As confidentially submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 4, 2018.

This draft registration statement has not been filed publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission and all information contained herein remains confidential.

Registration No. 333-            

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

Gritstone Oncology, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

5858 Horton Street, Suite 210

Emeryville, California 94608

(510) 871-6100

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of Registrant’s principal executive offices)

Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D.

President and Chief Executive Officer

Gritstone Oncology, Inc.

5858 Horton Street, Suite 210

Emeryville, California 94608

(510) 871-6100

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Copies to:

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Registration Statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting 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 to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☒

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell nor does it seek an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION. DATED                     , 2018

             Shares

Common Stock

This is an initial public offering of shares of common stock of Gritstone Oncology, Inc. We are offering                  shares of our common stock.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for the common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price per share will be between $        and $        .

We intend to apply to list our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “GRTS.”

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings.

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. See the section titled “Risk Factors” beginning on page 12 to read about factors you should consider before buying shares of our common stock.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities, or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

To the extent that the underwriters sell more than              shares of common stock, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional              shares from us at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on                     , 2018.

Prospectus dated                     , 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Through and including                 , 2018 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers that effect transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to the dealers’ obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.

Neither we nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide you with information that is different from that contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus we may authorize to be delivered or made available to you. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters are offering to sell shares of common stock and seeking offers to buy shares of common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front of this prospectus, or other earlier date stated in this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any sale of shares of our common stock.

No action is being taken in any jurisdiction outside the United States to permit a public offering of our common stock or possession or distribution of this prospectus in that jurisdiction. Persons who come into possession of this prospectus in jurisdictions outside the United States are required to inform themselves about and to observe any restrictions as to this offering and the distribution of this prospectus applicable to that jurisdiction.

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Gritstone Oncology™, Gritstone™, EDGE™, GRANITE^TM and our logo are some of our trademarks and service marks used in this prospectus. This prospectus also includes trademarks, tradenames and service marks that are the property of other organizations. Solely for convenience, our trademarks, service marks and tradenames referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ^® and ™ symbol, but those references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights, or the right of the applicable licensor to these trademarks, service marks and tradenames.

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this prospectus, including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” before deciding whether to invest in our common stock. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, prospects and stock price. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.

Risks Related to Our Limited Operating History, Financial Condition and Capital Requirements

We are an early-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history and no products approved for commercial sale. We have incurred significant losses since our inception, and we anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, which, together with our limited operating history, makes it difficult to assess our future viability.

Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. We are an early-stage biopharmaceutical company, and we have only a limited operating history upon which you can evaluate our business and prospects. We have no products approved for commercial sale, have not generated any revenue from product sales and have incurred losses in each year since our inception in August 2015. In addition, we have limited experience and have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully overcome many of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving fields, particularly in the biopharmaceutical industry. We have only recently completed Investigational New Drug application, or IND, enabling studies of our first personalized cancer immunotherapy candidate, GRANITE-001, and have not yet initiated any clinical trials.

We have had significant operating losses since our inception. Our net losses for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017 were approximately $18.8 million and $41.4 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $61.6 million. Substantially all of our losses have resulted from expenses incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. GRANITE-001 will require substantial additional development time and resources before we would be able to apply for or receive regulatory approvals and begin generating revenue from product sales. In addition, upon the completion of this offering we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We also do not yet have a sales organization or commercial infrastructure and, accordingly, we will incur significant expenses to develop a sales organization or commercial infrastructure in advance of generating any commercial product sales. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we anticipate these losses will increase as we continue to develop GRANITE-001 and any future product candidates, conduct clinical trials and pursue research and development activities. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital.

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We will require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, could force us to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development programs, commercialization efforts or other operations.

Since our inception, we have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in research and development activities for our initial product candidate, GRANITE-001, and working to establish our in-house manufacturing capabilities. Preclinical studies and clinical trials and additional research and development activities will require substantial funds to complete. As of December 31, 2017, we had capital resources consisting of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $86.0 million. We believe that we will continue to expend substantial resources for the foreseeable future in connection with the development of GRANITE-001 and any other future cancer immunotherapy candidates we may choose to pursue, as well as the continued development of our manufacturing capabilities and other corporate uses. Specifically, in the near term, we expect to incur substantial expenses as we advance GRANITE-001 through clinical development, seek regulatory approval, prepare for and, if approved, proceed to commercialization, continue our research and development efforts and invest in our manufacturing facility. These expenditures will include costs associated with conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals, and manufacturing and supply, as well as marketing and selling any products approved for sale. In addition, other unanticipated costs may arise. Because the outcome of any preclinical study or clinical trial is highly uncertain, we cannot reasonably estimate the actual amounts necessary to successfully complete the development and commercialization of GRANITE-001 or any future immunotherapy product candidates.

We believe that the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, will allow us to fund our operating plan for at least              months following the date of this offering. However, our operating plans and other demands on our capital resources may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings or other sources, such as strategic collaborations. Such financing may result in dilution to stockholders, imposition of burdensome debt covenants and repayment obligations, or other restrictions that may affect our business. If we raise additional funds through licensing or collaboration arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. Attempting to secure additional financing may divert our management from our day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop our product candidates. In addition, we cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all.

Our future capital requirements depend on many factors, including:

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Additional funds may not be available when we need them, on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. If adequate funds are not available to us on a timely basis, we may be required to:

We also could be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborators or others that may require us to relinquish rights or jointly own some aspects of our technologies or product candidates that we would otherwise pursue on our own. We do not expect to realize revenue from sales of products or royalties from licensed products in the foreseeable future, if at all, and unless and until a product candidate is clinically tested, approved for commercialization and successfully marketed. To date, we have primarily financed our operations through the sale of equity securities. We will be required to seek additional funding in the future and currently intend to do so through collaborations, public or private equity offerings or debt financings, credit or loan facilities or a combination of one or more of these funding sources. Our ability to raise additional funds will depend on financial, economic and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. Additional funds may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will suffer dilution and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. In addition, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, rights superior to those of existing stockholders. Debt financing, if available, is likely to involve restrictive covenants limiting our flexibility in conducting future business activities, and, in the event of insolvency, debt holders would be repaid before holders of our equity securities received any distribution of our corporate assets.

Our recurring losses from operations and negative cash flows have raised substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern.

Our recurring losses from operations and negative cash flows raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. As a result, our independent registered public accounting firm included an explanatory paragraph in its report on our financial statements as of, and for the year

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ended, December 31, 2017. Our ability to continue as a going concern will require us to obtain additional financing to fund our operations. The perception of our ability to continue as a going concern may make it more difficult for us to obtain financing for the continuation of our operations and could result in the loss of confidence by investors, contract manufacturers and employees.

Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including:

The cumulative effects of these factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.

This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any forecasts we may provide to the market, or if the forecasts we provide to the market are below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated revenue or earnings guidance we may provide.

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Risks Related to Our Business

Our business is dependent on the successful development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our personalized immunotherapy product candidate, GRANITE-001, which is in the early stages of development and has not been tested in humans.

We have no products approved for sale and our initial product candidate, GRANITE-001, a personalized immunotherapy, has only recently completed IND-enabling studies and has not been tested in humans. As such, we face significant translational risk with GRANITE-001 specifically and our personalized immunotherapy approach generally. The success of our business, including our ability to finance our company and generate any revenue in the future, will primarily depend on the successful development, regulatory approval and commercialization of GRANITE-001, as well as other product candidates derived from our personalized cancer immunotherapy approach, which may never occur. In the future, we may also become dependent on other product candidates that we may develop or acquire; however, no product candidates based on our personalized immunotherapy approach have been tested in humans and given our early stage of development, it may be many years, if at all, before we have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of a personalized immunotherapy treatment sufficient to warrant approval for commercialization.

We have not previously submitted a biologics license application, or BLA, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, or similar regulatory approval filings to comparable foreign authorities, for any product candidate, and we cannot be certain that our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Further, GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical trials. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market a product candidate, our revenue will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights. If the markets or patient subsets that we are targeting are not as significant as we estimate, we may not generate significant revenues from sales of such products, if approved.

We plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates both in the United States and in selected foreign countries. While the scope of regulatory approval generally is similar in other countries, in order to obtain separate regulatory approval in other countries we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety and efficacy. Other countries also have their own regulations governing, among other things, clinical trials and commercial sales, as well as pricing and distribution of our product candidates, and we may be required to expend significant resources to obtain regulatory approval and to comply with ongoing regulations in these jurisdictions.

The clinical and commercial success of our current and any future product candidates will depend on a number of factors, including the following:

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These factors, many of which are beyond our control, could cause us to experience significant delays or an inability to obtain regulatory approvals or commercialize our current or future product candidates. Even if regulatory approvals are obtained, we may never be able to successfully commercialize any product candidates. Accordingly, we cannot provide assurances that we will be able to generate sufficient revenue through the sale of our product candidate or any future product candidates to continue our business or achieve profitability.

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Our personalized cancer immunotherapy approach is based on novel ideas and technologies that are unproven and may not result in marketable products, which exposes us to unforeseen risks and makes it difficult for us to predict the time and cost of product development and potential for regulatory approval.

We are using our proprietary EDGE tumor-antigen prediction platform to develop personalized immunotherapy product candidates to treat cancer. Our foundational science and product development approach are based on our ability to predict the presence of a patient’s tumor-specific neoantigens, or TSNA, and develop a TSNA-directed therapy that will elicit a meaningful T cell response. We believe that this approach may offer an improved therapeutic effect by driving an intense, focused T cell attack selectively upon a patient’s tumor. However, this approach to treating cancer is novel and the scientific research that forms the basis of our efforts to predict the presence of TSNA and to develop TSNA-directed cancer immunotherapy candidates is both preliminary and limited. Our initial personalized cancer immunotherapy candidate, GRANITE-001, has not yet been tested in humans, and the results of our preclinical animal studies may not translate into humans. For example, our prediction model may fail to accurately predict the presence of TSNA, resulting in little or no T cell activity, or our therapy may fail to elicit a significant or durable enough T cell response to effectively destroy a tumor. As such, we cannot assure you that that even if we are able to develop personalized cancer immunotherapy candidates capable of recognizing TSNA and eliciting a T cell response, that such therapy would safely and effectively treat cancers. We may spend substantial funds attempting to develop this approach and never succeed in developing a marketable therapeutic.

No regulatory authority has granted approval for a personalized cancer immunotherapy based on a heterologous prime-boost approach. As such, we believe the FDA has limited experience with evaluating our approach, which may increase the complexity, uncertainty and length of the regulatory approval process for our product candidates. We may never receive approval to market and commercialize any product candidate. Even if we obtain regulatory approval, the approval may be for targets, disease indications, lines of therapy or patient populations that are not as broad as we intended or desired or may require labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings. We may be required to perform additional or unanticipated clinical trials to obtain approval or be subject to post-marketing testing requirements to maintain regulatory approval. If our personalized immunotherapy candidates prove to be ineffective, unsafe or commercially unviable, our entire technology platform and pipeline would have little, if any, value, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Results of earlier studies and trials of GRANITE-001 and any future product candidates may not be predictive of future trial results.

Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure or delay can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Success in preclinical studies and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful. A number of companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials, even after positive results in earlier preclinical studies or clinical trials. These setbacks have been caused by, among other things, preclinical findings made while clinical trials were underway and safety or efficacy observations made in clinical trials, including previously unreported adverse events. Notwithstanding any potential promising results in earlier studies and trials, we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. Even if our clinical trials are completed, the results may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates. In addition, the results of our preclinical animal studies, including our non-human primate studies, may not be predictive of the results of outcomes in human clinical trials. For example, our personalized cancer immunotherapy candidate and any future product candidates may demonstrate different chemical, biological and

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pharmacological properties in patients than they do in laboratory studies or may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen or harmful ways. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired pharmacological properties or safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. Even if we are able to initiate and complete clinical trials, the results may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

Clinical development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and delays can occur for a variety of reasons outside of our control.

Clinical development is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Although we have completed IND-enabling studies, and we expect to file an IND with the FDA and initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the second half of 2018, we may experience delays in obtaining the FDA’s authorization to initiate clinical studies under such anticipated IND, or in initiating or completing our planned studies and trials of GRANITE-001. Additionally, we cannot be certain that studies or trials for GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates will begin on time, not require redesign, enroll an adequate number of subjects on time or be completed on schedule, if at all. Clinical trials can be delayed or terminated for a variety of reasons, including delays or failures related to:

We may experience numerous adverse or unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical studies and clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates, including:

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If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our product candidates or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only moderately positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:

We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, or DSMB, for such trial or by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. Such authorities may suspend or terminate a clinical trial due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.

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Further, conducting clinical trials in foreign countries, as we may do for certain of our product candidates, presents additional risks that may delay completion of our clinical trials. These risks include the failure of enrolled patients in foreign countries to adhere to clinical protocol as a result of differences in healthcare services or cultural customs, managing additional administrative burdens associated with foreign regulatory schemes, as well as political and economic risks relevant to such foreign countries.

Principal investigators for our clinical trials may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and may receive cash or equity compensation in connection with such services. If these relationships and any related compensation result in perceived or actual conflicts of interest, or a regulatory authority concludes that the financial relationship may have affected the interpretation of the trial, the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site may be questioned and the utility of the clinical trial itself may be jeopardized, which could result in the delay or rejection of the marketing application we submit. Any such delay or rejection could prevent or delay us from commercializing our current or future product candidates.

If any of our preclinical studies or clinical trials of our product candidates are delayed or terminated, the commercial prospects of our product candidates may be harmed, and our ability to generate revenues from any of these product candidates will be delayed or not realized at all. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical trials may increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenues. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. If GRANITE-001, any future product candidates or our TSNA prediction platform generally prove to be ineffective, unsafe or commercially unviable, our entire platform and approach would have little, if any, value, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

As a result of our planned trial design, the Phase 1 portion of our planned Phase 1/2 clinical trial will provide little evidence of the efficacy of our personalized immunotherapy product candidate, GRANITE-001.

Scientific principles and preclinical data suggest that combination treatment of cancer patients with our TSNA-directed immunotherapy product candidate plus checkpoint inhibitors is likely to be most effective for our target indications. The Phase 1 portion of our Phase 1/2 clinical trial, GO-004, will, consequently, involve administration of a combination therapy with GRANITE-001. Notably, all patients in the Phase 1 portion will receive anti-PD-(L)1 monoclonal antibodies, or mAb, as background therapy. Some patients will additionally receive anti-CTLA-4 mAb. Checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-(L)1 and anti-CTLA-4 mAb are known to be effective treatments in many cancer patients and elicit objective responses in some patients. Any objective responses observed in Phase 1 will thus be in patients receiving our experimental therapy together with a checkpoint inhibitor and attribution of objective responses to the effects of GRANITE-001 alone will not be possible. We expect that efficacy will be studied carefully in the Phase 2 cohorts where the relative contributions of our personalized immunotherapy candidate and the checkpoint inhibitor will be dissected and quantified to some degree. As a result, the Phase 1 portion of our planned Phase 1/2 clinical trial will provide little evidence of the efficacy of GRANITE-001, which may not be fully understood by investors or market participants, potentially leading to negative effects on our stock price.

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We may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates under applicable regulatory requirements. The denial or delay of any such approval would delay commercialization of our product candidates and adversely impact our potential to generate revenue, our business and our results of operations.

To gain approval to market GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates, we must provide the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities with clinical data that adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the product candidate for the intended indication applied for in the applicable regulatory filing. Product development is a long, expensive and uncertain process, and delay or failure can occur at any stage of any of our clinical development programs. A number of companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials, even after promising results in earlier preclinical or clinical trials. These setbacks have been caused by, among other things, preclinical findings made while clinical studies were underway and safety or efficacy observations made in clinical trials, including previously unreported adverse events. Success in preclinical testing and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful, and the results of clinical trials by other parties may not be indicative of the results in trials we may conduct.

We have not previously submitted a BLA or any other marketing application to the FDA or similar filings to comparable foreign regulatory authorities. A BLA or other similar regulatory filing requesting approval to market a product candidate must include extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to establish that the product candidate is safe, pure and potent for each desired indication. The BLA or other similar regulatory filing must also include significant information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing and controls for the product.

