patients. An “open-label” clinical trial is one where both the patient and investigator know whether the patient is receiving the investigational product candidate or either an existing approved drug or placebo. Most typically, open-label clinical trials test only the investigational product candidate and sometimes may do so at

43

Table of Contents

different dose levels. Open-label clinical trials are subject to various limitations that may exaggerate any therapeutic effect as patients in open-label clinical trials are aware when they are receiving treatment. Open-label clinical trials may be subject to a “patient bias” where patients perceive their symptoms to have improved merely due to their awareness of receiving an experimental treatment. In addition, open-label clinical trials may be subject to an “investigator bias” where those assessing and reviewing the physiological outcomes of the clinical trials are aware of which treatment regimen patients have received and may interpret the information of the treated group more favorably given this knowledge. Accordingly, the preliminary data from our Phase 1 clinical trials of certain of our product candidates may not be predictive of future clinical trial results for these or other product candidates when studied in a controlled environment or larger patient populations.

From time to time, we also publish interim, “top-line,” or preliminary data from our clinical studies based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data. Preliminary or interim data from clinical trials that we are conducting are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues, the duration of treatment increases and more patient data become available. For example, although we reported positive interim clinical data from our FT516 and FT596 programs for patients with relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphoma, we may encounter dose-limiting toxicities or unacceptable side effects for these product candidates as dose escalation and expansion progresses in our clinical trials and additional patient data become available. Our preliminary or interim results and related conclusions also are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. Preliminary or “top-line” data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Material adverse changes between preliminary, “top-line,” or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Results of clinical testing of any of our existing or future product candidates may fail to show the necessary safety and efficacy required for regulatory approval.

Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any of our product candidates, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy in humans of any such product candidates. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete, and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. Our product candidates have a limited history of being evaluated in human clinical trials. Any of our product candidates may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy in later stages of clinical development despite having successfully advanced through initial clinical trials.

There is a high failure rate for drugs and biologics proceeding through clinical trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in later stage clinical trials even after achieving promising results in earlier stage clinical trials. Data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are subject to varying interpretations, which may delay, limit, or prevent regulatory approval. In addition, regulatory delays or rejections may be encountered as a result of many factors, including changes in regulatory policy during the period of product development.

If our product candidates are ultimately not approved for any reason, our business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected. In addition, the standard of care may change with the approval of new products for the same indications that we are studying.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate, our products will remain subject to regulatory scrutiny.

Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval, along with the manufacturing protocols, processes, materials and facilities, qualification testing, post-approval clinical data, labeling and promotional activities for such product, will be subject to continual and additional requirements of the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information, reports, registration and listing requirements, requirements relating to current cGMP, applicable product tracking and tracing requirements, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, and recordkeeping. Even if marketing approval of a product candidate is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to conditions of approval, or contain requirements for costly post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the product. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of pharmaceutical and biological products to ensure such products are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with our product candidates, manufacturing operations, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may lead to various adverse conditions, including significant delays in bringing our product candidates to market and/or being precluded from manufacturing or selling our product candidates, any of which could significantly harm our business.

44

Table of Contents

We have received regenerative medicine advanced therapy, or RMAT, designation for the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and we may in the future seek RMAT designation for some of our other product candidates, but such designation may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process and we may be unable to obtain or maintain the benefits associated with such designation.

We have received regenerative medicine advanced therapy, or RMAT, designation from the FDA for FT516 for the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. A product candidate is eligible for RMAT designation if: (1) it is a cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering product, human cell or tissue product, or a combination product using any such therapies or products; (2) it is intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition; and (3) there is preliminary clinical evidence that indicates that the product candidate has the potential to address unmet medical needs for such disease or condition. This program is intended to facilitate efficient development and expedite review of RMATs. A BLA for a product candidate with RMAT designation may be eligible for priority review or accelerated approval through (1) surrogate or intermediate endpoints reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit or (2) reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites. Benefits of such designation also include early interactions with the FDA to discuss any potential surrogate or intermediate endpoint to be used to support accelerated approval. A product candidate that has RMAT designation and is subsequently granted accelerated approval and is subject to post-approval requirements may fulfill such requirements through the submission of clinical evidence, clinical studies, patient registries, or other sources of real-world evidence, such as electronic health records; the collection of larger confirmatory data sets; or post-approval monitoring of all patients treated with such therapy prior to its approval. RMAT designation is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our product candidates meets the criteria for RMAT designation, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to grant such designation. In any event, the receipt of RMAT designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to product candidates considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualifies for RMAT designation, the FDA may later decide that the product candidate no longer meet the conditions for qualification.

We may rely on orphan drug status to develop and commercialize certain of our product candidates, but orphan drug designations may not confer marketing exclusivity or other expected commercial benefits and we may not be able to obtain orphan drug designations for our other product candidates.

We may rely on orphan drug exclusivity for product candidates that we may develop. Orphan drug status confers seven years of marketing exclusivity in the United States under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and up to ten years of marketing exclusivity in Europe for a particular product in a specified indication, subject to certain conditions. However, we may be unable to obtain orphan drug designations for any of our product candidates that we are currently developing or may pursue. Even if we do obtain orphan drug designations and are the first to obtain marketing approval of our product candidates for the applicable indications, we will not be able to rely on these designations to exclude other companies from manufacturing or selling biological products using the same principal molecular structural features for the same indication beyond these timeframes. Furthermore, any marketing exclusivity in Europe can be reduced from ten years to six years if the initial designation criteria have significantly changed since the market authorization of the orphan product.

For any product candidate for which we may be granted orphan drug designation in a particular indication, it is possible that another company also holding orphan drug designation for the same product candidate will receive marketing approval for the same indication before we do. If that were to happen, our applications for that indication may not be approved until the competing company’s period of exclusivity expires. Even if we are the first to obtain marketing authorization for an orphan drug indication in the United States, there are circumstances under which a competing product may be approved for the same indication during the seven-year period of marketing exclusivity, such as if the later product is shown to be clinically superior to our orphan product, or if the later product is deemed a different product than ours. Further, the seven-year marketing exclusivity would not prevent competitors from obtaining approval of the same product candidate as ours for indications other than those in which we have been granted orphan drug designation, or for the use of other types of products in the same indications as our orphan product.

We may be subject to certain regulations, including federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, physician payment transparency laws, anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws and health information privacy and security laws. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with these regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

If we obtain FDA approval for any of our product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the United States, our operations may be subject to various federal and state healthcare laws, including, without limitation, fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, data privacy and security laws, as well as transparency laws regarding payments or other items of value provided to healthcare providers. These laws may impact, among other things, our proposed sales, marketing and education programs. Additionally, we may be subject to state and foreign equivalents of such healthcare laws and regulations, some of which may be broader in scope and may apply regardless of the payor, as well as patient privacy regulation by both the federal government and the

45

Table of Contents

states in which we conduct our business. Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge and may not comply under one or more of such laws, regulations, and guidance. Law enforcement authorities are increasingly focused on enforcing fraud and abuse laws, and it is possible that some of our practices may be challenged under these laws. Efforts to ensure that our current and future business arrangements with third parties, and our business generally, will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. If our operations, including our arrangements with physicians and other healthcare providers are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, administrative, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs (such as Medicare and Medicaid), and imprisonment, as well as additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results. See section entitled “Business - Government Regulation – Other Healthcare Laws and Compliance Requirements.”

The scope and enforcement of these laws is uncertain and subject to rapid change in the current environment of healthcare reform, especially in light of the lack of applicable precedent and regulations. Federal and state enforcement has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry. Ensuring that our internal operations and future business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations.

The provision of benefits or advantages to physicians to induce or encourage the prescription, recommendation, endorsement, purchase, supply, order or use of medicinal products is prohibited in the European Union. The provision of benefits or advantages to physicians is also governed by the national anti-bribery laws of European Union Member States, such as the UK Bribery Act 2010. Infringement of these laws could result in substantial fines and individual imprisonment.

Payments made to physicians in certain European Union Member States must be publicly disclosed. Moreover, agreements with physicians often must be the subject of prior notification and approval by the physician’s employer, his or her competent professional organization and/or the regulatory authorities of the individual European Union Member States. These requirements are provided in the national laws, industry codes or professional codes of conduct, applicable in the European Union Member States. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in reputational risk, public reprimands, administrative penalties, fines or individual imprisonment.

Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties

We are, and expect to continue to be, dependent on third parties to conduct some or all aspects of manufacturing of our product candidates for use in clinical trials and for commercial sale, if approved. Our business could be harmed if those third parties fail to perform satisfactorily.

We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to manufacture our product candidates, or certain components required for the manufacture of our product candidates, for use in conducting clinical trials and for commercial sale upon approval of any of our product candidates.

Reliance on third parties for manufacture of our product candidates and components utilized in manufacturing our product candidates entails certain risks, including reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance, the possibility that the third-party manufacturer does not maintain the financial, personnel or other resources to meet its obligations, the possibility that the third party fails to manufacture such components, or our product candidates or any products we may eventually commercialize, in accordance with our specifications, misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how, and the possibility of termination of our manufacturing relationship by the third party, based on its own business priorities, at a time that is costly or damaging to us. In addition, the FDA and other regulatory authorities require that our product candidates and any products that we may eventually commercialize be manufactured according to cGMP, cGTP and similar jurisdictional standards. These requirements include, among other things, quality control, quality assurance and the maintenance of records and documentation. The FDA or similar foreign regulatory agencies may also implement new standards at any time, or change their interpretations and enforcement of existing standards for manufacture, packaging or testing of products. We have little control over our manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations and standards.

In some cases, the technical skills required to manufacture our product candidates may be unique or proprietary to a particular CMO, and we may have difficulty, or there may be contractual restrictions prohibiting us from, transferring such skills to a back-up or alternate supplier if needed, or we may be unable to transfer such skills at all. In addition, if we are required to change contract manufacturers for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new CMO maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations. We will also need to verify, such as through a manufacturing comparability

46

Table of Contents

study, that any new manufacturing process will produce our product candidate according to the specifications previously submitted to the FDA or another regulatory authority. The delays associated with the verification of a new CMO could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates or commercialize our products in a timely manner or within budget. In addition, changes in manufacturers often involve changes in manufacturing procedures and processes, which could require that we conduct bridging studies between our prior clinical supply used in our clinical trials and that of any new manufacturer. We may be unsuccessful in demonstrating the comparability of clinical supplies produced by different manufacturers, which could require the conduct of additional clinical trials.

Further, we depend in some instances on third party suppliers, including sole source suppliers, for the provision of reagents, materials, devices and equipment that are used by us and our third-party contract manufacturers in the production of our product candidates, including certain of our iPSC-derived cell therapy product candidates. Any disruption to or loss of supply from any of these suppliers could delay our clinical development and commercialization efforts, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition.

We depend on strategic partnerships and collaboration arrangements, such as our collaboration arrangements with Janssen and Ono, for the development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates in certain indications or geographic territories, and if these arrangements are unsuccessful, this could result in delays and other obstacles in the development, manufacture or commercialization of any of our product candidates and materially harm our results of operations.

Our strategy for fully developing and commercializing our product candidates is dependent upon maintaining our current arrangements and establishing new arrangements with research collaborators, corporate collaborators and other third parties. We currently have corporate collaboration agreements with Janssen and Ono. These corporate collaboration agreements provide for, among other things, research funding and significant future payments should certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones be achieved. Under these arrangements, our corporate collaborators are typically responsible for:

As a result, we may not be able to conduct these corporate collaborations in the manner or on the time schedule we currently contemplate, which may negatively impact our business operations.

This lack of control over the research funding for, and the development and commercialization of, certain of our product candidates could cause delays or other difficulties in the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates, which may prevent completion of research and development activities and intended regulatory filings in a timely fashion, if at all. Because we expect to continue to rely on our current corporate collaborators and to enter into new collaborations in the future, the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates could be substantially delayed, and our ability to receive future funding could be substantially impaired if one or more of our current or future collaborators:

47

Table of Contents

In addition, the termination of the Janssen Agreement or the Ono Agreement or any future strategic partnership or collaboration arrangement that we enter into may prevent us from receiving any milestone, royalty payment, sharing of profits, and other benefits under such agreement. Furthermore, disagreements with these parties could require or result in litigation or arbitration, which would be time-consuming and expensive. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to develop and commercialize any of our product candidates and may adversely impact our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations.

Cell-based therapies depend on the availability of reagents and specialized materials and equipment which in each case are required to be acceptable to the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies, and such reagents, materials, and equipment may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. We rely on third-party suppliers for various components, materials and equipment required for the manufacture of our product candidates and do not have supply arrangements for certain of these components.

Manufacturing our product candidates requires many reagents and other specialty materials and equipment, some of which are manufactured or supplied by small companies with limited resources and experience to support commercial biologics production. To date, we and our CMOs have purchased equipment, materials and disposables used for the manufacture of our existing product candidates from third-party suppliers. Some of these suppliers may not have the capacity to support commercial products manufactured under cGMP by biopharmaceutical firms or may otherwise be ill-equipped to support our needs. Reagents and other key materials from these suppliers may have inconsistent attributes and introduce variability into our manufactured product candidates, which may contribute to variable patient outcomes and possible adverse events. We rely on the general commercial availability of materials and equipment required for the manufacture of our product candidates, and do not have supply contracts with many of these suppliers and may not be able to obtain supply contracts with them on acceptable terms or at all. Even if we are able to enter into such contracts, we may be limited to a sole third-party for the supply of certain required components and equipment. As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the business and operations of our suppliers may be disrupted or delayed, and we in turn may experience disruptions or delays in our supply chain. A delay or inability to continue to source product from any of these suppliers, which could be due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, regulatory actions or requirements affecting the supplier, adverse financial or other strategic developments experienced by a supplier, labor disputes or shortages, unexpected demands, or quality issues, could adversely affect our ability to manufacture our product candidates and our ability to conduct clinical trials, which could significantly harm our business.

