CYAD Celyad Oncology SA

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

OR

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

For the transition period from                  to

OR

Date of event requiring this shell company report

Commission file number 001-37452

CELYAD ONCOLOGY S.A.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter and translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Belgium

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

Rue Edouard Belin 2

1435 Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium

(Address of principal executive offices)

Filippo Petti

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer

Celyad Oncology SA

Rue Edouard Belin 2

1435 Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium

Tel: +32 10 394 100 Fax: +32 10 394 141

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act.

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act. None

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act. None

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the Annual Report.

Ordinary shares, no nominal value per share: 13,942,344 as of December 31, 2020

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

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.    ☐  Yes    ☒  No

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

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer  ☐                 Accelerated filer  ☒                 Non-accelerated filer  ☐                Emerging growth company  ☐

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

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

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow.    ☐  Item 17    ☐  Item 18

If this is an Annual Report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    ☐  Yes    ☒  No

TABLE OF CONTENTS

i

ii

iii

SUMMARY OF THE MATERIAL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH OUR BUSINESS

Our business is subject to numerous material and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Item 3D. “Risk Factors” in this Report. The principal risks and uncertainties affecting our business include the following:

1

2

INTRODUCTION

Unless otherwise indicated, “Celyad,” “Celyad Oncology”, “the Company,” “our company,” “the Group,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Celyad Oncology S.A. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

We own various trademark registrations and applications, and unregistered trademarks and service marks, including “CELYAD”, “C-CATH_ez” and our corporate logo. All other trademarks or trade names referred to in this Annual Report on Form 20-F are the property of their respective owners. Trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this Annual Report on Form 20-F are the property of their respective holders. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this Annual Report on Form 20-F may be referred to without the ^® and ^™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto. We do not intend to use or display other companies’ trademarks and trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us, any other companies.

Our audited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB. Our consolidated financial statements are presented in euros. All references in this Annual Report on Form 20-F to “$,” “US$,” “U.S.$,” “U.S. dollars,” “dollars” and “USD” mean U.S. dollars and all references to “€”, “EUR”, and “euros” mean euros, unless otherwise noted. Throughout this Annual Report on Form 20-F, references to ADSs mean ADSs or ordinary shares represented by ADSs, as the case may be.

3

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 20-F, or Annual Report, contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this Annual Report, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial positions, business strategy, plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. When used in this Annual Report, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “is designed to,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “objective,” “should,” or the negative of these and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

4

You should refer to the section of this Annual Report titled “Item 3.D.—Risk Factors” for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we reference in this Annual Report with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

This Annual Report contains market data and industry forecasts that were obtained from industry publications. These data involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates. While we believe the market position, market opportunity and market size information included in this Annual Report is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise.

statements of consolidated financial position and selected statements of consolidated cash flows, for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 and as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 from our consolidated audited financial statements not appended to this Annual Report. This data should be read together with, and is qualified in its entirety by reference to, “Item 5-Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” as well as our financial statements and notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future.

6

Not applicable.

C. Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

D. Risk Factors

Our business faces significant risks. You should carefully consider all of the information set forth in this Annual Report and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, including the following risk factors which we face, and which are faced by our industry. Our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected by any of these risks. This Annual Report also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our results could materially differ from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, as a result of certain factors including the risks described below and elsewhere in this report and our other SEC filings. See “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” above.

Risks Related to Product Development, Regulatory Approval and Commercialization

We are heavily dependent on the regulatory approval of our Product Candidates in the United States and Europe, and subsequent commercial success of our Product Candidates, both of which may never occur.

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with no products approved by regulatory authorities or available for commercial sale. We may be unable to develop or commercialize a product, product candidate or research program, or may cease some of our operations, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

We have generated limited revenue to date and do not expect to generate any revenue from product sales for the foreseeable future. As a result, our future success is currently dependent upon the regulatory approval and commercial success of our CAR-T cell therapy product candidates, including CYAD-02, CYAD-101 and CYAD-211 (our “Product Candidates”) which we intend to seek approval. Our ability to generate revenues in the near term will depend on our ability to obtain regulatory approval and successfully commercialize our Product Candidates in the United States, the first country in which we intend to seek approval for these candidates. We may experience delays in obtaining regulatory approval in the United States for these clinical candidates, if they are approved at all, and the price of our ordinary shares and/or ADSs may be negatively impacted. Even if we receive regulatory approval, the timing of the commercial launch of our Product Candidates in the United States is dependent upon a number of factors, including, but not limited to, hiring sales and marketing personnel, pricing and reimbursement timelines, the production of sufficient quantities of commercial drug product and implementation of marketing and distribution infrastructure.

7

In addition, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant expenses as we continue to pursue the approval of our Product Candidates in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. We plan to devote a substantial portion of our effort and financial resources in order to continue to grow our operational capabilities. This represents a significant investment in the clinical and regulatory success of our Product Candidates, which is uncertain. The success of our clinical candidates, if approved, and revenue from commercial sales, will depend on several factors, including:

The achievement of milestones (such as those related to research and development, scientific, clinical, regulatory and business) will trigger payment obligations towards Celdara, Dartmouth and Horizon Discovery, which will negatively impact our profitability.

Our clinical trials are ongoing and not complete. Initial success in our ongoing clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained when these trials are completed. Furthermore, success in early clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained in later trials.

Trial designs and results from previous or ongoing trials are not necessarily predictive of future clinical trial results, and initial or interim results may not continue or be confirmed upon completion of the trial. These data, or other positive data, may not continue or occur for these patients or for any future patients in our ongoing or future clinical trials, and may not be repeated or observed in ongoing or future trials involving our drug product candidates.

There are limited data concerning long-term safety and efficacy following treatment with CYAD-02, CYAD-101 and CYAD-211. Our Product Candidates may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy in later stages of clinical development despite having successfully advanced through initial clinical trials. There can be no

8

assurance that any of these trials will ultimately be successful or support further clinical advancement or regulatory approval of CYAD-02, CYAD-101 and CYAD-211 or other product candidates.

In December 2020, we made the strategic decision to discontinue the development of our first-generation autologous NKG2D CAR T candidate CYAD-01 for the treatment of relapsed / refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) based on data from the Phase 1 THINK and DEPLETHINK trials which did not achieve the necessary internal clinical activity threshold set for the program.

There is a high failure rate for drugs and biologics proceeding through clinical trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in later stage clinical trials even after achieving promising results in earlier stage clinical trials. Data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are subject to varying interpretations, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. In addition, regulatory delays or rejections may be encountered as a result of many factors, including changes in regulatory policy during the period of product development.

In previous clinical trials involving T cell-based immunotherapies, some patients experienced serious adverse events. Our drug product candidates may demonstrate a similar effect or have other properties that could halt our clinical development, prevent our regulatory approval, limit our commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences.

In previous and ongoing clinical trials involving CAR-T cell products by other companies or academic researchers, many patients experienced side effects such as neurotoxicity and CRS, which have in some cases resulted in clinical holds in ongoing clinical trials of CAR-T drug product candidates. There have been life threatening events related to severe neurotoxicity and CRS, requiring intense medical intervention such as intubation or pressor support, and in several cases, resulted in death. Severe neurotoxicity is a condition that is currently defined clinically by cerebral edema, confusion, drowsiness, speech impairment, tremors, seizures, or other central nervous system side effects, when such side effects are serious enough to lead to intensive care. In some cases, severe neurotoxicity was thought to be associated with the use of certain lymphodepletion preconditioning regimens used prior to the administration of the CAR-T cell products. CRS is a condition that is currently defined clinically by certain symptoms related to the release of cytokines, which can include fever, chills, low blood pressure, when such side effects are serious enough to lead to intensive care with mechanical ventilation or significant vasopressor support. The exact cause or causes of CRS and severe neurotoxicity in connection with treatment of CAR-T cell products and product candidates is not fully understood at this time. In addition, patients have experienced other adverse events in these studies, such as a reduction in the number of blood cells (in the form of neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, anemia or other cytopenias), febrile neutropenia, chemical laboratory abnormalities (including elevated liver enzymes), and renal failure.

Undesirable side effects caused by our Product Candidates or other T cell-based immunotherapy drug product candidates, could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Results of our trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects or unexpected characteristics. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trials or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff, as toxicities resulting from T cell-based immunotherapies are not normally encountered in the general patient population and by medical personnel. We expect to have to train medical personnel regarding our T cell-based immunotherapy drug product candidates to understand their side effects for both our planned clinical trials and upon any commercialization of any T cell-based immunotherapy drug product candidates. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of T cell-based immunotherapy drug product candidates could result in patient deaths. Any of these occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects.

9

Our Product Candidates are a new approach to cancer treatment that presents significant challenges.

We have concentrated our research and development efforts on cell-based immunotherapy technology, and our future success is highly dependent on the successful development of cell-based immunotherapies in general and in particular our approach using the NKG2D receptor, an activating receptor of NK cells, to target stress ligands. Currently, two of our clinical Product Candidates use the NKG2D receptor. We cannot be sure that our T cell immunotherapy technologies will yield satisfactory products that are safe and effective, scalable or profitable.

Our approach to cancer immunotherapy and cancer treatment generally poses a number of challenges, including:

Additionally, because our technology involves the genetic modification of patient cells ex vivo using a virus, we are subject to many of the challenges and risks that gene therapies face, including:

Moreover, public perception of therapy safety issues, including adoption of new therapeutics or novel approaches to treatment, may adversely influence the willingness of subjects to participate in clinical trials, or if approved, of

10

physicians to subscribe to the novel treatments. Physicians, hospitals and third-party payors often are slow to adopt new products, technologies and treatment practices that require additional upfront costs and training. Physicians may not be willing to undergo training to adopt this novel and personalized therapy, may decide the therapy is too complex to adopt without appropriate training and may choose not to administer the therapy. Based on these and other factors, hospitals and payors may decide that the benefits of this new therapy do not or will not outweigh its costs.

We have been able to consistently produce the required number of T cells for our autologous CYAD-02 product candidate for the treatment of relapsed / refractory AML and MDS using our OptimAb manufacturing process, however there can be no guarantee that we will be able to improve the safety and clinical activity of CYAD-02.

The manufacturing processes for our CYAD-02 drug product candidate are complex. In 2019, we modified the manufacturing process we use to manufacture our autologous Product Candidates. We refer to the new manufacturing process as the OptimAb process.

The OptimAb manufacturing process, is designed as an iterative improvement of our first two manufacturing processes (the LY and mAb processes) for our first-generation NGK2D CAR-T CYAD-01and builds upon key characteristics of both. OptimAb utilizes a shortened eight-day cell culture and incorporates a selective phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor. Combined with the manufacturing optimizations previously developed by us, the OptimAb process results in a product candidate that is enriched for T cells with a memory-like phenotype while maintaining the high level of manufacturing reliability required to support clinical development.

The first patient in our CYAD-02 CYCLE-1 trial to be administered drug product candidate manufactured using the OptimAb process was treated in January 2020. As of the date of this Annual Report, 24 patients have been dosed using the new process across both the CYAD-01 and CYAD-02 clinical programs. To date, no critical safety issues related to the cell therapy have been reported. There can be no assurance that drug product candidate manufactured using the OptimAb process will have similar or improved safety and clinical activity compared to drug product candidate manufactured using our previous manufacturing processes.

In addition, we may develop additional process changes in the future, as we seek to advance our drug product candidates through the clinic and prepare for a potential commercial launch. In some circumstances, changes in the manufacturing process may require us to perform additional comparability studies or to collect additional clinical data from patients prior to undertaking additional clinical studies or filing for regulatory approval. These requirements may lead to delays in our clinical development and commercialization plans as well as potential increased costs.

We have not yet finalized our clinical development program for CYAD-02 for the treatment of patients with r/r AML and MDS or for CYAD-101, our allogeneic NKG2D CAR-T for the treatment of mCRC or CYAD-211, or allogeneic BCMA CAR-T for the treatment of r/r multiple myeloma (MM). The FDA and comparable foreign regulators may not agree with our proposed protocols for these clinical trials, which could result in delays.

