ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SPRY)

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

You should read the following discussion and analysis together with our financial statements and related notes included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in this Annual Report. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For a complete discussion of forward-looking statements, see the section above entitled “Forward Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on the commercialization and development of neffy (previously referred to as ARS-1 and, in the case of the 2 mg form, currently identified in the EU by the tradename EURneffy) for the needle-free intranasal delivery of epinephrine for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. neffy is the first and only FDA and EC-approved needle-free epinephrine product, and the first new delivery method for epinephrine in more than 35 years. neffy is a proprietary composition of epinephrine with an innovative absorption enhancer called Intravail, which allows neffy to safely provide intranasal delivery of epinephrine at a low dose within the exposures of approved injectable products across a range of dosing conditions (including repeat dosing and allergen challenge).

We believe neffy’s “no needle, no injection” approach addresses a significant unmet need in the use of epinephrine, which, except for neffy, is currently approved only in injectable formulations for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions. There are approximately 40 million people in the United States who experience Type I allergic reactions. Of this group, approximately 20 million people have been diagnosed and experienced severe Type I allergic reactions that may lead to anaphylaxis, and approximately 6.5 million were prescribed an epinephrine autoinjector. However (in 2023, for example), only 3.2 million filled their active epinephrine autoinjector prescription, and of those, only half consistently carry their prescribed autoinjector with them due to the many drawbacks of these devices. In aggregate, we estimate that up to 90% of patients prescribed an epinephrine device are not achieving an optimal treatment outcome today. We believe the market opportunity for neffy in the United States alone is significant. At the current list price for a two-pack of neffy and our target total gross-to-net yield, the estimated 6.5 million patients currently prescribed an epinephrine autoinjector in the United States represents an initial addressable market opportunity of approximately $3 billion in annual net sales, while the remaining 13.5 million diagnosed patients that have not been prescribed an epinephrine product represent an additional addressable market opportunity of approximately $7 billion in annual net sales.

These drawbacks include the use of needles, which can result in patient and caregiver injury as well as hesitation and delays in administration due principally to apprehension and pain of needles, allowing the allergic reaction to progress in severity leading to symptoms that seriously impact patient quality of life, to potential need for emergency services and/or hospitalizations, and to life-threatening symptoms or events. In particular, intra-muscular injections are subject to dosing errors and risk of accidental blood vessel injections, which can cause a significant spike in the intravascular delivery of epinephrine potentially leading to serious cardiovascular complications or events. We believe neffy’s and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates’ design, particularly the compact size and “no needle, no injection” delivery, eliminates needle-related apprehension and pain, improves portability and ease of use, is highly reliable, and will increase prescriptions for epinephrine, making it more likely that patients and caregivers will administer epinephrine sooner, achieve more rapid symptom relief, and prevent the allergic reaction from progressing to a level of severity that could lead to hospitalization or even death.

Data from our studies of neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates demonstrated nasally delivered epinephrine reached blood levels comparable to those of already approved epinephrine injectable products across single dosing, repeat dosing, self-administration or allergen challenge conditions, and produced statistically significant responses compared to injection on pharmacodynamic surrogates for efficacy even one minute after dosing with neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates.

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On August 9, 2024, the FDA approved neffy 2 mg for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in adults and children who weigh 30 kg or greater. As a result, we initiated commercial launch of neffy 2 mg in the United States, with product becoming available for shipment on September 23, 2024. This commercialization effort currently includes a direct sales force of 118 individuals targeting high-volume epinephrine prescribers that is supported by branded direct-to-consumer marketing, disease awareness campaigns with advocacy groups and non-personal promotion such as non-personal promotion including continuing medical education programs in collaboration with allergist societies, speaker bureaus, peer-to-peer programs and participation in regional and national medical conferences. On March 5, 2025, the FDA approved neffy 1 mg for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in patients who are four years of age and older and weigh 15 kg to less than 30 kg.

neffy U.S. Commercial Launch Initiated in September 2024

Our launch strategy for neffy in the United States involves an initial direct sales force outreach to high-volume prescribers of epinephrine accounting for 40% to 45% of prescriptions in the last year through an efficient sales force comprised of 118 individuals serving as sales reps, virtual reps and areas sales managers that began field operations in early October 2024; active participation since November 2024 of approximately 2,500 healthcare professionals in our neffy experience program that allows healthcare professionals to use neffy firsthand as rescue therapy for anaphylaxis during in-clinic allergen challenge; extensive non-personal promotion including continuing medical education programs in collaboration with allergist societies, speaker bureaus, peer-to-peer programs and participation in regional and national medical conferences; engagement and contracting with payers to obtain timely coverage with favorable gross-to-net discounting; our neffyconnect program that provides support to physicians and patients including our $25 co-pay savings card, $199 cash price and patient assistance programs; a telemedicine service to conveniently obtain a prescription online; partnerships with patient advocacy organizations including disease awareness campaigns in 2025; and branded direct to consumer advertising including a celebrity that is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2025.

On August 22, 2024, the EC granted marketing authorization in the EU for EURneffy (the trade name for neffy 2 mg in the EU), for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), in adults and children who weigh 30 kg or greater. Through our collaboration with ALK (discussed below), we anticipate that EURneffy will be made available to patients in certain EU member states in 2025. Regulatory review of neffy is ongoing in Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, and Australia with filings submitted by the partners, or by ARS Pharma on behalf of our partners, during the fourth quarter of 2024. neffy has already been approved or is under regulatory review in countries representing approximately 98% of the current global epinephrine autoinjector sales. Regulatory decisions are anticipated by mid-2025 in the U.K., the second-half of 2025 in Japan, year-end 2025 in Canada, and in the first-half of 2026 in China and Australia.

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We reported positive topline results demonstrating statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in treatment-refractory chronic urticaria patients at the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology medical conference in February 2024, and anticipate initiating a Phase 2b randomized, placebo controlled outpatient clinical trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria patients on a chronic antihistamine treatment regimen who still experience flares or exacerbations. This Phase 2b study is anticipated to initiate in the second quarter of 2025, with topline data anticipated in early 2026, followed by the potential initiation of a single pivotal efficacy study in 2026.

Since our inception in 2015 as ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., we have devoted substantially all of our efforts to developing intellectual property, conducting product development and clinical trials, organizing and staffing, business planning, raising capital, building infrastructure, pre-commercial and commercial activities, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We began commercial operations in September 2024 and therefore have had limited net product sales. We have funded our operations primarily with proceeds from the Merger (see Note 1 - Nature of Business to the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in this report), private placement of convertible preferred stock, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements with our commercialization partners, bank debt, and limited net product sales. From inception to December 31, 2024, we have raised $262.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, net of transaction costs, from the Merger; net proceeds of $76.3 million from the issuance of convertible preferred and common stock; $181.0 million from our collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements; $10.0 million from bank debt, $7.3 million from net product sales and $0.4 million in revenue under supply agreements. As of December 31, 2024, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $314.0 million.

We have incurred net losses from operations in most years since our inception. Our net income was $8.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 and our net loss was $54.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. As of December 31, 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $123.3 million. Until we consistently generate positive net income, if ever, our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, depending on the timing of our clinical trials, our expenditures on other development activities, the cost for regulatory filings, expenses for commercial activities to establish, maintain and enhance sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for neffy, the timing and volume of our product sales, and our ability to earn potential regulatory and commercial milestones under our license and collaboration arrangements.

Until such time, if ever, that we can generate substantial product revenue, we may finance our operations through our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, equity offerings, debt financings and other capital sources which may include collaborations, strategic alliances, marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements or other arrangements with third parties. However, we may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. In addition, any future debt agreements may limit our ability to enter into certain debt financings without the consent of the lenders thereunder. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and may require us to delay or reduce our marketing and sales efforts, or delay, reduce or terminate our research and development programs or other operations, or grant rights to develop and market products or product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities. We currently rely on third-party manufacturers and suppliers for neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates, and we expect to continue to do so to meet our nonclinical, clinical and commercial activities. Our third-party manufacturers are required to manufacture our product under cGMP requirements and other applicable laws and regulations.

ALK Agreement

In November 2024, the Company entered into a collaboration, license and distribution agreement (the “ALK Agreement”) with ALK-Abelló A/S (“ALK”). Pursuant to the ALK Agreement, the Company granted to ALK a worldwide (other than the United States, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Australia and New Zealand) (“ALK Territory”), exclusive license under certain of the Company’s patents and know-how to develop, manufacture and commercialize products containing epinephrine administered intranasally, including EURneffy (the tradename for neffy 2 mg in the European Union) (“Products”), for all human uses, including the immediate or emergency treatment of allergic reactions (including Type I) and anaphylaxis and urticaria, and other future indications as agreed by the parties. If the Company develops any new intranasally administered product that contains epinephrine and files a new drug application in the United States for such product (“New Product”), upon ALK’s request such New Product will be included as a Product under the ALK Agreement, subject to ALK bearing the costs of development of such New Product for its licensed territory.

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Under the ALK Agreement, we are obligated to transfer to ALK the existing marketing authorizations for the Products in ALK’s territory. We are also required to conduct certain development and regulatory activities for Products in support of obtaining further regulatory approval of Products in ALK’s territory, and will transfer such regulatory approvals to ALK. ALK is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain and maintain regulatory approval for Products through the European Commission and within specified countries within ALK’s territory. Following such approval for a Product in each indication within specified countries within ALK’s territory, ALK is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to commercialize such Product in such indication in such countries and to achieve first commercial sale of a Product in certain countries in accordance with a timeline specified in the ALK Agreement.

Under the ALK Agreement, ALK made an upfront payment to us of $145.0 million in November 2024. We are eligible to receive regulatory and commercialization milestones of up to $20.0 million and sales-based milestones of up to $300.0 million, provided that $55.0 million of such sales-based milestones are contingent upon us obtaining regulatory approval for the Product in Canada by a specified time. We are entitled to receive tiered royalty payments on net sales in the mid- to high-teens, subject to certain standard reductions and offsets. Royalties will be payable, on a Product-by-Product and country-by-country basis, until the latest of the expiration of the licensed patents covering such Product in such country, 15 years from first commercial sale of such Product in such country, or expiration of regulatory exclusivity for such Product in such country.

The contract will expire upon the expiration of the last to expire royalty term for all Products in the ALK Territory, unless terminated earlier. Either we or ALK may terminate the ALK Agreement in the case of the other party’s insolvency or in the event of an uncured material breach of the other party, except that we may not terminate the ALK Agreement for ALK’s material breach of its commercial diligence obligations. ALK may terminate the ALK Agreement for convenience upon 12 months’ prior written notice or for a safety or regulatory concern. We may terminate the ALK Agreement in the event ALK makes certain challenges to certain of our patents. Prior to a change of control and outside of a set period of time after which we commence change of control negotiations, we may terminate the ALK Agreement with respect to all countries in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) upon prior written notice to ALK and payment of a termination fee that is the higher of an agreed mid-nine digit amount and the fair market value of the Products business in the EEA at the time of such termination. We may also terminate the ALK Agreement if ALK commercializes a non-injectable epinephrine product or manufactures such a product in the United States.

ALK Supply Agreement

In November 2024, in connection with the ALK Collaboration Agreement, ARS and ALK also entered into a commercial supply agreement (the “Supply Agreement”), under which ARS will supply ALK’s requirements (and ALK will purchase from ARS its requirements) of Products for five years for a specified supply price, after which ALK may elect to transition to itself or its contract manufacturer the manufacture and supply of Products. Either the Company or ALK may terminate the Supply Agreement in the event of an uncured material breach of the other party.

Financial Overview

Revenues

We have recognized limited net product sales in the United States since the commercial launch of neffy in September 2024. We have signed collaboration and license agreements for neffy for all geographies outside of the United States. The terms of these agreements may include payment to us of one or more of the following: non-refundable, up-front license fees; clinical, regulatory, and/or commercial milestone payments; clinical development fees; and royalties or a transfer price on net sales of licensed products if neffy receives marketing approval in these regions. We expect product revenues to fluctuate in future periods as we continue with the commercial launch of neffy. We expect revenues under collaboration agreements to fluctuate in future periods based on our ability to meet various regulatory milestones, and contingent on successfully obtaining regulatory approval for neffy in the licensed regions, commercial milestones, royalties or transfer price earned from our partner’s net sales and the supply of commercial product as set forth in the agreements described earlier.