If we are required to change suppliers, or modify the components, equipment, materials or disposables used for the manufacture of our product candidates, we may be required to change our manufacturing operations or clinical trial protocols or to provide additional data to regulatory authorities in order to use any alternative components, equipment, materials or disposables, any of which could set back, delay, or increase the costs required to complete our clinical development and commercialization of our product candidates. Additionally, any such change or modification may adversely affect the safety, efficacy, stability, or potency of our product candidates, and could adversely affect our clinical development of our product candidates and harm our business.

We currently rely on third parties to conduct certain research and development activities and clinical trials of our product candidates. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to timely develop, manufacture, obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

We rely upon third parties, including medical institutions, clinical investigators, and CROs for the conduct of certain research and preclinical development activities, process development and manufacturing activities, and for the conduct, management, and supervision of clinical trials of our product candidates. We do not have direct control over the activities of these third parties, and may have limited influence over their actual performance. Our reliance on these third parties and CROs does not relieve us of our responsibilities to ensure that our clinical studies are conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements and scientific standards.

We are responsible for complying, and we are responsible for ensuring that our third-party service providers and CROs comply, with applicable GCP for conducting activities for all of our product candidates in clinical development, including conducting our clinical trials, and recording and reporting data from these trials. Regulatory authorities enforce these regulations through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. We cannot assure that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with applicable GCP requirements. In addition, our registrational clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under applicable regulatory requirements.

48

Table of Contents

If these third parties and CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations, meet expected deadlines or successfully complete activities as planned, or if the quality or accuracy of the research, preclinical development, process development, manufacturing, or clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to applicable regulatory and manufacturing requirements or for other reasons, our research, preclinical development, process development and manufacturing activities, and clinical trials, and the development of our product candidates, may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates. Further, if our agreements with third parties or CROs are terminated for any reason, the development of our product candidates may be delayed or impaired, and we may be unable to advance our product candidates. As a result, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed or impaired.

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

If conflicts arise between our corporate or academic collaborators or strategic partners and us, the other party may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies. Some of our academic collaborators and strategic partners are conducting multiple product development efforts within each area that is the subject of the collaboration with us. Our collaborators or strategic partners, however, may develop, either alone or with others, products in related fields that are competitive with the products or potential products that are the subject of these collaborations. Competing products, either developed by the collaborators or strategic partners or to which the collaborators or strategic partners have rights, may result in the withdrawal of our collaborator’s or partner’s support for our product candidates.

Some of our collaborators or strategic partners could also become our competitors in the future. Our collaborators or strategic partners 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, or fail to devote sufficient resources to the development and commercialization of our product candidates. Any of these developments could harm our product development efforts.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, or obtain and maintain patent protection for our technology and product candidates, other companies could develop products based on our discoveries, which may reduce demand for our products and harm our business.

Our commercial success will depend in part on our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates, the operations used to manufacture them and the methods for using them, and also for our cell programming technology in order to prevent third parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing our product candidates or otherwise exploiting our cell programming approach. The scope of patent protection in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. One aspect of the determination of patentability of our inventions depends on the scope and content of the “prior art,” information that was or is deemed available to a person of skill in the relevant art prior to the priority date of the claimed invention. There may be prior art of which we are not aware that may affect the patentability of our patent claims or, if issued, affect the validity or enforceability of a patent claim. Further, we may not be aware of all third-party intellectual property rights potentially relating to our product candidates or their intended uses, and as a result the impact of such third-party intellectual property rights upon the patentability of our own patents and patent applications, as well as the impact of such third-party intellectual property upon our freedom to operate, is highly uncertain. Because patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for typically a period of 18 months after filing, or may not be published at all, we cannot be certain that we were the first to file any patent application related to our product candidates. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are uncertain. We own and have exclusive licenses to patent portfolios for our product candidates and cell programming technology, although we cannot be certain that our existing patents and patent applications provide adequate protection or that any additional patents will issue to us with claims that provide adequate protection of our other product candidates. Further, we cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be enforced in our patents if we attempt to enforce them or if they are challenged in court or in other proceedings. If we are unable to secure and maintain protection for our product candidates and cell programming technology, or if any patents we obtain or license are deemed invalid and unenforceable, our ability to commercialize or license our technology could be adversely affected.

Others have filed, and in the future are likely to file, patent applications covering products and technologies that are similar, identical or competitive to ours or important to our business. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, and some remain so until issued, we cannot be certain that any patent application owned by a third party will not have priority over patent applications filed or in-licensed by us, or that we or our licensors will not be involved in interference, opposition, reexamination, review, reissue, post grant review or invalidity proceedings before U.S. or non-U.S. patent offices. The scope, validity or enforceability of our patents or the patents of our licensors may be challenged in such proceedings in either the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad, and our business may be harmed if the coverage of

49

Table of Contents

our patents or the patents of our licensors is narrowed, or if a patent of ours or our licensors is judged invalid or unenforceable, in any such proceedings.

We depend on our licensors to prosecute and maintain patents and patent applications that are material to our business. Any failure by our licensors to effectively protect these intellectual property rights could adversely affect our business and operations.

Certain rights to our key technologies and product candidates, including intellectual property relating to our iPSC technology, are licensed from third parties. As a licensee of third-party intellectual property, we rely on our licensors to file and prosecute patent applications and maintain patents, and otherwise protect the licensed intellectual property under some of our license agreements. We have not had and do not have primary control over these activities for certain of our licensed patents, patent applications and other intellectual property rights, and we cannot be certain that such activities will result in valid and enforceable patents and other intellectual property rights. Additionally, our licensors may have the right to control enforcement of our licensed patents or defense of any claims asserting the invalidity of these patents and we cannot be certain that our licensors will allocate sufficient resources or prioritize enforcement of such patents or defense of such claims to protect our interests in the licensed patents. Even if we are not a party to these legal actions, an adverse outcome could harm our business because it might prevent us from continuing to license intellectual property that we may need to operate our business.

If we fail to comply with our obligations under our license agreements, we could lose rights to our product candidates or key technologies.

We have obtained rights to develop, market and sell some of our product candidates through intellectual property license agreements with third parties. These license agreements impose various diligence, milestone payment, royalty and other obligations on us. In particular, under our Amended and Restated Exclusive License Agreement dated May 15, 2018 (the Amended MSK License) with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), in the event a licensed product achieves a specified clinical milestone, MSK is eligible to receive from us certain milestone payments totaling up to $75.0 million based on the price of our common stock, where the amount of such payments owed to MSK is contingent upon certain increases in the price of our common stock following the date of achievement of such clinical milestone. If we fail to comply with our obligations under our license agreements, including any payment obligations, we could lose some or all of our rights to develop, market and sell products covered by these licenses, and our ability to form collaborations or partnerships may be impaired. In addition, disputes may arise under our license agreements with third parties, which could prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on acceptable terms and to develop and commercialize the affected product candidates.

We may be involved in litigation or other proceedings relating to the enforcement or defense of patent and other intellectual property rights, which could cause us to divert our resources and could put our intellectual property at risk.

If we choose to go to court to stop another party from using the inventions claimed in any patents we obtain, that individual or company has the right to ask the court to rule that such patents are invalid or should not be enforced against that third party. In addition to patent infringement lawsuits, we may be required to file interferences, oppositions, ex parte reexaminations, post-grant review, or inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the USPTO) and corresponding foreign patent offices. Litigation and other proceedings relating to intellectual property are unpredictable and expensive, and would consume time and resources and divert the attention of managerial and scientific personnel even if we were successful in any such proceeding. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for research, development, and other activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings or may be required to divert such resources from our ongoing and planned research and development activities. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating or successfully challenging our intellectual property rights. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

There also is a risk that a court or patent office in such proceeding will decide that our patents or the patents of our licensors are not valid or are not enforceable, and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the inventions. There is also the risk that, even if the validity of such patents is upheld, the court will refuse to stop the other party on the ground that such other party’s activities do not infringe our rights to such patents. If we were not successful in defending our intellectual property, our competitors could develop and market products based on our discoveries, which may reduce demand for our products.

50

Table of Contents

We or our strategic partners may infringe the intellectual property rights of others, which may prevent or delay our product development efforts and stop us from commercializing, or increase the costs of commercializing, our product candidates.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions, ex parte reexaminations, post-grant review, and inter partes review proceedings before the USPTO and corresponding foreign patent offices. 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 developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties.

We cannot be certain that any of our patent searches or analyses, including the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending application in the United States and abroad that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our product candidates in any jurisdiction. The scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of a patent or a pending application may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to market our products. We may incorrectly determine that our products are not covered by a third-party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third-party’s pending application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our product candidates. Our failure to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our products.

We cannot guarantee that the manufacture, use or marketing of our existing product candidates or any other product candidates that we develop, or the use of our cell programming technology, will not infringe third-party patents. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, cell compositions, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. Our competitors may have filed, and may in the future file, patent applications covering products and technologies similar to ours. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents.

Third parties asserting their patent or other intellectual property rights against us may seek and obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize our product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business, cause development delays, and may impact our reputation. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties, or redesign our infringing products, which may be impossible on a cost-effective basis or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In that event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business.

We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary rights to product components and processes for development or manufacture of our product candidates which may cause us to operate our business in a more costly or otherwise adverse manner that was not anticipated.

We own or license from third parties certain intellectual property rights necessary to develop and manufacture our product candidates. The growth of our business will likely depend in part on our ability to acquire or in-license additional proprietary rights, including to advance our research or allow commercialization of our product candidates. In that event, we may be required to expend considerable time and resources to develop or license replacement technology. For example, our programs may involve additional technologies or product candidates that may require the use of additional proprietary rights held by third parties. Furthermore, other pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies and academic institutions may also have filed or are planning to file patent applications potentially relevant to our business. From time to time, in order to avoid infringing these third-party patents, we may be required to license technology from additional third parties to further develop or commercialize our product candidates. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any relevant third-party intellectual property rights, including any such intellectual property rights required to manufacture, use or sell our product candidates, that we identify as necessary or important to our business operations. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all, and as a result we may be unable to develop or commercialize the affected product candidates, which would harm our business. We may need to cease use of the compositions or methods covered by such third-party intellectual property rights, and may need to seek to develop alternative approaches that do not infringe on such intellectual property rights which may entail additional costs and development delays, even if we were able to

51

Table of Contents

develop such alternatives, which may not be feasible. Even if we are able to obtain a license under such intellectual property rights, any such license may be non-exclusive, which may allow our competitors’ access to the same technologies licensed to us.

Additionally, we sometimes collaborate with academic institutions to accelerate our preclinical research or development under written agreements with these institutions. Typically, these institutions provide us 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 other parties, potentially blocking our ability to pursue our program. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property or to maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of such program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive practice, and companies that may be more established, or have greater resources than we do, may also be pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider necessary or attractive in order to commercialize our product candidates. More established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their larger size and cash resources or greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, it may be more costly for us to secure and maintain the necessary patent protection to block third parties from using our technology than to negotiate out-licenses or similar agreements with these parties to provide them with limited rights to use our technology. There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully complete any such negotiations and ultimately acquire or maintain, on commercially viable terms, the rights to the intellectual property required for the successful development and commercialization of our product candidates.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our competitive advantage.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:

52

Table of Contents

Should any of these events occur, they could significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets.

In conducting our business operations, we have obtained confidential and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers or other parties. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we could lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could adversely affect our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.

We may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators, or other third parties have an interest in our patents or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. If we fail in defending any such claims, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, valuable intellectual property. We may also be subject to monetary damages, and any of these outcomes could have a material adverse impact on our business.

Proprietary information and invention assignment agreements with our employees and third parties may not prevent unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we also rely upon unpatented trade secrets and improvements, proprietary know-how, and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position, which we seek to protect, in part, through confidentiality agreements with our collaborators, employees and consultants. We also have invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and some, but not all, of our collaborators and consultants. Because we expect to rely on third parties in the development and manufacture of our product candidates, we must, at times, share trade secrets with them, which increases the possibility that a competitor will discover them or that our trade secrets will be misappropriated or disclosed.

Trade secrets, however, may be difficult to protect, and any disclosure, either intentional or unintentional, by our employees or third-party consultants and vendors that we engage to perform research, clinical trials or manufacturing activities, or misappropriation by third parties (such as through a cybersecurity breach) of our trade secrets or proprietary information could enable competitors to duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, thus eroding our competitive position in our market. Although we use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our employees, consultants, outside scientific advisors, contractors, and collaborators might intentionally or inadvertently disclose our trade secret information to competitors. In addition, competitors may otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. 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 from using that technology or information to compete with us. Furthermore, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the United States. As a result, we may encounter significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property both in the United States and abroad. If we are unable to prevent unauthorized material disclosure of our intellectual property to third parties, or misappropriation of our intellectual property by third parties, we will not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our 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

53

Table of Contents

other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and may also export infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with any products that we may develop and commercialize, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology and pharmaceutical products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents 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 may not prevail in any lawsuits that we 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.

