UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

or

For the Transition Period from __________ to __________

Commission File Number: 001-35005

ASSEMBLY BIOSCIENCES, INC.

(Exact name of registrant specified in its charter)

331 Oyster Point Blvd., Fourth Floor

South San Francisco, California 94080

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (833) 509-4583

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act:

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes   ☐   No  ☒

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.45 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes    ☒   No    ☐

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

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

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

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

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, as of June 30, 2021, was $168.3 million. Such aggregate market value was computed by reference to the closing price of the common stock as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on June 30, 2021. For purposes of making this calculation only, the registrant has defined affiliates as including only (1) directors, (2) executive officers and (3) certain stockholders, if any, that hold greater than 10% of the voting stock of the registrant, in each case, as of June 30, 2021. Shares of common stock held by other persons, including certain other holders of more than 10% of the registrant’s outstanding common stock, if any, have not been excluded from the above calculation in that such persons are not deemed to be affiliates. The determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of February 28, 2022, there were 48,120,437 shares of the registrant’s common stock, $0.001 par value per share, outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

ASSEMBLY BIOSCIENCES, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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References to Assembly Biosciences, Inc.

Throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the “Company,” “Assembly,” “we,” “us,” and “our,” except where the context requires otherwise, refer to Assembly Biosciences, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, and “our board of directors” or “the Board” refers to the board of directors of Assembly Biosciences, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, those set forth in Part I, Item 1A under the heading “Risk Factors,” that could cause actual results to materially differ. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things:

You are urged to consider statements that include the words may, will, would, could, should, might, believes, hopes, estimates, projects, potential, expects, plans, anticipates, intends, continues, forecast, designed, goal or the negative of those words or other comparable words to be uncertain and forward-looking. In particular, forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the timing of commencement of future clinical studies involving our therapeutic product candidates; our ability to successfully complete, and receive favorable results in, clinical trials for our product candidates; and the expected impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovery and development of innovative therapeutics targeting hepatitis B virus (HBV) and other viral diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 296 million people worldwide are chronically infected with HBV as of 2019. Our research and development organizations are pursuing multiple drug candidates designed to inhibit the HBV replication cycle and block the generation of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), with the aim of discovering and developing finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection. We have discovered several novel core inhibitors, which are small molecules that directly target and allosterically modulate the HBV core protein in a way that affects assembly and stability of HBV nucleocapsids. In addition, our research organization is working on discovering and developing cccDNA disruptors and small molecules targeting two novel undisclosed HBV targets.

While we continue our efforts to develop finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection, our research organization recently launched an exploratory virology discovery program for compounds directed at a number of non-HBV viral targets. These targets, currently expected to be disclosed in mid-2022, were selected to leverage the deep antiviral expertise and experience of our research and development organizations against diseases with significant unmet medical need.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its broad, global impacts, including supply chain disruptions, have impacted certain aspects of our business, including where and how our employees work in our labs and offices and how and when our nonclinical and clinical studies are conducted. Early in the pandemic, our current and future planned clinical trials and preclinical studies were largely unaffected, but as the pandemic has continued, we have experienced enrollment delays for our current clinical studies, particularly our two ongoing multi-drug combination studies. For more information, see “—Multi-Drug Combination Studies.”

As previously announced, in January 2021, we wound down our Microbiome program to prioritize and focus our resources on our virology programs.

HBV Background

HBV is a leading global cause of chronic liver disease and liver transplants. The WHO estimates that, as of 2019, 296 million people worldwide were infected with HBV, with 1.5 million new infections occurring each year. The WHO also estimates that 820,000 people died in 2019 because of HBV, mostly from complications, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. HBV is a global epidemic and infects more than three times the number of people infected with hepatitis C virus and HIV infections combined, according to the WHO. Of the 296 million people living with chronic HBV infection, only approximately 30 million were aware of their infection, and only approximately 6.6 million of those diagnosed received treatment. Few treated patients exhibit cure, defined herein as sustained viral suppression (more than six months) of HBV DNA (less than the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ)) after a finite duration of therapy.

Current Treatments

There have been no new mechanisms used to treat chronic HBV infection approved in over 25 years. Current therapeutic options for HBV include:

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HBV Strategy

The goal of our HBV program is to discover and develop finite and curative therapies for those chronically infected with HBV. Our efforts to forge a new and differentiated path to develop finite and curative therapies for chronic HBV infection are inspired by the hundreds of millions of people living with this condition worldwide. While we have learned that combination therapy of our first-generation core inhibitor product candidate, vebicorvir (VBR), with NrtIs alone will not result in a finite and curative treatment, we believe that a regimen of core inhibitors in combination with NrtI therapy will be the antiviral backbone of future finite and curative therapies. As a result, our current business strategy is focused on three parallel paths:

With respect to our core inhibitor pipeline, we have concise, data-driven development plans that we believe will enable selection of the optimal core inhibitor to advance for finite and curative combination therapies for HBV. We intend to further complement our core inhibitor programs with additional new mechanisms of action discovered and developed internally as well as externally through collaborations, licenses, partnerships and other types of business arrangements.

Our Primary Focus: Targeting HBV Core Protein to Achieve a Cure

HBV is a DNA virus that infects hepatocytes and establishes a reservoir of cccDNA, a unique viral DNA moiety that resides in the cell nucleus of HBV-infected hepatocytes and is associated with viral persistence and chronic infection. No currently approved oral therapies target cccDNA activity directly, which makes molecules that can modulate cccDNA generation or disrupt its function highly sought in the HBV field. As a result, most of our research and development efforts to date have focused on discovering and developing compounds targeting the core protein, a viral protein involved in numerous aspects of the HBV replication cycle, including the generation of HBV cccDNA. Through our research efforts, we have discovered several chemically distinct series of small molecule core inhibitors that directly target and allosterically inhibit core protein functions. As a result, our pipeline offers the potential for both first-in-class and best-in-class compounds that target critical steps involved in cccDNA generation and the HBV viral replication cycle. We believe that our approach of targeting viral core protein and its related functions provides a promising foundation for finite and curative HBV treatment regimens.

A benchmark for therapeutic agents aiming to decrease cccDNA levels is the use of several key viral antigens as surrogate biomarkers of active cccDNA. The same biomarkers can be used in both primary human hepatocyte cells and patients. On this basis, our core inhibitors have shown preclinical proof of principle. In a variety of cell culture models, core inhibitors have demonstrated the ability to reduce production of viral HBV DNA levels as well as the surrogate markers for cccDNA establishment: HBV e antigen (HBeAg), HBV core-related antigen (HBcrAg) and viral pre-genomic RNA (pgRNA).

Our Core Inhibitor Product Candidates

Our clinical strategy encompasses testing core inhibitors first as a monotherapy in Phase 1, as required by regulatory agencies, to demonstrate their intrinsic antiviral activity and safety and subsequently in Phase 2 in combination with NrtI and potentially other classes of HBV therapies.

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Vebicorvir

VBR, our lead core inhibitor product candidate, is licensed from Indiana University. The conduct of our initial Phase 2 studies, Study 201 and 202, is complete. In these studies, VBR administered with NrtI therapy demonstrated a favorable safety profile and led to greater viral suppression of both HBV DNA and viral pgRNA than NrtI therapy alone.

Finite Therapy Development

Our most recently completed study for VBR, Study 211, involved transitioning patients who met the requisite stopping criteria, as determined in collaboration with our lead investigators and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), off of therapy to test for sustained virologic response (SVR). SVR refers to sustained viral suppression (more than six months) of HBV DNA below LLOQ and would be consistent with a successful finite treatment for chronic HBV infection. During the trial, it became clear that patients who stopped therapy in Study 211 had not achieved SVR, as all patients relapsed, meaning they had detectable HBV and the dual combination therapy of VBR + NrtI was insufficient to cure chronic HBV infection in the studied population. Based on these results, we terminated Study 211 in the fourth quarter of 2020. We presented follow-up data from Study 211 related to virologic response, safety and resistance following treatment discontinuation, at the European Association for the Study of the Liver’s (EASL) International Liver Congress^TM in June 2021 (EASL 2021). At the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Annual Meeting in November 2021 (AASLD 2021), we presented additional follow-up data from Study 211 demonstrating that patients had increases of HBV DNA and pgRNA after discontinuation of VBR despite continued NrtI treatment, further supporting that core inhibitors deepen viral suppression in combination with NrtIs.

We currently have two Phase 2 triple combination studies involving VBR ongoing, with a third expected to be initiated in the first half of 2022. These studies are detailed below. See “—Multi-Drug Combination Studies.”

Chronic Suppressive Therapy Development

Despite the off-treatment results in Study 211, the Phase 2 studies demonstrated on-treatment that subjects receiving VBR + NrtI achieved faster and deeper suppression of viral replication as compared to placebo. Based on these data, we believed that the addition of VBR to NrtI therapy could potentially help two patient populations as a chronic suppressive treatment (CST): (1) treatment-naïve patients, for whom addition of VBR to NrtI could lead to faster and deeper viral suppression and (2) partially virologically suppressed patients who continue to have viral levels above LLOQ by commercial assays, for whom the addition of VBR to NrtI could suppress viral levels below what could be achieved by NrtI alone.

In connection with preparation for registrational studies for VBR in CST in 2020, we held a number of discussions with leading viral hepatitis experts regarding use of VBR as a CST. In addition, we initiated an additional Phase 2 study of VBR, Study 205, to evaluate treatment intensification with VBR in patients with chronic HBV infection who are only partially virologically suppressed on NrtI.

In the second half of 2020, we also held an End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the National Medical Products Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation, China, and reached agreement on a Phase 3 registrational program for CST use of VBR plus NrtI. We also had discussions with the FDA regarding the same Phase 3 registrational program.

Based on discussions with leading viral hepatitis experts, global regulatory discussions and feedback, and, with respect to the China territory, discussions and agreement with our collaboration partner, BeiGene, Ltd. (BeiGene), in early 2021, we decided to not move forward with the global registrational studies for VBR as a CST with NrtI. The decision was made to focus on the greatest unmet medical need of patients, which lies predominantly in cure, rather than CST. As a result, we terminated Study 205 and began to focus our efforts with VBR in combination with NrtI and additional mechanisms targeting finite and curative combination therapy.

Next-Generation Core Inhibitors

In pursuit of our goal of developing finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection, we plan to advance the optimal core inhibitor in our portfolio for use as the antiviral backbone with NrtI. While we currently have VBR, our first-generation core inhibitor product candidate, and 3733, a next-generation product candidate, in clinical studies, we expect to initiate Phase 1a studies of 4334, our most potent next-generation product candidate in the second half of 2022. Based on the clinical progress of these candidates, we will apply disciplined, data-driven analyses to identify the optimal candidate to advance into late-stage clinical trials to produce potentially higher cure rates than are currently obtainable for patients with chronic HBV infection under the current standard of care.

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ABI-H3733

Our first of two next-generation core inhibitor product candidates, 3733, was internally discovered and developed. The chemical scaffold of 3733 is novel and distinct from each of VBR, 4334 and our discontinued core inhibitor product candidate, ABI-H2158 (2158).

In 2020, we initiated and completed a Phase 1a clinical study of 3733 to evaluate safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) following single ascending dose and multiple ascending dose administration in healthy subjects in New Zealand. Preliminary data indicate that 3733 was generally well-tolerated and had favorable PK. Results detailing 3733’s safety and PK from this study were presented in a poster presentation at AASLD 2021.