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Cost of Goods Sold

Cost of goods sold consists primarily of direct and indirect costs related to the manufacture of neffy for commercial sale, including third-party manufacturing costs, raw material and component costs, packaging services, freight, storage costs, distribution fees, amortization of capitalized in-licensed costs, and royalties on product sales. Prior to the FDA approval of neffy in August 2024, costs incurred for the manufacture of neffy were recorded as research and development expenses, which resulted in zero-cost inventory. As a result, the cost of goods sold related to neffy will initially reflect a lower average per unit cost of materials, as previously expensed zero-cost inventory is utilized for commercial production and sold to customers. We expect the cost of goods sold for neffy to increase in relation to product revenues as we deplete these inventories. As of December 31, 2024, we had $11.7 million in zero-cost inventory remaining and based on our current forecast, we expect zero-cost inventory to be depleted by mid-2026.

The Company periodically evaluates zero-cost inventory for obsolescence. This evaluation considers the shelf life of raw materials, work in process, and finished goods as well as estimated sales trends. As of December 31, 2024, no zero-cost inventory was determined to be obsolete.

Research and Development Expenses

To date, our research and development expenses have been related primarily to clinical development, process development and manufacturing costs of neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates. Research and development expenses are recognized as incurred and payments made prior to the receipt of goods or services to be used in research and development are capitalized until the goods or services are received.

Research and development expenses include:

Our external research and development expenses for neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates consist primarily of fees, materials and other costs paid to CROs, CMOs, consultant and contractors. Our clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and non-clinical development costs for the periods presented below reflect an allocation of expenses associated with personnel costs, equity-based compensation expense, and indirect costs incurred in support of overall research and development, such as facilities-related costs.

We expect our research and development expenses to increase moderately in 2025 based on our planned clinical development and manufacturing activities. We cannot determine with certainty the timing of initiation, the duration or the completion costs of current or future clinical trials and the manufacturing costs of neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates due to the inherently unpredictable nature of clinical development and manufacturing activities. Clinical development and manufacturing timelines, the probability of success and development costs can differ materially from expectations. In addition, we cannot forecast to what degree our licensing, supply and distribution arrangements would affect our development plans and capital requirements.

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The duration, costs and timing of clinical trials and development of neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates for the treatment of additional indications will depend on a variety of factors that include:

A change in the outcome of any of these variables with respect to the development of neffy and our intranasal epinephrine technology product candidates could significantly change the costs and timing associated with the development of that future product candidate. The process of conducting the necessary clinical research and manufacturing to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time-consuming. The actual probability of success for any future candidates may be affected by a variety of factors. Further, a number of factors, including those outside of our control, could adversely impact the timing and duration of our product’s or any future candidates’ development, which could increase our research and development expenses.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries, benefits, equity-based compensation for personnel in executive, finance, business development, sales and marketing and other corporate administrative functions. Selling, general and administrative expenses also include pre-commercial launch activities prior to product launch, the initiation of commercialization activities in September 2024, legal fees incurred relating to corporate and patent matters, professional fees incurred for accounting, auditing, tax and administrative consulting services, market research costs, and insurance costs.

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We expect our selling, general and administrative expenses to increase substantially in 2025. The increase in expenses is due to our sales force which was established in the third quarter of 2024, the development and commencement of our marketing campaigns and initiatives, the hiring of additional sales and marketing personnel to support full commercialization activities, and the addition of infrastructure and programs to support commercialization activities. We expect to continue to incur audit, legal, regulatory and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with exchange listing and SEC requirements, director and officer insurance premiums, board of director fees, investor relations costs associated with operating as a public company, patent costs and defense, and general and administrative personnel.

Other Income, net

Other income, net consists primarily of interest income from our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and net amortization and accretion associated with our short-term investments.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024 and 2023:

The following table summarizes our results of operations for years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):

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* Not meaningful

(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):

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Revenues. Revenues were $89.1 million and less than $0.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. The revenues for the year ended December 31, 2024 includes $81.5 million in revenues under collaboration agreements, $7.3 million in net product revenues for sales of neffy, and $0.4 million in revenue under supply agreements. The revenues under collaboration agreements consists of $73.1 million under the ALK agreement for the delivery of a license to develop, manufacture and commercialize products containing epinephrine administered intranasally in the ALK territory excluding the EEA, $0.4 million under the ALK agreement for revenue recognized under the regulatory services performance obligations, $6.0 million from a regulatory milestone under the Alfresa agreement, $1.5 million for the first event milestone under the Seqirus Agreement, and $0.5 million for the delivery of the license for neffy in the Seqirus Territory in combination with the transfer of know-how under the Seqirus Agreement. The revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023 includes the recognition of revenue for the portion of upfront and clinical and regulatory milestone payments under our collaboration agreement with Alfresa that have been allocated to research and development services provided for during that period.

Cost of Goods Sold. Cost of goods sold were $1.0 million and $0.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Since prior to August 2024, costs incurred for the manufacture of neffy were recorded as research and development expenses, the cost of goods sold for the year ended December 31, 2024 utilized zero-cost inventory and therefore consisted primarily of distribution fees, royalties, and intangible assets amortization.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses were $19.6 million and $20.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The decrease of $0.7 million was primarily due to a $1.3 million decrease in product development expenses, a $1.2 million decrease in consulting fees, a $0.8 million decrease in clinical trial costs associated with neffy, a $0.4 million decrease in payroll-related expenses, and a $0.6 million decrease in other operating expenses. These aggregated decreases were partially offset by a $2.1 million increase in expense related to an EMA regulatory milestone under the Recordati Termination Agreement, a $0.8 million increase in outside services, and a $0.7 million increase in stock-based compensation,

The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 (in thousands):

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $71.7 million and $47.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase of $24.4 million was primarily due to a $11.8 million increase in marketing-related expenses, a $10.6 million increase in payroll-related expenses, a $4.6 million increase in stock-based compensation, a $2.3 million increase in outside services, a $1.6 million increase in legal fees, a $1.4 million increase in meals and travel-related expenses predominantly incurred by the sales team, a $0.4 million increase in professional fees for accounting, auditing and tax, and a $0.3 million increase in conference and seminar expenses. These aggregated increases were partially offset by a $6.6 million decrease in pre-commercial launch activities related to neffy, a $1.8 million decrease in consulting fees, and a $0.2 million decrease in other operating expenses.

Other Income, Net. Other income, net was $11.4 million and $13.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The decrease of $1.8 million was primarily due to a $2.1 million decrease in interest income from our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, a $0.3 million decrease from the sale of in-process research and development obtained in the Merger, which occurred in the year ended December 31, 2023, and a $0.3 million decrease in other items. These aggregated decreases were partially offset by a $0.9 million increase in net amortization and accretion associated with our short-term investments.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity and Capital

Since our inception, we have incurred significant operating losses and negative cash flows from our operations. We have recognized limited net product sales since the commercial launch of neffy in September 2024. We have funded our operations to date primarily with proceeds from the Merger, the sale of preferred and common stock, revenue earned under collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution agreements with our commercialization partners, bank debt, and limited net product sales. From inception to December 31, 2024, we have raised $262.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, net of transaction costs, from the Merger, net proceeds of $76.3 million from the issuance of convertible preferred and common stock, $181.0 million from our collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements, $10.0 million bank debt, and $7.3 million from net product sales, and $0.4 million in revenue under supply agreements. As of December 31, 2024, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $314.0 million.

Cash flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 (in thousands):

Operating Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2024, net cash provided by operating activities was $13.5 million. This consisted primarily of net income of $8.0 million, an increase in our operating liabilities of $18.5 million, an increase in our operating assets of $20.3 million, and non-cash charges of $7.4 million. The increase in our operating assets was primarily due to an increase in accounts receivable of $8.2 million, an increase in prepaid and other assets of $6.2 million, and an increase in inventories of $5.9 million. The increase in our operating liabilities was due to an increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $16.4 million and an increase in contract liability of $2.1 million. The non-cash charges consisted primarily of non-cash stock-based compensation of $14.5 million, partially offset by $7.3 million in net amortization of discounts on short-term investments.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, net cash used in operating activities was $59.3 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $54.4 million, a decrease in our operating liabilities of $5.9 million, an increase in our operating assets of $1.4 million, and non-cash charges of $2.4 million. The decrease in our operating liabilities was primarily due to a decrease in contract liability of $3.1 million and a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $2.8 million. The increase in our operating assets was primarily due to an increase in prepaid and other assets of $1.4 million. The non-cash charges consisted of non-cash stock-based compensation of $9.2 million, partially offset by $6.9 million in net amortization of discounts on short-term investments.

Investing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2024, the cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities was $106.1 million. This consisted primarily of purchases of short-term investments of $356.0 million, maturities of short-term investments of $258.0 million, payments of milestone obligations under license agreements of $7.5 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $0.6 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, the cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities was $87.2 million. This consisted primarily of purchases of short-term investments of $272.0 million, maturities of short-term investments of $185.0 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $0.2 million.

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Financing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2024, the cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities was $72.4 million. This consisted of $69.4 million from the upfront payment from ALK that was allocated to the EEA License and $3.0 million from stock option exercises and the employee stock purchase plan.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, the cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities was $6.9 million, which consisted of proceeds from stock option exercises and the employee stock purchase plan.

Future Funding Requirements

Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, and revenues from product sales and cash proceeds from collaboration and out-licensing agreements will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash requirements through at least the next three years. In particular, we expect our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, and revenues from net product sales and cash proceeds from collaboration and out-licensing agreements will allow us to fund commercial manufacturing and sales and marketing activities, general operating activities and working capital requirements, and proof of concept clinical trials of neffy for additional indications. However, our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement that involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary materially. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we expect. Additionally, the process of testing product candidates in clinical trials is costly, and the timing of progress and expenses in these trials is uncertain.

Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues to support our cost structure, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, equity offerings, debt financings and other capital sources which may include collaborations, strategic alliances, marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements or other arrangements with third parties. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders will be or could be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Debt financing and equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. In addition, our current or future debt agreements may limit our ability to incur additional debt. If we raise funds through additional collaborations, or other similar arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, development programs or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us and/or may reduce the value of our common stock.

Our ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States, including due to bank failures, and worldwide resulting from macroeconomic factors. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development and commercialization, we cannot predict the timing or amount of increased expenses and cannot assure you that we will generate profits or positive cash flows from operating activities in the future.

Material Cash Requirements

The total amount of unconditional purchase obligations related to the supply of raw materials is $64.9 million as of December 31, 2024. Payment obligations by year are as follows: 2025 ($8.2 million), 2026 ($10.5 million), 2027 ($11.8 million), 2028 ($13.8 million), and $2.9 million per year thereafter through 2035.

The total amount of unconditional purchase obligations related to hosted software license subscription fees is $3.3 million as of December 31, 2024. Payment obligations by year are as follows: 2025 ($1.4 million), 2026 ($1.5 million), and 2027 ($0.4 million).

In August 2024, we entered into a corporate sponsorship agreement with Food Allergy Research and Education, Inc. pursuant to which we have payment obligations of $9.0 million over a 28-month period. Our remaining payment obligations as of December 31, 2024 are $7.0 million. Estimated payments by year are as follows: 2025 ($4.0 million), and 2026 ($3.0 million).

In June 2018, we entered into a License Agreement (the “Aegis Agreement”) with Aegis Therapeutics, LLC (“Aegis”). In November 2024, OrbiMed Advisors LLC (“OrbiMed”) entered into an agreement with Aegis, to purchase the rights, royalty interests, and related sales milestone payments on net product sales of neffy. Our remaining payment obligations to OrbiMed under the Aegis Agreement are contingent upon our achievement of certain commercial milestones and have been reduced to $11.0 million as of December 31, 2024. Under the Aegis Agreement, we are also required to make royalty payments to OrbiMed based on a mid-single-digit percentage of net product sales. Future royalty payment amounts are indeterminate since they depend on future revenues, which are uncertain.