We are still considering the clinical development program for CYAD-02 in relapsed / refractory AML and MDS, CYAD-101 for mCRC and CYAD-211 for relapsed / refractory MM. Prior to initiating new clinical trials for our drug product candidates, we are required to submit clinical trial protocols for these trials to the FDA and comparable foreign regulators in other jurisdictions where we plan to undertake clinical trials. We may not reach agreement with these regulators, or there may be a delay in reaching agreement. These regulators may want to see additional clinical or preclinical data regarding our Product Candidates before we initiate new clinical trials. Any of these decisions could have a material adverse effect on our expected clinical and regulatory timelines, business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

11

We may encounter substantial delays in our clinical trials or may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities.

Before obtaining regulatory approval or marketing authorization from regulatory authorities for the sale of our drug product candidates, if at all, we must conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the drug product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain as to outcome. We cannot guarantee that any clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. Events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include:

Any inability to successfully complete preclinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenues from product sales, regulatory and commercialization milestones and royalties. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our drug product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations.

12

If the results of our clinical trials are inconclusive or if there are safety concerns or adverse events associated with our drug product candidates, we may:

Our drug product candidates could potentially cause other adverse events that have not yet been predicted. As described above, any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of our drug product candidates and impair our ability to commercialize our products if they are ultimately approved by applicable regulatory authorities.

Our drug product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could halt their clinical development, prevent their regulatory approval, limit their commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences.

As with most biological drug products, use of our drug product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events which can vary in severity from minor reactions to death and in frequency from infrequent to prevalent. Undesirable side effects or unacceptable toxicities caused by our drug product candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay, or halt clinical trials. The FDA, EMA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could delay or deny approval of our drug product candidates for any or all targeted indications and negative side effects could result in a more restrictive label for any product that is approved. Side effects such as toxicity or other safety issues associated with the use of our drug product candidates could also require us or our collaborators to perform additional studies or halt development or sale of these drug product candidates.

Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled subjects to complete the trial, or could result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately or timely recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. Any of these occurrences may materially and adversely harm our business, financial condition and prospects.

Additionally, if one or more of our drug product candidates receives marketing approval, and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by such products, including during any long-term follow-up observation period recommended or required for patients who receive treatment using our products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

13

Any of the foregoing could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular drug product candidate, if approved, and could significantly harm our business, results of operations, and prospects.

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

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

In addition, our clinical trials will compete with other clinical trials for drug product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our drug product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available us, because some patients who might have opted to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Because the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we expect to conduct some of our clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials at such clinical trial sites. Moreover, because our drug product candidates represent a departure from more commonly used methods for cancer treatment, potential patients and their doctors may be inclined to use conventional therapies, rather than enroll patients in our clinical trials.

Further, timely enrollment in clinical trials is reliant on clinical trial sites which may be adversely affected by global health matters, including, among other things, pandemics. With regards to our clinical programs,

14

CYAD-02, CYAD-101 and CYAD-211 were slightly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020. Enrollment in the respective trials for these assets is ongoing without any major disruption, partially due to the staggered enrollment associated with the dose-escalation trials for CYAD-211 and CYAD-02, respectively, and the expansion cohort of CYAD-101 which began in late 2020. However, certain clinical sites and institutions have not been able to receive visits from us or our representatives, which has delayed our data monitoring activities.

The long-term impact of COVID-19 on our operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including a potential second wave of the pandemic, new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among other things, but potential prolonged closures or other business disruptions may negatively affect its operations and the operations of its agents, contractors, consultants or collaborators, which could have a material adverse impact its business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, after enrollment in these trials, if patients contract COVID-19 during participation in our trials or are subject to isolation or shelter-in-place restrictions, they may drop out of our trials, miss scheduled follow-up visits or otherwise fail to follow trial protocols. If patients are unable to follow the trial protocols or if our trial results are otherwise disputed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic or actions taken to mitigate its spread, the integrity of data from our trials may be compromised or not accepted by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which would represent a significant setback for the applicable program.

Some factors from the COVID-19 pandemic that we believe may adversely affect enrollment in our trials include:

These and other factors arising from the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen in countries that are already afflicted with the virus or could continue to spread to additional countries, each of which may further adversely impact our clinical trials. The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and the conduct of our trials may continue to be adversely affected, despite efforts to mitigate this impact.

Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical trials, delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of our clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our drug product candidates.

15

Clinical development is a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials as well as data from any interim analysis of ongoing clinical trials may not be predictive of future trial results. Clinical failure can occur at any stage of clinical development.

Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and our outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Although drug product candidates may demonstrate promising results in early clinical (human) trials and preclinical (animal) studies, they may not prove to be effective in subsequent clinical trials. For example, testing on animals may occur under different conditions than testing in humans and therefore the results of animal studies may not accurately predict human experience. Likewise, early clinical trials may not be predictive of eventual safety or effectiveness results in larger-scale pivotal clinical trials. The results of preclinical studies and previous clinical trials as well as data from any interim analysis of ongoing clinical trials of our drug product candidates, as well as studies and trials of other products with similar mechanisms of action to our drug product candidates, may not be predictive of the results of ongoing or future clinical trials. Drug product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through preclinical studies and earlier clinical trials. In addition to the safety and efficacy traits of any drug product candidate, clinical trial failures may result from a multitude of factors including flaws in trial design, dose selection, placebo effect and patient enrollment criteria. Based upon negative or inconclusive results, we or our collaborators may decide, or regulators may require it, to conduct additional clinical trials or preclinical studies. In addition, data obtained from trials and studies are susceptible to varying interpretations, and regulators may not interpret our data as favorably as we do, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval.

The regulatory approval processes of the FDA, EMA and other comparable regulatory authorities is lengthy, time-consuming, and inherently unpredictable, and we may experience significant delays in the clinical development and regulatory approval, if any, of our drug product candidates.

The research, testing, manufacturing, labelling, approval, selling, import, export, marketing, and distribution of drug products, including biologics, are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA, EMA and other comparable regulatory authorities. We are not permitted to market any biological drug product in the United States until we receive a license from the FDA for our BLA, or an approval of our marketing authorization application, or MAA, from the EMA. We have not previously submitted a BLA to the FDA, MAA to the EMA, or similar approval filings to comparable foreign authorities. A BLA must include extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to establish that the drug product candidate is safe, pure, and potent for each desired indication. The BLA must also include significant information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls for the product, and the manufacturing facilities must complete a successful pre-license inspection. We expect the nature of our drug product candidates to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory approval. For example, the FDA and EMA have limited experience with commercial development of genetically modified T-cell therapies for cancer. The FDA may also require a panel of experts, referred to as an Advisory Committee, to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data to support licensure. The opinion of the Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our ability to obtain licensure of the drug product candidates based on the completed clinical trials. Accordingly, the regulatory approval pathway for our drug product candidates may be uncertain, complex, expensive, and lengthy, and approval may not be obtained.

Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our drug product candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of our drug product candidates in other jurisdictions.

If we obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our drug product candidates in one jurisdiction, such approval does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain regulatory approval in any other jurisdiction, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. For example, even if the FDA or EMA grants marketing approval of a drug product candidate, comparable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing,

16

marketing and promotion of the drug product candidate in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from those in the European Union or in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials as clinical trials conducted in one jurisdiction may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions, a drug product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that jurisdiction. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for our products is also subject to approval.

Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or to receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our drug product candidates will be harmed.

A Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA for our drug product candidates may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and it does not increase the likelihood that our drug product candidates will receive marketing approval.

We may seek a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for some of our drug product candidates. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a product that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other products, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For drug product candidates that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor of the trial can help to identify the most efficient path for clinical development while minimizing the number of patients placed in ineffective control regimens. Drug product candidates designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA may also be eligible for accelerated approval.

Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our drug product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for a drug product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our drug product candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that the drug product candidates no longer meet the conditions for designation.

A Fast Track Designation by the FDA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process.

We may seek Fast Track Designation for some of our drug product candidates. If a product is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the product demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this condition, the product sponsor may apply for Fast Track Designation. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant this designation, so even if we believe a particular drug product candidate is eligible for this designation, we cannot assure you that the FDA would decide to grant it. Even if we do receive Fast Track Designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may withdraw Fast Track Designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program.

17

We may seek Orphan Drug Designation for some of our drug product candidates, and we may be unsuccessful or may be unable to maintain the benefits associated with Orphan Drug Designation, including the potential for market exclusivity.

As part of our business strategy, we may seek Orphan Drug Designation for some of our drug product candidates, and we may be unsuccessful. Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, may designate products for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a product as an orphan drug if it is a product intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals annually in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the product will be recovered from sales in the United States. In the United States, Orphan Drug Designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers.

Similarly, in the European Union, after recommendation from the EMA’s Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, the European Commission grants Orphan Drug Designation to promote the development of products that are intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of life-threatening or chronically debilitating conditions affecting not more than five in 10,000 persons in the European Union and for which no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention, or treatment has been authorized (or the product would be a significant benefit to those affected). Additionally, designation is granted for products intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening, seriously debilitating or serious and chronic condition and when, without incentives, it is unlikely that sales of the product in the European Union would be sufficient to justify the necessary investment in developing the product. In the European Union, Orphan Drug Designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers.

Generally, if a drug product candidate with an Orphan Drug Designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the EMA or the FDA from approving another marketing application for the same product and indication for that time period, except in limited circumstances. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in Europe. The European exclusivity period can be reduced to six years if a product no longer meets the criteria for Orphan Drug Designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified.

Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different products can be approved for the same condition or the same products can be approved for different conditions. If one of our drug product candidates that receives an orphan drug designation is approved for a particular indication or use within the rare disease, the FDA may later approve the same product for additional indications or uses within that rare disease that are not protected by our exclusive approval. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve the same product for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later product is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. In addition, a designated orphan drug may not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the indication for which it received orphan designation. Moreover, orphan drug exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition. Orphan Drug Designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a product nor gives the product any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process. While we intend to seek Orphan Drug Designation for some of our drug product candidates, we may never receive such designations. Even if we do receive such designations, there is no guarantee that we will enjoy the benefits of those designations.

18

Even if we receive regulatory approval of our drug product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our drug product candidates.

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

Manufacturers and manufacturers’ facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA, and comparable foreign regulatory authority, requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP, and in certain cases current Good Tissue Practices, or cGTP, regulations. As such, we and our contract manufacturers will be subject to continual review and inspections to assess compliance, to the extent applicable, with cGMP and adherence to commitments made in any BLA, other marketing application, and previous responses to inspection observations. Accordingly, we and others with whom we work must continue to expend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, and quality control.

Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our drug product candidates may be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the drug product candidate. The FDA may also require a REMS program as a condition of approval of our drug product candidates, which could entail requirements for long-term patient follow-up, a medication guide, physician communication plans or additional elements to ensure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. In addition, if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves our drug product candidates, we will have to comply with requirements including submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, establishment registration, as well as continued compliance with cGMPs and GCPs for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval.

The FDA may seek consent decrees or withdraw approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with our drug product candidates, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:

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

19

The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant liability. The policies of the FDA and of other regulatory authorities may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our drug product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval of our drug product candidates, the products may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, hospitals and others in the medical community.

Our autologous engineered-cell therapies may not become broadly accepted by physicians, patients, hospitals, and others in the medical community. Numerous factors will influence whether our drug product candidates are accepted in the market, including:

In addition, although we are not utilizing embryonic stem cells in our drug product candidates, adverse publicity due to the ethical and social controversies surrounding the therapeutic use of such technologies, and reported side effects from any clinical trials using these technologies or the failure of such trials to demonstrate that these therapies are safe and effective may limit market acceptance our drug product candidates due to the perceived similarity between our drug product candidates and these other therapies. If our drug product candidates are approved but fail to achieve market acceptance among physicians, patients, hospitals, or others in the medical community, we will not be able to generate significant revenue.

