UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

OR

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number: 001-40631

Caribou Biosciences, Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (510) 982-6030

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, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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

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

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

As of June 30, 2021, the last day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, there was no public market for the Registrant’s common stock. The Registrant’s common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 23, 2021. The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on March 17, 2022, was $538,150,113. This calculation does not reflect a determination that certain persons are affiliates of the Registrant for any purpose.

The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of March 17, 2022 was 60,663,581.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Table of Contents

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Risk Factors Summary

Our business is subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before making a decision to invest in our common stock. These risks are more fully described in the“Risk Factors” section in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These risks include, among others, the following:

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We have registered Caribou Biosciences®, Caribou®, Site-Seq®, and our logo as trademarks in the United States and certain other jurisdictions. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains references to our trademarks and service marks and to those belonging to other entities. Solely for convenience, trademarks and service marks referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including logos, artwork, and other visual displays, may appear without the ® or ™ symbols, but in the case of our trademarks and service marks, such references are not intended to indicate in any way that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to these trademarks and service marks. We do not intend our use or display of other entities’ trademarks or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other entity.

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Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our business strategy, plans, and objectives; expectations regarding our clinical and preclinical development programs, including our timing expectations with respect to such programs and the expected timing of disclosure of initial data from such programs; future regulatory filings; our results of operations and financial position; plans and objectives of management for future operations; and the like, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning:

The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are only predictions and are based 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 known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” section in Part II, Item 7 of 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 and some of which are beyond our control, 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 may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties. 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, changed circumstances or otherwise.

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PART I

Item 1. Business.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage genome-editing biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing transformative CRISPR therapies for patients with devastating diseases. CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Our novel CRISPR platform, CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (“chRDNA,” pronounced “chardonnay”), enables superior genome-editing precision to develop cell therapies that are specifically engineered for enhanced persistence. We are advancing a pipeline of allogeneic, or off-the-shelf, chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR”)-T (“CAR-T”) and CAR-natural killer (“CAR-NK”) cell therapies for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Our renowned founders, including a Nobel laureate, are pioneers in the field of CRISPR genome editing. Our chRDNA technology has demonstrated superior specificity and high efficiency in preclinical studies and enables us to perform multiple, precise genome edits, while maintaining genomic integrity.

We believe that our technology has broad potential to generate gene and cell therapies in oncology and in therapeutic areas beyond oncology. Potential applications include immune cell therapies, cell therapies derived from genome-edited induced pluripotent stem cells (“iPSCs”), and in vivo genome-edited therapies.

The genome-editing technologies currently used in the allogeneic cell therapy field generally have limited efficiency, specificity, and versatility for performing the multiple, precise genomic edits necessary to address insufficient persistence. Our CRISPR chRDNA technology is designed to address these genome-editing limitations and improve cell therapy activity. By applying our approach to allogeneic cell therapies, we believe we can unlock their full potential by improving upon their effectiveness and durability.

We are initially focused on advancing multiple proprietary allogeneic cell therapies for the treatment of both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors against cell surface targets for which autologous CAR-T cell therapeutics have previously demonstrated clinical proof of concept, including CD19 and B cell maturation antigen (“BCMA”), as well as other targets. We use our chRDNA technology to enhance, or armor, our cell therapies with multiple strategies, such as checkpoint disruption and immune cloaking, to improve persistence of antitumor activity.

Our lead product candidate, CB-010, is, to our knowledge, the first clinical-stage allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy with programmed cell death protein 1 (“PD-1”) removed from the CAR-T cell surface by a genome-edited knockout of the PDCDI gene. We have demonstrated in preclinical models that the PD-1 knockout improves the persistence of antitumor activity by disrupting a pathway that leads to rapid T cell exhaustion. CB-010 is being evaluated in our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (“r/r B-NHL”). We expect to disclose initial clinical data from this trial at a medical conference in 2022.

Our CB-011 product candidate is an allogeneic CAR-T cell product candidate that is, to our knowledge, the first anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy incorporating an immune cloaking approach that includes both the removal of the endogenous beta-2 microglobulin (“B2M”) protein and insertion of a beta-2-microglobulin–human-leukocyte-antigen-E–peptide transgene (“B2M–HLA-E”). This strategy is designed to blunt CAR-T cell rejection by both patient T cells and natural killer (“NK”) cells to enable more durable antitumor activity. CB-011 is in preclinical development for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (“r/r MM”). We expect to submit an investigational new drug (“IND”) application for CB-011 in 2022.

CB-012 is our allogeneic armored CAR-T cell product candidate targeting CD371, currently in preclinical development for the treatment of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (“r/r AML”). We expect to submit an investigational new drug (“IND”) application in 2023. CD371 is an attractive target for AML due to its expression on myeloid cancer cells, its enrichment in leukemic stem cells, and its absence on hematopoietic stem cells.

We are also developing allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapies derived from genome-edited iPSCs for the treatment of solid tumors. CB-020 is our first CAR-NK product candidate and it will contain genomic edits designed to overcome some of the challenges of targeting solid tumors, such as trafficking, tumor infiltration, heterogeneity, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. We expect to select a tumor cell-surface target for our CB-020 product candidate in 2022.

We control a robust patent portfolio protecting our chRDNA technology as well as certain single-chain variable fragments (“scFvs”) used in our product candidates.

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In February 2021, we entered into a Collaboration and License Agreement (the “AbbVie Agreement”) with AbbVie Manufacturing Management Unlimited Company (“AbbVie”) to develop two new CAR-T cell therapies for AbbVie. We view this collaboration as an external recognition of the potential for our Cas12a chRDNA genome-editing technology to significantly improve genome-editing specificity and efficiency.

Our team and our culture are critical to realizing our vision of advancing agile genome-editing innovations for the benefit of our communities. We were founded in 2011 by globally-recognized leaders in CRISPR genome editing and nucleic acid biology: Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D., who was a co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of CRISPR-Cas9 as a method for genome editing; Martin Jinek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich in the Department of Biochemistry; James Berger, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Rachel E. Haurwitz, Ph.D., who has served as our president and chief executive officer since our formation. Drs. Doudna and Jinek serve on our scientific advisory board (“SAB”), which also includes world experts in immunotherapies, T cell metabolism and tumor interactions, iPSC biology and differentiation, clinical trial development, and patient care. Our current team of employees includes scientists who invented the technologies we use today in our research and product development, including our chRDNA genome-editing technology, and who continue to drive innovation.

Our mission is to develop innovative, transformative therapies for patients with devastating diseases through novel genome editing. To support this mission, we have developed the following values to guide our employees:

Genome-Editing Landscape and Limitations

Genome editing is a class of technologies that facilitate making specific changes to DNA sequences inside living cells. Genome editing occurs in two steps, as shown in figure 1 below. In the first step, a double stranded break (“DSB”) is made at the location of the genome where the edit is desired. A cell typically has two ways to repair the DSB, which result in the knockout of a gene or the insertion of new genetic material: non-homologous end joining (“NHEJ”) and homology-directed repair (“HDR”). NHEJ is an error-prone process in which the broken DNA ends are reattached. During NHEJ, the cell typically inserts or deletes a few nucleotides at the DSB. These insertions and deletions (“indels”) destroy the coding sequence for the targeted gene, resulting in the knockout of the targeted sequence. HDR, by contrast, is a more controlled repair system where the cell incorporates donor DNA delivered during the experiment into the DSB, resulting in the site-specific insertion of the provided DNA sequence.

Figure 1. Genome editing is initiated by generating a double-stranded break in chromosomal DNA at a desired location. The cell will seal the break by an error-prone process called non-homologous end joining, leading to the formation of insertions and deletions, resulting in a site-specific gene knockout. If a donor DNA template is provided to the cell during genome editing that encodes a gene of interest, a process called homology-directed repair will result in the insertion of the donor DNA in a site-specific manner.

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There are several well-established genome-editing technologies being applied to generate immune cell therapies currently in preclinical research or clinical development, including zinc-finger nucleases (“ZFNs”), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (“TALENs”), and meganucleases, but each has limitations with respect to both their agility and their ability to generate site-specific gene insertions with high efficiency. More recently, CRISPR genome-editing technology has been used for the generation of ex vivo immune cell therapeutics that are in preclinical research or clinical development.

The canonical CRISPR system utilizes Cas9, a protein that can cut genomic DNA. Cas9 is targeted to a specific site in a genome by a guide RNA. One of the drawbacks of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing is the occurrence of off-target editing. Off-target edits can alter an oncogene or tumor suppressor gene, impact the biology of the target cell, or have other negative consequences on therapeutic development. Additionally, the simultaneous occurrence of both on-target and off-target edits may lead to genomic rearrangements including chromosomal translocations that may be problematic for immune cell therapeutics, especially for ones requiring multiple edits.

Our CRISPR Hybrid RNA-DNA (chRDNA) Technology

Overview

We employ a new CRISPR genome-editing platform, our chRDNA technology, which uses novel and proprietary hybrid guides for editing DNA, providing a powerful tool with the potential to expand the use of allogeneic cell therapies. The advantages of our chRDNA technology include:

Figure 2. chRDNA guides significantly improve genome-editing specificity relative to all-RNA guides. We edited the AAVS1 and RPL32 genes using either an all-RNA guide or a chRDNA guide targeting the same genomic location and the all-RNA guides result in multiple, high efficiency off-target edits, whereas the chRDNA guides yield minimal or undetectable off-target edits.

Our chRDNA Guides

Our chRDNA technology uses the canonical S. pyogenes Cas9 protein or the Acidaminococcus sp. Cas12a protein and a guide that is composed of a mixture of RNA and DNA nucleotides in both the region that interacts with the chromosomal target DNA and in the region that does not interact with the target DNA. See figure 3 below. The presence of DNA in a chRDNA guide

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significantly improves editing specificity relative to an all-RNA guide. Like Cas9, Cas12a is a CRISPR protein used to edit genomic DNA site-specifically. See figure 4 below. We have developed the chRDNA guides to achieve the following advantages:

Figure 3. Our chRDNA guides are hybrid molecules that contain both RNA and DNA nucleotides. They enable significantly improved specificity compared to first generation all-RNA guides.

Figure 4. We use Cas9 and Cas12a in the development of our allogeneic cell therapies.

Our chRDNA Guides: Highly Specific On-Target Genome Editing

Our chRDNA guides mediate higher genome editing specificity as compared to all-RNA guides. For Cas9 chRDNA guides, we have demonstrated that the presence of DNA in our chRDNA guides improves the specificity of genome editing by decreasing the affinity of a Cas9 chRDNA complex for off-target sites, and we hypothesize that similar properties enable high specificity editing for Cas12a chRDNA guides. A chRDNA guide retains sufficiently high affinity to edit a genome at the intended location. However, a chRDNA guide has sufficiently low affinity for potential off-target sites to reduce the likelihood of a genome edit at an unintended location. We evaluated the integrity and performance of chRDNA guides by employing two proprietary assays, the SITE-Seq® assay and the VINE methodology, on two genes known from the scientific literature to suffer from high rates of off-target editing with either the Cas9 or Cas12a protein. As seen in figure 5 below, all-RNA guides generated both robust on-target and off-target editing. We developed chRDNA guides that target the exact same genomic locations that achieve equivalent on-target editing compared to the all-RNA guides. However, the chRDNA guides, in contrast to the all-RNA guides, result in little to no detectable off-target editing. For any single genome edit, the chRDNA platform provides high specificity for use in our product candidates. We have generated chRDNA guides for Cas9 and for Cas12a targeting multiple distinct locations in the human primary T cell genome that lead to high

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efficiency and high specificity editing. We recently published an article in Molecular Cell, a peer-reviewed journal, on the mitigation of off-target editing using Cas9 chRDNAs (Donohoue, P.D. et al., Molecular Cell 81, 3637–3649, September 2, 2021). Figure 5 below shows the increased editing specificity with Cas9 and Cas12a chRDNA guides.

Figure 5. Our chRDNA guides yield significantly increased editing specificity compared to all-RNA guides with either Cas9 or Cas12a.

Our chRDNA Guides: Achieve Equivalent, High Gene Knockout Efficiencies Compared to Conventional all-RNA Guides

The inclusion of DNA in our chRDNA guides does not impair their activity, and they achieve knockout efficiencies in human primary T cells with either the Cas9 or Cas12a protein that are equivalent to the knockout efficiencies achieved with all-RNA guides.

Our chRDNA Guides: Cas12a chRDNA-Mediated Editing Drives High Efficiency Gene Insertions

One of the challenges in the genome-editing field is obtaining a high degree of site-specific gene insertion. High efficiency gene knockout is achievable with a variety of genome-editing technologies, but achieving high efficiency gene insertion is more challenging. Either Cas9 or Cas12a can be used to insert a new gene into a genome. We use the combination of the Cas12a protein and our chRDNA guides to generate particularly high and reproducible gene insertion rates. Gene insertion requires delivery of the new gene into the target cells. To insert genes into T cells with our chRDNA technology, we transduce the cells with an engineered adeno-associated virus serotype 6, or AAV6, which contains the DNA template of interest to facilitate the integration of the DNA into the double-stranded break generated by the Cas9 chRDNA complex or the Cas12a chRDNA complex via the homology-directed repair pathway.

As shown in figure 6 below, approximately 63-86% gene insertion rates were achieved in human primary T cells edited with Cas12a chRDNAs, a significant rate that is competitive with other genome-editing platforms. We demonstrated the insertion of a BCMA-specific CAR transgene, or Insert 1, into the TRAC locus by staining the edited T cells for the expression of the CAR following the knockout of the T cell receptor (“TCR”), via a TRAC knockout, and the insertion of the CAR transgene into the TRAC locus. In the same T cells, we demonstrated the insertion of a B2M–HLA-E fusion gene, or Insert 2, into the B2M locus by staining the edited T cells for the expression of HLA-E following the knockout of all class I antigens via a B2M knockout and the insertion of the B2M–HLA-E fusion gene into the B2M locus. In the same T cells, Cas12a chRDNA-mediated gene insertion rates are sufficiently high to enable multiplex insertions in the manufacture of some of our product candidates. For example, we implement two separate

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insertions in the manufacture of CB-011: an insertion of the BCMA-specific CAR transgene into the TRAC locus and an insertion of the B2M–HLA-E fusion gene into the B2M locus.

Figure 6. Our Cas12a chRDNA technology mediates high rates of site-specific insertion. High efficiency Cas12a chRDNA editing yields ~56% of the modified T cells possessing 2 gene inserts and 2 gene knockouts, thus all 4 desired edits.

Our chRDNA Guides: Capable of Multiplex Editing with Reduced Risk of Chromosomal Translocations via Our Proprietary Delivery Technology

By combining our chRDNA guides together with our proprietary delivery technology, we believe we are positioned to generate immune cell therapy product candidates with a higher degree of genomic integrity. High genomic integrity is crucial to ensuring that patients are not infused with immune cells harboring the potential for tumorigenicity or that have impaired function. The cell therapy product candidates we are developing include multiple genetic changes. For example, the CB-010 product candidate has edits at both the TRAC and PDCD1 genes. In an effort to maintain the genomic integrity of our T cells after multiple editing events, we employ a proprietary delivery technology that relies on delivery parameters via electroporation for the introduction of Cas proteins and chRDNA guides into human primary T cells. Through this delivery technology, we minimize the generation of chromosomal translocations and genomic rearrangements that may result from multiple genome edits. Multiplex editing in T cells with different genome-editing technologies, such as TALENs or CRISPR-Cas9, using standard delivery technologies leads to 2-5% of the T cells containing chromosomal translocations or other genome rearrangements. As shown in figure 7 below, using the standard electroporation delivery technology commonly utilized for ex vivo cell therapy manufacturing, >3% translocation rates were observed when performing two genome edits. In contrast, when using our proprietary delivery technology, the translocation rate is more than an order of magnitude less, at 0.1%.

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Figure 7. Our proprietary delivery technology maintains the genomic integrity of our cellular therapies by significantly reducing the rates of chromosomal translocations.

Immune Cell Therapies

Overview

Immune cell therapies have emerged as a revolutionary and potentially curative treatment for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. The approval and commercialization of multiple first-generation CD19- and BCMA-directed autologous CAR-T cell products have laid the foundation and opened a path for the development of more advanced cell therapeutics, including CAR-T and CAR-NK cell products with next-generation capabilities and approaches. Among these approaches, allogeneic cell therapy is positioned to unlock the broad potential of genome-edited immune cells as a leading therapeutic modality. However, expansion, persistence, and trafficking of allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cells are critical to achieving long-term efficacy. We believe that the genome-editing technologies currently utilized in the allogeneic cell therapy field have limited efficiency, specificity, and versatility for performing the multiplex editing necessary to address these challenges.

Within the immune system, white blood cells, such as T cells and NK cells, are responsible for defending the body against not only pathogens but also abnormal cells, including cancer cells. Receptors on the surface of T cells enable them to recognize tumor cells and coordinate the activation of other cells in an immune response leading to the destruction of the cancerous cells. However, in many cases, cancer-specific T cells are not present in sufficiently high numbers or do not have the appropriate tumor specificity in a patient to eliminate a tumor.

Autologous immune cell therapies, the most advanced of which use T cells, are a class of therapies in which immune cells are removed from a patient’s body and modified to express CARs. CARs are engineered molecules that, when present on the surface of an immune cell, enable the immune cell to recognize specific proteins, or antigens, that are present on the surface of other cells, including cancer cells. To manufacture autologous CAR-T cell therapies, a cancer patient’s own T cells are modified to express a particular CAR, grown outside the patient’s body to expand their numbers, and then infused back into the same patient to recognize and destroy cancer cells in a targeted manner.

Allogeneic Cell Therapies

Despite the successes of autologous CAR-T cell therapies, several limitations have prevented autologous therapies from achieving the full potential of CAR-T products:

Universal off-the-shelf, or allogeneic, versions of CAR-T or CAR-NK cells derived from healthy donors are attractive options for several reasons.

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Although allogeneic cell therapy is positioned to unlock the broader potential of engineered immune cells as a leading therapeutic modality, it has not yet achieved the efficacy of autologous therapies. We believe that the expansion and persistence of allogeneic CAR-T cells are critical to achieving long-term efficacy. Unlike autologous CAR-T cell therapies, allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies are prone to rapid rejection by a patient’s immune system, thus limiting antitumor activity. Additionally, CAR-T cell therapies have not demonstrated significant and reproducible efficacy in solid tumors to date. While multiple CAR-T cell approaches are being evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors, the efficacy observed to date is limited and lower than that observed when treating hematologic malignancies. This may be due to poor CAR-T cell trafficking and infiltration into tumors and metastases, and their limited antitumor function within the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.

Our Strategy

Key Components of our Strategy

Our purpose is to develop transformative genome edited-based therapies for devastating human diseases. Our goal is to build an integrated company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes genome edited therapies that hold the potential to significantly impact a wide range of diseases.

Key components of our strategy include:

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Multiplex Genome Editing Strategy Using our chRDNA Technology

We have successfully demonstrated multiplex genome editing with our chRDNA technology, including multiplex gene insertion. We believe this level of editing sophistication has the potential to unlock the broad use of allogeneic cell therapies by:

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Figure 8. We employ multiple armoring strategies to improve allogeneic CAR-T cell persistence.

Figure 9. In vivo preclinical mouse xenograft data demonstrate that the PD-1 knockout results in a significant survival advantage relative to a conventional allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy that expresses PD-1.

Persistence is the Key to Unlocking the Full Potential of Allogeneic Cell Therapies

We believe greater persistence is necessary for the realization of the full potential of allogeneic cell therapies, as shown in figure 8 above. CAR-T cells will generally proliferate in response to tumor antigen engagement via their respective CAR. However, allogeneic CAR-T cells are rapidly rejected by a patient’s immune system due to their genetically divergent donor-derived immune profile.

Data from patients treated with autologous CAR-T cell therapies suggest that sustained, longer-term remission is associated with the persistence of CAR-T cells. We believe that allogeneic cell therapies must persist in either their antitumor activity before exhaustion or remain in circulation within a patient’s bloodstream and lymphatics for an extended period, or both, to meaningfully compete with the response rates of autologous cell therapies.