On February 22, 2023, we entered into a termination agreement (the “Recordati Termination Agreement”) with Recordati Ireland, Ltd. (“Recordati”) to reacquire the rights to neffy in Europe and certain European Free Trade Association, Russia/the Commonwealth of Independent States, Middle East and African countries (the “Recordati Territory”). Pursuant to which, we are obligated to make milestone payments to Recordati that are contingent upon our achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones. Our remaining milestone payment obligations to Recordati have been reduced to €5.0 million (approximately $5.2 million in U.S. dollars) as of December 31, 2024. Under the Recordati Termination Agreement, we are also required to make royalty payments to Recordati of up to €5.0 million (approximately $5.2 million in U.S. dollars) in the aggregate from sales of Recordati Licensed Product(s) in the Recordati Territory. Future royalty payment amounts are indeterminate since they depend on future revenues, which are uncertain.

We enter into contracts in the normal course of business with third-party contract organizations and vendors for clinical studies, manufacturing and other services and products. These contracts generally provide for termination after a notice period.

As of December 31, 2024, we have not recognized any reserves related to uncertain tax positions. As of December 31, 2024, we had no accrued interest or penalties related to uncertain tax positions.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to revenue, accrued expenses, stock-based compensation, and valuation allowances for deferred tax assets. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

While our significant accounting policies and estimates are described in more detail in Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements, we believe the following accounting policies and estimates to be most critical to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Net Product Revenue

Our revenues generally consist of product sales of neffy and licenses and milestone revenue generated from license and collaboration agreements.

We recognize revenue in accordance with ASC Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The provisions of ASC 606 require the following steps to determine revenue recognition: (i) identification of the promised goods or services in the contract; (ii) determination of whether the promised goods or services are performance obligations including whether they are distinct in the context of the contract; (iii) measurement of the transaction price, including the constraint on variable consideration; (iv) allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations based on estimated selling prices; and (v) recognition of revenue when (or as) we satisfy each performance obligation. At contract inception, we assess the goods or services promised within each contract, determine whether each promised good or service is distinct and identify those that are performance obligations. We recognize as revenue the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.

Product revenue is recorded with each sale at wholesale acquisition cost, net of reserves for variable components, including but not limited to distribution service fees, prompt pay discounts, product returns, chargebacks, rebates, and co-payment assistance, which are collectively referred to as “Gross-to-Net Adjustments.” In accordance with ASC 606, the Company must make significant judgments to determine the estimates for certain Gross-to-Net Adjustments. Estimates for Gross-to-Net Adjustments are reassessed each reporting period, and adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis, which would affect product revenue and net income in the period of adjustment.

The Company utilizes the expected value method when estimating the amount of variable consideration to include in the transaction price with respect to each of the foregoing variable components. Variable consideration is included in the transaction price only to the extent it is probable that a significant revenue reversal will not occur when the uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is resolved.

Collaboration and License Agreements

The Company has entered into collaboration and licensing agreements, including supply and distribution, to license certain rights to neffy to third parties. The terms of these arrangements typically include payment to the Company of one or more of the following: non-refundable, up-front license fees; clinical, regulatory, and/or commercial milestone payments; payment for clinical and commercial supply and royalties or a transfer price on the net sales of licensed products.

Licenses of Intellectual Property. If the license to the Company’s intellectual property is determined to be distinct from the other performance obligations identified in the arrangement, revenue is recognized from non-refundable, up-front payments allocated to the license when the license is transferred to the customer and the customer is able to use and benefit from the license. If the license is subject to repurchase by the Company, at its option, control of the license is not considered transferred to the customer, and in such case, the Company would account for the proceeds allocated to such license as either a financing obligation or a lease in accordance with ASC 606. Future amounts received related to the license which is subject to our repurchase would be accounted for as additional financing proceeds and would increase the financing obligation on our consolidated balance sheet. The Company would record such financing obligation as revenue when the right to repurchase has lapsed or was exercised.

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If the license is not a distinct performance obligation, the Company evaluates the combined performance obligation to determine whether the combined performance obligation is satisfied over time or at a point in time and, if over time, the appropriate method of measuring progress for purposes of recognizing revenue from non-refundable, up-front fees. The Company evaluates the measure of progress each reporting period and, if necessary, adjusts the measure of performance and related revenue recognition.

Milestone Payments. At the inception of each arrangement that includes clinical, regulatory or commercial milestone payments, the Company evaluates whether achieving the milestones is considered probable and estimates the amount to be included in the transaction price using the most likely amount method. If it is probable that a significant revenue reversal would not occur, the value of the associated milestone is included in the transaction price. Milestone payments that are not within the Company’s control, such as approvals from regulators or where attainment of the specified event is dependent on the development activities of a third party, are not considered probable of being achieved until those approvals are received or the specified event occurs. Revenue is recognized when the underlying performance obligation has been met.

Transaction Price Allocation. At the inception of each arrangement, the Company identifies the distinct performance obligations included in the arrangement, and allocates the transaction price to the performance obligations based upon their relative standalone selling prices. Standalone selling price is the price at which an entity would sell a promised good or service separately to a customer. The best evidence of standalone selling price is an observable price of a good or service when sold separately by an entity in similar circumstances to similar customers. Since the Company typically does not have such evidence, the Company estimates standalone selling price so that the amount that is allocated to each performance obligation equals the amount that the Company expects to receive for transferring the promised goods or services. The methods that the Company uses to make such estimates include (1) the adjusted market assessment approach, under which the Company forecasts product sales in the appropriate market, considers probability of commercialization success, and estimates discount rates; and (2) the expected cost of satisfying the performance obligations inclusive of a reasonable margin, or the expected cost plus margin approach.

Research and Development Revenues. For arrangements that contain research and development commitments, any arrangement consideration allocated to the research and development work is recognized as the underlying services are performed over the research and development term, if the criteria for over-time recognition are met. If the over-time recognition criteria are not met, research and development performance obligations are recognized at a point in time, when the research and development work is completed.

Clinical and Commercial Supply. Arrangements that include a promise for the future supply of drug product for either clinical development or commercial supply at the licensee’s discretion are generally considered customer options. The Company assesses if these options provide a material right to the licensee and if so, they are accounted for as separate performance obligations.

Royalty/Transfer Price Revenues. For arrangements that include sales-based royalties or transfer price, including milestone payments based on the level of sales, and the license is deemed to be the predominant item to which the royalties relate, the Company recognizes revenue at the later of (i) when the related sales occur, or (ii) when the performance obligation to which some or all of the royalty has been allocated has been satisfied (or partially satisfied). The Company has not received any royalty or transfer price revenues as of December 31, 2024.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements for information about recent accounting pronouncements, the timing of their adoption, and our assessment, if any, of their potential impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company Status

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted and intend to rely on certain exemptions from various public company reporting requirements, including not being required to have our internal control over financial reporting audited by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

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Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards issued subsequent to the enactment of the JOBS Act until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with certain new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date that we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with the new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (i) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt securities during the prior three-year period; and (ii) December 31, 2025.

We are also a “smaller reporting company” as defined in the Exchange Act. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter or (ii) our annual revenue was less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year for which audited financial statements are available as of the date of determination and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million measured on the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter. If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and other matters.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis together with our financial statements and related notes included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in this Annual Report. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For a complete discussion of forward-looking statements, see the section above entitled “Forward Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of ARS-1 (brand name neffy), a proprietary product candidate for the needle-free intranasal delivery of epinephrine for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. neffy is a proprietary composition of epinephrine with an innovative absorption enhancer called Intravail®, which allows neffy to provide intranasal delivery of epinephrine.

We believe neffy’s “no needle, no injection” approach will address a significant unmet need in the use of epinephrine, which is currently approved only in injectable formulations for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions. There are approximately 40 million people in the United States who experience Type I allergic reactions. Of this group, approximately 20 million people have been diagnosed and experienced severe Type I allergic reactions that may lead to anaphylaxis, but only 3.2 million currently have an active epinephrine autoinjector prescription, and of those, only half consistently carry their prescribed autoinjector with them due to the many drawbacks of these devices. In aggregate, we estimate that 90% of patients prescribed an epinephrine device are not achieving an optimal treatment outcome today. These drawbacks include the use of needles in the devices, which can result in patient and caregiver injury as well as hesitation and delays in administration due principally to apprehension and pain of needles, allowing the allergic reaction to progress in severity leading to symptoms that seriously impact patient quality of life, to potential need for emergency services and/or hospitalizations, and to life-threatening symptoms or events. Intra-muscular injections also are subject to dosing errors and risk of accidental blood vessel injections, which can cause a significant spike in the intravascular delivery of epinephrine potentially leading to serious cardiovascular complications or events. We believe neffy’s “no needle, no injection” delivery that eliminates apprehension, pain and safety concerns, small size allowing for ease of portability, ease of use, and high reliability provide it with a user-friendly profile that will increase prescriptions for epinephrine and make it more likely for patients and caregivers to administer epinephrine sooner, achieve more rapid symptom relief and prevent the allergic reaction from progressing to a level of severity that could lead to hospitalization or even death.

Data from our studies of neffy demonstrated nasally delivered epinephrine reached blood levels comparable to those of already approved epinephrine injectable products, and produced statistically significant responses compared to injection on pharmacodynamic surrogates for efficacy even one minute after dosing with neffy.

Following the acceptance of our NDA in October 2022 for review by the FDA, on May 11, 2023, the FDA held a virtual meeting of its Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee (“PADAC”). At that meeting, on the question of whether the data from our neffy pharmacokinetic (“PK”)/pharmacodynamic (“PD”) results support a favorable benefit-risk assessment in adults for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions including anaphylaxis, the PADAC voted 16 (yes) and 6 (no). On the question of whether the neffy PK/PD results support a favorable benefit-risk assessment in children ≥30 kg for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions including anaphylaxis, the PADAC voted 17 (yes) and 5 (no). Although the FDA considers the recommendations of the PADAC, the recommendation by the PADAC is non-binding.

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On September 19, 2023, the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter (“CRL”) for our NDA requesting completion of a PK/PD study assessing repeat doses of neffy compared to repeat doses of epinephrine injection product under allergen-induced allergic rhinitis. This request came after the favorable benefit-risk assessment of the PADAC to approve neffy without need for additional studies. In addition, we had aligned with the FDA in May 2023, and re-confirmed in August 2023 to conduct this repeat-dose study under allergen-induced allergic rhinitis study as a post-marketing requirement as informative for labeling. The CRL also requested additional information on nitrosamine impurities to be tested based on new draft guidance issued in August 2023 after the neffy NDA submission. Our testing, based on methods in the older guidance, did not detect any nitrosamines above or close to the recommended acceptable daily intake limit for chronic exposure. neffy is for acute use.

We held a type A meeting with the FDA to discuss the contents of the CRL on October 24, 2023. The FDA reiterated that no other information is required beyond the contents of the CRL. The FDA also confirmed that the previously agreed design for the repeat-dose clinical study to evaluate the similarity of twice dosing injection and twice dosing neffy under allergen-induced allergic rhinitis will generate the necessary data to answer its outstanding questions regarding neffy. In addition, the neffy resubmission will be classified as Class 2, with an action expected within six months of receipt date.

We reported topline data in February 2024 from this additional repeat dose study requested by the FDA, and plan to submit our response to the FDA’s CRL early in the second quarter of 2024, with an anticipated PDUFA target action date in the middle of the second half of 2024. We have also completed the additional nitrosamine testing based on the new draft guidance issued by the FDA in August 2023, and no measurable levels of nitrosamines were detected. If approved, we believe neffy will be the first “no needle, no injection” marketed epinephrine product for the emergency treatment of type I allergic reactions.

Our marketing authorization application for neffy is also under review by the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) with a decision expected by mid-2024 following a grant of an extension to respond to additional requests for data and analysis.

We reported positive topline results demonstrating statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in treatment-refractory chronic urticaria patients at the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology medical conference in February 2024, and anticipate initiating a Phase 2 clinical trial in the outpatient urticaria setting during 2024.

Since our inception in 2015 as ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., we have devoted substantially all of our efforts and financial resources to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, performing research and development activities, pre-commercial activities, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We do not have any products approved for sale and have not generated any product sales. We have funded our operations primarily with proceeds from the Merger (as more fully described below), private placement of convertible preferred stock, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements with our commercialization partners, and bank debt. From inception to December 31, 2023, we have raised $262.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, net of transaction costs, from the Merger; net proceeds of $76.3 million from the issuance of convertible preferred and common stock; $27.8 million from our collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements; and $10.0 million from bank debt. As of December 31, 2023, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $228.4 million.