Even if our products achieve market acceptance, we may not be able to maintain that market acceptance over time if new products or technologies are introduced that are more favorably received than our products, are more cost effective or render our products obsolete.

20

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

Our drug product candidates are biologics and the process of manufacturing our products is complex, highly-regulated and subject to multiple risks. The manufacture of our drug product candidates involves complex processes, including harvesting cells from patients, selecting and expanding certain cell types, engineering or reprogramming the cells in a certain manner to create CAR T-cells, expanding the cell population to obtain the desired dose, and ultimately infusing the cells back into a patient’s body. As a result of the complexities, the cost to manufacture our drug product candidates is higher than traditional small molecule chemical compounds, and the manufacturing process is less reliable and is more difficult to reproduce. Our manufacturing process is susceptible to product loss or failure due to logistical issues associated with the collection of blood cells, or starting material, from the patient, shipping such material to the manufacturing site, shipping the final product back to the patient, and infusing the patient with the product, manufacturing issues associated with the differences in patient starting materials, interruptions in the manufacturing process, contamination, equipment or reagent failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, inconsistency in cell growth, and variability in product characteristics. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, product defects, and other supply disruptions. Because some of our drug product candidates are manufactured for each particular patient, we are required to maintain a chain of identity with respect to materials as they move from the patient to the manufacturing facility, through the manufacturing process, and back to the patient. Maintaining such a chain of identity is difficult and complex and failure to do so could result in adverse patient outcomes, loss of product, or regulatory action including withdrawal of our products from the market. Further, as drug product candidates are developed through preclinical to late stage clinical trials towards approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our drug product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of ongoing clinical trials or other future clinical trials.

Although we are working, or will be working, to develop commercially viable processes for the manufacture of our drug product candidates, doing so is a difficult and uncertain task, and there are risks associated with scaling to the level required for later-stage clinical trials and commercialization, including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-out, process reproducibility, stability issues, lot consistency, and timely availability of reagents or raw materials. We may ultimately be unable to reduce the cost of goods for our drug product candidates to levels that will allow for an attractive return on investment if and when those drug product candidates are commercialized.

In addition, the manufacturing process that we develop for our drug product candidates is subject to regulatory authorities’ approval processes, and we will need to make sure that we or our contract manufacturers, or CMOs, if any, are able to meet all regulatory authorities’ requirements on an ongoing basis. If we or our CMOs are unable to reliably produce drug product candidates to specifications acceptable to the regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the approvals we need to commercialize such drug product candidates. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our drug product candidates, there is no assurance that either we or our CMOs will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product, or to meet potential future demand. Any of these challenges could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

21

We may face competition from biosimilars, which may have a material adverse impact on the future commercial prospects of our drug product candidates.

Even if we are successful in achieving regulatory approval to commercialize a drug product candidate faster than our competitors, we may face competition from biosimilars. The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCI Act, created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are demonstrated to be biosimilar to, or interchangeable with, an FDA-approved biological product. “Biosimilarity” means that the biological product is highly similar to the reference product notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components and there are no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of safety, purity, and potency of the product. To meet the higher standard of “interchangeability,” an applicant must provide sufficient information to show biosimilarity and demonstrate that the biological product can be expected to produce the same clinical result as the reference product in any given patient and, if the biological product is administrated more than once to an individual, the risk in terms of safety or diminished efficacy of alternating or switching between the use of the biological product and the reference product is not greater than the risk of using the reference product without such alternation or switch.

A reference biological product is granted 12 years of exclusivity from the time of first licensure of the product, and the FDA will not accept an application for a biosimilar or interchangeable product based on the reference biological product until four years after first licensure. First licensure typically means the initial date the particular product at issue was licensed in the United States. This does not include a supplement for the biological product or a subsequent application by the same sponsor or manufacturer of the biological product (or licensor, predecessor in interest, or other related entity) for a change that results in a new indication, route of administration, dosing schedule, dosage form, delivery system, delivery device, or strength, unless that change is a modification to the structure of the biological product and such modification changes our safety, purity, or potency. Whether a subsequent application, if approved, warrants exclusivity as the first licensure of a biological product is determined on a case-by-case basis with data.

This data exclusivity does not prevent another company from developing a product that is highly similar to the innovative product, generating its own data, and seeking approval. Data exclusivity only assures that another company cannot rely upon the data within the application for the reference biological product to support the biosimilar product’s approval.

In the European Union, the European Commission has granted marketing authorizations for several biosimilars pursuant to a set of general and product class-specific guidelines for biosimilar approvals issued over the past few years. In the European Union, a competitor may reference data supporting approval of an innovative biological product, but will not be able do so until eight years after the time of approval of the innovative product and to get its biosimilar on the market until ten years from the aforementioned approval. This 10-year marketing exclusivity period will be extended to 11 years if, during the first eight of those ten years, the marketing authorization holder obtains an approval for one or more new therapeutic indications that bring significant clinical benefits compared with existing therapies. In addition, companies may be developing biosimilars in other countries that could compete with our products.

If competitors are able to obtain marketing approval for biosimilars referencing our products, our products may become subject to competition from such biosimilars, with the attendant competitive pressure and consequences.

Nearly all aspects of our activities are subject to substantial regulation. No assurance can be given that any of our product candidates will fulfill regulatory compliance. Failure to comply with such regulations could result in delays, suspension, refusals, fines and withdrawal of approvals.

The international pharmaceutical and medical technology industry is highly regulated by government bodies (hereinafter the “Competent Authorities”) that impose substantial requirements covering nearly all aspects of our activities notably on research and development, manufacturing, preclinical tests, clinical trials, labelling,

22

marketing, sales, storage, record keeping, promotion and pricing of our research programs and product candidates. Compliance with standards laid down by local Competent Authorities is required in each country where we, or any of our partners or licensees, conduct said activities in whole or in part. The Competent Authorities notably include the EMA in the European Union and the FDA in the United States.

There can be no assurance that our product candidates will fulfill the criteria required to obtain necessary regulatory authorization to access the market. Also, at this time, we cannot guarantee or know the exact nature, precise timing and detailed costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the remainder of the development of our research programs and product candidates.

The specific regulations and laws, as well as the time required to obtain Competent Authorities approvals, may vary from country to country, but the general regulatory procedures are similar in the European Union and the United States. Each Competent Authority may impose its own requirements, may discontinue an approval, may refuse to grant approval, or may require additional data before granting approval, notwithstanding that approval may have been granted by one or more other Competent Authorities. Competent Authority approval may be delayed, limited or denied for a number of reasons, most of which are beyond our control. Such reasons include the production process or site not meeting the applicable requirements for the manufacture of regulated products, or the products not meeting applicable requirements for safety or efficacy during the clinical development stage or after marketing. No assurance can be given that clinical trials will be approved by Competent Authorities or that products will be approved for marketing by Competent Authorities in any pre-determined indication or intended use. Competent Authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data submitted for their review. Even after obtaining approval for clinical trials or marketing, products will be subject to ongoing regulation and evaluation of their benefit/safety or risk/performance ratio; a negative evaluation of the benefit/safety or risk/performance ratio could result in a potential use restriction and/or withdrawal of approval for one or more products. At any time Competent Authorities may require discontinuation or holding of clinical trials or require additional data prior to completing their review or may issue restricted authorization or authorize products for clinical trials or marketing for narrower indications than requested or require further data or studies be conducted and submitted for their review. There can be no guarantee that such additional data or studies, if required, will corroborate earlier data.

Research programs and our product candidates must undergo rigorous preclinical tests and clinical trials, the start, timing of completion, number and results of which are uncertain and could substantially delay or prevent the products from reaching the market.

Preclinical tests and clinical trials are expensive and time-consuming, and their results are uncertain. We, our collaborative partners or other third parties may not successfully complete the preclinical tests and clinical trials of the research programs and product candidates. Failure to do so may delay or prevent the commercialization of products. We cannot guarantee that our research programs and product candidates will demonstrate sufficient safety or efficacy or performance in our preclinical tests and clinical trials to obtain marketing authorization in any given territory or at all, and the results from earlier preclinical tests and clinical trials may not accurately predict the results of later-stage preclinical tests and clinical trials. At any stage of development, based on a review of available preclinical and clinical data, the estimated costs of continued development, market assessments and other factors, the development of any of our research programs and product candidates may be suspended or discontinued.

We and our collaborative partners are, or may become subject to, numerous ongoing regulatory obligations, such as data protection, environmental, health and safety laws and restrictions on the experimental use of animals and/or human beings. The costs of compliance with applicable regulations, requirements or guidelines could be substantial, and failure to comply could result in sanctions, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, denial of applications for marketing authorization of our products, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly increase our or our collaborative partners’ costs or delay the development and commercialization of our product candidates.

23

We may face significant competition and technological change which could limit or eliminate the market opportunity for our product candidates.

The market for pharmaceutical products is highly competitive. Our competitors include many established pharmaceutical, biotechnology, universities and other research or commercial institutions, many of which have substantially greater financial, research and development resources than us. The fields in which we operate are characterized by rapid technological change and innovation. There can be no assurance that our competitors are not currently developing, or will not in the future develop technologies and products that are equally or more effective and/or are more economical as any current or future technology or product of ours. Competing products may gain faster or greater market acceptance than our products and medical advances or rapid technological development by competitors may result in our product candidates becoming non-competitive or obsolete before we are able to recover our research and development and commercialization expenses. If we or our product candidates do not compete effectively, it may have a material adverse effect on our business.

The price setting, the availability and level of adequate reimbursement by third parties, such as insurance companies, governmental and other healthcare payers is uncertain and may impede on our ability to generate sufficient operating margins to offset operating expenses.

Our commercial performance will depend in part on the conditions for setting the sales price of our products by the relevant public commissions and bodies and the conditions of their reimbursement by the health agencies or insurance companies in the countries where we intend to market our products. The current context of healthcare cost control and economic and financial crisis that most countries are currently facing, coupled with the increase in health care budgets caused by the aging population creates extra pressure on health care spending in most if not all countries. Consequently, pressure on sales prices and reimbursement levels is intensifying owing in particular to:

Obtaining adequate pricing decisions that would generate return on the investment incurred for the development of the product candidates developed by us are therefore uncertain. Our ability to manage our expenses and cost structure to adapt to increased pricing pressure is untested and uncertain.

All of these factors will have a direct impact on our ability to make profits on the products in question. The partial/no reimbursement policy of medicines could have a material adverse effect on the business, prospects, financial situation, earnings and our growth.

Changes in regulatory approval policies or enactment of additional regulatory approval requirements may delay or prevent the product candidates from being marketed.

The regulatory clearance process is expensive and time consuming and the timing of marketing is difficult to predict. Once marketed, products may be subject to post-authorization safety studies or other pharmacovigilance or vigilance activities or may be subject to limitations on their uses or may be withdrawn from the market for various reasons, including if they are shown to be unsafe or ineffective, or when used in a larger population that may be different from the trial population studied prior to market introduction of the product.

Our product candidates may become subject to changes in the regulatory framework or market conditions. Regulatory guidelines may change during the course of product development and review process, making the chosen development strategy suboptimal. Market conditions may change resulting in the emergence of new competitors or new treatment guidelines which may require alterations in the development strategy. These factors may result in significant delays, increased trial costs, significant changes in commercial assumptions or failure of the products to obtain marketing authorization.

24

We are subject to inspection and shall be subject to market surveillance by the FDA, EMA and other Competent Authorities for compliance with regulations that prohibit the promotion of our products for a purpose or indication other than those for which approval has been granted.

While a product manufacturer may not promote a product for such “off label” use, doctors are allowed, in the exercise of their professional judgment in the practice of medicine, to use a product in ways not approved by Competent Authorities. Off-label marketing regulations are subject to varying evolving interpretations.

Post-approval manufacturing and marketing of our products may show different safety and efficacy profiles to those demonstrated in the data on which approval to test or market said products was based. Such circumstances could lead to the withdrawal or suspension of approval, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flows. In addition, Competent Authorities may not approve the labelling claims or advertisements that are necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of our products.