In addition, at EASL 2021, we presented observations on 3733’s enhanced potency and target coverage for both antiviral activity and inhibition of cccDNA generation as compared to VBR and 2158.

We expect to initiate a Phase 1b study with an improved formulation of 3733 in patients with chronic HBV infection in the first half of 2022.

ABI-4334

In mid-2021, we announced the selection of 4334, our other next-generation core inhibitor product candidate. As with all of our core inhibitor product candidates nominated after VBR, 4334 was internally discovered and developed. In addition, the chemical scaffold of 4334 is also novel and distinct from each of VBR, 3733 and 2158.

We nominated 4334 based on a preclinical target drug profile that indicates enhanced target coverage and potency to prevent both formation of new virus and cccDNA, which is responsible for maintaining the HBV viral reservoir. We believe that 4334 has a best-in-class preclinical profile, with single-digit nanomolar potency against the production of new virus and the formation of cccDNA. Preclinically to date, 4334 has also demonstrated pan-genotypic activity, an improved resistance profile and a favorable safety profile. Preclinical characterization of 4334 was shared in a poster presentation at AASLD in November 2021.

Our preclinical work on 4334 is ongoing, with the aim of completing Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies and initiating a Phase 1a clinical study in the second half of 2022.

ABI-2158

In September 2021, we discontinued development of 2158 following the observation of elevated alanine transaminase (ALT) levels in the Phase 2 clinical study consistent with drug-induced hepatotoxicity.

Core Inhibitor Collaboration and License Agreements

Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation

In September 2013, we entered into an exclusive license agreement (the IURTC License Agreement) with Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation (IURTC) pursuant to which we acquired, with rights to sublicense, the rights to develop and commercialize products associated with multiple patents and patent applications covering aspects of our HBV program held by IURTC. As part of this agreement, we are obligated to make milestone payments based upon the successful accomplishment of clinical and regulatory milestones. The aggregate amount of all performance milestone payments under the IURTC License Agreement, should all performance milestones through development be met, is $0.8 million, with a portion related to the first performance milestone having been paid. Under the IURTC License Agreement, we are also obligated to pay IURTC royalties based on net sales of the licensed technology ranging from 0.5% to 1.75%. In addition, under the IURTC License Agreement, we pay annual diligence maintenance fees of $0.1 million. Milestone payments received by IURTC are fully creditable against the annual diligence maintenance fee for the year in which the milestone payments are received.

The IURTC License Agreement may be terminated by us, with or without cause, upon 90 days advance written notice, by IURTC upon our material breach with 60 days advance written notice or by IURTC, in certain cases, upon our insolvency or bankruptcy immediately upon written notice.

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BeiGene, Ltd.

In July 2020, we entered into a Collaboration Agreement with BeiGene, granting BeiGene an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to develop and commercialize products containing VBR, 2158 and 3733 (the BeiGene Agreement) in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau (the Territory).

Under the BeiGene Agreement, we and BeiGene will collaborate on development activities with respect to the licensed products in accordance with a mutually agreed upon development plan.

Pursuant to the terms of the BeiGene Agreement, BeiGene paid us an upfront amount of $40.0 million, and we were eligible to receive up to approximately $500.0 million in milestone payments, comprised of up to $113.8 million in development and regulatory and $385.0 million in net sales milestone payments. In September 2021, we discontinued development of 2158 following the observation of elevated ALT levels in the Phase 2 clinical study consistent with drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Due to the discontinuation of development of 2158, the maximum cash milestone payments we are eligible to receive for VBR and 3733 are $427.5 million, comprised of up to $97.5 million for development and regulatory milestones and up to $330.0 million in net sales milestones. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties at percentages ranging from the mid-teens to the low 30s of net sales. BeiGene has also agreed to pay all development and regulatory costs up to an aggregate of $45.0 million in the Territory for VBR, 2158 and 3733. Following this initial investment, we and BeiGene will share development costs for the Territory equally.

The BeiGene Agreement also contains provisions such as representations and warranties of the parties, terms as to governance of the collaboration, commercialization and regulatory responsibilities of the parties, and manufacturing and supply, including potential adjustments in the event supply costs exceed certain levels. In addition, during the term of the BeiGene Agreement, neither party will commercialize any competing products in the Territory.

Under the terms of the BeiGene Agreement, if after 3733 reaches the end of Phase 2 clinical trials we and BeiGene are unable to mutually agree on the terms of a Phase 3 global study, BeiGene may elect to terminate the BeiGene Agreement solely as it relates to that compound. Such a termination would result in us regaining all rights to the applicable compound in the Territory. In addition, BeiGene may terminate the BeiGene Agreement for convenience at any time upon 90 days’ advance written notice to us. The BeiGene Agreement also contains customary provisions for termination by either party, including in the event of breach of the BeiGene Agreement, subject to cure.

Multi-Drug Combination Studies

We believe that core inhibitors and NrtI will be central to finite and curative therapies for chronic HBV infection. Therefore, as we continue to develop and advance our current and future core inhibitors through clinical studies, we plan to conduct multi-drug combination studies in parallel that add additional drugs (or compounds) with nonoverlapping mechanisms of action to the core inhibitor + NrtI antiviral backbone. Specifically, we plan on only incorporating our current and future core inhibitors that have demonstrated they are well-tolerated and effective in clinical studies in dual combination with NrtI. The 300 mg daily dose of VBR has been observed to be well-tolerated in all studies conducted to date, with no serious adverse effects or dose-limiting toxicities identified and no pattern of treatment-emergent clinical or laboratory abnormalities observed. We currently have two ongoing triple combination studies and a third triple combination study expected to start in the first half of 2022 to study VBR in combination with NrtI and a third mechanism of action.

Our first triple combination study is being conducted pursuant to a Clinical Trial Agreement with Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (Arbutus Biopharma) and consists of a randomized, multi-center, open-label Phase 2 clinical study to explore the safety, PK and antiviral activity of the triple combination of VBR, NrtI and AB-729 (Arbutus Biopharma’s investigational RNAi candidate) compared to the double combinations of VBR + NrtI and AB-729 + NrtI in virologically suppressed patients. This clinical study initiated in the first quarter of 2021 and completed enrollment in February 2022. We expect to share interim on-treatment results from this study in the second half of 2022.

Our second triple combination study evaluates VBR and NrtI in combination with interferon in treatment-naïve HBeAg positive subjects. This study was also initiated in the first quarter of 2021, and we expect enrollment to be complete in March 2022. We expect to share interim on-treatment results from this study in the second half of 2022.

Our third triple combination study will be conducted pursuant to a Clinical Trial Collaboration Agreement with Antios Therapeutics, Inc. (Antios) and will evaluate ATI-2173, Antios’s investigational proprietary active site polymerase inhibitor nucleotide (ASPIN), VBR and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, an NrtI. This multi-center, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety, PK and antiviral activity of this all-oral triple combination. We expect to initiate this study, which will enroll ten treatment-naïve or off-treatment HBeAg negative or positive patients in a 12-week treatment study, in the first half of 2022. The study plan initially included a site in Ukraine, but we will no

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longer be conducting the study there due to the instability resulting from Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine. We expect these changes to our study plan to result in a delayed data readout.

In addition to the above studies, we expect to pursue additional multi-drug combinations that include other or additional nonoverlapping mechanisms of action to the core inhibitor + NrtI antiviral backbone, using our current and future core inhibitors as they advance in clinical development.

Both our first and second triple combination studies have experienced enrollment delays due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has impacted patients and study sites through patient screening delays, travel restrictions and hesitancy to travel to study sites. The pandemic has also impacted our vendors, as our central laboratories have been unable to meet their contractual obligations, and our vendors have experienced staffing constraints and supply chain-related challenges as they seek to obtain lab kits, reagents and other items necessary to enroll patients in our studies. As a result, we were unable to fully enroll our first and second triple combination studies in 2021 as initially planned; however, based on enrollment to date, we do not believe these delays will impact interim data readouts for these studies, which remains on schedule in 2022.

Beyond Core Inhibitors

In addition to the development and advancement of our core inhibitor portfolio and our current and future multi-drug combination studies, our research and development team is working on discovering and developing cccDNA disruptors and small molecules targeting two novel undisclosed HBV targets, which we expect to announce in the first half of 2022, to complement our HBV cure strategy.

In November 2020, we entered into an exclusive, two-year collaboration and option agreement with Door Pharmaceuticals, LLC (Door Pharma) focused on the development of a novel class of HBV inhibitors. Door Pharma’s discovery platform targets functions of core protein distinct from viral assembly and have the potential to interfere with viral nucleic acid including intra-nuclear cccDNA, providing a strong complement to our current portfolio. Together with Door Pharma, we are working on identifying cccDNA disruptors, which will be aimed at inhibiting different intra-nuclear steps in the viral replication cycle that complement the activity of our core inhibitors.

Under the terms of the agreement, Door Pharma will build upon its previous efforts to lead and conduct new discovery research, which we will fund. In return for an up-front payment and success-based milestones and royalties, we will be granted an exclusive option to license compounds arising from the collaboration and will be responsible for the continued development and commercialization of optioned compounds.

Additional Antiviral Opportunities

In addition to our work toward developing finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection, we have expanded our research and development organizations’ reach by pursuing exploratory research on novel compounds targeting other viruses. Our expanded focus leverages the depth and breadth of virology expertise of our research and development organization to diversify our pipeline into areas of high unmet medical need.

We expect to disclose more information regarding these discovery programs on additional viral targets in mid-2022.

Intellectual Property

In regard to our HBV patent estate, we co-own with and exclusively license from Indiana University two issued U.S. patents and related foreign patents and patent applications that relate to compositions of matter and methods of using VBR. The issued U.S. patents are expected to expire in 2035 and 2036. In addition, we own a U.S. patent and related foreign applications directed to a process for preparing VBR. The issued U.S. patent is expected to expire in 2038. Finally, we own a U.S. patent application and related foreign applications directed to formulations of VBR; any patents issuing therefrom are expected to expire in 2040.

We own a U.S. patent application and related foreign patent applications that relate to compositions of matter and methods of using 3733; any patents issuing therefrom are expected to expire in 2039.

We own an international (PCT) application that relates to compositions of matter and methods of using 4334; any patents issuing therefrom are expected to expire in 2041.

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Finally, we own a U.S. patent and related foreign patents and patent applications that relate to compositions of matter and methods of using 2158. The issued U.S. patent is expected to expire in 2038.

Government Regulation

Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, and in other countries extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, including any manufacturing changes, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, import and export of pharmaceutical products, such as those we are developing.   

U.S. drug approval process

In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and implementing regulations. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. Failure to comply with the applicable U.S. requirements at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval may subject an applicant to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as the FDA’s refusal to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, license revocation, imposition of a clinical hold, issuance of warning letters and untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, restitution, disgorgement of profits or civil or criminal penalties.

The process required by the FDA before a drug may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:

Nonclinical studies and IND

Nonclinical studies include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry and formulation, as well as in vitro and animal studies to assess the potential for adverse events and in some cases to establish a rationale for therapeutic use. The conduct of nonclinical studies is subject to federal regulations and requirements, including GLP regulations for safety/toxicology studies. An IND sponsor must submit the results of the nonclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature and plans for clinical studies, among other things, to the FDA as part of an IND. Some long-term nonclinical testing, such as animal tests of reproductive adverse events and carcinogenicity, may continue after the IND is submitted. For some products, the FDA may waive the need for certain nonclinical tests. An IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time the FDA raises concerns or questions related to one or more proposed clinical studies and places the trial on clinical hold. If an IND or clinical study is placed on clinical hold, the IND sponsor and

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the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical study can begin. As a result, submission of an IND may not result in the FDA allowing clinical studies to commence.