We have incurred net losses from operations since our inception. Our net losses were $54.4 million and $34.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. As of December 31, 2023 we had an accumulated deficit of $131.3 million. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, depending on the timing of our clinical trials, our expenditures on other development activities, the cost for regulatory filings, expenses for pre-commercial activities to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for our product candidates, and our ability to earn potential regulatory and commercial milestones under our collaboration arrangements. We expect our expenses and operating losses will increase substantially as our product candidate, neffy potentially is approved by the FDA and we commence commercialization efforts, any future product candidates advance through clinical trials, and we expand our clinical, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and pre-commercial sales and marketing capabilities. If we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we will incur significant commercialization expenses for marketing, sales, manufacturing and distribution activities, and added expenditures to expand our operational, financial and management systems and increase personnel to support these operations.

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We do not expect to generate any revenues from product sales unless and until we successfully obtain regulatory approval for one or more product candidates, if ever. Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we may finance our operations through our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, equity offerings, debt financings and other capital sources which may include collaborations, strategic alliances, marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements or other arrangements with third parties. However, we may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. In addition, any future debt agreements may limit our ability to enter into certain debt financings without the consent of the lenders thereunder. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and may require us to delay, reduce or terminate our research and development programs or other operations, or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities. We currently rely on third-party manufacturers and suppliers for neffy, and we expect to continue to do so to meet our nonclinical, clinical and any commercial activities. Our third-party manufacturers are required to manufacture our product candidates under cGMP requirements and other applicable laws and regulations.

Merger

On November 8, 2022 (the “Closing Date”), Silverback Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Silverback”), now known as ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., completed its reverse merger (the “Merger”) with privately-held ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in accordance with the terms of the agreement and plan of merger and reorganization, dated July 21, 2022, as amended on August 11, 2022 and October 25, 2022 (the “Merger Agreement”), whereby Sabre Merger Sub, Inc. (“Merger Sub”), a Delaware corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of Silverback, merged into ARS Pharma, with ARS Pharma surviving as Silverback’s wholly-owned subsidiary. At the completion of the Merger, the prior ARS Pharma equityholders owned 62% and the prior Silverback equityholders owned 38% of the combined company, in each case on a fully diluted basis using the treasury stock method and excluding out-of-money options of Silverback. Upon completion of the Merger, Silverback changed its name to ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. As, among other facts, the stockholders of privately-held ARS Pharma owned a majority of the combined company, the Merger was treated for accounting purposes as if ARS Pharma had acquired Silverback. As a result of the Merger being accounted for as if ARS Pharma had acquired Silverback, all financial statements prior to the Merger are of ARS Pharma.

At the effective time of the Merger (the “Effective Time”), each share of ARS Pharma common stock outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time, after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all shares of preferred stock of ARS Pharma into shares of ARS Pharma common stock immediately prior to the Effective Time, (excluding shares held as treasury stock by ARS Pharma or held or owned by Silverback, Merger Sub or any subsidiary of Silverback or ARS Pharma and dissenting shares) were automatically converted into the right to receive shares of Silverback common stock equal to the exchange ratio of 1.1819. Outstanding and unexercised options and warrants to purchase shares of ARS Pharma common stock were converted into options and warrants to purchase shares of Silverback common stock.

Recordati Termination Agreement

In September 2020, we entered into a license and supply agreement (the “Recordati License and Supply Agreement”) with Recordati Ireland, Ltd (“Recordati”). Pursuant to the Recordati License and Supply Agreement, we granted Recordati an exclusive, royalty-bearing, sublicensable license under our patents relating to neffy to (i) perform Recordati’s development activities on the epinephrine compositions (“Recordati Licensed Compositions”) and related products (“Recordati Licensed Products”) for commercialization in the EU, United Kingdom, and certain countries in the Middle East, Africa and Eurasia (the “Recordati Territory”), (ii) manufacture (or have manufactured) the Recordati Licensed Products for commercialization in the Recordati Territory, (iii) file and hold regulatory approvals for the Licensed Products in the Recordati Territory, and (iv) commercialize the Recordati Licensed Products in the Recordati Territory (collectively, the “Recordati Rights”).

On February 22, 2023, we entered into the Termination Agreement with Recordati, pursuant to which, among other things, we and Recordati agreed to terminate the Recordati License and Supply Agreement. Pursuant to the Termination Agreement, we reacquired all of the Recordati Rights, paid Recordati a one-time upfront payment of €3.0 million, and have agreed to pay additional payments upon achievement of certain milestones including: (i) an EMA regulatory milestone payment of €2.0 million, (ii) a milestone payment of €5.0 million upon first commercial sale of a Recordati Licensed Product in the Recordati Territory, and (iii) royalty payments of up to €5.0 million in the aggregate from sales of Recordati Licensed Product(s) in the Recordati Territory.

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Reduction in Force

On September 19, 2023, the FDA issued a CRL regarding our NDA for neffy. On September 29, 2023, we initiated a 20% reduction in force (“RIF”) in order to conserve our cash resources and manage operating expenses until the anticipated PDUFA target action date in the middle of the second half of 2024. We provided severance payments, continuation of group health insurance coverage, and other benefits for a specified period to the affected employees. We incurred costs of $0.6 million for termination benefits resulting from the RIF, of which $0.1 million remains accrued for as of December 31, 2023.

Financial Overview

Revenues

To date, we have not generated any revenues from the commercial sale of any products, and we may not generate revenues from the commercial sale of any products. We have signed collaboration and license agreements including supply and distribution for neffy with Alfresa Pharma in Japan and Pediatrix in China. The terms of these agreements may include payment to us of one or more of the following: non-refundable, up-front license fees; clinical, regulatory, and/or commercial milestone payments; clinical development fees; and royalties or a transfer price on net sales of licensed products if neffy receives marketing approval in these regions. In addition, we previously entered into the Recordati License and Supply Agreement, which was terminated in February 2023. We expect revenues to fluctuate in future periods based on our ability to meet various regulatory milestones, and contingent on successfully obtaining regulatory approval for neffy in the US and the licensed regions, US product sales, commercial milestones, royalties or transfer price earned from our partner’s net sales and the supply of commercial product as set forth in the agreements described earlier.

Research and Development Expenses

To date, our research and development expenses have been related primarily to clinical development, process development and manufacturing costs of our product candidate. Research and development expenses are recognized as incurred and payments made prior to the receipt of goods or services to be used in research and development are capitalized until the goods or services are received.

Research and development expenses include:

Our external research and development expenses for our clinical stage product candidate consist primarily of fees, materials and other costs paid to CROs, CMOs, consultant and contractors. Our clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and non-clinical development costs for the periods presented below reflect an allocation of expenses associated with personnel costs, equity-based compensation expense, and indirect costs incurred in support of overall research and development, such as facilities-related costs.

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We expect that our research and development expenses will likely decrease in 2024 based on our planned clinical development and manufacturing activities, as we plan to transition to commercialization efforts for the potential launch of our first product in the second half of 2024. However, the timing for regulatory approvals is outside our control, may be delayed and is uncertain. We cannot determine with certainty the timing of initiation, the duration or the completion costs of current or future clinical trials and the manufacturing costs of our product candidates due to the inherently unpredictable nature of clinical development and manufacturing activities. Clinical development and manufacturing timelines, the probability of success and development costs can differ materially from expectations. We anticipate that we will make determinations as to which product candidates to pursue and how much funding to direct to each product candidate on an ongoing basis in response to the results of ongoing and future clinical trials, regulatory developments and our ongoing assessments as to each product candidate’s commercial potential. In addition, we cannot forecast to what degree our licensing, supply and distribution arrangements would affect our development plans and capital requirements.

The duration, costs and timing of clinical trials and development of our product candidates will depend on a variety of factors that include:

A change in the outcome of any of these variables with respect to the development of any of our product candidates could significantly change the costs and timing associated with the development of that product candidate. The process of conducting the necessary clinical research and manufacturing to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time-consuming. The actual probability of success for our product candidates or any future candidates may be affected by a variety of factors. We may never succeed in achieving regulatory approval for our product candidates or any future candidates. Further, a number of factors, including those outside of our control, could adversely impact the timing and duration of our product candidates’ or any future candidates’ development, which could increase our research and development expenses.

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General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries, benefits, equity-based compensation for personnel in executive, finance, business development, sales and marketing and other corporate administrative functions. General and administrative expenses also include pre-commercial launch activities, legal fees incurred relating to corporate and patent matters, professional fees incurred for accounting, auditing, tax and administrative consulting services, market research costs, and insurance costs.

We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase substantially in 2024 as we add sales and marketing personnel, infrastructure and programs to support pre-commercial activities, and if our product candidates receive marketing approval, commercialization activities. We expect to continue to incur audit, legal, regulatory and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with exchange listing and SEC requirements, director and officer insurance premiums, board of director fees, investor relations costs associated with operating as a public company, patent costs and defense, and general and administrative personnel.

Other Income, net

Other income, net consists primarily of interest income from our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and net amortization and accretion associated with our short-term investments.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022:

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands, except percentages):

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(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):

* Not meaningful

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Revenues. Revenues under collaboration agreements were less than $0.1 million and $1.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The revenues for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 include the recognition of revenue for the portion of upfront and clinical and regulatory milestone payments under our collaboration agreement with Alfresa that have been allocated to research and development services provided for during these periods. The revenues for the years ended December 31, 2022 also included similar revenues under our collaboration with Recordati. We expect revenues to fluctuate in future periods based on our ability to meet various regulatory milestones, and contingent on successfully obtaining regulatory approval for neffy in the licensed regions, commercial milestones, royalties or transfer price earned from our partner’s net sales and the supply of commercial product as set forth in these agreements.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses were $20.3 million and $18.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase of $1.9 million was primarily due to a $2.1 million increase in stock-based compensation, a $1.1 million increase in payroll-related expenses, a $0.9 million increase in consulting fees, and a $0.5 million increase in other operating expenses. These aggregated increases were partially offset by a $1.0 million decrease in license milestone expenses, a $0.9 million decrease in in-process research and development expenses, a $0.5 million decrease in clinical trial costs associated with neffy, and a $0.3 million decrease in regulatory filing fees.

The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses were $47.3 million and $18.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase of $28.8 million was primarily due to a $13.6 million increase in pre-commercial launch activities related to neffy, a $6.8 million increase in payroll-related expenses, a $2.6 million increase in consulting fees, a $1.3 million increase in stock-based compensation, a $0.7 million increase in insurance costs, a $0.7 million increase in legal expenses, a $0.7 million increase in general overhead, a $0.6 million increase in conference expenses, a $0.5 million increase in recruiting fees, a $0.3 million increase in professional fees for accounting, auditing and tax, and a $1.0 million increase in other operating expenses.

Other Income, Net. Other income, net was $13.2 million and $0.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase of $12.3 million was primarily due to a $11.7 million increase in interest income from our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, a $0.6 million decrease in interest expense due to the Silicon Valley Bank loan payoff in November 2022, and $0.3 million from the sale of in-process research and development obtained in the Merger.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity and Capital

Since our inception, we have not generated any revenue from any product sale and have incurred significant operating losses and negative cash flows from our operations. We have not yet commercialized any of our product candidates and we do not expect to generate revenue from sales of any product candidates until the second half of 2024 or after, if at all. We have funded our operations to date primarily with proceeds from the Merger, the sale of preferred and common stock, revenue earned under collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution agreements, and bank debt. From inception to December 31, 2023, we have raised $262.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, net of transaction costs, from the Merger, net proceeds of $76.3 million from the issuance of convertible preferred and common stock, $27.8 million from our collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements, and $10.0 million from bank debt. As of December 31, 2023, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $228.4 million.

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Cash flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):

Operating Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2023, net cash used in operating activities was $59.3 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $54.4 million, a decrease in our operating liabilities of $5.9 million, an increase in our operating assets of $1.4 million, and non-cash charges of $2.4 million. The decrease in our operating liabilities was primarily due to a decrease in contract liability of $3.1 million and a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $2.8 million. The increase in our operating assets was primarily due to an increase in prepaid and other assets of $1.4 million. The non-cash charges consisted of non-cash stock-based compensation of $9.2 million, partially offset by $6.9 million in net amortization of discounts on short-term investments.

