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Intellia Therapeutics Inc

For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 22, 2024.

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A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.

FY2023 · Filed Feb 22, 2024

NTLA$12.11+6.7%Stored close · as of Nov 9, 2026

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Contents

Item 1. Business

Overview

We are a leading clinical-stage gene editing company, focused on developing potentially curative therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9-based technologies. CRISPR/Cas9, an acronym for Clustered, Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (“CRISPR”)/CRISPRa ssociated 9 (“Cas9”), is a technology for genome editing, the process of altering selected sequences of genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”). To fully realize the transformative potential of CRISPR/Cas9-based technologies, we are building a full-spectrum gene editing company, by leveraging our modular platform, to advancein vivo andex vivo therapies for diseases with high unmet need by pursuing two primary approaches. Forin vivo applications to address genetic diseases, we deploy CRISPR/Cas9 as the therapy. Ourin vivo programs use CRISPR/Cas9 to enable precise editing of disease-causing genes directly inside the human body. In addition, we are advancingex vivo applications to address immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases, where we use CRISPR/Cas9 as the tool to create the engineered cell therapy. For ourex vivo programs, CRISPR/Cas9 is used to engineer human cells outside the body. Our deep scientific, technical and clinical development experience, along with our robust intellectual property (“IP”) portfolio, have enabled us to unlock broad therapeutic applications of CRISPR/ Cas9 and related technologies to create new classes of genetic medicine.

Treating—and potentially curing—a broad range of severe diseases will require multiple gene editing approaches. With proprietary CRISPR/Cas9-based technology at the core of our platform, we continue to add new capabilities to expand our current solutions for addressing a multitude of life-threatening diseases. These additions include our proprietary base editor and DNA writing technology, as well as novel CRISPR enzymes, which provide us with the capabilities to achieve multiple editing strategies.

We continue to advance our platform’s modular solutions and research efforts on genome editing technologies as well as delivery and cell engineering capabilities to generate additional development candidates.

Our mission is to transform the lives of people with severe diseases by developing potentially curative genome editing treatments. We believe we can deliver on our mission and provide long-term benefits for all of our stakeholders by focusing on four key elements:

Develop potentially curative CRISPR/Cas9-based medicines;

Advance our science;

Be the best place to make therapies; and

Focus on long-term sustainability.

Our leadin vivo candidates, NTLA-2001 for the treatment of transthyretin (“ATTR”) amyloidosis and NTLA-2002 for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (“HAE”), are the first CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy candidates to be administered systemically, via intravenous (“IV”) infusion, for precision editing of a gene in a target tissue in humans. In addition, we are advancing multipleex vivo programs, wholly owned and in collaboration with partners, for the treatment of immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases.

CRISPR/Cas9 Technology

The Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 system developed by one of our scientific co-founders, Dr. Jennifer Doudna, and her collaborators, offers a revolutionary approach for therapeutic development due to its broad ability to precisely edit the genome. This system can be used to make three general types of edits: knockouts, repairs and insertions. Each of these editing strategies takes advantage of the Cas9 endonuclease, an enzyme which can be programmed to edit double-stranded DNA at specific locations using a ribonucleic acid (“RNA”) molecule, called a guide RNA (“gRNA”). The desired edits result from naturally-occurring biological mechanisms that effect particular types of genetic alterations. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has the potential to make permanent, precisely targeted changes in a patient’s chromosomes and repair the underlying genetic mutation, whereas more traditional gene therapy typically involves introducing a non-permanent copy of a gene into a patient’s cells.

Strategy

Our strategy is to advance our full-spectrum gene editing company, focused on developing and commercializing curative CRISPR/Cas9-based therapeutics, by leveraging our modular platforms. Our approach to realizing the broad potential of genome editing includes:

Focusing on Indications that Enable Us to Fully Develop the Potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 System. To maximize our opportunity to rapidly develop clinically successful products, we have applied a risk-mitigated approach to selecting indications with significant unmet medical needs based on four primary criteria:

the type of edit: knockout, repair or insertion;

the delivery modality forin vivo andex vivo applications;

the existence of efficient regulatory pathways to approval; and

the potential for the CRISPR/Cas9 system to provide improved therapeutic benefits over existing therapeutic options.

We believe these selection criteria position us to build a diversified pipeline, in which we are not reliant on any single delivery technology or editing approach for success. This approach has the potential to increase the probabilities of success in our initial indications and generate insights that will accelerate the development of additional therapeutic products. Specifically, we believe we can apply the learnings from our current programs to inform our selection of additional indications and targets of interest.

Aggressively Pursuing In Vivo Liver Indications to Develop Therapeutics with Our Proprietary Delivery System. For ourin vivo indications, we select well-validated targets in diseases with significant unmet medical needs where there are predictive biomarkers, or measurable indicators of a biological condition or state, with strong disease correlation and where the CRISPR/Cas9 technology and our proprietary delivery tools can be applied towards developing novel therapeutics. Our currentin vivo pipeline targets diseases of the liver. Our two lead clinical programs in development aim to treat ATTR amyloidosis and HAE. Both programs utilize our proprietary lipid nanoparticle (“LNP”) delivery system to knockout a target gene to halt production of an unwanted protein. In addition, we are developing therapeutic candidates that leverage our modular gene insertion platform to restore native protein for the treatment of the lung manifestation of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (“AATD”), hemophilia A, hemophilia B, and additional disease indications.

Progressing Ex Vivo Therapeutic Programs. We are independently researching proprietary engineered cell therapies to treat various cancers and autoimmune diseases. We are deploying our LNP-based cell engineering platform and allogeneic technology, a first-of-its-kind engineering solution designed to avoid both T cell and natural killer (“NK”) cell-mediated rejection, to advance a pipeline of wholly owned and partneredex vivo programs. We are pursuing targeting modalities, such as T cell receptors (“TCRs”) and chimeric antigen receptors (“CARs”), with broad potential in multiple immuno-oncology and autoimmune indications.

Continuing to Leverage Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Clinical Development. We view strategic partnerships as important drivers for accelerating the achievement of our goal of rapidly developing potentially curative therapies. The potential application of the CRISPR/Cas9 system and derivative technologies is extremely broad, and we plan to continue to identify partners who can contribute meaningful resources and technical expertise to our programs and allow us to more rapidly bring scientific innovation to a broader patient population. For example, we continue to collaborate onin vivo programs with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”), a leader in genetics-driven drug discovery and development, and to advance our collaborations with AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc. (“AvenCell”), a company with a world-leading clinical-stage universal chimeric antigen receptor T (“CAR-T”) cell platform; SparingVision SAS (“SparingVision”), a genomic medicine company developing vision saving treatments for ocular diseases; Kyverna Therapeutics, Inc. (“Kyverna”), a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases; and ONK Therapeutics, Ltd. (“ONK”), a cell therapy company engineering a new class of NK cell therapies to treat cancer.

Growing Our Leadership Position in the Field of Genome Editing. We believe we have built the broadest and deepest gene editing toolbox, which enables us to select the best tools for each therapeutic application. We continue to invest internally in developing and deploying our platform capabilities, including innovative genome editing, delivery and cell engineering technologies to advance new therapeutic programs. We will also continue to explore accessing external technologies or opportunities to enhance our leadership position in developing innovative therapeutics.

Our Pipeline

The following table summarizes the status of our most advanced programs:

In Vivo Programs

Our selection criteria include identifying diseases that originate in the liver; have well-defined mutations that can be addressed by a knockout or insertion approach; have readily measurable therapeutic endpoints with observable clinical responses; and for which effective treatments are absent, limited or unduly burdensome. Our initialin vivo indications target genetic liver diseases, including our ATTR amyloidosis, HAE and AATD development programs. Our current efforts onin vivo delivery focus on the use of LNPs for delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 complex to the liver.

Transthyretin (“ATTR”) Amyloidosis Program

ATTR amyloidosis is a progressive and fatal disorder resulting from deposition of insoluble amyloid fibrils into multiple organs and tissues leading to systemic failure. Blood-borne transthyretin (“TTR”) protein is produced by hepatocytes and normally circulates as a soluble homotetramer that facilitates transport of vitamin A, via retinol binding protein, as well as the thyroid hormone, thyroxine. Mutations in the TTR gene lead to the production of TTR proteins that are destabilized in their tetramer form. These tetramers more readily dissociate into the monomeric form, and thence to an aggregative form that results in amyloid deposits in tissues. These deposits cause damage in those tissues, resulting in a disorder known as hereditary ATTR amyloidosis (“ATTRv”). Over 120 different genetic mutations are currently known to cause ATTRv.

Deposits of TTR amyloid in the heart, nerves and/or other tissues can lead to diverse disease manifestations, including two main hereditary forms – ATTRv with polyneuropathy (“ATTRv-PN”), and ATTRv with cardiomyopathy

(“ATTRv-CM”). Typical onset of disease symptoms is during adulthood and can be fatal within two to 15 years. Estimates suggest that approximately 50,000 patients suffer from ATTRv worldwide.

In addition to the hereditary forms described above, ATTR amyloidosis can also develop spontaneously in the absence of any TTR gene mutation. This wild-type ATTR (“ATTRwt”) is increasingly being recognized as a significant and often undiagnosed cause of heart failure in the elderly and is the subject of active investigation. Recent estimates suggest that, globally, between 200,000 and 500,000 people may suffer from ATTRwt with cardiomyopathy (“ATTRwt-CM”).

Currently, there are four therapies for the treatment of ATTRv-PN approved in the United States (“U.S.”), and five approved in most major markets outside of the U.S. While these therapies have shown the potential to slow or halt the progression of neuropathic symptoms, and in some patients lead to an improvement in symptoms, their approved prescribing instructions require them to be administered chronically for the life of the patient in order to sustain benefit. Additionally, patient response to these therapies varies. While some patients may experience symptomatic improvement after being treated with these therapies, the disease continues to progress in many of the treated patients, which highlights the continued need for efficacious and potentially curative therapies. At present, there is only one therapy approved for transthyretin amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (“ATTR-CM”) (including both ATTRv-CM and ATTRwt-CM) which has shown the ability to improve patient outcomes, though most patients still appear to have the progressive disease. As with the treatments for ATTRv-PN, chronic, lifetime dosing is required to sustain the therapeutic effects.

NTLA-2001 is the first investigational CRISPR-based therapy to be systemically delivered to edit a target gene inside the human body. NTLA-2001 has the potential to become the first single-dose treatment for ATTR amyloidosis. It is designed to inactivate the TTR gene that encodes for the TTR protein. Delivered with ourin vivo LNP technology, NTLA-2001 offers the possibility of halting and reversing the disease by driving a deep, consistent and potentially lifelong reduction in TTR protein after a single dose. Using this approach, we aim to address ATTR amyloidosis regardless of the disease manifestation. It has been clinically validated that a significant correlation between TTR protein reduction and therapeutic benefit exists. Additionally, these studies suggest that loss of TTR gene expression from the liver would be well-tolerated in adult humans. We believe our approach may improve patient outcomes by significantly and consistently reducing TTR protein after a single dose, as opposed to life-long, chronic therapy.

About the NTLA-2001 Clinical Program

The global, pivotal Phase 3 MAGNITUDE trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of NTLA-2001 in adults with ATTR-CM. We are actively enrolling patients, including in the U.S., and are on track to dose a first patient in the first quarter of 2024. The primary endpoint of the study is a composite of cardiovascular (“CV”)-related mortality and events. Patients will be randomized 2:1 NTLA-2001:placebo, with a single 55 mg infusion of NTLA-2001 administered. MAGNITUDE trial enrollment is ongoing and we are also actively preparing for a global pivotal Phase 3 study of NTLA-2001 for the treatment of ATTRv-PN in 2024.

Advancing to a Phase 3 study was supported by a Phase 1 study of NTLA-2001, which was a two-part, open-label study in adults with ATTR amyloidosis, either ATTR-CM or ATTRv-PN.

For both the ATTR-CM and ATTRv-PN arms of the Phase 1 study, the primary objectives were to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NTLA-2001. Patients received a single dose of NTLA-2001 via IV administration.

In November 2023, we announced new positive interim data from the Phase 1 study of NTLA-2001. Updated data from over 60 patients showed consistent, deep, and durable serum TTR reduction was achieved with a single dose of NTLA-2001, including in 29 patients who reached 12 months or more of follow-up as of the data cutoff date of May 11, 2023. Across all patients who received a dose of 0.3 mg/kg or higher (n=62), the median serum TTR reduction was 91% and the median absolute residual serum TTR concentration was 17 ug/mL at day 28. Across all patients and at all dose levels tested, NTLA-2001 was generally well tolerated, and the majority of adverse events were mild in severity. These interim data were presented at the 4th International ATTR Amyloidosis Meeting, held in Madrid, Spain. We plan to present updated data from the ongoing Phase 1 study in 2024.

NTLA-2001 has received orphan drug designation for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis by both the European Commission (“EC”) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”).

NTLA-2001 is the subject of a co-development and co-promotion (“Co/Co”) arrangement directed to our first collaboration target with Regeneron, ATTR (the “ATTR Co/Co”), for which we are the clinical and commercial lead party and Regeneron is the participating party. Regeneron shares in approximately 25% of worldwide development costs and commercial profits for the ATTR program. For more information regarding our collaboration with Regeneron, see the section below entitled “Collaborations - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.”

Hereditary Angioedema (“HAE”) Program

HAE is a rare, genetic disease characterized by severe, recurring and unpredictable inflammatory attacks in various organs and tissues of the body, which can be painful, debilitating and life-threatening. The most common areas of the body to develop swelling are the limbs, face, intestinal tract and airway. Minor trauma or stress may trigger an attack but swelling often occurs without a known trigger. Episodes involving the intestinal tract cause severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Swelling in the airway can restrict breathing and lead to life-threatening obstruction of the airway. The disease is caused by increased levels of bradykinin, a protein which leads to swelling. Most patients with HAE have a deficiency of C1 esterase inhibitor (“C1-INH”) protein, which normally prevents the overproduction of bradykinin that causes the recurring, debilitating and potentially fatal swelling attacks in people living with HAE. It is estimated that approximately one in 50,000 people are affected by HAE.