The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale, marketing and distribution of biologic products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries, and such regulations differ from country to country. We are not permitted to market our product candidates in the United States or in any foreign countries until they receive the requisite approval from the applicable regulatory authorities of such jurisdictions.

The FDA or any foreign regulatory bodies can delay, limit or deny approval of our product candidates for many reasons, including:

Of the large number of biopharmaceutical products in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA or other regulatory bodies’ approval processes and are commercialized.

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Even if we eventually complete clinical testing and receive approval from the FDA or applicable foreign agencies for any of our product candidates, the FDA or the applicable foreign regulatory agency may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly additional clinical trials which may be required after approval. The FDA or the applicable foreign regulatory agency also may approve our lead product candidate for a more limited indication or a narrower patient population than we originally requested, and the FDA, or applicable foreign regulatory agency, may not approve our product candidates with the labeling that we believe is necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of such product candidates.

Any delay in obtaining, or inability to obtain, applicable regulatory approval would delay or prevent commercialization of our product candidates and would materially adversely impact our business and prospects.

We have chosen to prioritize development of personalized immunotherapy candidates. We may expend our limited resources on candidates or indications that do not yield a successful product and fail to capitalize on other product candidates or indications, including “off-the-shelf” therapies, for which there may be a greater likelihood of success or may be more profitable.

We are currently developing our personalized cancer immunotherapy candidate based on the prediction of a patient’s TSNA, in order to address a variety of cancers, including metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, and gastroesophageal, bladder and colorectal cancers. We have strategically determined to initially focus solely on the development of personalized cancer immunotherapy candidates rather than pursue other types of immunotherapies based, in part, on the significant resources required to develop and manufacture immunotherapies. As a result, we may initially be foregoing other potentially more profitable therapies or those with a greater likelihood of success, including “off-the-shelf” therapies.

Our decisions concerning the allocation of research, development, collaboration, management and financial resources toward particular product candidates or therapeutic areas may not lead to the development of any viable commercial product and may divert resources away from better opportunities. Similarly, our potential decisions to delay, terminate or collaborate with third parties in respect of certain programs may subsequently also prove to be suboptimal and could cause us to miss valuable opportunities. If we make incorrect determinations regarding the viability or market potential of any of our programs or product candidates or misread trends in the oncology or biopharmaceutical industry, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. As a result, we may fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities, be required to forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or other diseases and disease pathways that may later prove to have greater commercial potential than those we choose to pursue, or relinquish valuable rights to such product candidates through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been advantageous for us to invest additional resources to retain development and commercialization rights.

In order for our personalized immunotherapy candidates to be commercially viable, they must be utilized in early-stages of cancer treatment given the time required to manufacture the personalized therapy.

Cancer therapies are sometimes characterized as first line, second line or third line, and the FDA often approves new systemic therapies initially only for third line use. When cancer is detected early enough, surgery plus first-line systemic therapy is sometimes adequate to cure the cancer. Whenever first-line therapy, usually chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiotherapy, surgery or a combination of these, proves unsuccessful, second line therapy may be administered. Second-line therapies often

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consist of more chemotherapy, radiation, antibody drugs, tumor targeted small molecules or a combination of these. Third-line therapies can include bone marrow transplantation, antibody and small molecule targeted therapies and new technologies such as adoptive cell therapies.

Traditionally, novel therapeutics are developed and approved in late (third) line therapy of cancer patients. Such clinical programs carry risk of failure because patients are often quite frail, with effects of multiple rounds of prior therapy weakening bone marrow, immune systems and general fitness. Immunotherapy, such as checkpoint inhibitors, has generally been shown to be more effective when used in earlier lines of therapy, with prospect of very durable responses in some patients and there is a trend towards earlier use of these agents, avoiding in particular cytotoxic chemotherapy agents which carry substantial toxicity and very little prospect of long-term responses. Personalized immunotherapy product candidates such as GRANITE-001 are expected to be developed in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and can, in principle, be safely used in early lines of therapy. Our clinical development program will thus aim to study our products in early lines of cancer treatment, which carry a higher safety bar, and often a greater expectation of efficacy in control arms. Such studies may thus be relatively large and slow to achieve maturity. There are new tools available to stratify cancer patients for risk of recurrence or progression, such as liquid biopsies that measure the amount of circulating tumor-derived DNA. We will utilize these tools to attempt to expedite clinical trials in early-stage cancer patients by focusing upon patients at above-average risk of disease recurrence or progression, which events are typical endpoints in clinical trials. The development of liquid biopsies is at an early stage, however, and these tools may prove to carry low utility and thus render early-stage cancer trials slow, necessarily large and expensive. The safety of our product candidates in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in early lines of therapy may also prove to be unacceptable.

We expect to seek approval of our product candidates both as late-line therapy where appropriate, but also as a first line therapy wherever possible and potentially as a second-line therapy. There is no guarantee that our product candidates, even if approved in late-line therapy, would be approved for second-line or first-line therapy. In addition, we may have to conduct additional clinical trials prior to gaining approval for second-line or first-line therapy.

Our personalized immunotherapy product candidate will initially take approximately 16-20 weeks to be manufactured and released for human use, and this long timeline demands that either patients are consented and entered into our trials when they start a prior line of therapy, and start our therapy upon disease progression, or we initiate treatment in patients who have entered the maintenance phase of their original line of treatment. For example, we might enroll newly diagnosed patients who are due to receive front-line chemotherapy and then start their therapy with our immunotherapy product candidate as second-line treatment when they progress upon front-line chemotherapy or fail to tolerate it. This carries the risk of time delays or drop-out, i.e. patients may not progress after first-line chemotherapy for a long time, or they may decide not to receive an immunotherapy product candidate we have manufactured for them, at our expense. Alternatively we may treat first-line patients once they have completed their initial treatment and have not progressed (called maintenance therapy)—this renders efficacy harder to interpret versus simple treatment studies (any objective response cannot clearly be attributed to our products) and may be complicated by standard of care treatments which may necessarily be continued alongside our immunotherapy candidates, further confounding interpretation of efficacy.

Our projections of both the number of people who have the cancers we are targeting, as well as the subset of people with these cancers in a position to receive third-line therapy and who have the potential to benefit from treatment with our product candidates, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations, and market research and may prove to be incorrect. Regulatory authorities also may establish narrower definitions around when a patient is ineligible for other treatments than we

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have used in our projections, and that would reduce the size of the patient population eligible for our product candidates. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these cancers. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than 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. For instance, we anticipate that only a fraction of colorectal cancer patients will be predicted to have a high enough probability of TSNA presence to merit their inclusion into our program. 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, including use as a first-line or second-line therapy.

We may not be successful in our efforts to create a pipeline of immunotherapy candidates or to develop commercially successful products. If we fail to successfully develop additional product candidates, our commercial opportunity may be limited.

We are committed to developing personalized cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types and are currently advancing multiple product candidates to address a variety of cancers, including metastatic NSCLC and colorectal, gastroesophageal and bladder cancers. Utilizing our EDGE platform, we believe we can develop multiple therapeutic classes of products that will generate a T cell immune response unleashing the natural power of the immune system on the tumor cells. However, one or more of these alternative therapeutic products may never be successfully validated in a human. In addition, identifying, developing, obtaining regulatory approval for and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cancer will require substantial additional funding beyond the net proceeds of this offering and is prone to the risks of failure inherent in therapeutic product development. Research programs to identify product candidates also require substantial technical, financial and human resources, regardless of whether or not any product candidates are ultimately identified, and even if our research programs initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, they may fail to yield product candidates for clinical development.

We therefore cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to successfully identify additional product candidates, advance any of these additional product candidates through the development process, successfully commercialize any such additional product candidates, if approved, or assemble sufficient resources to identify, acquire, develop or, if approved, commercialize additional product candidates. If we are unable to successfully identify, acquire, develop and commercialize additional product candidates, our commercial opportunity may be limited.

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

The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the study until its conclusion. We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical trials for a variety of reasons. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:

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In addition, our clinical trials may compete with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us, because some patients who might have opted to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we may conduct some of our clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in such clinical trial site.

Further, the targeting of TSNA may result in unforeseen events, including harming healthy tissues in humans. As a result, it is possible that safety concerns could negatively affect patient enrollment among the patient populations that we intend to treat. Delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our product candidates.

GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

As with most biological products, use of our product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events which can vary in severity from minor reactions to death and in frequency from infrequent to prevalent. Undesirable side effects or unacceptable toxicities caused by our product candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities. While we have not yet initiated clinical trials for GRANITE-001, it is likely that there will be side effects associated with its use. Results of our trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of these or other side effects.

If unacceptable side effects arise in the development of our product candidates, we, the FDA, the IRBs at the institutions in which our studies are conducted, or the DSMB could suspend or terminate our clinical trials or the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease clinical trials or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete any of our clinical trials or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. We expect to have to train medical personnel using our product candidates to understand the side effect profiles for our clinical trials and upon any commercialization of any of our product candidates. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of our product candidates could result in patient injury or death. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

In addition, even if we successfully advance GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates into and through clinical trials, such trials will likely only include a limited number of subjects and limited duration of exposure to our product candidates. As a result, we cannot be assured that adverse effects of our product candidates will not be uncovered when a significantly larger number of patients are exposed to the product candidate. Further, any clinical trials may not be sufficient to determine the effect and safety consequences of taking our product candidates over a multi-year period.

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If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by such products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

Any of the foregoing events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular product candidate, if approved, and result in the loss of significant revenues to us, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations and business. In addition, if one or more of our product candidates or our TSNA-directed immunotherapy approach generally prove to be unsafe, our entire technology platform and pipeline could be affected, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Even if GRANITE-001 or any future product candidate obtains regulatory approval, they may fail to achieve the broad degree of physician and patient adoption and use necessary for commercial success.

Even if GRANITE-001 or any future product candidate receives FDA or other regulatory approvals, the commercial success of any of our current or future product candidates will depend significantly on the broad adoption and use of the resulting product by physicians and patients for approved indications. For a variety of reasons, including among other things, competitive factors, pricing or physician preference, reimbursement by insurers, the degree and rate of physician and patient adoption of our current or future product candidates, if approved, will depend on a number of factors, including:

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We cannot assure you that our current or future product candidates, if approved, will achieve broad market acceptance among physicians and patients. Any failure by our product candidates that obtain regulatory approval to achieve market acceptance or commercial success would adversely affect our results of operations.

We currently manufacture a portion of our initial product candidate internally and rely on qualified third parties to supply components of our initial product candidate. Our inability to manufacture sufficient quantities of GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates, or the loss of our third-party suppliers, or our or their failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or to supply sufficient quantities at acceptable quality levels or prices, or at all, would materially and adversely affect our business.

Manufacturing is a vital component of our personalized immunotherapy approach and we have invested significantly in our manufacturing facility. To ensure timely and consistent product supply assurance to our patients we currently use a hybrid product supply approach whereby certain elements of our initial product candidate are manufactured internally at our manufacturing facilities in Pleasanton, California, and other elements are manufactured at qualified third-party contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs. All internal and third party contract manufacturing is performed under current cGMP guidelines. In the future, we plan to internalize a majority of the manufacturing steps in the supply chain to optimize cost and production time, as well as establish full control over intellectual property and product quality. To do so, we will need to scale up our manufacturing operations, as we do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture all supplies needed for our product candidates or the materials necessary to produce our product candidates for use in the conduct of our preclinical studies or clinical trials, and we currently lack the internal resources and the capability to manufacture certain elements of our product candidates on a clinical scale. Accordingly, we will be required to make significant investments in our manufacturing facility and processing in the future, and our efforts to scale our manufacturing operations may not succeed.

In addition, our facilities and the facilities used by our CMOs to manufacture our product candidates are subject to various regulatory requirements and may be subject to the inspection of the FDA or other regulatory authorities. We do not control the manufacturing process at our CMOs, and

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are completely dependent on them for compliance with current regulatory requirements. If we or our CMOs cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions, we may not be able to rely on our or their manufacturing facilities for the manufacture of elements of our product candidates. In addition, we have limited control over the ability of our CMOs to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority finds our facilities or those of our CMOs inadequate for the manufacture of our product candidates or if such facilities are subject to enforcement action in the future or are otherwise inadequate, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates.

Additionally, we and our CMOs may experience manufacturing difficulties due to resource constraints or as a result of labor disputes or unstable political environments. If we or our CMOs were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide our product candidate to patients in clinical trials, or to provide product for the treatment of patients once approved, would be jeopardized.

GRANITE-001 is a biologic with complex and time-consuming manufacturing processes and we may encounter difficulties in production, particularly with respect to process development or scaling-out of our manufacturing capabilities. If we or any of our third-party manufacturers encounter such difficulties, our ability to provide supply of our product candidates for clinical trials or our products for patients, if approved, could be delayed or stopped, or we may be unable to maintain a commercially viable cost structure.

Our personalized immunotherapy product candidate is considered to be a biologic and the manufacturing processes is complex, time-consuming, highly-regulated and subject to multiple risks. The manufacture of our product candidates involves extraction of genetic material from patient tumor samples, genetic manipulations at the gene sequence level, live cell culture operations, specialized formulations and aseptic fill finish operations. As a result of these complexities, the cost to manufacture biologics in general, and our personalized immunotherapy candidate, in particular, is generally higher than traditional small molecule chemical compounds, and the manufacturing process is less reliable and more difficult and time-consuming to reproduce. For example, the entire cGMP manufacturing process from biopsy receipt to the release and shipment of the personalized immunotherapy to the clinical site for patient administration will initially take approximately 16-20 weeks. In addition, our manufacturing process is in its early stages of development and will be susceptible to product loss or failure, or product variation that may adversely impact patient outcomes. Our supply chain may not function efficiently due to logistical issues associated with but not limited to the collection of a tumor biopsy from the patient, shipping such material to the manufacturing site, sequencing the biopsy specimen, manufacturing the immunotherapy components, shipping the final immunotherapy back to the patient, and injecting the patient with the immunotherapy. Manufacturing issues or different product characteristics resulting from process development activities or even minor deviations during normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, product defects and other supply disruptions. If for any reason we lose a patient’s biopsy or an in-process product at any point in the process, the manufacturing process for that patient will need to be restarted and the resulting delay may adversely affect that patient’s outcome. Because our product candidates are manufactured specifically for an individual patient, we will be required to maintain a chain of identity and chain of custody with respect to materials as they move from the patient to the manufacturing facility, through the manufacturing process, and back to the patient. Maintaining such a chain of identity and chain of custody is difficult and complex, and the failure to do so could result in adverse patient outcomes, loss of product or regulatory action including withdrawal of our products from the market, if licensed.

As part of our process development efforts, we also may make changes to our manufacturing processes at various points during development, for various reasons, such as controlling costs,

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achieving scale, decreasing processing time, increasing manufacturing success rate, or other reasons. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve their intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of our ongoing clinical trials or future clinical trials. In some circumstances, changes in the manufacturing process may require us to perform ex vivo comparability studies and to collect additional data from patients prior to undertaking more advanced clinical trials. For instance, changes in our process during the course of clinical development may require us to show the comparability of the product used in earlier clinical phases or at earlier portions of a trial to the product used in later clinical phases or later portions of the trial.

Furthermore, if microbial, viral or other contaminations are discovered in our supply of our product candidates or in our manufacturing facilities or those of our CMOs, such manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination. We cannot assure you that any such contaminations or stability failures or other issues relating to the manufacture of our product candidates will not occur in the future.

We depend on third-party suppliers for key materials used in our manufacturing processes, and the loss of these third-party suppliers or their inability to supply us with adequate materials could harm our business.

We rely on third-party suppliers for certain materials required for the production of our personalized immunotherapy candidate. Our dependence on these third-party suppliers and the challenges we may face in obtaining adequate supplies of materials involve several risks, including limited control over pricing, availability, quality and delivery schedules. As a small company, our negotiation leverage is limited and we are likely to get lower priority than our competitors that are larger than we are. We cannot be certain that our suppliers will continue to provide us with the quantities of these raw materials that we require or satisfy our anticipated specifications and quality requirements. Any supply interruption in limited or sole sourced raw materials could materially harm our ability to manufacture our product candidates until a new source of supply, if any, could be identified and qualified. We may be unable to find a sufficient alternative supply channel in a reasonable time or on commercially reasonable terms. Any performance failure on the part of our suppliers could delay the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates, including limiting supplies necessary for clinical trials and regulatory approvals, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

We rely on third parties in the conduct of all of our preclinical studies and intend to rely on third parties in the conduct of all of our future clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for GRANITE-001 or any future product candidates.