During the year ended December 31, 2022, net cash used in operating activities was $40.1 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $34.7 million, a decrease in our operating liabilities of $11.6 million, an increase in our operating assets of $1.2 million, partially offset by non-cash charges of $7.4 million. The decrease in our operating liabilities was primarily due to a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $10.3 million and a decrease in contract liability of $1.3 million. The increase in our operating assets was primarily due to an increase in prepaid and other assets of $1.2 million. The non-cash charges primarily consisted of non-cash stock-based compensation of $5.8 million, expense of acquired in-process research and development of $1.1 million, depreciation, amortization and accretion expense of $0.3 million, and change in fair value of warrant liability of $0.1 million.

Investing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2023, the cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities was $87.2 million. This consisted primarily of purchases of short-term investments of $272.0 million, maturities of short-term investments of $185.0 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $0.2 million. During the year ended December 31, 2022, the cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities was $0.2 million due to purchases of property and equipment.

Financing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2023, the cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities was $6.9 million, which consisted of proceeds from stock option exercises and the employee stock purchase plan. During the year ended December 31, 2022, the cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities was $190.7 million which consisted of $198.8 million in net proceeds from the Merger, $0.6 million of proceeds from stock option exercises and the employee stock purchase plan, partially offset by $8.7 million for repayment of the bank note.

Future Funding Requirements

Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash requirements through at least the next three years. In particular, we expect our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments will allow us to fund our expenses related to resubmission and the FDA’s review of our NDA for neffy, fund proof of concept clinical trials of neffy for additional indications, fund pre-commercial manufacturing and sales and marketing activities, and if and when neffy is approved by the FDA, fund our commercial launch. However, our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement that involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary materially. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we expect. Additionally, the process of testing product candidates in clinical trials is costly, and the timing of progress and expenses in these trials is uncertain.

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Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues to support our cost structure, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, equity offerings, debt financings and other capital sources which may include collaborations, strategic alliances, marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements or other arrangements with third parties. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders will be or could be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Debt financing and equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. In addition, our current or future debt agreements may limit our ability to incur additional debt. If we raise funds through additional collaborations, or other similar arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, development programs or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us and/or may reduce the value of our common stock.

Our ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the US, including due to bank failures, and worldwide resulting from macroeconomic factors. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we cannot predict the timing or amount of increased expenses and cannot assure you that we will ever be profitable or generate positive cash flow from operating activities.

Material Cash Requirements

Under our license agreement with Aegis, we paid an aggregate $1.5 million for an upfront license fee and meeting certain regulatory milestones, and have remaining payment obligations of up to $18.5 million contingent upon our achievement of certain other regulatory and commercial milestones. We are also required to make royalty payments in connection with the sale of products developed under that agreement. We are unable to estimate the timing or likelihood of achieving additional milestones or royalty payments under this agreement. We are also responsible for reimbursing Aegis for patent costs incurred in connection with prosecuting and maintaining patent rights that are specific to epinephrine or epinephrine products.

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Pursuant to the Termination Agreement with Recordati, we made a one-time upfront payment of €3.0 million, and have remaining payment obligations of up to €7.0 million contingent upon our achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones, and up to €5.0 million based on a low double-digit percentage of sales of Recordati Licensed Product(s) in the Recordati Territory. We are unable to estimate the timing or likelihood of achieving these milestones and sales-based payments under this agreement.

In October 2021, we entered into a lease agreement to rent office space with a lease commencement date of December 2021. The lease has a term of 38 months. Annual rent expense is $0.2 million and is subject to annual increases of 3%, plus our share of operating expenses and taxes.

We enter into contracts in the normal course of business with third-party contract organizations and vendors for clinical studies, manufacturing and other services and products. These contracts generally provide for termination after a notice period.

To date, we have not recognized any reserves related to uncertain tax positions. As of December 31, 2023, we had no accrued interest or penalties related to uncertain tax positions.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to accrued expenses, stock-based compensation, and valuation allowances for deferred tax assets. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

While our significant accounting policies and estimates are described in more detail in Note 2- Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements, we believe the following accounting policies and estimates to be most critical to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Accrued Research and Development

We have entered into various agreements with CROs, CMOs, and other service providers. Our research and development accruals are estimated based on the level of services performed, progress of the studies, including the phase or completion of events, and contracted costs. The estimated costs of research and development provided, but not yet invoiced, are included in accrued liabilities on the balance sheet. If the actual timing of the performance of services or the level of effort varies from the original estimates, we will adjust the accrual accordingly. Payments made to third parties under these arrangements in advance of the performance of the related services are recorded as prepaid expenses and other current assets until the services are rendered. Although we do not expect our estimates to be materially different from amounts actually incurred, if our estimates of the status and timing of services performed differ from the actual status and timing of services performed, it could result in us reporting amounts that are too high or too low in any particular period. To date, our estimated accruals have not differed materially from actual costs incurred.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2- Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements for information about recent accounting pronouncements, the timing of their adoption, and our assessment, if any, of their potential impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company Status

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted and intend to rely on certain exemptions from various public company reporting requirements, including not being required to have our internal control over financial reporting audited by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

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Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards issued subsequent to the enactment of the JOBS Act until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with certain new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date that we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with the new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have at least $1.235 billion in annual revenue; (ii) the date upon which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer,” as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt securities during the prior three-year period; and (iv) December 31, 2025.

We are also a “smaller reporting company” as defined in the Exchange Act. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter or (ii) our annual revenue was less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter. If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and other matters.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis together with our financial statements and related notes included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in this Annual Report. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For a complete discussion of forward-looking statements, see the section above entitled “Forward Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of our novel, potentially first-in-class product candidate, neffy (previously referred to as ARS-1) for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. neffy is a proprietary composition of epinephrine with an innovative absorption enhancer called Intravail®, which allows neffy to provide intranasal delivery of epinephrine.

We believe neffy’s “no needle, no injection” approach will address a significant unmet need in the use of epinephrine, which is currently approved only in injectable formulations for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions. There are approximately 25 to 40 million people in the United States who experience Type I allergic reactions. Of this group, approximately 16 million people have been diagnosed and experienced severe Type I allergic reactions that may lead to anaphylaxis, but only 3.3 million currently have an active epinephrine autoinjector prescription, and of those, only half consistently carry their prescribed autoinjector with them due to the many drawbacks of these devices. In aggregate, we estimate that 90% of patients prescribed an epinephrine device are not achieving an optimal treatment outcome today. These drawbacks include the use of needles in the devices, which can result in patient and caregiver injury as well as hesitation and delays in administration due principally to apprehension and pain of needles, allowing the allergic reaction to progress in severity leading to symptoms that seriously impact patient quality of life, to potential need for emergency services and/or hospitalizations, and to life-threatening symptoms or events. Intra-muscular injections also are subject to dosing errors and risk of accidental blood vessel injections, which can cause a significant spike in the intravascular delivery of epinephrine potentially leading to serious cardiovascular complications or events. We believe neffy’s “no needle, no injection” delivery that eliminates apprehension, pain and safety concerns, small size allowing for ease of portability, ease of use, and high reliability provide it with a user-friendly profile that will increase prescriptions for epinephrine and make it more likely for patients and caregivers to administer epinephrine sooner, achieve more rapid symptom relief and prevent the allergic reaction from progressing to a level of severity that could lead to hospitalization or even death.

Data from our studies of neffy demonstrated nasally delivered epinephrine reached blood levels comparable to those of already approved epinephrine injectable products. Our NDA was accepted for review by FDA in the fourth quarter of 2022 with an anticipated mid-2023 PDUFA target action date and if our NDA is approved, we believe neffy will be the first “no needle, no injection” marketed epinephrine product for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions. However, the timing for regulatory approvals is outside our control, may be delayed and is uncertain.

Since our inception in 2015 as ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., we have devoted substantially all of our efforts and financial resources to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, performing research and development activities, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We do not have any products approved for sale and have not generated any product sales. We have funded our operations primarily with proceeds from the Merger, private placement of convertible preferred stock, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements with our commercialization partners, and bank debt. From inception to December 31, 2022, we have raised $262.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, net of transaction costs, from the Merger, net proceeds of $76.3 million from the issuance of convertible preferred and common stock, $27.8 million from our collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements, and $10.0 million from bank debt. As of December 31, 2022, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $274.4 million.

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We have incurred net losses from operations since our inception. Our net loss was $34.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 and as of December 31, 2022 we had an accumulated deficit of $76.9 million. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, depending on the timing of our clinical trials, our expenditures on other development activities, the cost for regulatory filings, expenses for pre-commercial activities to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for our product candidates, and our ability to earn potential regulatory and commercial milestones under our collaboration arrangements. We expect our expenses and operating losses will increase substantially as our product candidate, neffy potentially is approved by the FDA and we commence commercialization efforts, any future product candidates advance through clinical trials, we expand our clinical, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and pre-commercial sales and marketing capabilities, and incur additional costs to operate as a public company following the completion of the Merger. If we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we will incur significant commercialization expenses for marketing, sales, manufacturing and distribution activities, and added expenditures to expand our operational, financial and management systems and increase personnel to support these operations.

We do not expect to generate any revenues from product sales unless and until we successfully obtain regulatory approval for one or more product candidates, if ever. Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we may finance our operations through our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, equity offerings, debt financings and other capital sources which may include collaborations, strategic alliances, marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements or other arrangements with third parties. However, we may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. In addition, any future debt agreements may limit our ability to enter into certain debt financings without the consent of the lenders thereunder. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and may require us to delay, reduce or terminate our research and development programs or other operations, or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities. We currently rely on third-party manufacturers and suppliers for neffy, and we expect to continue to do so to meet our nonclinical, clinical and any commercial activities. Our third-party manufacturers are required to manufacture our product candidates under cGMP requirements and other applicable laws and regulations.

Merger

On November 8, 2022 (the “Closing Date”), privately-held ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“ARS Pharma ) merged with Silverback Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Silverback”), a publicly traded company. In accordance with the terms of the agreement and plan of merger and reorganization, dated July 21, 2022, as amended on August 11, 2022 and October 25, 2022 (the “Merger Agreement”), Sabre Merger Sub, Inc. (“Merger Sub”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Silverback, merged into ARS Pharma, with ARS Pharma surviving as Silverback’s wholly-owned subsidiary. At the completion of the Merger, the prior ARS Pharma equityholders owned 62% and the prior Silverback equityholders owned 38% of the combined company, in each case on a fully diluted basis using the treasury stock method and excluding out-of-money options of Silverback. Upon completion of the Merger, Silverback changed its name to ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. As, among other facts, the stockholders of ARS Pharma owned a majority of the combined company, the Merger was treated for accounting purposes as if ARS Pharma had acquired Silverback. As a result of the Merger being accounted for as if ARS Pharma had acquired Silverback, the financial statements of ARS Pharma are presented as the historical financial statements of the combined company for all periods presented.

At the effective time of the Merger (the “Effective Time”), each share of ARS Pharma common stock outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time, after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all shares of preferred stock of ARS Pharma into shares of ARS Pharma common stock immediately prior to the Effective Time (the “Preferred Stock Conversion”), (excluding shares held as treasury stock by ARS Pharma or held or owned by Silverback, Merger Sub or any subsidiary of Silverback or ARS Pharma and dissenting shares) were automatically converted into the right to receive shares of Silverback common stock equal to the exchange ratio of 1.1819. Outstanding and unexercised options and warrants to purchase shares of ARS Pharma common stock were converted into options and warrants to purchase shares of Silverback common stock.

Recent Events

In September 2020, we entered into a license and supply agreement (the “Recordati License and Supply Agreement”) with Recordati Ireland, Ltd (“Recordati”). Pursuant to the Recordati License and Supply Agreement, we granted Recordati an exclusive, royalty-bearing, sublicensable license under our patents relating to neffy to (i) perform Recordati’s development activities on the epinephrine compositions (“Recordati Licensed Compositions”) and related products (“Recordati Licensed Products”) for commercialization in the EU, United Kingdom, and certain countries in the Middle East, Africa and Eurasia (the “Recordati Territory”), (ii) manufacture (or have manufactured) the Recordati Licensed Products for commercialization in the Recordati Territory, (iii) file and hold regulatory approvals for the Licensed Products in the Recordati Territory, and (iv) commercialize the Recordati Licensed Products in the Recordati Territory (collectively, the “Recordati Rights”).