Competent Authorities have broad enforcement power, and a failure by us or our collaboration partners to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can, among other things, result in recalls or seizures of products, operating and production restrictions, withdrawals of previously approved marketing applications, total or partial suspension of regulatory approvals, refusal to approve pending applications, warning letters, injunctions, penalties, fines, civil proceedings, criminal prosecutions and imprisonment.

We may fail to comply with evolving European and other privacy laws.

In Europe, Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 24, 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (the “Directive”), and Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of July 12, 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC) (the “e-Privacy-Directive”), have over the past two decades required the EU member states to implement data protection laws to meet strict privacy requirements. Violations of the resulting national law requirements can result in administrative measures, including fines, or criminal sanctions. The e-Privacy Directive will be replaced in time by a new e-Privacy Regulation (having direct legal effect without the need for transposition into national laws) which may impose additional obligations and risk for our business.

Effective as of May 25, 2018, the Directive has been replaced by Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (the “GDPR”). Unlike the Directive, the GDPR resorts direct legal effect and (although it contains more than fifty provisions allowing for EU member states to enact more precise measures) does not require transposition into national laws. As such, it imposes a broad range of strict requirements on companies subject to the GDPR, such as us, including requirements relating to having legal bases for processing personal information (i.e. information relating to identified or identifiable individuals) and transferring such information outside the European Economic Area (the “EEA”), including to the United States, providing details to those individuals regarding the processing of their personal information, keeping personal information secure, having data processing agreements with third parties who process personal information, responding to individuals’ requests to exercise their rights in respect of their personal information, reporting security breaches involving personal data to the competent national data protection authority and affected individuals, appointing data protection officers, conducting data protection impact assessments, and record-keeping. The GDPR focuses strongly on accountability of data controllers (such as us) and requires us to take all technical and organizational measures (privacy by design and by default) to ensure that we meet our obligations. It also increases substantially the penalties to which we could be subject in the event of any non-compliance, including fines of up to €10,000,000 or up to 2% of our total worldwide annual turnover for certain comparatively minor offenses, or up to €20,000,000 or up to 4% of our total worldwide annual turnover

25

for more serious offenses. Given this robust new legislative framework and the nascent jurisprudence developing in our wake, we face considerable uncertainty as to the correct interpretation and implementation of the GDPR requirements and may be unsuccessful in implementing all technical and organizational measures required by data protection authorities or courts.

In addition to the direct applicability of the GDPR per se, national laws of EU member states are also in the process of being adapted to the requirements of the GDPR, notably in areas where the GDPR gives leeway to EU member states to fill in the gaps - thereby implementing national laws which may partially deviate from the GDPR and impose different obligations from country to country, so that we cannot expect to operate in a uniform legal landscape in the EU. Thus, in the field of handling genetic data for instance, the GDPR specifically allows national laws to impose additional and more specific requirements or restrictions, and European laws have historically differed quite substantially in this field, leading to additional uncertainty.

We must also ensure that we maintain adequate safeguards to enable the transfer of personal data outside of the EEA in compliance with European data protection laws, in particular to the United States. The Schrems 2 ruling of the European Court of Justice has complicated international data transfers from the EU to the US by obliterating the former EU-US Privacy Shield and by criticizing the existing standard contractual clauses (SCC) that the European Commission had decreed. As a result, we expect that we will continue to face uncertainty as to whether our efforts to comply with our obligations under European privacy laws will be sufficient. If we are investigated by a European data protection authority, we may face fines and other penalties. Any such investigation or charges by European data protection authorities could have a negative effect on our existing business and on our ability to attract and retain new clients or pharmaceutical partners. A data protection authority could also order a processing ban, which could mean the effective end of a clinical trial. We may also experience hesitancy, reluctance, or refusal by European or multi-national clients or pharmaceutical partners to continue to use our products and solutions due to the potential risk exposure as a result of the current (and, in particular, future) data protection obligations imposed on them by certain data protection authorities in interpretation of current law, including the GDPR. Such clients or pharmaceutical partners may also view any alternative approaches to compliance as being too costly, too burdensome, too legally uncertain, or otherwise objectionable and therefore decide not to do business with us. Any of the foregoing could materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties

We have obtained and will seek to obtain significant funding from the Walloon Region. The terms of the agreements signed with the Region may hamper our ability to partner part or all of our products.

We contracted over the past year numerous funding agreements with the Walloon Region to partially finance our research and development programs. Under the terms of the agreements, we would need to obtain the consent of the Walloon Region for any out-licensing agreement or sale to a third party of any or all of our products, prototypes or installations which may reduce our ability to partner or sell part or all of our products.

Furthermore, when the research and development programs partially financed by us enter in “exploitation phase”, we have to start reimbursing the funding received. We may not be able to reimburse such funding under the terms of the agreements or such reimbursement may jeopardize the funding of our clinical and scientific activities.

We rely and will continue to rely on collaborative partners regarding the development of our research programs and product candidates.

We are and expect to continue to be dependent on collaborations with partners relating to the development and commercialization of our existing and future research programs and product candidates. We had, have and will continue to have discussions on potential partnering opportunities with various pharmaceutical and medical

26

device companies. If we fail to enter into or maintain collaborative agreements on reasonable terms or at all, our ability to develop our existing or future research programs and product candidates could be delayed, the commercial potential of our products could change and our costs of development and commercialization could increase. For example, we are party to two collaboration agreements with Horizon Discovery regarding the use of Horizon’s SMARTvector shRNA reagents to reduce expression of one or more defined targets in connection with the development of our product candidates. Horizon recently informed us they believe we are in material breach of these agreements as a result of certain disclosures we have made in connection with our obligations as a publicly traded company in the United States and Belgium, although they have not formally delivered to us a notice of material breach or termination. We believe any such assertion of material breach would be without merit and we would expect to vigorously defend any such notice of material breach. Any dispute under these agreements would be subject to arbitration in The Hague under the International Chamber of Commerce Rules. We are currently in discussions with Horizon about possible amendments to these agreements in connection with which we would retain freedom to operate under the in-licensed patents.

Our dependence on collaborative partners subjects it to a number of risks, including, but not limited to, the following:

We rely on third parties to conduct, supervise and monitor our clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our drug product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

We rely on clinical research organizations, or CROs, clinical investigators and clinical trial sites to ensure our clinical trials are conducted properly and on time. While we will have agreements governing their activities, we will have limited influence over their actual performance. We will control only certain aspects of our CROs’ activities. Nevertheless, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements and scientific standards, and our reliance on these third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.

We and these third parties are required to comply with the FDA’s GCPs for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that the data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of clinical trial participants are protected. The FDA, the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the EEA, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities enforce these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites. If we or these third parties fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our future clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, the EMA, or other foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform

27

additional clinical trials before approving any marketing applications. Upon inspection, the FDA may determine that our clinical trials did not comply with GCPs. In addition, our future clinical trials will require a sufficient number of test subjects to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of our drug product candidates. Accordingly, if our CROs fail to comply with these regulations or fail to recruit a sufficient number of patients, we may be required to repeat such clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

These third parties are not our employees, and we are therefore unable to directly monitor whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our clinical and preclinical programs. These third parties may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other product development activities that could harm our competitive position. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations, fail to meet expected deadlines, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements, or for any other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize, our drug product candidates. If any such event were to occur, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our drug product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed.

If any of our relationships with these third-party CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. Further, switching or adding additional CROs involves additional costs and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays occur, which could materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

Cell-based therapies rely on the availability of specialty raw materials, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.

Engineered-cell therapies require many specialty raw materials, some of which are manufactured by small companies with limited resources and experience to support a commercial product. The suppliers may be ill-equipped to support our needs, especially in non-routine circumstances like an FDA inspection or medical crisis, such as widespread contamination, or a pandemic such as COVID-19. We also do not have contracts with many of these suppliers, and may not be able to contract with them on acceptable terms or at all. Accordingly, we may experience delays in receiving key raw materials to support clinical or commercial manufacturing.

In addition, some raw materials are currently available from a single supplier, or a small number of suppliers. We cannot be sure that these suppliers will remain in business, or that they will not be purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is not interested in continuing to produce these materials for our intended purpose.

Two vaccines for COVID-19 were granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA in late 2020, and more are likely to be authorized in the coming months. The resultant demand for vaccines and potential for manufacturing facilities and materials to be commandeered under the Defense Production Act of 1950, or equivalent foreign legislation, may make it more difficult to obtain materials or manufacturing slots for the products needed for our clinical trials, which could lead to delays in these trials.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our patents and other intellectual property rights portfolio are relatively young and may not adequately protect our research programs and product candidates, which may impede our ability to compete effectively.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights. Our research programs and product candidates are covered by several patent application families, which are either licensed to us or owned by us. Out of the numerous patent applications controlled by us, eleven

28

national patents have been granted in the US relating to the field of immuno-oncology. We cannot guarantee that it will be in a position in the future to develop new patentable inventions or that we or our licensors will be able to obtain or maintain these patent rights against challenges to their validity, scope and/or enforceability. We cannot guarantee that it is or has been the first to conceive an invention or to file a patent application on an invention, particularly given that patent applications are not published in most countries before 18-months after the date of filing. Moreover, we may have little or no control over its licensors’ abilities to prevent the infringement of their patents or the misappropriation of their intellectual property. There can be no assurance that the technologies used in our research programs and product candidates are patentable, that pending or future applications will result in the grant to us or our licensors, that any patents will be of sufficient breadth to provide adequate and commercially meaningful protection against competitors with similar technologies or products, or that any patents granted to us or our licensors will not be successfully challenged, circumvented, invalidated or rendered unenforceable by third parties, enabling competitors to circumvent or use them and depriving us from the protection it would need against competitors. If we or our licensors do not obtain meaningful patents on their technologies or if the patents of us or our licensors are invalidated, third parties may use the technologies without payment to us. A third party’s ability to use unpatented technologies is enhanced by the fact that the published patent application contains a detailed description of the relevant technology.

We cannot guarantee that third parties, contract parties or employees will not claim ownership rights over the patents or other intellectual property rights owned or held by us.

We also rely on proprietary know-how to protect our research programs and product candidates. Know-how is difficult to maintain and protect. We use reasonable efforts to maintain our know-how, but it cannot assure that our partners, employees, consultants, advisors or other third parties will not willfully or unintentionally disclose proprietary information to competitors. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop equivalent knowledge and know-how, which could diminish or eliminate our competitive advantage.

The enforcement of patents, know-how and other intellectual property is costly, time consuming and highly uncertain. We cannot guarantee that it will be successful in preventing the infringement of our patented inventions, or the misappropriation of our know-how and other intellectual property rights and those of our licensors, and failure to do so could significantly impair the ability of us to compete effectively.

We may infringe on the patents or intellectual property rights of others and may face patent litigation, which may be costly and time consuming.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to operate without infringing or misappropriating the intellectual property rights of others. We cannot guarantee that our activities will not infringe on the patents or other intellectual property rights owned by others. We may expend significant time and effort and may incur substantial costs in litigation if it is required to defend against patent or other intellectual property right suits brought against us regardless of whether the claims have any merit. Additionally, we cannot predict whether we will be successful in any litigation. If we are found to infringe the patents or other intellectual property rights of others, we may be subject to substantial claims for damages, which could materially impact our cash flow and financial position. We may also be required to cease development, use or sale of the relevant research program, product candidate or process or it may be required to obtain a license to the disputed rights, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all.

There can be no assurance that we are even aware of third-party rights that may be alleged to be relevant to any particular product candidate, method, process or technology.

We may spend significant time and effort and may incur substantial costs if required to defend against any infringement claims or to assert our intellectual property rights against third parties. The risk of such a claim by a third party may be increased by our public announcement regarding our research programs and product candidates. We may not be successful in defending our rights against such claims and may incur as a consequence thereof significant losses, costs or delays in our intended commercialization plans as a result thereof.

29

We depend on intellectual property licensed from third parties and termination of any of these licenses could result in the loss of significant rights, which would harm our business.