We currently do not have the ability to independently conduct preclinical studies that comply with the regulatory requirements known as good laboratory practice, or GLP, requirements. We also do not currently have the ability to independently conduct any clinical trials. The FDA and regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions require us to comply with regulations and standards, commonly referred to as good clinical practice, or GCP, requirements for conducting, monitoring, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials, in order to ensure that the data and results are scientifically credible and accurate and that the trial subjects are adequately informed of the potential risks of participating in clinical trials. We rely on medical institutions, clinical investigators, contract laboratories and other third parties, such as CROs, to conduct GLP-compliant preclinical studies and GCP-compliant clinical trials on our product candidates properly and on time. While we have agreements governing their activities, we control only certain aspects of their activities and have limited

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influence over their actual performance. The third parties with whom we contract for execution of our GLP-compliant preclinical studies and our GCP-compliant clinical trials play a significant role in the conduct of these studies and trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data. These third parties are not our employees and, except for restrictions imposed by our contracts with such third parties, we have limited ability to control the amount or timing of resources that they devote to our programs. Although we rely on these third parties to conduct our GLP-compliant preclinical studies and GCP-compliant clinical trials, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our GLP preclinical studies and clinical trials is conducted in accordance with its investigational plan and protocol and applicable laws and regulations, and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.

Many of the third parties with whom we contract may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other drug development activities that could harm our competitive position. Further, under certain circumstances, these third parties may terminate their agreements with us upon as little as 10 days’ prior written notice. Some of these agreements may also be terminated by such third parties under certain other circumstances, including our insolvency. If the third parties conducting our preclinical studies or our clinical trials do not adequately perform their contractual duties or obligations, experience significant business challenges, disruptions or failures, do not meet expected deadlines, terminate their agreements with us or need to be replaced, or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to their failure to adhere to our protocols or to GCPs, or for any other reason, we may need to enter into new arrangements with alternative third parties. This could be difficult, costly or impossible, and our preclinical studies or clinical trials may need to be extended, delayed, terminated or repeated. As a result, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval in a timely fashion, or at all, for the applicable product candidate, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed.

We face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological and scientific change, and we will face significant competition and our failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration. Most of our competitors have significantly greater resources than we do and we may not be able to successfully compete.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in particular are characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and a strong emphasis on developing proprietary therapeutics. We compete with a variety of multinational biopharmaceutical companies and specialized biotechnology companies, as well as technology being developed at universities and other research institutions. Our competitors have developed, are developing or will develop product candidates and processes competitive with our product candidates. Competitive therapeutic treatments include those that have already been approved and accepted by the medical community and any new treatments that enter the market. We believe that a significant number of product candidates are currently under development, and may become commercially available in the future, for the treatment of diseases and other conditions for which we may try to develop product candidates. There is intense and rapidly evolving competition in the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and antibody and immunoregulatory therapeutics fields. We believe that while our discovery platform, its associated intellectual property and our scientific and technical know-how give us a competitive advantage in this space, competition from many sources remains. Our competitors include larger and better funded biopharmaceutical, biotechnological and therapeutics companies. Moreover, we also compete with current and future therapeutics developed at universities and other research institutions.

Our success will partially depend on our ability to develop and protect therapeutics that are safer and more effective than competing products. Our commercial opportunity and success will be reduced

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or eliminated if competing products that are safer, more effective, or less expensive than the therapeutics we develop.

If our lead product candidate is approved, it will compete with a range of therapeutic treatments that are either in development or currently marketed. Indeed, a variety of oncology drugs and therapeutic biologics are on the market or in clinical development. Such marketed therapies range from immune checkpoint inhibitors such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s OPDIVO and YERVOY, Merck & Co., Inc.’s KEYTRUDA and Genentech, Inc.’s TECENTRIQ, and T cell engager immunotherapies such as Amgen, Inc.’s BLINCYTO. The most common therapeutic treatments for common solid tumors are chemotherapeutic compounds, radiation therapy, targeted therapies and now immunotherapies.

In addition, numerous compounds are in clinical development for cancer treatment. The clinical development pipeline for cancer includes small molecules, antibodies and immunotherapies from a variety of groups, including in the neoantigen space, the bispecific antibody space and engineered cell therapy and TCR space. Many of these companies are well-capitalized and, in contrast to us, have significant clinical experience.

Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, sales and supply resources or experience than we do. If we successfully obtain approval for any product candidate, we will face competition based on many different factors, including the safety and effectiveness of our products, the ease with which our products can be administered and the extent to which patients accept relatively new routes of administration, the timing and scope of regulatory approvals for these products, the availability and cost of manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities, price, reimbursement coverage and patent position. Competing products could present superior treatment alternatives, including by being more effective, safer, less expensive or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Competitive products may make any products we develop obsolete or noncompetitive before we recover the expense of developing and commercializing our product candidates. Such competitors could also recruit our employees, which could negatively impact our level of expertise and our ability to execute our business plan. For additional information regarding our competition, see the section of this prospectus captioned “Business—Competition.”

The successful commercialization of our product candidates will depend in part on the extent to which governmental authorities, private health insurers, and other third-party payors provide coverage, adequate reimbursement levels and implement pricing policies favorable for our product candidates. Failure to obtain or maintain coverage and adequate reimbursement for our product candidates, if approved, could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate revenue.

The availability of coverage and adequacy of reimbursement by managed care plans, governmental healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurers and other third-party payors are essential for most patients to be able to afford medical services and pharmaceutical products such as our product candidates that receive FDA approval. Our ability to achieve acceptable levels of coverage and reimbursement for our products or procedures using our products by third-party payors will have an effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates. Obtaining coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products may be particularly difficult because of the higher prices often associated with drugs administered under the supervision of a physician. Separate reimbursement for the product itself or the treatment or procedure in which our product is used may not be available. A decision by a third-party payor not to cover or separately reimburse for our products or procedures using our products, could reduce physician utilization of our products once approved. Assuming there is coverage for our product candidates, or procedures using our product candidates by a third-party payor, the resulting reimbursement payment

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rates may not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. We cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement in the United States, the European Union or elsewhere will be available for our product candidates or procedures using our product candidates, or any product that we may develop, and any reimbursement that may become available may not be adequate or may be decreased or eliminated in the future.

Third-party payors increasingly are challenging prices charged for pharmaceutical products and services, and many third-party payors may refuse to provide coverage and reimbursement for particular drugs or biologics when an equivalent generic drug, biosimilar or a less expensive therapy is available. It is possible that a third-party payor may consider our product candidates as substitutable and only offer to reimburse patients for the less expensive product. Even if we show improved efficacy or improved convenience of administration with our product candidates, pricing of existing third-party therapeutics may limit the amount we will be able to charge for our product candidates. These third-party payors may deny or revoke the reimbursement status of our product candidates, if approved, or establish prices for our product candidates at levels that are too low to enable us to realize an appropriate return on our investment. If reimbursement is not available or is available only at limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates, and may not be able to obtain a satisfactory financial return on our product candidates.

There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly-approved products, especially novel products like our personalized immunotherapy product candidate. No regulatory authority has granted approval for a personalized cancer immunotherapy based on a vaccine approach, and there is no model for reimbursement of this type of product. The Medicare and Medicaid programs increasingly are used as models in the United States for how private payors and other governmental payors develop their coverage and reimbursement policies for drugs and biologics. Some third-party payors may require pre-approval of coverage for new or innovative devices or drug therapies before they will reimburse healthcare providers who use such therapies. We cannot predict at this time what third-party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates.

No uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors in the United States. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that may require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our product candidates to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance. Furthermore, rules and regulations regarding reimbursement change frequently, in some cases on short notice, and we believe that changes in these rules and regulations are likely.

Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe and other countries have and will continue to put pressure on the pricing and usage of our product candidates. In many countries, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for medical products, but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for our product candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our product candidates may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially-reasonable revenue and profits.

Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors in the United States and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the

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level of reimbursement for newly approved products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed health care, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and biologics and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products.

If we are unable to support demand for our existing or future services, including ensuring that we have adequate capacity to meet increased demand, or we are unable to successfully manage the evolution of our EDGE platform, our business could suffer.

As the demand for our personalized immunotherapy candidate increases with our clinical trial needs, we will need to continue to increase our workflow capacity for sample intake and general process improvements, expand our internal quality assurance program, and extend our EDGE platform based on additional tumor data collected from our clinical trials at a larger scale within expected turnaround times. We will need additional certified laboratory scientists and technicians and other scientific and technical personnel to process higher volumes of tumor biopsies. Portions of our process are not automated and will require additional personnel to scale. We will also need to purchase additional equipment, some of which can take several months or more to procure, set up, and validate, and increase our software and computing capacity to meet increased volume. There is no assurance that any of these increases in scale, expansion of personnel, equipment, software and computing capacities, or process enhancements will be successfully implemented, or that we will have adequate space in our laboratory facilities to accommodate such required expansion.

As we progress into clinical development and expand our manufacturing capabilities, we will need to incorporate new equipment, implement new technology systems and laboratory processes, and hire new personnel with different qualifications. Failure to manage this growth or transition could result in turnaround time delays, higher service costs, declining service quality, deteriorating customer service, and slower responses to competitive challenges. A failure in any one of these areas could make it difficult for us to meet market expectations for our services, and could damage our reputation and the prospects for our business.

We currently have no sales organization. If we are unable to establish sales capabilities on our own or through third parties, we may not be able to market and sell our product candidates effectively in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, if approved, or generate product revenue.

We currently do not have a marketing or sales organization. In order to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, we must build our marketing, sales, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. If any of our product candidates receive regulatory approval, we expect to establish a sales organization with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize each such product candidate, which will be expensive and time consuming. We have no prior experience in the marketing, sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products and there are significant risks involved in building and managing a sales organization, including our ability to hire, retain, and incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel, and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of these products. We may choose to collaborate with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and

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distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. If we are unable to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. If we are not successful in commercializing our product candidates or any future product candidates, either on our own or through arrangements with one or more third parties, we may not be able to generate any future product revenue and we would incur significant additional losses.

We will need to increase the size of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing growth.

As of March 31, 2018, we had 88 full-time employees. We will need to continue to expand our managerial, operational, finance and other resources in order to manage our operations and clinical trials, continue our development activities and commercialize our lead product candidate or any future product candidates. Our management and personnel, systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Our need to effectively execute our growth strategy requires that we:

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

Our success depends in part on our continued ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified management, clinical and scientific personnel. We are highly dependent upon our senior management, particularly our President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as our senior scientists and other members of our senior management team. The loss of services of any of these individuals could delay or prevent the successful development of our products, initiation or completion of our planned clinical trials or the commercialization of our lead product candidate or any future product candidates.

Competition for qualified personnel in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical fields is intense due to the limited number of individuals who possess the skills and experience required by our industry. We will need to hire additional personnel as we expand our clinical development and if we initiate commercial activities. We may not be able to attract and retain quality personnel on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that they have been improperly solicited or that they have divulged proprietary or other confidential information, or that their former employers own their research output.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our current or future product candidates.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the planned clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any products. For example, we may be sued if any product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims

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may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability, and a breach of warranty. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

Our inability to obtain and maintain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost and scope of coverage to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of our current or any future product candidates we develop. We currently carry product liability insurance covering our clinical trials in the amount of $10 million in the aggregate. Although we maintain such insurance, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions and deductibles, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We will have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient funds to pay such amounts. Moreover, in the future, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses. If and when we obtain approval for marketing any of our product candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of such product candidate; however, we may be unable to obtain this liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Any collaboration arrangements that we may enter into in the future may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates.

In the future, we may seek to enter into collaboration arrangements for the development or commercialization of certain of our product candidates depending on the merits of retaining commercialization rights for ourselves as compared to entering into collaboration arrangements. To the extent that we decide to enter into collaboration agreements in the future, we may face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Moreover, collaboration arrangements are complex and time-consuming to negotiate, document, implement and maintain and challenging to manage. We may not be successful in our efforts to prudently manage our existing collaborations or to enter new ones should we chose to do so. The terms of new collaborations or other arrangements that we may establish may not be favorable to us.

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The success of our collaboration arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborations are subject to numerous risks, which may include risks that:

If we engage in future acquisitions or strategic partnerships, this may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, and subject us to other risks.

We may evaluate various acquisitions and strategic partnerships, including licensing or acquiring complementary products, intellectual property rights, technologies, or businesses. Any potential acquisition or strategic partnership may entail numerous risks, including:

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In addition, if we undertake acquisitions, we may issue dilutive securities, assume or incur debt obligations, incur large one-time expenses and acquire intangible assets that could result in significant future amortization expense. Moreover, we may not be able to locate suitable acquisition opportunities and this inability could impair our ability to grow or obtain access to technology or products that may be important to the development of our business.

We or the third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by earthquakes or other natural disasters and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.

Our corporate headquarters and certain of our other facilities, including our manufacturing facility, are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, which in the past has experienced both severe earthquakes and wildfires. We do not carry earthquake insurance. Earthquakes, wildfires or other natural disasters could severely disrupt our operations, and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters or other facilities, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as our enterprise financial systems or manufacturing resource planning and enterprise quality systems, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which, particularly when taken together with our lack of earthquake insurance, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Furthermore, integral parties in our supply chain are similarly vulnerable to natural disasters or other sudden, unforeseen and severe adverse events. If such an event were to affect our supply chain, it could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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We depend on our information technology systems, and any failure of these systems could harm our business. Security breaches, loss of data, and other disruptions could compromise sensitive information related to our business or prevent us from accessing critical information and expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We collect and maintain information in digital form that is necessary to conduct our business, and we are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business, including our laboratory information management system and our EDGE platform. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information. It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. We have established physical, electronic and organizational measures to safeguard and secure our systems to prevent a data compromise, and rely on commercially available systems, software, tools, and monitoring to provide security for our information technology systems and the processing, transmission and storage of digital information. We have also outsourced elements of our information technology infrastructure, and as a result a number of third-party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information. Our internal information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of our current and any future collaborators, contractors and consultants and other third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the Internet, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization, or persons with access to systems inside our organization.

The risk of a security breach or disruption or data loss, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and while we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and information technology systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our product development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Moreover, if a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal and state privacy and security laws, if applicable, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH, and its implementing rules and regulations, as well as regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission and state breach notification laws. We would also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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Our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, consultants, commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We are exposed to the risk that our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, consultants, any future commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in misconduct or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or other unauthorized activities that violate the laws and regulations of the FDA and other similar regulatory bodies, including those laws that require the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such regulatory bodies; manufacturing standards; U.S. federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse, data privacy laws and other similar non-U.S. laws; or laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, the creation of fraudulent data in our preclinical studies or clinical trials, or illegal misappropriation of product, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third-parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. In addition, we are subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business and financial results, including, without limitation, the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, disgorgement, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other U.S. federal healthcare programs or healthcare programs in other jurisdictions, integrity oversight and reporting obligations to resolve allegations of non-compliance, individual imprisonment, other sanctions, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.

Our business involves the use of hazardous materials and we and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers must comply with environmental laws and regulations, which can be expensive and restrict how we do business.

Our research and development activities and our third-party manufacturers’ and suppliers’ activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials owned by us, including the components of our product and product candidates and other hazardous compounds. We and any third-party manufacturers and suppliers we engage are subject to numerous federal, state and local environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permitting requirements, including those governing laboratory procedures; the generation, handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous and regulated materials and wastes; the emission and discharge of hazardous materials into the ground, air and water; and employee health and safety. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste. In some cases, these hazardous materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our and our manufacturers’ facilities pending their use and disposal. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts and business operations, environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products.

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Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. Under certain environmental laws, we could be held responsible for costs relating to any contamination at our current or past facilities and at third-party facilities. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance.

Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and current or future environmental laws and regulations may impair our research, product development and manufacturing efforts. In addition, we cannot entirely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from these materials or wastes. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not carry specific biological or hazardous waste insurance coverage, and our property, casualty, and general liability insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for damages and fines arising from biological or hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or be penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical trials or regulatory approvals could be suspended, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

Our success depends on our ability to protect our intellectual property and our proprietary technologies.

Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection and trade secret protection for our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses as well as our ability to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. We generally seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses that are important to our business. Our patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology claimed in such applications unless, and until, patents issues from such applications, and then only to the extent the issued claims cover the technology. There can be no assurance that our patent applications or those of our licensors will result in additional patents being issued or that issued patents will afford sufficient protection against competitors with similar technology, nor can there be any assurance that the patents issued will not be infringed, designed around or invalidated by third parties. Even issued patents may later be found invalid or unenforceable or may be modified or revoked in proceedings instituted by third parties before various patent offices or in courts. The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain. Only limited protection may be available and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology, competitors may be able to use our product candidates and proprietary technologies and erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We have applied, and we intend to continue applying, for patents covering aspects of our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses that we deem appropriate. However, we may not be able to apply for patents on certain aspects of our current or future product candidates, proprietary

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technologies and their uses in a timely fashion, at a reasonable cost, in all jurisdictions, or at all, and any potential patent coverage we obtain may not be sufficient to prevent substantial competition. As of May 1, 2018, we had 19 pending U.S. patent applications and 27 pending foreign patent applications and we have received a notice of allowance for our pending U.S. patent application relating to the use of a predictive model to identify neoantigens, particularly where the predictive model was trained using mass spectrometry data. We cannot be certain that the claims in any of our patent applications will be considered patentable by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, courts in the United States or by the patent offices and courts in foreign countries, nor can we be certain that the claims in our issued patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.

The patent application process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we or any of our actual or potential future collaborators will be successful in protecting our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:

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The patent position of biopharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. Moreover, the patent prosecution process is also expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, CROs, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach such agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection.

The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our patents, if issued, or the patent rights that we license from others, may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Once granted, patents may remain open to opposition, interference, re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, nullification or derivation action in court or before patent offices or similar proceedings for a given period after allowance or grant, during which time third parties can raise objections against such initial grant. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our products and product candidates. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.

Our ability to enforce our patent rights depends on our ability to detect infringement. It may be difficult to detect infringers who do not advertise the components or methods that are used in connection with their products and services. Moreover, it may be difficult or impossible to obtain evidence of infringement in a competitor’s or potential competitor’s product or service. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded if we were to prevail may not be commercially meaningful.

In addition, proceedings to enforce or defend our patents could put our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable or interpreted narrowly. Such proceedings could also provoke third parties to assert claims against us, including that some or all of the claims in one or more of our patents are invalid or otherwise unenforceable. If any of our patents covering our products are invalidated or found unenforceable, or if a court found that valid, enforceable patents held by third parties covered one or more of our products, our competitive position could be harmed or we could be required to incur significant expenses to enforce or defend our rights. If we initiate lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, or litigate against third party claims, such proceedings would be expensive and would divert the attention of our management and technical personnel.

The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain, and we cannot ensure that:

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Where we obtain licenses from or collaborate with third parties, in some circumstances, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology that we license from third parties, or such activities, if controlled by us, may require the input of such third parties. We may also require the cooperation of our licensors and collaborators to enforce any licensed patent rights, and such cooperation may not be provided. Therefore, these patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. Moreover, if we do obtain necessary licenses, we will likely have obligations under those licenses, and any failure to satisfy those obligations could give our licensor the right to terminate the license. Termination of a necessary license, or expiration of licensed patents or patent applications, could have a material adverse impact on our business.

The lives of our patents may not be sufficient to effectively protect our products and business.

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective non-provisional filing date. Although various extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition. In addition, although upon issuance in the United States a patent’s life can be increased based on certain delays caused by the USPTO, this increase can be reduced or eliminated based on certain delays caused by the patent applicant during patent prosecution. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. If we do not have sufficient patent life to protect our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.

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If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

We rely on the protection of our trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information. We have taken steps to protect our trade secrets and unpatented know-how, including entering into confidentiality agreements with third parties, and confidential information and inventions agreements with employees, consultants and advisors. In addition to contractual measures, we try to protect the confidential nature of our proprietary information using commonly accepted physical and technological security measures. Despite these efforts, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed, and any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. In addition, such security measures may not provide adequate protection for our proprietary information, for example, in the case of misappropriation of a trade secret by an employee, consultant, customer or third party with authorized access. Our security measures may not prevent an employee, consultant or customer from misappropriating our trade secrets and providing them to a competitor, and recourse we take against such misconduct may not provide an adequate remedy to protect our interests fully. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to copy or reverse engineer certain aspects of our products that we consider proprietary. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret can be difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. Even though we use commonly accepted security measures, the criteria for protection of trade secrets can vary among different jurisdictions.

Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. Moreover, third parties may still obtain this information or may come upon this or similar information independently, and we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. Trade secrets will over time be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles and the movement of personnel skilled in the art from company to company or academic to industry scientific positions. Though our agreements with third parties typically restrict the ability of our advisors, employees, collaborators, licensors, suppliers, third-party contractors and consultants to publish data potentially relating to our trade secrets, our agreements may contain certain limited publication rights. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that technology or information to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position. Because from time to time we expect to rely on third parties in the development, manufacture, and distribution of our products and provision of our services, we must, at times, share trade secrets with them. Despite employing the contractual and other security precautions described above, the need to share trade secrets increases the risk that such trade secrets become known by our competitors, are inadvertently incorporated into the technology of others, or are disclosed or used in violation of these agreements. If any of these events occurs or if we otherwise lose protection for our trade secrets, the value of this information may be greatly reduced and our competitive position would be harmed. If we do not apply for patent protection prior to such publication or if we cannot otherwise maintain the confidentiality of our proprietary technology and other confidential information, then our ability to obtain patent protection or to protect our trade secret information may be jeopardized.

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Our rights to develop and commercialize our product candidates are subject in part to the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by other companies. The patent protection, prosecution and enforcement for some of our product candidates may be dependent on third parties.

We currently are reliant upon licenses of certain patent rights and proprietary technology from third parties that is important or necessary to the development of our technology and products, including technology related to our product candidates. For example, we rely on our license agreement with Arbutus Biopharma Corporation for certain lipid nanoparticle-based delivery technologies. This and other licenses we may enter into in the future may not provide adequate rights to use such intellectual property and technology in all relevant fields of use or in all territories in which we may wish to develop or commercialize our technology and products in the future. As a result, we may not be able to develop and commercialize our technology and products in fields of use and territories for which we are not granted rights pursuant to such licenses.

Licenses to additional third-party technology that may be required for our development programs may not be available in the future or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

In some circumstances, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing, prosecution and enforcement of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology that we license from third parties. In addition, some of our agreements with our licensors require us to obtain consent from the licensor before we can enforce patent rights, and our licensor may withhold such consent or may not provide it on a timely basis. Therefore, we cannot be certain that our licensors or collaborators will prosecute, maintain, enforce and defend such intellectual property rights in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business, including by taking reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality of know-how and trade secrets, or by paying all applicable prosecution and maintenance fees related to intellectual property registrations for any of our product candidates. We also cannot be certain that our licensors have drafted or prosecuted the patents and patent applications licensed to us in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, which may affect the validity and enforceability of such patents or any patents that may issue from such applications. If they fail to do so, this could cause us to lose rights in any applicable intellectual property that we in-license, and as a result our ability to develop and commercialize products or product candidates may be adversely affected and we may be unable to prevent competitors from making, using and selling competing products.

Our current licenses, and our future licenses likely will, impose various royalty payments, milestones, and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with any of these obligations, we may be required to pay damages and the licensor may have the right to terminate the license. Termination by the licensor would cause us to lose valuable rights, and could prevent us from developing and commercializing our product candidates and proprietary technologies. Our business would suffer if any current or future licenses terminate, if the licensors fail to abide by the terms of the license, if the licensors fail to enforce licensed patents against infringing third parties, if the licensed patents or other rights are found to be invalid or unenforceable, or if we are unable to enter into necessary licenses on acceptable terms. Furthermore, if any current or future licenses terminate, or if the underlying patents fail to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors or other third parties may gain the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products identical to ours. Moreover, our licensors may own or control intellectual property that has not been licensed to us and, as a result, we may be subject to claims, regardless of their merit, that we are infringing or otherwise violating the licensor’s rights. In addition, while we cannot currently determine the amount of the royalty obligations we would be required to pay on sales of future products, if any, the amounts may be significant. The amount of our future royalty obligations will depend on the technology and intellectual property we use in products that we successfully develop and commercialize, if any. Therefore, even if we successfully develop and commercialize products, we may be unable to achieve or maintain profitability.

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Litigation or other proceedings or third-party claims of intellectual property infringement could require us to spend significant time and money and could prevent us from selling our products.

Our commercial success depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties. However, our research, development and commercialization activities may be subject to claims that we infringe or otherwise violate patents or other intellectual property rights owned or controlled by third parties. Claims by third parties that we infringe their proprietary rights may result in liability for damages or prevent or delay our developmental and commercialization efforts. We cannot assure you that our operations do not, or will not in the future, infringe existing or future patents.

Other entities may have or obtain patents or proprietary rights that could limit our ability to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import our product candidates and future approved products or impair our competitive position. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions, reexaminations, inter partes review proceedings and post-grant review proceedings before the USPTO and/or corresponding foreign patent offices. Numerous third-party U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications exist in the fields in which we are developing product candidates. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. For example, we are aware of U.S. Serial Nos. 15/187,174 and 14/794,449. If a patent issues from such patent applications with claims similar to those that are currently pending, our ability to commercialize GRANITE-001 in the United States may be adversely affected if we do not obtain a license under such patent. In addition, we are aware of and have timely opposed EP Patent 2569633. Our opposition was filed in the company’s name on November 7, 2016 by Vossius & Partner. Four other parties also filed oppositions to the patent within the required timeframe. The European Patent Office has currently issued a Preliminary Opinion. The Preliminary Opinion, issued by the Opposition Division in December 2017, tentatively opines that EP Patent 2569633 at least does not meet the requirements of Article 123(2) of the European Patent Convention, or EPC, and that consequently, the patent would have to be revoked under Article 101(2) of the EPC. If EP Patent 2569633 is ultimately maintained by the Opposition Division with claims similar to those that are currently opposed, our ability to commercialize GRANITE-001 in certain European countries may be adversely affected if we do not obtain a license under the patent.

Furthermore, the scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history and can involve other factors such as expert opinion. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of claims in a patent or a pending application may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to market our products. Further, we may incorrectly determine that our technologies, products, or product candidates are not covered by a third party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third party’s pending patent application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our products or product candidates.

As the biotechnology industry expands and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties. Our competitors in both the United States and abroad, many of which have substantially greater resources and have made substantial investments in patent portfolios and competing technologies, may have applied for or obtained or may in the future apply for and obtain, patents that will prevent, limit or otherwise interfere with our ability to make, use and sell our product candidates. We do not always conduct independent reviews of pending patent applications of and patents issued to third parties.

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Patent applications in the United States and elsewhere are typically published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date. Certain U.S. applications that will not be filed outside the United States can remain confidential until patents issue. In addition, patent applications in the United States and elsewhere can be pending for many years before issuance, or unintentionally abandoned patents or applications can be revived. Furthermore, pending patent applications that have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our technologies, our product candidates or the use of our product candidates. As such, there may be applications of others now pending or recently revived patents of which we are unaware. These applications may later result in issued patents, or the revival of previously abandoned patents, that will prevent, limit or otherwise interfere with our ability to make, use or sell our products. Because patent applications are maintained as confidential for a certain period of time, until the relevant application is published we may be unaware of third-party patents that may be infringed by commercialization of GRANITE-001 or our other product candidates, and cannot be certain that we were the first to file a patent application related to a product candidate or technology. Moreover, because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently-pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe. In addition, identification of third-party patent rights that may be relevant to our technology is difficult because patent searching is imperfect due to differences in terminology among patents, incomplete databases and the difficulty in assessing the meaning of patent claims. Any claims of patent infringement asserted by third parties would be time consuming and could:

Although no third party has asserted a claim of patent infringement against us as of the date of this prospectus, others may hold proprietary rights that could prevent GRANITE-001 or any future immunotherapy candidates from being marketed. Any patent-related legal action against us claiming damages and seeking to enjoin commercial activities relating to our product candidates or processes could subject us to potential liability for damages, including treble damages if we were determined to willfully infringe, and require us to obtain a license to manufacture or market GRANITE-001 or any future immunotherapy candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. We cannot predict whether we would prevail in any such actions or that any license required under any of these patents would be made available on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. Even if such licenses are available, we could incur substantial costs related to royalty payments for licenses obtained from third parties, which could negatively affect our gross margins, and the rights may be

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non-exclusive, which could give our competitors access to the same technology or intellectual property rights licensed to us. In addition, we cannot be certain that we could redesign our product candidates or processes to avoid infringement, if necessary. Accordingly, an adverse determination in a judicial or administrative proceeding, or the failure to obtain necessary licenses, could prevent us from developing and commercializing GRANITE-001 or any future immunotherapy candidates, which could harm our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, intellectual property litigation, regardless of its outcome, may cause negative publicity and could prohibit us from marketing or otherwise commercializing our product candidates and technology.

If we collaborate with third parties in the development of technology in the future, our collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to litigation or potential liability. Further, collaborators may infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability. Also, we may be obligated under our agreements with our collaborators, licensors, suppliers and others to indemnify and hold them harmless for damages arising from intellectual property infringement by us.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful. Further, our issued patents could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court.

Competitors may infringe our intellectual property rights or those of our licensors. To prevent infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent we own or in-license is not valid, is unenforceable and/or is not infringed. If we or any of our potential future collaborators were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent directed at one of our product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that our patent is invalid and/or unenforceable in whole or in part. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge include an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could include an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO or made a misleading statement during prosecution. Third parties may also raise similar claims before the USPTO, even outside the context of litigation. Similar mechanisms for challenging the validity and enforceability of a patent exist in ex-U.S. patent offices and may result in the revocation, cancellation, or amendment of any ex-U.S. patents we hold in the future. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable, and prior art could render our patents or those of our licensors invalid. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on such product candidate. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business.

Interference or derivation proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by us or declared by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or if a non-exclusive license is offered and our competitors gain access to the same technology. Our defense of litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. In addition, the uncertainties associated with litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise the funds

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necessary to continue our clinical trials, continue our research programs, license necessary technology from third parties or enter into development or manufacturing partnerships that would help us bring our product candidates to market.

Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to our intellectual property rights may cause us to incur significant expenses, and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such litigation or proceedings adequately. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could compromise our ability to compete in the marketplace.

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary rights to our product candidates through acquisitions and in-licenses.

We currently have rights to the intellectual property, through licenses from third parties and under patents that we own, to develop our product candidates. Because our programs may require the use of proprietary rights held by third parties, the growth of our business will depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license or use these proprietary rights. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary for our product candidates. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment.

We have collaborated with U.S. academic institutions and may in the future collaborate with U.S. and foreign academic institutions to accelerate our preclinical research or development under written agreements with these institutions. These institutions may provide us with an option to negotiate a license to any of the institution’s rights in technology resulting from the collaboration. Regardless of such option, we may be unable to negotiate a license within the specified timeframe or under terms that are acceptable to us. If we are unable to do so, the institution may offer the intellectual property rights to other parties, potentially blocking our ability to pursue our program.

If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of that program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

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We may fail to comply with any of our obligations under existing or future agreements pursuant to which we license or have otherwise acquired intellectual property rights or technology, which could result in the loss of rights or technology that are material to our business.

We are party to various agreements that we depend on to operate our business, including intellectual property rights relating to GRANITE-001, in particular, our agreement with Arbutus. Our rights to use currently licensed intellectual property or intellectual property to be licensed in the future are subject to the continuation of and our compliance with the terms of these agreements. Disputes may arise regarding our rights to intellectual property licensed to us from a third party, including but not limited to:

If disputes over intellectual property and other rights that we have licensed or acquired from third parties prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current license agreements on acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates. If we fail to comply with our obligations under current or future license agreements, these agreements may be terminated or the scope of our rights under them may be reduced and we might be unable to develop, manufacture or market any product that is licensed under these agreements.

We may be subject to claims that we have wrongfully hired an employee from a competitor or that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged confidential information or trade secrets of their former employers.