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On February 22, 2023, we entered into the Termination Agreement with Recordati, pursuant to which, among other things, we and Recordati agreed to terminate the Recordati License and Supply Agreement. Pursuant to the Termination Agreement, we will reacquire all of the Recordati Rights and have agreed to pay Recordati a one-time upfront payment of €3.0 million and additional payments upon achievement of certain milestones including: (i) an EMA regulatory milestone payment of €2.0 million, (ii) a milestone payment of €5.0 million upon first commercial sale of a Recordati Licensed Product in the Recordati Territory, and (iii) milestone payments of up to €5.0 million in the aggregate from sales of Recordati Licensed Product(s) in the Recordati Territory.

Financial Overview

Revenues

To date, we have not generated any revenues from the commercial sale of any products, and we may not generate revenues from the commercial sale of any products. We have signed collaboration and license agreements including supply and distribution for neffy with Alfresa Pharma in Japan and Pediatrix in China. The terms of these agreements may include payment to us of one or more of the following: non-refundable, up-front license fees; clinical, regulatory, and/or commercial milestone payments; clinical development fees; and royalties or a transfer price on net sales of licensed products if neffy receives marketing approval in these regions. In addition, we previously entered into the Recordati License and Supply Agreement, which was terminated in February 2023. We expect revenues to fluctuate in future periods based on our ability to meet various regulatory milestones, and contingent on successfully obtaining regulatory approval for neffy in the US and the licensed regions, US product sales, commercial milestones, royalties or transfer price earned from our partner’s net sales and the supply of commercial product as set forth in the agreements described earlier.

Research and Development Expenses

To date, our research and development expenses have related primarily to clinical development, process development and manufacturing costs of our product candidate. Research and development expenses are recognized as incurred and payments made prior to the receipt of goods or services to be used in research and development are capitalized until the goods or services are received.

Research and development expenses include:

Our external research and development expenses for our clinical stage product candidate consists primarily of fees, materials and other costs paid to CROs, CMOs, consultant and contractors. Our clinical trials and manufacturing costs for the periods presented below reflect an allocation of expenses associated with personnel costs, equity-based compensation expense, and indirect costs incurred in support of overall research and development, such as facilities-related costs.

We expect that our research and development expenses will likely decrease in 2023 based on our planned clinical development and manufacturing activities, as we plan to transition to commercialization efforts for the potential launch of our first product that year. However, the timing for regulatory approvals is outside our control, may be delayed and is uncertain. We cannot determine with certainty the timing of initiation, the duration or the completion costs of current or future clinical trials and the manufacturing costs of our product candidates due to the inherently unpredictable nature of clinical development and manufacturing activities. Clinical development and manufacturing timelines, the probability of success and development costs can differ materially from expectations. We anticipate that we will make determinations as to which product candidates to pursue and how much funding to direct to each product candidate on an ongoing basis in response to the results of ongoing and future clinical trials, regulatory developments and our ongoing assessments as to each product candidate’s commercial potential. In addition, we cannot forecast to what degree our licensing, supply and distribution arrangements would affect our development plans and capital requirements.

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The duration, costs and timing of clinical trials and development of our product candidates will depend on a variety of factors that include:

A change in the outcome of any of these variables with respect to the development of any of our product candidates could significantly change the costs and timing associated with the development of that product candidate. The process of conducting the necessary clinical research and manufacturing to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time-consuming. The actual probability of success for our product candidates or any future candidates may be affected by a variety of factors. We may never succeed in achieving regulatory approval for our product candidates or any future candidates. Further, a number of factors, including those outside of our control, could adversely impact the timing and duration of our product candidates’ or any future candidates’ development, which could increase our research and development expenses.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries, benefits, equity-based compensation for personnel in executive, finance, business development, sales and marketing and other corporate administrative functions. General and administrative expenses also include legal fees incurred relating to corporate and patent matters, professional fees incurred for accounting, auditing, tax and administrative consulting services, facility costs, market research costs, and insurance costs.

We anticipate our general and administrative expenses will increase substantially in 2023 as we add sales and marketing personnel, infrastructure and programs to support pre-commercial activities, and if our product candidates receive marketing approval, commercialization activities. We also anticipate increased general and administrative personnel to support our operations, and higher patent and facility related costs. We also expect to incur added audit, legal, regulatory and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with exchange listing and SEC requirements, director and officer insurance premiums, board of director fees, and investor relations costs associated with operating as a public company following the Merger.

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Total Other Income (Expense)

Total other income (expense) consists primarily of interest expense from bank debt, interest income from our cash, cash equivalents, and investments, and changes in the fair value of our warrant liability prior to the Merger. As a result of the Merger, the warrant liability was reclassified to equity and fair value adjustments are no longer required.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021:

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 (in thousands, except percentages):

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(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):

Revenues. Revenue under collaboration agreements was $1.3 million and $5.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The revenues for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 include the recognition of revenue for the portion of upfront and clinical and regulatory milestone payments under our collaborations with Alfresa and Recordati that have been allocated to research and development services provided for during the years. Revenue under these collaboration agreements decreased $1.2 million from 2021 to 2022. The remaining decrease from 2021 to 2022 is due to the recognition of an upfront payment of $3.0 million under our collaboration and distribution agreement with Pediatrix signed in March 2021 relating to the issuance and delivery of a technology license, with no comparable activity in 2022. We expect revenues to fluctuate in future periods based on our ability to meet various regulatory milestones, and contingent on successfully obtaining regulatory approval for neffy in the licensed regions, commercial milestones, royalties or transfer price earned from our partner’s net sales and the supply of commercial product as set forth in these agreements.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses were $18.4 million and $20.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The decrease of $1.9 million was primarily due to a $3.1 million decrease in clinical trial costs associated with neffy and a $1.9 million decrease in stock-based compensation. These aggregated decreases were partially offset by $1.1 million in in-process research and development acquired in the Merger, a $1.0 million increase in license fees for the milestone payment to Aegis upon the FDA’s acceptance of our US NDA filing, and a $0.9 million increase in regulatory consulting costs.

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General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses were $18.5 million and $4.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The increase of $13.8 million was primarily due to a $4.9 million increase in stock-based compensation of which $3.0 million was for the replacement of stock awards held by Silverback employees and directors in connection with the Merger and $1.3 million for the vesting of previously issued performance-based options, a $3.6 million increase in outside services associated with marketing and consulting, a $2.3 million increase in legal fees, a $2.2 million increase in payroll and related expenses, and a $0.6 million increase in insurance costs.

Total Other Income (Expense). Total other income was $0.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 and total other expense was $0.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The difference of $1.6 million was primarily due to a $1.8 million increase in interest income from our cash, cash equivalents, and investments partially offset by a $0.1 million loss due to the change in fair value of the preferred stock warrant liability.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity and Capital

Since our inception, we have not generated any revenue from any product sale and have incurred significant operating losses and negative cash flows from our operations. We have not yet commercialized any of our product candidates and we do not expect to generate revenue from sales of any product candidates until the second half of 2023 or after, if at all. We have funded our operations to date primarily with proceeds from the Merger, the sale of preferred and common stock, revenue earned under collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution agreements and bank debt. From inception to December 31, 2022, we have raised $262.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, net of transaction costs, from the Merger, net proceeds of $76.3 million from the issuance of convertible preferred and common stock, $27.8 million from our collaboration, licensing, supply and distribution arrangements, and $10.0 million from bank debt. As of December 31, 2022, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $274.4 million.

Cash flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 (in thousands):

Operating Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2022, net cash used in operating activities was $40.1 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $34.7 million and an increase in our operating assets and liabilities of $12.8 million, partially offset by non-cash charges of $7.4 million. The increase in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $10.3 million, an increase in prepaid and other assets of $1.2 million, and a decrease in contract liability of $1.3 million. The non-cash charges primarily consisted of non-cash stock-based compensation of $5.8 million, acquired in-process research and development of $1.1 million, depreciation, amortization and accretion expense of $0.3 million, and change in fair value of warrant liability of $0.1 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, net cash used in operating activities was $17.6 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $20.2 million and an increase in our operating assets and liabilities of $0.4 million, partially offset by non-cash charges of $3.0 million. The increase in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a decrease in contract liability of $2.5 million, partially offset by a decrease in prepaid and other assets of $1.2 million and an increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $1.0 million. The non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $2.8 million and depreciation, amortization and accretion expense of $0.2 million.

Investing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2022, the cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities was primarily due to $0.2 million in purchases of property and equipment. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities was primarily due to $0.1 million in purchases of property and equipment.

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Financing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2022, the cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities was primarily due to $198.8 million in net proceeds from the Merger. In addition, we acquired $63.5 million in short-term investments through the Merger. Also, during the year ended December 31, 2022, we used cash of $8.7 million for repayment of the bank note. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities was primarily due to $54.8 million of proceeds from the issuance of Series D convertible preferred stock in August 2021 plus $0.2 million from common stock option exercises, partially offset by $1.8 million repayments on the bank note.

Future Funding Requirements

Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash requirements through at least the next three years. In particular, we expect our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments will allow us to fund our expenses related to the FDA’s review of our NDA for neffy, fund proof of concept clinical trials of neffy for additional indications, fund pre-commercial manufacturing and sales and marketing activities, and if and when neffy is approved by the FDA, fund our commercial launch. However, our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement that involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary materially. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we expect. Additionally, the process of testing product candidates in clinical trials is costly, and the timing of progress and expenses in these trials is uncertain.

Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues to support our cost structure, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, equity offerings, debt financings and other capital sources which may include collaborations, strategic alliances, marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements or other arrangements with third parties. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders will be or could be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Debt financing and equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. In addition, our current or future debt agreements may limit our ability to incur additional debt. If we raise funds through additional collaborations, or other similar arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, development programs or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us and/or may reduce the value of our common stock.

Our ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the US, including due to recent bank failures, and worldwide resulting from macroeconomic factors. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we cannot predict the timing or amount of increased expenses and cannot assure you that we will ever be profitable or generate positive cash flow from operating activities.

Material Cash Requirements

Under our license agreement with Aegis, we have payment obligations of up to $20.0 million contingent upon our achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones and are required to make royalty payments in connection with the sale of products developed under that agreement. We are unable to estimate the timing or likelihood of achieving additional milestones or royalty payments under this agreement. We are also responsible for reimbursing Aegis for patent costs incurred in connection with prosecuting and maintaining patent rights that are specific to epinephrine or epinephrine products.

Pursuant to the Termination Agreement with Recordati, we have payment obligations of up to €10.0 million contingent upon our achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones, and up to €5.0 million based on a low double-digit percentage of sales of sales of Recordati Licensed Product(s) in the Recordati Territory We are unable to estimate the timing or likelihood of achieving these milestones and sales-based payments under this agreement.

In October 2021, we entered into a lease agreement to rent office space with a lease commencement date of December 2021. The lease has a term of 38 months. Annual rent expense is $0.2 million and is subject to annual increases of 3%, plus our share of operating expenses and taxes.

We enter into contracts in the normal course of business with third-party contract organizations and vendors for clinical studies, manufacturing and other services and products. These contracts generally provide for termination after a notice period.

To date, we have not recognized any reserves related to uncertain tax positions. As of December 31, 2022, we had no accrued interest or penalties related to uncertain tax positions.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgements and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to revenues recognized under collaboration agreements, accruals for research and development expenses and valuation of equity awards. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

While our significant accounting policies and estimates are described in more detail in Note 2- Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements, we believe the following accounting policies and estimates to be most critical to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

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Revenue

Our revenues generally consist of licenses and research services under license and collaboration agreements.

We recognize revenue when we transfer promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. To determine revenue recognition for contracts with customers we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligation(s) in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligation(s) in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy the performance obligation(s). At contract inception, we assess the goods or services promised within each contract, assess whether each promised good or service is distinct and identify those that are performance obligations. We recognize as revenue the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.

The upfront payments and fees received prior to satisfying the relevant revenue recognition criteria are recorded as contract liability in the balance sheet and recognized as revenue when the related revenue recognition criteria are met.