Development of an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy requires genome editing to remove proteins from donor T cells that may recognize and attack a patient’s tissue that, without removal, would pose a risk of graft versus host disease (“GvHD”). Furthermore, the donor T cells will express surface proteins that signal that they are “foreign” to the patient’s immune system such that they are rapidly rejected by the patient’s immune system. We believe allogeneic CAR-T cells must be modified via genome editing to enable them to safely and sufficiently persist to provide therapeutic benefit to rival the response rates of autologous CAR-T cells.

Our Approach: Armoring Cell Therapies to Increase the Persistence of Antitumor Activity

We believe that improving CAR-T cell persistence is the key to long-term efficacy in the allogeneic setting. Our strategy to improve CAR-T cell persistence is two-fold: (i) checkpoint disruption, through a knockout of PD-1 to sustain the activity of CAR-T cells by disrupting a pathway that leads to CAR-T cell exhaustion and (ii) immune cloaking the CAR-T cells to prevent rapid rejection by the patient’s immune system. Similar strategies may be used for our CAR-NK platform where persistence will be key for long-term duration of antitumor activity.

Checkpoint Disruption with PD-1 Knockout Strategy

One of the approaches we deploy to increase the persistence of CAR-T cell antitumor activity is to remove PD-1 from the CAR-T cell surface. The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway leads to rapid exhaustion in T cells. This occurs when a T cell expressing PD-1 engages with another cell expressing PD-L1. Tumor cells and the patient’s own cells can express PD-L1, leading to interaction with PD-1 and subsequent exhaustion of the CAR-T cells. We use our chRDNA technology to knock out the PD-1 gene and eliminate PD-1 expression from the CAR-T cell surface, thereby preventing PD-1/PD-L1-mediated exhaustion. We believe that knocking out PD-1 will maintain the CAR-T cells in a higher antitumor state for a longer period of time, and we believe this will result in greater initial tumor debulking in the patient which may lead to long-term durability of CAR-T cell antitumor activity. As shown in figure 9 above, our preclinical in vivo data from experiments conducted in mouse xenograft models submitted as part of our CB-010 IND application demonstrate that knocking out PD-1 leads to a significant increase in the durability of antitumor activity and therefore overall mouse survival. To our knowledge, our CB-010 product candidate is the first allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy in a clinical study with a PD-1 knockout, and we believe the PD-1 knockout will drive the durability of allogeneic CAR-T cell antitumor activity.

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Immune-Cloaking Strategy

Another approach we deploy to increase the persistence of CAR-T cell antitumor activity is to immune cloak our CAR-T cells to prevent rapid immune-mediated rejection. The goal of immune cloaking is to maintain the allogeneic CAR-T cells in circulation for a longer period of time. Allogeneic CAR-T cells are foreign to the patient’s immune system and, unless modified, will be rapidly rejected. We use our Cas12a chRDNA technology to make multiple edits to T cells to immune cloak them and prevent rapid rejection by both the patient’s cytotoxic T cells and NK cells. Our edits remove all endogenous HLA class I antigens from the CAR-T cell surface and lead to the overexpression of HLA-E, a minor antigen, on the CAR-T cell surface. The lack of endogenous HLA class I antigens and the presence of only HLA-E are designed to prevent the patient’s T cells and NK cells from rapidly rejecting the allogeneic therapy. These cells are unlikely to persist indefinitely, and ultimately other types of immune cells in the patient will eliminate the allogeneic CAR-T cells. Our edits are designed to maintain the CAR-T cells in circulation longer to promote the persistence of the CAR-T cell therapy to destroy a larger proportion of the targeted tumor cells.

Our Pipeline

We are advancing a pipeline of allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies, initially focused on the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Additionally, under the AbbVie collaboration, we are developing two new CAR-T cell therapies for AbbVie. Our pipeline is set forth in figure 10 below.

Figure 10. Caribou is developing a robust pipeline with an initial focus on allogeneic cell therapy programs for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

CB-010

Overview: Strategy and Rationale

Our lead product candidate is CB-010, a healthy donor-derived, genome-edited, allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy targeting CD19-positive malignancies, that is being evaluated in the first-in-human, open-label, multicenter ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial (NCT04637763) in the United States in adults with r/r B-NHL. CB-010 is designed to prevent rapid CAR-T cell exhaustion and confer a better therapeutic index compared to other allogeneic CAR-T cells. To manufacture CB-010, we make three modifications to healthy donor-derived T cells using our Cas9 chRDNA genome-editing technology:

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The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway leads to rapid exhaustion in T cells. This occurs when a T cell expressing PD-1 engages with another cell expressing PD-L1. B cell tumors and the patient’s own cells can express PD-L1, leading to interaction with PD-1 and subsequent exhaustion of the CAR-T cells. We eliminate PD-1 expression from the CB-010 CAR-T cells, thereby preventing PD-1/PD-L1-mediated exhaustion. More than half of B-NHL tumors express PD-L1, and expression of PD-L1 in B-NHL correlates with poorer outcomes. We believe that knocking out PD-1 will maintain the CAR-T cells in a higher antitumor state for a longer period of time, and we believe this will result in greater initial tumor debulking in the patient and thereby better long-term durability of the CAR-T cell antitumor activity. To our knowledge, CB-010 is the first allogeneic CAR-T therapy in the clinic with a PD-1 knockout. Other CAR-T cell therapies that express endogenous PD-1 could become rapidly exhausted and lose antitumor activity due to the interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1.

Figure 11 below graphically depicts CB-010 CAR-T cells lacking expression of PD-1 interacting with a CD19-expressing tumor cell that expresses PD-L1 on its surface. The lack of interaction between PD-L1 on a tumor cell and the CB-010 CAR-T cell eliminates the induction of the PD-1 checkpoint pathway in the T cells that would otherwise lead to their exhaustion.

Figure 11. Cancer cells use the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway to evade immune cells and avoid destruction. The PD-L1 ligand on the tumor cell surface binds to the PD-1 receptor on the conventional allogeneic CAR-T cell, limiting the CAR-T cell’s killing ability. CB-010 cells lack PD-1 on their surface and therefore are insensitive to PD-L1 expression. CB-010 cells are designed to maintain high antitumor activity for an extended duration.

Target Indication

We are developing CB-010 for the treatment of r/r B-NHL. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is the most common hematologic malignancy with an estimated 81,560 cases or 4% of all cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2021. B-NHL makes up 80 to 85% of those non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases.

B-NHL is a heterogeneous malignancy that is monoclonal in nature and arises in lymphocytes. The disease can often be traced to specific stages in lymphoid maturation. Most malignant lymphocytes derive from mature B cells or from lymphocytes of germinal center origin. The malignant cells have acquired the ability to proliferate, evade the host immune response, and avoid cellular apoptosis.

Overall, for aggressive r/r B-NHL, newer immunologically-mediated therapies under investigation include checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cells. FDA approved autologous CD19-specific CAR-T cell therapies have shown significant complete response rates, improved progression-free survival, and extended overall survival. Despite the clinical benefits of these approved autologous CAR-T cell therapies, they are expensive and challenging to manufacture, and many patients are ineligible, cannot wait the long vein-to-vein time, and may require bridging therapy. Thus, there remains significant unmet medical need in r/r B-NHL.

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Clinical Development Plan

CB-010 is undergoing evaluation in our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of adult patients with aggressive forms of r/r B-NHL. The patient population includes individuals for whom at least two lines of chemo- and/or immunotherapy have failed and who have not received CD19-targeted therapy previously. The patient population in the trial includes the following aggressive B-NHL subtypes: diffuse large B cell lymphoma (“DLBCL”); high grade B cell lymphoma (“HGBL”); transformed follicular lymphoma (“tFL”); primary mediastinal large B cell lymphoma (“PMBCL”); follicular lymphoma (“FL”); marginal zone lymphoma (“MZL”); and mantle cell lymphoma (“MCL”).

Patients in our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial receive a chemotherapy regimen prior to CAR-T cell infusion. The chemotherapy regimen includes two agents, cyclophosphamide and fludarabine, which are generally used for lymphodepletion prior to autologous CAR-T cell therapy. To ensure optimal engraftment of the allogeneic CB-010 cells, we use a more intensive regimen of these chemotherapeutic agents than has been previously used with allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies, namely cyclophosphamide at 60 mg/kg/day for 2 days, then fludarabine at 25 mg/m2/day for 5 days. Our lymphodepletion regimen provides treatment flexibility so that the dosing may be modified to suit the patient’s tolerance to the chemotherapy. We adapted our lymphodepletion protocol from one previously described by investigators at the National Institutes of Health, which was used in multiple clinical trials for autologous CAR-T cell therapies as well as other cellular therapies. The increased intensity refers to both the amount of each agent used and the timing of dosing. The objectives of the trial include the incidence of adverse events defined as dose-limiting toxicities after CB-010 infusion, the overall response rate, and the identification of the recommended phase 2 dose (“RP2D”), as shown in figure 12 below.

Our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial is being conducted in two parts and we estimate enrolling up to approximately 50 patients across multiple centers in the United States. Part A is a dose escalation following a standard 3 + 3 design, with sequential, increasing single doses of CB-010. Part B is the expansion portion where patients will receive CB-010 at the dose determined in Part A. We expect to disclose initial clinical data from this trial at a medical conference in 2022.

Figure 12. Our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial is designed to evaluate CB-010 in r/r B-NHL lymphoma patients. It is an open-label phase 1 trial expected to enroll up to approximately 50 participants in total. The study consists of two parts: Part A is a dose escalation with a 3 + 3 design, with sequential, increasing single doses. Part B is an expansion portion where patients will receive CB-010 at the RP2D, determined in Part A.

Preclinical Data

In our preclinical studies, we demonstrated that the removal of the PD-1 checkpoint from the CB-010 CAR-T cells provided a statistically significant survival advantage in mice bearing robust and metastatic B cell tumors. To evaluate the impact of the PD-1 knockout on CB-010 CAR-T cell exhaustion and antitumor activity, we compared CB-010 CAR-T cells to conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cells that express PD-1 in a long-term established tumor xenograft model. We engrafted immunodeficient mice in an orthotopic manner (by intravenous injection to ensure distribution within the bloodstream, lymphatics, and bone marrow) with the acute lymphocytic leukemia (“ALL”) tumor model NALM-6 that expresses PD-L1. We allowed the tumors to engraft in the mice for

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23 days to ensure that the tumors were metastatic to reflect the human condition with B-NHL. Once the tumors were well-established and metastatic, we treated the mice in three separate groups with the following different materials:

As shown in figure 13 below, all of the mice had robust tumor burden after 23 days of tumor engraftment as shown by imaging (color bar indicates more tumor growth, from blue to red). On day 0, each cohort of animals received a single dose of either PBS (negative control), the conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cells, or CB-010 cells. By day 14 following dosing (D14 post CAR-T), animals that received PBS had become more metastatic, whereas both of the CD19-specific CAR-T cell therapies had eradicated the established tumors. Following initial tumor clearance, the animals treated with the conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell therapy experienced a rapid recurrence of their tumor. For example, by day 108 following dosing, half the mice treated with the conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell therapy had expired from their recurrent tumor burden, and the surviving mice in that cohort had metastatic disease. In contrast, by day 108 following dosing, all of the CB-010-treated mice were alive and few had detectable tumor burden. As shown in the survival curve in figure 13 below, all of the mice treated with the conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cells had succumbed to their tumors by approximately day 135, while all but one of the CB-010 treated mice were still alive by day 160.

Overall, our data demonstrate that the removal of the PD-1 checkpoint from the CB-010 CAR-T cells provided a statistically significant survival advantage in mice bearing robust and metastatic B cell tumors. Our data suggest that the PD-1 knockout may have led to a more robust debulking of the tumor by CB-010 during the early part of the study compared to the conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cells, leading to a reduction in the recurrence of the tumor cells. Based on these data, we believe CB-010 has the potential for a better therapeutic index compared to other allogeneic CAR-T cells. If a lower dose of CB-010 has meaningful activity in the clinical setting, it would lead to several potential advantages including limited toxicity, increased numbers of doses per manufacturing run, and a reduced cost of goods.

Figure 13. Our preclinical mouse xenograft model demonstrates that CB-010 leads to a significant survival advantage over a conventional allogeneic CAR-T lacking a PD-1 knockout.

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In addition, as shown in figure 14 below, a single-dose CB-010 treatment led to robust, reproducible, and statistically significant survival in mice bearing DLBCL tumor cells, MCL tumor cells, or a patient-derived xenograft (“PDX”) model of DLBCL.

Figure 14. CB-010 demonstrates statistically significant preclinical survival benefit across B-NHL indications.

Together, our data support the efficacy of CB-010 in the treatment of CD19-positive B cell malignancies in mice. In addition, we determined in our in vitro studies that the knockout of PD-1 does not impair CAR-T cell activity. We characterized the antitumor activity of CB-010 CAR-T cells in vitro by co-incubating CB-010 cells with tumor cells of B cell origin. For example, CB-010 cytotoxic activity was tested in vitro against a CD19-positive model cell line of DLBCL (Toledo cells). As shown in figure 15 below, CB-010 cells demonstrate dose-dependent and robust cytotoxic activity at a range of effector-to-target ratios compared to negative control cells in which the TRAC gene was knocked out but no CAR was inserted, called TRAC KO, or compared to cells without any genome editing, called wild-type (“WT”). We additionally compared the cytotoxic activity of CAR-T cells where we inserted the CAR into the TRAC locus, but did not knock out PD-1, called conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cells. CB-010 and conventional allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cells exhibit equivalent cytotoxic activity demonstrating that the PD-1 knockout does not impair cytotoxic activity.

Figure 15. Our in vitro studies demonstrate that the PD-1 knockout does not impair CAR-T cell activity.

We evaluated the preclinical safety of CB-010 in mice and determined that CB-010 does not lead to GvHD in our mouse models. For comparison, we evaluated mice that received normal human T cells that were not genome edited and therefore express the TCR. In our study, we observed that the normal, unedited human T cells caused GvHD in the mice, as we expected, because the T cells could recognize the mouse tissues as foreign. GvHD was measured as changes in body weight and other clinical signs. Importantly, we observed that CB-010 did not induce any signs of GvHD. These observations were part of the data package that we provided to the FDA for our IND application.

CB-011

Overview: Strategy and Rationale

CB-011 is an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy targeting BCMA-positive malignancies. The CB-011 cells express our proprietary, potent, humanized anti-BCMA CAR that exhibits better performance in preclinical in vivo antitumor activity assays

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compared to other anti-BCMA CARs we evaluated. We acquired a novel humanized scFv directed to BCMA that we use for the generation of the BCMA-specific CAR in CB-011.

We believe that the edits we make to immune cloak the product will maintain the CB-011 cells in the patient’s circulation longer. CB-011 is a preclinical product candidate and we make a total of four genome edits using the Cas12a chRDNA technology to manufacture CB-011.

In figure 16 below, we outline the impact of the different edits in the CB-011 product candidate to demonstrate how different leukocyte immune cells of the patient will interact with the CAR-T cells.

Figure 16. Our CB-011 cloaking strategy blunts immune-mediated rejection by patient T and NK cells.

In this example, we show that unmodified CAR-T cells, those that have intact HLA class I antigens, are subject to rejection by the patient’s cytotoxic T cells once the T cells recognize the allogeneic CAR-T cells as foreign. This is mediated by the presentation of peptides by the CAR-T cells via their HLA class I antigens to the patient’s immune system that will recognize them as

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foreign since the CAR-T cells are derived from a non-familial healthy donor. If we only knock out the B2M gene, thereby eliminating all HLA class I antigens, the cytotoxic T cells of the patient would no longer recognize the CAR-T cells as foreign. However, the NK cells of the patient would detect the lack of HLA class I antigens, a concept known as “missing self,” which would unleash the activity of the NK cells, enabling them to destroy the allogeneic CAR-T cells. In CB-011, we protect the CB-011 CAR-T cells from rejection by both the patient’s cytotoxic T cells and NK cells by removing endogenous HLA class I antigen presentation through the knockout of B2M and by inserting a B2M–HLA-E fusion into the B2M locus. We believe that this strategy will enable the CB-011 CAR-T cells to remain in circulation longer in patients, providing for increased potential of antitumor activity.

Target Indication

We are developing CB-011 for the treatment of r/r MM. In 2021, 18% of hematologic malignancies in the United States and 1.8% of all cancers were MM. The median age of diagnosis is 69 years, and there are an estimated 32,270 new cases in the United States with an estimated 12,830 deaths each year. Five-year survival in these patients is approximately 47%.

There has been significant interest in and activity against BCMA as a target over the past two years with the approval of an antibody drug conjugate therapy and two new CAR-T cell therapy products targeting BCMA. FDA-approved autologous BCMA CAR-T cell therapies have shown significant complete response rates, improved progression-free survival, and extended overall survival. Despite the clinical benefits of these approved autologous CAR-T cell therapies, they are expensive and challenging to manufacture, and many patients are ineligible.

Additionally, many treatments for MM are multidrug regimens comprising varying routes of administration and/or convoluted dosing schedules; these regimens can be complex and burdensome for both patients and physicians. The need for simplified dosing schedules remains. Thus, although we expect that approvals of additional therapies may serve to partially mitigate the need for more treatment options in r/r MM, therapies that prolong the lives of r/r MM patients or delay disease progression, address simpler manufacturing, and streamline dosing schedules are critical to address the unmet medical need in r/r MM.

Clinical Development Plan

We expect to submit an IND application in 2022 for a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate CB-011 in patients with r/r MM. We anticipate evaluating CB-011 in patients with a documented diagnosis of active MM according to International Myeloma Working Group diagnostic criteria who have received at least three prior lines of therapy with previous exposure to a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent, and an anti-CD38 antibody (unless intolerant to these therapies) and have progressive disease within 12 months of the last treatment or are refractory to the last line of therapy.

Preclinical Data

To demonstrate that the B2M–HLA-E fusion protects CB-011 from NK-mediated cell killing, we set up an in vitro study where NK cells were incubated with CAR-T cells containing the attributes of the three examples described in figure 16 above. The results of this analysis are shown in figure 17 below. The unmodified CAR-T cells were subject to killing, or lysis, by the NK cells. The knockout of B2M led to enhanced killing by the NK cells, demonstrating the “missing self” hypothesis. Insertion of the B2M–HLA-E fusion in the CB-011 cells protected them from NK cells more than the unmodified cells, indicating they could resist killing by NK cells, thereby suggesting longer circulation potential in patients.

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Figure 17. Our in vitro data demonstrate that the B2M–HLA-E fusion protects CB-011 CAR-T cells from NK cell-mediated lysis. We measured in vitro cytotoxicity 24 hours after CAR-T cell co-incubation with NK-92 cells.

We acquired a novel humanized scFv directed to BCMA that we use for the generation of the CB-011 CAR based on preclinical in vivo antitumor activity that exhibited better performance compared to other BCMA-specific scFvs we evaluated. For example, we constructed CARs using this and other scFvs, and we evaluated the antitumor potential of CAR-T cells expressing these different CARs in mice bearing BCMA-positive tumors. In figure 18 below, we show two examples of mouse xenograft data comparing CB-011 cells with CAR-T cells expressing an alternative BCMA CAR previously described in the literature and evaluated in multiple clinical trials. CB-011 cells led to statistically significantly longer survival of the tumor-bearing mice. The studies were conducted in two different tumor xenograft models, including MM (left panel) and a BCMA+ tumor xenograft (right panel).

Figure 18. CB-011 led to statistically significant and longer survival of tumor-bearing mice relative to alternative anti-BCMA CAR-T cells. Left panel represents established subcutaneous multiple myeloma tumor xenografts after a single dose CAR-T cell treatment. Right panel represents established orthotopic BCMA+ tumor xenografts after a single dose CAR-T cell treatment. TRAC KO cells, a negative control, are T cells with only a knockout of the TRAC gene and no CAR.

We evaluated the safety of CB-011 in a mouse model of GvHD. The maximum number of injectable CB-011 cells (3 x 107/mouse) was used to determine if CB-011 induced GvHD in the mice, compared to 3 x 107 WT T cells and vehicle (phosphate-buffered saline) negative control. In figure 19 below, we show that only the WT T cells induced clinical signs of GvHD, including loss of body weight, changes in fur texture, and death, whereas CB-011 did not induce any signs of GvHD.