Clinical studies

Clinical studies involve the administration of the investigational new drug to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with GCP requirements, which include, among other things, the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent in writing before their participation in any clinical study. Clinical studies are conducted under written study protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety, and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A protocol for each clinical study and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. In addition, an IRB at each institution participating in the clinical study must review and approve the plan for any clinical study before it commences at that institution, and the IRB must conduct continuing review. The IRB must review and approve, among other things, the study protocol and informed consent information to be provided to study subjects. An IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations. Information about certain clinical studies must be submitted within specific timeframes to the National Institutes of Health for public dissemination at www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Human clinical studies are typically conducted in three sequential phases, which may overlap or be combined:

Progress reports detailing the results of the clinical studies must be submitted at least annually to the FDA. Additionally, IND safety reports must be submitted to the FDA and the investigators within 15 calendar days after determining that the information qualifies for reporting. IND safety reports are required for serious and unexpected suspected adverse reactions, findings from animal or in vitro testing or other studies that suggest a significant risk to humans, and any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. In addition, a sponsor must notify the FDA within seven calendar days after receiving information concerning any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction. Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical studies may not be completed successfully within any specified period, or at all. Furthermore, the FDA or the sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical study at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical study at its institution if the clinical study is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the drug has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.

A manufacturer of an investigational drug for a serious disease or condition is required to make available, such as by posting on its website, its policy regarding evaluating and responding to requests for individual patient access to such investigational drug. This requirement applies on the earlier of the first initiation of a Phase 2 or Phase 3 trial of the investigational drug or, as applicable, 15 days after the drug receives a designation as a breakthrough therapy, Fast Track product, or regenerative advanced therapy.

Marketing approval

After the completion of required clinical testing, the results of the nonclinical studies and clinical studies, together with detailed information relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacture, controls and proposed labeling, among other things, are submitted to the FDA as part of an NDA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. Under federal law, the submission of most NDAs is additionally subject to a substantial application user

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fee, currently $3.1 million and the sponsor of an approved NDA is also subject to an annual program fee currently set at $0.4 million through September 30, 2022. These fees are typically adjusted on October 1 each year.

The FDA conducts a preliminary review of all NDAs within the first 60 days after submission before accepting them for filing to determine whether they are sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. The FDA may request additional information rather than accept an NDA for filing. In this event, the application must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application is also subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review. The FDA has agreed to specified performance goals in the review of NDAs. Under these goals, the FDA has committed to review most original applications for non-priority products within ten months, and most original applications for priority review products, that is, drugs for a serious or life-threatening condition that the FDA determines represent a significant improvement over existing therapy, within six months. For NDAs for novel products, the ten- and six-month time periods runs from the filing date; for all other original applications, the ten- and six-month time periods run from the submission date. The review process may be extended by the FDA for three additional months to consider certain information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission. Despite these review goals, it is not uncommon for FDA review of an NDA to extend beyond the goal date. The FDA may also refer applications for novel drugs or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review, evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.

Before approving an NDA, the FDA typically will inspect the facility or facilities where the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve an application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. In addition, before approving an NDA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP and integrity of the clinical data submitted.

After the FDA’s evaluation of the NDA and inspection of the manufacturing facilities, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a complete response letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug with specific prescribing information for specific indications. A complete response letter generally outlines the deficiencies in the submission and may require substantial additional testing or information in order for the FDA to reconsider the application. If and when those deficiencies have been addressed to the FDA’s satisfaction in a resubmission of the NDA, the FDA will issue an approval letter. The FDA has committed to reviewing such resubmissions in two or six months depending on the type of information included. Even with submission of this additional information, the FDA ultimately may decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval and refuse to approve the NDA. Even if the FDA approves a product, it may limit the approved indications for use for the product, require that contraindications, warnings or precautions be included in the product labeling, require that post-approval studies, including Phase 4 clinical studies, be conducted to further assess a drug’s safety after approval, require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the product after commercialization, or impose other conditions, including distribution and use restrictions or other risk management mechanisms, including Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS), which can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the product or impose new labeling, testing or distribution and use requirements. The FDA may prevent or limit further marketing of a product based on the results of post-market studies or surveillance programs. After approval, some types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications, manufacturing changes and additional labeling claims, are subject to further testing requirements and FDA review and approval. 

Fast Track designation

The FDA is required to facilitate and expedite the development and review of drugs that are intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition for which there is no effective treatment and which demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. Under the Fast Track program, the sponsor of a new product candidate may request the FDA to designate the product for a specific indication as a Fast Track product concurrent with or after the filing of the IND for the product candidate. The FDA must determine if the product candidate qualifies for fast track designation within 60 calendar days after receipt of the sponsor’s request.

In addition to other benefits, such as the ability to have greater interactions with the FDA, the FDA may initiate review of sections of a Fast Track product’s NDA before the application is complete. This rolling review is available if the

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applicant provides and the FDA approves a schedule for the submission of the remaining information and the applicant pays applicable user fees. However, the FDA’s time period goal for reviewing a Fast Track application does not begin until the last section of the NDA is submitted. In addition, the Fast Track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if the FDA believes that the designation is no longer supported by data emerging in the clinical study process. In 2018, the FDA granted Fast Track designation to VBR for the treatment of patients with chronic HBV infection.

Priority review

Under FDA policies, a product candidate may be eligible for priority review, a review generally within a six-month time frame from the time a complete application is received or filed. Products generally are eligible for priority review if they are intended for treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness compared to marketed products in the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of a serious disease or condition. A fast track designated product candidate would ordinarily meet the FDA’s criteria for priority review.

Accelerated approval

Under the FDA’s accelerated approval regulations, the FDA may approve a drug for a serious or life-threatening illness that provides meaningful therapeutic benefit to patients over existing treatments based upon a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality (IMM). In clinical studies, a surrogate endpoint is a measurement of laboratory or clinical signs of a disease or condition that substitutes for a direct measurement of how a patient feels, functions or survives. Surrogate endpoints can often be measured more easily or more rapidly than clinical endpoints. A product candidate approved on this basis is subject to rigorous post-marketing compliance requirements, including the completion of Phase 4 or post-approval clinical studies to confirm the effect on the clinical endpoint. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies, or confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, would allow the FDA to withdraw the drug from the market on an expedited basis. All promotional materials for drug candidates approved under accelerated regulations are subject to prior review by the FDA.

Breakthrough therapy designation

A sponsor can request designation of a product candidate as a “breakthrough therapy.” A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies also may be eligible for priority review. The FDA must take certain actions, such as holding timely meetings and providing advice, intended to expedite the development and review of an application for approval of a breakthrough therapy. Even if a product qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

Orphan drugs

Under the Orphan Drug Act, as amended, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to drugs intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States or that affects more than 200,000 individuals in the United States and for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available the drug for the disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product in the United States. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA or BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the identity of the product and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not shorten the duration of the regulatory review and approval process. The first NDA or BLA applicant to receive FDA approval for a particular active moiety to treat a particular disease with FDA orphan drug designation is entitled to a seven-year exclusive marketing period in the United States for that product and indication. During the seven-year exclusivity period, the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same drug for the same orphan indication, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity. A drug will be considered clinically superior if it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from approving a different drug for the same orphan disease or condition, or the

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same drug for a different disease or condition. Among the other benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the NDA/BLA application user fee.

Pediatric information

Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2003, as amended, an NDA or supplement to an NDA for drug with certain novel features (e.g., new active ingredient, new indication) must contain data that are adequate to assess the safety and effectiveness of the drug for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations, and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. The FDA may, on its own initiative or at the request of the applicant, grant deferrals for submission of some or all pediatric data until after approval of the product for use in adults, or full or partial waivers from the pediatric data requirements. A sponsor of a new drug subject to the above pediatric testing requirements also is required to submit to the FDA a pediatric study plan generally 60 days after an end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the agency. Generally, the pediatric data requirements do not apply to products with orphan drug designation.

Other regulatory requirements

Any drug manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals will be subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to recordkeeping, periodic reporting, product sampling and distribution, advertising and promotion and reporting of adverse experiences with the product. After approval, most changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims, are subject to prior FDA review and approval.

The FDA may impose a number of post-approval requirements, including REMS, as a condition of approval of an NDA or BLA. For example, the FDA may require post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical studies, and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization.

In addition, drug manufacturers and other entities involved in the manufacture and distribution of approved drugs are required to register their establishments with the FDA and state agencies and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and these state agencies for compliance with cGMP requirements. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated and often require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting and documentation requirements upon us and any third-party manufacturers that we may decide to use. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality control to maintain cGMP compliance.

Once an approval is granted, the FDA may withdraw the 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 a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with 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 studies to assess new safety risks or imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a REM 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. Drugs generally may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the

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approved labeling. 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.

Physician Drug Samples

As part of the sales and marketing process, pharmaceutical companies frequently provide samples of approved drugs to physicians. The Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA) regulates the distribution of drug samples at the federal level and sets minimum standards for the registration and regulation of drug distributors by the states. Both the PDMA and state laws limit the distribution of prescription pharmaceutical product samples and impose requirements to ensure accountability in distribution. In addition, the PDMA sets forth civil and criminal penalties for violations.

Foreign Regulation

In order to market any product outside of the United States, we would need to comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical studies, marketing authorization, commercial sales and distribution of our products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we would need to obtain the necessary approvals by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries before we can commence clinical studies or marketing of the product in those countries. The approval process varies from country to country and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approval in other countries might differ from and be longer than that required to obtain FDA approval. Regulatory approval in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others.

New Legislation and Regulations

From time to time, legislation is drafted, introduced and passed in Congress that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the testing, approval, manufacturing and marketing of products regulated by the FDA. In addition to new legislation, FDA regulations and policies are often revised or interpreted by the agency in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. It is impossible to predict whether further legislative changes will be enacted or whether FDA regulations, guidance, policies or interpretations will be changed or what the effect of such changes, if any, may be.

Pharmaceutical Coverage, Pricing and Reimbursement

Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any drug products for which we may obtain regulatory approval. Sales of any of our product candidates, if approved, will depend, in part, on the extent to which the costs of the products will be covered by third-party payors, including government health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, commercial health insurers and managed care organizations. The process for determining whether a payor will provide coverage for a drug product may be separate from the process for setting the price or reimbursement rate that the payor will pay for the drug product once coverage is approved. Third-party payors may limit coverage to specific drug products on an approved list, or formulary, which might not include all of the approved drugs for a particular indication.

In order to secure coverage and reimbursement for any product that might be approved for sale, we may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of the product, in addition to the trials required to obtain FDA or other comparable regulatory approvals. Our product candidates may not be considered medically necessary or cost-effective. A payor’s decision to provide coverage for a drug product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Companies may also need to provide discounts to purchasers, private health plans or government healthcare programs. Third-party reimbursement may not be sufficient to enable us to maintain price levels high enough to realize an appropriate return on our investment in product development. Further, one payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage and reimbursement for the product, and the level of coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payor to payor.