Changes in the patent law in the United States could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates and technology.

As is the case with other biotechnology companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property rights, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biotechnology industry involve both technological and legal complexity, and is therefore obtaining and enforcing biotechnology patents is costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the United States has recently enacted and is currently implementing wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.

The term of our patents may not be sufficient to effectively protect our market position and products.

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after it is filed. Various extensions may be available; however, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if we obtain patents covering our product candidates, once the patent life has expired for a product, we may be open to competition from other products. If the lives of our patents are not sufficient to effectively protect our products and business, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.

Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

We do not have experience marketing any product candidates and do not have a sales force or distribution capabilities, and if our products are approved we may be unable to commercialize them successfully.

We currently have no experience in marketing and selling therapeutic products. If any of our product candidates are approved for marketing, we intend to establish marketing and sales capabilities internally or we may selectively seek to enter into partnerships with other entities to utilize their marketing and distribution capabilities. If we are unable to develop adequate marketing and sales capabilities on our own or effectively partner with third parties, our ability to generate product revenues will suffer.

The commercial success of our product candidates will depend upon the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payers and others in the medical community.

The commercial success of our products, if approved for marketing, will depend in part on the medical community, patients and third-party payers accepting our product candidates as effective and safe. If these products do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue and may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our products, if approved for marketing, will depend on a number of factors, including:

54

Table of Contents

Even if a potential product displays a favorable efficacy and safety profile in preclinical studies and clinical trials, market acceptance of the product will not be known until after it is launched. Any failure to achieve market acceptance for our product candidates will harm our business, results and financial condition.

We expect to face uncertainty regarding the pricing of our existing product candidates and any other product candidates that we may develop. If pricing policies for our product candidates are unfavorable, our commercial success will be impaired.

Due to the novel nature of our cellular immunotherapy product candidates, we face significant uncertainty as to the pricing of any such products for which we may receive marketing approval. While we anticipate that pricing for any cellular immunotherapy product candidates that we develop will be relatively high due to their anticipated use in the prevention or treatment of life-threatening diseases where therapeutic options are limited, the biopharmaceutical industry has recently experienced significant pricing pressures. In particular, drug pricing and other healthcare costs continue to be subject to intense political and societal pressures, which we anticipate will continue and escalate on a global basis. These pressures may result in harm to our business and reputation, cause our stock price to decline or experience periods of volatility and adversely affect results of operations and our ability to raise funds.

The insurance coverage and reimbursement status of newly-approved products is uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates could limit our product revenues.

Our ability to commercialize any of our product candidates successfully will depend in part on the availability of coverage and reimbursement for these products from third-party payors, including government health administration authorities, private health insurers, and other managed care organizations. The availability and extent of reimbursement by governmental and private payors is essential for most patients who generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs of their care, including treatments such as cellular immunotherapy. Because our product candidates represent new approaches to the treatment of cancer, there is significant uncertainty as to the insurance coverage and reimbursement status of any product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement for new medicines are typically made by CMS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS decides whether and to what extent a new medicine will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare, and private payors tend to follow CMS determinations to a substantial degree. If reimbursement or insurance coverage is not available for our product candidates, or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be sufficient to allow us to establish or maintain pricing to generate income. Factors payors consider in determining reimbursement are based on whether the product is: (i) a covered benefit under its health plan; (ii) safe, effective and medically necessary; (iii) appropriate for the specific patient; (iv) cost-effective; and (v) neither experimental nor investigational. See section entitled “Business - Government Regulation – Coverage and Reimbursement.”

In addition, reimbursement agencies in foreign jurisdictions may be more conservative than those in the United States. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our products may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits. Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors, in the United States and abroad, 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 our product candidates. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate reimbursement for any products for which we receive marketing approval will adversely affect our ability to achieve commercial success, and could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize products, and our overall financial condition.

Additionally, net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the United States. Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. We cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any product candidate that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, the level of reimbursement. In addition, many pharmaceutical manufacturers must calculate and report certain price reporting metrics to the government, such as average sales price, or ASP, and best price. Penalties may apply in some cases when such metrics are not submitted accurately and timely. Further, these prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs.

55

Table of Contents

In addition, in some foreign countries, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing drug pricing vary widely from country to country. For example, the European Union provides options for its Member States to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval, some of these countries may require the completion of clinical trials that compare the cost effectiveness of a particular product candidate to currently available therapies. A Member State may approve a specific price for the medicinal product or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the medicinal product on the market. 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 product candidates. Historically, products launched in the European Union do not follow price structures of the U.S. and generally prices tend to be significantly lower.

If the market opportunities for our product candidates are smaller than we believe they are, our revenues may be adversely affected and our business may suffer. Because the target patient populations of our product candidates are small, we must be able to successfully identify patients and capture a significant market share to achieve and maintain profitability.

We focus our research and development on product candidates for rare diseases, including cancer. 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 our product candidates, are based on estimates. These estimates may prove to be incorrect, and new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The number of patients in the United States, Europe and elsewhere may turn out to be lower than expected or may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our products, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business. Additionally, because our target patient populations are small, we will be required to capture a significant market share to achieve and maintain profitability.

Healthcare legislative or regulatory reform measures may have a negative impact on our business and results of operations.

In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been, and continue to be, several legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities, and affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. See section entitled “Business - Government Regulation – Healthcare Reform and Other Regulatory Changes.”

Additionally, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny in the United States of pharmaceutical and biologics pricing practices in light of the rising cost of prescription drugs and biologics. Such scrutiny has resulted in various congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for products.

On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order directing the FDA to, among other things, continue to clarify and improve the approval framework for generic drugs and biosimilars, including the standards for interchangeability of biological products, facilitate the development and approval of biosimilar and interchangeable products, clarify existing requirements and procedures related to the review and submission of BLAs, and identify and address any efforts to impede generic drug and biosimilar competition.

Additional changes that may affect our business include those governing enrollment in federal healthcare programs, reimbursement changes, rules regarding prescription drug benefits under the health insurance exchanges and fraud and abuse and enforcement. Continued implementation of the ACA and the passage of additional laws and regulations may result in the expansion of new programs such as Medicare payment for performance initiatives, and may impact existing government healthcare programs, such as by improving the physician quality reporting system and feedback program.

For each state that does not choose to expand its Medicaid program, there likely will be fewer insured patients overall, which could impact the sales, business and financial condition of manufacturers of branded prescription drugs. Where patients receive insurance coverage under any of the new options made available through the ACA, the possibility exists that manufacturers may be required to pay Medicaid rebates on that resulting drug utilization, a decision that could impact manufacturer revenues. The U.S. federal government also has announced delays in the implementation of key provisions of the ACA. The implications of these delays for our and our partners’ business and financial condition, if any, are not yet clear.

We expect that additional U.S. federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that the U.S. Federal Government will pay for healthcare drugs and services, which could result in reduced demand for our drug candidates or additional pricing pressures. Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain drug access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures,

56

Table of Contents

and designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. Legally mandated price controls on payment amounts by third-party payors or other restrictions could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs. This could reduce the ultimate demand for our drugs or put pressure on our drug pricing, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

The success of our existing product candidates is substantially dependent on developments within the field of cellular immunotherapy, and specifically developments relating to the use of pluripotent or genome edited cells for the manufacture of cellular therapeutics, some of which are beyond our control.

Our product candidates are designed and are being developed as therapeutic entities for use as cellular immunotherapies, and all of our current product candidates are based on our novel iPSC platform. Additionally, some of our product candidates utilize novel genome editing technologies. To date, there is limited clinical trial experience testing iPSC-derived therapeutic product candidates and genome edited therapeutics. The fields of cellular and genome edited therapies are evolving, and as more therapeutic product candidates derived from pluripotent and genome edited cells are reviewed by regulatory authorities, regulatory authorities may impose additional requirements for approval that were not previously anticipated. There have also been several significant adverse events from gene therapy treatments in the past, including reported cases of leukemia and death. There can be no assurance that any product candidates developed from or related to our iPSC platform or any of our research programs will not cause severe or undesirable side effects or result in significant delays or unanticipated costs, or that such development problems can be solved. Any adverse developments in the fields of cellular immunotherapy or genome edited therapy will negatively affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates.

We face intense competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and the immune-oncology industry specifically, are intensely competitive and characterized by rapid and significant innovation. We face competition from biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research institutions, and many of our competitors have greater financial and other resources, such as larger research and development staff and more experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations and facilities. In particular, there are several companies and institutions developing products that may be competitive to our iPSC-derived product candidates or candidates in our research and development pipeline, or may render our product candidates obsolete or noncompetitive. Should one or more of these products be successful, the market for our products may be reduced or eliminated, and we may not achieve commercial success. For additional information regarding our competition, see “Item 1. Business—Competition” in our Annual Report.

The loss of any member of our senior management team or our inability to attract and retain key personnel and consultants could adversely affect our business.

We may not be able to retain or attract qualified management, finance, scientific and clinical personnel and consultants due to the intense competition for a limited number of qualified personnel and consultants among biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other businesses. The loss of any members of our senior management team could adversely impact our operations if we experience difficulties in recruiting and hiring qualified successors. We may also experience difficulties in attracting or retaining personnel with sufficient experience and skills in the complex and emerging field of cellular therapeutic development and manufacture to support our ongoing and planned clinical development activities. Many of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that we compete against for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources and different risk profiles than we do. We may be required to provide compensation in excess of historical levels in order to recruit and retain personnel in the current market. If we are not able to retain and attract necessary personnel and consultants to perform the requisite operational roles and accomplish our business objectives, we may experience constraints that will significantly impede the achievement of our development objectives, our ability to raise additional capital and our ability to implement our business strategy.

We expect to continue to expand our development and manufacturing operations, and as a result, we may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our operations.

We are experiencing rapid growth and as of December 31, 2021, we had 449 employees. We expect continued growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly to continue our clinical and research operations, and to expand our regulatory, quality, and manufacturing operations. This expected growth may place a strain on our administrative and operational

57

Table of Contents

infrastructure, and managing this growth may impose significant added responsibilities on members of management and divert a substantial amount of attention from day-to-day activities.

To manage our anticipated future growth, we will continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational, and financial systems, expand our facilities, and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the complexity in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Any inability to manage our expected growth and the expansion of our operations may result in loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees, weaknesses in our infrastructure, and operational mistakes, including in the operation and qualification of our GMP manufacturing operations and facility, and could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations. The expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.

The global COVID-19 pandemic could adversely impact various aspects of our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the global health and economic environment, including millions of confirmed cases and deaths, business slowdowns or shutdowns, labor shortages, supply chain challenges, changes in government requirements, regulatory challenges, inflationary pressures and market volatility. Although we have, to date, managed to continue most of our operations, we cannot predict the future course of events nor can we assure that this global pandemic, including its economic impact, will not have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, various aspects of our business operations have been, and could continue to be, disrupted. The pandemic likely will continue to impact our workforce, including impacts on staffing levels (as a result of illnesses, quarantine, isolation and absenteeism), adjusted work locations and schedules and access to our facilities. The pandemic may require us to continue to take extraordinary measures to protect the health and well-being of our employees. For example, since the start of the pandemic we have implemented a range of health and safety measures, which have included, at various times, imposing onsite occupancy limits, restricting on-site staff to only those required to execute certain laboratory, manufacturing and related support activities, and requiring self-health testing prior to coming onsite.

The increase in working remotely could increase our cybersecurity risk, create data accessibility concerns, and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions, any of which could adversely impact our business operations or delay necessary interactions with local and federal regulators, ethics committees, manufacturing sites, and clinical trial sites. If our on-site staff conducting research and development, preclinical studies, and manufacturing activities are not able to access our laboratories or manufacturing space, whether due to quarantine/isolation orders, travel restrictions or other government restrictions, these core activities may be significantly limited or curtailed, possibly for an extended period of time, which could impair our ability to complete IND-enabling studies or select future development candidates. Our business operations may be further disrupted if our manufacturing facility becomes subject to a viral contamination requiring a suspension of manufacturing activities, or if any of our employees, officers or directors, or their respective personal or business contacts, contract an illness related to COVID-19, including new variants of the virus, that renders them unable to perform their duties as a result.

The macroeconomic impacts of the pandemic, including a tightened labor market and evolving government requirements, including those related to vaccinations, will also likely continue to affect our company. They may further affect our ability to hire, develop and retain our talented and diverse workforce, to maintain performance levels, and to maintain our corporate culture. We expect to continue to incur additional costs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including to protect the health and well-being of our employees and to respond to government requirements, which costs we may not be fully able to recover.

The pandemic has impacted and may continue to impact the company’s supply chains. If our suppliers have increased challenges with their workforce (including as a result of illness, absenteeism, reactions to health and safety or government requirements), facility closures, timely access to necessary components, materials and other supplies at reasonable prices, access to capital, and access to fundamental support services (such as shipping and transportation), they may be unable to provide the agreed-upon goods and services in a timely, compliant and cost-effective manner. We have incurred and may in the future incur additional costs and delays in our business, including as a result of higher prices, schedule delays or the need to identify and develop alternative suppliers.

In addition, the trading prices for our common stock and other biopharmaceutical companies have been highly volatile as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we may face difficulties raising capital through equity or debt financings, or such financing transactions may be on unfavorable terms. While the potential economic impact brought by and the duration of the pandemic may be difficult to assess or predict, it has already caused, and is likely to result in further, significant disruptions and uncertainties in global financial markets, which may reduce our ability to access capital either at all or on favorable terms. In addition,

58

Table of Contents

a recession, depression or other sustained adverse market event resulting from the spread of COVID-19, including new variants of the virus, could materially and adversely affect our business and the value of our common stock.