Current treatment options often include life-long therapies, which may require chronic IV or subcutaneous (“SC”) administration as often as twice per week, or daily oral administration to ensure constant pathway suppression for disease control. Despite chronic administration, breakthrough attacks still occur. Kallikrein inhibition is a clinically validated strategy for the preventive treatment of HAE attacks.

NTLA-2002 is our wholly owned candidate for the treatment of HAE. NTLA-2002 is designed to knock out thekallikrein B1(“KLKB1”) gene in the liver, with the potential to permanently reduce total plasma kallikrein protein and activity, a key mediator of HAE. This investigational approach aims to prevent attacks for people living with HAE by providing continuous reduction of plasma kallikrein activity following a single dose. It also aims to eliminate the significant treatment burden associated with currently available HAE therapies.

About the NTLA-2002 Clinical Program

Our multi-national Phase 1/2 study is evaluating the safety, tolerability, activity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NTLA-2002 in adults with Type I or Type II HAE. This includes the measurement of kallikrein protein levels and activity, as well as HAE attack rate. The Phase 1 portion of the study was an open-label, single-ascending dose design. Two dose levels of NTLA-2002 were identified from Phase 1 for further evaluation in the Phase 2, randomized, placebo-controlled portion of the study.

In January 2024, we announced that enrollment and dosing was completed in the Phase 2 portion of the study. Data from the Phase 2 study will inform the dose of NTLA-2002 selected for the pivotal Phase 3 study. We expect to initiate the global pivotal Phase 3 study, including U.S. patients, in the second half of 2024, subject to regulatory feedback.

In January 2024, we also announced that positive interim results from the Phase 1 portion of the Phase 1/2 study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. These results were first reported in June 2023 at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Hybrid Congress. Across all ten patients, a 95% mean reduction in monthly attack rate was observed after a single dose of NTLA-2002 through the latest follow-up. The median duration of follow-up was 9.0 months (range of 5.6 - 14.1 months). At all three dose levels evaluated in the Phase 1 portion of the study, NTLA-2002 was well tolerated, and the most frequent adverse events reported were mild, transient infusion-related reactions and fatigue. We plan to present updated data from the Phase 1 and new data from the Phase 2 portion of the study in 2024.

We have received five regulatory designations for NTLA-2002, including orphan designation in the European Union (“EU”) granted by the EC in November 2023. NTLA-2002 was also granted orphan designation and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (“RMAT”) designation by the FDA, the Innovation Passport by the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”) as well as access to the Priority Medicine (“PRIME”) program by the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”). Access to the PRIME program is granted by the EMA to drug candidates that may offer a major therapeutic advantage over existing treatments or that benefit patients without treatment options.

Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (“AATD”) Program

AATD is a genetic disorder that results in increased risk for lung and/or liver disease. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (“A1AT”), which is encoded by the SERPINA1 gene, is a serine protease inhibitor that is primarily produced in the liver and has a wide range of biological functions, one of which is to inhibit neutrophil elastase. Patients with AATD have genetic variants of A1AT which cause the enzyme to accumulate in the liver, reducing the amount of functioning A1AT in the bloodstream. This has two prominent potential downstream clinical manifestations. The first is an increased risk for progressive liver disease, resulting from an accumulation of mutant A1AT enzyme in the liver. The second, and more common, effect is enhanced risk for emphysema resulting from reduced inhibition of neutrophil elastase in the lungs. Both clinical manifestations are progressive and potentially fatal.

It is estimated that there are approximately 250,000 individuals globally and greater than 60,000 individuals in the U.S. with the ZZ genotype, the genotype most associated with AATD and the downstream clinical manifestations. There are another 1.25 million individuals globally estimated to have the SZ genotype, who are also at enhanced risk of developing AATD. While augmentation therapy is available for the treatment of AATD, the effect on pulmonary exacerbations and on the progression of emphysema in AATD has not been conclusively demonstrated in randomized, controlled clinical trials.

There are multiple therapies approved by the FDA to treat patients with emphysema caused by hereditary AATD. All marketed therapies are plasma-derived alpha-1 proteinase inhibitors (alpha-1 antitrypsin) given through IV infusion, with the goal of augmenting naturally-occurring low levels of A1AT. To maintain benefit, current therapies are usually given weekly for the duration of a patient’s lifetime. Currently marketed therapies may slow the progression of disease and lung dysfunction, but there remains high unmet need for more effective, and less burdensome, therapies that can further slow, halt, or even reverse disease progression.

NTLA-3001 is our wholly owned, first-in-class CRISPR-mediatedin vivo targeted gene insertion development candidate for the treatment of AATD-associated lung disease. It is designed to precisely insert a healthy copy of the SERPINA1 gene, which encodes the A1AT protein, with the potential to restore permanent expression of functional A1AT protein to therapeutic levels after a single dose. Our approach seeks to improve patient outcomes, including eliminating the need for weekly IV infusions of A1AT augmentation therapy or lung transplant in severe cases. In December 2023, we submitted a clinical trial application (“CTA”) to initiate a first-in-human, Phase 1 study of NTLA-3001 and plan to dose the first patient in 2024.

In Vivo Research Programs

We continue to work on various liver-focused programs, such as hemophilia A and hemophilia B, which we are co-developing with Regeneron, as well as other liver targets, which we are working on both independently and in partnership with Regeneron, that would leverage our wide-ranging gene editing capabilities to knockout, insert and make consecutive edits to the genome.

We are further advancing editing and delivery strategies to expand the reach of CRISPR-based gene editing to tissues outside of the liver. For example, we have presented preclinical data establishing proof-of-concept for non-viral genome editing of bone marrow and hematopoietic stem cells (“HSCs”) in mice. This represented our first demonstration of systemicin vivo genome editing in bone marrow using our proprietary non-viral delivery platform. We believe these results extend our modularin vivo capabilities to treat inherited blood disorders such as sickle cell disease. In September 2023, we entered into an expanded research collaboration with Regeneron to develop additionalin vivo CRISPR-based gene editing therapies focused on neurological and muscular diseases. In addition, we are collaborating with SparingVision to develop novel genomic medicines utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 technology for the treatment of ocular diseases.

Ex Vivo Programs

We are advancing multiple preclinical programs, wholly owned and in collaboration with partners, utilizing our allogeneic platform for the treatment of immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. Our proprietary allogeneic cell engineering platform is designed to avoid both T cell- and NK cell-mediated rejection, a key unsolved challenge with other investigational allogeneic approaches.

We are developing allogeneic cellular therapies, which are cells derived from unrelated donors and modified outside of the human body to allow them to be administered to an unrelated patient. These allogeneic cellular therapies could be used to treat both oncological and immunological diseases. Our proprietary technologies, including our LNP-based cell engineering platform and novel allogeneic solution, are designed to offer significant advantages over both autologous cell therapies and allogeneic approaches being investigated by others. Preclinical data presented on our differentiated allogeneic engineering platform showed allogeneic T cells were shielded from immune rejection, both host T and NK cell attack.

We are advancing engineered CAR and TCR cells as immuno-oncological therapies.

In addition, we strategically partner with others who possess complementary capabilities or technologies to bring forth innovative engineered cell therapy candidates outside of our core areas of focus. This includes collaborations with AvenCell and Kyverna, who are leveraging ourex vivo allogeneic cell engineering platform to develop novel CAR-T cell therapy candidates for a variety of therapeutic indications, as well as ONK to advance CRISPR-edited NK cell therapy candidates.

Ex Vivo Research Programs

We are researching engineered cell therapies to treat a range of hematological and solid tumors. We are pursuing modalities, such as TCRs and CARs, with broad potential in multiple indications. We are advancing efforts for allogeneic therapies to move from liquid to solid tumors. Our researchers are developing and improving cell-engineering manufacturing and delivery processes that, we believe, may allow us to deliver T cell therapies with high levels of editing, robust levels of cell expansion, desirable memory phenotypes, improved function and no translocations above background levels.

Our proprietary T cell engineering process using LNPs to engineer cell therapies enables multiple, sequential gene edits. We have shared preclinical data demonstrating that our LNP-based engineering technology is a significant improvement over electroporation, the standard engineering process used to introduce proteins and nucleic acids into cells. The resulting T cells engineered with LNPs had improved cell properties and performance bothin vitro andin vivoas compared to electroporation. The data support the ability of our platform to be used for a variety of targeting modalities, including CARs and TCRs, and to support both autologous and allogeneic T cell candidates. The LNP-based approach has been used in multipleex vivo candidates in development by us and our collaborators.

Our proprietary allogeneic solution to create engineered T cells with high anti-tumor activity may be uniquely capable of persisting in the patient to maintain durable responses. Notably, a novel combination of gene edits, including knockout of specific human leukocyte antigen (“HLA”) Class II and some HLA proteins while retaining other HLA proteins, yielded T cells capable of avoiding rejection by host T and NK cells in preclinical models. With our approach, we are able to pursue a simplified HLA matching strategy between healthy donor T cells and recipient patients, allowing for the development of an “off-the-shelf” therapy that addresses the majority of the patient population with only a small set of donors. Our allogeneic platform is being deployed for investigational TCR-T and CAR-T cell therapies.

Our genome editing capabilities include a novel, proprietary cytosine deaminase base editor technology. We have demonstrated the technology’s potential for enhanced cell engineering, with multiple simultaneous gene knockouts achieving >90% T cell editing efficiency and no detectable increase in translocation above background levels.

Our Genome-Editing Platform

Our robust genome-editing platform forms the foundation of our full-spectrum therapeutic product pipeline based on CRISPR/Cas9 and derivative technologies. Our modular platform is based on our proprietary components that can serve bothin vivo andex vivo programs, as well as our delivery technologies that can be used in either program type. In addition to the components described below, we believe we have developed robust, high volume (high throughput) capabilities centering around enabling strategic target identification and validation that we believe will provide us with a competitive advantage in creating successful therapeutic products.

We are committed to staying at the forefront of the genome editing revolution and will continue to advance our technology platform through a mix of both internal research and development and external opportunities in order to potentially serve more patients across a broad set of diseases. With proprietary CRISPR/Cas9-based technology at the core of our platform, we have built a comprehensive set of editing and delivery tools to expand our current solutions for therapeutic application. These additions include our proprietary base editor, as well as novel CRISPR-derivative enzymes, which provide us with the capabilities to achieve multiple editing strategies.

Informatics

We have built a high throughput, scalable data processing and analysis, or informatics, infrastructure to support various aspects of our platform, including gRNA selection and evaluation of on- and off-target editing in cells. Depending on the desired editing strategy, we use proprietary bioinformatics methods to design candidate guides and select those that we believe are both highly specific and have high cutting efficiency. As we grow our experimental data set, we continue to incorporate gRNA performance into our algorithms to improve their predictive power.

Guide RNA Qualification

As part of the process to identify gRNAs for potential development candidates, we screen numerous gRNAs for their ability to generate the required edit at the genomic site of interest, called on-target activity, as well as any potential propensity to generate unwanted events at other sites in the genome, also known as off-target activity. To evaluate on-target activity, we use high throughput sequencing methods to analyze the genomes of edited cells, allowing us to assess overall editing efficiency and to examine the nature of the editing events, such as specific insertions or deletions.

For gRNAs selected through our primary on-target screens, we perform a variety of analyses to look for possible off-target editing events, including bioinformatic evaluations and experimental methods. Part of our approach involves identifying candidates with no or few off-target sites based on experimental measurements of genome-wide DNA breaks, as well as targeted sequencing of such candidate sites to evaluate actual off-target editing events in relevant cell types. We continue to optimize our gRNA qualification capability over time by increasing our throughput, improving our off-target activity detection accuracy and increasing our bioinformatics predictive accuracy.

Guide RNA Format

CRISPR/Cas9 systems can function with gRNAs having a variety of modifications, such as changes to the gRNA sequence or chemical modifications of nucleotides. As part of our development of CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutics, we have engineered modified gRNAs to, for example, improve editing efficiency, specificity and stability inside cells, as well as to reduce the likelihood of an immune response. We believe our work in this area will allow us to develop the most appropriate gRNAs for therapeutic applications.

Nuclease

Our current preferred Cas9 protein is derived from a species of bacteria called S. pyogenes (“Spy”), which is the Cas9 used in the vast majority of published CRISPR/Cas9 literature to date. We are exploring other naturally occurring

Cas9 proteins and nucleases from other bacteria, which may differ from Spy Cas9 in aspects such as specificity, size or mechanism of DNA recognition, binding and cutting. We are pursuing these alternative Cas9 forms and other nucleases through ongoing internal work, collaborations with our existing partners and scientific founders, and in-licensing opportunities. We also are investigating targeted modifications of Cas9 that can modulate DNA activity by mechanisms other than cleavage. We believe that different therapeutic applications may be best addressed using different forms of Cas9 or other nucleases, depending on the target cell or tissue of interest, the delivery method and the desired type of edit.

Types of Edits

Knockout

The CRISPR/Cas9 system, by itself, primarily functions to cut DNA, while the resulting desired therapeutic editing events are performed by the cell, subsequent to the cut, as the cell seeks to rejoin the cut ends. One type of edit is caused by a DNA repair mechanism that is prone to losing or adding short lengths of DNA around the cut site. The resulting changes in the DNA impair the function of any encoded protein, causing a knockout edit. Using a combination of our informatics, gRNA qualification and format, and nuclease platform capabilities, we have developed an efficient process to identify gRNAs that create this kind of edit at high frequency while possessing high specificity for the on-target site and no substantial off-target effects.