Collaboration agreements typically contain multiple elements, or performance obligations, including research and development services and technology licenses. Our assessment of what constitutes a separate performance obligation requires us to apply judgement. Specifically, we have to identify which goods and services we are required to provide under the contract are distinct. For our collaboration agreements, we have identified several performance obligations at the inception of the contract since the delivered elements are deemed capable of being distinct within the context of the contract. Accordingly, the initial transaction price is allocated to the various performance obligations where we recognized revenue related to the license, which was delivered upon contract inception, and the remaining performance obligation is recognized as the underlying services are provided under the cost-based input method over the research terms. Using the cost-based input method, we recognize revenue based on actual costs incurred as a percentage of total estimated costs as we complete our performance obligations. Any cumulative effect of revisions to estimated costs to complete our performance obligations is recorded in the period in which changes are identified and amounts can be reasonably estimated. This approach requires us to use significant judgement and make estimates of future expenditures. If our estimates or judgements change over the course of the collaboration, they may affect the timing and amount of revenue that it recognizes in the current and future periods.

The transaction price for a contract represents the amount to which we are entitled in exchange for providing goods and services to the customer. The transaction price does not include amounts subject to uncertainties unless it is probable that there will be no significant reversal of revenue when the uncertainty is resolved. Apart from the upfront license payment and certain milestones, all other fees we may earn under our collaborative agreements are subject to significant uncertainties of product development and commercial sales targets. The transaction price of an agreement is allocated to each performance obligation on a relative stand-alone selling price basis, for which we recognize revenue as or when the performance obligations under the contract are satisfied.

Accrued Research and Development

We have entered into various agreements with CROs, CMOs, and other service providers. Our research and development accruals are estimated based on the level of services performed, progress of the studies, including the phase or completion of events, and contracted costs. The estimated costs of research and development provided, but not yet invoiced, are included in accrued liabilities on the balance sheet. If the actual timing of the performance of services or the level of effort varies from the original estimates, we will adjust the accrual accordingly. Payments made to third parties under these arrangements in advance of the performance of the related services are recorded as prepaid expenses and other current assets until the services are rendered. Although we do not expect our estimates to be materially different from amounts actually incurred, if our estimates of the status and timing of services performed differ from the actual status and timing of services performed, it could result in us reporting amounts that are too high or too low in any particular period. To date, our estimated accruals have not differed materially from actual costs incurred.

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-based compensation expense represents the grant date fair value of equity awards recognized in the period using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. We recognize the expense for equity awards on a straight-line basis over the requisite service periods of the awards, which is usually the vesting period. Forfeitures are recognized as they occur. Estimating the fair value of equity awards pursuant to the Black-Scholes option pricing model requires us to make assumptions regarding a number of variables, including the risk-free interest rate, the expected stock price volatility, the expected term of stock options, the expected dividend yield and the fair value of the underlying common stock on the date of grant. Changes in these assumptions can materially affect the fair value and ultimately how much stock-based compensation expense is recognized.

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The Black-Scholes option pricing model utilizes inputs which are highly subjective assumptions and generally require significant judgment. We determine these assumptions in the following manner:

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2- Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements for information about recent accounting pronouncements, the timing of their adoption, and our assessment, if any, of their potential impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis together with our financial statements and related notes included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For a complete discussion of forward-looking statements, see the section above entitled “Forward Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on leveraging our proprietary ImmunoTAC technology platform to develop systemically delivered, tissue targeted therapeutics for the treatment of chronic viral infections, cancer, and other serious diseases. Our ImmunoTAC platform is the result of a focused effort to discover ways to systemically deliver disease-modifying small molecules in a directed fashion to sites of disease. Our platform enables us to strategically pair proprietary linker-payloads that modulate key disease-modifying pathways with monoclonal antibodies directed to specific disease sites. Many potentially promising systemic therapies fail to maximize their therapeutic potential due to toxicities in healthy tissues. Our approach is designed to expand the therapeutic window and avert unacceptable toxicities by directly targeting specific disease sites where our therapeutics are locally active.

In July 2020, we initiated clinical development of our first ImmunoTAC product candidate, a TLR8 agonist conjugated to a HER2 antibody, SBT6050. Preclinical data suggested that we would be able to demonstrate a therapeutic window and advance SBT6050 through clinical development as a monotherapy and in combination with standard-of-care agents that had a complementary mechanism-of-action. Our Phase 1/1b program was designed to measure safety and tolerability, PK, PD and anti-tumor activity as monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab. On March 28, 2022, we made the decision to discontinue our clinical development program for SBT6050 due to limited monotherapy activity and dose-limiting adverse events when used in combination with pembrolizumab. SBT6290, comprised of the same linker payload conjugated to a Nectin4 antibody was expected to show a similar clinical profile and, therefore, we also terminated this program prior to dosing patients. We have prioritized our resources to focus on the development of SBT8230 and early-stage discovery programs.

Our understanding of TLR8 conjugates in preclinical species and in the clinic guides our interpretation of the preclinical characteristics of SBT8230, an ASGR1 antibody conjugated to a TLR8 agonist linker payload for the treatment of cHBV, which is currently in preclinical development. ASGR1 is highly expressed in liver and is restricted in its expression to this organ. Other ASGR1-directed agents, such as those used in RNAi therapies, have shown robust liver localization. SBT8230 shows biodistribution profiles in NHP consistent with these agents, which is distinct from SBT6050 and SBT6290. We believe that efficient liver targeting of SBT8230 via ASGR1 binding has the potential to lead to markedly lower serum exposures of SBT8230 in patients compared to those observed with SBT6050 in the clinic at any dose evaluated. We believe the preclinical to clinical experience for SBT6050, coupled with the NHP PK, PD, and tolerability data for SBT8230, suggest that the clinical safety, PK and PD profiles for SBT8230 has the potential to be notably different than those for SBT6050, given the large differences in serum exposures and overall conjugate disposition for SBT8230 that are expected in patients due to its efficient liver targeting. SBT8230 is designed to elicit an anti-viral immune response by targeting TLR8 activation to the liver. The anti-viral immune response is achieved through activation of myeloid cells and subsequent activation of immune cells that drive an IFNγ signal, which has been observed in the clinic with SBT6050. This has been shown by others to drive seroconversion, an important determinant of a functional cure. We see a significant opportunity in liver-localized immunotherapies as a potential way of achieving durable responses in these patients. We are focused on advancing SBT8230, our liver-targeted conjugate designed to potently activate human myeloid cells in the liver for the treatment of cHBV.

Further support for investigating TLR8 agonism for the treatment of cHBV comes from selgantolimod (GS-9688), an existing untargeted, orally administered TLR8 agonist being developed by Gilead Sciences. Selgantolimod has generated anti-viral immune responses in a cHBV animal model. The clinical development of this untargeted TLR8 agonist has shown promise, but we believe that toxicity prevented the use of a sufficient dose to elicit optimal clinical activity. We believe liver-localized TLR8 agonism could better realize the potential for effective therapy and potentially lead to functional cure, which is defined as sustained loss of HBsAg in the blood, in patients suffering from cHBV. We presented a preclinical update on SBT8230 in the fourth quarter of 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, we began a Phase 1-enabling toxicology study. We plan to complete a Phase 1 regulatory submission in the fourth quarter of 2022 and begin a Phase 1 SAD study in healthy volunteers in the first half of 2023. After completing the SAD study, we anticipate initiating a Phase 1 MAD study in patients with chronic HBV, who are virally suppressed on NRTI therapy.

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In addition, our internal discovery programs are focused on evaluating and developing new antigen binding domains specific for targets of interest (including antibodies), next-generation linker technologies, and both agonist and antagonist small molecule payloads, that may be combined to create novel tissue-targeted antibody conjugates. The integration of medicinal chemistry, bioconjugation, protein engineering, bioinformatics, pharmacology, and translational medicine expertise focused on developing tissue-targeted therapies allows us to leverage key learnings from our previous clinical program to bring forward the next generation of therapeutics. We anticipate providing an update on our discovery pipeline in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Our ImmunoTAC platform drives our development pipeline of tissue targeted therapeutic candidates as summarized in the chart below:

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $186.2 million. Our net losses were $89.5 million and $32.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Our losses have resulted primarily from research and development activities and general and administrative expenses. We do not have any products approved for sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales or otherwise.

We expect we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future as we continue our development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates and begin to commercialize any approved products, seek to expand our product pipeline, invest in our organization and technology platform, as well as incur expenses associated with operating as a public company. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, depending on a variety of factors including the timing and scope of our preclinical studies and clinical trials. Accordingly, until such time as we can generate significant revenue from sales of our product candidates, if ever, we expect to finance our cash needs through equity offerings, debt financings or other capital sources, including potential collaborations, licenses or other similar arrangements.

On March 28, 2022, our board of directors approved a corporate restructuring plan to discontinue our clinical development programs for SBT6050 and SBT6290 and to prioritize resources on the development of SBT8230 and early-stage discovery programs (the Restructuring Plan). In connection with the Restructuring Plan, our workforce will be reduced by 27%, with substantially all of the reduction in personnel expected to be completed by July 15, 2022. We initiated the reduction in force on March 31, 2022 and expect to provide severance payments, continuation of group health insurance coverage, and other benefits for a specified period to the affected employees. We currently estimate that we will incur costs of approximately $2.0 million for termination benefits related to the Restructuring Plan, all of which will be cash expenditures paid in 2022.

Components of Our Results of Operations

Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses consist of (i) research and development expenses and (ii) general and administrative expenses.

Research and Development

Our research and development expenses consist primarily of direct and indirect costs incurred in connection with the development of our ImmunoTAC technology platform, product candidates, discovery efforts and preclinical studies and clinical trial activities related to our program pipeline.

Our direct costs include:

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expenses incurred under agreements with CROs and other vendors that conduct our preclinical and clinical activities;

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expenses associated with manufacturing our product candidates including under agreements with CDMOs and other vendors; and

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consulting fees.

Our indirect costs include:

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personnel-related expenses, consisting of employee salaries, bonuses, benefits, and stock-based compensation expense and recruiting costs for personnel engaged in research and development activities;

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facility and equipment related expenses, consisting of indirect and allocated expenses for rent, depreciation, and equipment maintenance; and

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other unallocated research and development expenses incurred in connection with our research and development programs, including laboratory materials and supplies and license fees.

We expense research and development costs as incurred. Advance payments for goods and services that will be used over time for research and development are capitalized and recognized as goods are delivered or as the related services are performed. In-licensing fees and other costs to acquire technologies used in research and development that have not yet received regulatory approval and that are not expected to have an alternative future use are expensed when incurred. We track direct costs by stage of program, clinical or preclinical. However, we do not track indirect costs on a program specific or stage of program basis because these costs are deployed across multiple programs and, as such, are not separately classified.

We expect that our research and development expenses will decrease in 2022 due to discontinuation of the clinical development of SBT6050 and SBT6290 and the Restructuring Plan. However, following 2022, we expect that our research and development expenses will begin to increase again for the foreseeable future as we continue the development of our preclinical and discovery programs, particularly as they move into later stages of development which increases costs considerably. We cannot reasonably determine the timing of initiation, the duration or the completion costs of these future preclinical studies and clinical trials due to the inherently unpredictable nature of preclinical and clinical development. Clinical and preclinical development timelines, the probability of success and development costs can differ materially from expectations. We anticipate that we will make determinations as to which development candidates and discovery programs to pursue and how much funding to direct to each product candidate or program on an ongoing basis in response to the results of ongoing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials, regulatory developments and our ongoing assessments as to each product candidate’s commercial potential.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related expenses, including employee salaries, bonuses, benefits, and stock-based compensation, and recruiting costs for personnel in executive, finance, and other administrative functions. Other significant general and administrative expenses include legal fees relating to intellectual property and corporate matters, professional fees for accounting, tax and consulting services, insurance costs, travel expenses, and facility related expenses.

We expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease in 2022 due to the Restructuring Plan. However, following 2022, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will begin to increase again to the extent needed to support growth in our research and development activities. We also expect to continue to incur increased expenses associated with operating as a public company, including costs related to accounting, audit, legal, regulatory, and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with exchange listing and SEC requirements, director and officer insurance costs, and investor and public relations costs.

Interest Income (Expense), Net

Interest income (expense), net includes interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, and long-term investments carried at fair value, and interest expense on our borrowings.