The ultimate impact of the current pandemic, or any other health epidemic, is highly uncertain and subject to change. For example, the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants in 2021 significantly impacted rates of infection and prompted public health officials to reconsider certain health and safety measures that had been adopted to date, including vaccination requirements, guidance around quarantine and isolation periods, and mask wearing. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, our clinical and preclinical programs, our research, manufacturing, and regulatory activities, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole. However, these effects could have a material adverse impact on our operations, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.

If we engage in an acquisition, reorganization or business combination, we will incur a variety of risks that could adversely affect our business operations or our stockholders.

From time to time, we have considered, and we will consider in the future, strategic business initiatives intended to further the expansion and development of our business. These initiatives may include acquiring businesses, technologies or products or entering into business combinations with other companies. If we pursue such a strategy, we could, among other things:

Although we intend to evaluate and consider acquisitions, reorganizations and business combinations in the future, we have no agreements or understandings with respect to any acquisition, reorganization or business combination at this time.

We face potential product liability exposure far in excess of our limited insurance coverage.

The use of our product candidates in clinical trials, and the sale of any products for which we obtain marketing approval, exposes us to the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims might be brought against us by participants in clinical trials, hospitals, medical centers, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, and consumers, or by others selling, manufacturing or otherwise coming into contact with our product candidates. We carry product liability insurance and we believe our product liability insurance coverage is sufficient in light of our current clinical programs. In addition, if and when we obtain marketing approval for product candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products; however, we may be unable to obtain insurance coverage for any approved products on commercially reasonable terms or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability.

On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on drugs or medical treatments that had unanticipated adverse effects. In addition, under some of our agreements with clinical trial sites, we are required to indemnify the sites and their personnel against product liability and other claims. A successful product liability claim, or a series of claims, brought against us or any third parties whom we are required to indemnify could cause our stock price to decline and, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could adversely affect our results of operations and business.

Patients with the diseases targeted by our product candidates are often already in severe and advanced stages of disease and have both known and unknown significant pre-existing and potentially life-threatening health risks. During the course of treatment, patients may suffer adverse events, including death, for a variety of reasons. Such events, whether or not resulting from our product candidates, could subject us to costly litigation, require us to pay substantial amounts of money to injured patients, delay, negatively affect or end our opportunity to receive or maintain regulatory approval to market our products, or require us to suspend or abandon our commercialization efforts. Even in a circumstance in which we do not believe that an adverse event is related to our products, the investigation into the circumstance may be time-consuming or inconclusive. These investigations may interrupt our development and commercialization efforts, delay our regulatory approval process, or impact and limit the type of regulatory approvals our product candidates receive or maintain. As a result of these factors, a product liability claim, even if successfully defended, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

59

Table of Contents

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

We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk to which our business is or may be exposed. Some of the policies we maintain include general liability, product liability, property, employee benefits liability, employment practices, workers’ compensation, cyber, directors’ and officers’ insurance, and umbrella. We do not know, however, if we will be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts or scope to protect us against losses. Even if we obtain insurance, a claim could exceed the amount of our insurance coverage or it may be excluded from coverage under the terms of the policy. Further, insurance coverage may not be available or successfully secured for loss profits or business interruption relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts. Any significant uninsured liability may require us to pay substantial amounts, which would adversely affect our cash position and results of operations.

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

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with the regulations of the FDA or foreign regulators, to provide accurate information to the FDA or foreign regulators, to comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations in the United States and abroad, to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. Employee and independent contractor misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. If any actions alleging such conduct are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant effect on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

We face risks of potential liability related to the privacy of personal information, including health information we utilize in the development of our products, as well as information we obtain from clinical trials sponsored by us from research institutions and directly from individuals.

We and our partners and vendors may be subject to various federal, state, and foreign data protection laws and regulations (i.e., laws and regulations that address privacy and data security). In the United States, numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including federal health information privacy laws, state data breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws, and federal and state consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), that govern the collection, use, disclosure and protection of health-related and other personal information could apply to our operations or the operations of our collaborators, including the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and privacy and security requirements under HIPAA, as amended by Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH). Depending on the facts and circumstances, we could be subject to civil, criminal, and administrative penalties if we knowingly obtain, use, or disclose individually identifiable health information maintained by a HIPAA-covered entity in a manner that is not authorized or permitted by HIPAA. There is no certainty that all of our employees, agents, suppliers, manufacturers, contractors, or collaborators, or those of our affiliates, will comply with all applicable laws and regulations, particularly given the high level of complexity of these laws. Even when HIPAA does not apply, failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure may constitute a violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. In addition, certain of the materials we use as starting material in our iPSC-derived product candidates are derived from human sources, which potentially contain sensitive identifiable personal information regarding the donor. In addition, in conducting our clinical trials, we may maintain sensitive identifiable personal information, including health information, that we receive throughout the clinical trial process, in the course of our research collaborations, and directly from individuals (or their healthcare providers) who enroll in our clinical trials. As such, we may become subject to further obligations under HIPAA. Our collection of personal information generally (e.g., of employees currently and/or of patients in the future) may subject us to state data privacy laws governing the processing of personal information and requiring notification of affected individuals and state regulators in the event of a breach of such personal information. These state laws include the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its related regulations, and (once effective) the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) amending the CCPA, which establish additional data privacy rights for residents of the State of California, with corresponding obligations on businesses related to transparency, deletion rights, and opt-out of the selling of personal information, and grants a private right of action for individuals in the event of certain security breaches. Similar laws relating to data privacy and security have been proposed in other states and at the federal level, and if passed, such laws may have potentially conflicting requirements that would make compliance challenging, require us to expend significant resources to come into compliance, and restrict our ability to process certain personal information.

60

Table of Contents

Certain state laws may be more stringent or broader in scope than the CPRA, or offer greater individual rights, with respect to confidential, sensitive and personal information than federal, international or other state laws, and such laws may differ from each other, which may complicate compliance efforts.

We are likely to be required to expend significant capital and other resources to ensure ongoing compliance with applicable data privacy and security laws. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights or breached our contractual obligations, even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time-consuming to defend, and could result in adverse publicity that could harm our business. Moreover, even if we take all necessary action to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, we could be subject to a data breach or other unauthorized access of personal information, which could subject us to fines and penalties, as well as litigation and reputational damage. If we fail to keep apprised of and comply with applicable international, federal, state, or local regulatory requirements, we could be subject to a range of regulatory actions that could affect our or any collaborators’ ability to seek to commercialize our clinical candidates. Any threatened or actual government enforcement action or litigation where private rights of action are available could also generate adverse publicity, damage our reputation, result in liabilities, fines and loss of business, and require that we devote substantial resources that could otherwise be used in other aspects of our business.

We make public statements about our use and disclosure of personal information through our privacy policy information provided on our internet platform and press statements. Although we endeavor to comply with our public statements and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our employees or contractual partners fail to comply with our published policies, certifications and documentation. The publication of our privacy policy and other statements that provide promises and assurances about data privacy and security can subject us to potential government or legal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Any failure, real or perceived, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any legal or regulatory requirements, standards, certifications or orders or other privacy or consumer protection-related laws and regulations applicable to us could cause our customers to reduce their use of our products and services and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In many jurisdictions, enforcement actions and consequences for non-compliance can be significant and are rising. In addition, from time to time, concerns may be expressed about whether our products, services or processes compromise the privacy of customers and others. Concerns about our practices with regard to the collection, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal information or other privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Many statutory requirements, both in the United States and abroad, include obligations for companies to notify individuals of security breaches involving certain personal information, which could result from breaches experienced by us or our third-party service providers. For example, laws in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia require businesses to provide notice to consumers whose sensitive personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. These laws are not consistent, and compliance in the event of a widespread data breach is difficult and may be costly. Moreover, states have been frequently amending existing laws, requiring attention to changing regulatory requirements. We also may be contractually required to notify customers or other counterparties of a security breach. Although we may have contractual protections with our third-party service providers, contractors and consultants, any actual or perceived security breach could harm our reputation and brand, expose us to potential liability or require us to expend significant resources on data security and in responding to any such actual or perceived breach. Any contractual protections we may have from our third-party service providers, contractors or consultants may not be sufficient to adequately protect us from any such liabilities and losses, and we may be unable to enforce any such contractual protections.

In addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits, regulatory investigations, public censure, other claims and penalties, and significant costs for remediation and damage to our reputation, we could be materially and adversely affected if legislation or regulations are expanded in a manner that requires changes in our data processing practices and policies or if governing jurisdictions interpret or implement their legislation or regulations in ways that negatively impact our business. Complying with these various laws could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices and compliance procedures in a manner adverse to our business. Any inability to adequately address data privacy or security-related concerns, even if unfounded, or to comply with applicable laws, regulations, standards and other obligations relating to data privacy and security, could result in additional cost and liability to us, harm our reputation and brand, damage our relationships with contract partners and the physician and patient community and have a material and adverse impact on our business.

Our internal computer systems, or those used by our third-party research institution collaborators, CROs or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our future CROs and other contractors, vendors, and consultants may be vulnerable to damage from cyber risks, including attempts to gain unauthorized access to and to harm sensitive information and networks, insider threats, and ransomware. These vulnerabilities may be heightened as a result of remote work policies implemented by us and our third-party contractors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

61

Table of Contents

We have from time to time experienced, and may continue to experience in the future, cyber-attacks on our information technology systems despite our best efforts to prevent them. Although such breaches have been immaterial to our business to date, investigations into and remedial efforts in connection with any breaches, even those with immaterial impact, can be costly and time-consuming, and any future breaches could be material, or cause significant disruption, to our business. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed, ongoing or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Likewise, we rely on third parties for research and development, the manufacture and supply of drug product and drug substance and to conduct clinical trials. We depend on these third parties to implement adequate controls and safeguards to protect against and report cyber incidents. If they fail to do so, we may suffer financial and other harm, including to our information, operations, performance, and reputation. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or systems, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the further development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed.

Cyber threats, both on premises and in the cloud, are evolving and include, but are not limited to: malicious software, destructive malware, ransomware, attempts to gain unauthorized access to systems or data, disruption to operations, critical systems or denial of service attacks; unauthorized release of confidential, personal or otherwise protected information; corruption of data, networks or systems; harm to individuals; and loss of assets. In addition, we could be impacted by cyber threats or other disruptions or vulnerabilities found in products or services we use that are provided to us by third-parties. The techniques used by criminal elements to attack computer systems are sophisticated, change frequently and may originate from less regulated and remote areas of the world. As a result, we may not be able to address these techniques proactively or implement adequate preventative measures. These events, if not prevented or effectively mitigated, could damage our reputation, require remedial actions and lead to loss of business, regulatory actions, potential liability and other financial losses.

Certain data breaches must also be reported to affected individuals and various government and/or regulatory agencies, and in some cases to the media, under provisions of HIPAA, as amended by HITECH, other U.S. federal and state law, and requirements of non-U.S. jurisdictions, including the European Union Data Protection Directive, and financial penalties may also apply.

Our insurance policies may not be adequate to compensate us for the potential losses arising from breaches, failures or disruptions of our infrastructure, catastrophic events and disasters or otherwise. In addition, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Further, our insurance may not cover all claims made against us and defending a suit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention.

Furthermore, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data.

Inadequate funding for the FDA, the SEC and other government agencies, including from government shut downs, or other disruptions to these agencies’ operations, could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, prevent new products and services from being developed or commercialized in a timely manner or otherwise prevent those agencies from performing normal business functions on which the operation of our business may rely, which could negatively impact our business.

The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, and statutory, regulatory and policy changes. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result of these factors. Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new product candidates to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. In addition, government funding of the SEC and other government agencies on which our operations may rely, including those that fund research and development activities, is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.

Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new product candidates to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and the SEC, have had to furlough critical FDA, SEC and other government employees and stop critical activities. If a prolonged government shutdown occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, future government shutdowns could impact our ability to access the public markets and obtain necessary capital in order to properly capitalize and continue our operations.

62

Table of Contents

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and the Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our ongoing and planned operations, including the development of our product candidates, will require substantial additional funding, without which we will be unable to complete preclinical or clinical development of, or obtain regulatory approval for, our product candidates.

We are currently advancing multiple product candidates through clinical development, and conducting preclinical research and development activities in our other programs. Drug development is expensive, and we expect our research and development expenses to increase substantially in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we advance our current product candidates in clinical trials and seek to initiate clinical development for additional product candidates.

As of December 31, 2021, our cash and cash equivalents and investments were $716.6 million. We intend to use our cash and cash equivalents and investments primarily to fund the advancement and clinical development of our current product candidates and our ongoing preclinical, discovery and research programs, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. However, our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings, government or other third-party funding, marketing and distribution arrangements and other collaborations, strategic and licensing arrangements or a combination of these approaches. In any event, we will require additional capital to obtain regulatory approval for, and to commercialize our existing product candidates and any other product candidates we may identify and develop. Even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans, we may seek additional capital if market conditions are favorable or if we have specific strategic considerations. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

Any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates. In addition, we cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Moreover, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our stockholders and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. The sale of additional equity or convertible securities would dilute all of our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and we may be required to agree to certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or

63

Table of Contents

license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. We could also be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborative partners or otherwise at a different stage than otherwise would be desirable and we may be required to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects. In addition, while the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy is currently unknown and difficult to predict, the pandemic has caused significant disruptions and created uncertainties in the global financial markets, and the economic impacts of the pandemic could materially and adversely affect our ability to raise capital through equity or debt financings in the future.