Based on both NHP and rodent disease models, we have demonstrated the ability to knockout multiple targets in the liver, including TTR, KLKB1, SERPINA1, hydroxyacid oxidase 1 (“HAO1”) and lactate dehydrogenase A (“LDHA”). We believe these data demonstrate the modular nature of our proprietary LNP delivery system.

Gene Insertion

While knockout edits can be made using solely a Cas9 protein and gRNA, other kinds of editing, involving repair and insertion, additionally require a template DNA that contains a desired genomic sequence that may be inserted or used to correct a patient’s original sequence. Forex vivo applications, in addition to delivering a Cas9-gRNA complex to cleave the cellular DNA sequence at the desired location, the desired DNA template may be delivered by physical means such as LNP in combination with a Cas9-gRNA complex, or by other means such as viral vectors or chemical means. Forin vivo applications, we have developed combination approaches for delivering the editing machinery by LNP, and the repair and insertion templates by adeno-associated virus (“AAV”) vectors. We are independently advancing ourin vivo gene insertion platform for multiple genes of interest to treat a variety of diseases, such as AATD, and working closely with Regeneron to advance programs for the treatment of hemophilia A and hemophilia B. We have demonstrated in NHP and rodent preclinical models the ability to precisely insert a gene, including SERPINA1 and Factor 9 (“F9”) , to produce normal human levels of the missing protein.

In February 2024, Regeneron and Intellia announced the clearance by the FDA of an investigational new drug (“IND”) application to initiate a clinical trial for our investigationalin vivo CRISPR-based F9 gene insertion program for people living with hemophilia B. A Phase 1, first-in-human study is expected to begin in mid-2024. Regeneron leads development and commercialization of hemophilia A and B programs in collaboration with us.

DNA Writing Technology

Our DNA writing technology may enable a range of precise editing strategies. These strategies include targeted corrections, insertions, deletions, and the full range of single-nucleotide changes, which could provide new ways to edit disease-causing genes and broaden the therapeutic potential for genomic medicines.

In Vivo Delivery

We are focusing our initialin vivo applications in the liver, where we deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 therapy intravenously to patients using our proprietary LNP platform.

Our proprietary LNPs encapsulate the therapeutic cargo, providing it with stability, selective delivery, improved pharmacologic properties and controlled circulation time. Our therapeutic cargo is designed to degrade relatively quickly, resulting in transient expression of Cas9. We see multiple advantages of using LNPs as anin vivo delivery vehicle, particularly as optimized by us for delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system or its components. First, LNPs have been clinically validated as an effective delivery vehicle of therapeutic nucleic acids to the liver after IV administration. LNPs have shown to have favorable tolerability in humans, with toxicities being dose-dependent, monitorable and reversible. Additionally, LNPs are chemically well-defined and have a completely synthetic route of manufacture, which permits greater scalability, product quality and controls. LNPs are tunable, do not exhibit cargo size limitations and can co-formulate different nucleic acid components, such as messenger RNA and gRNAs. There is no pre-existing immunity to the LNP or limiting de novo immunity after dosing, allowing for repeat dosing as required by the therapeutic approach. We are currently advancing our programs using our proprietary LNP delivery system, which uses a set of biodegradable, well-tolerated lipids, based on lipids originally developed by Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. (“Novartis”) and in-licensed by us for use with all genome editing technologies, including CRISPR/Cas9 products. To date, we have successfully demonstrated well-toleratedin vivo editing in various animal models, including in mouse, rat and NHP livers, with a single dose of systemically delivered LNPs. In addition, we have moved into late-stage human clinical trials using LNPs as the delivery mechanism. Based on interim data reported from the first-in-human study of NTLA-2001, we have also successfully demonstrated that LNP delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 is well-tolerated in humans.

We plan to continue to further improve on our LNP system to optimize delivery of a variety of CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutic components, including templates for repair and insertion edits. In parallel, we are exploring additional delivery vehicles, including synthetic particles and viral vectors. We also are developing delivery strategies that we believe will allow us to target other tissues.

Ex Vivo Delivery

Cellular therapies are based on the administration of engineered human cells that are modified to provide or restore necessary functions in the cells of patients, or to target and eliminate cells with harmful attributes, such as cancer cells. The cells to be modifiedex vivo can come from the individual patient (autologous source) or from another individual (allogeneic source). The CRISPR/Cas9 system can be used to modify cells outside the body using clinically proven delivery methods, such as electroporation. We are exploring these standard methods in parallel with our own newly-developed proprietary LNP-based delivery methods, which may provide advantages such as increased delivery efficiency and cell viability.

Ex Vivo Allogeneic Platform

We have developed a proprietary allogeneic cell engineering platform to overcome one of the key challenges to current allogeneic approaches employed by others, which is host rejection of the adoptive cell therapy. In preclinical studies, our allogeneic technology demonstrated the ability to create T cells with high anti-tumor activity capable of avoiding host T and NK cells, and thereby persisting to maintain durable responses. Our proprietary approach leverages a novel combination of sequential edits, including knockout of HLA Class II and HLA-A while retaining HLA-B and HLA-C proteins. With our approach, we can pursue a simplified HLA matching strategy between healthy donor T cells and recipient patients, allowing for the development of an “off-the-shelf” therapy that addresses the majority of the patient population with only a small set of donors. Our allogeneic platform is being deployed for investigational TCR-T and CAR-T cell therapies.

Collaborations and Other Arrangements

To accelerate the development and commercialization of CRISPR/Cas9-based products in multiple therapeutic areas, we have formed, and intend to seek other opportunities to form, strategic alliances with collaborators who can augment our leadership in CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutic development.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”)

In April 2016, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Regeneron (as amended from time to time, the “2016 Regeneron Agreement”). The 2016 Regeneron Agreement has two principal components: (i) a product development component under which the parties will research, develop and commercialize CRISPR/Cas-based therapeutic products primarily focused on genome editing in the liver, and (ii) a technology collaboration component, pursuant to which we and Regeneron will engage in research-related activities aimed at discovering and developing novel technologies and improvements to CRISPR/Cas technology to enhance our genome editing platform. Under this agreement, we also may access the Regeneron Genetics Center and proprietary mouse models to be provided by Regeneron for a limited number of our liver programs.

We amended the 2016 Regeneron Agreement in May 2020 to, among other things, (a) extend the technology collaboration, and related target selection rights, until April 2024, which Regeneron has since further extended to April 2026; (b) increase the number of exclusivein vivo targets to which Regeneron may develop CRISPR/Cas-based therapeutic products to fifteen; and (c) grant Regeneron a non-exclusive license under certain of our IP to independently develop and commercialize up to 10 CRISPR/Cas-basedex vivo gene edited products made using certain defined cell types. In September 2023, we further amended the 2016 Regeneron Agreement (the “2023 Regeneron Amendment”) to expand the research and development collaboration to develop additionalin vivo CRISPR-based gene editing therapies focused on neurological and muscular diseases. The expanded research and development collaboration will leverage our proprietary Nme2 CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing systems adapted for viral vector delivery and designed to precisely modify a target gene and Regeneron’s proprietary antibody-targeted AAV vectors and delivery systems. Under the 2023 Regeneron Amendment, the companies will collaborate to research and develop products directed to twoin vivonon-liver targets initially; each party will have the opportunity to lead potential development and commercialization for one product candidate, and the party that is not leading development and commercialization will have the option to enter into a co-development and co-commercialization agreement for the target.

We also have entered into three co-development and co-funding agreements with Regeneron, specifically the ATTR Co/Co and co-development and co-funding agreements for the treatment of hemophilia A and hemophilia B (the “Hemophilia Co/Co”) agreements. Our collaboration with Regeneron under the ATTR Co/Co and Hemophilia Co/Co agreements is described above in the section entitled “Our Pipeline – In Vivo Research Programs”.

In October 2023, Regeneron notified us that it was exercising its one-time option to extend the technology collaboration term for an additional two years (the “2024 Technology Collaboration Extension”), until April 2026, in exchange for a nonrefundable payment of $30.0 million due in April 2024. Refer to Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a detailed description of the terms related to the 2016 Regeneron Agreement and the 2020 Regeneron Amendment.

AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc. (“AvenCell”)

AvenCell was formed in July 2021 as a joint venture between us, Cellex Cell Professionals GmbH (“Cellex”) and funds managed by Blackstone Life Sciences Advisors L.L.C. (“BXLS”). As part of our contribution to AvenCell, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement (the “AvenCell LCA”), under which we are collaborating with AvenCell to develop allogeneic universal CAR-T cell therapies and which granted AvenCell a license to develop and commercialize genome edited universal CAR-T cell therapies (limited to its use with their switchable, universal CAR-T cell UniCAR and RevCAR platforms). In exchange for the license, we received a 33.33% equity interest in AvenCell at the time of the initial closing.

In July 2021, we also entered into a co-development and co-funding agreement to co-develop and co-commercialize allogeneic universal CAR-T cell products for an immuno-oncology indication (the “AvenCell Co/Co”), which we terminated in November 2022 as a result of re-prioritizing ourex vivo programs. Our obligations under the terminated agreement were completed in the second quarter of 2023. We have one option to enter into an additional co-development and co-funding agreement for a payment of $30.0 million to AvenCell.

Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreements between us and AvenCell.

SparingVision SAS (“SparingVision”)

In October 2021, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement with SparingVision, a genomic medicine company developing vision saving treatments for ocular diseases, to develop novel genomic medicines utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 technology for the treatment of ocular diseases. We granted SparingVision exclusive rights to our proprietaryin vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing technology for up to three ocular targets addressing diseases with significant unmet medical need. In addition, the parties are collaborating to research and develop novel self-inactivating AAV vectors and LNP-based product candidates to address delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing reagents to the retina. SparingVision will lead and fund the preclinical and clinical development for the genome editing product candidates pursued under the collaboration. We will also be eligible to receive certain research, development and commercial milestone cash payments (up to approximately $200.0 million per product) as well as royalties on potential future sales of products arising from the collaboration. We will have an option to obtain exclusive U.S. commercialization rights for product candidates arising from two of three collaboration targets.

Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreement between us and SparingVision.

Kyverna Therapeutics, Inc. (“Kyverna”)

In December 2021, we entered into a licensing and collaboration agreement with Kyverna, a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, for the development of an allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell therapy for the treatment of a variety of B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases. We granted Kyverna rights to our proprietaryex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based allogeneic platform for the development of KYV-201, an allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell investigational candidate for the treatment of select autoimmune diseases. Kyverna will lead and fund preclinical and clinical development for KYV-201 and we will be eligible to receive certain development and commercial milestone payments, as well as low-to-mid-single-digit royalties on potential future sales. We may also exercise an option to lead U.S. commercialization for KYV-201 under a co-development and co-commercialization agreement. If we choose to co-develop and co-commercialize KYV-201, we will pay an opt-in fee of $5.0 million and share in 50% of development costs and future net profit and/or loss arising from commercializing KYV-201 in the U.S. Kyverna would retain all rights outside of the U.S., and we would receive low-to-mid-single-digit royalties on net sales generated outside of the U.S.

Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreement between us and Kyverna.

ONK Therapeutics, Ltd (“ONK”)

In February 2022, we announced a license, collaboration and option agreement with ONK for the development of engineered NK cell therapies to cure patients with cancer. The agreement grants ONK a non-exclusive license to our proprietaryex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing platform and our LNP-based delivery technologies for development of up to five allogeneic NK cell therapies. ONK will be responsible for preclinical and clinical development for the engineered NK cell therapies enabled by the agreement. We will be eligible to receive up to $184.0 million per product in development and commercial milestone payments, as well as up to mid-single-digit royalties on potential future sales. In addition, the agreement grants us options to co-develop and co-commercialize up to two products worldwide with rights to lead commercialization in the U.S. Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreement between us and ONK.

Rewrite Therapeutics Inc. (“Rewrite”)

On February 2, 2022, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with, inter alia, Rewrite Therapeutics, Inc. (the “Rewrite Merger Agreement”). Under the Rewrite Merger Agreement, we agreed to pay Rewrite’s former stockholders and option holders (the “Rewrite Holders”) (a) upfront consideration in an aggregate amount of approximately $45.0 million payable in cash, excluding customary purchase price adjustments, and (b) up to an additional $155.0 million in milestone payments, including $55.0 million upon the achievement of certain pre-specified research milestones and $100.0 million upon achievement of a certain regulatory approval milestone, payable through a mixture of $130.0 million in cash and $25.0 million in shares of common stock. In September 2022, Rewrite merged into Intellia, with Intellia as the surviving entity. In January 2023, a $25.0 million research milestone was achieved and, in February 2023, we paid the Rewrite Holders a mixture of cash and 567,045 shares of common stock in order to fulfill this obligation.

ReCode Therapeutics, Inc. (“ReCode”)

On February 15, 2024, we announced a strategic collaboration with ReCode Therapeutics, Inc. (“ReCode”), a clinical-stage genetic medicines company, to develop novel genomic medicines for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (“CF”). CF is a genetic disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, leading to the accumulation of thick mucus in the lungs, digestive systems and other organs. CF can result in life-threatening infections, respiratory failure and other serious complications.

Potential Future Collaborations

We view strategic partnerships as important drivers for helping accelerate our goal of rapidly treating patients. The potential application of CRISPR/Cas9 is extremely broad, and we plan to continue to identify partners who can contribute meaningful resources and insights to our programs and allow us to more rapidly bring scientific innovation to a broader patient population.

Intellectual Property

We believe we are well positioned in terms of our IP because we:

have built, and intend to expand, a broad worldwide portfolio of IP, including patents and patent applications, in areas relevant to the development and commercialization of human therapeutic products using CRISPR/Cas9 technology;

protect our IP by maintaining trade secrets relating to our proprietary technology innovations and know-how; and

intend to take additional steps, where appropriate, to further protect our IP rights, including, for example, through the use of copyright protection, trademark and regulatory protections available via orphan drug designations, data exclusivity, market exclusivity and patent term extensions.