The containment of healthcare costs has become a priority of federal, state and foreign governments, and the prices of drugs have been a focus in this effort. Third-party payors are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical

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products and services and examining the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of medical products and services, in addition to their safety and efficacy. If these third-party payors do not consider our products to be cost-effective compared to other available therapies, they may not cover our products after approval as a benefit under their plans or, if they do, the level of payment may not be sufficient to allow us to sell our products at a profit. The U.S. government, state legislatures and foreign governments have shown significant interest in implementing cost containment programs to limit the growth of government-paid health care costs, including price controls, restrictions on reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products for branded prescription drugs. Adoption of such controls and measures and tightening of restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could limit payments for pharmaceuticals such as the drug candidates that we are developing and could adversely affect our net revenue and results. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we may receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.

Pricing and reimbursement schemes vary widely from country to country. Some countries provide that drug products may be marketed only after a reimbursement price has been agreed. Some countries may require the completion of additional studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of a particular product candidate to currently available therapies. For example, the European Union provides options for its member states to restrict the range of drug products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. European Union member states may approve a specific price for a drug product or may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of us placing the drug product on the market. Other member states allow companies to fix their own prices for drug products but monitor and control company profits. The downward pressure on health care costs in general, particularly prescription drugs, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products. In addition, in some countries, cross-border imports from low-priced markets exert competitive pressure that may reduce pricing within a country. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for drug products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products.

The marketability of any products for which we may receive regulatory approval for commercial sale is dependent on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from government and third-party payors. In addition, the emphasis on managed care in the United States has increased and we expect will continue to increase the pressure on drug pricing. Coverage policies, third-party reimbursement rates and drug pricing regulation may change at any time. In particular, in the United States, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its amendment, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, contains provisions that may reduce the profitability of drug products, including, for example, increased rebates for drugs sold to Medicaid programs, extension of Medicaid rebates to Medicaid managed care plans, mandatory discounts for certain Medicare Part D beneficiaries and annual fees based on pharmaceutical companies’ share of sales to federal health care programs.

Among the provisions of the ACA of importance to our potential drug candidates are the following:

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Since its enactment, there have been many judicial, Presidential, and Congressional challenges to numerous aspects of the ACA. For example, former President Trump issued several executive orders and other directives designed to delay, circumvent, or loosen certain requirements or implementation of certain requirements mandated by the ACA. Concurrently, Congress has considered legislation that would repeal, or repeal and replace all or part of the ACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, several bills affecting the implementation of certain taxes under the ACA have been signed into law. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in 2017, effectively repealed the individual health insurance mandate, which is considered a key component of the ACA. On December 14, 2018, a U.S. District Court Judge in the Northern District of Texas ruled that the individual mandate is a critical and inseverable feature of the ACA, and because it was repealed as part of the Tax Act, the remaining provisions of the ACA are invalid as well. In December 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the lower court decision, which was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court held that state and individual plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the individual mandate provision of the ACA; in so holding, the Supreme Court did not consider larger constitutional questions about the validity of this provision or the validity of the ACA in its entirety. Further, the Trump Administration’s 2020 federal spending package permanently eliminated, effective January 1, 2020, the ACA-mandated “Cadillac” tax on certain high-cost employer-sponsored insurance plans and, on January 1, 2021, eliminated the health insurer tax. Moreover, the BBA, among other things, amended the ACA to close the coverage gap in most Medicare drug plans, commonly referred to as the “donut hole”.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted. These changes included aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, and, due to subsequent legislative amendments, will remain in effect through 2030, with the exception of a temporary suspension from May 1, 2020 through March 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the temporary suspension, a 1% payment reduction will occur beginning April 1, 2022 through June 30, 2022, and the 2% payment reduction will resume on July 1, 2022. Further, in January 2013, then President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding.

Additionally, there has been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to drug pricing practices. Specifically, there have been several recent United States Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. For example, at the federal level, President Biden signed an Executive Order on July 9, 2021 affirming the administration’s policy to (1) support legislative reforms that would lower the prices of prescription drug and biologics, including by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, by imposing inflation caps, and, by supporting the development and market entry of lower-cost generic drugs and biosimilars; and (2) support the enactment of a public health insurance option. Among other things, the Executive Order also directs HHS to provide a report on actions to combat excessive pricing of prescription drugs, enhance the domestic drug supply chain, reduce the price that the Federal government pays for drugs, and address price gouging in the industry; and directs the FDA to work with states and Indian Tribes that propose to develop section 804 Importation Programs in accordance with the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, and the FDA’s implementing regulations. In addition, in September 2020, the FDA issued a final rule that sets up a legal framework for allowing the importation of certain prescription drugs from Canada, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance that addresses the treatment of certain imported drugs under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. On December 27, 2021, CMS rescinded an interim final rule that would have implemented former President Trump’s Most Favored Nation executive order tying Medicare Part B payments for certain physician-administered drugs to the lowest price paid in other economically advanced countries.

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Additionally, on November 30, 2020, HHS published a regulation removing safe harbor protection for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The rule also creates a new safe harbor for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers. Pursuant to court order, the removal and addition of the aforementioned safe harbors were delayed and recent legislation imposed a moratorium on implementation of the rule until January 1, 2026. Although a number of these and other proposed measures may require authorization through additional legislation to become effective, and the Biden administration may reverse or otherwise change these measures, both the Biden administration and Congress have indicated that they will continue to seek new legislative measures to control drug costs.

Other Healthcare Laws

In the United States, our activities are potentially subject to regulation by various federal, state and local authorities in addition to the FDA, including but not limited to, CMS, other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (e.g., the Office of Inspector General), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and individual U.S. Attorney offices within the DOJ, and state and local governments. For example, the Company’s business practices, including its research and sales, marketing and scientific/ educational grant programs may be required to comply with federal and state fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, the data privacy and security provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), federal transparency requirements and similar state laws, each as amended. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

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Additionally, we are subject to state and non-U.S. equivalents of each of the healthcare laws described above, among others, some of which may be broader in scope and may apply regardless of the payor. Many U.S. states have adopted laws similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, some of which apply to the referral of patients for healthcare services reimbursed by any source, not just governmental payors, including private insurers. In addition, some states have passed laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the April 2003 Office of Inspector General Compliance Program Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and/or the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. Several states also impose other marketing restrictions or require pharmaceutical companies to make marketing or price disclosures to the state. There are ambiguities as to what is required to comply with these state requirements and if we fail to comply with an applicable state law requirement, we could be subject to penalties.

In addition, regulators globally are also imposing greater monetary fines for privacy violations. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect on May 25, 2018, applies to any company established in the European Union (EU) as well as to those outside the EU if they collect and use personal data in connection with the offering goods or services to individuals in the EU or the monitoring of their behavior. The GDPR enhances data protection obligations for processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, expanded disclosures about how personal information is to be used, limitations on retention of information, mandatory data breach notification requirements and onerous new obligations on services providers. Noncompliance with the GDPR may result in monetary penalties of up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies, and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations. In addition, the GDPR includes restrictions on cross-border data transfers. The GDPR may increase our responsibility and liability in relation to personal data that we process where such processing is subject to the GDPR, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the GDPR, including as implemented by individual countries.

California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which creates new individual privacy rights for California consumers (as defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA will require covered companies to provide certain disclosures to consumers about its data collection, use and sharing practices, and to provide affected California residents with ways to opt-out of certain sales or transfers of personal information. The CCPA went into effect on January 1, 2020, and the California Attorney General began taking enforcement action against violators beginning July 1, 2020. While there is currently an exception for protected health information that is subject to HIPAA and clinical trial regulations, as

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currently written, the CCPA may impact our business activities. Additionally, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) was passed in November 2020 and will become effective on January 1, 2023. Among other things, the CPRA imposes additional obligations on companies covered by the legislation and expands consumers’ rights with respect to certain sensitive personal information. The CPRA also creates a new state agency that will be vested with authority to implement and enforce the CCPA and the CPRA. Virginia and Colorado similarly passed data privacy laws that will go into effect in January 2023 and will regulate how businesses collect and share personal information.

Competition

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry is very competitive, and the development and commercialization of new drugs is influenced by rapid technological developments and innovation. We face competition from several companies developing and commercializing products that will be competitive with our drug candidates, including large pharmaceutical and smaller biotechnology companies. Additionally, new entrants may potentially enter the market. Potential competitors include Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Gilead Sciences Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., HEC Pharma, Arbutus Biopharma, Vir Bio, Aligos Therapeutics, Antios and Qilu Pharmaceutical, among others. Additionally, we may face competition from currently available HBV treatments. Some of the competitive development programs from these companies may be based on scientific approaches that are similar to our approach, and others may be based on entirely different approaches. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of products similar to ours or that otherwise target indications that we are pursuing.

Manufacturing

We currently rely on third-party manufacturers to supply the quantities of VBR, 3733 and 4334 used in our clinical and nonclinical studies. We currently have no plans to establish any manufacturing facilities for our product candidates.

Human Capital Management

Employees

As of December 31, 2021, we had 102 total employees and contracts with a number of temporary contractors, consultants and contract research organizations. The majority of our employees work out of our facility in South San Francisco, California. We also have a small number of remote employees spread across the United States, two remote employees in China and one remote employee in the United Kingdom. Following the wind-down of our Microbiome program on January 31, 2021, we increased our headcount by adding eight additional employees. The new employees were hired to support, extend and grow our clinical and preclinical pipeline, with new hires in clinical development and operations, research, manufacturing and general and administrative functions.

We expect to continue to add employees to support our virology programs in 2022, with a focus on continued expansion of our preclinical research team. We continually evaluate our needs and make strategic choices regarding whether to hire internal teams or outsource certain functions to contract research organizations (CROs) or contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), as appropriate. We currently outsource our clinical study management to various CROs and utilize certain CMOs to manufacture both the drug substance and the drug product used in our ongoing and planned clinical studies.

We compete with both large and small companies in our industry for a limited number of qualified applicants to fill highly specialized needs. We generally target our base salaries and annual performance-based cash bonuses at the 50^th percentile of our peers and our long-term equity incentive compensation, which all employees receive, between the 50^th and 75^th percentiles of our peers. In certain circumstances, we offer compensation above these levels, based on a candidate’s experience, criticality, amount of responsibility and either individual or Company-wide performance. We routinely review our employees’ base salaries to ensure that they remain market competitive. Both annual performance-based cash bonuses and long-term equity compensation increase as a percentage of total compensation based on employees’ levels of responsibility. We also offer comprehensive benefits packages to all of our employees, including: 100% Company-covered medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their families; a 401k program with a Company match; a comprehensive employee assistance program, an employee stock purchase plan; and paid family leave.

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A large majority of our employees have advanced degrees, and we also offer an educational assistance program that reimburses employees up to a maximum amount per year for courses that directly enhance his or her area of professional work or contribute to his or her immediate career growth. This program demonstrates our commitment to analytical growth, enhanced knowledge and professional development.

COVID-19 Response

Shortly after the counties in the San Francisco Bay Area implemented a shelter-in-place order, followed quickly by California’s similar statewide order, we established a COVID-19 Task Force (the Task Force) that held regular meetings through mid-2021. The Task Force, in conjunction with our Human Resources department, took the following actions in our effort to curb the pandemic:

Since the cessation of Task Force meetings in mid-2021 due to the widespread availability of vaccines and then-declining COVID case numbers, our human resources group and executive leadership team continued to regularly monitor all local and national guidelines and discuss and update internal guidance and protocols.