If we cannot raise additional capital or obtain adequate funds, we may be required to curtail significantly our research and clinical programs or may not be able to continue our research or clinical development of our product candidates. Our failure to raise additional capital, or obtain adequate funds, will have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations, and market price of shares of our common stock.

We have a limited operating history, have incurred significant losses since our inception, and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company formed in 2007 with a limited operating history. We have not yet obtained regulatory approval for any of our product candidates or generated any revenues from therapeutic product sales. Since inception, we have incurred significant net losses in each year and, as of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $769.1 million. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future as we continue to fund our ongoing and planned clinical trials of our product candidates, and our other ongoing and planned research and development activities. We also expect to incur significant operating and capital expenditures as we continue our research and development of, and seek regulatory approval for, our product candidates, in-license or acquire new product candidates for development, implement additional infrastructure and internal systems, and hire additional scientific, clinical, and administrative personnel. We anticipate that our net losses for the next several years could be significant as we conduct our planned operations.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical, biological, and cell therapy product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability. In addition, our expenses could increase if we are required by the FDA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, to perform studies or trials in addition to those currently expected, or if there are any delays in completing our clinical trials, preclinical studies, process development, manufacturing activities, or the research and development of any of our product candidates. The amount of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of increase in our expenses, our ability to generate revenues and our ability to raise additional capital. These net losses have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital.

Our stock price is subject to fluctuation based on a variety of factors.

The market price of shares of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations as a result of many risks listed in this section, and other risks beyond our control, including:

64

Table of Contents

These and other market and industry factors, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, may cause the market price and demand for our common stock to fluctuate substantially regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their shares of common stock and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our common stock.

Changes in our stock price may also trigger financial obligations under our licensing arrangements. For example, pursuant to the terms of our license agreement with MSK, MSK is eligible to receive from us certain milestone payments totaling up to $75.0 million based on the price of our common stock, where the amount of such payments owed to MSK is contingent upon certain increases in the price of our common stock following the date of achievement of a specified clinical milestone. In July 2021, we achieved the specified clinical milestone for a licensed product under our license agreement with MSK and our ten-trading day trailing average common stock price exceeded the first, pre-specified threshold. Accordingly, MSK received the first milestone payment of $20.0 million in November 2021; however, uncertainty of the price of our common stock results in an inability to ascertain the precise timing of any remaining future milestone payments in advance.

Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and may be able to exercise significant control over our company.

As of February 17, 2022, our executive officers, directors and entities affiliated with our five percent stockholders beneficially own, in the aggregate, shares representing approximately 42.6% of our outstanding voting stock. If, in accordance with the CoD (as such term is defined in Note 9 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements herewith) relating to the Class A Convertible Preferred Stock, Redmile (as such term is defined in Note 9 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements herewith) elects to remove certain limitations on the percentage of the our outstanding common stock that it may own such that the 2,794,549 shares of Class A Convertible Preferred Stock currently held by Redmile become fully convertible at Redmile’s option into 13,972,745 shares of common stock, the beneficial ownership of our executive officers, directors and entities affiliated with our five percent stockholders would increase to 49.6%. Although we are not aware of any voting arrangements in place among these stockholders, if these stockholders were to choose to act together, as a result of their stock ownership, they would be able to influence our management and affairs and control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and approval of any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company that our other stockholders may believe are in their best interests, or adversely affecting the liquidity, volatility, and market price of our common stock. For example, if any of our directors, executive officers or other entities affiliated with our five percent stockholders elect to sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of a significant amount of shares of our common stock, this could result in a decrease in our stock price. Furthermore, any transferees or successors of all or a significant portion of our existing stockholders’ ownership in us will be able to exert a similar amount of control over us through their ownership position.

We may sell additional equity or debt securities or enter into other arrangements to fund our operations, which may result in dilution to our stockholders and impose restrictions or limitations on our business.

We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations, and we may seek additional funding through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, state or government grants, strategic alliances, licensing and collaboration arrangements, or other third-party business arrangements. These financing activities may have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ rights, the market price of our common stock and on our operations and may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies, intellectual property or product candidates, issue additional equity or debt securities, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us. Further, in November 2021 we filed a Form S-3 pursuant to which we may issue up to $350.0 million in common stock in sales deemed to be an “at the market offering” as defined by the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act) and, so long as we qualify as a “well-known seasoned issuer” as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act, an unlimited amount of shares of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants and/or units. Any sale or issuance of securities pursuant to a registration statement or otherwise may result in dilution to our stockholders and may cause the market price of our stock to decline, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing stockholders. In addition, any debt financings that we may enter into in the future may impose restrictive covenants or otherwise adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our stockholders, and any additional equity financings will be dilutive to our stockholders. Furthermore, additional equity or debt financing might not be available to us on reasonable terms, if at all.

65

Table of Contents

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the market in the near future, which could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. A significant portion of our outstanding shares of common stock are held by a small number of stockholders, including our directors, officers and significant stockholders. Sales by our stockholders of a substantial number of shares, or the expectation that such sales may occur, could significantly reduce the market price of our common stock.

For example, we registered all of the 5,250,000 shares of common stock issued by us in our August 2016 private placement transaction for resale on a Form S-3, which was declared effective by the SEC in September 2016. We also registered all of the 6,766,915 shares of common stock issued by us and all 14,097,745 shares of common stock issuable upon the conversion of an aggregate of 2,819,549 shares of Class A Convertible Preferred Stock issued by us in our November 2016 private placement transaction for resale on a Form S-3, which was declared effective by the SEC in January 2017. Additionally, we have registered the shares of common stock issued to Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. under a stock purchase agreement entered into in connection with the Janssen Agreement pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-3. Moreover, we registered all of the 5,380,117 shares of common stock issued by us and all of the 257,310 prefunded warrants to purchase common stock in our public offering in January 2021.

We have also registered or intend to register all shares of our common stock subject to options, restricted stock units or other equity awards issued or reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans. As a result, these shares will be available for sale in the public market subject to vesting arrangements and exercise of options, and restrictions under applicable securities laws. In addition, certain of our executive officers, employees and affiliates have established or may in the future establish programmed selling plans under Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, for the purpose of effecting sales of our common stock. If any of these events cause a large number of our shares to be sold in the public market, the sales could reduce the trading price of our common stock and impede our ability to raise future capital.

We have broad discretion over the use of our cash, cash equivalents, and investments and may not use them effectively.

Our management has broad discretion to use our cash, cash equivalents, investments and any additional funds that we may raise to fund our operations and could spend these funds in ways that do not improve our results of operations or enhance the value of our common stock. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could result in financial losses that could have a material adverse effect on our business, cause the price of our common stock to decline or delay the development of our product candidates. We may invest our cash and cash equivalents in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

Provisions of Delaware law or our charter documents could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, and could make it more difficult for you to change management.

Provisions of Delaware law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, and our amended and restated bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions may also prevent or delay attempts by stockholders to replace or remove our current management or members of our board of directors. These provisions include:

In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock to merge or combine with us. Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or discouraging a potential acquisition proposal or tender offer could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to achieve liquidity for their shares of our common stock, even if the acquisition proposal or tender offer is at a premium over the then-current market price for our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.

66

Table of Contents

Our amended and restated bylaws designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the U.S. federal district courts as the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to litigate disputes with us in a different judicial forum.

Pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty or other wrongdoing by any of our directors, officers, or employees to us or our stockholders; (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; or (iv) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This exclusive forum provision will not apply to any causes of action arising under the Securities Act. Unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternate forum, the U.S. federal district courts shall be the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. The forum selection clause in our amended and restated bylaws may limit our stockholders’ ability to litigate disputes with us in a different judicial forum.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax benefits may be limited and, as a result, our future tax liability may increase.

As of December 31, 2021, we had federal and California net operating loss carryforwards of $289.7 million and $291.2 million, respectively, some of which begin to expire in various amounts in 2027 and 2028, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, we also had federal and California research and development tax credit carryforwards of $25.7 million and $25.8 million, respectively. The federal research and development tax credit carryforwards will begin to expire in 2035 unless previously utilized, while the California carryforwards will carry forward indefinitely. These net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. In addition, in general, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses (NOLs) or tax credits, or NOLs or credits, to offset future taxable income or taxes. Generally, a change of more than 50 percentage points in the ownership of a corporation’s stock, by value, over a three-year period constitutes an ownership change for U.S. federal income tax purposes. We have determined that we triggered an ownership change limitation in November 2009 and again in May 2015. We have determined that we do not believe there were any ownership changes from May 2015 through December 2021. We have not analyzed periods subsequent to December 2021. We may experience additional ownership changes as a result of shifts in our stock ownership in the future. Limits on our ability to use our pre-change NOLs or credits to offset U.S. federal taxable income could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us if we earn net taxable income in the future. The amount of NOLs generated in taxable periods beginning after December 31, 2021, that we are permitted to deduct in any taxable year is limited to 80% of our taxable income in such year, where taxable income is determined without regard to the NOL deduction itself. U.S. federal and certain state NOLs generated in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 are not subject to expiration.

General Risk Factors

We could be subject to securities class action litigation.

The stock market in general, and the Nasdaq Global Market and biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. In the past, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities. This type of litigation, if instituted, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which would harm our business, operating results, or financial condition. Additionally, the dramatic increase in the cost of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance may cause us to opt for lower overall policy limits or to forgo insurance that we may otherwise rely on to cover significant defense costs, settlements, and damages awarded to plaintiffs.

Unfavorable global economic conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our ability to invest in and expand our business and meet our financial obligations, to attract and retain third-party contractors and collaboration partners and to raise additional capital depends on our operating and financial performance, which, in turn, is subject to numerous factors, including the prevailing economic and political conditions and financial, business, regulatory and other factors beyond our control, such as the rate of unemployment, the number of uninsured persons in the United States, political influences and inflationary pressures, and fluctuations in costs, particularly due to changes in labor costs and material costs. For example, an overall decrease in or loss of insurance coverage among individuals in the United States due to high levels of unemployment (particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic), underemployment or the repeal of certain provisions of the ACA may decrease the demand for healthcare services and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, the availability of healthcare services and resources is currently constrained due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If fewer patients are seeking medical care because they do not have insurance coverage or are unable

67

Table of Contents

to obtain medical care for their conditions due to resource constraints on the healthcare system, we may experience difficulties in any eventual commercialization of our product candidates and our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely affected. In addition, if we are unable to manage cost fluctuations and inflationary pressures, including prices of materials, costs of labor, it may adversely impact our operating performance, expenses and results.

In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets upon which pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies such as us are dependent for sources of capital. In the past, global financial crises have caused extreme volatility and disruptions in the capital and credit markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, could result in a variety of risks to our business, including a reduced ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all, and weakened demand for our product candidates. A weak or declining economy could also strain our suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic, current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.

We or the third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by earthquakes, fires, or other natural disasters, including epidemics and pandemics such as COVID-19, and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.

Earthquakes, fires, or other natural disasters could severely disrupt our operations, and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as our manufacturing facilities or those of our CMOs, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. For example, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may experience delays or disruptions in our clinical development activities, our research and development activities, and in the supply of drug product for our clinical trials. Any continued or subsequent measures taken by governmental authorities or businesses to contain the spread of COVID-19, or the perception that such measures may be required in the future should another outbreak occur, could adversely affect our business, operations, financial condition, prospects or results of operations by restricting our ability to conduct our clinical trials and research and development activities, and limiting our and our third-party manufacturers’ ability to manufacture product and forcing temporary closure of our facilities and facilities that we rely upon. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and may not prove adequate for protecting and continuing our business in the event that our business is disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or other serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which, when taken together with our lack of earthquake insurance, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.

As a public company, we are required to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended (the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), and the related rules and regulations of the SEC, expanded disclosure requirements, accelerated reporting requirements and more complex accounting rules. Company responsibilities required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include establishing and maintaining corporate oversight and adequate internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent financial fraud.

We cannot assure that we will not have material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to successfully remediate any material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, or identify any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that may exist, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, and our stock price may decline materially as a result.

If we fail to comply with environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations, including regulations governing the handling, storage or disposal of hazardous materials, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.

We are subject to numerous environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous materials, including chemicals, biological materials and infectious agents. Our operations also may produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We will not be able to eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from any use by us

68

Table of Contents

of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties for failure to comply with such laws and regulations.

Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological or hazardous materials.

In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development, or production efforts. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.

Changes in tax law may adversely affect us or our investors.

The rules dealing with U.S. federal, state and local income taxation are constantly under review by persons involved in the legislative process and by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, and the U.S. Treasury Department. Changes to tax laws (which changes may have retroactive application) could adversely affect us or holders of our common stock. In recent years, many such changes have been made and changes are likely to continue to occur in the future. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the TCJA, was enacted in 2017 and made significant changes to corporate taxation, including the reduction of the corporate tax rate from a top marginal rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%, the limitation of the tax deduction for net interest expense to 30% of adjusted taxable income (except for certain small businesses), the limitation of the deduction for net operating losses to 80% of current year taxable income and the elimination of net operating loss carrybacks (though any such net operating losses may be carried forward indefinitely), and the modification or repeal of many business deductions and credits. Additionally, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which, among other things, suspended the 80% limitation on the deduction for net operating losses in taxable years beginning before January 1, 2021, permits a 5-year carryback of net operating losses arising in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2021, and generally caps the limitation on the deduction for net interest expense at 50% of adjusted taxable income for taxable years beginning in 2019 and 2020. It cannot be predicted whether, when, in what form, or with what effective dates, tax laws, regulations and rulings may be enacted, promulgated or issued, which could result in an increase in our or our stockholders’ tax liability or require changes in the manner in which we operate in order to minimize or mitigate any adverse effects of changes in tax law.