Our licensed patent portfolio encompasses foundational filings on the use of CRISPR/Cas9 systems for genome editing, improvement modifications of these CRISPR systems, including base editor and DNA writing technologies, LNP technologies, TCRs for specific targets, and cell expansion technology relevant to stem cell-based therapies. We access these patent estates from licensors, including Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (“Caribou”) and others.

In addition to our in-licensed IP, our IP portfolio includes over 70 patent families filed since 2015 covering solely or jointly owned technologies that we have developed independently or through our collaboration with Regeneron. The patent families claim inventions relating to CRISPR/Cas9 improvements, methods for delivering CRISPR/Cas9 complexes, methods of treating diseases using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and methods for analyzing editing events, among others. Patents resulting from our internal portfolio, if issued, would expire no earlier than 2036.

We actively apply for, maintain, and plan to defend and enforce, as needed, our internally developed and externally licensed patent rights. Furthermore, we continue to search for and evaluate opportunities to in-license IP relevant to our therapeutic programs and platforms and to develop and acquire new IP in collaboration with third parties.

Caribou Biosciences In-Licensed Intellectual Property (“Caribou”)

In July 2014, we entered into a license agreement with Caribou (the “Caribou License”), as subsequently amended and supplemented, for an exclusive, worldwide license for human therapeutic, prophylactic, and palliative uses, except for anti-fungal and anti-microbial uses, defined in the license agreement as our field of use, of any CRISPR/Cas9-related patents and applications owned, controlled or licensed by Caribou as well as companion diagnostics to our product or product candidates.

The licensed Caribou patent portfolio includes several U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications owned or licensed by Caribou, including over 50 patent applications in the U.S. and internationally, related to the CRISPR/Cas platform and an exclusive sublicense in our field of use to the Regents of the University of California (“UC”) and University of Vienna’s (“Vienna”) rights in U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications covering the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which they co-own with Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, the “UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP”). In July 2015, we exercised our option to include in the licensed Caribou patent portfolio the U.S. and foreign patent and patent applications owned or controlled by Pioneer Hi-Bred International (“Pioneer”) and its affiliates. We have the right to grant sublicenses to the licensed Caribou patent portfolio to third parties in our field of use. Caribou retains the right to practice the licensed IP in all other fields, including for its own specific therapeutic product candidates outside our field of use. The UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP and Pioneer IP, and our rights to the same, are further described below.

We have agreed to pay 30.0% of Caribou’s patent prosecution, filing and maintenance costs for the IP included in the license agreement, which has amounted to a total of $9.1 million incurred through December 31, 2023. Any patents that grant or have granted from these applications will expire in or after 2034, assuming payment of necessary maintenance fees. We also granted Caribou an exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, to any CRISPR/Cas9 patents, patent applications and know-how in Caribou’s retained fields of use owned or developed by us between July 16, 2014 and January 30, 2018. Caribou, which is obligated to pay a portion of our patent filing, prosecution and maintenance costs for any such licensed IP, also has an option to sublicense any CRISPR/Cas9 IP in-licensed by us for uses and activities in its retained field of use.

The Caribou License terminates on the expiration of the last-to-expire patent right that is licensed to either party. We must use commercially reasonable and diligent efforts to research, develop, manufacture and commercialize at least one product covered by the licensed IP. Either party may terminate the agreement in the event of the other party’s uncured material breach, bankruptcy or insolvency-related events, or breach of its obligations with respect to the included in-licenses.

In June 2021, we executed a Leaseback Agreement (“Leaseback”) with Caribou, concluding an arbitration between us and Caribou in which an arbitration panel found that Caribou had violated the terms of the Caribou License. The arbitration panel required us to grant Caribou an equitable “leaseback” to use certain IP exclusively licensed to us in Caribou’s ongoing CB-010 program.

The Regents of the University of California and the University of Vienna Intellectual Property

The UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP covers methods of use and compositions relating to engineered CRISPR/Cas9 systems for, among other things, cleaving or editing DNA and altering gene product expression in various organisms, including humans. The earliest claimed priority date for the patents in the UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP is May 25, 2012. As of December 31, 2023, this family includes over 50 issued patents in the U.S. and over 30 granted patents outside the U.S., including for example the U.K., Australia, China, Japan, Israel, Mexico and the approximately 40 countries that are members of the European Patent Convention. Applications continue to be prosecuted in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and other patent agencies across the world. Patents issued from this family will expire in or after 2033, if successfully maintained.

In April 2013, Caribou entered into an exclusive, worldwide license in all fields, with the right to sublicense, for this patent family with UC/Vienna solely under UC/Vienna ownership rights. Caribou’s license remains in effect for the life of the last-to-expire patent or last-to-be-abandoned patent application licensed, whichever is later. Through our license agreement with Caribou, we have an exclusive sublicense to UC/Vienna’s interest in this foundational CRISPR/Cas9 patent family for use in human therapeutics, except for anti-fungal and anti-microbial uses as defined in the license agreement as our field of use. For therapeutic products covered by this license and their companion diagnostics, we will owe mid-single-digit royalties on net sales. We may also be subject to additional milestone payments in the future. Caribou has the right to terminate its agreement with UC/Vienna at any time or the agreement may be terminated by UC/Vienna due to an uncured material breach. We cannot guarantee that Caribou will maintain the UC/Vienna license for its full term. Should the license between Caribou and UC/Vienna be terminated for any reason, any compliant Caribou sublicenses as of the termination date will remain in effect and will be assigned to UC/Vienna in place of Caribou. Specifically, if we are in compliance with our obligations under our sublicense and Caribou and UC/Vienna terminate their agreement, UC/Vienna would replace Caribou as our licensor.

On June 25, 2019, the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “PTAB”) declared another interference between the UC/Vienna/Charpentier and certain patents issued to the Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the President and Fellows of Harvard College (collectively, the “Broad Institute patent family” or the “Broad”), which claim aspects of CRISPR/Cas9 systems and methods to edit genes in eukaryotic cells, including human cells. An interference is an adversarial proceeding conducted by the PTAB to determine who was the first to invent a particular invention claimed in U.S. patents and patent applications owned by different parties and in this situation, to determine which research group first invented the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology in eukaryotic cells and, therefore, is entitled to the patents covering the invention. On August 26, 2019, the PTAB redeclared the interference to include additional UC/Vienna/Charpentier patent applications covering the invention that had also been found allowable by the USPTO. As of December 31, 2023, the interference involved 14 allowable patent applications from the UC/Vienna/Charpentier eukaryotic patent family and 13 patents and one patent application from the Broad Institute patent family. The PTAB held a hearing in this interference on February 4, 2022. On February 28, 2022, the PTAB issued a Decision of Priority and Judgment in the patent interference finding that the Broad patents and application have priority over the UC/Vienna/Charpentier involved applications with respect to the subject matter of the interference. On March 30, 2022, UC/Vienna/Charpentier filed a notice of appeal in the Broad Interference, and the Broad Institute has cross-appealed.

In addition, the PTAB has instituted and completed the motions phase in interferences between the same 14 allowable patent applications in the UC/Vienna/Charpentier portfolio, and certain patent rights owned by ToolGen, Inc. (“ToolGen”), and certain patent rights owned by Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, a Merck KGaA subsidiary (“Sigma-Aldrich”). In both interferences, ToolGen and Sigma-Aldrich, respectively, purport that their patent rights cover the use of CRISPR/Cas9 for gene editing in eukaryotic cells. Both interferences are stayed pending a decision from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the Broad Interference. If either the Broad, ToolGen or Sigma-Aldrich were to succeed in their respective interference, the prevailing party or parties could seek to assert its issued patents against us based on our CRISPR/Cas9-based activities, including product commercialization. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense, would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business 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, delay launch or redesign our infringing products, which may not be feasible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In that event, we may be unable to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International (DuPont Company) Intellectual Property

Pioneer, including the DuPont Company, have licensed to Caribou on a worldwide basis, various patent families relating to CRISPR/Cas systems, components and methods of use generally and CRISPR/Cas9 specifically in certain fields, which include Intellia’s field of use under our license agreement with Caribou. In July 2015, we exercised our option under the license agreement with Caribou to sublicense these Pioneer patent families in our field of use. The license from Pioneer to Caribou will expire upon the expiration, abandonment or invalidation of the last patent or patent application licensed from Pioneer to Caribou.

The licensed Pioneer portfolio includes a family of applications filed by Vilnius University that discloses the components of a CRISPR/Cas9 system required for gene editing in non-bacterial organisms. The USPTO has issued patents to Vilnius University with claims covering thein vitro assembly and use of a recombinant CRISPR/Cas9 complex to modify DNA. Patents obtained from this patent family will expire in or after 2033, assuming payment of necessary maintenance fees. We cannot ensure that these additional applications in this family will lead to issued claims that cover our products or activities.

Invention Management Agreement

On December 15, 2016, we entered into a Consent to Assignments, Licensing and Common Ownership and Invention Management Agreement (the “Invention Management Agreement”), with UC, Vienna, Dr. Charpentier, Caribou, CRISPR Therapeutics AG, ERS Genomics Ltd. and TRACR Hematology Ltd. Under the Invention Management Agreement, Dr. Charpentier retroactively consented to UC/Vienna’s CRISPR/Cas9 license to Caribou as well as Caribou’s sublicensing to Intellia certain of its rights to the UC/Vienna/Charpentier CRISPR/Cas9 IP, subject to the restrictions of our license from Caribou. Under the agreement, the parties commit to maintain and coordinate the prosecution, defense and enforcement of the CRISPR/Cas9 foundational patent portfolio worldwide, and each of the co-owners of the IP grants cross-consents to all existing and future licenses and sublicenses based on the rights of another co-owner. The Invention Management Agreement also includes retroactive approval by certain parties of certain prior assignments of interests in patent rights to other parties, and provides for, among other things, (i) good faith cooperation among the parties regarding patent maintenance, defense and prosecution, (ii) cost-sharing arrangements, and (iii) notice of and coordination in the event of third party infringement of the subject patents. Unless earlier terminated by the parties, the Invention Management Agreement will continue in effect until the later of the last expiration date of the UC/Vienna/Charpentier patents underlying the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, or the date on which the last underlying patent application is abandoned.

Manufacturing

We have entered into certain manufacturing and supply arrangements with third party suppliers to support production of our product candidates and their components. In addition, we have entered into a lease to build out a new manufacturing facility in Waltham, Massachusetts, which would support good manufacturing practice (“GMP”) manufacturing for preclinical through commercial supply. We plan to continue to rely on qualified third party organizations and our own capabilities to produce or process bulk compounds, formulated compounds, viral vectors or engineered cells for IND-supporting activities and to supply materials for clinical trials. We expect that clinical and commercial quantities of anyin vivo product or engineered cells that we may seek to develop will be manufactured in GMP compliant facilities and by processes that comply with FDA and other regulatory agency requirements. At the appropriate time in the product development process of each product candidate, we will determine whether to use our internal manufacturing capabilities and facilities or continue to rely on third parties to manufacture commercial quantities of such products that we may successfully develop.

Competition

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are extremely competitive in the race to develop new products. While we believe we have significant competitive advantages with our industry-leading expertise in genome editing, clinical development expertise and dominant IP position, we currently face and will continue to face competition for our development programs from companies that use genome editing or gene therapy development platforms and from companies focused on more traditional therapeutic modalities such as small molecules and antibodies. The competition is likely to come from multiple sources, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic research institutions, government agencies and public and private research institutions. Many of these competitors may have access to greater capital and resources than us. For any products that we may ultimately commercialize, not only will we compete with any existing therapies and those therapies currently in development, but we will also have to compete with new therapies that may become available in the future.

Specific to our NTLA-2001 program, we are aware of other companies that are currently commercializing or developing products and therapies used to treat ATTR amyloidosis, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, BridgeBio Pharma Inc., Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Metagenomi Technologies, LLC, Novo Nordisk A/S and Pfizer, Inc.

Specific to our NTLA-2002 program, we are aware of other companies that are currently commercializing or developing products used to treat HAE including ADARx Therapeutics, Inc., Astria Therapeutics Inc., BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., CSL Limited, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Pharming Group N.V., Pharvaris N.V. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

Competitors in our efforts to provide other genetic therapies to patients can be grouped into at least three sets based on their product discovery platforms:

Our platform and product foci are on the development of therapies using CRISPR-based technologies. Genome editing companies focused on CRISPR-based technologies include: Beam Therapeutics Inc., Caribou Biosciences, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Editas Medicine, Inc., Metagenomi Technologies, LLC, Prime Medicine, Inc., ToolGen, Inc. and Verve Therapeutics Inc.

There are also companies developing therapies using additional gene-editing technologies, which include Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., bluebird bio, Inc., Cellectis S.A., Homology Medicines, Inc., Poseida Therapeutics, Inc., Precision Biosciences, Inc., Prime Medicine, Inc. and Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.

We are also aware of companies developing therapies in various areas related to our specific research and development programs. Forex vivo, these companies include Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., Cellectis S.A., CRISPR Therapeutics AG and Precision BioSciences, Inc. Forin vivo, these companies include CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Editas Medicine, Inc., Excision Biotherapeutics, Inc., Locus Biosciences, Inc., Metagenomi Technologies, LLC, Precision Biosciences, Inc. and Verve Therapeutics Inc.

Our competitors will also include companies that are or will be developing other genome editing methods as well as small molecules, biologics, in vivo gene therapies, engineered cell therapies and nucleic acid-based therapies for the same indications that we are targeting with our CRISPR/Cas9-based therapeutics.