Corporate History

We were incorporated in Delaware in October 2005 under the name South Island Biosciences, Inc. (which was changed to Ventrus Biosciences, Inc. in April 2007). On July 11, 2014, we acquired Assembly Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a private company, through a merger with our wholly owned subsidiary (the Merger). In connection with the Merger, we changed our name from Ventrus Biosciences, Inc. to Assembly Biosciences, Inc.

Corporate Information

Our principal executive office is at 331 Oyster Point Blvd., Fourth Floor, South San Francisco, California 94080. Our telephone number is (833) 409-4583.

Available Information

Our website address is www.assemblybio.com. We routinely post, or have posted, important information for investors on our website in the “Investors” section. We use this website as a means of disclosing material information in compliance with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the “Investors” section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, presentations and webcasts. We make available free of charge through our website our press releases, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC.

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The information contained on our website is not a part of, and should not be construed as being incorporated by reference, into this report.

The reports filed with the SEC by us and by our officers, directors and significant shareholders are available for review on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all other information in this report, including our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto, and in our other filings with the SEC. If any of the following risks, or other risks not presently known to us or that we currently believe to not be material, develop into actual events, then our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially adversely affected. If that happens, the market price of our common stock could decline, and stockholders may lose all or part of their investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have no approved products and depend on the future success of our HBV program. We cannot be certain that we or our collaborators will be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize, product candidates from our current pipeline or any other product candidates that we may subsequently identify, license or otherwise acquire.

We and our collaborators are not permitted to market or promote any product candidates in the United States, Europe, China or other countries before we receive regulatory approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such regulatory approval for our current product candidates. We have not submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the FDA or comparable applications to other regulatory authorities and do not expect to be in a position to do so in the near future.

All of our product candidates are in clinical development or in varying stages of nonclinical development. Data supporting our drug discovery and nonclinical and clinical development programs are derived from laboratory studies, nonclinical studies and Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies. It may be years before the larger, pivotal studies necessary to support regulatory approval of our current product candidates are completed, if ever.

In addition to our current product pipeline, we may identify, license or otherwise acquire rights to other technologies or product candidates. Any such transactions would involve numerous risks, and we may be unsuccessful in entering into any such transactions or developing any such technologies or product candidates.

For these reasons, our drug discovery and development may not be successful, and we may be unable to continue clinical development of our product candidates and may not generate product approvals or product revenue, any of which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic may materially and adversely affect our business.

The continued spread of COVID-19, including through infection by variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, could continue to adversely impact our research and development through delay, modification or suspension of our clinical and/or nonclinical studies. Other clinical-stage biotechnology companies, like us, have had their clinical and nonclinical studies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has and may continue to: (1) impact patient enrollment, retention or compliance with clinical study protocols; (2) require modifications to, or deviations from, study protocols and procedures, such as the use of telehealth and home health visits instead of on-site monitoring and treatment, which could increase the cost of, and time for, conducting clinical studies; (3) disrupt or suspend the business operations of our third-party CROs, manufacturers of our drug candidates and the clinical sites conducting our clinical studies; (4) delay regulatory meetings and filings with regulatory agencies in the United States and other countries; and (5) disrupt supply chains and cause delays of shipments of critical reagents, PPE and disinfectants, each of which are necessary for our laboratories and our CROs’ laboratories to maintain normal workflows. Even if we are able to collect timely clinical data while the pandemic is ongoing, COVID-19 may negatively affect the quality, completeness, integrity, interpretability and cost of obtaining such clinical study data.

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The full extent of the pandemic’s impact on our business will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the duration and severity of the pandemic and the effectiveness of actions for containment, treatment and prevention of COVID-19. However, any COVID-19-related business interruptions or delays could materially and adversely affect our ability to conduct our research and development activities in the manner and on the timelines presently planned as well as negatively affect the accuracy of our estimates regarding capital requirements, needs for additional financing and our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements. Any of these disruptions could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and share price.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world implemented significant measures to control the spread of the virus, including quarantines, travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns. While governments have relaxed these measures as case numbers decreased, surges in COVID-19 cases have prompted, and may in the future prompt, many governments to reimplement these restrictions, including in Europe and the United States. We continue to take precautionary measures intended to minimize our employees’ potential exposure to the virus, including temporarily requiring all employees who can do so to work remotely and suspending all non-essential business travel worldwide for our employees and requiring employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The majority of our employees continuing to work remotely may disrupt our operations, increase the risk of a cybersecurity incident or otherwise negatively affect our business.

In addition to the risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic discussed above, the uncertainty surrounding, and risks created by, the pandemic may have the effect of heightening many of the other risks discussed in this section impacting our operations.

We are not currently profitable and might never become profitable, and we will need additional financing to complete the development of any product candidates and fund our activities into the future.

We do not have any approved products, and we have a history of losses. We expect to continue to incur substantial operating and capital expenditures to advance our current product candidates through clinical development, continue research and discovery efforts to identify potential additional product candidates and seek regulatory approvals for our current and future product candidates. All operations and capital expenditures will be funded from cash on hand, securities offerings or debt financings and payments we may receive from out-licensing, collaborations or other strategic arrangements. However, there is no assurance that we will be successful in raising any necessary additional capital on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. If we are unable to develop and commercialize any product candidates and generate sufficient revenue or raise capital, we could be forced to delay, scale back or discontinue product development and clinical studies, sacrifice attractive business opportunities, cease operations entirely and sell, or otherwise transfer, all or substantially all of our remaining assets, which would likely have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and share price.

Nonclinical and clinical studies required for our product candidates are expensive and time-consuming and may fail to demonstrate the level of safety and efficacy necessary for product approval.

Before we or any commercial partners can obtain FDA approval (or other foreign approvals) necessary to sell any of our product candidates, we must show that each potential product is safe and effective. To meet these requirements, we must conduct extensive nonclinical and sufficient, well-controlled clinical studies.

The results of nonclinical studies may not be representative of disease behavior in a clinical setting and may not be predictive of the outcomes of our clinical studies. In addition, the results of early clinical studies of product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical studies.

Conducting nonclinical and clinical studies is a lengthy, time consuming and expensive process. The length of time varies substantially according to the type, complexity, novelty, and intended use of the product candidate, and often can be several years or more. In addition, failure or delays can occur at any time during the nonclinical and clinical study process, resulting in additional operating expenses or harm to our business.

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The commencement and rate of completion of clinical studies might be delayed by many factors, including, for example:

The failure of nonclinical and clinical studies to demonstrate safety and effectiveness of a product candidate for the desired indications, whether conducted by us or by a CRO, would harm the development of that product candidate and potentially other product candidates. This failure could cause us to abandon a product candidate and could delay development of other product candidates. Any delay in, or failure of, our nonclinical studies or clinical studies could delay, or preclude, the filing of our NDAs and comparable applications with the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies, as applicable, and materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on CROs to conduct some of our nonclinical and clinical studies due to our lack of suitable facilities and resources.

We do not have sufficient facilities or resources to conduct all of our anticipated nonclinical and clinical studies internally. As a result, we contract with CROs to conduct a significant portion of the nonclinical and clinical studies required for regulatory approval for our product candidates. Our reliance on CROs reduces our control over these activities but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements and scientific standards, including, in the case of clinical studies, good clinical practices, even if the study is conducted by a CRO. In the event CROs fail to perform their duties in such a fashion or we are unable to retain or continue with CROs on acceptable terms, we may be unable to complete our clinical studies and may fail to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

Furthermore, these CROs may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. CRO personnel are not our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties, we cannot control whether they devote sufficient time and resources to our clinical and nonclinical studies. If the CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our research, nonclinical or clinical studies may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, regulatory approvals for our product candidates, any of which could materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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Top-line or preliminary data may not accurately reflect the final results of a particular study.

We may publicly disclose top-line or preliminary data based on analysis of then-available efficacy, tolerability, PK and safety data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study. We also make assumptions, estimates, calculations and conclusions as part of our data analyses, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data prior to release. As a result, the top-line or preliminary results that we report may differ from final results of the same studies or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Top-line data also remains subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data differing materially from previously published preliminary data. As a result, top-line and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available.

In addition to top-line or preliminary results, the information we may publicly disclose regarding a particular nonclinical or clinical study is based on extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is the material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure. In addition, any information we determine not to disclose may ultimately be deemed significant with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular drug, drug candidate or our business. If the top-line or preliminary data that we report differ from final results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with, or do not accept, the data or conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, our product candidates may be harmed or delayed, which could harm our business, financial condition, operating results or prospects.

We rely on third parties to formulate and manufacture our product candidates and products that we study in combination with our product candidates. Our use of third parties may increase the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or other products on time or at an acceptable cost.

We rely on third-party manufacturers to supply the quantities of VBR, 3733 and 4334 used in our clinical and nonclinical studies. If any product candidate we develop or acquire in the future receives FDA or other regulatory approval, we expect to continue our reliance on one or more third-party contractors to manufacture our products. If, for any reason, we are unable to rely on any third-party sources we have identified to manufacture our product candidates, we would need to identify and contract with additional or replacement third-party manufacturers to manufacture compounds, drug substances and drug products for nonclinical, clinical and commercial purposes. We may be unsuccessful in identifying additional or replacement third-party manufacturers, or in negotiating acceptable terms with any that we do identify. If we are unable to establish and maintain manufacturing capacity, the development and sales of our products and our financial performance may be materially and adversely affected.

We are exposed to the following risks with respect to the manufacture of our product candidates:

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Each of these risks could delay our development efforts, nonclinical studies and clinical studies or the approval, if any, of our product candidates by the FDA or applicable non-U.S. regulatory authorities and the commercialization of our product candidates. This could result in higher costs or deprive us of potential product revenues and materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we lose key management personnel and cannot recruit and retain similarly qualified replacements, our business may materially suffer.

We are highly dependent on the services of our executive officers. Our employment agreements with our executive officers do not ensure their retention. We do not currently maintain, nor do we intend to obtain in the future, “key person” life insurance that would compensate us in the event of the death or disability of any of the members of our management team. Our executive officers are critical to our success, and loss of any of these key employees could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The Fact Track Designation for VBR may not result in faster development, regulatory review or approval.

If nonclinical or clinical data demonstrate potential to address unmet medical needs for a serious or life-threatening condition, the sponsor may apply for FDA Fast Track designation. Fast Track designation provides increased opportunities for sponsor meetings with the FDA during nonclinical and clinical development, in addition to the potential for rolling review once a marketing application is filed. VBR has received Fast Track designation for treatment of patients with chronic HBV infection. However, even with Fast Track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. Fast Track designation does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. The FDA may withdraw Fast Track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our product development program. Any such withdrawal could adversely affect our business.

We are dependent on an in-license relationship for VBR.

Our license agreement with IURTC imposes diligence requirements on us and requires us to make milestone payments based upon the successful accomplishment of clinical and regulatory milestones related to VBR, royalty payments if VBR is approved and diligence maintenance fees. These payments will make it less profitable for us to develop VBR than if we owned the technology outright. In addition, if we breach any of our obligations under our license agreement, IURTC may have a right to terminate the license, in which event we could lose our rights to VBR.

Our collaboration partners might delay, prevent, or undermine the success of our product candidates.