As is common in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries, in addition to our employees, we engage the services of consultants to assist us in the development of our product candidates. Many of these consultants, and many of our employees, were previously employed at, or may have previously provided or may be currently providing consulting services to, other biotechnology or biopharmaceutical companies including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees and consultants do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may become subject to claims that we, our employees or a consultant inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other information proprietary to their former employers or their former or current clients. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, which could adversely affect our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to our management team.

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

We may also be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents or other intellectual property. In addition, we may face claims by third parties that our agreements with employees, contractors or consultants obligating them to assign intellectual property to us are ineffective or in conflict with prior or competing contractual obligations of assignment, which could result in ownership disputes regarding intellectual property we have developed or will develop and interfere with our ability to capture the commercial value of such intellectual property. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or ownership. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and distraction to management and other employees.

If we do not obtain patent term extension for our product candidates, our business may be materially harmed.

Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of FDA marketing approval of GRANITE-001 or any future immunotherapy candidates, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term restoration under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, also known as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent restoration term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during product development and the FDA regulatory review process. The Hatch-Waxman Act allows a maximum of one patent to be extended per FDA approved product as compensation for the patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval and only those claims covering such approved drug product, a method for using it or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. Patent term extension may also be available in certain foreign countries upon regulatory approval of our product candidates. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or restoration or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially.

If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.

Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented or declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition among potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors may adopt trade names or trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected. We may license our trademarks and trade names to third parties, such as distributors. Though these license agreements may provide guidelines for how our trademarks and trade names may be used, a breach of these agreements or

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misuse of our trademarks and tradenames by our licensees may jeopardize our rights in or diminish the goodwill associated with our trademarks and trade names. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to trademarks, trade names, trade secrets, domain names, copyrights or other intellectual property may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.

Changes in patent law in the U.S. or in other countries could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates.

Our patent rights may be affected by developments or uncertainty in U.S. or ex-U.S. patent statutes, patent case laws in USPTO rules and regulations or in the rules and regulations of ex-U.S. patent offices. There are a number of recent changes to the U.S. patent laws that may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. For example, on September 16, 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or Leahy-Smith Act, was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. In particular, under the Leahy-Smith Act, the United States transitioned in March 2013 to a “first to file” system in which the first inventor to file a patent application will be entitled to the patent. Third parties are allowed to submit prior art before the issuance of a patent by the USPTO, and may become involved in post-grant proceedings including opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review or interference proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope or enforceability of, or invalidate, our patent rights, which could adversely affect our competitive position. This could have a negative impact on some of our intellectual property and could increase uncertainties surrounding obtaining and enforcement or defense of our issued patents. In addition, Congress may pass patent reform legislation that is unfavorable to us. The Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents we might obtain in the future.

Similarly, statutory or judicial changes to the patent laws of other countries may increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents.

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

Filing, prosecuting and defending all current and future patents in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our product candidates, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

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The legal systems of many foreign countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights. For example, some foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, some countries limit the enforceability of patents against third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

Obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other provisions during the patent process. Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the US in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. We employ reputable professionals and rely on such third parties to help us comply with these requirements and effect payment of these fees with respect to the patents and patent applications that we own, and if we license intellectual property we may have to rely upon our licensors to comply with these requirements and effect payment of these fees with respect to any patents and patent applications that we license. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, competitors might be able to enter the market earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

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

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

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

Risks Related to Government Regulation

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

If one of our product candidates is approved, it will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping, conduct of post-marketing studies, and submission of safety, efficacy, and other post- market information, including both federal and state requirements in the United States and requirements of comparable foreign regulatory authorities.

Manufacturers and manufacturers’ facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authority requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP regulations. As such, we and our contract manufacturers will be subject to continual review and inspections to assess compliance with cGMP and adherence to commitments made in any approved marketing application. Accordingly, we and others with whom we work must continue to expend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, and quality control.

We will have to comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotion for our products. Promotional communications with respect to prescription drugs and biologics are subject to a variety of legal and regulatory restrictions and must be consistent with the information in the product’s approved label. As such, we may not promote our products “off-label” for indications or uses for which they do not have approval. The holder of an approved application must submit new or supplemental applications and obtain approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling, or manufacturing process. We could also be asked to conduct post-marketing clinical studies to verify the safety and efficacy of our products in general or in specific patient subsets. An unsuccessful post-marketing study or failure to complete such a study could result in the withdrawal of marketing approval.

If a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, or disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of a product, such regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency or enforcement authority may, among other things:

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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. Any failure to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements may significantly and adversely affect our ability to commercialize and generate revenue from our products. If regulatory sanctions are applied or if regulatory approval is withdrawn, the value of our company and our operating results will be adversely affected.

Moreover, the policies of the FDA and of other regulatory authorities may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, either in the United States or abroad. For example, certain policies of the Trump administration may impact our business and industry. Namely, the Trump administration has taken several executive actions, including the issuance of a number of Executive Orders, that could impose significant burdens on, or otherwise materially delay, FDA’s ability to engage in routine oversight activities such as implementing statutes through rulemaking, issuance of guidance, and review and approval of marketing applications. It is difficult to predict how these orders will be implemented, and the extent to which they will impact the FDA’s ability to exercise its regulatory authority. If these executive actions impose restrictions on FDA’s ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business may be negatively impacted. In addition, if we are slow 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 and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

We may seek orphan drug designation for certain future product candidates, but we may be unable 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 may pursue orphan drug designation for certain of our future product candidates. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a drug or biologic product as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition, defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug will be recovered from sales in the United States. In the European Union, the EMA’s Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, or COMP, grants orphan drug designation to promote the development of products that are intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition affecting not more than five in 10,000 persons in the European Union. Additionally, designation is granted for products intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening, seriously debilitating or serious and chronic condition when, without incentives, it is unlikely that sales of the drug in the European Union would be sufficient to justify the necessary investment in developing the drug or biological product or where there is no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention, or treatment, or, if such a method exists, the medicine must be of significant benefit to those affected by the condition.

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In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages, and application fee waivers. In addition, if a product receives the first FDA approval for the indication for which it has orphan designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means the FDA may not approve any other application to market the same drug for the same indication for a period of seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority over the product with orphan exclusivity or where the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient product quantity the orphan patient population. In the European Union, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers and ten years of market exclusivity following drug or biological product approval. This period may be reduced to six years if the orphan drug designation criteria are no longer met, including where it is shown that the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity.

Even if we obtain orphan drug designation, we may not be the first to obtain marketing approval for any particular orphan indication due to the uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products. Further, even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product candidate, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different drugs with different active moieties can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA or EMA can subsequently approve the same drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA or EMA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is safer, more effective, or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug or biologic nor gives the drug or biologic any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process.

Enacted and future healthcare legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates and may affect the prices we may set.

In the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes to the healthcare system that could affect our future results of operations. In particular, there have been and continue to be a number of initiatives at the U.S. federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of healthcare. For example, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively the ACA, was enacted, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private payors. Among the provisions of the ACA, those of greatest importance to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries include the following:

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Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA, and we expect there will be additional challenges and amendments to the ACA in the future. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was enacted, which includes a provision repealing, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the ACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”. Since the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, there have been additional amendments to certain provisions of the ACA, and we expect the current Trump administration and Congress will likely continue to seek to modify, repeal, or otherwise invalidate all, or certain provisions of, the ACA. It is uncertain the extent to which any such changes may impact our business or financial condition.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted. In August 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, led to aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year. These reductions went into effect in April 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, will remain in effect through 2027 unless additional action is taken by Congress. In January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, including hospitals, imaging centers and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws or any other similar laws introduced in the future may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other health care funding, which could negatively affect our customers and accordingly, our financial operations.

Moreover, payment methodologies may be subject to changes in healthcare legislation and regulatory initiatives. For example, CMS may develop new payment and delivery models, such as bundled payment models. In addition, recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under government payor programs, and review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs. The Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 contains further drug price control measures that could be enacted during the 2019 budget process or in other future legislation, including, for example, measures to permit Medicare Part D plans to negotiate the price of certain drugs under Medicare Part B, to allow some states to negotiate drug prices under Medicaid, and to eliminate cost sharing for generic drugs for low-income patients. While any proposed measures will require authorization through additional legislation to become effective, Congress and the Trump administration have each indicated that it will continue to seek new legislative and/or administrative measures to control drug costs. We expect that additional U.S. federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that the U.S. federal government will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our product candidates or additional pricing pressures.

Individual states in the United States have also increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient

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

In the European Union, similar political, economic and regulatory developments may affect our ability to profitably commercialize our product candidates, if approved. In addition to continuing pressure on prices and cost containment measures, legislative developments at the European Union or member state level may result in significant additional requirements or obstacles that may increase our operating costs. The delivery of healthcare in the European Union, including the establishment and operation of health services and the pricing and reimbursement of medicines, is almost exclusively a matter for national, rather than European Union, law and policy. National governments and health service providers have different priorities and approaches to the delivery of health care and the pricing and reimbursement of products in that context. In general, however, the healthcare budgetary constraints in most European Union member states have resulted in restrictions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines by relevant health service providers. Coupled with ever-increasing European Union and national regulatory burdens on those wishing to develop and market products, this could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to commercialize our product candidates, if approved. In markets outside of the United States and European Union, reimbursement and healthcare payment systems vary significantly by country, and many countries have instituted price ceilings 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 European Union 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 such third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our product candidates may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

Our business operations and current and future relationships with 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 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 research, market, sell and distribute our product candidates, if approved. Such laws include:

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Ensuring that our internal operations and future business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. 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 countries or 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. Further, defending against any such actions can be costly, time-consuming and may require significant personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any such actions that may be brought against us, our business may be impaired.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock and This Offering

Our stock price may be volatile and you may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid.

The trading price of our common stock following this offering could be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include those discussed in this “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus and others such as:

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In addition, the stock markets in general, and the markets for biopharmaceutical and biotechnology stocks in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that may have been unrelated to the operating performance of the issuer. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price or liquidity of our common stock. In the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against the issuer. If any of our stockholders were to bring such a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit and the attention of our management would be diverted from the operation of our business.

An active, liquid and orderly market for our common stock may not develop, and you may not be able to resell your common stock at or above the public offering price.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our common stock, and an active public market for our shares may not develop or be sustained after this offering. We and the representatives of the underwriters will determine the initial public offering price of our common stock through negotiation. This price will not necessarily reflect the price at which investors in the market will be willing to buy and sell our shares following this offering. In addition, an active trading market may not develop following the consummation of this offering or, if it is developed, may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other businesses, applications, or technologies using our shares as consideration.

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If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no or few securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price for our stock would be negatively impacted. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding us, our business model, our intellectual property or our stock performance, or if our clinical trials and operating results fail to meet the expectations of analysts, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

We will incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives. We may fail to comply with the rules that apply to public companies, including Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which could result in sanctions or other penalties that would harm our business.

We will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses as a public company, including costs resulting from public company reporting obligations under the Exchange Act and regulations regarding corporate governance practices. The listing requirements of The Nasdaq Global Market and the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, require that we satisfy certain corporate governance requirements relating to director independence, filing annual and interim reports, stockholder meetings, approvals and voting, soliciting proxies, conflicts of interest and a code of conduct. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements. Moreover, the reporting requirements, rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. Any changes we make to comply with these obligations may not be sufficient to allow us to satisfy our obligations as a public company on a timely basis, or at all. These reporting requirements, rules and regulations, coupled with the increase in potential litigation exposure associated with being a public company, could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or board committees or to serve as executive officers, or to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ insurance, on acceptable terms.

After this offering, we will be subject to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, and the related rules of the SEC, which generally require our management and independent registered public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Beginning with the second annual report that we will be required to file with the SEC, Section 404 requires an annual management assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. However, for so long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404. Once we are no longer an emerging growth company or, if prior to such date, we opt to no longer take advantage of the applicable exemption, we will be required to include an opinion from our independent registered public accounting firm on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large

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accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700.0 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

To date, we have never conducted a review of our internal control for the purpose of providing the reports required by these rules. During the course of our review and testing, we may identify deficiencies and be unable to remediate them before we must provide the required reports. Furthermore, if we have a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. We or our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, which could harm our operating results, cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and cause the trading price of our stock to fall. In addition, as a public company we will be required to file accurate and timely quarterly and annual reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. In order to report our results of operations and financial statements on an accurate and timely basis, we will depend on CROs to provide timely and accurate notice of their costs to us. Any failure to report our financial results on an accurate and timely basis could result in sanctions, lawsuits, delisting of our shares from The Nasdaq Global Market or other adverse consequences that would materially harm to our business.

Purchasers in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the book value of their investment.

The initial public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock before giving effect to this offering. Accordingly, if you purchase our common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate and substantial dilution of approximately $        per share, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, and our pro forma net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017. In addition, following this offering, purchasers in this offering will have contributed approximately     % of the total gross consideration paid by stockholders to us to purchase shares of our common stock, through December 31, 2017, but will own only approximately     % of the shares of common stock outstanding immediately after this offering. Furthermore, if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares, or outstanding options and warrants are exercised, you could experience further dilution. For a further description of the dilution that you will experience immediately after this offering, see the section titled “Dilution.”

If we sell shares of our common stock in future financings, stockholders may experience immediate dilution and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

We may from time to time issue additional shares of common stock at a discount from the current trading price of our common stock. As a result, our stockholders would experience immediate dilution upon the purchase of any shares of our common stock sold at such discount. In addition, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into financing or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt securities, preferred stock or common stock. If we issue common stock or securities convertible into common stock, our common stockholders would experience additional dilution and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval.

Prior to this offering as of March 31, 2018, our executive officers, directors, holders of 5.0% or more of our capital stock and their respective affiliates held approximately 51.4% of our outstanding voting stock and, upon the closing of this offering, that same group will hold approximately     % of our

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outstanding voting stock (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock and no exercise of outstanding options). Therefore, even after this offering these stockholders will have the ability to influence us through this ownership position. These stockholders may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.

If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after the lock-up and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this prospectus lapse, the trading price of our common stock could decline. Based upon the number of shares outstanding as of March 31, 2018, upon the closing of this offering, we will have outstanding a total of                  shares of common stock, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock and no exercise of outstanding options. Of these shares, approximately                  shares of our common stock sold in this offering, plus any shares sold upon exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market immediately following this offering.

The lock-up agreements pertaining to this offering will expire 180 days from the date of this prospectus. After the lock-up agreements expire, as of March 31, 2018, up to approximately 141.5 million additional shares of common stock will be eligible for sale in the public market, approximately 83.6 million of which shares are held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates and will be subject to Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Cowen and Company, LLC and Barclays Capital Inc. may, however, in their sole discretion, permit our officers, directors and other stockholders who are subject to these lock-up agreements to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements.

In addition, as of March 31, 2018, approximately 17.3 million shares of common stock that are either subject to outstanding options or reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, the lock-up agreements and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. If these additional shares of common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

After this offering, the holders of approximately 122.8 million shares of our common stock, or approximately 86.8% of our total outstanding common stock as of March 31, 2018, will be entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act, subject to vesting schedules and to the lock-up agreements described above. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares purchased by affiliates. Any sales of securities by these stockholders could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.

We have broad discretion to determine how to use the funds raised in this offering, and may use them in ways that may not enhance our operating results or the price of our common stock.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of proceeds from this offering, and we could spend the proceeds from this offering in ways our stockholders may not agree with or that do not

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yield a favorable return, if at all. We currently expect to use the net proceeds of this offering to fund our planned Phase 1/2 clinical trial of GRANITE-001, continued buildout of our manufacturing facility, internal research and development activities and for working capital and general corporate purposes. However, our use of these proceeds may differ substantially from our current plans. If we do not invest or apply the proceeds of this offering in ways that improve our operating results, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

We have incurred substantial losses during our history and do not expect to become profitable in the near future, and we may never achieve profitability. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses, unused losses will carry forward to offset a portion of future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire, if ever. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research and development tax credits) to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. While we do not believe we have experienced ownership changes in the past, it is possible we have done so, and we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of this offering and/or subsequent shifts in our stock ownership (some of which shifts are outside our control). As a result, even if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use a material portion of our NOLs and other tax attributes.