Government Regulation and Product Approval

As a biopharmaceutical company, we are subject to extensive legal and regulatory requirements. For example, we need approval from regulatory agencies for our clinical studies, development, manufacturing, distribution, exportation and importation, commercialization, marketing and reimbursement relating to our products and product candidates. Relevant regulatory authorities include, but are not limited to, the FDA, the EMA, the EC, EU Member State agencies, such as Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute (“PEI”), and other countries’ similar agencies, such as the MHRA, as well as health technology assessment bodies and public authorities responsible for market access and pricing, such as the U.K. National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (“NICE”).

We expect our futurein vivo andex vivo product candidates to be regulated as biologics. Biological products are subject to regulation under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic (“FD&C”) Act and the Public Health Service Act (“PHS Act”), and other federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations. Both the FD&C Act and the PHS Act and their corresponding regulations govern, among other things, the testing, manufacturing, safety, efficacy, labeling, packaging, storage, record keeping, distribution, reporting, advertising and other promotional practices involving drug and biological products. As is the case for all investigational products, before clinical testing of biological products in the U.S. may begin, we must submit an IND application to the FDA, which reviews the clinical protocol and other information, and the IND application must become effective before clinical trials may begin. Prior to initiating clinical trials in foreign countries, CTAs or other equivalent applications, similar to IND applications, must be approved.

Biologic products must be approved by the FDA before they may be legally marketed in the U.S. and by the appropriate foreign regulatory agencies before they may be legally marketed in foreign countries. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources and we may not be able to obtain the required regulatory approvals.

Within the FDA, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (“CBER”) regulates biological products, including gene and cell therapies. CBER’s Office of Therapeutic Products (“OTP”) is responsible for oversight of gene therapy and related products, and the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee (“CTGTAC”) advises CBER on its reviews. Human gene therapy products are defined as all products that mediate their effects by transcription or translation of transferred genetic material or by specifically altering host (human) genetic sequences. Some examples of gene therapy products include nucleic acids, genetically modified microorganisms (e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi), engineered site-specific nucleases used for human genome editing, andex vivo genetically modified human cells. FDA has published guidance documents related to, among other things, gene therapy products in general and their preclinical assessment, potency or other quality testing, and chemistry, manufacturing and control information in gene therapy IND applications, and long-term adverse event monitoring of clinical trial subjects; all of which are intended to facilitate industry’s development of these products. More recently and as part of the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act, FDA has issued a number of guidances pertaining to regenerative medicine advanced therapies, which include cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering products, human cell and tissue products and combination products using any such therapies or products. Additionally, gene therapies, including genetically modified cells, that lead to a durable modification of cells or tissues may meet the definition of a regenerative medicine therapy. A number of guidances have been revised to reflect the growing knowledge and incorporation of newer technology, including certain considerations for genome editing. A small, but growing number of gene therapy products, including gene editing therapies, have been approved by regulatory agencies.

U.S. Gene and Cell Therapy Products Development Process

The FDA approves biologics, including gene and cellular therapy products, through the Biologics License Application (“BLA”) process before they may be legally marketed in the U.S. This process generally involves the following:

completion of extensive nonclinical, sometimes referred to as preclinical laboratory tests, and preclinical animal studies and formulation studies in accordance with applicable regulations, including good laboratory practice (“GLP”) and applicable requirements for the humane use of laboratory animals;

submission to the FDA of an IND application, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;

performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials, according to the FDA’s regulations commonly referred to as good clinical practice (“GCP”) and any additional requirements for the protection of human research subjects and their health information, to establish the safety and efficacy of the proposed product for its intended use;

submission to the FDA of a BLA for marketing approval that includes substantial evidence of safety, efficacy, and purity and potency, from nonclinical andin vitro testing and clinical trials;

satisfactory completion of an FDA inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities where the product is produced to assess compliance with current good manufacturing practice (“cGMP”) to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the product’s identity, strength, quality and purity and, if applicable, the FDA’s current good tissue practice (“cGTP”) requirements for the use of human cellular and tissue products;

positive results from potential FDA audit of the nonclinical study and clinical trial sites that generated the data in support of the BLA;

review of the proposed product by an FDA advisory committee, where appropriate and if applicable;

payment of user fees for FDA review of the BLA (unless a fee waiver applies, such as for product candidates designated as orphan drugs); and

FDA review and approval, or licensure, of the BLA.

Before testing any drug or biological product candidate, including gene and cellular therapy product candidates, in humans, the product candidate is evaluated through preclinical testing. Preclinical tests, also referred to as nonclinical studies, include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, toxicity and formulation, as well as animal studies to assess the potential safety and activity of the product candidate. The conduct of the preclinical tests must comply with applicable federal regulations and requirements, including GLP.

The clinical trial sponsor must submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature, and a proposed clinical protocol, to the FDA as part of the IND. Some preclinical testing may continue even after the IND application is submitted. The IND application automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA places the clinical trial on a clinical hold within that 30-day time period. In such a case, the clinical trial sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. The FDA may also impose clinical holds on a biological product candidate at any time before or during clinical trials due to, among other reasons, safety concerns or non-compliance with regulatory requirements. If the FDA imposes a clinical hold, trials may not proceed without FDA authorization and then only under authorized terms. Accordingly, we cannot be sure that submission of an IND application will result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to begin, or that, once begun, issues will not arise that result in the suspension or termination of such trials.

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 study 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 stopping rules that assure a clinical trial will be stopped if certain adverse events should occur. Each protocol and its amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. Clinical trials must be conducted and monitored in accordance with the FDA’s regulations comprising the GCP requirements, including the requirement that all research subjects provide informed consent. Further, each clinical trial must be reviewed and approved by an independent institutional review board (“IRB”) at or servicing each institution at which the clinical trial will be conducted. An IRB is charged with protecting the welfare and rights of study participants 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.

In addition to the submission of an IND to the FDA before initiation of a clinical trial in the U.S., certain human clinical trials involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules are subject to oversight of institutional biosafety committees, (“IBCs”), as set forth in the National Institutes for Health (“NIH”) Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules (“NIH Guidelines”). Under the NIH Guidelines, recombinant and synthetic nucleic acids are defined as: (i) molecules that are constructed by joining nucleic acid molecules and that can replicate in a living cell (i.e., recombinant nucleic acids); (ii) nucleic acid molecules that are chemically or by other means synthesized or amplified, including those that are chemically or otherwise modified but can base pair with naturally occurring nucleic acid molecules (i.e., synthetic nucleic acids); or (iii) molecules that result from the replication of those described in (i) or (ii). Specifically, under the NIH Guidelines, supervision of human gene transfer trials includes evaluation and assessment by an IBC, a local institutional committee that reviews and oversees research utilizing recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules at that institution. The IBC assesses the safety of the research and identifies any potential risk to public health or the environment, and such review may result in some delay before initiation of a clinical trial. While the NIH Guidelines are not mandatory unless the research in question is being conducted at or sponsored by institutions receiving NIH funding of recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecule research, many companies and other institutions not otherwise subject to the NIH Guidelines voluntarily follow them.

Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap or be combined:

Phase 1. The product candidate is initially introduced into healthy human subjects and tested for safety. In the case of some products for severe or life-threatening diseases, especially when the product may be too inherently toxic to ethically administer to healthy volunteers, the initial human testing is often conducted in patients.

Phase 2. The product candidate is evaluated in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, to preliminarily evaluate the efficacy of the product for specific targeted diseases and to determine dosage tolerance, optimal dosage and dosing schedule.

Phase 3. Clinical trials are undertaken to further evaluate dosage, clinical efficacy, potency (for BLA products), and safety in an expanded patient population at dispersed clinical trial sites. These clinical trials are intended to establish the overall risk/benefit ratio of the product, including as compared to current standard treatments, and provide an adequate basis for product approval and labeling.

Post-approval clinical trials, sometimes referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials, may be conducted after initial marketing approval. These clinical trials are used to gain additional evidence about the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication, particularly for long-term safety follow-up. The FDA typically advises that sponsors observe subjects for potential gene therapy-related delayed adverse events for up to a 15-year period after administration, including a minimum of five years of annual examinations followed by ten years of annual queries, either in person or by questionnaire.

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 status of the clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA. Written IND safety reports must be promptly submitted to the FDA and the investigators for serious and unexpected adverse events that are associated with the use of the product candidate, any findings from other trials, tests in laboratory animals orin vitro testing that suggest a significant risk for human subjects, or any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. The sponsor must submit an IND safety report within 15 calendar days after the sponsor determines that the information qualifies for reporting. The sponsor also must notify the FDA of any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction within seven calendar days after the sponsor’s initial receipt of the information.

Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials may not be completed successfully within any specified period, if at all. The FDA or the sponsor or its data safety monitoring board may suspend a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects or patients 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 clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the product candidate has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.

There also are requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical trials and completed clinical trial results to public registries. Sponsors of certain clinical trials of FDA-regulated products, including biologics such as gene and cellular therapy products, are required to register and disclose certain clinical trial information to NIH. Information related to the product, patient population, phase of investigation, study sites and investigators, and other aspects of the clinical trial is then made publicly available as part of the registration at www.clinicaltrials.gov. Sponsors also are obligated to disclose the results of their clinical trials after completion. Disclosure of the results of these trials can be delayed until the new product or new indication being studied has been approved, up to a maximum of two years.

Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal trials and must also develop additional information about the physical characteristics of the product candidate, as well as finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP, and in certain cases, cGTP, requirements. To help reduce the risk of the introduction of adventitious agents with 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 product to support a BLA. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.

U.S. Review and Approval Processes

FDA approval of a BLA must be obtained before commercial marketing of the product. The BLA must include results of product development, laboratory and animal trials, human trials, information on the manufacture and composition of the product, proposed labeling and other relevant information. In addition, under the Pediatric Research Equity Act (“PREA”), a BLA or supplement to a BLA, for a product candidate with certain novel characteristics must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the product candidate 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 Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012 (“FDASIA”) requires that a sponsor who is planning to submit a marketing application for a biological product that includes a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration submit an initial Pediatric Study Plan (“PSP”) within sixty days after an end-of-Phase 2 meeting or as may be agreed between the sponsor and FDA, unless exempt due to orphan drug designation. The initial PSP must include, among other things, an outline of the pediatric study or studies that the sponsor plans to conduct, including, to the extent practicable, study objectives and design, age groups, relevant endpoints and statistical approach, or a justification for not including such detailed information, and any request for a deferral of pediatric assessments or a full or partial waiver of the requirement to provide data from pediatric studies along with supporting information, along with any other information specified in FDA regulations. The FDA and the sponsor must reach agreement on the PSP. A sponsor can submit amendments to an agreed-upon initial PSP at any time if changes to the pediatric plan need to be considered based on data collected from nonclinical studies, early phase clinical trials, or other clinical development programs. The FDA may grant deferrals for submission of data or full or partial waivers. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA does not apply to any biological product for an indication for which orphan drug designation has been granted. The testing and approval processes require substantial time and effort and there can be no assurance that the FDA will accept the BLA for filing and, even if filed, that any approval will be granted on a timely basis, if at all.

Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (“PDUFA”), as amended, each BLA must be accompanied by a user fee. The FDA adjusts the PDUFA user fees on an annual basis. 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. Additionally, no user fees are assessed on BLAs for products designated as orphan drugs, unless the product also includes a non-orphan indication.

Within 60 days following submission of the application, the FDA reviews the BLA to determine if it is substantially complete before the agency accepts it for filing. The FDA may refuse to file any BLA that it deems incomplete or not properly reviewable at the time of submission, including for failure to pay required fees, and may request additional information. In this event, the application must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review of the BLA. The FDA reviews the application to determine, among other things, whether the proposed product is safe and effective (or, in the case of biologics, to ensure safety, purity and potency), and whether the product is being manufactured in accordance with cGMP, and in certain cases, cGTP, requirements to ensure and preserve the product’s identity, safety, strength, quality, potency and purity. The FDA may refer applications for novel products or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review, evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions. During the FDA review and approval process, the FDA also will determine whether a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”) is necessary to assure the safe use of the biological product candidate. If the FDA concludes a REMS is needed, the sponsor of the BLA must submit a proposed REMS; the FDA will not approve the application without a REMS, if required.

Before approving a BLA, 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 and, if applicable, cGTP requirements are adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving a BLA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure that the clinical trials were conducted in compliance with IND study requirements and GCP requirements. To assure cGMP, cGTP and GCP compliance, an applicant must incur significant expenditure of time, money and effort in the areas of training, record keeping, production, and quality control.

Notwithstanding the submission of relevant data and information, the FDA may ultimately decide that the BLA does not satisfy its regulatory criteria for approval and deny approval. Data obtained from clinical trials are not always conclusive and the FDA may interpret data differently than we interpret the same data. If the agency decides not to approve the BLA in its present form, the FDA will issue a complete response letter that usually describes all of the specific deficiencies in the application identified by the FDA. Addressing the deficiencies identified may require significant development work, such as product reformulation or additional clinical trials. 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 application, addressing all of the deficiencies identified in the letter, challenge the determination set forth in the letter by requesting a hearing or withdraw the application.

If a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific diseases, dosages or patient subgroups or the indications for use may otherwise be limited, which could restrict the commercial value of the product. Further, the FDA may require that certain contraindications, warnings, precautions or adverse events be included in the product labeling. The FDA may impose restrictions and conditions on product distribution, prescribing, or dispensing in the form of a REMS, or otherwise limit the scope of any approval. In addition, the FDA may require post marketing clinical trials, sometimes referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials, designed to further assess a product’s safety and effectiveness, and testing and surveillance programs to monitor the safety of approved products that have been commercialized.