Figure 19. CB-011 does not induce GvHD in a mouse model. Left panel represents body weight, middle panel fur texture based on Cooke scoring, and right panel represents mouse survival. Only WT T cells induced signs of GvHD.

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CB-012

Overview: Strategy and Rationale

CB-012 is our allogeneic CAR-T cell product candidate that targets the antigen CD371, also known as CLL-1 or CLEC12A, a receptor expressed on AML tumor cells. Our goal is to make multiple edits to this product candidate using our Cas12a chRDNA technology to enhance its antitumor activity. We believe CD371 is a compelling target for the treatment of AML. An important aspect of the CD371 antigen is its expression on >90% of AML tumors and leukemic stem cells and its lack of expression on hematopoietic stem cells (“HSCs”). The absence of expression on HSCs indicates that these bone marrow cells will not be targeted by the CD371-directed CB-012 CAR-T cells, thereby preventing a patient from loss of a critical compartment of their immune system vital for fighting infections and cancer. As such, patients receiving CB-012 treatment would not require an HSC transplant to provide them with myeloid compartment cells for sustained immunity.

We have in-licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (“MSKCC”) a panel of fully human scFvs targeting CD371 from which we will select the appropriate scFv for the generation of our CAR. As described above for CB-010 and CB-011, an important aspect of CB-012 will be appropriately armoring the CAR-T cells using our Cas12a chRDNA technology to improve the persistence of antitumor activity. We are evaluating several options including the PD-1 knockout and immune-cloaking approaches. We are considering additional armoring technologies which may include editing that will help the CAR-T cells survive longer, withstand functional suppression by the tumor cells, and enhance their antitumor activity.

Target Indication

Acute myeloid leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow currently treated with chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapies, and/or HSC transplant. In 2021, there were approximately 20,000 new cases of AML in the US, with >40,000 new patients in the seven major global markets. Five-year survival in these patients is <30%.

Intensive induction chemotherapy, known as 7 + 3, consisting of cytarabine and an anthracycline is the most effective therapy for adults newly diagnosed with AML, although the treatment has significant associated toxicities. Thus, there remains significant unmet need in the treatment of AML.

Clinical Development Plan

We expect to submit an IND application for CB-012 in 2023 with the intent to evaluate this therapy in patients with r/r AML in a phase 1 clinical trial.

Preclinical Data

We evaluated one of the CD371-specific scFvs that we in-licensed in a CAR that we expressed on T cells. The CD371-specific CAR-T cells were tested in an established mouse xenograft model of AML. For comparison, we evaluated two negative controls, vehicle (PBS) and human T cells with only a TRAC KO and no CAR. As shown in figure 20 below, the CD371-specific

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CAR-T cells significantly extended survival in the AML tumor-bearing mice compared to mice that received either of the two negative control treatments. We plan to use genome edits to armor CB-012 for enhanced persistence and greater antitumor activity.

Figure 20. We conducted a mouse tumor xenograft study evaluating CD371-specific CAR-T cells. Our work demonstrated that CD371-specific CAR-T cells confer longer-term survival in a xenograft model of AML compared to control treatments.

CB-020

Overview: Strategy and Rationale

Our CB-020 program is a CAR-NK cell product candidate derived from edited iPSCs designed to target an antigen expressed on solid tumors and associated metastases. Despite their clinical success against hematologic malignancies, CAR-T cells have not yet demonstrated broad, robust antitumor activity in the solid tumor setting. NK cells are a compelling platform for cell therapy development for targeting multiple different solid tumors. NK cells inherently have antitumor activity against primary solid tumors and metastases and they are naturally transferable between donor and patient. We believe they are a promising cell type for new therapeutic development. In order to perform multiple, sophisticated genome edits to empower NK cells with the attributes we believe will be necessary to successfully target the intended solid tumor and overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, we have developed a proprietary protocol to edit iPSCs and differentiate them into iNKs. See figure 21 below.

There are multiple advantages of using iPSCs. They are amenable to higher numbers of genome-editing events than most primary cells. A solitary clone isolated after genome editing will have all the intended edits. This is distinct from the allogeneic CAR-T cell products derived from healthy donor leukapheresis where a proportion, but not all, of the T cells in a batch contain all the intended edits. This fully edited iPSC will then be differentiated into iNK cells and expanded for therapeutic use. This platform will enable us to generate sophisticated, armored iNK cell product candidates with attributes necessary for targeting solid tumors.

An outline of the multi-step iPSC to iNK platform we developed to generate CB-020, and future product candidates, is shown in figure 21 below.

Figure 21. Our platform for editing iPSCs and differentiating them into iNKs.

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Target Indication

Multiple clinical trials are evaluating autologous CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies targeting solid tumors. Although some activity has been observed clinically, the overall response rates with these therapeutic modalities have been significantly lower and fewer complete responses have been observed compared to those observed when treating hematologic malignancies. Some of the challenges facing these therapies may be that the CAR-T and CAR-NK cells have difficulty in trafficking to the tumor, surviving and proliferating at the tumor site, infiltrating the tumor, surviving the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and debulking a heterogeneous tumor that may not uniformly express the target of the CAR-T or CAR-NK cell. Overall, a significant unmet need remains in the treatment of solid tumors.

Preclinical Data

In figure 22 below, we demonstrate that iNK cells differentiated from iPSCs express a key defining antigen called CD56, or NCAM, that is indicative of the NK cell lineage. Additionally, we show that the iNK cells exhibit the expected polyfunctionality of NK cells. For example, we show that the iNK cells exhibit dose-dependent cytotoxic activity and interferon gamma (“IFNg”) secretion when co-incubated with tumor cells in vitro. Further, when the iNK cells are co-incubated in vitro with CD20-positive tumor cells and rituximab, an anti-CD20 antibody, we observe antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (“ADCC”).

Figure 22. iNK cells differentiated from iPSCs using our differentiation protocol demonstrate the expected polyfunctionality of NK cells.

We evaluated iNKs that were generated from our differentiation and expansion protocols in an orthotopic established xenograft model of ovarian cancer. For comparison, we evaluated primary human NK cells derived from a fresh blood sample, and a vehicle negative control (PBS). As shown in figure 23 below, the iPSC-derived iNK cells significantly extended survival in the ovarian tumor-bearing mice similar to the activity of the blood-derived NK cells, both compared to mice that received the negative

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control treatment. These data demonstrate that iNKs generated from our differentiation protocols exhibit antitumor activity, which we plan to enhance in CB-020 via genome edits such as the addition of a CAR and one or more armoring strategies.

Figure 23. We conducted a mouse tumor xenograft study evaluating our iNK cells derived from iPSCs using our differentiation and expansion protocols. Our work demonstrated that iNKs confer longer-term survival in a xenograft model of ovarian cancer.

For CB-020, we plan to implement multiple genome edits that we believe will address some or all of the challenges described above including solid tumor heterogeneity, immunosuppression, trafficking, and tumor infiltration, as well as other strategies to maintain persistence such as those described for our CAR-T cell product candidates. A clonal genome-edited iPSC line will be isolated, evaluated for genomic integrity, differentiated into iNK cells, expanded in culture using our established process, and evaluated in preclinical models of safety and efficacy prior to IND filing. We expect to announce target selection for our CB-020 product candidate in 2022. Additionally, we plan to disclose multiple types of armoring strategies that could be useful in this product candidate or for future CAR-NK cell therapies.

Our iNK platform provides the potential for multiple future cell therapeutics beyond CB-020, targeting different solid tumor antigens and types. The biology of a given tumor will help define the nature of the genome edits we implement to customize each product to address the challenges of one or more particular malignancies. We are evaluating multiple targets and strategies for the development of this product series.

AbbVie Collaboration Product Candidates

Under the AbbVie Agreement, for each of AbbVie’s two program slots, we are collaborating to identify and develop one or more collaboration allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies for AbbVie directed toward the single cancer target or target combination chosen by AbbVie and as described in an applicable research plan, utilizing our Cas12a chRDNA genome-editing and cell therapy technologies.

AbbVie has selected its initial targets and has reserved six additional targets, which may be used or substituted into the two program slots or used for the third or fourth program slots if AbbVie expands the number of program slots during the collaboration. We are conducting preclinical research, development, and manufacturing activities on AbbVie’s allogeneic CAR-T cell product candidates.

Strategic Agreements

We recognize the broad opportunity presented by our genome-editing technologies to benefit patients, and we appreciate that one company is unlikely to have sufficient resources to fully exploit this potential across multiple indications and applications. As part of our strategy to maximize the value and benefit of our technologies, we have entered into a strategic collaboration with AbbVie and intend to explore mutually beneficial strategic collaborations with other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies in the future. Additionally, we have in-licensed or taken assignment of key technologies important for the development of our product candidates

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AbbVie Manufacturing Management Unlimited Company

On February 9, 2021, we entered into the AbbVie Agreement. Pursuant to the AbbVie Agreement, AbbVie selects one target or, for a dual CAR-T product candidate, two targets (each, a “Program Slot”) to develop collaboration CAR-T product candidates (and corresponding licensed products). For each of AbbVie’s two Program Slots (or up to four Program Slots, if AbbVie elects to expand the number as discussed below), we will collaborate to develop one or more collaboration allogeneic CAR-T products directed toward the single cancer target or target combination chosen by AbbVie and as described in an applicable research plan, utilizing our Cas12a chRDNA genome-editing and cell therapy technologies. We granted AbbVie an exclusive, royalty-bearing, worldwide license, with the right to grant sublicenses, under our Cas12a chRDNA and cell therapy intellectual property, as well as certain genome-editing technology that we may acquire in the future, and intellectual property that may be developed under the collaboration, solely for AbbVie to develop, commercialize, manufacture, and otherwise exploit the collaboration CAR-T product candidates in the field of human diagnostics, prophylactics and therapeutics. Under the terms of the AbbVie Agreement, we will conduct certain preclinical research, development, and manufacturing activities under the collaboration, including certain activities for the manufacture and supply of licensed product for AbbVie’s phase 1 clinical trials. AbbVie will reimburse us for all such activities, including reimbursement for time spent by employees at a designated FTE rate. The duration of the collaboration is not fixed. We have formed a joint governance committee (“JGC”) to manage the collaboration.

We received $30.0 million in an upfront cash payment and $10.0 million in an equity investment from AbbVie. During the collaboration, AbbVie may expand from two Program Slots to a total of four Program Slots by paying us an additional $15.0 million for each Program Slot, provided that AbbVie must make the payment within the earlier of (i) 60 calendar days following completion of the phase 1 clinical studies for the initial collaboration CAR-T and (ii) December 31, 2025. Under the terms of the AbbVie Agreement, we are eligible to receive up to $150.0 million in future developmental, regulatory, and commercialization milestones for each Program Slot and up to $200.0 million in sales-based milestones for each Program Slot. We are also eligible to receive global royalties on incremental net sales of licensed products sold by AbbVie, its affiliates, and sublicensees in the high-single-digit to low-teens percent range, subject, in certain instances, to various reductions.

AbbVie has selected initial targets and has reserved six additional targets, which may be used or substituted into the two Program Slots or used for the third or fourth Program Slots if AbbVie expands the number of Program Slots during the collaboration. We have identified four unavailable targets that AbbVie cannot pursue as long as we meet certain criteria. Additionally, except for AbbVie’s reserved targets and our unavailable targets, if AbbVie wishes to propose a different target, there is a gatekeeper mechanism whereby such target may or may not be available to AbbVie.

The term of the AbbVie Agreement will continue in force and effect until the date of expiration of the last royalty term of the last country in which a licensed product is exploited. On a licensed product-by-licensed product and country-by-country basis, the royalty term is the period of time beginning on the first commercial sale of a licensed product in a country and ending on the latest of the following three dates: (i) the expiration, invalidation, revocation, cancellation, or abandonment date of the last Caribou patent that includes a valid claim that claims either (A) the collaboration CAR-T product in the licensed product, or (B) the method of making the collaboration CAR-T product in such licensed product in such country (in the case of (B), only for so long as no biosimilar product is commercially available in such country), in such country; (ii) 10 years from the first commercial sale of such licensed product in such country; and (iii) the expiration date of regulatory exclusivity for such licensed product in such country. The AbbVie Agreement may be terminated during the term by either party for an uncured material breach or bankruptcy. Additionally, AbbVie may terminate the AbbVie Agreement, in its entirety or on a licensed product-by-licensed product basis, effective immediately upon written notice to us, if AbbVie in good faith believes that it is not advisable for AbbVie to continue to exploit the collaboration on CAR-T products or licensed products as a result of a perceived serious safety issue. AbbVie may also terminate the AbbVie Agreement in its entirety, or, for any or no reason, upon 90 calendar days’ prior written notice to us.

AbbVie does not have any rights to our CB-010, CB-011, CB-012, or CB-020 product candidates or any other product candidates that we may develop alone or with a third party in the future.

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Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

On November 13, 2020, we entered into an Exclusive License Agreement with MSKCC (the “MSKCC Agreement”), under which we exclusively licensed from MSKCC know-how, biological materials, and related patent families to fully human scFvs targeting CD371 for use in T cells, NK cells, and genome-edited iPSCs for allogeneic CD371-targeted cell therapy (currently our CB-012 product candidate). We paid an upfront payment of cash and shares of our common stock and will owe annual license maintenance fees until we have commercial sales. For each licensed product, we will owe potential clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments totaling up to $112.0 million and, if we, or our affiliates or sublicensees, receive regulatory approval for CB-012, we will owe low- to mid-single-digit percent royalties on net sales by us, our affiliates, and our sublicensees. Our license includes the right to sublicense through multiple tiers and we will owe MSKCC a percentage of upfront cash or equity received from our sublicensees. The percentage owed decreases as our product candidates move through development, starting at a low-double-digit percentage if clinical trials have not yet begun and decreasing to a mid-single-digit percentage if the product candidate is in later clinical trial stages. We are also responsible for a percentage of licensed patent costs. The MSKCC Agreement includes certain diligence milestones that we must meet; provided, however, that these may be extended upon payment of additional fees.

MSKCC is entitled to certain success payments if our stock value increases by certain multiples. The potential payments are based on multiples of the fair market value of our common stock compared with a split-adjusted initial share price of $5.1914 per share, as subject to future adjustments for stock splits, during a specified time period described below. Our common stock price will be determined by reference to the 45-day volume weighted-average trading price of our common stock. At our option, payments may be made in cash or common stock. The relevant time period commences when the first patient is dosed with our CB-012 product candidate in the first phase 1 clinical trial and ends upon the earlier of the third anniversary of approval of our biologics license application (“BLA”) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) or 10 years from the date the first patient was dosed with CB-012 in the first phase 1 clinical trial. Under the terms of the MSKCC Agreement, the aggregate success payments will not exceed $35.0 million. Additionally, if we undergo a change of control during the relevant time period, a change of control payment may be owed, depending upon the increase in our stock price due to the change of control and also to what extent success payments have already been paid. In no event will the combination of success payments and any change of control payment exceed $35.0 million. The relevant time period during which MSKCC is eligible for success payments and a change of control payment has not yet commenced.

We may terminate the MSKCC Agreement upon 90 calendar days’ prior written notice to MSKCC. MSKCC may terminate the agreement in the event of our uncured material breach, bankruptcy, or criminal activity. If MSKCC materially breaches the MSKCC Agreement in certain circumstances (for example, granting a third party a license in our field), then during the time of such uncured material breach, MSKCC will not be entitled to receive any success payments or any change of control payment.

ProMab Biotechnologies, Inc. (“ProMab”)

On January 31, 2020, we entered into a Sale and Assignment Agreement with ProMab (as amended, the “ProMab Agreement”) under which we purchased a humanized scFv targeting BCMA and a patent family related thereto for an upfront cash payment of $0.4 million and the potential for future royalties. To date, three U.S. patents have granted (U.S. Patent Nos. 10,927,182; 11,021,542; and 11,142,583). Our anti-BCMA CB-011 product candidate, which is currently in preclinical studies, contains this BCMA scFv. Under the terms of the ProMab Agreement, in the event we, or our affiliates or licensees, receive regulatory approval for CB-011, we will owe ProMab low-single-digit percent royalties on net sales by us, our affiliates, and licensees until the expiration, abandonment, or invalidation of the last patent within the assigned patent family (i.e., 2040, without patent term adjustment (“PTA”) or patent term extension (“PTE”)). Such royalties may be reduced by no more than 50% if we must pay royalties to a third party for other intellectual property covering our product. Either party may terminate the ProMab Agreement in the event of an uncured material breach or bankruptcy of the other party. If ProMab terminates the ProMab Agreement due to our uncured material breach or bankruptcy, we must cease the manufacture, use, and sale of any products or product candidates incorporating the purchased anti-BCMA scFv.

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Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (“Pioneer,” now Corteva Agriscience)

On July 13, 2015, we entered into an Amended and Restated Collaboration and License Agreement (as amended, the “Pioneer Agreement”) with Pioneer (then a DuPont company) that superseded and replaced a prior Collaboration and License Agreement entered into on September 10, 2014. Under the terms of the Pioneer Agreement, we and Pioneer cross-licensed background CRISPR intellectual property portfolios. Pioneer granted us an exclusive worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, to its background CRISPR intellectual property in the field of research tools, and a non-exclusive license, with the right to sublicense, for CRISPR in therapeutics and all fields outside of the Pioneer field, including in the field of human and animal therapeutics. We granted Pioneer an exclusive license, with the right to sublicense, to our background CRISPR intellectual property, including the CVC IP discussed below, in certain agricultural crops, specified microorganisms, a defined industrial bio field, and certain nutrition and health applications (the “Pioneer Exclusive Field”), and a non-exclusive license, with the right to sublicense, to Pioneer for CRISPR in certain defined fields outside of research reagents. The Pioneer Agreement continues until the expiration, abandonment, or invalidation of the last patent or patent application within the licensed intellectual property; provided, however, that the parties may terminate the Pioneer Agreement by mutual consent or either party may unilaterally terminate the Pioneer Agreement if there is an uncured breach of a payment obligation, bankruptcy, or failure to maintain or own licensed intellectual property by the other party if the non-breaching party is materially adversely affected by such failure. Under the terms of the Pioneer Agreement, we are obligated to pay low-single-digit percent royalties to Pioneer for our research tool products as well as certain sublicensing revenue in that field. We are eligible to receive milestone payments from Pioneer in the event certain regulatory and commercial milestones are met, for a total of up to $22.4 million, related to specified row crops and we are also eligible to receive low-single-digit percent royalties for defined agricultural products and certain sublicensing revenue in that field.

The chRDNA patent family was developed under a three-year research collaboration between us and Pioneer, which ended December 31, 2016. Initially, this patent family was owned by Pioneer under the terms of the Pioneer Agreement, and we and Pioneer split the costs of patent prosecution and maintenance equally. Pioneer granted us an exclusive license to the chRDNA patent family in the fields of human and animal therapeutics and research tools as well as a non-exclusive license in certain other fields outside of the Pioneer Exclusive Field. Through an amendment to the Pioneer Agreement, dated December 18, 2020, Pioneer assigned the chRDNA patent family to us. Pioneer retained all of its existing rights (including its sublicensing rights) to the chRDNA patent family despite the change in ownership. As consideration for the assignment, we made an upfront payment of $0.5 million and are obligated to pay all patent prosecution and maintenance costs going forward; up to $2.8 million in regulatory milestones for therapeutic products developed by us, our affiliates, and licensees; up to $20.0 million in sales milestones over a total of four therapeutics products sold by us, our affiliates, and licensees; and a percentage of sublicensing revenues received by us for licensing the chRDNA patent family. The sublicensing agreements that we entered into prior to December 18, 2020 (for example, the Intellia Agreement discussed below) are not subject to these economics; however, this amendment is applicable to the AbbVie Agreement.

Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (“Intellia”)

On July 16, 2014, we entered into a License Agreement (as amended, the “Intellia Agreement”) with Intellia, LLC (now Intellia Therapeutics, Inc.), under which we granted Intellia an exclusive worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, to certain CRISPR-Cas9 technology for a defined field of human therapeutics in exchange for Intellia stock. The Intellia Agreement included a license to certain of our future CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property until such time as our direct or indirect ownership percentage in Intellia dropped below 10%, called the IP cut-off date, which occurred on January 30, 2018. Intellia granted us an exclusive worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, to its CRISPR-Cas9 technology for all fields outside of the defined field of human therapeutics, including a license to certain of Intellia’s future CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property until the IP cut-off date. Each party had the right to opt in to any licenses in its field of use entered into by the other party prior to the IP cut-off date, subject to the terms and conditions of such license, and Intellia opted into our Pioneer Agreement and thus has a license to the Pioneer background CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property. Under the Intellia Agreement, each party is responsible for 30% of the other party’s expenses for prosecution and maintenance of the licensed intellectual property, including 30% reimbursement of the patent prosecution and maintenance costs that we pay to UC/Vienna as described below. The milestones and royalties set forth in the Intellia Agreement are those in the UC/Vienna Agreement and so we pass through any payments received from Intellia to UC/Vienna. The Intellia Agreement continues for the life of the licensed patents and patent applications; provided, however that either party may terminate upon the occurrence of certain events.

In 2018, Intellia initiated an arbitration proceeding over whether two patent families relating, respectively, to CRISPR-Cas9 chRDNA guides and Cas9 scaffolds, were included in the Intellia Agreement. An interim award from the arbitration panel in 2019 determined that both patent families are included in the Intellia Agreement, but the panel granted us an exclusive leaseback to Cas9 chRDNA guides under economic terms to be negotiated by the parties. On June 16, 2021, we entered into a leaseback agreement with Intellia (the “Leaseback Agreement”), which resolved the arbitration proceeding. Pursuant to the Leaseback Agreement, in exchange for Intellia’s grant to us of an exclusive license to certain intellectual property relating to CRISPR-Cas9, including Cas9 chRDNAs, for use solely in the manufacture of our CB-010 product candidate, we paid Intellia an upfront cash payment of $1.0 million and will

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pay up to $23.0 million in potential future regulatory and sales milestones. Additionally, we will owe Intellia low- to mid- single-digit percent royalties on net sales of our CB-010 product candidate by us, our affiliates, and sublicensees until the expiration, abandonment, or invalidation of the last patent within the intellectual property relating to CRISPR-Cas9, including that relating to Cas9 chRDNAs (i.e., 2036, without PTA or PTE).

The Regents of the University of California (“UC”) and the University of Vienna (“Vienna”)

On April 16, 2013, we entered into an Exclusive License for Methods and Compositions for RNA-Directed Target DNA Modification and for RNA-Directed Modulation of Transcription with UC and Vienna (as amended, the “UC/Vienna Agreement”), under which we received an exclusive worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, in all fields to the foundational CRISPR-Cas9 patent family co-owned by UC, Vienna, and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier (the “CVC IP”). Dr. Charpentier has not granted us any rights to the CVC IP, either directly or indirectly. The UC/Vienna Agreement continues until the last-to-expire patent or last-to-be-abandoned patent application of the CVC IP; provided, however, that UC/Vienna may terminate the UC/Vienna Agreement upon the occurrence of certain events, including our uncured material breach of a material term of the UC/Vienna Agreement, and we may terminate the UC/Vienna Agreement at our sole discretion upon written notice. Without PTA or PTE, the CVC IP will expire in 2033. The UC/Vienna Agreement includes certain diligence milestones that we must meet. For products and services sold by us that are covered by the CVC IP, we will owe low- to mid-single-digit percent royalties on net sales, subject to a minimum annual royalty. Prior to such time that we are selling products, we owe UC/Vienna an annual license maintenance fee. We may owe UC/Vienna up to $3.4 million in certain regulatory and clinical milestone payments in the field of human therapeutics and diagnostics for products developed by us, our affiliates, and sublicensees. Additionally, we pay UC/Vienna a specified percentage of sublicensing revenue we receive including cash and equity under our sublicensing agreements, subject to certain exceptions. If we include intellectual property owned or controlled by us in such sublicense, we pay UC/Vienna a low-double-digit percentage of sublicensing revenues received under the sublicense. If we do not include intellectual property owned or controlled by us in such sublicense, we pay UC/Vienna 50% of sublicensing revenues received under the sublicense. To date, we have entered into over 20 sublicensing agreements in a variety of fields such as human therapeutics, forestry, agriculture, research reagents, transgenic animals, certain livestock targets, internal research, bioproduction, cell lines, and microbial applications that include the CVC IP as well as other Cas9 intellectual property owned or controlled by us. We are obligated to reimburse UC for its prosecution and maintenance costs of the CVC IP. The CVC IP is currently involved in administrative proceedings at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and at the European Patent Office (“EPO”). See Risk Factors - “Our ability to continue to receive licensing revenue and to enter into new licensing arrangements related to the foundational CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property will be substantially impaired if such intellectual property is limited by administrative patent proceeding,” in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

On December 15, 2016, we entered into a Consent to Assignments, Licensing and Common Ownership and Invention Management Agreement (“IMA”) with UC, Vienna, Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Intellia Therapeutics, CRISPR Therapeutics AG, ERS Genomics Ltd., and TRACR Hematology Ltd. relating to the CVC IP. Under the IMA, each of the owners of the CVC IP (i.e., UC, Vienna, and Dr. Charpentier) retroactively consented to all licenses and sublicenses granted by the other owners and their licensees and also gave prospective consent to any licenses and sublicenses that may be granted in the future. Additionally, the IMA provides for, among other things, (i) good faith cooperation among the parties regarding patent maintenance, defense, and prosecution of the CVC IP; (ii) cost-sharing under which CRISPR Therapeutics AG reimburses us for 50% of what we reimburse UC for patent prosecution and maintenance costs; and (iii) notice of and coordination in the event of third-party infringement of the subject patents and with respect to certain adverse claimants of the CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property. Unless earlier terminated by the parties, the IMA will continue in effect until the later of the last expiration or abandonment date of the CVC IP.

On March 14, 2019, we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with UC/Vienna, wherein we agreed that, for sublicensees in the fields of human therapeutics and companion diagnostics, we would pay UC/Vienna the royalties and milestones set forth in the UC/Vienna Agreement for products sold by our sublicensees, not the specified percentage of such sublicensing income received by us. We also agreed to various provisions that must be included in all future sublicensing agreements, including specific provisions for exclusive sublicenses.

Intellectual Property

We strive to protect and enhance the proprietary technologies that we believe are important to our business by seeking patents to cover our platform technologies. We also rely on trade secrets to protect aspects of our business that are not amenable to, or that we do not consider appropriate for, patent protection. Our success will depend significantly on our ability to obtain and maintain patent and trade secret protection for our technologies, our ability to defend and enforce our intellectual property rights, and our ability to operate without infringing any valid and enforceable intellectual property rights of third parties.

As of March 1, 2022, we own 53 issued U.S. patents, including 8 U.S. patents covering our chRDNA technology; 244 issued foreign patents; and 74 pending patent applications throughout the world. The patent portfolio owned by us includes U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications covering methods and compositions relating to our Cas9 chRDNA and Cas12a chRDNA guides

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(which, without PTA or PTE, will expire in 2036). Additionally, our portfolio includes U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications covering methods and compositions relating to the anti-BCMA binding domain of our CB-011 product candidate (which, without PTA or PTE, will expire in 2040). In general, we file our patent applications in the United States and Europe as well as in numerous other foreign patent jurisdictions. We have exclusively in-licensed intellectual property covering the anti-CD371 binding domains of our CB-012 product from MSKCC (which, without PTA or PTE, will expire in 2040).

Additionally, we have extensive patent protection on CRISPR Type I systems, CRISPR-Cas9 methods and compositions, and other genome-editing technologies. The patent term in the United States and other countries is 20 years from the date of filing of the first non-provisional application to which priority is claimed. In the United States, patent term may be lengthened by a PTA, which compensates a patentee for administrative delays by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in granting a patent or may be shortened if a patent is terminally disclaimed over an earlier-filed patent. Additionally, under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (the “Hatch-Waxman Amendments”), the term of a patent that covers an FDA-approved biologic may also be eligible for a PTE of up to five years, which is designed to compensate for the patent term lost during clinical trials and the FDA regulatory review process. A PTE cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval and only one patent claiming the drug product, methods of use or methods of manufacturing may be restored. Moreover, a patent can only be restored once, and thus, if a single patent is applicable to multiple products, it can only be extended based on one product. Similar provisions are available in Europe and certain other foreign jurisdictions to extend the term of a patent that covers an approved product. Without any PTE, the earliest expiration dates of our granted U.S. patents are in 2032 and the latest expiration dates of our granted U.S. patents are in 2040.

As of March 1, 2022, our trademark portfolio contains 12 trademark registrations, including four U.S. trademark registrations, as well as certain trademark applications. We have registered “CARIBOU,” “CARIBOU BIOSCIENCES,” “SITE-SEQ,” and the Caribou logo as trademarks in relevant classes and jurisdictions in the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom.

Furthermore, we rely upon trade secrets, know-how, continuing technological innovation and potential in-licensing opportunities to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect these trade secrets and other proprietary technologies, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them. We also enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and our agreements with consultants include invention assignment obligations.

Competition

We currently compete across the fields of genome editing and cell therapy. We believe that our novel and proprietary Cas12a chRDNA genome-editing platform has broad potential applicability across human therapeutic indications, and our strategy is to demonstrate our platform’s capability by first developing improved allogeneic cell therapies in hematologic oncology indications.

The biopharmaceutical industry, and in particular the genome-editing and cell therapy fields, are characterized by intense investment and competition aimed at rapidly advancing new technologies. Our platform and therapeutic product candidates are expected to face substantial competition from multiple technologies, marketed products, and numerous other therapies being developed by other biopharmaceutical companies, academic research institutions, governmental agencies, and private research institutions. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources, such as larger research and development staff, established manufacturing capabilities and facilities, and experienced marketing organizations with well-established sales forces. In addition, there is substantial patent infringement litigation in the biopharmaceutical industry and, in the future, we may bring or defend such litigation against our competitors.

Compared to first generation genome-editing approaches, our chRDNA platform has shown improved specificity, a reduction in off-target edits and translocations, and an advanced capability to perform multiplexed edits, in particular multiplexed insertions. Although we believe that our scientific expertise, novel technologies, and intellectual property position offer competitive advantages, we face competition from multiple other genome-editing technologies and companies. Other companies developing CRISPR-based technologies include, among others, Arbor Biotechnologies, Beam Therapeutics Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Editas Medicine, Inc., Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., Metagenomi Technologies, LLC, and Scribe Therapeutics, Inc. Companies developing other genome-editing technologies include, among others, bluebird bio, Inc., Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., Cellectis S.A., Precision BioSciences, Inc., and Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.

We believe that our CAR-T cell therapy product candidates have the potential to offer a superior product to patients due to genome edits we make to improve their persistence with the goal of extending robust CAR-T cell antitumor activity in patients. Additionally, our pioneering scientific expertise in iPSC-derived NK cells sets the foundation for our first CAR-iNK cell therapy to target an antigen present on multiple solid tumor malignancies. Due to the promising therapeutic effect of cell therapies, and the

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potential benefit of allogeneic treatment alternatives, we expect increasing competition from new and existing companies across four major fronts, which include, among others:

For a discussion of the risks related to competition, see Risk Factors - “We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, which may result in other companies developing or commercializing products before, or more successfully than, we do, thus rendering our product candidates non-competitive or reducing the size of our market. Our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively,” in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing of both autologous and allogeneic cell therapies requires multiple components and is complex, and there are many similarities in the processes for both kinds of therapies. The advantage of allogeneic therapies is the use of cells from healthy donors and therefore the ability to prepare, qualify, and release clinical material in advance of patient need.

For CB-010, we have optimized the manufacturing process that we developed in-house and have transferred the manufacturing to an external contract manufacturing organization (“CMO”) that manufactures current good manufacturing processes (“cGMP”)-grade material for our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial. Additionally, we have developed different analytical methods to understand the integrity of our cells based upon our manufacturing process. We have made a significant investment in process development to facilitate our efforts to improve both the supply chain and our product characterization capabilities.

Figure 24 below describes the process we have developed for the manufacturing of CB-010 CAR-T cells. We use electroporation for the genome-editing step in our process. We use a licensed MaxCyte instrument to achieve high levels of genome

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editing at manufacturing scale. Our process includes an important step prior to cryopreservation that significantly removes residual TCR-expressing cells to reduce the likelihood that CB-010 cells will induce GvHD in patients.

Figure 24. Our internal process development team developed the manufacturing process for CB-010 and transferred it to a CMO.

Our process development and manufacturing core competencies and advantages include:

The CMO that is manufacturing the phase 1 clinical supply of our CB-010 product candidate is located in the United States and is subject to cGMP requirements, using both qualified equipment and materials. We use multiple CMOs to individually manufacture cGMP chRDNA guides, Cas proteins, and AAV6 vectors used in the manufacture of our CAR-T and CAR-NK cells. We expect to rely on our CMOs for the manufacturing of our product candidates to expedite readiness for future clinical trials, and most of these CMOs have capabilities for commercial manufacturing. Additionally, we may decide to build our own manufacturing facility in the future to provide us greater flexibility and control over our clinical or commercial manufacturing needs.

Government Regulation

As a biotechnology company, we are subject to extensive legal and regulatory requirements. For example, we may need approval from regulatory agencies for our research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, packaging, storage,

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record keeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and import and export of our product candidates. Relevant regulatory authorities include, but are not limited to, the FDA, the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”), an agency of the European Union (“EU”) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products; the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the EU; and other national, state, local, and provincial regulatory authorities. The United States and certain jurisdictions outside the United States also regulate the pricing and reimbursement of such products. The processes for obtaining marketing approvals in the United States and in other countries and jurisdictions, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other regulatory authorities, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.

Licensure and Regulation of Biologics in the United States

In the United States, our product candidates are regulated as biological products, or biologics, under the Public Health Service Act (the “PHSA”), and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the “FDCA”), and their implementing regulations promulgated by the FDA. The failure to comply with the applicable requirements at any time during the product development process, including nonclinical testing, clinical testing, the approval process, or post-approval process, may subject us to delays in the conduct of a clinical trial, regulatory review and approval, and/or subject us to administrative or judicial sanctions. Such sanctions may include, but are not limited to, the FDA’s refusal to allow us to proceed with clinical testing of our product candidates, refusal to approve pending applications, license suspension or revocation, withdrawal of an approval, receipt of untitled or warning letters, adverse publicity, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, and civil or criminal investigations and penalties brought by the FDA, U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), or other governmental entities.

As we seek approval to market and distribute a new biologic in the United States, we generally must satisfactorily complete each of the following steps:

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Preclinical Studies and Investigational New Drug Application

Before testing any investigational biologic product candidate in humans, our product candidates must undergo preclinical testing. Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, formulation, and stability, as well as studies to evaluate the potential for safety, efficacy, and toxicity in animals. The conduct of the preclinical tests and the formulation of the compounds for use in the preclinical testing must comply with federal regulations and/or requirements. The results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information and analytical data, are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND application. An IND is an exemption from the restrictions of the FDCA, which would otherwise preclude an unapproved biologic product candidate from being shipped in interstate commerce. Under an approved IND, the unapproved biologic product candidate may be shipped in interstate commerce for use in an investigational clinical trial, provided that the product candidate meets certain quality and labeling requirements. The FDA has 30 calendar days after receipt of our IND application to review and decide whether we may proceed to human clinical trials. During or after its review, the FDA may raise concerns or questions about our product candidate or conduct of the proposed clinical trial, including concerns that human research subjects could be exposed to unreasonable and significant health risks. If the FDA raises concerns or questions during this 30-day period, including safety concerns or concerns due to regulatory non-compliance, we and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trials can begin. In certain cases, the FDA may impose a partial or complete clinical hold with respect to our product. Such a clinical hold would delay either a proposed clinical trial, or cause suspension of an ongoing clinical trial, until all outstanding concerns have been adequately addressed, and the FDA has notified us that our clinical trials may proceed or recommence. In certain cases, we may not be able to proceed at all with our proposed clinical trial.

Human Clinical Trials in Support of a BLA

Our clinical trials involve the administration of our product candidate to patients with the disease to be treated and are conducted under the supervision of a qualified principal investigator in accordance with cGCP requirements. Clinical trials are conducted under study protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the clinical trial, inclusion, and exclusion criteria, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A protocol for each clinical trial and subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND and must also be reviewed by an IRB.

If we wish to conduct a clinical trial outside of the United States, we may, but need not, obtain FDA authorization to conduct the clinical trial under an IND application. When a foreign clinical trial is conducted under a foreign equivalent to an IND application, all FDA IND applications requirements must be met unless waived. If a non-United States clinical trial is not conducted under a U.S. FDA IND application, we may submit data from a well-designed and well-conducted clinical trial to the FDA in support of our BLA, so long as the clinical trial is conducted in compliance with cGCP and the FDA is able to accept the data from the clinical trial and/or through an onsite inspection if the FDA deems it necessary. In certain cases, however, the FDA may refuse to approve drugs based only on clinical trials conducted outside of the United States. For example, an FDA panel recently recommended against approving an immunotherapy drug that was tested only in China, citing potential concerns about the diversity of the clinical trial population, among others. A senior FDA official has also voiced concerns recently about approving drugs that are developed and tested only in overseas markets. It is not clear how or whether FDA’s policies may change in the future.

For clinical trials conducted in the United States, each clinical trial must be reviewed and approved by an IRB, either centrally or individually at each institution at which our clinical trials will be conducted. The IRB will consider, among other things, our clinical trial design, subject informed consent, ethical factors, and the safety of human subjects. The IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations governing IRBs. The FDA, the applicable IRB, or we may suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time for various reasons, including a finding that the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with FDA requirements or that the subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Some clinical trials receive additional oversight by an independent group of qualified experts organized by us, known as a data safety monitoring board or committee. This group receives and reviews data arising from the clinical trial on an ongoing basis and may recommend continuation of the clinical trial as planned, changes in clinical trial conduct, or cessation of the clinical trial at designated check points based on such data.

In addition to the submission of an IND to the FDA before initiation of a clinical trial in the United States, certain human clinical trials involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules may be subject to oversight of institutional biosafety committees (“IBCs”), as set forth in the 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. Although the NIH Guidelines are not mandatory unless the research in question is being conducted at or sponsored by institutions receiving National

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Institutes of Health (“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.

Clinical trials typically are conducted in three sequential phases; however, the phases may overlap or may be combined.

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 clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA. Written IND safety reports must be submitted to the FDA and the investigators within 15 calendar days of receipt by us after determining that the information qualifies for such expedited reporting. IND safety reports are required for serious and unexpected suspected adverse events, findings from other studies or animal or in vitro testing that suggest a significant risk to humans in our clinical trials, and any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. Additionally, we must notify FDA within seven calendar days after receiving information concerning any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction. Other external events may occur that can affect the conduct of our clinical trials, such as pandemics or government shutdowns.

In some cases, the FDA may approve a BLA for our product candidate but require us to conduct additional clinical trials to further assess the product candidate’s safety and effectiveness after approval. Such post-approval trials are typically referred to as phase 4 clinical trials. These studies are used to gain additional experience from the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication and to document a clinical benefit in the case of biologics approved under accelerated approval regulations. Failure to exhibit due diligence in conducting phase 4 clinical trials could result in withdrawal of approval for our products.

Guidance Governing Gene Therapy Products

The FDA has defined a gene therapy product as one that mediates its effects by transcription and/or translation of transferred genetic material or by specifically altering host (human) genetic sequences. Examples of gene therapy products include nucleic acids (e.g., plasmids, in vitro transcribed ribonucleic acid), genetically modified microorganisms (e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi), engineered site-specific nucleases used for human genome editing, and ex vivo genetically modified human cells. The products may be used to modify cells in vivo or transferred to cells ex vivo prior to administration to the recipient. Within the FDA, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (“CBER”) regulates gene therapy products. Within CBER, the review of gene therapy and related products is consolidated in the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies, and the FDA has established the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee to advise CBER on its reviews. The FDA and the NIH have published guidance documents with respect to the development and submission of gene therapy protocols.

Although the FDA has indicated that its guidance documents regarding gene therapies are not legally binding, we believe that our compliance with them is likely necessary to gain approval for any product candidate we may develop. The guidance documents provide additional factors that the FDA will consider at each of the above stages of development and relate to, among other things, the proper preclinical assessment of gene therapies; the chemistry, manufacturing, and control information that should be included in an IND application; the proper design of tests to measure product potency in support of an IND or BLA application; and measures to observe delayed adverse effects in subjects who have been exposed to investigational gene therapies when the risk of such effects is high. Further, the FDA usually recommends that sponsors observe subjects for potential gene therapy-related delayed adverse events. Depending on the product type, long term follow up can be up to 15 years or as short as five years.