We are dependent on patents, know-how, and proprietary technology, both our own and licensed from others. We license technology from the Trustees of Dartmouth College, or Dartmouth College. Dartmouth College may terminate our license, if we fail to meet a milestone within the specified time period, unless we pay the corresponding milestone payment. Dartmouth College may terminate either the license in the event we default or breach any of the provisions of the applicable license, subject to 30 days’ prior notice and opportunity to cure. In addition, the license automatically terminates in the event we become insolvent, make an assignment for the benefit of creditors or file, or have filed against us, a petition in bankruptcy. Furthermore, Dartmouth College may terminate our license, after April 30, 2024, if we fail to meet the specified minimum net sales obligations for any year, unless we pay to Dartmouth College the royalty we would otherwise be obligated to pay had we met such minimum net sales obligation. We also license technology from Horizon Discovery Limited, or Horizon Discovery. Horizon Discovery may terminate our license in case of insolvency, material breach or force majeure. Any termination of these licenses or any of our other licenses could result in the loss of significant rights and could harm our ability to commercialize our drug product candidates. Disputes may also arise between us and our licensors regarding intellectual property subject to a license agreement, including those relating to:

If disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected drug product candidates. We are generally also subject to all of the same risks with respect to protection of intellectual property that we license as it is for intellectual property that we own, which are described below. If we or our licensors fail to adequately protect this intellectual property, our ability to commercialize our products could suffer.

Our licenses may be terminated if we are unable to meet the payment obligations under the agreements (notably if we are unable to obtain additional financing).

We could be unsuccessful in obtaining or maintaining adequate patent protection for one or more of our drug product candidates.

The patent application process is expensive and time-consuming, and we and our current or future licensors and licensees may not be able to apply for or prosecute patents on certain aspects of our drug product candidates or deliver technologies at a reasonable cost, in a timely fashion, or at all. It is also possible that we or our current licensors, or any future licensors or licensees, will fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection on them. Therefore, our patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. It is possible that defects of form in the preparation or filing of our patents or patent applications may exist, or may arise in the future, such as with respect to proper priority claims, inventorship,

30

claim scope or patent term adjustments. Under our existing license agreements with the Trustees of Dartmouth College, we have the right, but not the obligation, to enforce our licensed patents. If our current licensors, or any future licensors or licensees, are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised and we might not be able to prevent third parties from making, using, and selling competing products. If there are material defects in the form or preparation of our patents or patent applications, such patents or applications may be invalid and unenforceable. Moreover, our competitors may independently develop equivalent knowledge, methods, and know-how. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results.

We currently have issued patents and patent applications directed to our drug product candidates and medical devices, and we anticipate that it will file additional patent applications in several jurisdictions, including several European Union countries and the United States, as appropriate.

However, we cannot predict:

We cannot be certain, however, that the claims in our pending patent applications will be considered patentable by patent offices in various countries, or that the claims of any of our issued patents will be considered valid and enforceable by local courts.

The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field can be uncertain, and evaluating the scope of such patents involves complex legal and scientific analyses. The patent applications that we own, or in-licenses may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our drug product candidates or uses thereof in the European Union, in the United States or in other jurisdictions. Even if the patents do successfully issue, third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability, or scope thereof, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated, or held unenforceable. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from designing their products to avoid being covered by our claims. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patent applications, we hold with respect to our drug product candidates is threatened, this could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop, and could threaten our ability to commercialize, our drug product candidates. Further, because patent applications in most countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain that we were the first to file any patent application related to our drug product candidates.

Patents have a limited lifespan. Various extensions may be available; however, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Further, the extensive period of time between patent filing and regulatory approval for a drug product candidate limits the time during which we can market a drug product candidate under patent protection, which may particularly affect the profitability of our early-stage drug product candidates. If we encounter delays in our clinical trials, the period of time during which we could market our drug product candidates under patent protection would be reduced. Without patent protection for our drug product candidates, we may be open to competition from biosimilar versions of our drug product candidates.

31

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement against us or our collaborators may prevent or delay our product discovery and development efforts.

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as administrative proceedings for challenging patents, including interference, derivation, and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. Recently, due to changes in U.S. law referred to as patent reform, new procedures including inter partes review and post-grant review have been implemented. This reform adds uncertainty to the possibility of challenge to our patents in the future.

Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications owned by third parties exist in the fields in which we are developing our drug product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our drug product candidates may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others.

Although we have conducted analyses of the patent landscape with respect to our drug product candidates, and based on these analyses, we believe that we will be able to commercialize our drug product candidates, third parties may nonetheless assert that we infringe their patents, or that we are otherwise employing their proprietary technology without authorization, and may sue us. There may be third-party patents of which we are currently unaware with claims to compositions, formulations, methods of manufacture, or methods of use or treatment that cover our drug product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our drug product candidates may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies or the manufacture, use, or sale of our drug product candidates infringes upon these patents. If any such third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover our technologies or drug product candidates, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize the applicable drug product candidate unless we obtain a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or are finally determined to be held invalid or unenforceable. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to obtain a necessary license to a third-party patent on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to commercialize our drug product candidates may be impaired or delayed, which could in turn significantly harm our business.

Third parties asserting their patent rights against us may seek and obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize our drug product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business, and may impact our reputation. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties, or redesign our infringing products, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In that event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize our drug product candidates, which could harm our business significantly.

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

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on drug product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the European Union or the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as

32

strong. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in a number of jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in some jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time-consuming, and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensors. To address such infringement, we may be required to file patent infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding or a declaratory judgment action against us, a court may decide that one or more of our patents is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceeding could put one or more of our or of our licensors’ patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable, interpreted narrowly, or amended such that they do not cover our drug product candidates. Such results could also increase the risk that pending patent applications of our or our licensors may not issue. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and could create a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. Interference or derivation proceedings provoked by third parties may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to, or the correct inventorship of, our patents or patent applications or those of our licensors. An unfavorable outcome could result in a loss of our current patent rights and could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Litigation, interference, or derivation proceedings may result in a decision adverse to our interests and, even if we are successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.

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

Confidentiality agreements with employees and third parties may not prevent unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information, and our inability to maintain the confidentiality of that information, due to unauthorized disclosure or use, cyber-attack, or other event, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we seek to rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable or that we elect not to patent, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce, and any other elements of our product discovery and development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information, or technology that is not covered by patents. Trade secrets, however, may be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary processes, in part, by entering

33

into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, outside scientific advisors, contractors and collaborators. Although we use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our employees, consultants, outside scientific advisors, contractors, and collaborators might intentionally or inadvertently disclose our trade secret information to competitors. In addition, competitors may otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Furthermore, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the United States. As a result, we may encounter significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property both in the United States and abroad. If we are unable to prevent unauthorized material disclosure of our intellectual property to third parties, or misappropriation of our intellectual property by third parties, we will not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our intellectual property and other sensitive company information are also dependent on sophisticated information technology systems and are potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack, loss, damage, destruction from system malfunction, computer viruses, loss of data privacy, or misappropriation or misuse of it by those with permitted access, and other events. While we have invested to protect our data and other information and continue to upgrade and enhance our systems to keep pace with continuing changes in information processing technology, there can be no assurance that our precautionary measures will prevent breakdowns, breaches, cyber-attacks, or other events. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition, or results of operations.

Issued patents covering our drug product candidates could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or before relevant authority.

If we or one of our licensing partners initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our drug product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our drug product candidate is invalid or unenforceable. Third parties may also raise similar claims before administrative bodies, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination, inter partes review, post grant review, oppositions and derivation proceedings. Such proceedings could result in revocation or amendment to our or those of our licensing partners’ patents in such a way that the patent no longer covers and protects the relevant drug product candidate(s). The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity of our patents, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art of which we, our patent counsel, and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our drug product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection could have a material adverse impact on our business.

Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.

As is the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involves, both technological and legal complexity, and is therefore costly, time-consuming, and inherently uncertain. Numerous recent changes to the patent laws and proposed changes to the rules of the USPTO may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or AIA, enacted in 2011 involves significant changes in patent legislation. An important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a ‘‘first-to-file’’ system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party that files a patent application with the USPTO after that date but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by the third party. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application.

34

Among some of the other changes introduced by the AIA are changes that limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and provide opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. This applies to all of our U.S. patents, even those issued before March 16, 2013. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal court necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action.

In addition, recent court rulings in cases such as Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (Myriad I); BRCA1- & BRCA2-Based Hereditary Cancer Test Patent Litig. (Myriad II); and Promega Corp. v. Life Technologies Corp. have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future. For example, in Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that certain claims to naturally-occurring substances are not patentable. Although we do not believe that any of the patents owned or licensed by us will be found invalid based on this decision, we cannot predict how future decisions by the courts, the U.S. Congress, or the USPTO may impact the value of our patents.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.

We have received confidential and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. We may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed confidential information of these third parties or our employees’ former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial cost and be a distraction to our management and employees.

Risks Related to Our Organization, Structure and Operation

We and our third-party suppliers are subject to high standards of manufacturing in accordance with cGMPs and other manufacturing regulations. Complying with these requirements will require us and our third-party suppliers to expend significant time, money and effort and any failure to comply could have an adverse effect on our business.

We, and key third-party suppliers on which we rely, currently or in the future must continuously adhere to cGMPs and corresponding manufacturing regulations of Competent Authorities. In complying with these regulations, we and our third-party suppliers must expend significant time, money and effort in the areas of design and development, testing, production, record-keeping and quality control to assure that the products meet applicable specifications and other regulatory requirements. The failure to comply with these requirements could result in an enforcement action against us, including the seizure of products and shutting down of production. We and any of these third-party suppliers may also be subject to audits by the Competent Authorities. If any of our third-party suppliers or we ourselves fail to comply with cGMPs or other applicable manufacturing regulations, our ability to develop and commercialize the products could suffer significant interruptions.

35

We rely on a single manufacturing facility and if operations at that manufacturing facility are disrupted, we could experience delays in our clinical trials or we would need to expend additional time and capital to identify and onboard another manufacturing facility.

We face risks inherent in operating a single manufacturing facility, since any disruption, such as a fire, natural hazards or vandalism could significantly interrupt our manufacturing capability. We currently do not have alternative production plans in place or disaster-recovery facilities available. In case of a disruption, we will have to establish alternative manufacturing sources. This would require substantial capital on our part, which it may not be able to obtain on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Additionally, we would likely experience months or years of manufacturing delays as we build or locate replacement facilities and seek and obtain necessary regulatory approvals. If this occurs, we will be unable to satisfy manufacturing needs on a timely basis, if at all. Also, operating any new facilities may be more expensive than operating our current facility. Further, business interruption insurance may not adequately compensate us for any losses that may occur, and we would have to bear the additional cost of any disruption. For these reasons, a significant disruptive event of the manufacturing facility could have drastic consequences, including placing our financial stability at risk.

We will need increased manufacturing capacity, which will require additional time and capital. If we are not able to expand manufacturing capacity, we may experience delays in our clinical trials.

We may not be able to expand the manufacturing capacity within the anticipated time frame or budget or may not be able to obtain the requisite regulatory approvals for the increase in manufacturing capacity on a timely basis, or at all. If we cannot obtain necessary approvals for this contemplated expansion in a timely manner, our ability to meet demand for our products would be adversely affected. We may have difficulties in finding suitable locations or commercially acceptable terms for the leasing of such facilities. We may also have difficulties in finding a commercial partner for the construction of those facilities and/or partners for investing in the capital expenses related to the manufacturing plants. We will need to obtain GMP certification of those plants for commercial products. Obtaining those certificates may be delayed, or may not be granted.

We are highly dependent on our key personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting, motivating and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.

Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries depends upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on members of our Executive Committee, and our scientific and medical personnel. The loss of the services of any members of our Executive Committee, other key employees, and other scientific and medical advisors, and our inability to find suitable replacements, could result in delays in product development and harm our business.

Competition for skilled personnel in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries is intense and the turnover rate can be high, which may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all.

To induce valuable employees to remain with us, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided warrants that vest over time. The value to employees of these equity grants that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our share price that are beyond our control, and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the lives of all of these individuals or the lives of any of our other employees.