Our operating and financial strategy for the development, nonclinical and clinical testing, manufacture, and commercialization of drug candidates heavily depends on collaborating with corporations, academic institutions, licensors, licensees, and other parties. However, there can be no assurance that we will successfully establish or maintain these collaborations. If a collaboration is terminated, replacement collaborators might not be available on attractive terms, or at all.

The activities of any collaborator will not be within our control and might not be within our power to influence. There can be no assurance that any collaborator will perform its obligations to our satisfaction or at all, that we will derive any revenue or profits from these collaborations, or that any collaborator will not compete with us. If any collaboration is unsuccessful, we might require substantially greater capital to undertake development and marketing of our proposed products and might not be able to develop and market these products effectively, if at all. In addition, a lack of development and marketing collaborations might lead to significant delays in introducing proposed products into certain markets and/or reduced sales of proposed products in such markets.

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We rely on data provided by third parties that has not been independently verified and could prove to be false, misleading, or incomplete.

We rely on third-party vendors, scientists, investigators and collaborators to provide us with significant data and other information related to our projects, nonclinical studies and clinical studies, and our business. If these third parties provide inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete data, our business, prospects, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Significant disruptions of information technology systems or breaches of data security could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We collect and maintain information in digital form and are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information. It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. We have outsourced elements of our information technology infrastructure and, as a result, a number of third-party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information. Our internal information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of our current and any future collaborators, contractors and consultants and other third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyberattacks or cyber intrusions over the Internet, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization, or persons with access to systems inside our organization.

The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyberattacks or cyber intrusion, has escalated as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and our efforts to address these problems may not be successful. If unsuccessful, these problems could cause interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position, including material disruption of our product development programs. For example, any loss of clinical study data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical studies could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data.

If a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal, state and non-U.S. privacy and security laws, if applicable, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Clinical Health Act of 2009, and its implementing rules and regulations, as well as regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission, state breach notification law and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union (EU). We would also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Research, development and commercialization goals may not be achieved in the timeframes that we publicly estimate, which could have an adverse impact on our business and could cause our stock price to decline.

We set goals, and make public statements regarding our expectations, regarding the timing of certain accomplishments, developments and milestones under our research and development programs. The actual timing of these events can vary significantly due to a number of factors, including, the amount of time, effort and resources committed to our programs by us and any collaborators and the uncertainties inherent in the clinical development and regulatory approval process. As a result, there can be no assurance that we or any collaborators will initiate or complete clinical development activities, make regulatory submissions or receive regulatory approvals as planned or that we or any collaborators will be able to adhere to our current schedule for the achievement of key milestones under any of our programs. If we or any collaborators fail to achieve one or more of the milestones as planned, our business could be materially adversely affected, and the price of our common stock could decline.

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Developments by competitors might render our product candidates or technologies obsolete or non-competitive.

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are intensely competitive. In addition, the clinical and commercial landscape for HBV is rapidly changing; we expect new data from commercial and clinical-stage products to continue to emerge. We compete with organizations, some with significantly more resources, who are developing competitive product candidates. If our competitors develop effective treatments for HBV or any other indication or field we might pursue, and successfully commercialize those treatments, our business and prospects could be materially harmed.  

Other companies with core inhibitor products may produce negative clinical data, which would adversely affect public and clinical communities’ perceptions of our product candidates, and may negatively impact regulatory approval of, or demand for, our potential products.

Our HBV therapy research and development efforts involve therapeutics based on modulating forms of HBV core proteins with core inhibitors. Negative data from clinical studies using a competitor’s core inhibitors could adversely impact the perception of the therapeutic use of our product candidates and our ability to enroll patients in clinical studies.

The clinical and commercial success of our potential products will depend in part on the public and clinical communities’ acceptance of core inhibitors, a novel class of product candidates. Moreover, our success depends upon physicians prescribing, and their patients being willing to receive, treatments that involve the use of core inhibitor product candidates we may develop in lieu of, or in addition to, existing treatments with which they are already familiar and for which more clinical data may be available. Adverse events in our nonclinical or clinical studies or those of our competitors or of academic researchers utilizing core inhibitor therapies, even if not ultimately attributable to our product candidates, and any resulting publicity could result in increased governmental regulation, unfavorable public perception, potential regulatory delays in the testing or approval of our product candidates, stricter labeling requirements for our product candidates that are approved, if any, and a decrease in demand for any such products.

Risks Related to Our Regulatory and Legal Environment

We are and will be subject to extensive and costly government regulation and the failure to comply with these regulations may have a material adverse effect on our operations and business.

Our product candidates are subject to extensive and rigorous domestic government regulation including regulation by the FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Justice, state and local governments, and their respective foreign equivalents. Both before and after approval of any product, we and our collaborators, suppliers, contract manufacturers and clinical investigators are subject to extensive regulation by governmental authorities in the United States and other countries, covering, among other things, testing, manufacturing, quality control, clinical studies, post-marketing studies, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, import and export, governmental pricing, price reporting and rebate requirements. Failure to comply with applicable requirements could result in one or more of the following actions: warning or untitled letters; unanticipated expenditures; delays in approval or refusal to approve a product candidate; voluntary or mandatory product recall; product seizure; interruption of manufacturing or clinical studies; operating or marketing restrictions; injunctions; criminal prosecution and civil or criminal penalties including fines and other monetary penalties; exclusion from federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid; adverse publicity; and disruptions to our business.

If we or our collaborators obtain regulatory approval for a particular product, the approval might limit the intended medical uses for the product, limit our ability to promote, sell, and distribute the product, require that we conduct costly post-marketing surveillance, and/or require that we conduct ongoing post-marketing studies. Once obtained, any approvals might be withdrawn, including, for example, if there is a later discovery of previously unknown problems with the product, such as a previously unknown safety issue.

If we, our collaborators, or our contract manufacturers fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements at any stage during the regulatory process, such noncompliance could result in delays in the approval of applications or supplements to approved applications, refusal by a regulatory authority (including the FDA) to review pending market approval applications or supplements to approved applications, untitled letters or warning letters, fines, import and export restrictions, product recalls or seizures, injunctions, total or partial suspension of production, civil penalties,

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withdrawals of previously approved marketing applications, recommendations by the FDA or other regulatory authorities against governmental contracts, and/or criminal prosecutions.

The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if we or our collaborators are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, our business will be substantially harmed.

We, or any current or future collaborators, cannot assure you that we will receive the approvals necessary to commercialize for sale any of our product candidates, or any product candidate we acquire or develop in the future. We will need FDA approval to commercialize our product candidates in the United States and approvals from applicable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions to commercialize our product candidates in those jurisdictions. To obtain FDA approval of any product candidate, we must submit to the FDA an NDA demonstrating that the product candidate is safe and effective for its intended use. This requires significant research, nonclinical studies, and clinical studies. Satisfaction of the FDA’s regulatory requirements typically takes many years, depends upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidate and requires substantial resources for research, development and testing. We cannot predict whether our research and clinical approaches will result in drugs that the FDA considers safe and effective for their indicated uses. The FDA has substantial discretion in the approval process and might require us to conduct additional nonclinical and clinical testing, perform post-marketing studies or otherwise limit or impose conditions on any approval we obtain.

The approval process might also be delayed by changes in government regulation, future legislation or administrative action or changes in FDA policy that occur prior to or during our regulatory review. Delays in obtaining regulatory approvals might: delay commercialization of, and our ability to derive product revenues from, our product candidates; impose costly procedures on us; and diminish any competitive advantages that we might otherwise enjoy.

Even if we comply with all FDA requests, the FDA might ultimately reject one or more of our NDAs. We cannot be sure that we will ever obtain regulatory approval and commercialize any of our current or future product candidates. In foreign jurisdictions, we are subject to regulatory approval processes and risks similar to those associated with the FDA described above. We cannot assure you that we will receive the approvals necessary to commercialize our product candidates for sale outside the United States.

We and our collaborators may be subject, directly or indirectly, to applicable U.S. federal and state anti-kickback, false claims laws, physician payment transparency laws, fraud and abuse laws or similar healthcare and security laws and regulations, and health information privacy and security laws, which could expose us or them to criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings.

Healthcare providers, physicians and others play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any products for which we obtain regulatory approval. If we obtain FDA approval for any of our drug candidates and begin commercializing those drugs in the United States, our operations may be subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the federal False Claims Act, and physician payment sunshine laws and regulations. Additionally, we are subject to state and non-U.S. equivalents of each of the healthcare laws described above, among others, some of which may be broader in scope and may apply regardless of the payor. These laws may impact, among other things, our proposed sales, marketing and education programs. In addition, we may be subject to patient privacy regulation by both the federal government and the states and foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. If we fail to comply with any applicable federal, state or foreign legal requirement, we could be subject to penalties.

Regulators globally are imposing greater monetary fines for privacy violations. The GDPR applies to any company established in the EU as well as to those outside the EU if they collect and use personal data in connection with the offering goods or services to individuals in the EU or the monitoring of their behavior. The GDPR enhances data protection obligations for processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, expanded disclosures about how personal information is to be used, limitations on retention of information, mandatory data breach notification requirements and onerous new obligations on services providers. Noncompliance with the GDPR may result in monetary penalties of up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. The GDPR may increase our responsibility and liability in relation to personal data that we process and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the GDPR, including as implemented by individual countries. Compliance with the GDPR and other changes in laws or regulations associated with the enhanced protection of

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certain types of personal data, such as healthcare data or other sensitive information, could greatly increase our cost of developing our products or even prevent us from offering certain products in jurisdictions that we may operate in.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) also created new individual privacy rights for California consumers (as defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA requires covered companies to provide certain disclosures to consumers about its data collection, use and sharing practices, and to provide affected California residents with ways to opt-out of certain sales or transfers of personal information. While there is currently an exception for protected health information that is subject to HIPAA and clinical study regulations, as currently written, the CCPA may impact our business activities. The uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the CCPA exemplifies the vulnerability of our business to the evolving regulatory environment related to personal data and protected health information.

Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws.

Violations of these laws may be punishable by criminal and/or civil sanctions, including penalties, fines and/or exclusion or suspension from federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and debarment from contracting with the U.S. government. In addition, private individuals have the ability to bring actions on behalf of the U.S. government under the federal False Claims Act as well as under the false claims laws of several states.

If any of the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business with are found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs, which may also adversely affect our business.

We face the risk of product liability claims and might not be able to obtain insurance.

Our business exposes us to the risk of product liability claims that are inherent in drug development. If the use of one or more of our product candidates or approved drugs, if any, harms people, we might be subject to costly and damaging product liability claims brought against us by clinical study participants, consumers, health care providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling our products. Our inability to obtain sufficient product liability/clinical study insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of pharmaceutical products we develop. We cannot predict all of the possible harms or side effects that might result and, therefore, the amount of insurance coverage we maintain might not be adequate to cover all liabilities we might incur. If we are unable to obtain insurance at an acceptable cost or otherwise protect against potential product liability claims, we will be exposed to significant liabilities, which might materially and adversely affect our business and financial position. If we are sued for any injury allegedly caused by our products, our liability could exceed our total assets and our ability to pay. Any successful product liability claims brought against us would decrease our cash and may adversely affect our business, stock price and financial condition.

We might be exposed to liability claims associated with the use of hazardous materials and chemicals.

Our research, development and manufacturing activities and/or those of our third-party contractors might involve the controlled use of hazardous materials and chemicals. Although we will strive to have our safety procedures, and those of our contractors, comply with federal, state and local laws and regulations for using, storing, handling and disposing of these materials, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from these materials. In the event of such an accident, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous or radioactive materials and waste products might require us to incur substantial compliance costs that could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We do not carry hazardous materials liability insurance. We intend to obtain such insurance in the future, if necessary, but cannot give assurance that we will obtain such coverage.