One of the performance goals agreed to by the FDA under the PDUFA VII (Fiscal Years 2023-2027) is to review 90% of BLAs in 10 months from the 60-day filing date, and 90% of priority BLAs in six months from the 60-day filing date, whereupon a review decision is to be made. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates for standard and priority BLAs, and its review goals are subject to change with PDUFA reauthorization. The review process and the PDUFA goal date may be extended by three months if the FDA requests or the BLA sponsor otherwise provides additional information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission, also known as a Major Amendment, within the last three months before the PDUFA goal date.

Orphan Drug Designation

The FDA may grant orphan drug designation to biological products, including cellular and gene therapy products, intended to treat a rare disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the U.S., or, if it affects more than 200,000 individuals in the U.S., when there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and marketing the product for this type of disease or condition will be recovered from sales in the U.S. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submission of BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential 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.

In the U.S., orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers. In addition, if a product receives the first FDA approval for the indication for which it has orphan designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means the FDA may not approve any other application to market the same drug for the same orphan indication for a period of seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority over the product with orphan exclusivity or where the manufacturer with orphan exclusivity is unable to assure sufficient quantities of the approved orphan designated product. Competitors, however, may receive approval of different products for the indication for which the orphan product has exclusivity or obtain approval for the same product but for a different indication for which the orphan product has exclusivity, which may permit off-label use for the orphan indication. Orphan product exclusivity also could block the approval of one of our products for seven years if a competitor obtains approval of the same drug or biological product as defined by the FDA for the same orphan indication or if our product candidate is determined to be contained within the competitor’s product for the same indication or disease. If a drug or biological product 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.

Expedited Development and Review Programs

In the U.S. and the EU, as well as in other countries, there are a number of programs to expedite development, review and approval of products for serious or life-threatening disease or condition that address an unmet medical need in the relevant regulatory jurisdiction. In the U.S., these FDA programs include Fast Track Designation, priority review, accelerated approval, Breakthrough Therapy designation and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapies. Similar programs in the EU include accelerated assessment, conditional approval and the PRIME program.

The FDA’s Fast Track program intends to expedite or facilitate the process for reviewing new drug and biological products that meet certain criteria. Specifically, new biological products are eligible for Fast Track designation if they are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. Fast Track designation applies to the combination of the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a new biologic, including gene and cellular therapy products, may request that the FDA designate the product as a Fast Track product at any time during the product’s clinical development, but ideally not later than the pre-BLA meeting. The FDA may consider for review sections of the marketing application for a Fast Track product on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the application, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the application and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the application.

In the U.S., any product is eligible for priority review if it treats a serious condition and, if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness of the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of that condition. The FDA will attempt to direct additional resources to the evaluation of an application for a new drug or biological product designated for priority review in an effort to facilitate the review. Additionally, a product may be eligible for accelerated approval. 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 be eligible for 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 other than survival or 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 product subject to accelerated approval perform adequate and well-controlled, post-marketing confirmatory clinical trials to confirm the effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit. Under the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022 (“FDORA”), the FDA is now permitted to require, as appropriate, that post-approval confirmatory trials be underway prior to approval or within a specific time period after accelerated approval is granted. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies with due diligence, or to confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, will allow the FDA to withdraw the drug from the market and, under FDORA, the FDA has increased authority for expedited procedures to withdraw approval of a product granted accelerated approval. In addition, the FDA generally requires, unless otherwise informed by the agency, pre-approval of promotional materials as a condition for accelerated approval, which could adversely impact the timing of the commercial launch of the product.

FDA's Breakthrough Therapy designation program is intended to expedite the development and review of products that treat serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug or biological product that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The designation includes all of the features of Fast Track designation, as well as more intensive FDA interaction and guidance. The Breakthrough Therapy designation is a distinct status from both accelerated approval and priority review, but these can also be granted to the same product candidate if the relevant criteria are met. The FDA must take certain actions, such as holding timely meetings and providing advice, intended to expedite the development and review of an application for approval of a breakthrough therapy. All requests for Breakthrough Therapy designation will be reviewed within 60 days of receipt, and FDA will either grant or deny the request.

Orphan designation, Fast Track designation, priority review, accelerated approval and Breakthrough Therapy designation do not change the standards for approval but may expedite the development or approval process.

Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapies (“RMAT”) Designation

As part of the 21 st Century Cures Act, the FD&C Act was amended to facilitate an efficient development program for, and expedite review of regenerative advanced therapies, which include cell and gene therapies, therapeutic tissue engineering products, human cell and tissue products, and combination products using any such therapies or products. Gene therapies, including genetically modified cells, that lead to a durable modification of cells or tissues may meet the definition of a regenerative medicine therapy. This program is intended to facilitate efficient development and expedite review of regenerative medicine therapies, which are intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and qualify for RMAT designation. A drug sponsor may request that FDA designate a drug as a RMAT concurrently with or at any time after submission of an IND. FDA has 60 calendar days to determine whether the drug meets the criteria, including whether there is preliminary clinical evidence indicating that the drug has the potential to address unmet medical needs for a serious or life-threatening disease or condition. A BLA for a regenerative medicine therapy that has received RMAT designation may be eligible for priority review or accelerated approval through use of surrogate or intermediate endpoints reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit, or reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites. Benefits of RMAT designation also include early interactions with FDA and, for those granted accelerated approval, post-approval requirements may be fulfilled through the submission of clinical evidence from 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. Like the FDA’s other expedited development programs, RMAT designation does not change the standards for approval but may expedite the development or approval process.

Post-Approval Requirements

Maintaining substantial compliance with applicable federal, state, and local statutes and regulations and, as applicable, their counterparts in other jurisdictions, requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. Rigorous and extensive FDA regulation of biological products, including gene and cellular therapy products, continues after approval, particularly with respect to cGMP requirements. We will rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the production of clinical and commercial quantities of certain components of products that we may commercialize. Manufacturers of our products are required to comply with applicable requirements in the cGMP regulations, including quality control, quality assurance and maintenance of records and documentation. Other post-approval requirements applicable to biological products include reporting of cGMP deviations that may affect the identity, potency, purity and overall safety of a distributed product, record-keeping requirements, reporting of adverse effects, reporting updated safety and efficacy information, and complying with electronic record and signature requirements. After a BLA is approved, the product also may be subject to official lot release. As part of the manufacturing process, the manufacturer is required to perform certain tests on each lot of the product before it is released for distribution. If the product is subject to official release by the FDA, the manufacturer submits samples of each lot of product to the FDA together with a release protocol showing a summary of the history of manufacture of the lot and the results of all of the manufacturer’s tests performed on the lot. The FDA also may perform certain confirmatory tests on lots of some products, such as viral vaccines, before releasing the lots for distribution by the manufacturer. In addition, the FDA conducts laboratory research related to the regulatory standards on the safety, purity, potency, and effectiveness of biological products, including gene and cellular therapy products.

We also would have to comply with the FDA’s advertising and promotion requirements, such as those related to direct-to-consumer advertising, the prohibition on promoting products for uses or in patient populations that are not described in the product’s approved labeling (known as “off-label use”), industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities, and promotional activities involving the internet and social media platforms. Discovery of previously unknown problems or the failure to comply with the applicable regulatory requirements may result in restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a product, imposition of a REMS or post-market study requirement or withdrawal of the product from the market as well as possible civil or criminal sanctions. Failure to comply with the applicable U.S. requirements at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval, may subject an applicant or manufacturer to administrative or judicial civil or criminal sanctions and adverse publicity. FDA sanctions could include refusal to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, clinical hold, warning or untitled letters, 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. Any agency or judicial enforcement action could have a material adverse effect on us.

Biological product manufacturers and other entities involved in the manufacture and distribution of approved biological products, including gene and cellular therapy products, in the U.S. are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain other federal and state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain other federal and state agencies for compliance with cGMP, and in certain cases, cGTP, requirements and other laws. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money, and effort in the area of production and quality control to maintain cGMP compliance. Discovery of problems with a product after approval may result in restrictions on a product, manufacturer, or holder of an approved BLA, including withdrawal of the product from the market, as well as potential civil and criminal liability. In addition, changes to the manufacturing process or facility generally require prior FDA approval before being implemented and other types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications and additional labeling claims, are also subject to further FDA review and approval.

Biosimilars and Exclusivity

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively, the “Affordable Care Act” or “ACA”), signed into law on March 23, 2010, includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA”), which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed reference biological product in the U.S. 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 product is biosimilar to the reference 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 biologic and the reference biologic may be switched after one has been previously administered without increasing safety risks or risks of diminished efficacy relative to exclusive use of the reference biologic. Starting in 2015, the FDA commenced licensing biosimilars under the BPCIA, and there are currently numerous biosimilars approved in the U.S. and Europe. The FDA has issued a number of draft and final guidance documents outlining an approach to review and approval of biosimilars and interchangeable biological products.

The BPCIA also contains various provisions regarding exclusivity for reference and interchangeable products and procedures for sharing and litigating patents covering the reference product. A reference biologic is granted 12 years of exclusivity from the time of first licensure of the reference product. The first biologic product submitted under the abbreviated approval pathway that is determined to be interchangeable with the reference product is eligible for a period of exclusivity against other biologics submitted under the abbreviated approval pathway during which time the FDA may not determine that another product is interchangeable with the same reference product for any condition of use. The FDA may approve multiple “first” interchangeable products so long as they are all approved on the same first day of marketing. This exclusivity period, which may be shared amongst multiple first interchangeable products, lasts 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. The BPCIA, however, is complex and only beginning to be interpreted and implemented by the FDA. In addition, proposed legislation has sought to reduce the 12-year reference product exclusivity period. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. As a result, the ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning of the BPCIA is subject to significant uncertainty.

A biological product can also obtain pediatric market exclusivity in the U.S. Pediatric exclusivity, if granted, adds six months to existing exclusivity periods for all formulations, dosage forms, and indications of the biologic. This six-month exclusivity, which runs from the end of other exclusivity protection, may be granted based on the voluntary completion of a pediatric study in accordance with an FDA-issued “Written Request” for such a study, provided that at the time pediatric exclusivity is granted there is not less than nine months of term remaining.

Additional Regulation

In addition to the foregoing, state and federal laws regarding environmental protection and hazardous substances, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Resource Conservancy and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act, all affect our business. These and other laws govern our use, handling and disposal of various biological, chemical and radioactive substances used in, and wastes generated by, our operations. If our operations result in contamination of the environment or expose individuals to hazardous substances, we could be liable for damages and governmental fines. We believe that we are in material compliance with applicable environmental laws and that continued compliance therewith will not have a material adverse effect on our business. We cannot predict, however, how changes in these laws may affect our future operations.

Other Healthcare and Privacy Laws

In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing of biological products, other U.S. federal and state healthcare regulatory laws restrict business practices in the pharmaceutical industry, which include, but are not limited to, state and federal anti-kickback, false claims, data privacy and security, and physician payment transparency laws. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or certain rebates), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, or the purchase, lease, order, arrangement for or recommendation of the purchase, lease, order, arrangement for any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. In addition, the ACA provides that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”). Violators are subject to civil and criminal fines and penalties, as well as imprisonment and exclusion from government healthcare programs;

federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including, without limitation, the federal FCA, and civil monetary penalty laws which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment or approval from the federal government, including Medicare, Medicaid and other government payors, that are false or fraudulent or knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim or to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government, or knowingly concealing or knowingly and improperly avoiding or decreasing an obligation to pay money to the federal government. A claim includes “any request or demand” for money or property presented to the U.S. federal government. Manufacturers can be held liable under the FCA even when they do not submit claims directly to government payors if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims by, for example, promoting a product off-label. The FCA also permits a private individual acting as a “whistleblower” to bring civil whistleblower orqui tam actions against individuals (including biopharmaceutical manufacturers and sellers) on behalf of the federal government alleging violations of the FCA and to share in any monetary recovery. These laws impose criminal and civil penalties on violators;

the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), and its implementing regulations, which impose criminal and civil liability for knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any healthcare benefit program, regardless of the payor (e.g., public or private) and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up by any trick or device a material fact or making any materially false statements in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items or services. Similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. HIPAA violations can lead to civil and criminal liability;

HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (“HITECH”), and their respective implementing regulations, which impose, among other things, requirements on certain covered healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses as well as their respective business associates that perform services for them that involve the use, or disclosure of, individually identifiable health information, relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information without appropriate authorization. HITECH also created new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. In addition, state and non-U.S. laws govern the privacy and security of health and other personal information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same requirements, thus complicating efforts to comply with their respective provisions;

the U.S. federal physician payment transparency requirements, sometimes referred to as the “Physician Payments Sunshine Act,” created under the ACA, and their implementing regulations, which require manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually, to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), information related to payments or other “transfers of value” made to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), certain other licensed healthcare practitioners, and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians, other healthcare providers, and their immediate family members. Failure to submit required information may result in civil monetary penalties for all payments, transfers of value or ownership or investment interests that are not timely, accurately, and completely reported in an annual submission;

federal consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate marketplace activities and activities that potentially harm consumers;

the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and other laws which prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by U.S. persons and issuers as defined by the statute for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business;

the FD&C Act, which prohibits, among other things, the commercialization of adulterated or misbranded drugs and medical devices and the PHS Act, which prohibits, among other things, the commercialization of biological products unless a biologics license is in effect; and

analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third party payors, including private insurers, and may be broader in scope than their federal equivalents; state and foreign laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers; state and foreign laws that require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures; and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

Because of the breadth of these laws and the limited statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws.