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Clinical Trial Registry

There also are requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical trials and completed clinical trial results to public registries, such as such as www.ClinicalTrials.gov. We are required to register and disclose certain clinical trial information, including the product information, patient population, phase of investigation, clinical trial sites and investigators, and other aspects of the clinical trial on www.ClinicalTrials.gov. We are also obligated to disclose the results of our clinical trials after completion. Disclosure of the results of these clinical trials can be delayed until the new product candidate or new indication being studied has been approved, up to a maximum of two years.

Compliance with cGMP and cGTP requirements

Before approving a BLA, the FDA typically will inspect the facility or facilities where our product candidates are manufactured. The FDA will not approve a BLA unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in full compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to ensure consistent production of the product within required specifications. The PHSA emphasizes the importance of manufacturing control for products such as biologics whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. Material changes in manufacturing equipment, location, or process post-approval may result in additional regulatory review and approval.

The FDA also will not approve the product if we are not in compliance with cGTPs, which are requirements found in FDA regulations that govern the methods used in, and the facilities and controls used for, the manufacture of human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products (“HCT/Ps”), which are human cells or tissue intended for implantation, transplant, infusion, or transfer into a human recipient. The primary intent of the cGTP requirements is to ensure that cell- and tissue-based products are manufactured in a manner designed to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable disease. FDA regulations also require tissue establishments to register and list their HCT/Ps with the FDA and, when applicable, to evaluate donors through screening and testing.

Review and Approval of a BLA

The results of product candidate development, preclinical testing, and clinical trials, including negative or ambiguous results as well as positive findings, are submitted to the FDA as part of a BLA requesting a license to market the product. The BLA must contain extensive manufacturing information and detailed information on the composition of the product candidate and proposed labeling as well as payment of a user fee.

The FDA has 60 calendar days after submission of a BLA to conduct an initial review to determine whether the BLA is acceptable for filing based on the agency’s threshold determination that the BLA is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. Once the submission has been accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth review of the application. Under the goals and policies agreed to by the FDA under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (“PDUFA”), the FDA has 10 months in which to complete its initial review of a standard application and respond to us, and six months for a priority review of the application. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates for standard and priority BLAs. The review process may often be significantly extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification. The review process and the PDUFA goal date may be extended by three months if the FDA requests, or if we otherwise provide through the submission of a major amendment, additional information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission within the last three months before the PDUFA goal date.

Under the PHSA, the FDA may approve a BLA if it determines that our product candidate is safe, pure, and potent and the manufacturing facility meets standards designed to ensure that our product continues to be safe, pure, and potent.

On the basis of the FDA’s evaluation of the application and accompanying information, including the results of the inspection of the manufacturing facilities and any FDA audits of nonclinical study and clinical trial sites to ensure compliance with cGMPs and cGCPs, respectively, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a complete response letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of our product candidate with specific prescribing information for specific indications. If our BLA is not approved, the FDA will issue a complete response letter, which will contain the conditions that must be met in order to secure final approval of the application and, when possible, will outline recommended actions we might take to obtain approval of our BLA. If we receive a complete response letter, we may submit to the FDA information that represents a complete response to the issues identified by the FDA. Such resubmissions are classified under the PDUFA as either Class 1 or Class 2. The classification of a resubmission is based on the information submitted by us in response to the complete response letter. Under the goals and policies agreed to by the FDA under the PDUFA, the FDA has two months to review a Class 1 resubmission and six months to review a Class 2 resubmission. The FDA will not approve an application until issues identified in the complete response letter have been addressed. Alternatively, if we receive a complete response letter, we may either withdraw our BLA or request a hearing.

The FDA may also refer our BLA to an advisory committee for review, evaluation, and recommendation as to whether our BLA should be approved. In particular, the FDA may refer to an advisory committee application for biologic products that present

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difficult questions of safety or efficacy. Typically, an advisory committee is a panel of independent experts, including clinicians and other scientific experts, that reviews, evaluates, and provides a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.

If the FDA approves our product, it may limit the approved indications for use of our product. The FDA may also require that contraindications, warnings, or precautions be included in the product labeling. In addition, the FDA may call for post-approval studies, including phase 4 clinical trials, to further assess the product’s safety after approval. The FDA may also require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the product after commercialization, or impose other conditions, including distribution restrictions or other risk management mechanisms, including REMS, to help ensure that the benefits of the product outweigh the potential risks. REMS can include medication guides, communication plans for healthcare professionals, and elements to ensure safe use (“ETASU”). ETASU can include, but is not limited to, specific or special training or certification for prescribing or dispensing, dispensing only under certain circumstances, special monitoring, and the use of patient registries. The FDA may prevent or limit further marketing of a product based on the results of post-marketing studies or surveillance programs. After approval, many types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications, certain manufacturing changes, and additional labeling claims, are subject to further testing requirements and FDA review and approval.

Fast Track, Breakthrough Therapy, Priority Review, and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy Designations

The FDA is authorized to designate certain products for expedited review if such products are intended to address an unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition. These programs include fast track designation, breakthrough therapy designation, priority review, and regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation. These designations are not mutually exclusive, and our product candidates may qualify for one or more of these programs. Although these programs are intended to expedite product development and approval, they do not alter the standards for FDA approval.

The FDA may designate our product candidate for fast track review if our product candidate is intended, whether alone or in combination with one or more other products, for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and it can be demonstrated that our product candidate has the potential to address unmet medical needs for such a disease or condition. For fast track product candidates, we may have greater interactions with the FDA, and the FDA may initiate review of sections of our fast track product candidate’s application before the application is complete. This rolling review may be available if the FDA determines, after preliminary evaluation of clinical data submitted by us, that a fast track product candidate may be effective. We must also provide, and the FDA must approve, a schedule for the submission of the remaining information, and we must pay applicable application user fees. However, the FDA’s time period goal for reviewing a fast track application does not begin until the last section of the application is submitted. In addition, the fast track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if the FDA believes that the designation is no longer supported by data emerging in the clinical trial process, or if our designated product candidate development program is no longer being pursued.

Our product candidates may obtain breakthrough therapy designations if they are intended, either alone or in combination with one or more other products, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that our product candidates may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The FDA may take certain actions with respect to product candidates with such designations, including holding meetings with us throughout the development process, providing timely advice to us regarding development and approval, involving more senior staff in the review process, assigning a cross-disciplinary project lead for the review team, and taking other steps to design the clinical trials in an efficient manner. Breakthrough designation may be rescinded if our product candidate no longer meets the qualifying criteria.

The FDA may designate our product candidate for priority review if our product candidate treats a serious condition and, if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness of the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of such condition. The FDA makes such determination on a case-by-case basis, compared with other available therapies. Significant improvement may be illustrated by evidence of increased effectiveness in the treatment of a condition, elimination or substantial reduction of a treatment-limiting adverse reaction, documented enhancement of patient compliance that may lead to improvement in serious outcomes, and evidence of safety and effectiveness in a new subpopulation. A priority designation is intended to direct overall attention and resources to the evaluation of such applications, and to shorten the FDA’s goal for acting on a marketing application from 10 months to six months.

The FDA may designate our product candidates as regenerative medicine advanced therapies (“RMAT”) if our product candidates are regenerative medicine therapies intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that our product candidates have the potential to address unmet medical needs for such disease or condition. RMAT designation provides potential benefits that include early interactions and more frequent meetings with the FDA to discuss the development plan for the product candidate and eligibility for rolling review and priority review. Product candidates granted RMAT designation may also be eligible for accelerated approval on the basis of surrogate or intermediate

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clinical trial endpoints reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit, or reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites, including through expansion to additional sites. RMAT-designated products that receive accelerated approval may, as appropriate, fulfill their post-approval requirements through the submission of clinical evidence, clinical trials, patient registries, or other sources of real-world evidence such as electronic health records, through the collection of larger confirmatory data sets as agreed with the FDA, or via post-approval monitoring of all patients treated with such therapy prior to approval of the therapy. Regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation may be rescinded if our product candidate no longer meets the qualifying criteria

Accelerated Approval Pathway

The FDA may grant accelerated approval to our product candidates for a serious or life-threatening condition that provides meaningful therapeutic advantage to patients over existing treatments based upon a determination that our product has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. The FDA may also grant accelerated approval for such a condition when our product candidate has an effect on an intermediate clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality (“IMM”), and that our product candidate is reasonably likely to predict an effect on IMM or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity, or prevalence of the condition, and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. Product candidates granted accelerated approval must meet the same statutory standards for safety and efficacy as those granted traditional approval.

For the purposes of accelerated approval, a surrogate endpoint is a marker, such as a laboratory measurement, radiographic image, physical sign, or other measure that is thought to predict clinical benefit but is not itself a measure of clinical benefit. Surrogate endpoints can often be measured more easily or more rapidly than clinical endpoints. An intermediate clinical endpoint is a measurement of a therapeutic effect that is considered reasonably likely to predict the clinical benefit of a product candidate, such as an effect on IMM. The FDA has limited experience with accelerated approvals based on intermediate clinical endpoints but has indicated that such endpoints generally could support accelerated approval where a clinical trial demonstrates a relatively short-term clinical benefit in a chronic disease setting in which assessing durability of the clinical benefit is essential for traditional approval, but the short-term benefit is considered reasonably likely to predict long-term benefit.

The accelerated approval pathway is most often used in settings in which the course of a disease is long and an extended period of time is required to measure the intended clinical benefit of a product candidate, even if the effect on the surrogate or intermediate clinical endpoint occurs rapidly. Thus, accelerated approval has been used extensively in the development and approval of products for treatment of a variety of cancers in which the goal of therapy is generally to improve survival or decrease morbidity and the duration of the typical disease course requires lengthy and sometimes large trials to demonstrate a clinical or survival benefit.

The accelerated approval pathway is usually contingent on our agreement to conduct, in a diligent manner, additional post-approval confirmatory studies to verify and describe our product candidate’s clinical benefit. As a result, a product candidate approved on this basis is subject to rigorous post-marketing compliance requirements, including the completion of post-approval clinical trials to confirm the effect on the clinical endpoint. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies, or confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, would allow the FDA to withdraw the product from the market on an expedited basis. All promotional materials for product candidates approved under accelerated regulations are subject to prior review by the FDA unless the FDA informs us otherwise.

Post-Approval Regulation

If regulatory approval for marketing of any of our product candidates is obtained, we will be required to comply with all regular post-approval regulatory requirements as well as any post-approval requirements that the FDA has imposed as part of the approval process. We will be required to report certain adverse reactions and manufacturing problems to the FDA, provide updated safety and efficacy information, and comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotional labeling requirements. Manufacturers of our products are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies and are subject to periodic announced or ad hoc inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with ongoing regulatory requirements, including cGMP regulations, which impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon these manufacturers. Accordingly, we and our third-party manufacturers must continue to expend time, money, and effort in the areas of production and quality control to maintain compliance with cGMP regulations and other regulatory requirements.

Our products may also be subject to official lot release, meaning that the manufacturer of our products is required to perform certain tests on each lot of the product before the product is released for distribution. If the product is subject to official lot release, the manufacturer must submit to the FDA samples of each lot, together with a release protocol showing a summary of the history of manufacture of the lot and the results of the manufacturer’s tests performed on the lot. The FDA may in addition perform certain confirmatory tests on lots of some products before releasing the lots for distribution.

Once a marketing approval is granted for our product candidate, the FDA may withdraw the approval if compliance with regulatory requirements is not maintained or if problems occur after our product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with our product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, issues with manufacturing

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processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information, imposition of post-marketing studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks, or imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a REMS program.

Other potential consequences of a failure to comply with regulatory requirements include:

The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising, and promotion of licensed and approved products that are placed on the market. Pharmaceutical products may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label.

Orphan Drug Designation

Orphan drug designation may be available for drugs that are intended for rare diseases or conditions, defined as (i) a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States or (ii) a disease or condition that affects more than 200,000 individuals in the United States and for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available a biologic for the disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product in the United States. If a drug becomes the first drug that is approved for the same indication for which the FDA has granted the designation, the drug will be entitled to 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 following the date of our product’s marketing approval, except in certain circumstances. In addition, other financial incentives, such as tax credits, may be available. To obtain orphan drug designation, we must make a request before submitting our BLA for a particular product candidate. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic or trade name, or the chemical name or a meaningful description of the biologic, its designated orphan use and date of designation, and our company name 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. We have not requested, or received, an orphan drug designation for any of our product candidates. However, we may request such a designation in the future.

Pediatric Studies and Exclusivity

Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2003 (as amended, “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 candidate is safe and effective.

Sponsors must submit a pediatric study plan to FDA outlining the proposed pediatric study or studies they plan to conduct, including study objectives and design, any deferral or waiver requests, and other information required by regulation. The FDA must then review the information submitted, consult with the sponsor, and agree upon a final plan. The FDA or the sponsor may request an amendment to the plan at any time.

For products intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, the FDA must, upon the request of a sponsor, meet to discuss preparation of the initial pediatric study plan or to discuss deferral or waiver of pediatric assessments. In addition, the FDA will meet early in the development process to discuss pediatric study plans with the sponsor and the FDA must meet with the sponsor by no later than the end-of-phase 1 meeting for serious or life-threatening diseases and by no later than 90 calendar days after FDA’s receipt of the study plan. The FDA may, on its own initiative or at the request of the sponsor, grant deferrals for submission of some or all pediatric data until after approval of the product for use in adults, or full or partial waivers from the pediatric data requirements, under specified circumstances. Unless otherwise required by regulation, the pediatric data requirements do not apply to products with orphan designation.

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Pediatric exclusivity is another type of non-patent marketing exclusivity in the United States and, if granted, provides for the attachment of an additional six months of marketing protection to the term of any existing regulatory exclusivity, including the non-patent and orphan exclusivity. This six-month exclusivity may be granted if pediatric data is submitted that sufficiently responds to a written request from the FDA for such data. The data do not need to show a product to be effective in the pediatric population studied; rather, if the clinical trial is deemed to be responsive to the FDA’s request, the additional protection is granted. If reports of requested pediatric studies are submitted to and accepted by the FDA within the statutory time limits, whatever statutory or regulatory periods of exclusivity or patent protection cover the product are extended by six months. This is not PTE; instead, this grant of exclusivity extends the regulatory period during which the FDA cannot approve another application.

Biosimilars and Exclusivity

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Affordable Care Act”) includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (the “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 United States. Starting in 2015, the FDA commenced licensing biosimilars under the BPCIA, and there are currently numerous biosimilars approved in the United States and Europe.

For the FDA to approve a biosimilar product, it must find that there are no clinically meaningful differences between the reference product and proposed biosimilar product in terms of safety, purity, and potency. For the FDA to approve a biosimilar product as interchangeable with a reference product, the agency must find that the biosimilar product can be expected to produce the same clinical results as the reference product, and, for products administered multiple times, that the biologic and the reference biologic may be switched after one has been previously administered without increasing safety risks or risks of diminished efficacy relative to exclusive use of the reference biologic. Even after the FDA approves a biosimilar product, the product, its manufacturing processes, post-approval clinical data, labeling, advertising, and promotional activities for the product will be subject to continuous requirements of and review by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, including mandatory post-marketing safety reporting; registration and listing requirements; cGMP requirements relating to quality control, quality assurance, and corresponding maintenance of records and documents; and requirements regarding recordkeeping.

Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date of approval of the reference product. The FDA may not approve a biosimilar product until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was approved. Even if a product is considered to be a reference product eligible for exclusivity, another company could market a competing version of that product if the FDA approves a full BLA for such product containing our own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity, and potency of the product.

Patent Term Extension

A patent claiming a new biologic product may be eligible for a limited PTE under the Hatch-Waxman Amendments, which permits a patent restoration of up to five years for patent term lost during product development and FDA regulatory review. The restoration period granted on a patent covering a product is typically one-half the time between the effective date of an IND and the submission date of a BLA, plus the time between the submission date of a BLA and the ultimate approval date, less any time during which due diligence was not conducted. PTE cannot be used to extend the remaining term of a patent past a total of 14 years from the product’s regulatory approval date. Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 156, only one patent covering an approved product, or the use or manufacture thereof, is eligible for PTE, and the application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent in question and within 60 calendar days after regulatory approval. A patent that covers multiple products for which approval is sought can only be extended in connection with one of the approvals. The USPTO reviews and approves the application for any PTE in consultation with the FDA. Similar provisions are available in Europe and other jurisdictions to extend the term of a patent that covers an approved biologic although the eligibility requirements for these extensions vary.

Regulation and Procedures Governing Approval of Medicinal Products in Other Countries

In order to market any product outside of the United States, we must also comply with numerous and comprehensive regulatory requirements of other countries and jurisdictions, regarding quality, safety, and efficacy, and governing, among other things, clinical trials, marketing authorization, post-authorization requirements, commercial sales, import and export, reimbursement, and distribution of products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for our product candidates, we will need to obtain the necessary approvals from the comparable health regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions before we can initiate clinical trials or marketing of our products in those countries or jurisdictions. Specifically, the process governing approval of medicinal products in the EU generally follows the same lines as in the United States, although the approval of a medicinal product in the United States is no guarantee of approval of the same product in the EU, either at all or within the same timeframe as approval may be granted in the United States. The process entails satisfactory completion of preclinical studies and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of a product candidate for each proposed indication. It also requires the submission to the EMA or the

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relevant member state competent authorities, of a marketing authorization application and granting of a marketing authorization by the EMA or these authorities before the product can be marketed and sold in the EU.

U.S. Export Control Licensing Requirements and Other U.S. and Foreign Trade Regulations, Sanctions Laws, Anti-Corruption, and Anti-Money Laundering Laws

We develop product candidates that may be subject to varying U.S. export control licensing requirements and foreign investment regulations. In addition, U.S. international trade laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (“FCPA”), and similar anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws, regulations, and rules of other countries in which we may choose to operate, could apply to our international activities. Anti-corruption laws generally prohibit companies and their employees, agents, contractors, and other collaborators from authorizing, promising, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything else of value to recipients in the public or private sector in order to influence action. The FCPA also requires public companies to make and keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect the transactions of the company and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls.

In addition, U.S. import and export regulations, anti-money laundering laws, and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls could apply to any international activities we may undertake.

Coverage, Pricing, and Reimbursement

Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any product candidates for which we may seek regulatory approval by the FDA or other government authorities. In the United States and other countries, patients who are prescribed treatments for their conditions and providers performing the prescribed services often rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the associated healthcare costs. Patients are unlikely to use any product candidates we may develop unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of such product candidates. In addition, direct or indirect governmental price regulation may affect the prices that we may charge for product candidates.

United States

Even if any product candidates we may develop obtain approval, sales of such product candidates will depend, in part, on the extent to which third-party payors, including government healthcare programs in the United States, such as Medicare and Medicaid, commercial health insurers, and managed care organizations provide coverage and establish adequate reimbursement levels for such product candidates.

In general, factors a payor considers in determining coverage and reimbursement are based on whether the product is:

In the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for biological products, including gene and cell 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, medical necessity, and risks on a payor-by-payor basis, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained. A decision by a third-party payor not to cover any product candidates we may develop could reduce physician utilization of such product candidates once approved and have a material adverse effect on our sales, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, a payor’s decision to provide coverage for a product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved, and inadequate reimbursement rates, including significant patient cost sharing obligations, may deter patients from selecting our product candidates. One payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not ensure that other payors will also provide coverage and reimbursement for the product, and the level of coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payor to payor. Third-party reimbursement and coverage may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to realize an appropriate return on our investment in product development. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and

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reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we receive marketing approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.

European Union

In the EU, the approval process and requirements governing pricing and reimbursement for any product candidate vary greatly between countries and jurisdictions. Some countries allow biological products to be marketed only after a reimbursement price has been agreed. Some countries may require the completion of additional testing or studies that compare the cost effectiveness of a particular biological product to currently available treatments, or so-called health technology assessments, in order to obtain reimbursement or pricing approval.