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Our employees, independent contractors, consultants, collaborators and CROs may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could result in significant liability for us and harm our reputation.

We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct, including failure to:

Misconduct could also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained during clinical studies, creating fraudulent data in our nonclinical studies or clinical studies or illegal misappropriation of product materials, which could result in regulatory sanctions, delays in clinical studies, or serious harm to our reputation.

It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct. The precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with such laws or regulations. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows, including through the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

We have international operations, including in China, and conduct clinical studies outside of the United States, including planned studies in Eastern Europe. A number of risks associated with international operations could materially and adversely affect our business.

We expect to be subject to a number of risks related with our international operations, many of which may be beyond our control. These risks include:

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Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our business depends on protecting our intellectual property.

If we and our licensors do not obtain protection for our respective intellectual property rights, our competitors might be able to take advantage of our research and development efforts to develop competing drugs. Our success, competitive position and future revenues, if any, depend in part on our ability and the abilities of our licensors to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products, methods, processes and other technologies, to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing on our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and contractual arrangements to protect the intellectual property related to our technologies. We will only be able to protect our products and proprietary information and technology by preventing unauthorized use by third parties to the extent that our patents, trade secrets, and contractual position allow us to do so. We cannot be certain that we will secure any rights to any issued patents with claims that cover any of our proprietary product candidates and technologies. The patent prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming, and we may be unable to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We could fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection or before our competitors secure patents covering such discoveries. The patent process also is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in protecting our products by obtaining and defending patents.

Composition-of-matter patents relating to the active pharmaceutical ingredient are generally considered to be the strongest form of intellectual property protection for pharmaceutical products. Such patents provide protection not limited to any one method of use. Method-of-use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method(s) and do not prevent a competitor from making and marketing a product that is identical to our product for an indication that is outside the scope of the patented method. We rely on a combination of these and other types of patents to protect our product candidates, and there can be no assurance that our intellectual property will create and sustain the competitive position of our product candidates.

Biotechnology and pharmaceutical product patents involve highly complex legal and scientific questions. Any patent applications that we own or license may fail to result in issued patents. In addition, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and patent offices in other jurisdictions often require that patent applications concerning pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions are limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges. As a result, even if we or our licensors obtain patents, the patents might be substantially narrower than anticipated.

If patents do successfully issue from our applications, third parties may challenge their validity or enforceability, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated, or held unenforceable. Even if our patents and patent applications are not challenged by third parties, those patents and patent applications may not prevent others from designing around our claims and may not otherwise adequately protect our product candidates.

Patent and other intellectual property protection is crucial to the success of our business and prospects, and there is a substantial risk that such protections, if obtained, will prove inadequate. The legal systems of certain countries, including China, do not always favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights, particularly those relating to pharmaceutical and biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop infringement of our patents, misappropriation of our trade secrets, or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights.

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Beyond the protection afforded by patents, we seek to rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how, information, or technology that is not covered by our patents. Although our agreements require all of our employees to assign their inventions to us, and we require all of our employees, consultants, advisors, collaborators, contractors and any third parties who have access to our trade secrets, proprietary know-how and other confidential information and technology to enter into appropriate confidentiality agreements, we cannot be certain that our trade secrets, proprietary know-how and other confidential information and technology will not be subject to unauthorized disclosure or that our competitors will not otherwise gain access to or independently develop substantially equivalent trade secrets, proprietary know-how and other information and technology. If we are unable to prevent unauthorized disclosure of our intellectual property related to our product candidates and technology to third parties, we may not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business and operations.

We may incur substantial costs as a result of litigation or other proceedings relating to our patents and other intellectual property rights.

We may in the future be involved in legal or administrative proceedings involving our intellectual property, including infringement of our intellectual property by third parties. These lawsuits or proceedings likely would be expensive, consume time and resources and divert the attention of managerial and scientific personnel, even if we were successful in stopping the infringement of such patents. There is a risk that these proceedings will decide that such patents or other intellectual property rights are not valid and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using our inventions. There is also the risk that, even if the validity of such patents is upheld, the court or administrative agency will refuse to stop the other party on the ground that such other party’s activities do not infringe our rights to such patents. If we were not successful in defending our intellectual property, our competitors could develop and market products based on our discoveries, which may reduce demand for our products.

We may infringe the intellectual property rights of others, which may prevent or delay our product development efforts and stop us from commercializing or increase the costs of commercializing our product candidates.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. Our competitors may have filed, and may in the future file, patent applications covering products and technologies similar to ours. Any such patent application may have priority over our patent applications, which could further require us to obtain rights from third parties to issued patents covering such products and technologies. We cannot guarantee that the manufacture, use or marketing of any product candidates that we develop will not infringe third-party patents.

If a patent infringement suit were brought against us, we may be forced to stop or delay developing, manufacturing, or selling potential products that are claimed to infringe a third party’s intellectual property, unless that third party grants us rights to use its intellectual property. In such cases, we may be required to obtain licenses to patents or proprietary rights of others to continue development, manufacture or sale of our products. If we are unable to obtain a license or develop or obtain non-infringing technology, or if we fail to defend an infringement action successfully, or if we are found to have infringed a valid patent, we may incur substantial costs and monetary damages, encounter significant delays in bringing our product candidates to market and be precluded from manufacturing or selling our product candidates, any of which could harm our business significantly.

The cost of maintaining our patent protection globally is high and requires continuous review and compliance. We may not be able to effectively maintain our intellectual property position throughout the major markets of the world.

The USPTO and foreign patent authorities require maintenance fees, payments and continued compliance with a number of procedural and documentary requirements. Noncompliance may result in abandonment or lapse of patents or patent applications and a partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Such a loss could reduce royalty payments for lack of patent coverage from our collaboration partners or may result in competition, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We have made, and will continue to make, certain strategic decisions in balancing the costs and the potential protections afforded by the patent laws of certain countries. As a result, 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 the United States or other countries. Third parties may use our technologies in territories in which we have not

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obtained patent protection to develop their own products and may infringe our patents in territories which provide inadequate enforcement mechanisms. Such third-party products may compete with our product candidates, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing. Such competition could materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Intellectual property rights do not address all potential threats to any competitive advantage we may have.

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

The existence of counterfeit pharmaceutical products in pharmaceutical markets may damage our brand and reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and prospects.

Counterfeit products, including counterfeit pharmaceutical products, are a significant problem, particularly in China. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are products sold or used for research under the same or similar names, or similar mechanism of action or product class, but which are sold without proper licenses or approvals. The proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals has grown in recent years and may continue to grow in the future. Such products may be used for indications or purposes that are not recommended or approved or for which there is no data or inadequate data with regard to safety or efficacy. Such products divert sales from genuine products, often are of lower cost and lower quality (having different ingredients or formulations, for example), and have the potential to damage the reputation for quality and effectiveness of the genuine product.

If counterfeit pharmaceuticals illegally sold or used for research result in adverse events or side effects to consumers, we may be associated with any negative publicity resulting from such incidents. In addition, counterfeit products could be used in nonclinical studies or clinical studies or could otherwise produce undesirable side effects or adverse events that may be attributed to our products as well, which could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical studies and could result in the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities and potential product liability claims.  

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In China, although the government has increased the lower and upper limits on penalties on producers of counterfeit and substandard pharmaceuticals, these penalties have not eliminated counterfeit pharmaceuticals. As a result, we may be unable to prevent third parties from selling or purporting to sell our products in China. The existence of, and any increase in, the sales and production of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, or the technological capabilities of counterfeiters, could negatively impact our revenues, brand reputation, business and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum they find favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees.

Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, with certain limited exceptions, unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (2) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees to us or to our stockholders; (3) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, or our certificate of incorporation or bylaws (as each may be amended from time to time); or (4) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Alternatively, if such court does not have jurisdiction, the Superior Court of Delaware, or, if such other court does not have jurisdiction, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, will be the sole and exclusive forum for such actions and proceedings. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. The choice of forum provision in our amended and restated bylaws will not preclude or contract the scope of exclusive federal or concurrent jurisdiction for actions brought under the federal securities laws, including the Exchange Act or the Securities Act, or the respective rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

The price of our common stock might fluctuate significantly, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

The price of our common stock fluctuates widely. Continued volatility in the market price of our common stock might prevent a stockholder from being able to sell shares of our common stock at or above the price paid for such shares. The trading price of our common stock may continue to be volatile and subject to wide price fluctuations in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, such as the progress, results and timing of our clinical and nonclinical studies and other studies involving our product candidates, the success or failure of our product candidates, the receipt or loss of required regulatory approvals for our product candidates, the availability of capital or the other risks discussed in this “Risk Factors” section.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

We lease office space for corporate and administrative functions and laboratory space in South San Francisco, California under a sub-sublease that expires in December 2023. We also lease office space that was used for administrative functions in Carmel, Indiana under a lease agreement that expires in August 2023. In February 2021, we subleased substantially all of the office space under the lease in Carmel, Indiana for the remainder of its term. Our China subsidiary leases registrational offices in Shanghai and Beijing under leases that expire in May 2022 and October 2022, respectively.

We believe these leased facilities are adequate for our current needs and that additional space will be available in the future on commercially reasonable terms as needed.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

We are not a party to any material legal proceedings at this time. From time to time, we may be subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of our business activities. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not believe we are party to any claim or litigation the outcome of which, if determined adversely to us, would individually or in the aggregate be reasonably expected to have a material adverse effect on our business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse effect on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information for Common Stock

Our common stock is traded under the symbol “ASMB” and is quoted on The Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Holders of Record

As of February 28, 2022, there were 66 stockholders of record, which excludes stockholders whose shares were held in nominee or street name by brokers.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid any dividends and do not anticipate paying any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

The following table sets forth the indicated information as of December 31, 2021 with respect to our equity compensation plans.

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Our stockholder-approved equity compensation plans consist of the 2018 Plan, 2014 Plan, the 2010 Plan, stock options assumed in our merger with Assembly Pharmaceuticals and the 2018 ESPP. Effective on June 2, 2016, the 2010 Plan was frozen, and no further grants will be made under the 2010 Plan. Shares that are forfeited under the 2010 Plan on or after June 2, 2016 will become available for issuance under the 2014 Plan. An “Award” under the 2018 Plan, 2014 Plan or 2010 Plan is any right to receive our common stock consisting of non-statutory stock options, incentive stock options, stock appreciation rights, RSUs, or any other stock award.

In May 2018, our stockholders approved the 2018 ESPP and was amended and restated in May 2021. The 2018 ESPP provides for the purchase by employees of up to an aggregate of 1,300,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. Eligible employees can purchase shares of our common stock at the end of a predetermined offering period at 85% of the lower of the fair market value at the beginning or end of the offering period.