Recent U.S. tax legislation and future changes to applicable U.S. tax laws and regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Changes in laws and policy relating to taxes may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, the U.S. government recently enacted significant tax reform legislation, and certain provisions of the new law may adversely affect us. Changes include, but are not limited to, a federal corporate income tax rate decrease to 21% for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, a reduction to the maximum deduction allowed for net operating losses generated in tax years after December 31, 2017, eliminating carrybacks of net operating losses, and providing for indefinite carryforwards for losses generated in tax years after December 31, 2017. The legislation is unclear in many respects and could be subject to potential amendments and technical corrections, and will be subject to interpretations and implementing regulations by the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, any of which could mitigate or increase certain adverse effects of the legislation. In addition, it is unclear how these U.S. federal income tax changes will affect state and local taxation. Generally, future changes in applicable U.S. tax laws and regulations, or their interpretation and application could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable and may lead to entrenchment of management.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that will be in effect immediately prior to the consummation of this offering will contain provisions that could delay or prevent changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. These provisions will include the following:

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We are also subject to the anti-takeover provisions contained in Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. Under Section 203, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other exceptions, the board of directors has approved the transaction. For a description of our capital stock, see the section titled “Description of Capital Stock.”

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.

In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated bylaws to be effective immediately prior to the completion of this offering and our indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers will provide that:

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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws, any action to interpret, apply, enforce, or determine the validity of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision that will be contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We do not currently intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your common stock for the foreseeable future. Since we do not intend to pay dividends, your ability to receive a return on your investment will depend on any future appreciation in the market value of our common stock. There is no guarantee that our common stock will appreciate or even maintain the price at which our holders have purchased it.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance and condition, as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business operations and financial performance and condition. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “objective,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “positioned,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and management’s

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beliefs and assumptions and are not guarantees of future performance or development and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control. As a result, any or all of our forward-looking statements in this prospectus may turn out to be inaccurate. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. Potential investors are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this prospectus. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future. You should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports we will file from time to time with the SEC after the date of this prospectus. See “Where You Can Find More Information.”

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MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

This prospectus contains estimates, projections and other information concerning our industry, our business, as well as data regarding market research, estimates and forecasts prepared by our management. Information that is based on estimates, forecasts, projections, market research or similar methodologies is inherently subject to uncertainties and actual events or circumstances may differ materially from events and circumstances that are assumed in this information. Unless otherwise expressly stated, we obtained this industry, business, market and other data from reports, research surveys, studies and similar data prepared by market research firms and other third parties, industry, medical and general publications, government data and similar sources. In some cases, we do not expressly refer to the sources from which this data is derived. In that regard, when we refer to one or more sources of this type of data in any paragraph, you should assume that other data of this type appearing in the same paragraph is derived from the same sources, unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of                  shares of our common stock in this offering will be approximately $        million at an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full, we estimate that the net proceeds will be approximately $        million at an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, by approximately $        million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same. We may also increase or decrease the number of shares we are offering. Each increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, by approximately $        million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price stays the same. We do not expect that a change in the offering price or the number of shares by these amounts would have a material effect on our intended uses of the net proceeds from this offering, although it may impact the amount of time prior to which we may need to seek additional capital.

We currently expect to use our net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, as follows:

We may also use a portion of the remaining net proceeds and our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to in-license, acquire, or invest in complementary businesses, technologies, products or assets. However, we have no current commitments or obligations to do so.

Due to the uncertainties inherent in the clinical development and regulatory approval process, it is difficult to estimate with certainty the exact amounts of the net proceeds from this offering that may be used for the above purposes. As such, our management will retain broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from this offering. The amounts and timing of our expenditures will depend upon numerous factors, including: (i) the time and cost necessary to advance GRANITE-001 through our planned Phase 1/2 clinical trial and future clinical trials; (ii) the timing of scaling our manufacturing capabilities and internalizing certain of our manufacturing processes; (iii) the time and cost associated with our research and development activities; and (iv) our ability to obtain regulatory approval for and subsequently commercialize GRANITE-001 and any other future product candidates.

We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, together with the net proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient to fund our planned operations for at least      months

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following the date of this offering. After this offering, we will require substantial capital in order to advance GRANITE-001 and any other future product candidates through pivotal clinical trials, regulatory approval and commercialization. For additional information regarding our potential capital requirements, see “Risk Factors—We will require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, could force us to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development programs, commercialization efforts or other operations.”

Pending the use of the proceeds from this offering, we intend to invest the net proceeds in interest-bearing, investment-grade securities, certificates of deposit or government securities.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

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

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and capitalization as of December 31, 2017:

You should read this information together with our financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus and the information set forth under the headings “Selected Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

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The outstanding share information in the table above excludes the following:

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DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock in this offering and the net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering.

As of December 31, 2017, we had a historical net tangible book value of $97.3 million, or $5.24 per share of common stock. Our net tangible book value represents total tangible assets less total liabilities, all divided by 18,573,607 shares of common stock outstanding on December 31, 2017, which includes 3,721,127 shares of restricted common stock that were subject to repurchase as of December 31, 2017. Our pro forma net tangible book value at December 31, 2017, before giving effect to this offering, was $        million, or $        per share of our common stock. Pro forma net tangible book value, before the issuance and sale of shares in this offering, gives effect to:

After giving effect to the sale of                  shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 would have been approximately $        million, or $        per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $        per share to existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $        per share to new investors. The following table illustrates this per share dilution:

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $         per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 after this offering by approximately $        million, or approximately $        per share, and would decrease (increase) dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $        per share, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of shares we are offering. Assuming the assumed initial public price of $        per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) remains the same, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, each increase of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would increase our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 after this offering by approximately

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$        million, or approximately $        per share, and would decrease dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $        per share, and a decrease of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would decrease our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 after this offering by approximately $        million, or approximately $        per share, and would increase dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $        per share. The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.

If the underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase additional shares, pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value after this offering would increase to approximately $        per share, and there would be an immediate dilution of approximately $        per share to new investors.

To the extent that outstanding options with an exercise price per share that is less than the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share are exercised, new investors will experience further dilution. In addition, we may choose to raise additional capital due to market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of these securities could result in further dilution to our stockholders.

The following table shows, as of December 31, 2017, on a pro forma as adjusted basis, the number of shares of common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us and the average price paid per share by existing stockholders and by new investors purchasing common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), before deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us:

The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2017 and excludes the following:

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To the extent any outstanding options are exercised, or we issue additional equity or convertible debt securities in the future, there will be further dilution to new investors.

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SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables present our selected financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated. We have derived the following selected statements of operations and comprehensive loss data for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 and 2017, from our audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. You should read the financial data below in conjunction with our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus and the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the section titled “Selected Financial Data” and our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion and other parts of this prospectus contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as our plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Overview

We are an immuno-oncology company developing personalized cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types. Our approach harnesses the natural power of a patient’s own immune system to recognize short tumor-specific peptide sequences presented on cancer cells, referred to as tumor-specific neoantigens, or TSNA, in order to destroy tumor cells. Our personalized immunotherapy treatment is built on two key pillars—first, our proprietary Gritstone EDGE^TM platform, which gives us a superior ability to predict, from a routine tumor biopsy, the TSNA that are presented on a patient’s tumor cells; and second, our ability to develop and manufacture a potent immunotherapy utilizing a patient’s unique TSNA to drive the patient’s immune system to attack and destroy tumors.

We intend to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of our first personalized immunotherapy product candidate, GRANITE-001, in the second half of 2018, evaluating it in the treatment of common solid tumors, including metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and gastroesophageal, bladder and colorectal cancers, in each case in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. Beyond TSNA-directed therapeutics, we are leveraging our expertise in cancer genomics and our tumor antigen discovery platform to identify novel peptide sequences (not mutated) that may be shared across common tumor types (tumor-specific shared antigens), which we believe likely have value as targets to direct T cells onto tumors specifically. These shared antigen targets enable us to opportunistically partner or develop additional therapeutic approaches to redirect T cells onto tumors using these highly specific targets. These approaches include (1) “off-the-shelf” shared tumor antigens in our heterologous prime-boost platform, (2) modifying the receptors of the patient’s own T cells to help them recognize tumor targets (adoptive T cell therapy) and (3) using small adapter proteins that have two recognition arms—one for tumors and one for T cells (bispecific antibodies).

We have funded our operations to date primarily from private placements of our convertible preferred stock. We do not expect to generate revenue from any product candidates that we develop until we obtain regulatory approval for one or more of such product candidates and commercialize our products or enter into collaboration agreements with third parties. Substantially all of our net losses have resulted from costs incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. GRANITE-001 will require substantial additional development time and resources before we would be able to apply for or receive regulatory approvals and begin generating revenue from product sales. In addition, upon the completion of this offering we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We also do not yet have a sales organization or commercial infrastructure and, accordingly, we will incur significant expenses to develop a sales organization or commercial infrastructure in advance of generating any commercial product sales. As a result, we will need substantial additional capital to support our operating activities.

We currently anticipate that we will seek to fund our operations through equity or debt financings or other sources, such as potential collaboration agreements with third parties. Adequate funding may

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not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If sufficient funds on acceptable terms are not available when needed, we will be required to significantly reduce our operating expenses and delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate one or more of our development programs. As a result, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. See “—Liquidity and Capital Resources” below and Note 2 to the financial statements for additional information describing the circumstances that led to this determination.

Manufacturing is a vital component of personalized immunotherapy, and we have invested significantly in our manufacturing facility, which opened in November 2017. We currently use a hybrid approach to manufacturing our personalized immunotherapy wherein certain elements of our product candidates are manufactured on an out-sourced basis at qualified third-party contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs, and other elements of our product candidates are manufactured internally. Our goal is to internalize the majority of the manufacturing steps to drive down both cost and production time, as well as establish full control over intellectual property and product quality, which will require signficant investments in our manufacturing facility and processes.

Since we commenced operations in August 2015, we have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in research and development activities and establishing our manufacturing facility, and we have incurred net losses each year since inception. Our net losses were $18.8 million and $41.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, respectively. We do not have any products approved for sale, and we have never generated any revenue from contracts with customers. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $61.6 million, and we do not expect positive cash flows from operations in the foreseeable future. We expect to continue to incur net operating losses for at least the next several years as we advance our personalized cancer immunotherapy through clinical development, seek regulatory approval, prepare for and, if approved, proceed to commercialization, continue our research and development efforts and invest in our manufacturing facility.

Components of Our Operating Results

Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expenses

Since our inception, we have focused significant resources on our research and development activities, including conducting preclinical studies, manufacturing development efforts and activities related to the submission of our IND. Research and development activities account for a significant portion of our operating expenses. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. These costs include:

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In October 2017, we entered into a license agreement with Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, or Arbutus. Under the agreement, Arbutus grants us a worldwide, exclusive license to certain technology of Arbutus, including Arbutus’ portfolio of proprietary and clinically validated LNP products and associated intellectual property, as well as technology transfer of Arbutus’ manufacturing know-how. Under this agreement, we made an upfront payment of $5.0 million, which was included in research and development expenses during the year ended December 31, 2017. We also reimbursed Arbutus for materials and personnel costs totaling $0.2 million, which were included in research and development expenses during the same period. See “Business—Manufacturing and Process Development—License Agreement with Arbutus Biopharma Corporation” for additional information.

We expect our research and development expenses to increase substantially in the future as we advance our personalized cancer immunotherapy candidate into and through clinical studies and pursue regulatory approval. The process of conducting the necessary clinical studies to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time-consuming. Clinical studies generally become larger and more costly to conduct as they advance into later stages and, in the future, we will be required to make estimates for expense accruals related to clinical study expenses. The successful development of our product candidates is highly uncertain. The actual probability of success for our product candidates may be affected by a variety of risks and uncertainties associated with drug development, including those set forth in the section of this prospectus titled “Risk Factors.” At this time, we cannot reasonably estimate the nature, timing or costs required to complete the remaining development of our current or any future product candidates. As a result of these uncertainties, we are unable to determine the duration and completion costs of our research and development projects or when and to what extent we will generate revenue from the commercialization and sale of our product candidates.

Due to the early-stage nature of our personalized cancer immunotherapy programs, we do not track costs on a project-by-project basis. As our programs enter clinical studies, we intend to track the costs of each program.

General and Administrative Expenses

Our general and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and related costs, including payroll taxes, benefits, non-cash stock-based compensation and travel. Other general and administrative expenses include legal costs of pursuing patent protection of our intellectual property, and professional service fees for auditing, tax and general legal services. We expect our general and administrative expenses to continue to increase in the future as we expand our operating activities and prepare for potential commercialization of our current and future product candidates, increase our headcount and support our operations as a public company, including increased expenses related to legal, accounting, regulatory and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with requirements of The Nasdaq Global Market and the SEC, directors and officers liability insurance premiums and investor relations activities. Allocated expenses consist of rent expenses related to our office and research and development facilities, depreciation and other allocated costs not otherwise included in research and development expenses.

Interest Income, Net

Interest income, net, consists primarily of interest income and investment income earned on our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and interest expense on our lease financing obligation.

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Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2016 and 2017

The following table sets forth the significant components of our results of operations (in thousands):

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses were $13.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to $35.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase of $21.8 million was primarily due to increases in personnel related expenses, license payments, expenses related to outside services and consultants, in-house laboratory supplies and consumables, and facilities expenses. Personnel related costs increased by $6.7 million, as a direct result of our increased research and development headcount. License payments increased by $5.1 million primarily as a result of our $5.0 million up-front payment to Arbutus. Outside services and consultants increased by $5.1 million for preclinical testing, sample acquisition and manufacturing expansion. In-house expenses for laboratory supplies and consumables increased by $3.7 million, and reflect our increased research and development personnel. Facility related expenses increased by $1.1 million to accommodate our increased research and development personnel and manufacturing expansion.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses were $5.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to $6.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase of $1.0 million was primarily attributable to a $0.6 million increase in personnel related costs as we expanded our headcount, and a $0.5 million increase in outside services for patent, legal and professional services to support our ongoing operations.

Interest Income, Net

Interest income was $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to interest income of $0.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The income for both years represents interest and investment income from cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. The increase of $0.2 million was due to a higher average cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities balance in the year ended December 31, 2017, partially offset by interest expense incurred on our lease financing obligation.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity

From our inception through December 31, 2017, we have funded our operations primarily through private placements of our convertible preferred stock and have raised net cash proceeds of $157.0 million from the issuance of our convertible preferred stock. As of December 31, 2017, we had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $86.0 million. Key financing and corporate milestones include:

Additionally, we do not expect positive cash flows from operations in the foreseeable future. Historically, we have incurred operating losses as a result of ongoing efforts to develop our personalized cancer immunotherapy candidate, including conducting ongoing research and development, preclinical studies and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We expect to continue to incur net operating losses for at least the next several years as we advance GRANITE-001 and any future product candidates through clinical development, seek regulatory approval, prepare for and, if approved, proceed to commercialization, continue our research and development efforts and invest in our manufacturing facility.

Future Funding Requirements

We do not have any products approved for sale, and we have never generated any revenue from contracts with customers. We do not expect to generate any meaningful revenue unless and until we obtain regulatory approval of and commercialize any of our current and future product candidates and/or enter into collaboration agreements with third parties, and we do not know when, or if, either will occur. We expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect the losses to increase as we continue the development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our current and future product candidates, and begin to commercialize any approved products. We are subject to all the risks typically related to the development of new product candidates, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. Moreover, following the completion of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We anticipate that we will need substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations.

Until we can generate a sufficient amount of revenue from the commercialization of GRANITE-001 and future product candidates or from collaboration or license agreements with third parties, if ever, we expect to finance our future cash needs through public or private equity offerings or debt financings. Additional capital may not be available on reasonable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of one or more of our current or future product candidates. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity or convertible debt securities, it could result in dilution to our existing stockholders and increased fixed payment obligations. In addition, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, rights superior to those of existing stockholders. If we incur indebtedness, we could become subject to covenants that would restrict our operations and potentially impair our

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competitiveness, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. Additionally, any future collaborations we enter into with third parties may provide capital in the near term but we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. Any of the foregoing could significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects.

Since our inception, we have incurred significant losses and negative cash flows from operations. We have an accumulated deficit of $61.6 million through December 31, 2017. We expect to incur substantial additional losses in the future as we conduct and expand our research and development activities. These conditions raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year from the date of the issuance of our 2017 financial statements. The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the settlement of liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. The financial statements do not reflect any adjustments relating to the recoverability and classification of assets or amounts and classification of liabilities that might be necessary if we are unable to continue as a going concern.