Our business could be negatively impacted by corporate citizenship and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) matters and/or our reporting of such matters.

There is an increasing focus from certain investors, consumers, and other stakeholders concerning corporate citizenship and sustainability matters. We could be perceived as not acting responsibly in connection with these matters. Our business could be negatively impacted by such matters. Any such matters, or related corporate citizenship and sustainability matters, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

ITEM 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Not Applicable.

ITEM 2. Properties

Facilities

As of December 31, 2021, we occupied approximately 200,000 square feet of office, laboratory and GMP manufacturing space in San Diego, California under a non-cancelable operating lease through May 2036. In addition, we have additional operating leases for office and laboratory space in San Diego, California, San Francisco, California, and New York, New York. We believe that these facilities are adequate for our current needs.

ITEM 3. Legal Proceedings

We are not a party to any material legal proceedings at this time. From time to time, we may be subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of our business activities. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not believe we are party to any claim or litigation the outcome of which, if determined adversely to us, would individually or in the aggregate be reasonably expected to have a material adverse effect on our business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse effect on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

69

Table of Contents

ITEM 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

70

Table of Contents

PART II

ITEM 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information

Our ticker symbol is “FATE”, as traded and reported by The NASDAQ Global Market.

Holders of Common Stock

As of February 17, 2022, there were approximately 22 stockholders of record of our common stock. The approximate number of holders is based upon the actual number of holders registered in our records at such date and excludes holders in “street name” or persons, partnerships, associations, corporations, or other entities identified in security positions listings maintained by depository trust companies.

Performance Graph

Set forth below is a graph comparing the cumulative total return on our common stock, the NASDAQ Composite® (US) Index and the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index over the five-year period ending December 31, 2021. The graph assumes that $100 was invested in our common stock and in each of the comparative indices as of the market close on December 31, 2016. The past performance of our common stock is no indication of future performance.

Dividends

We have never declared or paid any dividends on our capital or common stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors.

71

Table of Contents

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans

Information about our equity compensation plans is incorporated herein by reference to Item 12 of Part III of this Annual Report.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we did not issue or sell any unregistered securities not previously disclosed in a Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or in a Current Report on Form 8-K.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

We did not repurchase any securities during the year ended December 31, 2021.

ITEM 6. Selected Financial Data

Not applicable.

72

Table of Contents

ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included under Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

This section of this Form 10-K generally discusses 2021 and 2020 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2021 and 2020. Discussions of 2019 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2020 and 2019 that are not included in this Form 10-K can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 24, 2021 and incorporated herein by reference.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for patients with cancer. We are developing first-in-class cell therapy product candidates based on a simple notion: we believe that better cell therapies start with better cells.

To create better cell therapies, we use a therapeutic approach that we generally refer to as cell programming. We use human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate a clonal master iPSC line having preferred biological properties, and we direct the fate of the clonal master iPSC line to create our cell therapy product candidate. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, we believe clonal master iPSC lines can be used as a renewable source for manufacturing cell therapy products which are well-defined and uniform in composition, can be repeatedly mass produced at significant scale in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf to treat many patients. Utilizing this therapeutic approach, we are advancing a pipeline of programmed cellular immunotherapies, including off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) and T-cell product candidates derived from clonal master iPSC lines for the treatment of cancer.

In September 2018, we entered into a collaboration and option agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Ono) for the joint development and commercialization of off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product candidates (Ono Agreement) for the treatment of cancer.

In April 2020, we entered into a collaboration and option agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen), part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen Agreement), for the development and commercialization of off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR NK and CAR T-cell product candidates for the treatment of cancer.

We were incorporated in Delaware in 2007, and are headquartered in San Diego, CA. Since our inception in 2007, we have devoted substantially all of our resources to our cell programming approach and the research and development of our product candidates, the creation, licensing and protection of related intellectual property, and the provision of general and administrative support for these activities. To date, we have funded our operations primarily through the public and private sale of common stock, the private placement of preferred stock and convertible notes, commercial bank debt and revenues from collaboration activities and grants.

We have never been profitable and have incurred net losses in each year since inception. Substantially all of our net losses resulted from costs incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect to continue to incur operating losses for at least the foreseeable future. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We expect our expenses will increase substantially in connection with our ongoing and planned activities as we:

73

Table of Contents

We do not expect to generate any meaningful product sales or royalty revenue unless and until we successfully complete development and obtain regulatory approval for one or more of our product candidates, which we expect will take a number of years. If we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. Accordingly, we will seek to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings or other sources. However, we may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed would have a negative effect on our financial condition and ability to develop our product candidates.

Due to the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), including the emergence of new variants of the virus, we experienced impacts on certain aspects of our business, including our clinical trial and research and development activities, during the year ended December 31, 2021. For example, certain of our research and development activities have been delayed or disrupted as a result of measures we implemented in response to governmental “stay at home” orders and in the interests of public health and safety, and we have experienced delays or disruptions in the initiation and conduct of our clinical trials as a result of prioritization of hospital and other medical resources toward pandemic efforts, policies and procedures implemented at clinical sites with respect to the conduct of clinical trials, and other precautionary measures taken in treating patients or in practicing medicine in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The scope and duration of these delays and disruptions, and the ultimate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations, are currently unknown, and depend on continuously changing circumstances, including the emergence of new variants of the virus, such as the Delta and Omicron variants. We are continuing to actively monitor the situation and may take further precautionary and preemptive actions as may be required by federal, state or local authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of public health and safety and that of our patient community, employees, partners, and stockholders. We cannot predict the effects that such actions, or the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the emergence of new variants of the virus, on global business operations and economic conditions, may have on our business, strategy, collaborations, or financial and operating results.

Financial Operations Overview

We conduct substantially all of our activities through Fate Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, at our facilities in San Diego, California. Fate Therapeutics, Inc. owns 100% of the voting shares of Tfinity Therapeutics, Inc. (Tfinity), 100% of the voting shares of Fate Therapeutics Ltd. (Fate Ltd.), incorporated in the United Kingdom, and 100% of the voting shares of Fate Therapeutics B.V. (Fate B.V.), incorporated in the Netherlands. The following information is presented on a consolidated basis to include the accounts of Fate Therapeutics, Inc., Tfinity, Fate B.V., and Fate Ltd. To date, the aggregate operations of our subsidiaries have not been significant and all intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.

Collaboration Revenue

To date, we have not generated any revenues from therapeutic product sales or royalties. Our revenues have been derived from collaboration agreements and government grants.

Agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc.

On April 2, 2020 (the Janssen Agreement Effective Date), we entered into a Collaboration and Option Agreement (the Janssen Agreement) with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen), part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Additionally, on the Janssen Agreement Effective Date, we entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement (the Stock Purchase Agreement) with Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc. (JJDC). Under the terms of the Janssen Agreement and the Stock Purchase Agreement taken together, we received $100.0 million, of which $50.0 million was an upfront cash payment and $50.0 million was in the form of an equity investment by JJDC. Additionally, we are entitled to receive fees for the conduct of all research, preclinical development and IND-enabling activities performed by us under the Janssen Agreement.

74

Table of Contents

We determined the common stock purchase by JJDC represented a premium of $9.93 per share, or $16.0 million in aggregate (the Equity Premium), and the remaining $34.0 million was recorded as issuance of common stock in shareholders’ equity.

We concluded that Janssen represented a customer, and in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASC 606), we determined that the initial transaction price under the Janssen Agreement equals $66.0 million, consisting of the upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $50.0 million and the Equity Premium of $16.0 million. In addition, we identified our potential performance obligations under the Janssen Agreement, including our grant to Janssen of a license to certain of our intellectual property subject to certain conditions, our conduct of research and development services, and our participation in various joint oversight committees. We determined that our grant of a license to Janssen and our conduct of research and development services should be accounted for as one combined performance obligation, and that the combined performance obligation is transferred over the expected term of the conduct of the research and development services, which is estimated to be four years. Additionally, we determined that participation in the various joint oversight committees did not constitute a performance obligation as our participation in the various joint oversight committees does not transfer a service.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we achieved a pre-defined research milestone under the Janssen Agreement and received a cash payment of $3.0 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we recognized $43.7 million of collaboration revenue under the Janssen Agreement. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized $16.8 million of collaboration revenue under the Janssen Agreement. As of December 31, 2021, aggregate deferred revenue related to the Janssen Agreement was $48.3 million.

Agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

On September 14, 2018, we entered into a Collaboration and Option Agreement (the Ono Agreement) with Ono for the joint development and commercialization of two off-the-shelf iPSC-derived CAR T-cell product candidates (Candidate 1 and Candidate 2). Pursuant to the terms of the Ono Agreement, we received an upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $10.0 million. Additionally, we are entitled to receive fees for the conduct of research and development under a joint development plan, which fees are estimated to be $20.0 million in aggregate.

We concluded that Ono represented a customer and in accordance with ASC 606, we determined that the initial transaction price under the Ono Agreement equals $30.0 million, consisting of the upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $10.0 million and the aggregate estimated research and development fees of $20.0 million. In addition, we identified our performance obligations under the Ono Agreement, including our grant to Ono of a license to certain of our intellectual property subject to certain conditions, our conduct of research services, and our participation in a joint steering committee. We determined that all performance obligations should be accounted for as one combined performance obligation since no individual performance obligation is distinct, and that the combined performance obligation is transferred over the expected term of the conduct of the research services, which is estimated to be four years.

On December 4, 2020, we entered into a letter agreement (the Ono Letter Agreement) with Ono in connection with the Ono Agreement. Pursuant to the Ono Letter Agreement, Ono delivered to us proprietary antigen binding domains targeting an antigen expressed on certain solid tumors and nominated such antigen binding domains as the Ono Antigen Binding Domain for incorporation into Candidate 2. In connection with such nomination, Ono paid us a milestone fee of $10.0 million for further research and development of Candidate 2 under the Ono Agreement, and Ono continues to maintain its option to Candidate 2 under the Ono Agreement.

In addition, together with Ono, we agreed to the termination of the Ono Agreement with respect to Candidate 1. We retain all rights, in our sole discretion, to research, develop and commercialize Candidate 1 throughout the world without any obligation to Ono.

During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we recognized $12.1 million and $14.6 million, respectively, of collaboration revenue under the Ono Agreement. As of December 31, 2021, aggregate deferred revenue related to the Ono Agreement and Ono Letter Agreement was $0.3 million.

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist of costs associated with the research, preclinical development, process and scale-up development, manufacture and clinical development of our product candidates, the research and development of our cell programming technology including our iPSC product platform, and the performance of research and development activities under our collaboration agreements. These costs are expensed as incurred and include:

75

Table of Contents

We plan to increase our current level of research and development expenses for the foreseeable future as we continue the clinical and preclinical development of our product candidates, research and develop our cell programming technology including our iPSC product platform, and perform our obligations under collaboration agreements including under our agreements with Janssen and Ono. Our current planned research and development activities over the next twelve months consist primarily of the following:

Due to the inherently unpredictable nature of preclinical and clinical development and manufacture, and given our novel therapeutic approach and the current stage of development of our product candidates, we cannot determine and are unable to estimate with certainty the timelines we will require and the costs we will incur for the development and manufacture of our product candidates. Clinical and preclinical development and manufacturing timelines and costs, and the potential of development and manufacturing success, can differ materially from expectations. In addition, we cannot forecast which product candidates may be subject to future collaborations, when such arrangements will be secured, if at all, and to what degree such arrangements would affect our development and manufacturing plans and capital requirements. We cannot predict the effects of the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations, and our expenditures may be increased by delays or disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including as a result of actions we take in the near term to ensure business continuity and protect against possible supply chain shortages.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, for our employees in executive, operational, finance and human resource functions; professional fees for accounting, legal and tax services; costs for obtaining, prosecuting and maintaining our intellectual property; and other costs and fees, including director and officer insurance premiums, to support our operations as a public company. We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase in the future as we increase our research and development activities, maintain compliance with exchange listing and SEC requirements and continue to operate as a public company.

Other Income (Expense)

Other income (expense) consists of changes in the fair value of stock price appreciation milestones associated with the Amended and Restated Exclusive License Agreement dated May 15, 2018 (the Amended MSK License) with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), interest income earned on cash and cash equivalents and interest income from investments (including the amortization of discounts and premiums).

76

Table of Contents

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to the fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones for the Amended MSK License, accrued expenses, stock-based compensation, and the estimated total costs expected to be incurred under our collaboration agreement. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, financial models, and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in the notes to our financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report, we believe that the following critical accounting policies reflect the more significant procedures, estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue in a manner that depicts the transfer of control of a product or a service to a customer and reflects the amount of the consideration we are entitled to receive in exchange for such product or service. In doing so, we follow a five-step approach: (i) identify the contract with a customer, (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract, (iii) determine the transaction price, (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations, and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the customer obtains control of the product or service. We consider the terms of a contract and all relevant facts and circumstances when applying the revenue recognition standard. We apply the revenue recognition standard, including the use of any practical expedients, consistently to contracts with similar characteristics and in similar circumstances.