Some countries, including several EU member states, set prices and reimbursement for biological products, with limited participation from the marketing authorization holders. For example, the EU provides options for its member states to restrict the range of biological products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of biological products for human use. EU member states may approve a specific price for a biological product or may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company providing the biological product. Recently, many European countries have increased the level of discounting required in relation to the pricing of biological products and these efforts could continue as countries attempt to manage healthcare expenditures.

Healthcare Law and Regulation

Healthcare providers and third-party payors play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of pharmaceutical products that are granted marketing approval. Arrangements with providers, consultants, third-party payors, customers, and patients are subject to broadly applicable fraud and abuse laws including anti-kickback laws, false claims laws, and health care provider payment transparency laws, as well as data privacy and security laws and other healthcare laws that may constrain our business and/or financial arrangements.

Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations, include but are not limited to the following:

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Numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including federal health information privacy laws, state data breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws and federal and state consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), that govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of health-related and other personal information could apply to our operations or the operations of our collaborators and third-party providers. California has enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”). The CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and delete their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. Additionally, the California Privacy Rights Act amended the CCPA to impose additional data protection obligations on companies doing business in California, including additional consumer rights processes, limitations on data uses, new audit requirements for higher risk data, opt outs for certain uses of sensitive data, and creation of a new California data protection agency authorized to issue substantive regulations. The majority of the provisions will go into effect on January 1, 2023, and additional compliance investment and potential business process changes may be required. In the United States, states are constantly amending existing laws, requiring attention to frequently changing regulatory requirements.

Healthcare Reform

A primary trend in the United States healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. There have been a number of federal and state proposals during the last few years that apply to the pricing of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products, limit coverage and reimbursement for drugs and other medical products, require substitution of generic products, standardize access to third-party insurance coverage, and address government control and other changes to the healthcare system in the United States. The federal and state governments may pass legislation designed to reduce the cost of healthcare, and future amendments and new proposals may affect the commercialization of any of our product candidates in ways that we cannot foresee.

For example, in March 2010, the United States Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act, which, among other things, included changes to the coverage and payment for products under government health care programs.

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Among the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that may be of importance to our potential product candidates are:

Recently, CMS finalized regulations that give states greater flexibility in setting benchmarks for insurers in the individual and small group marketplaces, which may have the effect of relaxing the essential health benefits required under the Affordable Care Act for plans sold through such marketplaces. It is unclear what type of impact, if any, efforts such as this will have on our business in the future.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals, imaging centers, and cancer treatment centers, and increased from three to five years the statute of limitations period for the government to recover non-fraudulent overpayments to providers. New laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which may materially adversely affect customer demand for and affordability of our product candidates and, accordingly, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Additional changes that may affect our business include the expansion of new programs such as Medicare payment for performance initiatives for physicians under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which first affected physician payment in 2019. At this time, it is unclear how the introduction of the Medicare quality payment program will impact overall physician reimbursement.

Beyond the Affordable Care Act, other legislative measures have also been enacted that may impose additional pricing and product development pressures on our business. For example, 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 IND 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 drug manufacturer to make its drug product candidates available to eligible patients as a result of the Right to Try Act, but the manufacturer must develop an internal policy and respond to patient requests according to that policy. We expect that additional foreign, federal, and state healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts

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that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in limited coverage and reimbursement and reduced demand for our products, post-approval, or additional pricing pressures. Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in enacting legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. We cannot predict what healthcare reform initiatives may be adopted in the future. Additional 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.

Additional Regulations

In addition to the foregoing, state and federal laws regarding environmental protection and hazardous substances, including the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act, the U.S. Resource Conservancy and Recovery Act, and the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act, all affect our business. These and other state and local 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.

Employee and Human Capital Resources

Overview

As of March 1, 2022, we had 97 employees. Of these employees, 73% are primarily engaged in research and development activities and 55% of our research and development personnel have one or more advanced degrees. None of our employees is represented by a labor union or party to a collective bargaining agreement. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

We have attracted a talented group of experienced scientists, drug development experts, and company builders as part of a passionate team of employees. Our research and development team includes scientists, engineers, and clinicians who are experts in genome-editing technologies, cellular engineering, computational biology, genome sequencing and analysis, structural biology, chemistry, lab automation, translational medicine, and the manufacturing of CRISPR reagents and cell therapies. Our team of employees includes many scientists who invented the technologies we use today in our research and product development and who continue to drive innovation.

We recognize that attracting, motivating, and retaining talent at all levels is vital to our continued success. Our employees are a significant asset and we aim to create an equitable, inclusive, and empowering environment in which our employees can grow and advance their careers, with the overall goal of developing, expanding, and retaining our workforce to support our current pipeline and future business goals. By focusing on employee retention and engagement, we also improve our ability to support our clinical trials, our pipeline, our platform technologies, and our business and operations, while protecting the long-term interests of our stockholders. Our success depends on our ability to attract, engage, and retain a diverse group of employees. We value innovation, passion, data-driven decision making, persistence, and honesty, and we are building an inclusive environment where our employees can thrive and be inspired to make exceptional contributions to bring therapies to patients.

Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, motivating, and integrating our existing and future employees. The principal purposes of our equity and cash incentive plans are to attract, retain, and motivate employees through grants of stock-based compensation awards and payments of performance-based cash bonus awards, which motivate our employees to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives. We are committed to providing a competitive and comprehensive benefits package to our employees. Our benefits package provides a balance of overall protection along with the flexibility to meet the individual health and wellness needs of our employees. We plan to continue to refine our efforts related to optimizing our use of human capital as we grow, including improvements in the way we hire, develop, motivate, and retain employees.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been and will continue to be focused on the safety of our employees. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have instituted on-site protocols and procedures in accordance with regulations and guidelines promulgated by the Centers for Disease Control, the State of California, the California Department of Public Health, the California Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the County of Alameda, and the City of Berkeley. All of our employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of working with us. Individuals who are unable to be vaccinated, due to a religious belief, a medical condition, or disability that prevents them from being vaccinated, can request a reasonable accommodation.

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to cultivating, fostering, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”). We foster an inclusive environment through respect, collaboration, and candid communication. We embrace and encourage differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, culture or customs, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique. We embrace differences in experience and background, and we welcome a diversity of opinions when making decisions. We would not be who we are today without the diversity of our team.

As of March 1, 2022, 55% of our employees self-reported as female. The ratio of men to women is fairly balanced at each level of our organization; as an example, 58% of our director-level and above employees self-reported as female and 42% of this group self-reported as male. In addition, as of March 1, 2022, 46% of our employees self-reported as ethnic or racial minorities, with 27% self-identifying as Asian, 3% Black or African American, 7% Hispanic or Latinx, and 8% of other minority groups or two or more races; 46% of our director-level and above employees self-reported as ethnic or racial minorities. Our employees span multiple age brackets and bring their unique perspectives and experiences to our organization. As of March 1, 2022, the average age of our employees is 40.8 years old, 52% of our workforce is under 40 years of age, and 48% of our workforce is 40 years of age or older. Although we are proud of our efforts and metrics to date, we recognize that there is still more work to be done until the diversity of our workforce matches the diversity of the Bay Area.

To champion our efforts in this area, in 2021 we formed an Inclusion Committee comprised of employees from various departments, backgrounds, and levels within our organization. The Inclusion Committee emphasizes our commitment to the importance of DEI and the responsibility of our employees to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. All employees are provided diversity awareness training and unconscious bias training to enhance their knowledge to fulfill this responsibility, in addition to mandatory sexual harassment prevention training. The Inclusion Committee works to identify gaps, respond to feedback provided by peers and present suggestions on our hiring and retention practices and policies to encourage and enforce an environment in which all employees feel included and empowered to achieve their best. Management has committed time and resources for this ongoing initiative.

Involvement in Our Community

Our headquarters are located in Berkeley, California, and many of our employees are alumni of local universities and some have grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended local schools. Our employees are talented and passionate people who are committed to making a difference in our community and beyond. As a company, we actively participate in outreach efforts to increase opportunities for underrepresented groups, including hosting and providing volunteers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (“STEM”) programs at local elementary, junior high, and high schools as well as community colleges and universities. Many of our employees speak at local schools about careers in biotechnology and we have hosted students at our facility to engage them in aspects of biotechnology to which they may not have been previously exposed. We look for opportunities to foster the growth of future scientists and a love of science. We provide each of our employees with eight hours of paid volunteer time each year, which can be used for participating in school activities, voter registrations, environmental activities, and the like.

We are environmentally conscious. With this in mind, we strive to mitigate our impact on the environment where possible and pursue innovative ways to grow our business while minimizing our environmental footprint. The City of Berkeley requires companies with 10 or more employees to have a commuter benefits program in place, and we offer pre-tax commuter benefits to ride public transportation, which is connected to our facility through various free shuttle services. Additionally, we provide bicycle vouchers to employees who bike to work and have bike repair tools on site as well as bike storage areas. Our facility is equipped with water stations that filter water to discourage the use of plastic bottles. All refuse generated at our company is sorted among recycle, compost, and landfill. We have already moved to electronic documentation and files in many functions and are in the process of completing our transition to a mostly paperless workplace.

The Herd at Caribou

We at Caribou refer to ourselves as “the herd.” We encourage and value social interactions among the herd. To this end, until the COVID-19 pandemic, we met for quarterly events, including a company-organized San Francisco Bay shoreline clean-up effort. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we held quarterly events virtually, such as chocolate tastings and ramen cooking. We also sponsor a monthly “fun run” for employees to either run or walk to the shoreline or in the Berkeley hills. For several years, we have offered yoga for our employees, and we have continued this virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Information Available on the Internet

Investors and others should note that we announce material information to our investors using our investor relations website (https://cariboubio.com/investors), our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts. We use these channels to communicate with the public about our company, our business, our product candidates and other matters. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, including exhibits, proxy and information statements and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are available on our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. The materials we file with or furnish to the SEC are also available at http://www.sec.gov.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Investing in shares of our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks and uncertainties, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and related notes, before making an investment decision. The risks described below are not the only ones facing us. The occurrence of any of the following risks, or of additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, and reputation. In such case, the trading price of shares of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including the risks described below. See Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Risks Relating to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

We have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will incur continued net losses for the foreseeable future.

We have incurred significant net losses each year since our inception. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we incurred net losses of $66.9 million and $34.3 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $97.8 million. In addition, we have not commercialized any products and have never generated any revenue from product sales. We have devoted almost all of our financial resources to research and development, including our preclinical development activities.

We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and net losses over the next several years and for the foreseeable future as we seek to advance product candidates through preclinical and clinical development, expand our research and development activities, develop new product candidates, complete preclinical studies and clinical trials, seek regulatory approval and, if we receive approval from the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities, commercialize our products. Furthermore, the costs of advancing product candidates into each succeeding clinical phase tend to increase substantially over time. The total costs to advance any of our product candidates to marketing approval in even a single jurisdiction is substantial. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ deficit and working capital. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:

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Because of these risks, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all. Even if we do become profitable, we may not be able to sustain or increase our profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

We will need substantial additional financing to develop our product candidates and implement our operating plans. If we fail to obtain additional financing, we may be delayed or unable to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidates.

Despite the completion of our initial public offering (“IPO”) in July and August 2021, we will continue to need additional capital beyond the IPO proceeds, which we may raise through equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations and strategic alliances, licensing arrangements, or other sources. Additional sources of financing might not be available on favorable terms, if at all. If we fail to raise additional funds on acceptable terms, we might be unable to complete the development or obtain marketing approval of any of our product candidates, and we could be forced to delay or discontinue product development and commercialization.

We expect to spend a substantial amount of capital in the research, development, and manufacture of our product candidates. We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we initiate clinical trials for, and seek marketing approval of, our product candidates. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution to the extent that we do not obtain commercialization partners who will bear the costs for such activities. We may also need to raise additional funds sooner if we choose to pursue additional indications or markets for our product candidates or otherwise expand more rapidly than we presently anticipate. Furthermore, we will continue to incur significant costs associated with operating as a public company. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we will be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate certain of our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts. Because our allogeneic cell therapy product candidates are based on new technologies, they require extensive research and development and have substantial manufacturing costs. In addition, clinical costs to treat cancer patients with our product candidates, including treatment of any potential side effects that may arise, will be significant.

As of December 31, 2021, we had cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $413.5 million. We expect our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities to be sufficient to fund our current operating plan through at least the next 12 months from the date the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are issued. Our expectation is based on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could use our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect.

Our future capital requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including:

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Changing circumstances may cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more money than expected because of circumstances beyond our control. We may also need to raise additional capital sooner if we choose to expand programs, personnel, and facilities more rapidly than planned. In any event, we will require additional capital for the further research, development, and commercialization of our product candidates, including potentially establishing our own internal manufacturing capabilities. Any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to research, develop, and commercialize our product candidates.

We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available when needed and on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay, or discontinue one or more of our product candidate preclinical studies, clinical trials, or development and commercialization, or we may be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, as desired. Any of the above could significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects and cause the price of our common stock to decline.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations, and/or or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.

Until such time, if ever, that we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, and strategic collaboration and licensing arrangements. The terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our stockholders and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures, licensing or assigning our intellectual property rights, declaring dividends, and possibly other restrictions.

To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, our stockholders’ interests will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders.

If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce, or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts. Alternatively, we could be required to seek collaborators for our product candidates at an earlier stage than would otherwise be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available. We might need to relinquish or license on unfavorable terms our rights to our product candidates in markets where we otherwise would seek to pursue development and commercialization ourselves, or to license our intellectual property to others who could develop products that will compete with our products. Any of these actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our technologies and product candidate development capabilities or to predict our future performance.

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company formed in 2011, with no products approved for commercial sale, and we have not generated any revenues from product sales. Our operations to date have been limited to financing and staffing our company, developing our technologies, and identifying and developing our product candidates. Our prospects must be considered in light of the uncertainties, risks, expenses, and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in their early stages of operations. We have not yet demonstrated an ability to obtain marketing approval, manufacture at commercial scale, or conduct sales and marketing activities for our product candidates, which are all necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing cell therapy products. Our ability to generate product revenue or profits, which we do not expect to occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. Unless we receive approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities for our product candidates, we will not have product revenues. We may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable cell therapy product.

We are early in our development efforts. To date, we have only dosed patients in our first clinical trial, which is the ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial for our CB-010 product candidate. All of our programs will require clinical development, regulatory approval, manufacturing at commercial scale, distribution channels, a commercial organization, significant marketing efforts, and substantial investment before we generate any revenue from product sales. In addition, our product candidates must be approved for marketing by the FDA before we may commercialize our products in the United States and, if we wish to commercialize our products outside the United States, by foreign regulatory agencies. Furthermore, we will continue to incur costs associated with operating as a public company, including significant legal, accounting, insurance, investor relations, and other expenses.

Additionally, the rapidly evolving nature of the genome-editing and cell therapy fields may make it difficult to evaluate our technologies and product candidates as well as to predict our future performance. Our short history as an operating company makes any assessment of our future success or viability subject to significant uncertainty. We will encounter risks and difficulties, known and unknown, that are frequently experienced by early-stage companies in rapidly evolving fields. As we advance our product candidates, we must transition from a company with a research focus to a company capable of supporting clinical development and, if successful, commercial activities. We may not be successful in such transitions. If we do not address these risks successfully, our business will suffer. Similarly, we expect that our financial condition and operating results may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. As a result, you should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual period as an indicator of future operating performance.

Risks Relating to Our Business, Government Regulation, Technology, and Industry

We are early in our development efforts and it will be many years before we commercialize a product candidate, if ever. If we are unable to advance our product candidates through clinical trials, obtain regulatory approval, and ultimately commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We are early in the development of our cell therapy product candidates and have focused our research and development efforts to date on various CRISPR genome-editing technologies, including our chRDNA genome-editing technology, as well as identifying our initial CAR-T cell product candidates. Our future success depends heavily on the successful development of our product candidates. Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will be a result of the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. Our product candidates may have adverse side effects or fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy. Additionally, our product candidates may have other characteristics that may make them impractical or prohibitively expensive for large-scale manufacturing. Furthermore, our product candidates may not receive regulatory approval or, if they do, they may not be accepted by the medical community or patients or may not be competitive with other products that become available. We currently have no product revenue and we may never be able to successfully develop or commercialize a marketable product.

We must submit IND applications to the FDA to initiate clinical trials in the United States. In September 2020, we announced that the FDA had cleared our IND application for our first product candidate, CB-010. The filing of future IND applications for our other product candidates is subject to additional preclinical research, research-scale and clinical-scale manufacturing, exploration of possible other genome-editing systems, evaluation of potential targets, and other factors yet to be identified. In the case of our CB-012 product, we will need to identify and select our Cas12a chRDNA guides with acceptable accuracy and efficiency. In addition, commencing any new clinical trial is subject to review by the FDA based on the acceptability and sufficiency of our chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (“CMC”), and preclinical information provided to support our IND applications. If the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities require us to complete additional preclinical studies or we are required to satisfy other requests for additional data or information, our clinical trials may be delayed. Even after we receive and incorporate guidance from the FDA or foreign

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regulatory authorities, these regulatory authorities could disagree that we have satisfied all requirements to initiate our clinical trials or they may change their position on the acceptability of our trial design or the clinical endpoints selected. They could impose a clinical hold, which may require us to complete additional preclinical studies or clinical trials. The success of our product candidates will depend on several factors, including the following:

Our product candidates are cell therapies generated by novel CRISPR chRDNA genome-editing technologies, which make it difficult to predict the time and cost of developing these product candidates and obtaining regulatory approval. To date, no other products that use these genome-editing technologies have advanced into clinical trials or received marketing approval in the United States.

We are concentrating our initial research, development, and manufacturing efforts on our allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies that are intended to treat patients with certain cancers. Before obtaining regulatory approval for the commercial sale of any of our product candidates, we must demonstrate through lengthy, complex, and expensive preclinical studies and clinical trials that our product candidates are both safe and effective for their intended use. The clinical trial requirements of the FDA and other regulatory authorities, and the criteria these regulators use to determine the safety and efficacy of a product candidate, vary substantially according to the type, complexity, novelty, intended use, and target population of our product candidates. The outcome of preclinical studies and clinical trials is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the preclinical study and clinical trial processes

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and because we have never successfully commercialized a product and our first product candidate is in an early stage of clinical development, there is a high risk of failure. We may never succeed in developing marketable products.

Approval processes by the FDA or other regulatory authorities for existing autologous anti-CD19 and anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapies may not be indicative of what these regulatory authorities will require for approval of our allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy or our other product candidates. Also, although we expect reduced variability in our allogeneic products candidates compared to autologous products, we do not have any clinical data supporting benefits of lower variability, and the use of healthy donor material may create separate variability challenges for us. Moreover, our product candidates may not perform successfully in clinical trials or may be associated with serious adverse events that distinguish them from the autologous anti-CD19 and anti-BCMA CAR-T therapies that have previously been approved. For instance, allogeneic product candidates may result in GvHD, which is not experienced with autologous products. GvHD results when allogeneic T cells see the patient’s normal tissue as foreign and attack and damage those cells. Even if we collect promising initial clinical data for our product candidates, longer-term data may reveal adverse events or responses that are not durable. Negative clinical outcomes would significantly impact our business.

In addition, approved autologous CAR-T therapies and those under development have shown frequent rates of cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity, serious infections, prolonged cytopenia, hypogammaglobulinemia, and other serious adverse events that have resulted in patient death. There may be similar adverse events for our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates, including patient death. Moreover, patients eligible for allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies but ineligible for autologous CAR-T cell therapies due to aggressive cancer or an inability to wait for autologous CAR-T cell therapies may be at greater risk for complications and death from therapy. Our allogeneic CAR-T cell product candidates may also cause unique adverse events related to the differences between the donor and patients, such as GvHD or infusion reactions. Our product candidates may not be successful in limiting the risk of GvHD, exhaustion of the CAR-T cells, or premature rejection by a patient’s immune system. If significant GvHD or other serious adverse events are observed with the administration of our product candidates, or if any of our product candidates are viewed as less safe or effective than autologous therapies or other allogeneic therapies, our ability to develop other allogeneic therapies may be adversely affected.