The improper conduct of employees, agents, contractors, consultants or collaborators could adversely affect our reputation and business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition.

We cannot ensure that our compliance controls, policies, and procedures will in every instance protect it from acts committed by our employees, agents, contractors, or collaborators that would violate the laws or regulations

36

of the jurisdictions in which it operates, including, without limitation, healthcare, employment, foreign corrupt practices, environmental, competition, and patient privacy and other privacy laws and regulations. Such improper actions could subject us to civil or criminal investigations, and monetary and injunctive penalties, and could adversely impact our ability to conduct business, operating results, and reputation. In particular, our business activities may be subject to anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws, regulations or rules of countries in which it operates, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, or the U.K. Bribery Act.

Violations of these laws and regulations could result in fines, criminal sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees, the closing down of our facilities, requirements to obtain export licenses, cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries, implementation of compliance programs, and prohibitions on the conduct of our business. Any such violations could include prohibitions on our ability to offer products in one or more countries and could materially damage our reputation, our brand, our international expansion efforts, our ability to attract and retain employees, and our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition.

We have limited experience in sales, marketing and distribution.

Given our stage in development, we have never marketed a product and have therefore limited experience in the fields of sales, marketing and distribution of therapies. As a consequence, we will have to acquire marketing skills and develop our own sales and marketing infrastructure and would need to incur additional expenses, mobilize management resources, implement new skills and take the time necessary to set up the appropriate organization and structure to market the relevant product(s), in accordance with applicable laws.

While several of our managers have commercialized and launched high technology medical products there can be no assurance that the existing limited experience would be sufficient to effectively commercialize any or all of our product candidates. We may not be able to attract qualified sales and marketing personnel on acceptable terms in the future and therefore may experience constraints that will impede the achievement of our commercial objectives. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial situation, earnings and growth.

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

As of December 31, 2020, we had 92 employees and six senior managers, three being under employment contracts and three under management services agreements, most of whom are full-time. As our drug product candidates move into later stage clinical development and towards commercialization, we must add a significant number of additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial, and other personnel. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including:

Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our drug product candidates will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth, and our management may also have to divert a disproportionate amount of our attention away from day-to-day activities in order to devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities.

If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our groups of consultants and contractors, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize our drug product candidates and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development, and commercialization goals.

37

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

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

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

We are subject to certain covenants as a result of certain non-dilutive financial support received to date.

We have received some non-dilutive financial supports from the Walloon Region to support various research programs. The support has been granted in the form of recoverable cash advances, or RCAs, and subsidies.

In the event we decide to exploit any discoveries or products from the research funded by under an RCA, the relevant RCA becomes refundable; otherwise the RCA is not refundable. We own the intellectual property rights which result from the research programs partially funded by the Region, unless it decides not to exploit, or cease to exploit, the results of the research in which case the results and intellectual property rights are transferred to the Region. Subject to certain exceptions, however, we cannot grant to third parties, by way of license or otherwise, any right to use the results without the prior consent of the Region. We also need the consent of the Region to transfer an intellectual property right resulting from the research programs or a transfer or license of a prototype or installation. Obtaining such consent from the Region could give rise to a review of the applicable financial terms. The RCAs also contain provisions prohibiting us from conducting research for any other person which would fall within the scope of a research program of one of the RCAs. Most RCAs provide that this prohibition is applicable during the research phase and the decision phase, but a number of RCAs extend it beyond these phases.

Subsidies received from the Region are dedicated to funding research programs and patent applications and are not refundable. We own the intellectual property rights which result from the research programs or with regard to

38

a patent covered by a subsidy. Subject to certain exceptions, however, we cannot grant to third parties, by way of license, transfer or otherwise, any right to use the patents or research results without the prior consent of the Region. In addition, certain subsidies require that we exploit the patent in the countries where the protection was granted and to make an industrial use of the underlying invention. In case of bankruptcy, liquidation or dissolution, the rights to the patents covered by the patent subsidies will be assumed by the Region by operation of law unless the subsidy is reimbursed. Furthermore, we would lose our qualification as a small or medium-sized enterprise, the patent subsidies will terminate, and no additional expenses will be covered by such patent subsidies. In 2020, we will be required to make exploitation decisions on our remaining outstanding RCA related to the CAR-T platform.

Failure to build our finance infrastructure and improve our accounting systems and controls could impair our ability to comply with the financial reporting and internal controls requirements for publicly traded companies.

As a public company, we are operating in an increasingly demanding regulatory environment that requires us to comply with, among other things, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s substantial disclosure requirements, accelerated reporting requirements and complex accounting rules. Company responsibilities required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include establishing corporate oversight and adequate internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent financial fraud.

Management identified the following material weakness as of December 31, 2020: given the size of our operations, we maintain a limited finance and accounting staff, which does not ensure sufficient backup in personnel with an appropriate level of knowledge and experience in the application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). See “Item 15—Controls and Procedures” of this Annual Report for further discussion of management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we include a report of management on our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F.

Assessing our procedures to improve our internal control over financial reporting is an ongoing process. We can provide no assurance that our remediation efforts described under “Item 15—Controls and Procedures” of this Annual Report will be successful and that we will not have material weaknesses in the future. Any additional material weaknesses we identify could result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our consolidated financial statements. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. If we are unable to remedy the material weaknesses and continue to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is ineffective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of the ADSs could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the NASDAQ Stock Market, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.

Our international operations subject it to various risks, and our failure to manage these risks could adversely affect our results of operations.

We face significant operational risks as a result of doing business internationally, such as:

39

We incur portions of our expenses, and may in the future derive revenues, in currencies other than the euro, in particular, the U.S. dollar. As a result, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk as our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. We currently do not engage in hedging transactions to protect against uncertainty in future exchange rates between particular foreign currencies and the euro. Therefore, for example, an increase in the value of the euro against the U.S. dollar could be expected to have a negative impact on our revenue and earnings growth as U.S. dollar revenue and earnings, if any, would be translated into euros at a reduced value. We cannot predict the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, and foreign currency fluctuations in the future may adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We or third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by natural disasters and/or global health pandemics, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

The occurrence of unforeseen or catastrophic events, including extreme weather events and other natural disasters, man-made disasters, or the emergence of epidemics or pandemics, depending on their scale, may cause different degrees of damage to the national and local economies and could cause a disruption in our operations and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Man-made disasters, pandemics, and other events connected with the regions in which we operate could have similar effects. If a natural disaster, health pandemic, or other event beyond our control occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our office and/or lab spaces, damaged critical infrastructure, such as our manufacturing facilities or our manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic and recommended containment and mitigation measures worldwide. As of the date of this Annual Report, Belgium and the United States, where we operate, has been impacted by temporary closures. The length or severity of this pandemic cannot be predicted, but the Company anticipates that there may be an additional impact from a prolonged COVID-19 environment on the planned development activities of the Company.

Further, timely enrollment in clinical trials is reliant on clinical trial sites which may be adversely affected by global health matters, including, among other things, pandemics. With regards to our clinical programs, CYAD-02, CYAD-101 and CYAD-211 were slightly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020. Enrollment in the respective trials for these assets is ongoing without any major disruption, partially due to the staggered enrollment associated with the dose-escalation trials for CYAD-02 and CYAD-211 and CYAD-02,

40

respectively, and the expansion cohort of the CYAD-101 trial which began in late 2020. However, certain clinical sites and institutions have not been able to receive visits from us or our representatives, which has delayed our data monitoring activities.

The long-term impact of COVID-19 on the Company’s operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including a potential second wave of the pandemic, new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among other things, but potential prolonged closures or other business disruptions may negatively affect its operations and the operations of its agents, contractors, consultants or collaborators, which could have a material adverse impact its business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, after enrollment in these trials, if patients contract COVID-19 during participation in our trials or are subject to isolation or shelter-in-place restrictions, they may drop out of our trials, miss scheduled follow-up visits or otherwise fail to follow trial protocols. If patients are unable to follow the trial protocols or if our trial results are otherwise disputed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic or actions taken to mitigate its spread, the integrity of data from our trials may be compromised or not accepted by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which would represent a significant setback for the applicable program.

Some factors from the COVID-19 pandemic that we believe may adversely affect enrollment in our trials include:

These and other factors arising from the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen in countries that are already afflicted with the virus or could continue to spread to additional countries, each of which may further adversely impact our clinical trials. The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and the conduct of our trials may continue to be adversely affected, despite efforts to mitigate this impact.

Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical trials, delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of our clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our drug product candidates.

The impact of COVID-19 on our business is uncertain at this time and will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among other things, but prolonged closures or other business disruptions may negatively affect our operations and the operations of our agents, contractors, consultants or collaborators, which could have a material adverse impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.

41

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Capital

We have incurred net losses in each period since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses in the future.

We are not profitable and have incurred losses in each period since our inception. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we incurred a loss for the year of €17.2 million, €28.6 million and €37.4 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had a retained loss of €91.8 million. We expects these losses to increase as we continue to incur significant research and development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations, continues to advance our drug product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, seek regulatory approvals for our drug product candidates, scale-up manufacturing capabilities and hire additional personnel to support the development of our drug product candidates and to enhance our operational, financial and information management systems.

Our main assets are intellectual property rights concerning technologies that have not led to commercialization of any product. We have never been profitable and have never commercialized any products.

Even if we succeed in commercializing one or more of our drug product candidates, we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future relating to our substantial research and development expenditures to develop our technologies. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:

We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. The size of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue.

Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our shareholders’ equity and working capital. Further, the net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year, such that a period to period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance.

We may need substantial additional funding, which may not be available on acceptable terms when needed, if at all.

Our operations have required substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect to continue to spend substantial amounts to continue the clinical development of our drug product candidates CYAD-02, CYAD-211

42

and CYAD-101 (the “Product Candidates”) or any future product candidates, including but limited to CYAD-103, CYAD-221 and CYAD-231. If approved, we will require significant additional amounts in order to launch and commercialize our drug product candidates.

As of December 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of €17.2 million and no short-term investments. On January 8, 2021, we entered into a committed equity purchase agreement (“Purchase Agreement”) for up to $40 million with Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC (“LPC”), a Chicago-based institutional investor. Over the 24-month term of the Purchase Agreement, we will have the right to direct LPC to purchase up to an aggregate amount of $40 million American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”), each of which represents one of our ordinary shares. This equity purchase agreement is expected to strengthen our current statement of financial position while also providing us with access to future capital on an as needed basis and to ensure sufficient funding to cover our operations for the next 12 months from the date the financial statements are issued.

Based on our current scope of activities, we estimate that our cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2020 combined with the $40 million that we have access to from the equity purchase agreement established with Lincoln Park Capital Fund should be sufficient to fund operations until mid-2022, including data readouts from our ongoing clinical trials.

However, changing circumstances may cause us to increase our spending significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more money than currently expected because of circumstances beyond our control. We may require additional capital for the further development and commercialization of our drug product candidates and may need to raise additional funds sooner if we choose to expand more rapidly than we presently anticipate.

The achievement of milestones (R&D, scientific, clinical, regulatory, business) will trigger payment obligations towards Celdara, Dartmouth and Horizon, which will negatively impact the Company’s profitability and may require material additional funding.

The Company contracted over the past year numerous funding agreements with the Walloon Region to partially finance its research and development programs. Under the terms of the agreements, the Company would need to obtain the consent of the Walloon Region for any out-licensing agreement or sale to a third party of any or all of its products, prototypes or installations which may reduce the Company’s ability to partner or sell part or all of its products. Furthermore, when the research and development programs partially financed by the Company enter in “exploitation phase”, the Company has to start reimbursing the funding received. For more information on the potential financial consequences of these exploitation decisions in terms of potential reimbursements and sales percentage fees to be paid to the Walloon Region. The Company may not be able to reimburse such funding under the terms of the agreements or such reimbursement may jeopardize the funding of its clinical and scientific activities

Our ability to raise additional funds will depend on financial, economic and market conditions and other factors, over which we may have no or limited control, and we cannot guarantee that additional funds will be available to it when necessary on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. If the necessary funds are not available, we may need to seek funds through collaborations and licensing arrangements, which may require us to reduce or relinquish significant rights to our research programs and product candidates, to grant licenses on our technologies to partners or third parties or enter into new collaboration agreements, the terms could be less favorable to us than those we might have obtained in a different context. If adequate funds are not available on commercially acceptable terms when needed, we may be forced to delay, reduce or terminate the development or commercialization of all or part of our research programs or product candidates or we may be unable to take advantage of future business opportunities.