A customer is a party that has entered into a contract with us, where the purpose of the contract is to obtain a product or a service that is an output of our ordinary activities in exchange for consideration. To be considered a contract, (i) the contract must be approved (in writing, orally, or in accordance with other customary business practices), (ii) each party’s rights regarding the product or the service to be transferred can be identified, (iii) the payment terms for the product or the service to be transferred can be identified, (iv) the contract must have commercial substance (that is, the risk, timing or amount of future cash flows is expected to change as a result of the contract), and (v) it is probable that we will collect substantially all of the consideration to which we are entitled to receive in exchange for the transfer of the product or the service.

A performance obligation is defined as a promise to transfer a product or a service to a customer. We identify each promise to transfer a product or a service (or a bundle of products or services, or a series of products and services that are substantially the same and have the same pattern of transfer) that is distinct. A product or a service is distinct if both (i) the customer can benefit from the product or the service either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available to the customer and (ii) our promise to transfer the product or the service to the customer is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract. Each distinct promise to transfer a product or a service is a unit of accounting for revenue recognition. If a promise to transfer a product or a service is not separately identifiable from other promises in the contract, such promises should be combined into a single performance obligation.

The transaction price is the amount of consideration we are entitled to receive in exchange for the transfer of control of a product or a service to a customer. To determine the transaction price, we consider the existence of any significant financing component, the effects of any variable elements, noncash considerations and consideration payable to the customer. If a significant financing component exists, the transaction price is adjusted for the time value of money. If an element of variability exists, we must estimate the consideration we expect to receive and use that amount as the basis for recognizing revenue as the product or the service is transferred to the customer. There are two methods for determining the amount of variable consideration: (i) the expected value method, which is the sum of probability-weighted amounts in a range of possible consideration amounts, and (ii) the mostly likely amount method, which identifies the single most likely amount in a range of possible consideration amounts.

If a contract has multiple performance obligations, we allocate the transaction price to each distinct performance obligation in an amount that reflects the consideration we are entitled to receive in exchange for satisfying each distinct performance obligation. For each distinct performance obligation, revenue is recognized when (or as) we transfer control of the product or the service applicable to such performance obligation.

77

Table of Contents

In those instances where we first receive consideration in advance of satisfying its performance obligation, we classify such consideration as deferred revenue until (or as) we satisfy such performance obligation. In those instances where we first satisfy our performance obligation prior to our receipt of consideration, the consideration is recorded as accounts receivable.

We expense incremental costs of obtaining and fulfilling a contract as and when incurred if the expected amortization period of the asset that would be recognized is one year or less, or if the amount of the asset is immaterial. Otherwise, such costs are capitalized as contract assets if they are incremental to the contract and amortized to expense proportionate to revenue recognition of the underlying contract.

Stock Price Appreciation Milestones

We estimate the fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones under the Amended MSK License using a Monte Carlo simulation model, which relies on our current stock price at the end of each quarter as well as significant estimates and assumptions to determine the estimated liability associated with the contingent milestone payments. We account for the fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones in accordance with ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, with fair value marked to market. The assumptions used to calculate the fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones are subject to a significant amount of judgment including the assessment of achieving a specified clinical milestone, the expected volatility of our common stock, the risk-free interest rate and the estimated term, which is based in part on the last valid patent claim date. We achieved the specified clinical milestone in July 2021 and met the first milestone during fiscal 2021. Accordingly, we remitted a payment to MSK of $20.0 million in the year ended December 31, 2021. We remeasure the fair value of the remaining stock price appreciation milestones at each balance sheet date, with changes in fair value recorded in earnings as a non-operating income or expense.

Accrued Research and Development Expenses

As part of the process of preparing our financial statements, we are required to estimate our accrued expenses. This process involves reviewing open contracts and purchase orders, communicating with our personnel to identify services that have been performed on our behalf and estimating the level of service performed and the associated cost incurred for the service when we have not yet been invoiced or otherwise notified of the actual cost. The majority of our service providers invoice us monthly in arrears for services performed or when contractual milestones are met. We make estimates of our accrued expenses as of each balance sheet date in our financial statements based on facts and circumstances known to us at that time. We periodically confirm the accuracy of our estimates with the service providers and make adjustments if necessary. Examples of accrued research and development expenses include amounts owed to clinical research organizations, to investigative sites in connection with clinical trials, to sponsored research organizations, to service providers in connection with preclinical development activities and to service providers related to product manufacturing, development and distribution of clinical supplies.

We base our accrued expenses related to clinical trials on our estimates of the services performed and efforts expended pursuant to our contractual arrangements, including those with clinical research organizations. The financial terms of these agreements are sometimes subject to negotiation, vary from contract to contract and may result in uneven payment flows. There may be instances in which payments made to our service providers will exceed the level of services performed and result in a prepayment of the clinical expense. Payments under some of these contracts depend on factors such as the successful enrollment of patients and the completion of clinical milestones. In accruing service fees, we estimate the time period over which services will be performed and the level of effort to be expended in each period. If the actual timing of the performance of services or the level of effort varies from our estimate, we adjust the accrual or prepaid accordingly.

Although we do not expect our estimates to be materially different from expenses actually incurred, if our estimates of the status and timing of services performed differs from the actual status and timing of services performed, we may report amounts that are too high or too low in any particular period. To date, there have been no material differences from our estimates to the amounts actually incurred.

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-based compensation expense represents the grant date fair value of employee stock option and restricted stock unit grants recognized over the requisite service period of the awards (usually the vesting period) on a straight-line basis. Performance-based stock units/awards represent a right to receive a certain number of shares of common stock based on the achievement of corporate performance goals and continued employment during the vesting period. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we granted 1,997,377 performance-based restricted stock units with a total grant date fair value of approximately $121.9 million. At each reporting period, and to the extent achievement of one or any of the performance conditions is probable, we reassess the probability of the achievement of such corporate performance goals and any increase or decrease in share-based compensation expense resulting from an adjustment in the estimated shares to be released is treated as a cumulative catch-up in the period of adjustment.

78

Table of Contents

We estimate the fair value of stock option grants using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, with the exception of option grants with both performance-based milestones and market conditions, which are valued using a lattice-based model. These models require the use of highly subjective and complex assumptions which determine the fair value of stock-based awards, (a) the risk-free interest rate, (b) the expected volatility of our stock, (c) the expected term of the award and (d) the expected dividend yield. The expected volatility is based on the historical volatility of our common stock over the most recent period commensurate with the estimated expected term of our stock options which is derived from historical experience and anticipated future exercise behavior. The risk-free interest rates for periods within the expected life of the option are based on the yields of zero-coupon U.S. Treasury securities. See Note 9 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements for additional information.

The fair value of our restricted stock units, including performance-based restricted stock units, is based on the closing price of our common stock as reported on The NASDAQ Global Market on the date of grant.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

For a discussion of recently issued accounting pronouncements, please see Note 1 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Results of Operations

Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

The following table summarizes the results of our operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Revenue. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we recognized revenue of $55.8 million, under our collaboration agreements with Janssen and Ono. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized revenue of $31.4 million under our collaboration agreements with Janssen and Ono.

Research and development expenses. Research and development expenses were $215.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to $125.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in research and development expenses was attributable primarily to the following:

General and administrative expenses. General and administrative expenses were $57.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to $33.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in general and administrative expenses was attributable primarily to the following:

Other income (expense), net. Other income (expense), net was $4.8 million and ($45.3) million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we recorded $3.5 million in other income attributable to the fair value of the stock price appreciation milestone under the Amended MSK License. Other income (expense), net

79

Table of Contents

for the year ended December 31, 2021 also consisted of interest income earned on cash and cash equivalents and interest income from investments (including the amortization of discounts and premiums). During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recorded $47.7 million in other expense attributable to the fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones under the Amended MSK License. Other income (expense), net for the year ended December 31, 2020 also consisted of interest income earned on cash and cash equivalents and interest income from investments (including the amortization of discounts and premiums).

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We have incurred losses and negative cash flows from operations since inception. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $769.1 million and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future.

The following table sets forth a summary of the net cash flow activity for each of the years ended December 31:

Operating Activities

Cash used in operating activities increased from $39.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $162.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The primary drivers of this change in cash used in operating activities was our increase of $38.8 million in net loss and the one-time receipt of the $50.0 million upfront payment from Janssen in connection with entering into the Janssen Agreement in April 2020, which was not repeated in 2021. Additionally, during the year ended December 31, 2021, we achieved the first milestone under the Amended MSK License, and as a result paid $20.0 million to MSK.

Agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc.

On April 2, 2020 (the Janssen Agreement Effective Date), we entered into the Janssen Agreement with Janssen to develop iPSC-derived CAR NK- and CAR T-cell product candidates for the treatment of cancer. Additionally, on the Janssen Agreement Effective Date, we entered into the Stock Purchase Agreement with JJDC. Under the terms of the Janssen Agreement and the Stock Purchase Agreement taken together, we received $100.0 million as of the Janssen Agreement Effective Date, of which $50.0 million was an upfront cash payment and $50.0 million was in the form of an equity investment by JJDC. Of the $50.0 million equity investment, $16.0 million represented a premium over the fair value of our common stock and was classified under operating activities.

We are entitled to receive fees for the conduct of all research, preclinical development and IND-enabling activities performed by us under the Janssen Agreement. Additionally, we are eligible to receive (i) with respect to the first Janssen Cancer Target, payments of up to $898.0 million upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and sales milestones (the Janssen Milestone Payments) for the first Collaboration Candidate, and up to $460.0 million in Janssen Milestone Payments for each additional Collaboration Candidate, directed to the first Janssen Cancer Target; and (ii) with respect to each of the second, third and fourth Janssen Cancer Targets, payments of up to $706.0 million in Janssen Milestone Payments for each of the first Collaboration Candidates, and up to $340.0 million in Janssen Milestone Payments for each additional Collaboration Candidate, directed to the applicable Janssen Cancer Target, where certain Janssen Milestone Payments are subject to reduction in the event we elect to co-commercialize and share equally in the profits and losses in the United States of a respective Collaboration Candidate. We are further eligible to receive double-digit tiered royalties ranging up to the mid-teens on net sales of Collaboration Candidates that are commercialized by Janssen under the Janssen Agreement, subject to reduction under certain circumstances.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we achieved a pre-defined research milestone under the Janssen Agreement and received a cash payment of $3.0 million. As of December 31, 2021, no royalties have been paid to us.

In connection with the Janssen Agreement, we have incurred $13.6 million in sublicense fees to certain of our existing licensors, of which $13.3 million has been paid as of December 31, 2021. The $13.6 million in sublicense consideration represents an asset under ASC 340, Other Assets and Deferred Costs.

80

Table of Contents

Agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

On September 14, 2018, we entered into the Ono Agreement with Ono for the joint development and commercialization of two off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR T-cell product candidates (each a Candidate and collectively the Candidates). Under the terms of the Ono Agreement, Ono paid to us an upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $10.0 million. Additionally, as consideration for our conduct of research and preclinical development under a joint development plan, Ono pays us annual research and development fees set forth in the annual budget included in the joint development plan, which fees are estimated to be $20.0 million in aggregate over the course of the joint development plan. Further, under the terms of the Ono Agreement, Ono had agreed to pay us up to an additional $40.0 million, subject to the achievement of a preclinical milestone and the exercise by Ono of its options to obtain exclusive licenses to develop and commercialize the Candidates. Such fees are in addition to the upfront payment and research and development fees.

Pursuant to the Ono Agreement, we and Ono are jointly conducting research and development activities under a joint development plan, with the goal of advancing Candidate 2 to a pre-defined preclinical milestone. We have granted to Ono, during a specified period of time, an option to obtain an exclusive license under certain intellectual property rights to develop and commercialize Candidate 2 in all territories of the world, with us retaining the right to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 2 in the United States and Europe under a joint arrangement whereby it is eligible to share at least 50% of the profits and losses.

On December 4, 2020, we entered into the Ono Letter Agreement with Ono in connection with the Ono Agreement. Pursuant to the Ono Letter Agreement, Ono delivered to us proprietary antigen binding domains targeting an antigen expressed on certain solid tumors and nominated such antigen binding domains as the Ono Antigen Binding Domain for incorporation into Candidate 2. In connection with such nomination, Ono paid us a milestone fee of $10.0 million in December 2020 for further research and development of Candidate 2 under the Ono Agreement, and Ono continues to maintain its option to Candidate 2 under the Ono Agreement. In addition, the Ono Letter Agreement terminated further development with respect to Candidate 1.

Subject to Ono’s exercise of its options to obtain exclusive licenses to develop and commercialize Candidate 2 and to the achievement of certain clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones in specified territories, we are eligible to receive an aggregate of up to $885.0 million in milestone payments for Candidate 2, with the applicable milestone payments for Candidate 2 for the United States and Europe subject to reduction by 50% if we elect to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 2 as described above. As of December 31, 2021, we have not received any milestone payments other than the $10.0 million associated with the Ono Letter Agreement in December 2020. We are also eligible to receive tiered royalties ranging from the mid-single digits to the low-double digits based on annual net sales by Ono for Candidate 2 in specified territories, with such royalties subject to certain reductions. As of December 31, 2021, no royalties have been paid to us.