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Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

* Not meaningful

Research and Development Expenses

The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

An investigational new drug application for SBT6290 was cleared by the FDA in the fourth quarter of 2021 and we opened enrollment for a Phase 1 clinical trial of SBT6290 in the first quarter of 2022, which is now discontinued. As a result, we have separated direct costs for the development of SBT6290 from preclinical programs for the year ended December 31, 2021 and, for comparability purposes, the year ended December 31, 2020. This change had no effect on net loss, total research and development expenses, stockholders' equity, or cash flows as previously reported.

Research and development expenses were $61.5 million and $24.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase of $36.9 million was due primarily to an increase of $10.4 million in direct costs related to the development of SBT6050 as we continued to advance the program through a Phase 1/1b clinical trial. The increase was also due to an increase of $6.2 million in direct costs related to the development of SBT6290 as we advanced the program through FDA clearance of its investigational new drug application and prepared to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial in the first quarter of 2022 and due to an increase in direct costs for our preclinical programs of $4.9 million as we continued to advance SBT8230 and other preclinical research efforts. The remaining increase was due to increases in personnel-related expenses of $13.4 million resulting from increased headcount during the year ended December 31, 2021 as well as increases in salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation, and recruiting expenses. To a lesser extent, the increase in research and development expenses was due to facility and equipment related expenses of $0.5 million, and other unallocated research and development expenses of $1.5 million.

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General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses were $28.1 million and $8.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase of $19.7 million was due primarily to an increase of $13.5 million in personnel-related expenses due to increased headcount during the year ended December 31, 2021, including executives that were new in 2020 being present for a full year in 2021, as well as increases in salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation, and recruiting expenses. To a lesser extent, the increase in general and administrative expenses was due to an increase in professional fees of $5.4 million primarily attributable to legal, insurance, and outside consultant costs, and $0.8 million in other various general and administrative expenses as we operated as a public company for the full year of 2021.

Interest Income (Expense), Net

Interest income (expense), net was $0.1 million and $(29,000) for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The change of $0.1 million was primarily due to a decrease in principal on our notes payable and an increase in our cash balance. Also contributing to the change was the investment in higher interest-bearing assets during the period.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We have incurred net losses and negative cash flows from operations since our inception and anticipate we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. Since our inception, we have funded our operations almost exclusively with proceeds from the sale and issuance of shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock and common stock, and debt financings. We will need to raise substantial additional capital in the future.

As of December 31, 2021, we had $319.1 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and investments. The following table sets forth a summary of the net cash flow activity for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Operating Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2021, net cash used in operating activities was $66.8 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $89.5 million, partially offset by non-cash charges of $21.2 million and a decrease in our operating assets and liabilities of $1.5 million. The non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation expense of $19.2 million, non-cash lease expense of $1.2 million, and depreciation expense of $0.8 million. The decrease in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to an increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses of $6.0 million. The decrease was partially offset by a decrease in lease liability of $1.1 million and an increase in prepaid expenses and other assets of $3.4 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2020, net cash used in operating activities was $31.2 million. This consisted primarily of a net loss of $32.9 million and an increase in our operating assets and liabilities of $2.6 million, partially offset by charges of $4.4 million. The charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation expense of $2.6 million, lease expense of $1.1 million, and depreciation expense of $0.6 million. The increase in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to an increase in prepaid expenses and other assets of $3.5 million and a decrease in our lease liability of $0.9 million, partially offset by an increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses of $1.8 million after adjusting for items. The increase in prepaid expenses and other assets was primarily due to the purchase of $2.6 million in prepaid insurance.

Investing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2021, cash used in investing activities was $66.5 million. This consisted of purchases of U.S. Treasury Securities of $65.1 million and purchases of property and equipment of $1.4 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2020, cash used in investing activities was $0.9 million due to purchases of property and equipment.

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Financing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2021, cash provided by financing activities was $0.6 million. This was primarily driven by proceeds from the exercise of common stock options and the employee stock purchase plan of $1.5 million, which was partially offset by $0.8 million of principal payments on the term loan payable.

During the year ended December 31, 2020, cash provided by financing activities was $408.5 million. This consisted primarily of net proceeds received from the issuance of our common stock in connection with our initial public offering of $255.7 million, net proceeds received from the issuance of shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock of $153.4 million, and proceeds from the exercise of common stock options of $0.2 million, which were partially offset by principal payments on the term loan payable of $0.7 million.

Future Funding Requirements

We believe that our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and investments of $319.1 million at December 31, 2021 will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2026 following the Restructuring Plan. However, our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement that involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary materially. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we expect. Additionally, the process of testing product candidates in clinical trials is costly, and the timing of progress and expenses in these trials is uncertain.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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the initiation, trial design, progress, timing, costs and results of drug discovery, preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates, and in particular future clinical trials for SBT8230;

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the number and characteristics of product candidates that we pursue;

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the outcome, timing and costs of seeking FDA, EMA and any other regulatory approvals;

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the costs of manufacturing our product candidates and commercial manufacturing activities;

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the costs associated with hiring additional personnel and consultants as our preclinical, manufacturing and clinical activities increase;

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the receipt of marketing approval and revenue received from any commercial sales of any of our product candidates, if approved;

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the cost of commercialization activities for any of our product candidates, if approved, including marketing, sales and distribution costs;

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the emergence of competing therapies and other adverse market developments;

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the ability to establish and maintain strategic collaboration, licensing or other arrangements and the financial terms of such agreements;

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the extent to which we in-license or acquire other products and technologies;

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the amount and timing of any payments we may be required to make pursuant to our current or future license agreements;

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the costs involved in preparing, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, expanding, defending and enforcing patent claims, including litigation costs and the outcome of such litigation;

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our need and ability to retain key management and hire scientific, technical, business, and medical personnel;

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our implementation of additional internal systems and infrastructure, including operational, financial and management information systems;

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our costs associated with expanding our facilities or building out our laboratory space;

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the effects of the recent disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide from the COVID-19 pandemic; and

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the costs of operating as a public company.

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Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues to support our cost structure, we expect to finance our cash needs through equity offerings, debt financings or other capital sources, including potential collaborations, licenses or other similar arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders will be or could be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Debt financing and equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures, or declaring dividends. If we raise funds through strategic collaborations or other similar arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our platform technology, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates or may have to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us and/or may reduce the value of our common stock. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts. Our ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we cannot predict the timing or amount of increased expenses and cannot assure you that we will ever be profitable or generate positive cash flow from operating activities.

Material Cash Requirements

Our material cash requirements include the following contractual and other obligations as of December 31, 2021:

(1)
Refer to Note 6 to our financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Under our license agreements, we have payment obligations that are contingent upon future events such as our achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones and are required to make royalty payments in connection with the sales of products developed under those agreements. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we were unable to estimate the timing or likelihood of achieving the milestones or making future product sales and, therefore, any related payments are not included in the table above. For additional details regarding these agreements, see Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the section titled “License Agreement”.

In October 2019, we entered into a cell line license agreement with WuXi Biologics (Hong Kong) Limited (WuXi Bio), pursuant to which we received a non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable license under certain of WuXi Bio’s intellectual property rights, know-how and biological materials (the WuXi Bio Licensed Technology) to make, use, sell, offer for sale and import developed through the use of the WuXi Bio Licensed Technology (the WuXi Bio Licensed Product). In consideration for the license, we paid a license fee of $100,000 to WuXi Bio which was recorded in research and development expense in 2019. In 2020 we incurred an additional license fee of $50,000 to WuXi Bio which was recorded in research and development expense in 2020.

Additionally, if we do not engage WuXi Bio to manufacture the WuXi Bio Licensed Products for our clinical and commercial supplies, we are required to make aggregate milestone payments of up to $10.8 million to WuXi Bio upon the achievement of certain sales milestones. To date, other than the license fee, no payments have been made under this agreement.

We enter into contracts in the normal course of business with vendors for clinical studies, preclinical studies, research supplies and other services and products for operating purposes. These contracts generally provide for termination after a notice period, and, therefore, are cancelable contracts and not included in the table above.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to accrued expenses, stock-based compensation, and valuation allowances for deferred tax assets. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

Our significant accounting policies are more fully described in Note 2 to our audited financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form-10-K. Not all of our significant accounting policies require that we make estimates and assumptions that we believe are critical accounting estimates. Our estimates relating to research and development expenses, stock-based compensation, and income taxes have had or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on our financial statements and we consider them to be our critical accounting policies and critical accounting estimates.

Research and Development Expenses

All research and development costs are expensed in the period incurred. Advance payments, including nonrefundable amounts, for goods or services that will be used or rendered for future research and development activities are capitalized until such goods are delivered or the related services are performed, or such time when we do not expect the goods to be delivered or services to be performed. We estimate the period over which such services will be performed and the level of effort to be expended in each period. If actual timing of performance or the level of effort varies from the estimate, we will adjust the amounts recorded accordingly. We have not experienced any material differences between accrued or prepaid costs and actual costs since our inception.

Stock-Based Compensation

We recognize stock-based compensation expense for stock options on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period and account for forfeitures as a reduction of stock-based compensation expense as they occur. Our stock-based compensation costs are based upon the grant date fair value of options estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The Black-Scholes option pricing model utilizes inputs which are highly subjective assumptions and generally require significant judgment. These assumptions include:

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Fair Value of Common Stock. For all periods prior to our initial public offering, the fair value of the shares of common stock underlying our share-based awards was estimated on each grant date by our board of directors. To determine the fair value of our common stock underlying option grants, our board of directors considered, among other things, input from management, valuations of our common stock prepared by unrelated third-party valuation firms in accordance with the guidance provided by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 2013 Practice Aid, Valuation of Privately-Held-Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation (the Practice Aid). Following the closing of our initial public offering, the fair market value of our common stock is based on its closing price as reported on the primary stock exchange on which our common stock is traded.

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Expected Term. The expected term represents the period that the options granted are expected to be outstanding. The expected term of stock options issued is determined using the simplified method (based on the mid-point between the vesting date and the end of the contractual term) as we have concluded that our stock option exercise history does not provide a reasonable basis upon which to estimate expected term.

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Expected Volatility. Given our limited historical stock price volatility data, we derived the expected volatility from the average historical volatilities over a period approximately equal to the expected term of comparable publicly traded companies within our peer group that were deemed to be representative of future stock price trends as we have limited trading history for our common stock. We will continue to apply this process until a sufficient amount of historical information regarding the volatility of our own stock price becomes available.

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Risk-Free Interest Rate. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero-coupon issues in effect at the time of grant for periods corresponding with the expected term of the options.

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Expected Dividend Yield. We have never paid dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Therefore, we used an expected dividend yield of zero.

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Income Taxes

We recognize deferred income taxes for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases and operating loss and tax credit carry forwards. In evaluating our valuation allowance, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including scheduled reversals of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, tax planning strategies, and recent financial performance. Due to our lack of earnings history and uncertainties surrounding our ability to generate future taxable income, the net deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance.

As of December 31, 2021, we had net operating loss carryforwards for income tax purposes of approximately $160.3 million. If not used, $18.2 million of this carryforward will begin to expire in 2036 and $142.1 million has no expiration. We also have research and development tax credits of approximately $2.7 million which will begin to expire in 2037 if left unused.

Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code, substantial changes in our ownership may limit the amount of NOL and research and development credit carryforwards that could be used annually in the future to offset taxable income. The tax benefits related to future utilization of federal and state NOL carryforwards, credit carryforwards, and other deferred tax assets may be limited or lost if cumulative changes in ownership exceeds 50% within any three-year period. We have not completed a Section 382/383 analysis under the Code regarding the limitation of NOL and credit carryforwards. If a change in ownership were to have occurred, the annual limitation may result in the expiration of NOL carryforwards and credits before utilization.

As of December 31, 2021, we did not have any liabilities for unrecognized income tax benefits associated with uncertain tax positions, including any interest and penalties.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our audited financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Emerging Growth Company Status

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted and intend to rely on certain exemptions from various public company reporting requirements, including not being required to have our internal control over financial reporting audited by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards issued subsequent to the enactment of the JOBS Act until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with certain new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date that we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with the new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have at least $1.07 billion in annual revenue; (ii) the date upon which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer,” as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt securities during the prior three-year period; and (iv) December 31, 2025.