43

Our net losses and significant cash used in operating activities have raised doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern.

We have a limited operating history and have experienced net losses and significant cash used in operating activities in each period since inception. We expect to continue to incur net losses and have significant cash outflows for at least the next year. As of December 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of €17.2 million and no short-term investments and an accumulated deficit of €91.8 million. On January 8, 2021, we entered into a committed equity purchase agreement (“Purchase Agreement”) for up to $40 million with Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC (“LPC”). Over the 24-month term of the Purchase Agreement, we will have the right to direct LPC to purchase up to an aggregate amount of $40 million ADSs.

Our cash and cash equivalents and accumulated deficit, among other factors, raise doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Our inability to continue as a going concern could materially limit our ability to raise additional funds through the issuance of new debt or equity securities or otherwise. Future reports on our financial statements may include an explanatory paragraph with respect to our ability to continue as a going concern. We have not been profitable since inception, and it is possible we will never achieve profitability. None of our product candidates can be marketed until governmental approvals have been obtained. Accordingly, there is no substantial source of revenues, much less profits, to sustain our present activities, and no substantial revenues will likely be available until, and our product candidates are approved by FDA, EMA or other Competent Authority and successfully marketed, either by us or a partner, an outcome which may not occur. Based on our current level of operating expenditures, we expect our cash position as of December 31, 2020 combined with the full utilization of the $40 million equity purchase agreement established in January 2021 to be able to fund our operations until mid-2022 but we will require significant additional cash resources to launch new development phases of existing projects in our pipeline. In addition, this period could be shortened if there are any significant increases in planned spending on development programs or more rapid progress of development programs than anticipated. Other financing may not be available when needed to allow us to continue as a going concern. The perception that we may not be able to continue as a going concern may cause others to choose not to deal with us due to concerns about our ability to meet our contractual obligations.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our drug product candidates or technologies.

We may seek additional funding through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations and/or licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the shareholders will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a shareholder. The incurrence of indebtedness and/or the issuance of certain equity securities could result in increased fixed payment obligations and could also result in certain additional restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt and/or issue additional equity, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. In addition, issuance of additional equity securities, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of the Shares to decline. In the event that we enter into collaborations and/or licensing arrangements in order to raise capital, it may be required to accept unfavorable terms, including relinquishing or licensing to a third party on unfavorable terms our rights to technologies or drug product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves or potentially reserve for future potential arrangements when we might be able to achieve more favorable terms.

We may be exposed to significant foreign exchange risk.

We incur portions of our expenses, and may in the future derive revenues, in currencies other than the euro, in particular, the U.S. dollar. As a result, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk as our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. We currently do not engage in hedging transactions to protect against uncertainty in future exchange rates between particular foreign

44

currencies and the euro. Therefore, for example, an increase in the value of the euro against the U.S. dollar could be expected to have a negative impact on our revenue and earnings growth as U.S. dollar revenue and earnings, if any, would be translated into euros at a reduced value. We cannot predict the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, and foreign currency fluctuations in the future may adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

The investment of our cash and cash equivalents may be subject to risks that may cause losses and affect the liquidity of these investments.

As of December 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of €17.2 million and no short-term investments. We historically have invested substantially all of our available cash and cash equivalents in corporate bank accounts. Pending their use in our business, we may invest the net proceeds of our global offerings in investments that may include corporate bonds, commercial paper, certificates of deposit and money market funds. These investments may be subject to general credit, liquidity, and market and interest rate risks. We may realize losses in the fair value of these investments or a complete loss of these investments, which would have a negative effect on our financial statements.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, is currently unable to inspect the audit work and practices of auditors operating in Belgium, including our auditor.

Our auditors, EY Bedrijfsrevisoren BV/Reviseurs d’Entreprises SRL, are registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Our auditors, like any other independent registered public accounting firms operating in Belgium, are not yet permitted, because of Belgian regulation impediments, to be subject to inspections by the PCAOB that assess their compliance with U.S. law and professional standards in connection with performance of audits of financial statements filed with the SEC. As a result, our investors may not realize the potential benefits of such inspections. Cooperation between Belgium regulator and the PCAOB is expected in the first half of 2021.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Ordinary Shares and American Depositary Shares (“ADS”)

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate research or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ordinary shares and the ADSs and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for the ordinary shares and the ADSs depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If no or few securities or industry analysts cover our company, the trading price for the ordinary shares and the ADSs would be negatively impacted. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades the ordinary shares or the ADSs or publishes incorrect or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ordinary shares and the ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, or downgrades the ordinary shares or the ADSs, demand for the ADSs and ordinary shares could decrease, which could cause the price of the ADSs and ordinary shares or trading volume to decline.

The market price of the shares could be negatively impacted by actual or anticipated sales of substantial numbers of ordinary shares or ADSs.

Sales of a substantial number of Shares in the public markets, or the perception that such sales might occur, might cause the market price of the Shares to decline. We cannot make any prediction as to the effect of any such sales or perception of potential sales on the market price of the Shares.

A public market for our shares may not be sustained.

We cannot guarantee the extent to which a liquid market for our ordinary shares or ADSs will be sustained. In the absence of such liquid market for our ordinary shares or ADSs, the price of our ordinary shares or ADSs could be

45

influenced. The liquidity of the market for our ordinary shares or ADSs could be affected by various causes, including the factors identified in the next risk factor (below) or by a reduced interest of investors in biotechnology sector.

The market price of the shares may fluctuate widely in response to various factors.

A number of factors may significantly affect the market price of our ordinary shares or ADSs. The main factors are changes in our operating results and those of our competitors, announcements of technological innovations or results concerning the product candidates, changes in earnings estimates by analysts.

Other factors which could cause the price of the shares to fluctuate or could influence our reputation include, amongst other things:

In addition, stock markets have from time to time experienced extreme price and volume volatility which, in addition to general economic, financial and political conditions, could affect the market price for the Shares regardless of the operating results or our financial condition.

We have no present intention to pay dividends on our ordinary shares in the foreseeable future and, consequently, your only opportunity to achieve a return on your investment during that time is if the price of the securities increases.

We have no present intention to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. Any recommendation by our Board of Directors to pay dividends will depend on many factors, including our financial condition (including losses carried-forward), results of operations, legal requirements and other factors. Furthermore, pursuant to Belgian law, the calculation of amounts available for distribution to shareholders, as dividends or otherwise, must be determined on the basis of our non-consolidated statutory accounts prepared in accordance with Belgian accounting rules. In addition, in accordance with Belgian law and our Articles of Association, we must allocate each year an amount of at least 5% of our annual net profit under our non-consolidated statutory accounts to a legal reserve until the reserve equals 10% of our share capital. Therefore, we are unlikely to pay dividends or other distributions in the foreseeable future. If the price of the securities or the underlying ordinary shares declines before we pay dividends, investors will incur a loss on their investment, without the likelihood that this loss will be offset in part or at all by potential future cash dividends.

Takeover provisions in the national law of Belgium may make a takeover difficult.

Public takeover bids on our shares and other voting securities, such as warrants or convertible bonds, if any, are subject to the Belgian Act of 1 April 2007 on public takeover bids, as amended and implemented by the Belgian

46

Royal Decree of April 27, 2007, or Royal Decree, and to the supervision by the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority, or FSMA. Public takeover bids must be made for all of our voting securities, as well as for all other securities that entitle the holders thereof to the subscription to, the acquisition of or the conversion into voting securities. Prior to making a bid, a bidder must issue and disseminate a prospectus, which must be approved by the FSMA. The bidder must also obtain approval of the relevant competition authorities, where such approval is legally required for the acquisition of us. The Belgian Act of 1 April 2007 provides that a mandatory bid will be required to be launched for all of our outstanding shares and securities giving access to ordinary shares if a person, as a result of our own acquisition or the acquisition by persons acting in concert with it or by persons acting on their account, directly or indirectly holds more than 30% of the voting securities in a company that has our registered office in Belgium and of which at least part of the voting securities are traded on a regulated market or on a multilateral trading facility designated by the Royal Decree. The mere fact of exceeding the relevant threshold through the acquisition of one or more shares will give rise to a mandatory bid, irrespective of whether or not the price paid in the relevant transaction exceeds the current market price.

There are several provisions of Belgian company law and certain other provisions of Belgian law, such as the obligation to disclose important shareholdings and merger control, that may apply to us and which may make an unfriendly tender offer, merger, change in management or other change in control, more difficult. These provisions could discourage potential takeover attempts that third parties may consider and thus deprive the shareholders of the opportunity to sell their shares at a premium (which is typically offered in the framework of a takeover bid).

We may be at an increased risk of securities class action litigation.

Historically, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of that company’s securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies have experienced significant share price volatility in recent years. If we were to be sued, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.

Holders of the shares outside Belgium and France may not be able to exercise pre-emption rights (notice for non-Belgian resident investors).

In the event of an increase in our share capital in cash, holders of shares are generally entitled to full pre-emption rights unless these rights are excluded or limited either by a resolution of the general meeting, or by a resolution of the Board of Directors (if the Board of Directors has been authorized by the general meeting in the articles of association to increase the share capital in that manner). Certain holders of shares outside Belgium or France may not be able to exercise pre-emption rights unless local securities laws have been complied with. In particular, U.S. holders of the shares may not be able to exercise pre-emption rights unless a registration statement under the Securities Act is declared effective with respect to the shares issuable upon exercise of such rights or an exemption from the registration requirements is available. We does not intend to obtain a registration statement in the U.S. or to fulfil any requirement in other jurisdictions (other than Belgium and France) in order to allow shareholders in such jurisdictions to exercise their pre-emptive rights (to the extent not excluded or limited).

We have been subject to an investigation by the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority.

The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority, or the FSMA, opened an investigation against us on April 22, 2014. Such investigation was related to whether we had failed to timely disclose inside information to the market in relation to the Investigational New Drug, or IND, clearance from the FDA for our CHART-2 Phase III heart-failure trial received on December 26, 2013 and reported on January 9, 2014. In April 2015, we notified the FSMA our agreement to settle our investigation by paying the proposed settlement amount of €175,000. Although such settlement does not provide for any admission of guilt on our part, the fact that we have entered into a settlement with the FSMA could cause investors to have a negative perception of our governance structure,

47

which would have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, any future allegations (based on other facts and circumstances) that we failed to comply with applicable securities laws, whether or not true, may subject it to fines, claims and/or sanctions, which could impair our ability to offer our securities or restrict trading in our securities. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our securities and our business.

Fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro may increase the risk of holding the ADSs.

Our ordinary shares currently trade on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris in euros, while the ADSs trade on NASDAQ in U.S. dollars. Fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro may result in differences between the value of the ADSs and the value of our ordinary shares, which may result in heavy trading by investors seeking to exploit such differences. In addition, as a result of fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro, the U.S. dollar equivalent of the proceeds that a holder of the ADSs would receive upon the sale in Belgium of any ordinary shares withdrawn from the depositary upon calculation of the corresponding ADSs and the U.S. dollar equivalent of any cash dividends paid in euros on our ordinary shares represented by the ADSs could also decline.

Holders of the ADSs are not treated as shareholders of our company.

Holders of the ADSs are not treated as shareholders of our company, unless they cancel the ADSs and withdraw our ordinary shares underlying the ADSs. The depositary (or its nominee) is the shareholder of the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs. Holders of ADSs therefore do not have any rights as shareholders of our company, other than the rights that they have pursuant to the deposit agreement.