In the event we decide to conduct clinical trials or enroll subjects in our future clinical trials, we may be subject to additional privacy restrictions. In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) regulates the collection, use, storage, disclosure, transfer or other processing of personal data, including personal health data. The GDPR covers any business, regardless of its location, that provides goods or services to residents in the EU and, thus, could incorporate our activities 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, obtaining consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, providing information to individuals regarding data processing activities, implementing safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data, providing notification of data breaches, ensuring certain accountability measures are in place and taking certain measures when engaging third party processors. The GDPR grants individuals the opportunity to object to the processing of their personal data, allows them to request deletion of personal data 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. 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 annual global revenues, or €20,000,000, whichever is greater. As a result of the GDPR, we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms ensuring compliance with the new data protection rules, including as implemented by individual countries.

Further to the U.K.’s exit from the EU on January 31, 2020, the U.K. incorporated the GDPR (as it existed on December 31, 2020 but subject to certain U.K. specific amendments) into U.K. law, referred to as the U.K. GDPR. The U.K. GDPR and the U.K. Data Protection Act 2018 set out the U.K.’s data protection regime, which is independent from but currently still aligned to the EU’s data protection regime. Non-compliance with the U.K. GDPR may result in monetary penalties of up to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. Although the U.K. is regarded as a third country under the EU’s GDPR, the U.K. is recognized as providing adequate protection under the EU GDPR and, therefore, transfers of personal data originating in the EU to the U.K. remain unrestricted. Likewise, the U.K. government has confirmed that personal data transfers from the U.K. to the European Economic Area (“EEA”), which consists of the EU Member States, plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland remain free flowing.

In California, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) requires covered businesses to comply with specific privacy and security obligations, such as providing disclosures to consumers in California about such companies’ data collection, use and sharing practices, and providing consumers the ability to opt-out of certain sales or transfers of personal information, and providing consumers with a private right of action for certain data breaches. Further, the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) substantially modifies the CCPA, including by expanding consumers’ rights with respect to certain sensitive personal information and by establishing a state agency vested with the authority to enforce the CCPA. The CPRA also creates additional obligations with respect to the processing of personal information, including regulating personal information collected about employees, applicants and retirees as well as that which is collected in a business-to-business capacity.

Several other U.S. states have either passed or enacted privacy legislation similar to the CCPA, which incorporate similar concepts of the CCPA, but contain key differences in the scope, application, and enforcement which may complicate compliance efforts.

If our operations 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, individual imprisonment, and additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with this law, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.

To the extent that any of our product candidates, once approved, are sold in a foreign country, we may be subject to similar foreign laws and regulations, which may include, for instance, applicable post-marketing requirements, including safety surveillance, anti-fraud and abuse laws, and implementation of corporate compliance programs and reporting of payments or other transfers of value to healthcare professionals.

Regulation in the European Union

Clinical Trial Approval

In April 2014, the EU adopted the new Clinical Trials Regulation, (EU) No 536/2014, which replaced the previous Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC on 31 January 2022. The Clinical Trials Regulation is directly applicable in all EU Member States meaning no national implementing legislation in each EU Member State is required. The Clinical Trials Regulation aims to simplify and streamline the approval of clinical trials in the EU. The main characteristics of the Regulation include: a streamlined application procedure via a single-entry point through the Clinical Trials Information System (“CTIS”); a single set of documents to be prepared and submitted for the application as well as simplified reporting procedures for clinical trial sponsors; and a harmonized procedure for the assessment of applications for clinical trials, which is divided in two parts (Part I contains scientific and medicinal product documentation and Part II contains the national and patient-level documentation). Part I is assessed by a coordinated review by the competent authorities of all EU Member States in which an application for authorization of a clinical trial has been submitted (Member States concerned) of a draft report prepared by a Reference Member State. Part II is assessed separately by each Member State concerned. Strict deadlines have been established for the assessment of CTAs. The role of the relevant ethics committees in the assessment procedure continues to be governed by the national law of the concerned EU Member State, however, overall related timelines are defined by the Clinical Trials Regulation. The Clinical Trials Regulation also provides for simplified reporting procedures for clinical trial sponsors.

Marketing Authorization

In the EU, medicinal products, including advanced therapy medicinal products (“ATMPs”), are subject to extensive pre- and post-market regulation by regulatory authorities at both the EU and national levels. ATMPs comprise gene therapy products, somatic cell therapy products and tissue engineered products. We anticipate that our gene therapy development products would be regulated as ATMPs in the EU.

To obtain regulatory approval of our medicinal products in the EU, we must submit a marketing authorization application (“MAA”) to the EMA.

The centralized procedure provides for the grant of a single marketing authorization by the EC that is valid throughout the EU, and in the additional member states of the EEA (Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). Pursuant to Regulation (EC) No. 726/2004, the centralized procedure is compulsory for specific products, including for medicines produced by certain biotechnological processes, products designated as orphan medicinal products, ATMPs, and products with a new active substance indicated for the treatment of certain diseases, including products for the treatment of cancer, HIV or AIDS, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune and other immune dysfunctions and viral diseases. For those products for which the use of the centralized procedure is not mandatory, applicants may elect to use the centralized procedure where either the product contains a new active substance indicated for the treatment of diseases other than those listed above, or where the applicant can show that the product constitutes a significant therapeutic, scientific or technical innovation or for which the centralized procedure is in the interest of patients at an EU level.

Specifically, the grant of marketing authorization in the EU for ATMPs is governed by Regulation (EC) No. 1394/2007 on ATMPs, read in combination with Directive 2001/83/EC on medicinal products. Regulation (EC) No. 1394/2007 lays down specific rules concerning the authorization, supervision, and pharmacovigilance of gene therapy medicinal products, somatic cell therapy medicinal products, and tissue engineered products. Manufacturers of ATMPs must demonstrate the quality, safety, and efficacy of their products to the Committee for Advanced Therapies (“CAT”), at the EMA, which conducts a scientific assessment of the MAA and provides an opinion regarding the MAA for an ATMP.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (“CHMP”), established at the EMA, is responsible for issuing a final opinion on whether an ATMP meets the required quality, safety and efficacy requirements, and whether the product has a positive benefit/risk profile. Under the centralized procedure in the EU, the maximum timeframe for the evaluation of an MAA by the EMA is 210 days from receipt of a valid MAA, excluding clock stops when additional information or written or oral explanation is to be provided by the applicant in response to questions of the CHMP. Clock stops may extend the timeframe of evaluation of an MAA considerably beyond 210 days. Where the CHMP gives a positive opinion, it provides the opinion, together with supporting documentation, to the EC, who make the final decision to grant a marketing authorization, which is issued within 67 days of receipt of the EMA’s recommendation. Accelerated evaluation may be granted by the CHMP in exceptional cases, when a medicinal product is expected to be of major interest from the point of view of public health and, in particular, from the viewpoint of therapeutic innovation. If the CHMP accepts such a request, the time frame of 210 days for assessment will be reduced to 150 days (excluding clock stops), but it is possible that the CHMP may revert to the standard time limit for the centralized procedure if it determines that the application is no longer appropriate to conduct an accelerated assessment.

Data and Market Exclusivity

The EU also provides opportunities for market exclusivity. For example, in the EU, upon receiving marketing authorization, innovative medicinal products generally receive eight years of data exclusivity and an additional two years of market exclusivity. Data exclusivity prevents applicants for authorization of generics or biosimilars of these innovative products from referencing the innovator’s pre-clinical and clinical trial data contained in the dossier of the reference product when applying for a generic or biosimilar marketing authorization in the EU, during a period of eight years from the date on which the reference product was first authorized in the EU. During the additional two-year period of market exclusivity, a generic or biosimilar marketing authorization can be submitted, and the innovator’s data may be referenced, but no generic or biosimilar product can be marketed until the expiration of the market exclusivity period. The overall ten-year period will be extended to a maximum of 11 years if, during the first eight years of those ten years, the marketing authorization holder obtains an authorization for one or more new therapeutic indications which, during the scientific evaluation prior to their authorization, are held to bring a significant clinical benefit in comparison with existing therapies. However, there is no guarantee that a product will be considered by the EU’s regulatory authorities to be an innovative medicinal product, and products may therefore not qualify for data exclusivity. Even if a product is considered to be an innovative medicinal product so that the innovator gains the prescribed period of data exclusivity, another company nevertheless could also market another version of the product if such company obtained marketing authorization based on an MAA with a complete independent data package of pharmaceutical tests, pre-clinical tests and clinical trials.

Orphan Designation and Exclusivity

Products with an orphan designation in the EU will, upon the grant of a marketing authorization for such orphan product, receive ten years of market exclusivity, during which time no “similar medicinal product” for the same indication may be placed on the market. A “similar medicinal product” is defined as a medicinal product containing a similar active substance or substances as contained in an authorized orphan medicinal product, and which is intended for the same therapeutic indication. An orphan product can also obtain an additional two years of market exclusivity in the EU where an agreed Pediatric Investigation Plan (“PIP”) for pediatric studies has been complied with. No extension to any supplementary protection certificate (“SPC”) can be granted on the basis of pediatric studies for orphan indications.

The criteria for designating an orphan medicinal product in the EU are similar in principle to those in the U.S. Under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) 141/2000, a medicinal product may be designated as an orphan medicinal product if it is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of (1) a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition; (2) either (a) such condition affects no more than five in 10,000 persons in the EU when the application is made; or (b) it is unlikely that the product, without the benefits derived from orphan status, would generate sufficient return in the EU to justify the necessary investment in its development; and (3) there exists no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment of such condition authorized for marketing in the EU, or if such a method exists, the product will be of significant benefit to those affected by the condition, as defined in Regulation (EC) 847/2000. Orphan medicinal products are eligible for financial incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers and are, upon grant of a marketing authorization, entitled to ten years of market exclusivity for the approved therapeutic indication. The application for orphan designation must be submitted before the application for marketing authorization. The applicant will receive a fee reduction for the MAA if the orphan drug designation has been granted, but not if the designation is still pending at the time the MAA is submitted. Orphan designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process.

The ten-year market exclusivity may be reduced to six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established that the product no longer meets the criteria for orphan designation, for example, if the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity. Additionally, marketing authorization may be granted to a similar medicinal product for the same therapeutic indication as an authorized orphan product at any time if:

the second applicant can establish that its product, although similar to an authorized orphan product, is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior to such authorized product;

the marketing authorization holder for the authorized orphan product consents to a second orphan medicinal product application; or

the marketing authorization holder for the authorized orphan product cannot supply enough orphan medicinal product.

Pediatric development

In the EU, companies developing a new medicinal product must agree upon a PIP with the EMA and must conduct pediatric clinical trials in accordance with that PIP, unless a waiver applies, (e.g., because the relevant disease or condition occurs only in adults). This requirement also applies when a company wants to add a new indication, pharmaceutical form or route of administration for a medicine that is already authorized. The MAA for the product must include the results of pediatric clinical trials conducted in accordance with the PIP, unless a waiver applies, or a deferral has been granted, in which case the pediatric clinical trials must be completed at a later date. Products that are granted a marketing authorization on the basis of the pediatric clinical trials conducted in accordance with the PIP are eligible for a six month extension of the protection under a SPC provided an application for such extension is made at the same time as filing the SPC application for the product, or at any point up to two years before the SPC expires, even where the trial results are negative. This pediatric reward is subject to specific conditions and is not automatically available when data in compliance with the PIP are developed and submitted.

Post-approval controls

The holder of a marketing authorization must establish and maintain a pharmacovigilance system and appoint an individual qualified person for pharmacovigilance, who is responsible for oversight of that system. Key obligations include expedited reporting of suspected serious adverse reactions and submission of periodic safety update reports (“PSURs”).

All new MAAs must include a risk management plan (“RMP”), describing the risk management system that the company will put in place and documenting measures to prevent or minimize the risks associated with the product. The regulatory authorities may also impose specific obligations as a condition of the marketing authorization. Such risk-minimization measures or post-authorization obligations may include additional safety monitoring, more frequent submission of PSURs, or the conduct of additional clinical trials or post-authorization safety studies. RMPs and PSURs are routinely available to third parties requesting access, subject to limited redactions.

The manufacturing of authorized medicinal products, for which a separate manufacturer’s license is mandatory, must also be conducted in strict compliance with the applicable EU laws, regulations and guidance, including Directive 2001/83/EC, Directive 2017/1572, Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 and the European Commission Guidelines for Good Manufacturing Practice. These requirements include compliance with EU cGMP standards when manufacturing medicinal products and active pharmaceutical ingredients, including the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients outside of the EU with the intention to import the active pharmaceutical ingredients into the EU.

All advertising and promotional activities for the product must be consistent with the approved Summary of Product Characteristics and therefore all off-label promotion is prohibited. Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines is also prohibited in the EU. Although general requirements for advertising and promotion of medicinal products are established under EU directives, the details are governed by regulations in each EU Member State and can differ from one country to another.

The aforementioned EU rules are generally applicable in the EEA, which consists of the EU Member States, plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.

The EC introduced legislative proposals in April 2023 that, if implemented, will replace the current regulatory framework in the EU for all medicines (including those for rare diseases and for children). The EC has provided the legislative proposals to the European Parliament and the European Council for their review and approval. In October 2023, the European Parliament published draft reports proposing amendments to the legislative proposals, which will be debated by the European Parliament. Once the EC’s legislative proposals are approved (with or without amendment), they will be adopted into EU law.

For other countries outside of the EU, such as countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America or Asia, the requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary from country to country. In all cases, again, the clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with GCP and the applicable regulatory requirements and the ethical principles that have their origin in the Declaration of Helsinki.

If we fail to comply with applicable foreign regulatory requirements, we may be subject to, among other things, fines, suspension of clinical trials, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals, product recalls, seizure of products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecution.

