Pyxis Oncology Inc

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31,2023

OR

Commission File Number 001-40881

Pyxis Oncology, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (617)221-9059

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

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).☐

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

The aggregate market value of the Registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2023 the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $97.0 million, as computed by reference to the closing price of the common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on that date.

As of March 20, 2024, the Registrant had 58,133,375 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value per share, outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

None.

Table of Contents

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance and condition, as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business, operations and financial performance and condition. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and other important factors that are in some cases beyond our control and may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “Pyxis Oncology,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Pyxis Oncology, Inc. and its subsidiaries. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “might,” “objective,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “to be,” “will,” “would,” or the negative or plural of these words, or similar expressions or variations, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are only predictions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Some of the key factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations include:

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our ability to develop and advance our current or future product candidates and programs, and to successfully initiate and complete clinical trials;

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the ability of our clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of our product candidates and other positive results;

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the size of the market opportunity for our product candidates, including our estimates of the number of patients who suffer from the cancers we are targeting;

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our manufacturing, commercialization and marketing capabilities and strategy;

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our plans to expand our pipeline of product candidates and further develop the FACT Platform and APXiMAB Platform (as defined herein);

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the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals for our product candidates;

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regulatory developments in the United States and Europe and other foreign jurisdictions:

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our expectations and plans to obtain funding for our operations, including from our existing and potential future collaboration and licensing agreements;

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our ability to receive milestone or royalty payments under existing or future agreements;

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our expectations regarding our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates:

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our continued reliance on third parties to manufacture our product candidates for preclinical studies, and, in the future, to conduct clinical trials and manufacture product candidates for such clinical trials; and

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our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing.

In addition, statements such as “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and, although we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted a thorough inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise.

SUMMARY RISK FACTORS

You should consider carefully the risks described under “Risk Factors” in Part II, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. References to “Pyxis Oncology,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” in this section titled “Summary Risk Factors” refer to Pyxis Oncology, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries. A summary of the risks that could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects include the following:

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We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history and have incurred significant losses since our inception. We expect to incur losses over at least the next several years and may never achieve or maintain profitability.

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We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations, obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, and commercialize our product candidates. If we are unable to raise such capital when needed, or on acceptable terms, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate one or more of our research and product development programs or future commercialization efforts.

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We are heavily dependent on the success of PYX-201, PYX-106 and PYX-107, which are in the early stages of development, and if PYX-201, PYX-106 and/or PYX-107 are not successful in clinical trials or do not receive regulatory approval or licensure or are not successfully commercialized, our business will be materially and adversely affected.

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Our product candidates may fail in development or suffer delays that materially and adversely affect their commercial viability. If we or our existing or future collaborators are unable to initiate and complete clinical development of, obtain regulatory approval or licensure for or commercialize our product candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

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Our preclinical studies and clinical trials may fail to demonstrate adequately the safety, purity and potency of any of our product candidates, which would prevent or delay development, regulatory approval or licensure and commercialization.

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Our preclinical programs may experience delays or may never advance to clinical trials, which would adversely affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval or licensure or commercialize these programs on a timely basis or at all.

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We face competition from entities that have developed or may develop product candidates for cancer treatment, including companies developing novel treatments and technology platforms. If these companies develop technologies or product candidates more rapidly than we do or if their technologies are more effective, our ability to develop and successfully commercialize product candidates may be adversely affected.

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Clinical testing and product development is a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome. We may incur unexpected costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the clinical testing and the development of our product candidates and may never achieve commercialization for any of our product candidates.

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The regulatory licensure and approval processes of the FDA and other comparable regulatory authorities are lengthy, time-consuming and inherently unpredictable and, if we are ultimately unable to obtain marketing licensure or approval for our product candidates, our business will be substantially harmed.

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If we fail to attract and retain qualified senior management and key scientific personnel, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

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We rely on third parties to manufacture our product candidates. Any failure by a third party manufacturer to produce acceptable raw materials or product candidates for us or to obtain authorization from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities relating thereto may delay or impair our ability to initiate or complete our clinical trials, obtain regulatory licensure or approvals or commercialize approved products.

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

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If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our product candidates, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, or if our patents are insufficient to protect our product candidates for an adequate amount of time, or if we are unable to obtain adequate protection for our proprietary know-how, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.

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If we fail to comply with our obligations under any license, collaboration or other agreements, we may be required to pay damages and could lose intellectual property rights that are necessary for developing and protecting our product candidates or we could lose certain rights to grant sublicenses.

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Licensing of intellectual property is of critical importance to our business and involves complex legal, business and scientific issues. If we breach our University of Chicago, Pfizer Inc., or Pfizer, or Biosion USA, Inc., or Biosion, license agreements or any of the other agreements under which we acquired, or will acquire, intellectual property rights covering our product candidates, we could lose the ability to continue the development and commercialization of the related product candidate(s).

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We are subject to stringent and changing obligations related to data privacy and cybersecurity. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions, litigation, fines and penalties, a disruption of our business operations, including our clinical trials, harm to our reputation, and other adverse effects on our business or prospects.

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Our internal computer systems, or those of any of our existing or future contract research organizations, or CROs, manufacturers, other contractors, consultants, or collaborators, may fail or suffer security or data privacy breaches or other unauthorized or improper access to, use of or destruction of our proprietary and confidential data, employee data or personal data, which could result in additional costs, significant liabilities, harm to our reputation and material disruption of our operations.

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If we achieve commercialization and the market opportunities for any product that we develop are smaller than we believe they are, our revenue may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.