Our shareholders residing in countries other than Belgium may be subject to double withholding taxation with respect to dividends or other distributions made by us.

Any dividends or other distributions we make to shareholders will, in principle, be subject to withholding tax in Belgium at a rate of 30%, except for shareholders which qualify for an exemption of withholding tax such as, among others, qualifying pension funds or a company qualifying as a parent company within the meaning of the Council Directive (90/435/EEC) July 23, 1990, known as the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, or that qualify for a lower withholding tax rate or an exemption by virtue of a tax treaty. Various conditions may apply and shareholders residing in countries other than Belgium are advised to consult their advisers regarding the tax consequences of dividends or other distributions made by us. Our shareholders residing in countries other than Belgium may not be able to credit the amount of such withholding tax to any tax due on such dividends or other distributions in any other country than Belgium. As a result, such shareholders may be subject to double taxation in respect of such dividends or other distributions. Belgium and the United States have concluded a double tax treaty concerning the avoidance of double taxation, or the U.S.-Belgium Tax Treaty. The U.S.-Belgium Tax Treaty reduces the applicability of Belgian withholding tax to 15%, 5% or 0% for U.S. taxpayers, provided that the U.S. taxpayer meets the limitation of benefits conditions imposed by the U.S.-Belgium Tax Treaty. The Belgian withholding tax is generally reduced to 15% under the U.S.-Belgium Tax Treaty. The 5% withholding tax applies in case where the U.S. shareholder is a company which holds at least 10% of the shares in the company. A 0% Belgian withholding tax applies when the shareholder is a company which has held at least 10% of the shares for at least 12 months, or is, subject to certain conditions, a U.S. pension fund. The U.S. shareholders are encouraged to consult their own tax advisers to determine whether they can invoke the benefits and meet the limitation of benefits conditions as imposed by the U.S.-Belgium Tax Treaty.

U.S. holders of the ADSs may suffer adverse tax consequences if we are characterized as a PFIC for any taxable year.

Generally, if, for any taxable year, at least 75% of our gross income is passive income, or at least 50% of the value of our assets is attributable to assets that produce passive income or are held for the production of passive

48

income, including cash, we would be characterized as a passive foreign investment company (PFIC), for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Passive income for this purpose generally includes dividends, interest, royalties, rents, gains from commodities and securities transactions, the excess of gains over losses from the disposition of assets which produce passive income, and includes amounts derived by reason of the temporary investment of cash, including the funds raised in offerings of the ADSs. If we are characterized as a PFIC, U.S. holders (as defined below under “Material Tax Considerations – Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations to U.S. Holders”) of the ADSs may suffer adverse tax consequences, including having gains realized on the sale of the ADSs treated as ordinary income, rather than capital gain, the loss of the preferential rate applicable to dividends received on the ADSs by individuals who are U.S. holders, and having interest charges apply to distributions by us and the proceeds of sales of the ADSs.

We do not believe that we were a PFIC for the 2020 taxable year and, based on the expected composition of our income and assets, we do not expect to be a PFIC for the 2021 taxable year; however, we cannot provide any assurances regarding our PFIC status for past, current or future taxable years. Our status as a PFIC is a fact intensive determination made on an annual basis. Whether we are a PFIC for any taxable year will depend on the composition of our income and assets, and the estimated fair market values of our assets, in each year. The market value of our assets may be determined in large part by reference to the market price of the ADSs and our ordinary shares, which is likely to fluctuate. Our status as a PFIC also depends on the interpretation of the rules governing the PFIC income and asset tests, which are subject to uncertainty (including with respect to the characterization of income from government grants, for which direct legal authority does not exist).

Future sales of ordinary shares or ADSs by existing shareholders could depress the market price of the ADSs.

If our existing shareholders sell, or indicate an intent to sell, substantial amounts of ordinary shares or ADSs in the public market, the trading price of the ADSs could decline significantly. In the future we may file one or more registration statements with the SEC covering ordinary shares available for future issuance under our equity incentive plans. Upon effectiveness of such registration statements, any shares subsequently issued under such plans will be eligible for sale in the public market, except to the extent that they are restricted by the lock-up agreements referred to above and subject to compliance with Rule 144 in the case of our affiliates. Sales of a large number of the shares issued under these plans in the public market could have an adverse effect on the market price of the ADSs and the ordinary shares.

We are a Belgian public limited liability company, and shareholders of our company may have different and, in some cases, more limited shareholder rights than shareholders of a U.S. listed corporation.

We are a public limited liability company incorporated under the laws of Belgium. Our corporate affairs are governed by Belgian corporate and securities law. The rights provided to our shareholders under Belgian corporate law and our articles of association differ in certain respects from the rights that you would typically enjoy as a shareholder of a U.S. corporation under applicable U.S. federal and state laws. Under Belgian corporate law, other than certain information that we must make public and except in certain limited circumstances, our shareholders may not ask for an inspection of our corporate records, while under Delaware corporate law any shareholder, irrespective of the size of its shareholdings, may do so. Shareholders of a Belgian corporation have more limited rights to initiate a derivative action, a remedy typically available to shareholders of U.S. companies, in order to enforce a right of our Company, in case we fail to enforce such right ourselves.

A liability action can be instituted for our account by one or more of our shareholders who, individually or together, hold securities representing at least 1.0% of the votes or a part of the capital worth at least €1.25 million and have not approved of the discharge from liability that was granted to the directors. If the court orders the directors to pay damages, they are due to us, though the amounts advanced by the minority shareholders (for example attorney’s fees) are to be reimbursed by us. If the action is disallowed, the minority shareholders may be ordered to pay the costs, and, should there be grounds therefor, to pay damages to the directors, for example for having conducted provocative and reckless legal proceedings.

49

In addition, a majority of our shareholders present or represented at our meeting of shareholders may release a director from any claim of liability we may have, provided that the financial position is accurately reflected in the annual accounts. This includes a release from liability for any acts of the directors beyond their statutory powers or in breach of the Belgian Code on Companies and Associations, provided that the relevant acts were specifically mentioned in the convening notice to the meeting of shareholders deliberating on the discharge. In contrast, most U.S. federal and state laws prohibit a company or its shareholders from releasing a director from liability altogether if he or she has acted in bad faith or has breached his or her duty of loyalty to us. Finally, Belgian corporate law does not provide any form of appraisal rights in the case of a business combination. As a result of these differences between Belgian corporate law and our articles of association, on the one hand, and the U.S. federal and state laws, on the other hand, in certain instances, you could receive less protection as an ADS holder of our company than you would as a shareholder of a listed U.S. company.

Holders of ADSs may be subject to limitations on the transfer of their ADSs and the withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares.

ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of your ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary think it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law, government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason, subject to your right to cancel your ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares. Temporary delays in the cancellation of your ADSs and withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares may arise because the depositary has closed its transfer books or we have closed our transfer books, the transfer of ordinary shares is blocked to permit voting at a shareholders’ meeting or we are paying a dividend on our ordinary shares.

In addition, you may not be able to cancel your ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares when you owe money for fees, taxes and similar charges and when it is necessary to prohibit withdrawals in order to comply with any laws or governmental regulations that apply to ADSs or to the withdrawal of ordinary shares or other deposited securities.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from a number of rules under the U.S. securities laws and are permitted to file less information with the SEC than a U.S. company. This may limit the information available to holders of ADSs or ordinary shares.

We are a “foreign private issuer,” as defined in the SEC’s rules and regulations and, consequently, we are not subject to all of the disclosure requirements applicable to public companies organized within the United States. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act, that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act, including the U.S. proxy rules under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. In addition, our officers and directors are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. Moreover, while we currently make annual and semi-annual filings with respect to our listing on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris, we will not be required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. domestic issuers and will not be required to file quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K under the Exchange Act. Accordingly, there will be less publicly available information concerning our company than there would be if we were not a foreign private issuer.

50

As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to adopt certain home country practices in relation to corporate governance matters that differ significantly from NASDAQ corporate governance listing standards. These practices may afford less protection to shareholders than they would enjoy if we complied fully with corporate governance listing standards.

As a foreign private issuer listed on NASDAQ, we are subject to corporate governance listing standards. However, rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in Belgium, which is our home country, may differ significantly from corporate governance listing standards. For example, neither the corporate laws of Belgium nor our articles of association require a majority of our directors to be independent and we could include non-independent directors as members of our Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and our independent directors would not necessarily hold regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present. Currently, we intend to follow home country practice to the maximum extent possible. Therefore, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would have under corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. See “Item 16G—Corporate Governance.”

We may lose our foreign private issuer status in the future, which could result in significant additional cost and expense.

While we currently qualify as a foreign private issuer, the determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter and, accordingly, the next determination will be made with respect to us on June 30, 2021. In the future, we would lose our foreign private issuer status if we to fail to meet the requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status as of the relevant determination date. For example, if more than 50% of our securities are held by U.S. residents and more than 50% of the members of our Executive Committee or members of our Board of Directors are residents or citizens of the United States, we could lose our foreign private issuer status.

The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws as a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly more than costs we incur as a foreign private issuer. If we are not a foreign private issuer, we will be required to file periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms with the SEC, which are more detailed and extensive in certain respects than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We would be required under current SEC rules to prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP, rather than IFRS, and modify certain of our policies to comply with corporate governance practices associated with U.S. domestic issuers. Such conversion of our financial statements to U.S. GAAP could involve significant time and cost. In addition, we may lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements on U.S. stock exchanges that are available to foreign private issuers such as the ones described above and exemptions from procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies.

It may be difficult for investors outside Belgium to serve process on, or enforce foreign judgments against, us or our directors and senior management.

We are a Belgian public limited liability company. Less than a majority of the members of our Board of Directors and members of our Executive Committee are residents of the United States. All or a substantial portion of the assets of such non-resident persons and most of our assets are located outside the United States. As a result, it may not be possible for investors to effect service of process upon such persons or on us or to enforce against them or us a judgment obtained in U.S. courts. Original actions or actions for the enforcement of judgments of U.S. courts relating to the civil liability provisions of the federal or state securities laws of the United States are not directly enforceable in Belgium.

The United States and Belgium do not currently have a multilateral or bilateral treaty providing for reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments, other than arbitral awards, in civil and commercial matters. In order

51

for a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by U.S. courts based on civil liability to produce any effect on Belgian soil, it is accordingly required that this judgment be recognized or be declared enforceable by a Belgian court in accordance with Articles 22 to 25 of the 2004 Belgian Code of Private International Law. Recognition or enforcement does not imply a review of the merits of the case and is irrespective of any reciprocity requirement. A U.S. judgment will, however, not be recognized or declared enforceable in Belgium if it infringes upon one or more of the grounds for refusal that are exhaustively listed in Article 25 of the Belgian Code of Private International Law. Actions for the enforcement of judgments of U.S. courts might be successful only if the Belgian court confirms the substantive correctness of the judgment of the U.S. court and is satisfied that:

In addition to recognition or enforcement, a judgment by a federal or state court in the United States against us may also serve as evidence in a similar action in a Belgian court if it meets the conditions required for the authenticity of judgments according to the law of the state where it was rendered. The findings of a federal or state court in the United States will not, however, be taken into account to the extent they appear incompatible with Belgian public policy.

We may be subject at an increased risk of securities class action litigation.

Historically, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies have experienced significant share price volatility in recent years. If we were to be sued, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.

Tax law changes could adversely affect our shareholders and our business and financial condition.

We and our subsidiaries are subject to income and other taxes in Belgium, the United States, and other tax jurisdictions throughout the world. Tax laws and rates in these jurisdictions are subject to change. Our financial condition can be impacted by a number of complex factors, including, but not limited to: (i) interpretations of existing tax laws; (ii) the tax impact of existing or future legislation; (iii) changes in accounting standards; and (iv) changes in the mix of earnings in the various tax jurisdictions in which we operate. In recent years, many such changes have been made and changes are likely to continue to occur in the future. Future changes in tax laws could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations. We urge our shareholders to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to any such legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in our common shares.

52