Brexit and the Regulatory Framework in the United Kingdom

The U.K. formally left the EU on January 31, 2020. The EU and the U.K. have concluded a trade and cooperation agreement (“TCA”), which was provisionally applicable since January 1, 2021 and has been formally applicable since May 1, 2021. The TCA includes specific provisions concerning pharmaceuticals, which include the mutual recognition of GMP, inspections of manufacturing facilities for medicinal products and GMP documents issued, but does not provide for wholesale mutual recognition of U.K. and EU pharmaceutical regulations. At present, Great Britain has implemented EU legislation on the marketing, promotion and sale of medicinal products through the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (as amended) (under the Northern Ireland Protocol, the EU regulatory framework currently continues to apply in Northern Ireland). The regulatory regime in Great Britain therefore currently aligns with EU regulations in many ways, however it is possible that these regimes will diverge more significantly in the future now that Great Britain’s regulatory system is independent from the EU.

The MHRA in the U.K. established a new medicines approval pathway following Brexit, known as the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (“ILAP”), which aims to accelerate the time to market and facilitate patient access to certain types of medicinal products in development which target a life-threatening or seriously debilitating condition, or where there is a significant patient or public health need. The first step in the ILAP is receipt of an Innovation Passport, which allows for enhanced engagement with the MHRA and its partner agencies. Once an Innovation Passport has been granted, the next step in the pathway is the preparation of a target development profile (“TDP”) document by the MHRA and the U.K.’s health technology assessment agencies. The TDP sets out the regulatory and development milestones, identifies potential issues and creates a roadmap to achieving early patient access in the U.K. The TDP also gives access to a toolkit where a number of tools can be selected as needed for a particular medicine or stage of development. These tools include rolling review of an MAA, whereby data can be submitted for review on a rolling basis as it becomes available.

On January 1, 2024, a new international recognition framework was put in place by the MHRA, under which the MHRA may have regard to decisions on the approval of marketing authorizations made by the EMA and certain other regulators.

On February 27, 2023, the U.K. government and the EC announced a political agreement in principle to replace the Northern Ireland Protocol with a new set of arrangements, known as the “Windsor Framework”. This new framework fundamentally changes the existing system under the Northern Ireland Protocol, including with respect to the regulation of medicinal products in the U.K. In particular, the MHRA will be responsible for approving all medicinal products destined for the U.K. market (Great Britain and Northern Ireland), and the EMA will no longer have any role in approving medicinal products destined for Northern Ireland. A single U.K.-wide marketing authorization will be granted by the MHRA for all medicinal products to be sold in the U.K., enabling products to be sold in a single pack and under a single authorization throughout the U.K. The Windsor Framework was approved by the EU-U.K. Joint

Committee on March 24, 2023, so the U.K. Government and the EU will enact legislative measures to enact it into law. On June 9, 2023, the MHRA announced that the medicines aspects of the Windsor Framework will apply from January 1, 2025.

Other Government Regulation

In addition to the healthcare laws and regulations in the U.S. and EU discussed above, we may be subject to a variety of regulations in these and other jurisdictions governing, among other things, animal research, clinical studies, manufacture, marketing approval, and any commercial sales and distribution of biological products. Because biologically sourced raw materials are subject to unique contamination risks, their use may be restricted in some countries. These regulations may continue to change, and we may be required to change our operations and business conduct in response to these changes.

Coverage and Reimbursement

Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any biological product for which we obtain regulatory approval. In the U.S. and markets in other countries, patients who are prescribed treatments for their conditions and providers performing the prescribed services generally rely on third party payors to reimburse all or part of the associated healthcare costs. Patients are unlikely to use our products unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of our products. Sales of any products for which we receive regulatory approval for commercial sale will therefore depend, in part, on the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from third party payors. Third party payors include government authorities, managed care providers, health maintenance organizations, private health insurers and other organizations. Coverage and reimbursement by a third party payor may depend upon a number of factors, including the third party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

a covered benefit under its health plan;

safe, effective and medically necessary;

appropriate for the specific patient;

cost-effective; and

neither experimental nor investigational.

In the U.S., no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for biological products, including gene and cellular therapy products, exists among third party payors. As a result, obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval for such a product from a government or other third party payor is a time-consuming and costly process that could require us to provide to each payor supporting scientific, clinical and cost-effectiveness data regarding the products’ clinical benefits and risks on a payor-by-payor basis, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained. Even if we obtain coverage for a given product, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate for us to achieve or sustain profitability or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Additionally, third party payors may not cover, or provide adequate reimbursement for, long-term follow-up evaluations required following the use of our gene-modifying products. Patients are unlikely to use, and health care providers may not prescribe, our product candidates unless coverage is provided, and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the product’s cost to the patient. Because our product candidates may have a higher cost of goods than conventional therapies, and may require long-term follow up evaluations, the risk that coverage and reimbursement rates may be inadequate for us to achieve profitability may be greater. Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third party payors in the U.S. and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for biological products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. In addition, we expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates upon their approval due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, cost containment initiatives and additional legislative changes. For these reasons, there is significant uncertainty related to coverage and reimbursement of our future products. It is difficult to predict at this time what third party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates.

Third‑party and government payors consistently seek to reduce reimbursements for medical products and services. Additionally, the containment of healthcare costs is a priority of federal and state governments, and the prices of drugs have been a focus in this effort. The U.S. government, state legislatures and foreign governments have shown significant interest in implementing cost‑containment programs, including price controls, restrictions on reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products. Adoption of price controls and cost‑containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit our net revenue and results. Decreases in third‑party reimbursement for our products or a decision by a third‑party payor to not cover our products could reduce physician usage of the products and have a material adverse effect on our sales, results of operations and financial condition.

Government payment for some of the costs of prescription drugs may increase demand for products for which we receive marketing approval. However, any negotiated prices for our products covered by a Part D prescription drug plan will likely be lower than the prices we might otherwise obtain. Moreover, while the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (“MMA”) applies only to drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own payment rates. Any reduction in payment that results from the MMA may result in a similar reduction in payments from non‑governmental payors.

It is likely that our product candidates, once approved, will have to be administered by a health care provider. Under currently applicable U.S. law, certain products not usually self-administered (including injectable drugs) may be eligible for coverage under Medicare Part B. As a condition of receiving Medicare Part B reimbursement, the manufacturer of the therapy is required to participate in other government healthcare programs, including the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and the 340B Drug Pricing Program, both of which require the manufacturer to provide rebated pricing under certain conditions. For example, the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to have a national rebate agreement with the federal government as a condition for states to receive federal matching funds for the manufacturer’s outpatient drugs furnished to Medicaid patients. Under the 340B Drug Pricing Program, the manufacturer must extend discounts to program eligible entities, which generally are federally funded clinics and hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients.

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 EU 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. 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 products. Historically, products launched in the EU do not follow price structures of the U.S. and generally prices tend to be significantly lower.

Healthcare Reform

In the U.S. 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 2010, the ACA was enacted in the U.S. 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. Among the provisions of the ACA of greatest importance to the pharmaceutical industry are that the ACA:

subjects biological products to potential competition by biosimilars;

increased the minimum Medicaid rebates owed by most manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program;

created a Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to provide a 70% point‑of‑sale discount off the negotiated price of applicable branded drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for a manufacturer’s outpatient drugs being covered under Medicare Part D;

extended a manufacturer’s Medicaid rebate liability to covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations;

expanded the entities eligible for discounts under the 340B Drug Discount Program;

imposed an annual, nondeductible fee and tax on any entity that manufactures or imports certain branded prescription drugs, apportioned among these entities according to their market share in certain government healthcare programs; and

established mechanisms to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research.

Other legislative changes relevant to the healthcare system have been adopted in the U.S. since the ACA was enacted.

In August 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, created measures for spending reductions by Congress that include aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which remain in effect through 2031.

In January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals, imaging centers, cancer centers and other treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.

On May 30, 2018, the Right to Try Act was signed into law. The law, among other things, provides a federal framework for certain patients to access certain investigational new drug products that have completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and that are undergoing investigation for FDA approval. Under certain circumstances, eligible patients can seek treatment without enrolling in clinical trials and without obtaining FDA permission under the FDA expanded access program. 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.

In May 2019, CMS issued a final rule to allow Medicare Advantage Plans the option to use step therapy, a type of prior authorization, for Part B drugs. This final rule codified CMS’s policy change that was effective January 1, 2019.

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap, currently set at 100% of a drug’s average manufacturer price, for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, beginning January 1, 2024. Due to the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, estimated budget deficit increases resulting from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and subsequent legislation, Medicare payments to providers will be further reduced starting in 2025 absent further legislation. These laws and regulations may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding and otherwise affect the prices we may obtain for any of our product candidates for which we may obtain regulatory approval or the frequency with which any such product candidate is prescribed or used.

Additionally, there have been a number of proposed regulatory actions and legislative recommendations aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. Specifically, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, and review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”) was signed into law. The IRA includes several provisions that will impact our business to varying degrees, including provisions that create a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for Medicare Part D beneficiaries, impose new manufacturer financial liability on all drugs in Medicare Part D, allow the U.S. government to negotiate Medicare Part B and Part D pricing for certain high-cost drugs and biologics without generic or biosimilar competition, require companies to pay rebates to Medicare for drug prices that increase faster than inflation, and delay the rebate rule that would require pass through of pharmacy benefit manager rebates to beneficiaries. Further, under the IRA, orphan drugs are exempted from the Medicare drug price negotiation program, but only if they have one orphan designation and for which the only approved indication is for that disease or condition. If a product receives multiple orphan designations or has multiple approved indications, it may not qualify for the orphan drug exemption. The implementation of the IRA is currently subject to ongoing litigation challenging the constitutionality of the IRA’s Medicare drug price negotiation program. The effect of the IRA on our business and the healthcare industry in general is not yet known.

In addition, President Biden has issued multiple executive orders that have sought to reduce prescription drug costs. In February 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services also issued a proposal in response to an October 2022 executive order from President Biden that includes a proposed prescription drug pricing model that will test whether targeted Medicare payment adjustments will sufficiently incentivize manufacturers to complete confirmatory trials for drugs approved through FDA’s accelerated approval pathway. 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.

We cannot predict what healthcare reform initiatives may be adopted in the future. Further federal, state and foreign legislative and regulatory developments are likely, and we expect ongoing initiatives to increase pressure on drug pricing. Such reforms could have an adverse effect on anticipated revenues from product candidates and may affect our overall financial condition and ability to develop product candidates.

Human Capital

We believe the success of Intellia’s mission largely depends on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees. We believe programs that foster company engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, growth and development while providing competitive compensation and benefits will attract a diverse population of employees who will bring innovative ideas and creative solutions that will enable the achievement of our goals.

Company Communications and Engagement. Many of our employees actively participate in our Cultural Ambassador program, fostering a grassroots approach to engagement with support and guidance from our executive leadership team. Our Cultural Ambassador programs focus on the following: diversity, equity and inclusion, continuous learning, wellness and sustainability, social events, community outreach, and Intellia values and engagement.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. As we continue to grow as an organization, we remain dedicated to championing a culture that celebrates diversity and fosters collaboration inside the organization and in our community. Through our partnerships, we can build key relationships in our community and help pave the way for those wanting to pursue a career in the biotechnology industry. We are committed to increasing representation of underrepresented minorities at Intellia, particularly in leadership roles. Our recruiting team underwent bias awareness training, and we have sponsored career fairs and conferences at organizations focused on underrepresented communities to ensure we continue to attract the best talent and increase representation. In addition, current employees are participating in unconscious bias training throughout the year. We continue to expand our DEI efforts with the launch of Employee Resource Groups (“ERGs”) which are voluntary, employee-led groups focused on fostering a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with ONE Intellia. They are led and participated in by employees who share a characteristic, whether by identity or interest. The groups exist to provide support and help in personal or career development and to create a safe space where employees can bring their whole selves to the table. Coworkers are also invited to join the ERG to support their colleagues. Our team of Senior and Executive Vice Presidents is 54% female and 31% are ethnically diverse. Overall, as of February 16, 2024, our employee population consists of 54% women and 46% men.

Compensation and Benefits, Health and Wellness. We are committed to equitable pay, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, and conduct comprehensive pay-equity analyses on a semi-annual basis. We offer competitive benefits, including competitive salaries, excellent health insurance, and a 401(k) match. We are committed to pay equity, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Growth and Development. Investing in our employees’ personal and career growth is an important priority at Intellia. We aim to provide a wide range of on-the-job development opportunities, as well as in-person, virtual and off-site training seminars, and tools. Our goal is to ensure our employees have the skills they may need in the future. Of particular importance is fostering leadership with our quarterly “Development Day” series, which serves as a reminder for employees to check-in with themselves and their manager on their development goals. Additionally, we offer seminars and tools to our employees focused on career development within the organization. As part of these initiatives, we conduct an annual development program for our employees to work with their managers to set professional development goals and an action plan. We also have an internal mentorship program for our research and development employees, who can work with more senior employees to learn new skills.

Conduct and Ethics. We believe it is imperative that the board of directors and senior management strongly support a no-tolerance stance for workplace harassment, biases and unethical behavior. All employees, including senior management, are required to abide by, review and confirm compliance to the company’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics Policy and other internal policies that outline our high expectations.

Employees

As of February 16, 2024, we had 526 full-time employees, 414 of whom were primarily engaged in research and development activities and 160 of whom have an M.D. or Ph.D. degree.

Our Corporate Information

We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in May 2014 under the name AZRN, Inc. and amended our certificate of incorporation in July 2014 to change our name from AZRN, Inc. to Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 40 Erie Street, Suite 130, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. Our telephone number is (857) 285-6200, and our website is located at www.intelliatx.com. References to our website are inactive textual references only and the content of our website should not be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Available Information

Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and any exhibits and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, are available free of charge on our website located at www.intelliatx.com as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding us and other issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s Internet website address is http://www.sec.gov.

A copy of our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Conduct and Business Ethics and the charters of the Audit Committee, Compensation and Talent Development Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee are posted on our website, www.intelliatx.com, under “Investors & Media”.

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