We use our CRISPR chRDNA genome-editing platform to generate our product candidates, and we believe our chRDNA guides significantly improve the specificity of CRISPR genome editing (e.g., by reducing the number of off-target events). CRISPR genome editing generally is relatively new; to date, no genome-editing technologies have been approved in the United States although clinical trials of product candidates based on CRISPR-Cas9 and other genome-editing technologies are underway. As a result, the regulatory approval process for cell therapy product candidates such as ours is uncertain and may be more expensive and take longer than the approval process for product candidates based on better known or more extensively studied technologies. As such, it is difficult to accurately predict the developmental challenges we may face as we progress our product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials. There may be long-term adverse effects from treatment with our product candidates resulting from the use of our chRDNA genome-editing technology that we cannot predict with the knowledge we have today. Also, animal models may not exist for some of the diseases we choose to pursue in our programs, which may complicate and increase the cost of preclinical research. As a result of these factors, it is difficult for us to predict the time and cost of our product candidate development, and we cannot predict whether the application of our chRDNA genome-editing technology, or other genome-editing technologies we may use in the future, will result in the identification, development, preclinical studies, and clinical trials to support regulatory approval of any of our cell therapy product candidates. There can be no assurance that any development problems we experience in the future related to our chRDNA genome-editing technology or any of our research programs will not cause significant delays or unanticipated costs, or that such development problems can be solved. We may not achieve the desired safety and efficacy of our product candidates. Also, we may not sufficiently improve genome-editing specificity and our genome editing may have off-target events. Moreover, we may not be able to achieve a high degree of on-target gene knockout and insertion efficiency in developing our product candidates. Although we plan to disclose initial clinical data from the ANTLER clinical trial for our CB-010 product candidate in 2022, any of these factors may prevent us from completing our clinical trials, delay or cause us to fail to meet our clinical trial endpoints, or lead us to fail to commercialize any of our cell therapy product candidates.

We may also experience delays in developing robust, reproducible, and scalable manufacturing processes and transferring those processes to CMOs, which may prevent us from completing our clinical trials or commercializing our products on a timely or profitable basis, if at all. Currently, we have only manufactured our CB-010 product candidate for clinical trials. In addition, since we are in the early stages of clinical development, we do not know the doses to be used in later phase 2 or pivotal trials needed to evaluate the efficacy of our product candidates, which will affect the manufacturing requirements for our product candidates. Finding a suitable dose, such as a maximum tolerated dose or, as applicable, a recommended phase 2 dose, for our cell therapy product candidates may delay our anticipated clinical development timelines and prolong our clinical trials. Accordingly, our expectations regarding our costs of manufacturing may vary significantly as we develop our product candidates and understand these critical factors. Such factors may delay or keep us from bringing a product candidate to market and could decrease our ability to generate sufficient product revenue, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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Manufacturing of our product candidates is complex and we could experience manufacturing problems during our clinical trials, which could delay or limit commercialization of our product candidates.

The manufacturing processes used to produce our cell therapy product candidates are and will be complex, as our product candidates are novel products and, to date, only our CB-010 product candidate has been manufactured according to cGMPs. Several factors could cause production interruptions including facility contaminations; shortages or quality problems; contamination of healthy donor cells, chRDNA guides, Cas proteins, viruses, iPSC master cell banks or working cell banks; natural disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic; labor shortages and strikes; lack of experienced scientific, quality control, and manufacturing personnel; human error; or other disruptions in the operations of our suppliers and CMOs. We conduct process development activities at our facilities and we may experience personnel and supply shortages. Problems with our manufacturing process, even minor deviations from the normal process, could result in product defects or manufacturing failures that result in lot failures, product recalls, product liability claims, or insufficient inventory. We may encounter problems achieving adequate quantities and quality of clinical grade materials that meet FDA or other applicable standards or specifications with consistent and acceptable production yields and costs.

As our product candidates proceed through preclinical studies to clinical trials to regulatory review, and potential marketing approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of our manufacturing methods will be altered along the way to optimize processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that intended objectives will not be achieved. If we make any such changes, our product candidates could perform differently and affect the results of clinical trials conducted with the altered materials. Such changes may also require additional testing as well as notification to or approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which could delay completion of our clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials, require repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidates, if any, and ultimately jeopardize commercialization.

If we receive marketing approval for a product candidate, the FDA and other regulatory authorities may require us to submit samples of any lot of any approved product together with the protocols showing the results of applicable tests at any time. Under some circumstances, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may require that we not distribute a lot until the relevant agency authorizes its release. Slight deviations in the manufacturing process, including those affecting quality attributes and stability, may result in unacceptable changes in the product that could result in lot failures or product recalls. Problems in our manufacturing processes could restrict our ability to meet market demand for our products. All these factors could be costly to us and otherwise harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Our business is highly dependent on the success of our product candidates, which will require significant additional preclinical studies and and/or human clinical trials before we can seek regulatory approval and potentially commercialize our product candidates. If we are unable to advance our preclinical studies and clinical trials and obtain regulatory approval for, and successfully commercialize, our lead product candidates for the treatment of patients in approved indications, or if we are significantly delayed in doing so, our business will be significantly harmed.

Our business and future success depends on our ability to advance our product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain regulatory approval for, and successfully commercialize, our product candidates. Because CB-010 is our first allogeneic cell therapy product to be evaluated in the clinic, the failure of our lead product candidate, or the failure of other companies’ allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapies, including for reasons due to safety, efficacy, or durability, may impede our ability to develop not only CB-010 but our other CAR-T and CAR-NK product candidates as well, and may significantly influence physicians’ and regulatory authorities’ opinions with regard to the viability of our entire pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies. In order to submit IND applications for our other product candidates, we will need to complete many objectives, such as our preclinical research of product candidates still in discovery and advancement of cGMP conditions for our product candidates. If we are unable to achieve any of these objectives, we may not be able to submit other IND applications in a timely manner or at all, which would significantly harm our business.

We may not be successful in our efforts to identify and successfully research and develop additional product candidates and may expend our limited resources to pursue particular product candidates or indications while failing to capitalize on other product candidates or indications that may be more profitable, or for which there is a greater likelihood of commercial success.

Part of our business strategy involves identifying and developing new cell therapy product candidates. The process by which we identify product candidates may fail to yield successful product candidates for a number of reasons, including:

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We have limited financial and managerial resources. We are focused initially on allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies and, as a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to timely capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing, or other royalty arrangements when it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to that product candidate.

If we experience delays or difficulties enrolling patients in the clinical trials for our product candidates, including our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial for our CB-010 product candidate, our ability to advance our lead and other product candidates through clinical development and the regulatory process could be delayed or prevented.

The timely completion of clinical trials depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. We may encounter delays in enrolling or be unable to enroll a sufficient number of patients to complete any of our clinical trials and, even if patients are enrolled, they may withdraw from our clinical trials before completion. For our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial, we have entered into a contract with a clinical research organization (“CRO”), as well as clinical trial agreements with the sites participating in our clinical trial. Patient selection and enrollment may be challenging. Our clinical protocol excludes many non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients from the ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial, including patients previously treated with anti-CD19-targeted therapy or allogeneic stem cell transplantation, patients with active or chronic GvHD requiring therapy, or patients unwilling to follow extended safety monitoring.

Our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial, as well as any future clinical trials for our other product candidates, will compete for enrollment of patients with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same cell therapeutic areas with the same or similar study populations as our product candidates. Our clinical trials will also compete for enrollment of patients with other clinical trials for product candidates based on non-cellular modalities, such as small molecules and antibodies, that are intended for the same or similar study populations as our product candidates. This competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us because some patients who might opt to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Additionally, since the number of qualified and experienced clinical investigators for therapeutic areas is limited, some of our clinical trial sites may be also conducting clinical trials for some of our competitors, which may reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials at that clinical trial site. Moreover, because our product candidates represent a departure from more commonly used methods for cancer treatment, potential patients and their doctors may be inclined to use conventional therapies, such as chemotherapy, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, or autologous CAR-T cell therapies, rather than refer patients to our clinical trials. Because our cell therapy product candidates are edited with CRISPR chRDNA guides, our products may be perceived to have additional or greater safety risks. Patients eligible for allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies but ineligible for autologous CAR-T cell therapies may be difficult to treat due to advanced and aggressive cancers and may fail to experience improved outcomes and be at greater risk for complications and death from our product candidates. If patients are unwilling to participate in our cell therapy trials, the timeline for recruiting patients, conducting clinical trials, and obtaining regulatory approval of any of our product candidates may be delayed.

In addition, the enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:

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Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for any product candidates we may develop, which may cause our stock price to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing. If we have difficulty enrolling a sufficient number of patients to conduct our clinical trials as planned, we may need to delay, limit, or terminate our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial or future clinical trials, and postpone or forgo seeking marketing approval, any of which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Clinical trials are expensive, time consuming, and subject to uncertainty. We cannot guarantee that any of our clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. Issues may arise that could suspend or terminate our clinical trials. A failure of one or more of our clinical trials may occur at any stage of testing, and our future clinical trials may not be successful.

Events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include:

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If (i) we are required to extend the duration of any clinical trials or to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or other testing of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate; (ii) we are unable to successfully complete preclinical studies or clinical trials of our product candidates or other testing; (iii) the results of these trials, studies, or tests are negative or produce inconclusive results; (iv) there are safety concerns; or (v) we determine that the observed safety or efficacy profile would not be competitive in the marketplace, we may:

Our clinical trials may fail to adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of any of our product candidates and the development of our product candidates may be delayed or unsuccessful, which could prevent or delay regulatory approval and commercialization.

Our product candidates are in various stages of preclinical and clinical development. If we encounter safety or efficacy problems in our ongoing or future studies, our developmental plans and business could be significantly harmed. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety profiles and efficacy results despite having progressed through initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Based upon negative or inconclusive results, we may decide, or regulatory agencies may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or preclinical studies.

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In addition, data obtained from clinical trials are susceptible to varying interpretations, and regulatory agencies may not interpret our data as favorably as we do, which may delay, limit, or prevent regulatory approval.

In addition, the design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of our product candidates, and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not be apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. We have limited experience designing clinical trials and may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial that will support regulatory approval.

From time to time, we may publish initial, interim, or preliminary data from our clinical trials. Initial, interim, or preliminary data from clinical trials are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations, and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully evaluate all data at the time of publishing initial, interim, or preliminary data. These data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the data we previously published. As a result, initial, interim, and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Moreover, initial, interim, and preliminary data are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as more patient data become available when patients mature on study, patient enrollment continues, or, for final data, as other ongoing or future clinical trials with a product candidate further develop. Past results of clinical trials may not be predictive of future results. Unfavorable differences between initial, interim, or preliminary data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects and may cause the trading price of our common stock to decline significantly.

Because of these risks, our product candidates may fail or encounter difficulties in clinical trials. If we are unable to advance our product candidates through clinical trials to seek marketing approval, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects will be materially harmed.

If our product candidates cause serious adverse events or undesirable side effects, including injury and death, or have other properties that could delay or prevent regulatory approval, their commercial potential may be limited or extinguished.

Product candidates we develop may be associated with undesirable or unacceptable side effects, unexpected characteristics, or other serious adverse events, including death. Immunotherapy, and its method of action of harnessing the immune system, is powerful and could lead to serious side effects that we only discover in clinical trials. In addition to potential serious adverse events from the immune system or side effects caused by our CB-010 product, or any product candidate we may develop and advance into one or more clinical trials, the product candidate administration process and related procedures may also cause undesirable side effects. Patients who enroll in our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial, and future clinical trials, will undergo a lymphodepletion regimen, including administration of fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, which can lead to serious adverse events. Because these regimens will cause a transient and sometimes prolonged blood count suppression, patients will have an increased risk of leukopenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia bleeding, or infection, which could ultimately lead to death. We expect to educate clinical site personnel administering our cell therapy product candidates to understand the side effect profiles for our product candidates. Inadequate recognition or management of the potential side effects of our product candidates could result in patient injury or death. If any undesirable or unacceptable side effects, unexpected characteristics, or other serious adverse events occur, our clinical trials could be suspended or terminated, and our business and reputation could suffer substantial harm.

There can be no assurance that we will resolve any adverse event related to any of our products to the satisfaction of the FDA or any regulatory agency in a timely manner or at all. If in the future we are unable to demonstrate that such adverse events were caused by factors other than our product candidates, the FDA or other regulatory authorities could order us to cease further clinical trials of, or deny approval of, our product candidates. Even if we demonstrate that such serious adverse events are not product candidate-related, such occurrences could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete our clinical trials. Moreover, if we elect, or are required, to delay, suspend, or terminate any clinical trial of any of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of such product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate product revenues from these product candidates may be delayed or eliminated. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

The FDA or other regulatory agencies may disagree with our regulatory plans and we may fail to obtain regulatory approval of our cell therapy product candidates.

If and when our ANTLER phase 1 clinical trial for our CB-010 product candidate is completed and, assuming positive data, we will propose to advance to a pivotal clinical trial. Although the FDA has found substantial evidence to support approval outside of the traditional phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 framework for the approved autologous anti-CD19 and anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapies, the general approach for FDA approval of a new biologic is for the sponsor to provide dispositive data from at least two adequate and well-controlled clinical trials of the relevant biologic in the applicable patient population. Such clinical trials typically involve hundreds of patients, have significant costs, and take years to complete. We do not have agreement or guidance from the FDA that our

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regulatory development plans will be sufficient for submission of a BLA. For example, the FDA may require that we conduct a comparative trial against an approved therapy, such as an approved autologous CAR-T cell therapy, which would significantly delay our development timelines and require substantially more resources. In addition, the FDA may limit our evaluation to patients who have failed or who are ineligible for autologous therapy, patients who may be difficult to treat, or patients with advanced and aggressive cancer, and our product candidates may fail to improve outcomes for those patients.

In addition, the standard of care may change with the approval of new products in the same indications to which our cell therapy product candidates are directed. This may result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities requesting additional studies to show that our product candidate is comparable or superior to the new products.

Our clinical trial results may also not support marketing approval. In addition, our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including:

Even if we comply with all FDA requests, we may still fail to obtain regulatory approval. We cannot be sure that we will ever obtain regulatory clearance for our product candidates. Failure to obtain FDA approval of our product candidates will severely undermine our business by leaving us without a commercially marketable product in the United States, and therefore without any source of revenues from product sales in the United States, until another product candidate can be developed or obtained and ultimately approved.

Even if we complete the necessary preclinical studies and clinical trials, the regulatory approval process is expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain, and we may be unable to obtain the regulatory approvals necessary for the commercialization of our product candidates; furthermore, if there are delays in obtaining regulatory approvals, we may not be able to commercialize our products, may lose competitive lead time, and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired.

The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the United States and in other jurisdictions, is expensive, may take many years, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity, and novelty of the product candidates involved. It is impossible to predict if or when any of our product candidates will prove to be safe and effective in humans or if we will receive regulatory approval for such product candidates. The risk of failure through the development process is high. Any product candidates we may develop, and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their manufacture, preclinical and clinical development, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, advertising, promotion, sale, and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities.

Failure to obtain marketing approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate in a given jurisdiction. We have not received approval or authorization to market any product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction and it is possible that none of our product candidates or any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain marketing approval or commercialization. We have not previously submitted a BLA to the FDA or made a similar submission to any foreign regulatory authority. A BLA must include extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to establish our product candidate’s safety and efficacy for each desired indication. The BLA must also include significant information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls for our product. Any product candidates we develop may not be effective; may

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be only moderately effective; or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use. The FDA and other regulatory authorities have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept our BLA applications and decide that our data are insufficient and require additional preclinical studies or clinical trials. The same may happen with review of our product candidates by foreign regulatory authorities. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical studies and clinical trials could delay, limit, or prevent marketing approval of our product candidates. Any marketing approval we ultimately obtain may be limited or subject to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render our approved product not commercially viable. If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of any product candidates we may develop, the commercial prospects for those product candidates and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired and we may lose competitive lead time as similar products enter the market.

We expect the novel nature of our product candidates to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory approval. For example, the FDA has limited experience with the development of allogeneic T cell and NK cell therapies for cancer. We may also request regulatory approval of future CAR-T or CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates by target, regardless of cancer type or origin, which the FDA may have difficulty accepting if our clinical trials have only involved cancers of certain types or origins. The FDA may also require a panel of experts, referred to as an Advisory Committee, to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data. The opinion of an Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our ability to obtain marketing approval of our product candidates based on our completed clinical trials, as the FDA often adheres to an Advisory Committee’s recommendations. Accordingly, the regulatory approval pathway for our product candidates may be uncertain, complex, expensive, and lengthy, and approval may not be obtained.

The regulatory landscape that will govern our product candidates is uncertain; regulations relating to more established gene therapy and cell therapy products are still developing, and changes in regulatory requirements could result in delays or discontinuation of development of our product candidates or unexpected costs in obtaining regulatory approval.

Because we are developing novel CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates that are unique biological entities, the regulatory requirements to which we will be subject are not entirely clear. Even with respect to more established products that fit into the categories of gene therapies or cell therapies, the regulatory landscape is still developing. For example, regulatory requirements governing gene therapy products and cell therapy products have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. Moreover, there is substantial, and sometimes uncoordinated, overlap in those responsible for regulation of existing gene therapy products and cell therapy products. Gene therapy clinical trials are also subject to additional review and oversight by an IBC. Although the FDA decides whether individual gene therapy protocols may proceed, review processes and determinations of other reviewing bodies can impede or delay the initiation of a clinical trial, even if the FDA has reviewed the study and cleared its initiation. Conversely, the FDA can place an IND application on clinical hold even if such other entities have provided a favorable review.

We may apply for Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation, Breakthrough Therapy Designation, and Fast Track Designation review by the FDA for some, if not all, of our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies, but there are no assurances that we will receive any of these designations or that the FDA will grant priority review to any of our product candidates.

We may apply for certain expedited programs in the United States, such as RMAT, breakthrough therapy, fast track, or priority review programs. Although obtaining each of these designations has specific and different criteria, they are reserved for therapeutic products that are intended for serious diseases, and each designation offers certain benefits to prioritize the review and approval of such therapeutic option, which may include rolling reviews, intensive guidance, or approval based on surrogate endpoint or an intermediate clinical endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a drug’s clinical benefit. However, there is no assurance that we will be able to obtain such a designation, if any, for any of our product candidates. Even if we obtain an expedited designation, we may ultimately fail to obtain FDA’s full approval for our product candidates, or the approved indication may be narrower than the indication covered by the designation.

We may seek orphan drug designation for some or all of our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates across various indications, but we may not be able to obtain such designations or to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug designation, including market exclusivity, which may cause our revenue, if any, to be reduced.

We plan to submit applications to FDA for orphan drug designation for some or all our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates in specific orphan indications in which there is a medically plausible basis for the use of these products. There is no guarantee that we will obtain such a designation, and the FDA may decline our request if it determines that our product candidates and the proposed indications do not meet the threshold for the orphan drug designation. Even if we obtain orphan drug designation, we may not be the first company to obtain FDA approval for the orphan drug indication, in which case exclusive marketing rights would not be available to us. In addition, exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be limited if we seek approval for an indication broader than the orphan designated indication and may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request

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for designation was materially defective, we are unable to ensure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition, or if a subsequent applicant demonstrates clinical superiority over our products.

Our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates will be regulated as biological products, or biologics, and therefore may be subject to uncertainty regarding regulatory exclusivity or maintaining regulatory approval.

Under the BPCIA, the FDA has the authority to review and approve biosimilar biologics, including the possible designation of a biosimilar as “interchangeable” based on its similarity to an approved biologic. An application for a biosimilar product cannot be approved by the FDA until 12 years after the reference product was approved under a BLA. We believe that our product candidates should qualify for the 12-year period of exclusivity. However, some uncertainty over interpretation of the law remains, and there is a risk that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider our product candidates to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for biosimilar competition sooner than anticipated. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of the reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for drug products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing.

Even if we obtain marketing approvals for our product candidates, the terms of such approvals and ongoing regulation of our products could require substantial expenditure of resources and may limit how we manufacture and market our products, which could materially impair our ability to generate revenues. Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval could be subject to restrictions or withdrawal from the market, and we may be subject to substantial penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products, when and if any of them are approved.