We have based our projections of operating capital requirements on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect and we may use all our available capital resources sooner than we expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with research, development and commercialization of product candidates, we are unable to estimate the exact amount of our operating capital requirements. Our future capital requirements depend on many factors, including:

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A change in the outcome of any of these or other variables with respect to the development of any of our current and future product candidates could significantly change the costs and timing associated with the development of that product candidate. Furthermore, our operating plans may change in the future, and we will need additional funds to meet operational needs and capital requirements associated with such operating plans.

Cash Flows

The following table sets forth a summary of the primary sources and uses of cash (in thousands):

Cash Used in Operating Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2017, cash used in operating activities was $35.0 million, which consisted of a net loss of $41.4 million, adjusted by non-cash charges of $2.9 million and cash provided by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $3.5 million. The non-cash charges consisted primarily of depreciation and amortization expense of $1.8 million and stock-based compensation of $1.1 million. The change in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to an increase of $4.3 million in accounts payable and accrued liabilities. Our accrued liabilities increased due to employee bonuses and general business expenses, reflective of our increased headcount and expenses. This was partially offset by an increase of $0.4 million in prepaid expenses and other current assets for prepaid research and development being conducted by third-party service providers.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, cash used in operating activities was $15.3 million, which consisted of a net loss of $18.8 million, adjusted by non-cash charges of $1.6 million and cash provided by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $1.9 million. The non-cash charges consisted primarily of depreciation and amortization expense of $0.9 million and stock-based compensation of $0.6 million. The change in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to an increase of $2.1 million in deferred rent liability primarily associated with a tenant improvement allowance from our landlord, and an increase of $0.8 million in accounts payable and accrued liabilities. Our accrued liabilities increased due to employee bonuses and general business expenses, reflective of our increased headcount and expenses. This was partially offset by an increase of $0.9 million in prepaid expenses and other assets primarily associated with prepayments made for ongoing research and development being conducted by third-party service providers and security deposits for our leased facilities.

Cash Used in Investing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2017, cash used in investing activities was $33.3 million, which consisted of $63.2 million of purchases of marketable securities, $11.5 million of capital expenditures to purchase property and equipment, offset by $41.5 million in proceeds from the maturity of marketable securities.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, cash used in investing activities was $32.1 million, which consisted of $48.0 million of purchases of marketable securities, $7.0 million of capital

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expenditures to purchase property and equipment, offset by $22.9 million in proceeds from the maturity of marketable securities.

Cash Provided by Financing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2017, cash provided by financing activities was $95.8 million, which primarily consisted of net proceeds from the issuances of shares of our convertible preferred stock.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, cash provided by financing activities was $35.7 million, which primarily consisted of net proceeds from the issuances of shares of our convertible preferred stock.

Since our inception through December 31, 2017, we have raised an aggregate of approximately $157.0 million through the issuance and sale of shares of our convertible preferred stock, net of $0.3 million in issuance costs, which we have used to fund our operations. During 2017, net proceeds from our sale of Series B convertible preferred stock were $95.8 million. During 2016, net proceeds from our sale of Series A convertible preferred stock were $35.7 million.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not entered into any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined under SEC rules.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

The following table summarizes our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2017 (in thousands):

We are party to license agreements pursuant to which we have in-licensed various intellectual property rights. The license agreements obligate us to make certain milestone payments related to achievement of specified events, as well as royalties in the low-single digits based on sales of licensed products. None of these events had occurred as of December 31, 2017, and no royalties were due from the sales of licensed products. The table above does not include any milestone or royalty payments to the counterparties to these agreements as the amounts, timing and likelihood of such payments are not known. See Note 7 to our financial statements for additional information.

In September 2017, we entered into a contract research and development agreement with a third party CRO to provide research, analysis and antibody samples to further the development of our personalized immunotherapy candidate in the treatment of cancer. Under the agreement, we paid an upfront payment of $0.5 million to the CRO. The upfront payment has been capitalized and will be recognized as research and development expense using the straight-line method over the term of the agreement, which is one year. We are also obligated to pay up to $0.4 million to the CRO upon the completion of certain phases of the research services. These costs will be recorded to research and

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development expense over the expected period of each phase of the research services. We are also obligated to pay the CRO certain milestone payments of up to $36.4 million on achievement of specified events. None of these events had occurred as of December 31, 2017. However, we are unable to estimate the timing or likelihood of achieving the milestones and, therefore, any related payments are not included in the table above.

Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates

This discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operation is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP. The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. On an ongoing basis, management evaluates its estimates, including those related to preclinical study trial accruals, fair value of assets and liabilities, and the fair value of common stock and stock-based compensation. Management bases its estimates on historical experience and on various other market-specific and relevant assumptions that management believes to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

While our significant accounting policies are more fully described in the notes to our audited financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, we believe that the following accounting policies are critical to the process of making significant judgments and estimates in the preparation of our financial statements and understanding and evaluating our reported financial results.

Research and Development Expenses

We record research and development expenses to operations as incurred. Research and development expenses represent costs incurred by us for the discovery and development of our product candidates and the development of our technology and include: employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, travel and non-cash stock-based compensation expense; external research and development expenses incurred under arrangements with third parties, such as CROs, preclinical testing organizations, CMOs, academic and non-profit institutions and consultants; license fees; and other expenses, which include direct and allocated expenses for laboratory, facilities and other costs. Costs to develop our technologies are recorded as research and development expense unless the criteria to be capitalized as internal-use software costs is met.

As part of the process of preparing financial statements, we are required to estimate and accrue expenses. We record the estimated expenses of research and development activities conducted by third-party service providers based upon the estimated amount of services provided within research and development expense in the statements of operations and comprehensive loss. These services include the conduct of preclinical studies, contract manufacturing activities and consulting services. Payments made prior to the receipt of goods or services to be used in research and development are deferred and recognized as expense in the period in which the related goods are received or services are rendered. If the costs have been prepaid, this expense reduces the prepaid expenses in the balance sheet, and if not yet invoiced, the costs are included in accrued liabilities in the balance sheet. These costs are a significant component of our research and development expenses. We record amortization of prepaid expenses or accrued expenses for these costs based on the estimated amount of work completed and in accordance with agreements established with these third parties.

Costs for certain research and development activities are recognized based on an evaluation of the progress to completion of specific tasks. We estimate the amount of work completed through

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discussions with internal personnel and external service providers as to the progress or stage of completion of the services and the agreed-upon fee to be paid for such services. We make significant judgments and estimates in determining the accrued balance in each reporting period. As actual costs become known, we adjust our accrued estimates. Although we do not expect our estimates to be materially different from amounts actually incurred, our understanding of the status and timing of services performed may vary from our estimates and could result in us reporting amounts that are too high or too low in any particular period. Our accrued expenses are dependent, in part, upon the receipt of timely and accurate reporting from external CROs and other third-party service providers. To date, we have not experienced material differences between our accrued expenses and actual expenses.

We have and may continue to enter into license agreements to access and utilize certain technology. We evaluate if the license agreement is an acquisition of an asset or a business. To date none of our license agreements have been considered to be an acquisition of a business. For asset acquisitions, the upfront payments to acquire such licenses, as well as any future milestone payments made before product approval, are immediately recognized as research and development expense when due, provided there is no alternative future use of the rights in other research and development projects. These license agreements may also include contingent consideration in the form of cash. We assess whether such contingent consideration meets the definition of a derivative.

Stock-Based Compensation

We measure stock-based compensation expense for stock options granted to our employees and directors on the date of grant and recognize the corresponding compensation expense of those awards over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We account for stock-based compensation arrangements with non-employee consultants using a fair value approach. The estimated fair value of unvested options granted to non-employee consultants is remeasured at each reporting date through the date of final vesting. As a result, the noncash charge to operations for nonemployee options with vesting conditions is affected in each reporting period by changes in the estimated fair value of our common stock. Forfeitures of awards are estimated based on historical forfeiture experience and the experience of other companies in the same industry. The estimate of forfeitures will be adjusted over the service period to the extent that actual forfeitures differ, or are expected to differ, from prior estimates.

We estimate the fair value of stock options granted to our employees and directors on the grant date, and the resulting stock-based compensation expense, using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The Black-Scholes option-pricing model requires the use of subjective assumptions which determine the fair value of stock-based awards. These assumptions include:

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For options granted to non-employee consultants, the fair value of the unvested portion of the options is also remeasured using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model reflecting the same assumptions as applied to employee options in each of the reported periods, other than the expected life, which is assumed to be the remaining contractual life of the option.

As there has been no public market for our common stock to date, the estimated fair value of our common stock has been determined by our board of directors, with input from management, considering our most recently available third-party valuations of common stock and our board of directors’ assessment of additional objective and subjective factors that it believed were relevant, and factors that may have changed from the date of the most recent valuation through the date of the grant. These factors include, but are not limited to: our most recently available valuations of our common stock by an unrelated third party; the prices at which we sold shares of our convertible preferred stock to outside investors in arms-length transactions; the rights, preferences and privileges of our convertible preferred stock relative to those of our common stock; our results of operations, financial position and capital resources; current business conditions and projections; the lack of marketability of our common stock; the hiring of key personnel and the experience of management; the risk inherent in the development of our products; our stage of development and material risks related to its business; the fact that the option grants involve illiquid securities in a private company; and the likelihood of achieving a liquidity event, such as an initial public offering or sale, in light of prevailing market conditions.

We have periodically determined the estimated fair value of our common stock at various dates using contemporaneous valuations performed in accordance with the guidance outlined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Accounting and Valuation Guide, Valuation of Privately-Held-Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation, or the Practice Aid. The Practice Aid identifies various available methods for allocating enterprise value across classes and series of capital stock to determine the estimated fair value of common stock at each valuation date. In accordance with the Practice Aid, our board of directors considered the following methods:

Our board of directors and management develop best estimates based on application of these approaches and the assumptions underlying these valuations, giving careful consideration to the advice from our third-party valuation expert. Such estimates involve inherent uncertainties and the application of significant judgment. As a result, if factors or expected outcomes change and we use significantly different assumptions or estimates, our equity-based compensation could be materially different. Following the closing of this offering, our board of directors will determine the fair market value of our common stock based on its closing price as reported on the date of grant on the primary stock exchange on which our common stock is traded.

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The intrinsic value of all outstanding options as of December 31, 2017 was approximately $        million, based on the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, of which approximately $        million is related to vested options and approximately $        million is related to unvested options.

Leases, Deferred Rent and Lease Financing Accounting

We rent our office space and facilities under non-cancelable operating lease agreements and recognize related rent expense on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. Our lease agreements contain rent holidays, scheduled rent increases and renewal options. Rent holidays and scheduled rent increases are included in the determination of rent expense to be recorded ratably over the lease term. We do not assume renewals in its determination of the lease term unless they are deemed to be reasonably assured at the inception of the lease. We begin recognizing rent expense on the date that we obtain the legal right to use and control the leased space. Deferred rent consists of the difference between cash payments and the recognition of rent expense on a straight-line basis for the buildings we occupy.

Funding of leasehold improvements by our landlord is accounted for as a tenant improvement allowance and recorded as current and non-current deferred rent liabilities and amortized on a straight-line basis as a reduction of rent expense over the term of the lease.

In certain arrangements, we are involved in the construction of improvements to buildings we are leasing. To the extent we are involved with the structural improvements of the construction project or take construction risk, we are considered to be the owner of the building and related improvements for accounting purposes during the construction period. Therefore, we record the fair value of the building subject to the lease within property and equipment on the balance sheet, plus the amount of building improvements incurred and funded by us and/or the landlord as of the balance sheet date. We also record a corresponding lease financing obligation on our balance sheet representing the amounts financed by the lessor for the building and lessor financed improvements. Lessor financed improvement incentives due but not yet received are recorded as prepaid expense and other current assets on the balance sheet.

Once construction is completed, we consider the requirements for sale-leaseback accounting treatment, including evaluating whether all risks of ownership have been transferred back to the landlord, as evidenced by a lack of our continuing involvement in the leased property. If we conclude the arrangement does not qualify for sale-leaseback accounting treatment, the building and improvements remain on our balance sheet and are subject to depreciation and assessment of impairment. We bifurcate our lease payments into a portion allocated to the lease financing obligation and a portion allocated to the parcel of land on which the building has been built. The portion of the lease payments allocated to the land is treated for accounting purposes as operating lease payments, and therefore is recorded as rent expense in the statements of operations and comprehensive loss. The portion of the lease payments allocated to the lease financing obligation is further bifurcated into a portion allocated to interest expense and a portion allocated to reduce the lease financing obligation.

The interest rate used for the lease financing obligation represents our estimated incremental borrowing rate at the inception of the lease, adjusted to reduce any built-in loss. The initial recording of these assets and liabilities is classified as non-cash investing and financing items, respectively, for purpose of the statements of cash flows.

The most significant estimates used by management in accounting for the lease financing transaction and the impact of these estimates are as follows:

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In March 2017, we entered into a non-cancelable lease for 42,620 square feet of office, cleanroom, and laboratory support manufacturing space in Pleasanton, California. Subsequently, in April 2017, we took possession of the space. In connection with the lease, we received a tenant improvement allowance of $1.2 million from the landlord for the costs associated with the design, development and construction of tenant improvements for the Pleasanton facility building. The scope of the tenant improvements did not qualify under the lease accounting guidance as “normal tenant improvements” and we were the deemed owner of the leased building during the construction period for accounting purposes. In November 2017, construction on the facility was substantially completed and the leased property was placed into service. We determined that the completed construction project did not qualify for sale-leaseback accounting due to the collateral held by the landlord in the form of a letter of credit and will instead be accounted for as a financing transaction. The leased building for the Pleasanton facility and related improvements remains on our balance sheet as of December 31, 2017 and rental payments associated with the lease have been allocated to operating lease expense for the ground underlying the leased building and principal and interest payments on the lease financing obligation.

JOBS Act

We are an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act. As an emerging growth company, we may delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have nonetheless irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption and, as a result, upon completion of this offering we will adopt new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for other public companies.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (1) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the consummation of this offering, (2) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (3) the last day of the fiscal year in which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act, which would occur if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700.0 million as of the last business day of the second fiscal quarter of such year or (4) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.

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Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Interest Rate Sensitivity

We are exposed to market risk related to changes in interest rates. We had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $86.0 million as of December 31, 2017, which consisted primarily of money market funds and marketable securities, largely composed of investment grade, short-term fixed income securities.

The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve capital to fund our operations. We also seek to maximize income from our investments without assuming significant risk. To achieve our objectives, we maintain a portfolio of investments in a variety of securities of high credit quality and short-term duration, according to our board-approved investment charter.

Our investments are subject to interest rate risk and could fall in value if market interest rates increase. A hypothetical 10% relative change in interest rates during any of the periods presented would not have had a material impact on our financial statements.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

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BUSINESS

Overview

We are an immuno-oncology company developing personalized cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types. Our approach harnesses the natural power of a patient’s own immune system to recognize short tumor-specific peptide sequences presented on cancer cells, referred to as tumor-specific neoantigens, or TSNA, in order to destroy tumor cells. We expect to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of our first personalized immunotherapy product candidate, GRANITE-001, in the second half of 2018 for the treatment of multiple common solid tumors. Our personalized immunotherapy treatment is built on two key pillars—first, our proprietary Gritstone EDGE^TM platform, which gives us a superior ability to predict, from a routine tumor biopsy, the TSNA that are presented on a patient’s tumor cells; and second, our ability to develop and manufacture an immunotherapy utilizing a patient’s unique TSNA to drive the patient’s immune system to attack and destroy tumors.

Immuno-oncology represents one of the most significant advances in the history of cancer treatment. In 2014, the first checkpoint inhibitor was approved and today, despite only a modest breadth of efficacy across patients, this class of therapies is predicted to reach over $32 billion in combined global sales by 2022. However, because checkpoint inhibitors work through relatively non-specific stimulation of occasional, pre-existing, tumor-specific T cells, they are effective in only a subset of patients, with objective responses (substantial tumor shrinkage) observed in 0-20% of all patients with cancer of the lung, breast, prostate, colon/rectum and ovary (the major lethal solid tumor types). Many patients appear not to possess meaningful numbers of T cells that recognize their tumor (so-called “cold” tumors). We believe the path to broader immuno-oncology efficacy and more meaningful clinical responses resides in the de novo generation of new, potent, tumor-specific T cell responses.