As a direct result of our entry into the Ono Agreement and the Ono Letter Agreement, we incurred an aggregate of $4.0 million in sublicense consideration to certain of our existing licensors. The $4.0 million in sublicense consideration represents an asset under ASC 340, Other Assets and Deferred Costs. As of December 31, 2021, all such consideration has been paid, with $2.0 million paid during the year ending December 31, 2021.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center License Agreement

On May 15, 2018, we entered into the Amended MSK License with MSK. The Amended MSK License amends and restates the Exclusive License Agreement entered into between us and MSK on August 19, 2016, pursuant to which we entered into an exclusive license agreement with MSK for rights relating to compositions and methods covering iPSC-derived cellular immunotherapy, including T-cells and NK-cells derived from iPSCs engineered with CARs.

Pursuant to the Amended MSK License, MSK granted us additional licenses to certain patents and patent applications relating to new CAR constructs and off-the-shelf CAR T cells, including the use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) and other innovative technologies for their production, in each case to research, develop, and commercialize licensed products in the field of all human therapeutic uses worldwide. We have the right to grant sublicenses to certain licensed rights in accordance with the terms of the Amended MSK License, in which case we are obligated to pay MSK a percentage of certain sublicense income received.

In the event a licensed product achieves a specified clinical milestone, MSK is then eligible to receive certain milestone payments totaling up to $75.0 million based on the price of our common stock, where the amount of such payments owed to MSK is contingent upon certain increases in the price of our common stock following the date of achievement of such clinical milestone. These payments are based on common stock price multiples, with the numerator being the fair value of the ten-trading day trailing average closing price of our common stock and the denominator being the ten-trading day trailing average closing price of our common stock as of the effective date of the Amended MSK License, adjusted for any stock splits, cash dividends, stock dividends, other distributions, combinations, recapitalizations, or similar events. Under the terms of the Amended MSK License, upon a change of control of our company, in certain circumstances, we may be required to pay a portion of these payments to MSK based on the price of our common stock in connection with such change of control.

81

Table of Contents

As of December 31, 2021, we recorded a liability of $24.2 million associated with the remaining stock price appreciation milestones for the Amended MSK License. In July 2021, we achieved a specified clinical milestone for a licensed product under the Amended MSK License and our ten-trading day trailing average common stock price exceeded the first, pre-specified threshold. As a result, we remitted the first milestone payment of $20.0 million to MSK.

Investing Activities

During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, investing activities used cash of $324.0 million and $161.1 million, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2021 we purchased $968.2 million of investments, which were partially offset by $694.8 million in maturities of investments. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we purchased $277.3 million of investments, offset by $121.2 million in maturities of investments. The remaining investing activities for the periods presented were primarily attributable to the purchase of property and equipment.

Financing Activities

Financing activities provided cash of $453.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, which primarily consisted of $432.4 million of net proceeds from our January 2021 public offering of common stock and issuance of pre-funded warrants and $20.7 million received from the issuance of common stock from equity incentive plans pursuant to the exercise of employee stock options.

Financing activities provided cash of $282.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, which primarily consisted of $188.8 million of net proceeds from our June 2020 public offering of common stock, $50.0 million of net proceeds from our June 2020 private placement of common stock, and $33.9 million of net proceeds from the issuance of common stock in conjunction with our collaboration agreement with Janssen, which amount represents the fair value of the equity component from Janssen’s common stock purchase in connection with the collaboration agreement.

From our inception through December 31, 2021 we have funded our consolidated operations primarily through the public and private sale of common stock, the private placement of preferred stock and convertible notes, commercial bank debt and revenues from collaboration activities and grants. As of December 31, 2021, we had aggregate cash and cash equivalents and investments of $716.6 million.

Private Placement of Common Stock

In June 2020, in connection with the June 2020 public offering of common stock, the Company exercised its right to cause an existing shareholder, Johnson & Johnson Innovation-JJDC, Inc (JJDC) to purchase $50.0 million of the Company’s common stock, and JJDC purchase in a private placement 1.8 million shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of $28.31 per share, for aggregate proceeds of $50.0 million. In April 2020, we entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement with JJDC. Under the Stock Purchase Agreement, we sold 1.6 million shares of our common stock to JJDC at $31.00 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $50.0 million. The shares of common stock purchased as part of these private placements were not subject to underwriting discounts or commissions.

Public Offerings of Common Stock

In June 2020, we completed a public offering of common stock in which investors, certain of which are affiliated with one of our directors, purchased 7.1 million shares of our common stock at a price of $28.31 per share under a shelf registration statement. Gross proceeds from the offering were $201.3 million. After giving effect to $12.5 million in underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses related to the offering, net proceeds were $188.8 million.

In January 2021, we completed a public offering of common stock in which investors, certain of which are affiliated with a director of ours, purchased 5.1 million shares of our common stock at a price of $85.50 per share under a shelf registration statement. In addition, we issued pre-funded warrants, in lieu of common stock to certain investors, to purchase 257,310 shares of our common stock (Pre-Funded Warrants). The purchase price of for the Pre-Funded Warrants was $85.499 per Pre-Funded Warrant, which equals the per share public offering price for the shares of common stock less the $0.001 exercise price for each such Pre-Funded Warrant. See Note 8 for additional detail. Gross proceeds from the public offering and the issuance of the Pre-Funded Warrants were $460.0 million. After giving effect to $27.6 million in underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses related to the public offering and the issuance of Pre-Funded Warrants, net proceeds were $432.4 million.

California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Award

On April 5, 2018, we executed an award agreement with the CIRM pursuant to which CIRM awarded us $4.0 million to advance our FT516 product candidate into a first-in-human clinical trial (the Award). Pursuant to the terms of the Award, we are

82

Table of Contents

eligible to receive five disbursements in varying amounts totaling $4.0 million throughout the project period of the Award. In November 2019, we submitted an IND application for FT516 in advanced solid tumors. As of December 31, 2021, we have received aggregate disbursements under the Award in the amount of $4.0 million.

The Award is subject to certain co-funding requirements by us. We, in our sole discretion, have the option to treat the Award either as a loan or as a grant. In the event we elect to treat the Award as a loan, we will be obligated to repay i) 60%, ii) 80%, iii) 100% or iv) 100% plus interest at 7% plus LIBOR, of the total Award to CIRM, where such repayment rate is dependent upon the phase of clinical development of FT516 at the time of our election. If we do not elect to treat the Award as a loan within 10 years of the date of the Award, the Award will be considered a grant and we will be obligated to pay to CIRM a royalty on commercial sales of FT516 until such royalty payments equal nine times the total amount awarded to us under the Award.

Registration Statements on Form S-3

In November 2021, we filed an automatic shelf registration statement (File No. 333-260772), which became effective upon filing. The shelf registration statement allows us to issue certain securities, including shares of our common stock, from time to time. The specific terms of any offering under the automatic shelf registration statement are established at the time of such offering. Additionally, we entered into a sales agreement with Jefferies Group LLC (Jefferies) with respect to an at-the-market offering program, under which we may offer and sell, from time to time at our sole discretion, shares of our common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $350.0 million through Jefferies as the sales agent, pursuant to this automatic shelf registration statement.

Operating Capital Requirements

We anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect the losses to increase as we continue the research, manufacture and development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates and conduct additional research, manufacturing and development activities pursuant to our collaboration agreements with Janssen and Ono. Our product candidates have not yet achieved regulatory approval and we may not be successful in achieving commercialization of our product candidates.

We believe our existing cash and cash equivalents and investments as of December 31, 2021 will be sufficient to fund our projected operating requirements for at least the next twelve months. However, we are subject to all the risks and uncertainties incident in the research, manufacture and development of therapeutic products. For example, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may require us to generate additional data or conduct additional preclinical studies, manufacturing activities, or clinical trials, or may impose other requirements beyond those that we currently anticipate. Additionally, it is possible for a product candidate to show promising results in preclinical studies or in clinical trials, but fail to establish sufficient safety and efficacy data necessary to obtain regulatory approvals. As a result of these and other risks and uncertainties and the probability of success, the duration and the cost of our research, manufacturing and development activities required to advance a product candidate cannot be accurately estimated and are subject to considerable variation. We may encounter difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors and unforeseen expenses in the course of our research, manufacturing and development activities, any of which may significantly increase our capital requirements and could adversely affect our liquidity.

We will require additional capital for the research, manufacture and development of our product candidates and to perform our obligations under our collaboration agreements, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than expected due to any changes in our business, operations, financial condition or prospects, including any impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to finance our capital requirements in the foreseeable future through the sale of public or private equity or debt securities. However, additional capital may not be available to us on reasonable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the research, manufacture or development of one or more of our product candidates. If we do raise additional funds through the issuance of additional equity or debt securities, it could result in dilution to our existing stockholders, increased fixed payment obligations and the existence of securities with rights that may be senior to those of our common stock. Additionally, if we incur indebtedness, we may become subject to financial or other covenants that could adversely restrict, impair or affect our ability to conduct our business, such as requiring us to relinquish rights to certain of our product candidates or technologies or limiting our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights or incur additional debt. Any of these events could significantly harm our business, operations, financial condition and prospects. In addition, while the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, operations, financial condition and prospects, and on the global economy, are currently unknown and difficult to predict, the pandemic has caused significant disruptions and created uncertainties in the global financial markets, and the economic impacts of the pandemic could materially and adversely affect our ability to raise capital through equity or debt financings in the future.

83

Table of Contents

Our forecast of the period of time through which our existing cash and cash equivalents and investments will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement and involves significant risks and uncertainties. We have based this forecast on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and actual results could vary materially from our expectations, which may adversely affect our capital resources and liquidity. We could utilize our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. The amount and timing of future funding requirements, both near- and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

In addition, we are closely monitoring ongoing developments in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluating adjustments to our business and operations, which may negatively impact our financial condition and prospects and our operating results. We will continue to assess our operating capital requirements and may make adjustments to our business and operations if circumstances warrant. If we cannot continue or expand our research, manufacturing and development operations, or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, because we lack sufficient capital, our business, operations, financial condition and prospects could be materially adversely affected.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

We lease our headquarters office and laboratory space under a non-cancelable operating lease, comprising approximately 200,000 square feet. In addition to rent, the lease is subject to certain fixed amenities fees. Lease payments commenced in May 2021 (the Rent Commencement Date) and the lease has a lease term of 15 years starting from the Rent Commencement Date. We have the option to extend the lease for two successive five-year periods. We also have a one-time option to terminate the lease after 10 years from the Rent Commencement Date, subject to payment of a $30.0 million early termination fee. See Note 8 of the consolidated financial statements for additional detail.

Total undiscounted aggregate future operating lease obligations under all of our operating leases as of December 31, 2021 are $192.6 million.

We have no material contractual obligations not fully recorded on our consolidated balance sheets or fully disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.

We have obligations under various license agreements to make future payments to third parties that become due and payable on the achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones (such as the start of a clinical trial, filing for product approval with the FDA or other regulatory agencies, product approval by the FDA or other regulatory agencies, product launch or product sales) or on the sublicense of our rights to another party. We have not included these commitments on our balance sheet

84

Table of Contents

because the achievement and timing of these events is not fixed and determinable. Certain milestones are in advance of receipt of revenue from the sale of products and, therefore, we may require additional debt or equity capital to make such payments. These commitments include:

We enter into contracts in the normal course of business, including with clinical sites, CROs, and other professional service providers for the conduct of clinical trials, contract manufacturers for the production of our product candidates, contract research service providers for preclinical research studies, professional consultants for expert advice and vendors for the sourcing of clinical and laboratory supplies and materials. These contracts generally provide for termination on notice, and therefore are cancelable contracts and not included in the table of contractual obligations and commitments.

85

Table of Contents

ITEM 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Interest Rate Risk

We are exposed to market risk primarily related to changes in interest rates. As of December 31, 2021, our cash and cash equivalents consisted of cash and money market mutual funds, and our investments consisted of United States treasuries and corporate debt securities with maturities up to eighteen months from the date of acquisition. Our primary exposure to market risk is interest income sensitivity, which is affected by changes in the general level of U.S. interest rates. However, because of the relatively short-term nature and low risk profile of the instruments in our portfolio, a 10% change in market interest rates would not have a material impact on our financial condition and/or results of operations.

Stock Price Sensitivity

We entered into a license agreement with MSK under which we obtained rights relating to compositions and methods covering iPSC-derived cellular immunotherapy, including T cells and NK cells derived from iPSCs engineered with CARs. MSK is eligible to receive certain milestone payments totaling up to $75.0 million in the event a licensed product achieves a specified clinical milestone, where the amount of such payments owed to MSK is contingent upon certain increases in the price of our common stock following the date of achievement of such clinical milestone. As of December 31, 2021, the estimated fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones was $24.2 million. In July 2021, we achieved a specified clinical milestone for a licensed product under the Amended MSK License and our ten-trading day trailing average common stock price exceeded the first, pre-specified threshold. As a result, the Company remitted the first milestone payment of $20.0 million to MSK.

Changes in the price our common stock as of each balance sheet date may cause a relatively large change in the estimated fair value of the stock price appreciation milestones and the associated liability and resulting expense or gain. See Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements for a related sensitivity analysis.

86

Table of Contents

ITEM 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

The Board of Directors and Stockholders of Fate Therapeutics, Inc

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Fate Therapeutics, Inc. as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control- Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), and our report dated February 28, 2022, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the account or disclosure to which it relates.

87

Table of Contents

/s/ Ernst & Young, LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2009.

San Diego, California

February 28, 2022

88

Table of Contents

Fate Therapeutics, Inc.

Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands, except par value and share data)