Alaunos Therapeutics Inc

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Alaunos Therapeutics, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Alaunos Therapeutics, Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related statements of operations, stockholders' equity and cash flows for the years then ended, and the related notes to the financial statements (collectively, the financial statements). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

The Company’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company has suffered recurring losses from operations since inception and will be required to raise additional capital to fund operations. This raises substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. Management's plans in regard to these matters also are described in Note 1. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

Basis for Opinion

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

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matters

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

Accruals for Clinical Trials and Other Research and Development Expenses

As discussed in Note 3 to the financial statements, the Company accrues costs for clinical trials and other research and development expenses based on estimates of costs incurred through the balance sheet date that have not been invoiced by the clinical research organizations, clinical study sites, consultants, or other vendors. This process involves reviewing open contracts and purchase orders, communicating with vendors and internal personnel to identify services that have been performed, and estimating the level of service performed and the associated costs incurred for the services when the Company has not yet been invoiced or otherwise notified of the actual costs. The Company's accrual for clinical trial expenses totaled $0.6 million at December 31, 2023, as disclosed in Note 6.

We identified the accruals for clinical trials and other research and development expenses to be a critical audit matter because auditing the Company’s accruals is complex as the information necessary to make an estimate is accumulated from multiple sources and there may be delays in invoicing from clinical study sites and other vendors, or payments may depend on factors such as the completion of clinical trial milestones. Additionally, in certain circumstances, it requires judgment, as the timing and pattern of vendor invoicing may not correspond to the level of services provided.

How We Addressed the Matter in our Audit

Our audit procedures to test the accruals for clinical trials and preclinical studies expenses included, among others:

•

We tested the accuracy and completeness of the underlying data used in the estimates and evaluated the reasonableness of assumptions used by management.

•

We inspected certain contracts with third parties and related information received by the Company to test proper recording of costs incurred to date.

•

We corroborated the progress of research and development activities through confirmations with certain third parties.

•

We performed analytical procedures over fluctuations in accrued expenses by department level throughout the year.

•

We tested subsequent invoices received from third parties and cash disbursements to assess completeness of recorded accruals.

/s/ RSM US LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2010.

Boston, Massachusetts

April 1, 2024