The first pillar of our personalized cancer immunotherapy approach is our understanding of TSNA and the application of our artificial intelligence based, proprietary Gritstone EDGE platform to predict the presence of a patient’s unique TSNA on tumor cells. While there are frequently hundreds of mutations in the DNA of a tumor cell, only approximately 1% of these mutations are actually transcribed, translated and processed into a unique “non-self” peptide sequence that is presented on the surface of tumor cells and can therefore be recognized by the patient’s own T cells. Furthermore, these rare TSNA are almost all unique to each individual patient’s tumor. Current technologies cannot predict the presence of TSNA with sufficient accuracy to design a therapy that is likely to be effective. The Gritstone EDGE platform consists of proprietary machine learning models that use DNA/RNA sequence data derived from a patient’s tumor biopsy to predict which mutations will generate TSNA most likely to be presented on the tumor cell surface. Applying our EDGE platform to sequence data from human tumors, we have shown a ten-fold improvement in the accuracy of prediction with our platform compared to publicly available approaches.

The second pillar of our personalized cancer immunotherapy approach is our ability to develop and manufacture a patient-specific therapeutic to direct a robust T cell response to those TSNA predicted to be presented on the patient’s tumor. Our immunotherapy candidate GRANITE-001 comprises a sequential immunization of a viral prime and RNA boosts, each containing a patient-specific set of predicted TSNA delivered by intramuscular injection, which we refer to as our heterologous prime-boost. Grounded in traditional infectious disease vaccine immunology, this two-step immunization utilizes a prime and a boost to educate the patient’s T cells to detect TSNA and destroy tumor cells. In non-human primate models, we have demonstrated a profound and specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cell response to antigens administered in this way.

Our personalized immunotherapy candidate is designed to fit easily into a community oncology setting and to be administered in earlier lines of treatment, in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to

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further drive a robust T cell response, rather than only in refractory or relapsed cancers. Our process begins with a routine tumor biopsy from the patient. We utilize our in-house sequencing capabilities on the tumor sample and then apply our proprietary EDGE platform to derive a set of predicted TSNA likely to be presented on the patient’s tumor. Using these TSNA, we design a highly potent personalized immunotherapy candidate containing the relevant neoantigens to be administered by simple intramuscular injection. We have designed our personalized immunotherapy candidate such that oncologists will not have to alter their treatment practices, and we believe this will extend the utility of our medicines into the community oncology setting and not limit their use to scarce centers of excellence. We believe that as a result of its design, our personalized immunotherapy candidate has the potential to expand the efficacy of immunotherapy into broader patient populations.

We intend to initiate a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical trial of our first personalized immunotherapy product candidate, GRANITE-001, in the second half of 2018, evaluating it in the treatment of common solid tumors, including metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, and gastroesophageal, bladder and microsatellite stable, or MSS, colorectal cancers, in each case in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. The Phase 1 portion of our Phase 1/2 trial will seek to establish a dose for further investigation in Phase 2 and to evaluate safety, tolerability and, importantly, immunogenicity of our lead product candidate. We will seek to further evaluate efficacy and safety in the Phase 2 cohort expansion portion in several common solid tumor types.

Beyond TSNA-directed therapeutics, we are leveraging our expertise in cancer genomics and our tumor antigen discovery platform to identify novel peptide sequences (not mutated) that may be shared across common tumor types (tumor-specific shared antigens), which we believe are likely to have value as targets to direct T cells onto tumors specifically. Shared antigen targets enable us to opportunistically partner or develop additional therapeutic approaches to redirect T cells onto tumors using these highly specific targets. These approaches include (1) “off-the-shelf” shared tumor antigens in our heterologous prime-boost immunotherapy platform, (2) modifying the receptors of the patient’s own T cells to help them recognize tumor targets (adoptive T cell therapy) and/or (3) using small adapter proteins that have two recognition arms—one for tumors and one for T cells (bispecific antibodies).

The ability to control the manufacturing of a high-quality personalized immunotherapy product, and scale production if early data are positive, is critical for efficient clinical development and commercialization. We have invested significant resources in our Cambridge, Massachusetts sequencing lab and our Pleasanton, California manufacturing facility to address these needs and position ourselves to control the critical steps in the production of our personalized immunotherapy candidate.

To deliver on the promise of our novel therapeutic approach, we have assembled a highly experienced management team with focused expertise in each of our core disciplines of cancer genomics, immunology and vaccinology, clinical development, regulatory, and biomanufacturing from several leading biotechnology companies, including Clovis Oncology, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Genentech, Inc. and Foundation Medicine, Inc. Our co-founder Dr. Andrew Allen brings experience as a co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Clovis Oncology, Inc., with prior experience in various leadership roles at Pharmion Corporation and Chiron Corporation, where he worked on Proleukin (IL-2), the first cancer immunotherapy. The scientific advisory board includes selected experts in relevant disciplines, including Dr. Timothy Chan (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) and Dr. Naiyer Rizvi (Columbia University Medical Center) who together first demonstrated that TSNA are key T cell targets in cancer patients responding to checkpoint inhibitor therapy, as well as Dr. James Gulley (National Cancer Institute) who is an international expert in cancer immunotherapy with a focus on vaccines.

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Our Strategy

We have assembled a team of industry leaders, each possessing specific expertise that allows us to build and deploy our proprietary EDGE platform to predict tumor-specific T cell targets and deliver personalized cancer immunotherapies to patients. Our goal is to eradicate cancer by initially developing personalized immunotherapies that focus on the unique and individual nature of a patient’s tumor. Our strategy to achieve this includes the following key components:

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Immuno-Oncology and Tumor-Specific Neoantigens

Immuno-oncology is an emerging field of cancer therapy that aims to activate the immune system to enhance and/or create anti-cancer immune responses, as well as to overcome the immuno-suppressive mechanisms that cancer cells have developed against the immune system. It is now well established that the immune system can, on occasion, successfully eliminate all tumor cells, leading to long-term benefit, even cures, in some patients with solid tumors. The primary challenge in immuno-oncology is to extend this useful biology to many more cancer patients, and to do so earlier in the treatment paradigm. Understanding which cells of the immune system are critical, what they recognize on tumor cells, and why they are typically absent or ineffective in cancer patients is core to overcoming this challenge. T cells are the vital foot soldiers in the immune attack upon cancer cells. T cells have evolved to recognize “foreign” markers on cells infected by viruses, and DNA mutations, which are a hallmark of cancer, often lead to the generation of such “foreign” markers. Exploitation of this cancer cell vulnerability using new biological and computational tools lies at the heart of our lead program.

Critical Importance of T Cells

The most critical components of the immune response to tumors are T cells, white blood cells which mature in the thymus gland. T cells can be classified into two major subsets, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, based on expression of CD4 or CD8 markers on the surface of the T cell. CD4+ T cells (also referred to as helper T cells) provide help to the immune response by secreting cytokines that enhance the activation, expansion, migration and effector functions of other types of immune cells. CD8+ T cells (also referred to as cytotoxic or “killer” T cells) can directly attack and kill cells they recognize as abnormal. An activated CD8+ T cell attacks and kills a target cell when the T cell encounters its target and the T cell receptor, or TCR, recognizes and binds to a specific protein complex on the target cell. This protein complex is comprised of a short peptide (fragment of a protein) bound to a platform molecule called, in humans, the human leukocyte antigen, or HLA, complex. This HLA/peptide complex is the antigen recognized by a T cell receptor.

One of the primary functions of T cells is to detect and eliminate normal cells that have been infected by a virus. To accomplish this, T cells are “trained” in the thymus early in life to differentiate between HLA/peptide complexes that are “self” derived (an HLA presenting a peptide derived from a

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normal self-protein) and those that are “foreign” or “non-self” (an HLA presenting a peptide derived from a non-self-protein such as a viral protein). When the immune system develops early in life, T cells that recognize self peptides are eliminated in the thymus to avoid the risk of an auto-immune reaction. T cells that recognize a non-self peptide are nurtured and sent from the thymus to patrol the body, looking for evidence of non-self markers on cells, such as virally infected cells. Because cancer cells carry DNA mutations, which may alter protein/peptide sequences, tumor cells can also present non-self peptides bound to HLA platforms on the cell surface and, as a result, can be recognized and destroyed by T cells. In this case, the DNA mutation in a tumor creates a novel non-self peptide sequence, which, if it can be recognized by a TCR, is called a tumor-specific neoantigen, or TSNA.

Tumor-Specific Neoantigens

The notion that our T cells can recognize TSNA on the surface of tumor cells is well established. It is only recently, however, that tools and techniques have been developed to test this idea in humans. Two advances proved critical. First, the advent of checkpoint inhibitors provided cohorts of cancer patients who developed immune responses that destroyed their tumors, leading to clinical responses that could be studied at a molecular level. Second, the development of fast, inexpensive DNA and RNA sequencing techniques provided the ability to sequence and catalog tumor DNA mutations that might give rise to neoantigens. T cells from cancer patients who had responded well to checkpoint inhibitors could then be screened against candidate neoantigens to see if the patient data supported the hypothesis that T cell recognition of TSNA could kill tumor cells effectively.

In 2014 and 2015, two of our co-founders, Dr. Timothy Chan and Dr. Naiyer Rizvi, brought these two concepts together in papers demonstrating that melanoma and lung cancer patients who responded to checkpoint inhibitor therapies had developed T cells that recognized TSNA (Snyder et al, The New England Journal of Medicine (2014); Rizvi et al, Science (2015)). Further evidence from Dr. Steven Rosenberg (Center for Cancer Research) and Dr. Ton Schumacher (Netherlands Cancer Institute) demonstrated that in patients with solid tumors, T cells could be found infiltrating tumors which were specific for TSNA, and could be expanded and used therapeutically to kill tumor cells (Stevanovic et al, Science (2017); Schumacher and Schreiber, Science (2015)). Together, this body of research suggests that in patients with common solid tumors, T cells can selectively destroy tumor cells through recognition of TSNA.

Immune Evasion

While some patients do respond to checkpoint inhibitor therapy with the mobilization of T cells that recognize TSNA and kill tumor cells, such patients are in the minority (0-20% for most common solid tumors). Research into this clinical observation has shown that patients who respond to checkpoint inhibitors typically have, prior to therapy, inflamed tumors that contain infiltrating T cells (particularly cytotoxic CD8+ T cells) and that express markers of immune activation. While the immune systems of these patients have recognized their tumors through the recognition of TSNA, the tumor-specific T cells have been shut down or inactivated in the tumor. Checkpoint inhibitors are capable of “re-activating” these T cells, but most patients fail to respond to checkpoint inhibitor treatment because tumor-specific T cells are absent from the tumor due to tumor “evasion” of the patient’s immune response. We believe it is highly likely these patients have so-called “naïve” T cells in their bodies that have the ability to recognize the TSNA on tumor cells but that have not yet been activated. As a result, immune recognition, or the activation of the naïve T cells to the tumor antigen, and the generation of a large memory tumor-specific T cell response has not (yet) taken place.

Our Therapeutic Hypothesis

TSNA offer extremely attractive therapeutic targets for T cell-directed therapy because they are non-self and tumor-specific, and have been shown to function as the key T cell targets in humans

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responding to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. The fact that TSNA are non-self has several key implications:

Our fundamental therapeutic hypothesis is that patients with common solid tumors often have TSNA, but the tumors have successfully evaded the patient’s immune system. Our goal is simple—to activate a potent TSNA-targeted T cell response using routine therapeutic interventions.

Our Gritstone EDGE Platform

Design of Our EDGE Platform

Neoantigens in tumors are created via a multi-step process starting with mutation in the cancer DNA, and leading to mutated peptides presented by the HLA on the surface of tumor cells. To select neoantigens for immunotherapy for cancer patients, we created our EDGE platform, which captures the essential elements of neoantigen biology via a combination of laboratory assays and computational analyses. The two steps of our EDGE platform prediction process are shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. EDGE Platform

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EDGE Step 1—Mutation Identification

Identification of neoantigens requires accurate identification of tumor mutations and measurement of their expression levels in patient cancer specimens. To achieve this, we have built an in-house, cGMP-compliant, next-generation sequencing laboratory to perform deep sequencing of tumor DNA and RNA, as well as sequencing of the patient’s normal DNA. This first step in the EDGE process analyzes routine, core needle, formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tumor biopsies and identifies tens to hundreds of tumor mutated sequences.

EDGE Step 2—Neoantigen Prediction

Only a small fraction of tumor mutated sequences are expected to result in actual neoantigens presented on the surface of tumor cells. This fraction may be as low as approximately 1% of all mutations. To accurately predict which neoantigens will be presented on the surface of tumor cells, we have generated a large dataset of HLA/peptides from human tumor specimens. Our process isolates and sequences HLA/peptides, using an immunopeptidomic mass spectrometry approach. We also analyze tumors for level of RNA expression of all genes. Our dataset now comprises more than 300 resected human tumor specimens, spanning lung, colon, ovarian and gastric cancers from patients of various ancestries to ensure broad coverage of diverse patient HLA types. Each tumor specimen yields thousands of HLA/peptides and the total dataset has now grown to over one million tumor-presented peptides.

We use these and selected published peptide data to train a machine-learning model for neoantigen prediction in our EDGE platform. The model learns the critical DNA/RNA sequence features and other factors like RNA expression that lead to a greater likelihood of peptide presentation by the HLA. Our EDGE model analyzes mutated peptides in turn and calculates the probability that the peptide will be presented by the patient’s HLA on the surface of the tumor cell, or HLA-presented peptides. We prioritize mutations with the highest probability of presentation for inclusion in that patient’s personalized immunotherapy. The EDGE model training and clinical application are illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. EDGE Model Training and Application

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EDGE Neoantigen Prediction Performance

Accurate TSNA prediction is critical for our personalized immunotherapy, and we have evaluated the prediction performance of our EDGE model in two ways. First, we assessed the ability of the EDGE model to predict HLA presented peptides. We then tested whether the ability to predict HLA presented peptides translated into the ability to predict which mutations give rise to neoantigens with tumor-relevant T cell responses in patients.

Prediction of HLA-Presented Peptides

To assess EDGE model performance for prediction of HLA presented peptides, we used five tumor samples with HLA/peptides measured by mass-spectrometry that were not included in model training. For these test specimens, we predicted which peptides are likely to be presented on the tumor cell surface. We evaluated the quality of our predictions by calculating the positive predictive value, or PPV, which is the fraction of predicted peptides that were detected on the tumor HLA. As a benchmark, we compared performance of our prediction to that of publicly available tools (such as MHCflurry or NetMHC). Averaged over the test samples, our EDGE platform achieved a PPV of 50%, representing a ten-fold improvement over standard methods, as shown in Figure 3 below. We believe that TSNA selected by our EDGE platform have a much higher likelihood of being useful targets for immunization than those selected using industry standard methods.

Figure 3. Performance of EDGE Model for HLA/Peptide Prediction

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Material Methods Approach Model Training Fresh frozen tumor resections + blood Mass spec HLA peptide sequencing and RNA sequencing HLA type Train peptide presentation machine learning model (EDGETM) per HLA allele and genomic features Model Use in Clinic Tumor biopsies + blood NGS DNA and RNA sequencing, HLA type Predict mutation presentation using EDGE™ Selected Neoantigens Candidate neoantigens with highest presentation probability

Prediction of TSNA with T Cell Responses in Patients

To show that our prediction of HLA/peptide presentation enables prediction of tumor-specific neoantigens that can be targeted by T cells in patients, we assembled a test set of independently validated, published neoantigens. The dataset comprised three separate studies in the literature, with over 2,000 mutations from 16 patients with melanoma and gastro-intestinal cancers, comprehensively analyzed for anti-tumor immune response using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs, which are activated T cells from the blood. In these studies, 11 of these 16 patients exhibited pre-existing T cell responses, with 23 neoantigens identified. Applying our EDGE model to select the top ten mutations for each patient from DNA/RNA sequence data alone, we found that nine out of the 11 patients with tumor-specific neoantigens had at least one neoantigen identified. In contrast, standard methods identified true neoantigens for only three patients.

These results are illustrated in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4. EDGE Platform Identification of TSNA for Immunization in 11 Patients