Even if we receive marketing approval for a product candidate, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval or contain requirements for costly post-marketing testing and studies to further assess the safety or efficacy of the product. The FDA also may place other conditions on our approval, including the requirement for a REMS to ensure the safe use of the product by reinforcing medication use behaviors and actions. If the FDA concludes a REMS is needed, we must submit a proposed REMS before our product candidate will be eligible to receive marketing approval. A REMS could include medication guides, physician communication plans, or other elements to ensure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries, and other risk minimization tools. Certain REMS programs can significantly impact and restrict the marketability of our products, even if our products are approved.

The FDA’s policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit, or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we are slow to address or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, and ability to achieve or sustain profitability. Any government investigation of alleged violations of law, including investigations of any of our suppliers or CMOs, could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. Accordingly, we will need to continue to expend time, money, and effort on regulatory compliance activities. If we are not able to comply with post-approval regulatory requirements, we could have the marketing approval for our products withdrawn by regulatory authorities and our ability to market any product candidates could be limited, which could adversely affect our ability to achieve or sustain profitability. Furthermore, the cost of compliance with post-approval regulations, including REMS, may have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

The FDA and other regulatory authorities closely regulate the post-approval marketing and promotion of biologics to ensure that they are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA and other regulatory authorities impose stringent restrictions on off-label promotion, and if we market our products for unapproved indications, including off-label indications, we may be subject to enforcement action for off-label marketing by the FDA and other federal and state enforcement agencies, including the DOJ. Violation of the FDCA and other statutes, including the federal False Claims Act, relating to the promotion and advertising of prescription products, may also lead to investigations or allegations of violations of federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and state consumer protection laws.

In addition, later discovery of previously unknown problems with our products or the manufacturing of our products, may cause:

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Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity and adversely affect our reputation. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize any product candidates we develop and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

We may never obtain approval to commercialize our product candidates outside the United States, which could limit our ability to recognize the full market potential of our product candidates and could materially impair our ability to generate revenues.

In order to market and sell any of our product candidates in the EU or other foreign jurisdictions, we must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies among countries and jurisdictions and can involve additional testing. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the United States generally includes all the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries, it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. We may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the United States on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. The failure to obtain approval in one jurisdiction may negatively impact our ability to obtain approval elsewhere. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our product candidates in multiple jurisdictions, which could materially impair our ability to generate revenue.

Following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU in 2020 (commonly referred to as “Brexit”), the EU and United Kingdom entered into the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which was entered into force permanently on May 1, 2021. The agreement provides details on how some aspects of the United Kingdom and the EU’s relationship regarding pharmaceutical products will operate; however, there are still many uncertainties. Since the regulatory framework in the United Kingdom covering pharmaceutical products is derived from EU directives and regulations, Brexit could materially impact the future regulatory requirements for product candidates and products in the United Kingdom as there is now potential for the UK regulations to diverge from the EU regulations. In the meantime, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the “MHRA”), the medicines and medical devices regulator in the United Kingdom, has published detailed guidance for industry and organizations to follow as of January 1, 2021, which is updated as necessary. Any delay in obtaining, or an inability to obtain, any marketing approvals, as a result of Brexit or otherwise, may force us to restrict or delay efforts to seek regulatory approval in the United Kingdom for our product candidates, which could harm our business.

Negative public opinion and increased regulatory scrutiny of genetic research and therapies involving genome editing may damage public perception of our product candidates generated through genome editing or adversely affect our ability to conduct our business or obtain regulatory approvals for our product candidates.

The CRISPR chRDNA genome-editing technologies that we use are novel. Public perception may be influenced by claims that genome editing is unsafe, and therapeutic products generated through genome editing may not gain the acceptance of the public or the medical community. In particular, our success will depend upon physicians specializing in our targeted diseases prescribing our product candidates, if approved for marketing, as treatments in lieu of, or in addition to, existing, more familiar treatments for which greater clinical data may be available. Any increase in negative perceptions of genome editing may result in fewer physicians prescribing our treatments or may reduce the willingness of patients to accept our products. In addition, given the novel nature of genome-edited and CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies, governments may place import, export, or other restrictions in order to retain

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control or limit the use of such technologies. Increased negative public opinion or more restrictive government regulations, either in the United States or internationally, could have a negative effect on our business or financial condition and may delay or impair the commercialization of our product candidates or demand for such products.

In particular, genome-editing technology is subject to public debate and heightened regulatory scrutiny due to ethical concerns relating to the potential application of genome-editing technology to human embryos or the human germline. We do not apply genome-editing technologies to human embryos or the human germline. In April 2016, a group of scientists reported on their attempts to edit the genome of human embryos to modify the gene for hemoglobin beta. This is the gene in which a mutation occurs in patients with the inherited blood disorder beta thalassemia. Although this research was purposefully conducted in embryos that were not viable, the work prompted calls for a moratorium or other types of restrictions on genome editing of human eggs, sperm, and embryos. Additionally, in November 2018, He Jiankui, Ph.D., a biophysics researcher who was an associate professor in the Department of Biology of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, reportedly claimed he had created the first human genome-edited babies, twin girls. This claim, and another that Dr. He had helped create a second genome-edited pregnancy, was subsequently confirmed by Chinese authorities and was negatively received by the public, in particular by those in the scientific community. News reports indicate that Dr. He was sentenced to three years in prison and reportedly fined $430,000 in December 2019 by the Chinese government for illegal medical practice in connection with such activities. In the wake of the claim, the World Health Organization established a new advisory committee to create global governance and oversight standards for human genome editing. The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine in Washington, D.C., of which we are a member, has called for a voluntary moratorium on the use of genome-editing technologies, including CRISPR, in research that involves altering human embryos or human germline cells and has also released a bioethical framework of principles for the use of genome editing in therapeutic applications endorsed by a number of companies that use genome-editing technologies. Similarly, the NIH has announced that it would not fund any use of genome-editing technologies in human embryos, noting that there are multiple existing legislative and regulatory prohibitions against such work, including the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which prohibits the use of appropriated funds for the creation of human embryos for research purposes or for research in which human embryos are destroyed.

Although we do not use our CRISPR chRDNA genome-editing technologies to edit human embryos or the human germline, such public debate about the use of genome-editing technologies in human embryos and heightened regulatory scrutiny could prevent or delay our development of our product candidates and, if approved, the market acceptance of our products. More restrictive government regulations or negative public opinion would have a negative effect on our business or financial condition. Adverse events in our clinical trials or those of our competitors or of academic researchers utilizing genome-editing technologies, even if not ultimately attributable to product candidates we may identify and develop, and the resulting publicity, could result in increased governmental regulation, unfavorable public perception, potential regulatory delays in the testing or approval of our product candidates, stricter labeling requirements for those product candidates that are approved, and a decrease in demand for any such product candidates.

We currently have no marketing and sales organization and as a company have no experience in marketing products. If we are unable to establish marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may not be able to generate product revenue.

To achieve commercial success for any approved product for which we retain sales and marketing responsibilities, we must develop and build a sales and marketing team or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. There are risks involved with both establishing our own sales and marketing capabilities and entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time consuming and could delay our product launch. We will have to compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train, and retain marketing and sales personnel. If the commercial launch of our product for which we have recruited a sales force and established marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses, which may be costly and our investment will be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.

Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our products on our own include:

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If we are unable or decide not to establish internal sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities, we will need to enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales, marketing, and distribution services. In such cases, our product revenue or the profitability to us from these revenue streams is likely to be lower than if we were to market and sell any product candidates that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates or may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us. We likely will have little control over those third parties and they may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our product candidates effectively. If we do not establish sales and marketing capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects will be materially adversely affected.

Our products may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, hospitals, cancer treatment centers, and others in the medical community.

The use of CAR-T and CAR-NK cells as potential cancer treatments is a recent development and may not become broadly accepted by physicians, patients, hospitals, cancer treatment centers, and others in the medical community. Ethical, social, and legal concerns about genome editing could result in the development of additional regulations restricting or prohibiting our products. Even with the requisite approvals from the FDA and other regulatory authorities internationally, the commercial success of our product candidates will depend, in significant part, on the acceptance of physicians, patients, and healthcare payors of products generated through genome editing in general, and our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates in particular, as medically necessary, cost-effective, safe, and effective therapies. We expect physicians in the large bone marrow transplant centers to be particularly important to the market acceptance of our CB-010, CB-011, and CB-012 product candidates and we may not be able to adequately educate them on the benefits and risks associated with the use of our product candidates to address concerns and foster acceptance, for many reasons. For example, certain of the product candidates that we may develop target a cell surface marker that may be present on cancer cells as well as non-cancerous cells. It is possible that our product candidates may kill these non-cancerous cells, which may result in unacceptable side effects, including death.

Additional factors will influence whether our product candidates are accepted in the market, including:

If our product candidates are approved but fail to achieve market acceptance among physicians, patients, hospitals, cancer treatment centers, or others in the medical community, we will not be able to generate significant revenue. Even if our products achieve market acceptance, we may not be able to maintain that market acceptance over time if new cell therapy products,

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genome-editing technologies, or other therapeutic approaches are introduced that are more favorably received than our products, are more cost effective, or render our products obsolete.

The market opportunities for our product candidates may be smaller than we currently believe and limited to those patients who are ineligible for or have failed prior treatment, which may adversely affect our business. Because the target patient populations of our product candidates are small, we must be able to successfully identify patients and capture a significant market share to achieve profitability and growth.

Our projections of both the number of patients who have the cancers we are targeting, as well as the subset of patients with these cancers in a position to receive second or later lines of therapy and who have the potential to benefit from treatment with our product candidates, are based on our beliefs and estimates. New studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these cancers. The number of eligible patients may turn out to be lower than we expected. Additionally, the potentially addressable patient population for our product candidates may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with our product candidates. Given the small number of patients who have the eligibility criteria and diseases that we are targeting, it is critical to our ability to become profitable that we successfully identify such patients. The effort to identify patients with diseases we seek to treat is in early stages, and we cannot accurately predict the number of patients for whom treatment might be possible. Additionally, the potentially addressable patient population for each of our product candidates may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with our product candidates, and new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Even if we obtain significant market share for our product candidates, because the potential target populations are small, we may never achieve profitability without obtaining regulatory approval for additional indications.

Even if we are able to commercialize our product candidates, such products may be subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices, or healthcare reform initiatives, which could harm our business.

The regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing, and reimbursement for new biologic products vary widely from country to country. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a product before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing approval is granted. In some non-U.S. markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial marketing approval is granted. As a result, we might obtain marketing approval for our product candidates in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay our commercial launch of such product candidates, possibly for lengthy time periods, and such delays would negatively impact the revenues we are able to generate from the sale of our product candidates in that country. Pricing limitations may hinder our ability to recoup our investment in one or more product candidates, even if any product candidates we may develop obtain marketing approval.

Because our product candidates represent new approaches to the treatment of cancer, we cannot accurately estimate the potential revenue from our product candidates. Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any of our products for which we obtain regulatory approval. Additionally, reimbursement coverage may be more limited than the indications for which our products are approved. The marketability of our products may suffer if government and other third-party payors fail to provide coverage and adequate reimbursement. Furthermore, coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more of our product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.

Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement does not imply that our product candidates will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that will cover our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale, and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new products, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of our product candidate and the clinical setting in which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost products, and may be incorporated into existing payments for other services. Net prices for our product candidates may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of products from countries where our product candidates may be sold at lower prices than in the United States.

Third-party payors, whether domestic or foreign, governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs. In both the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes to healthcare systems that could impact our ability to sell our product candidates, if approved, profitably. There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the federal and state levels directed at broadening the availability of, and containing or lowering the cost of, healthcare. The implementation of cost containment measures that third-party payors and healthcare providers are instituting and any other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate, or may reduce, our revenues from the sale of our product candidates, if approved, and our product candidates may not be profitable. Such reforms could have an adverse effect on anticipated revenue from product candidates for which we may obtain regulatory approval and may affect our overall financial condition and ability to develop product candidates. Even if our product candidates are successful in clinical trials and receive marketing approval, we cannot provide any assurances that we will be able to obtain and maintain third-party payor coverage or adequate reimbursement for our product candidates in whole or in part.

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Enacted and future healthcare legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain approval of and commercialize our product candidates and could adversely affect our business.

The Affordable Care Act brought significant changes to the way healthcare is financed by both the government and private insurers, and significantly impacted the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, including expanding the list of covered entities eligible to participate in the 340B drug pricing program and establishing a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program. We expect that these and other healthcare reform measures in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and lower reimbursement, and in addition, exert downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government-funded programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may hinder us in generating revenue, attaining profitability, or commercializing our cell therapy products once, and if, marketing approval is obtained.

In the EU, coverage and reimbursement status of any product candidates for which we obtain regulatory approval are provided for by the national laws of EU member states. The requirements may differ across the EU member states. In markets outside the United States and the EU, reimbursement and healthcare payment systems vary significantly by country, and many countries have instituted price ceilings or other price controls on specific products and therapies.

We cannot predict the likelihood, nature, or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action in the United States, the EU, or any other jurisdiction. If we or any third parties we may engage are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we or those third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our product candidates may lose any regulatory approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, which may result in other companies developing or commercializing products before, or more successfully than, we do, thus rendering our product candidates non-competitive or reducing the size of our market. Our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.

The biopharmaceutical industry, and the genome-editing, cell therapy, and immuno-oncology industries specifically, is characterized by intense competition and rapid innovation. Our potential competitors include major multi-national pharmaceutical companies, established biotechnology companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, and universities and other research institutions. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources, such as larger research and development staffs, established manufacturing capabilities and facilities, and experienced marketing organizations with well-established sales forces. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies that have greater resources. Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated on our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of genome editing or other new technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment for participation in clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our development programs. In addition, due to the intense research and development taking place in the genome-editing field, including by us and our competitors, the intellectual property landscape is in flux and highly competitive. There may be significant intellectual property-related litigation and proceedings relating to our owned and in-licensed, and other third-party, intellectual property rights in the future. Our commercial opportunities could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient to administer, have broader acceptance and higher rates of reimbursement by third-party payors, or are less expensive than any product candidates that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Additionally, genome-editing technologies developed by our competitors may render our product candidates uneconomical or obsolete, and we may not be successful in marketing any product candidates we may develop against competitor products. The key competitive factors affecting the success of our product candidates are likely to be their efficacy, safety, and availability of reimbursement.

Our focus is on the development of cell therapies using our chRDNA genome-editing technology. We are aware of several companies focused on developing therapies for various indications using CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing technology including CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Editas Medicine, Inc., and Intellia. In addition, several academic groups have developed new genome-editing technologies based on CRISPR-Cas9, such as base editing and prime editing, as well as alternative CRISPR systems, which may have utility in therapeutic development. We believe companies such as Beam Therapeutics Inc., Metagenomi Technologies, LLC, Prime Medicine, Inc., and Scribe Therapeutics, Inc. are developing alternative CRISPR systems. Multiple academic labs and companies have also published on other CRISPR-associated nuclease variants that can edit human DNA. There are also companies developing therapies using non-CRISPR genome-editing technologies, such as transcription activator-like effector nucleases,

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meganucleases, and zinc finger nucleases. These companies include bluebird bio, Inc., Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., Cellectis S.A., Precision BioSciences, Inc., and Sangamo Therapeutics. In addition to competition from other genome-edited therapies or gene or cell therapies, any product we may develop may also face competition from other types of therapies, such as small molecule, antibody, or protein therapies.

Our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy product candidates face significant competition from multiple companies, including Allogene, Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc., Cellectis, Celyad Oncology SA, CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Fate Therapeutics, Inc., Poseida Therapeutics, Inc., Precision BioSciences, and Sangamo Therapeutics. There are over 200 preclinical- and clinical-stage autologous and allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR-T programs, some of which will be competitive with our CB-010 product candidate, and over 90 preclinical- and clinical-stage autologous and allogeneic anti-BCMA CAR-T programs, some of which will be competitive with our CB-011 product candidate. Additionally, other companies are developing allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies for AML.

To become and remain profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize product candidates with significant market potential, which will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities. These activities may include completing preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates; obtaining marketing and reimbursement approval for these product candidates; manufacturing, marketing, and selling those products that are approved; and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in any or all these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability. If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business, or continue our operations. A decline in the price of our common stock also could cause stockholders to lose all or part of their investments.

Our business operations and current and future relationships with clinical site investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, patient organizations, and customers will be subject to applicable healthcare regulatory laws, which could expose us to penalties.

Our business operations and current and future arrangements with clinical site investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, patient organizations, and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations. These laws may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we market, sell, and distribute our product candidates, if approved. Such laws include, but are not limited to, the U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute, U.S. civil and criminal false claims laws, the U.S. federal Beneficiary Inducement Statute, HIPAA, and state and local laws and regulations. Some of these laws may apply differently to, and may have different requirements for, and effects on, our business, rendering compliance complex and possibly burdensome. We cannot predict how future changes to these laws may impact our business.

Ensuring that our internal operations and future business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices, including our relationships with physicians and other healthcare providers, may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance, or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental laws and regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including civil, criminal, and administrative penalties; damages; fines; exclusion from government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid or similar programs in other jurisdictions; integrity oversight and reporting obligations to resolve allegations of non-compliance; disgorgement; individual imprisonment; contractual damages; reputational harm; diminished profits; and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found to not be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil, or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government-funded healthcare programs and imprisonment, which could affect our ability to operate our business. Furthermore, defending against any these actions can be costly, time-consuming, and may require significant personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any actions that may be brought against us, our business may be impaired.

Our business activities will be subject to U.S. export control licensing requirements, as well as other U.S. and foreign trade regulations, sanctions laws, anti-corruption laws, and anti-money laundering laws and regulations including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

We develop product candidates that may be subject to U.S. export control licensing requirements and foreign investment regulations. Export licensing policies vary, and we may be unable to collaborate with certain countries or, if our product candidates receive regulatory approval, make sales to certain customers as a result of applicable license requirements. We also may incur increased compliance program costs in connection with U.S. export controls, and the availability of future investments from certain countries may be limited as a result of the controlled nature of our product candidates.

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If we expand our business internationally or collaborate globally, we will be required to make investments in compliance programs related to U.S. international trade laws, including the FCPA and similar anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws, regulations, and rules of other countries in which we may choose to operate. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly.

Our business is heavily regulated and therefore involves significant interaction with public officials, including, potentially in the future, officials of non-United States governments. Additionally, in many other countries, the healthcare providers who prescribe pharmaceuticals are employed by their government, and the purchasers of pharmaceuticals are government entities; therefore, if our product candidates receive regulatory approval, our dealings with these prescribers and purchasers will be subject to regulation under the FCPA. We may engage third parties to sell our product candidates outside the United States if we receive regulatory approval in such jurisdictions for our product candidates. We may also have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities, and other organizations. The SEC and the DOJ have increased their FCPA enforcement activities with respect to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. For these reasons, we may be required to expend resources related to training and compliance under FCPA and other anti-corruption laws. There is no certainty that all our employees, suppliers, CMOs, CROs, or other third parties providing services to us will comply with all applicable laws and regulations, particularly given the high level of complexity of these laws. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, agents, contractors, and other collaborators, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of these activities.

If we have international activities in the future, we may be required to invest in compliance programs and resources related to U.S. import and export regulations, anti-money laundering laws, and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls.

Violations of these international trade laws and regulations could result in fines; criminal sanctions against us, our management, or other employees; the closing down of facilities, including those of our suppliers and CMOs; requirements to obtain export licenses; cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries; implementation of compliance programs; and prohibitions on the conduct of our business. Any such violations could include prohibitions on our ability to seek regulatory approval for our product candidates and, if such approval is received, to sell our products in one or more jurisdictions. This could materially damage our reputation, our ability to attract and retain employees, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

We face potential liability related to the privacy of health information we may obtain from the patients in our clinical trials.

Most healthcare providers are subject to privacy and security regulations promulgated under HIPAA, as amended by HITECH. We are not currently classified as a covered entity or business associate under HIPAA and thus are not subject to its requirements or penalties. However, any person may be prosecuted under HIPAA’s criminal provisions either directly or under aiding-and-abetting or conspiracy principles. Co