Our outstanding equity compensation arrangements that have not been approved by our stockholders consist of the 2017 Inducement Plan, the 2019 Inducement Plan and the 2020 Inducement Plan. In April 2017, our board of directors adopted the 2017 Inducement Plan and reserved 800,000 shares of our common stock for issuance under 2017 the Inducement Plan. In August 2019, our board of directors adopted the 2019 Inducement Plan and reserved 500,000 shares of our common stock for issuance under the 2019 Inducement Plan. In March 2020, our board of directors adopted the 2020 Inducement Plan and reserved 800,000 shares of our common stock for issuance under the 2020 Inducement Plan. The only persons eligible to receive grants of awards under the either the 2017 Inducement Plan, the 2019 Inducement Plan or the 2020 Inducement Plan are individuals who satisfy the standards for inducement grants under Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4) and the related guidance under Nasdaq IM 5635-1-that is, generally, a person not previously an employee or director of ours, or following a bona fide period of non-employment, as an inducement material to the individual's entering into employment with us. An “Award” is any right to receive our common stock pursuant to the Inducement Plan, consisting of nonstatutory stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock awards, RSUs, or any other stock award.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

There were no unregistered sales of equity securities in 2021.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

We did not purchase any of our registered equity securities during the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Item 6. [Reserved]

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

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in this Form 10-K under “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovery and development of innovative therapeutics targeting hepatitis B virus (HBV) and other viral diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 296 million people worldwide are chronically infected with HBV as of 2019. Our research and development organizations are pursuing multiple drug candidates designed to inhibit the HBV replication cycle and block the generation of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), with the aim of discovering and developing finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection. We have discovered several novel core inhibitors, which are small molecules that directly target and allosterically modulate the HBV core protein in a way that affects assembly and stability of HBV nucleocapsids. In addition, our research organization is working on discovering and developing cccDNA disruptors and small molecules targeting two novel undisclosed HBV targets,

While we continue our efforts to develop finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection, our research organization recently launched an exploratory virology discovery program for compounds directed at a number of non-HBV viral targets. These targets, currently expected to be disclosed in mid-2022, were selected to leverage the deep antiviral expertise and experience of our research and development organizations against diseases with significant unmet medical need.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its broad, global impacts, including supply chain disruptions, have impacted certain aspects of our business, including where and how our employees work in our labs and offices and how and when our nonclinical and clinical studies are conducted. Early in the pandemic, our current and future planned clinical trials and preclinical studies were largely unaffected, but as the pandemic has continued, we have experienced enrollment delays for our current clinical studies, particularly our two ongoing multi-drug combination studies.

As previously announced, in January 2021, we wound down our Microbiome program to prioritize and focus our resources on our virology programs. Our Microbiome program had been developing a novel class of oral live microbial biotherapeutics candidates designed to treat disorders associated with the microbiome.

Our Primary Focus: Targeting HBV Core Protein to Achieve a Cure

HBV is a DNA virus that infects hepatocytes and establishes a reservoir of cccDNA, a unique viral DNA moiety that resides in the cell nucleus of HBV-infected hepatocytes and is associated with viral persistence and chronic infection. No currently approved oral therapies target cccDNA activity directly, which makes molecules that can modulate cccDNA generation or disrupt its function highly sought in the HBV field. As a result, most of our research and development efforts to date have focused on discovering and developing compounds targeting the core protein, a viral protein involved in numerous aspects of the HBV replication cycle, including the generation of HBV cccDNA. Through our research efforts, we have discovered several chemically distinct series of small molecule core inhibitors that directly target and allosterically inhibit core protein functions.

Vebicorvir

Vebicorvir (VBR), our lead core inhibitor product candidate, is licensed from Indiana University. The conduct of our initial Phase 2 studies, Study 201 and 202, is complete. In these studies, VBR administered with NrtI therapy demonstrated a favorable safety profile and led to greater viral suppression of both HBV DNA and viral pgRNA than NrtI therapy alone.

Our most recently completed study for VBR, Study 211, involved transitioning patients who met the requisite stopping criteria, as determined in collaboration with our lead investigators and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), off of therapy to test for sustained virologic response (SVR). SVR refers to sustained viral suppression (more than six months) of HBV DNA below LLOQ and would be consistent with a successful finite treatment for chronic HBV infection. During the trial, it became clear that patients who stopped therapy in Study 211

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had not achieved SVR, as all patients relapsed, meaning they had detectable HBV and the dual combination therapy of VBR + NrtI was insufficient to cure chronic HBV infection in the studied population. Based on these results, we terminated Study 211 in the fourth quarter of 2020. We presented follow-up data from Study 211 related to virologic response, safety and resistance following treatment discontinuation, at the European Association for the Study of the Liver’s (EASL) International Liver Congress^TM in June 2021 (EASL 2021). At the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Annual Meeting in November 2021 (AASLD 2021), we presented additional follow-up data from Study 211 demonstrating that patients had increases of HBV DNA and pgRNA after discontinuation of VBR despite continued NrtI treatment, further supporting that core inhibitors deepen viral suppression in combination with NrtIs.

Based on discussions with leading viral hepatitis experts, global regulatory discussions and feedback, and, with respect to the China territory, discussions and agreement with our collaboration partner, BeiGene, Ltd. (BeiGene), in early 2021, we decided to not move forward with the global registrational studies for VBR as a CST with NrtI. The decision was made to focus on the greatest unmet medical need of patients, which lies predominantly in cure, rather than CST. As a result, we terminated Study 205 and began to focus our efforts with VBR in combination with NrtI and additional mechanisms targeting finite and curative combination therapy.

We currently have two Phase 2 triple combination studies involving VBR ongoing, with a third expected to be initiated in the first half of 2022. These studies are detailed below. See “—Multi-Drug Combination Studies.”

Next-Generation Core Inhibitors

In pursuit of our goal of developing finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection, we plan to advance the optimal core inhibitor in our portfolio for use as the antiviral backbone with NrtI. While we currently have VBR, our first-generation core inhibitor product candidate, and 3733, a next-generation product candidate, in clinical studies, we expect to initiate Phase 1a studies of 4334, our most potent next-generation product candidate in the second half of 2022. Based on the clinical progress of these candidates, we will apply disciplined, data-driven analyses to identify the optimal candidate to advance into late-stage clinical trials to produce potentially higher cure rates than are currently obtainable for patients with chronic HBV infection under the current standard of care.

ABI-H3733

Our first of two next-generation core inhibitor product candidates, 3733, was internally discovered and developed. The chemical scaffold of 3733 is novel and distinct from each of VBR, 4334 and our discontinued core inhibitor product candidate, ABI-H2158 (2158).

In 2020, we initiated and completed a Phase 1a clinical study of 3733 to evaluate safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) following single ascending dose and multiple ascending dose administration in healthy subjects in New Zealand. Preliminary data indicate that 3733 was generally well-tolerated and had favorable PK. Results detailing 3733’s safety and PK from this study were presented in a poster presentation at AASLD 2021.

In addition, at EASL 2021, we presented observations on 3733’s enhanced potency and target coverage for both antiviral activity and inhibition of cccDNA generation as compared to VBR and 2158.

We expect to initiate a Phase 1b study with an improved formulation of 3733 in patients with chronic HBV infection in the first half of 2022.

ABI-4334

In mid-2021, we announced the selection of 4334, our other next-generation core inhibitor product candidate. As with all of our core inhibitor product candidates nominated after VBR, 4334 was internally discovered and developed. In addition, the chemical scaffold of 4334 is also novel and distinct from each of VBR, 3733 and 2158.

We nominated 4334 based on a preclinical target drug profile that indicates enhanced target coverage and potency to prevent both formation of new virus and cccDNA, which is responsible for maintaining the HBV viral reservoir. We believe that 4334 has a best-in-class preclinical profile, with single-digit nanomolar potency against the production of new virus and the formation of cccDNA. Preclinically to date, 4334 has also demonstrated pan-genotypic activity, an improved resistance profile and a favorable safety profile. Preclinical characterization of 4334 was shared in a poster presentation at AASLD in November 2021.

Our preclinical work on 4334 is ongoing, with the aim of completing Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies and initiating a Phase 1a clinical study in the second half of 2022.

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ABI-2158

In September 2021, we discontinued development of 2158 following the observation of elevated alanine transaminase (ALT) levels in the Phase 2 clinical study consistent with drug-induced hepatotoxicity.

Multi-Drug Combination Studies

We believe that core inhibitors and NrtI will be central to finite and curative therapies for chronic HBV infection. Therefore, as we continue to develop and advance our current and future core inhibitors through clinical studies, we plan to conduct multi-drug combination studies in parallel that add additional drugs (or compounds) with nonoverlapping mechanisms of action to the core inhibitor + NrtI antiviral backbone. We currently have two ongoing triple combination studies and a third triple combination study expected to start in the first half of 2022 to study VBR in combination with NrtI and a third mechanism of action.

Our first triple combination study is being conducted pursuant to a Clinical Trial Agreement with Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (Arbutus Biopharma) and consists of a randomized, multi-center, open-label Phase 2 clinical study to explore the safety, PK and antiviral activity of the triple combination of VBR, NrtI and AB-729 (Arbutus Biopharma’s investigational RNAi candidate) compared to the double combinations of VBR + NrtI and AB-729 + NrtI in virologically suppressed patients. This clinical study initiated in the first quarter of 2021 and completed enrollment in February 2022. We expect to share interim on-treatment results from this study in the second half of 2022.

Our second triple combination study evaluates VBR and NrtI in combination with interferon in treatment-naïve HBeAg positive subjects. This study was also initiated in the first quarter of 2021, and we expect enrollment to be complete in March 2022. We expect to share interim on-treatment results from this study in the second half of 2022.

Our third triple combination study will be conducted pursuant to a Clinical Trial Collaboration Agreement with Antios Therapeutics, Inc. (Antios) and will evaluate ATI-2173, Antios’s investigational proprietary active site polymerase inhibitor nucleotide (ASPIN), VBR and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, an NrtI. This multi-center, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety, PK and antiviral activity of this all-oral triple combination. We expect to initiate this study, which will enroll ten treatment-naïve or off-treatment HBeAg negative or positive patients in a 12-week treatment study, in the first half of 2022. The study plan initially included a site in Ukraine, but we will no longer be conducting the study there due to the instability resulting from Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine. We expect these changes to our study plan to result in a delayed data readout.

Both our first and second triple combination studies have experienced enrollment delays due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has impacted patients and study sites through patient screening delays, travel restrictions and hesitancy to travel to study sites. The pandemic has also impacted our vendors, as our central laboratories have been unable to meet their contractual obligations, and our vendors have experienced staffing constraints and supply chain challenges as they seek to obtain lab kits, reagents and other items necessary to enroll patients in our studies. As a result, we were unable to fully enroll our first and second triple combination studies in 2021 as initially planned; however, based on enrollment to date, we do not believe these delays will impact interim data readouts for these studies, which remains on schedule in 2022.

Beyond Core Inhibitors

In addition to the development and advancement of our core inhibitor portfolio and our current and future multi-drug combination studies, our research and development team is working on discovering and developing cccDNA disruptors and small molecules targeting two novel undisclosed HBV targets, which we expect to announce in the first half of 2022, to complement our HBV cure strategy.

In November 2020, we entered into an exclusive, two-year collaboration and option agreement with Door Pharmaceuticals, LLC (Door Pharma) focused on the development of a novel class of HBV inhibitors. Door Pharma’s discovery platform targets functions of core protein distinct from viral assembly and have the potential to interfere with viral nucleic acid including intra-nuclear cccDNA, providing a strong complement to our current portfolio. Together with Door Pharma, we are working on identifying cccDNA disruptors, which will be aimed at inhibiting different intra-nuclear steps in the viral replication cycle that complement the activity of our core inhibitors.

Under the terms of the agreement, Door Pharma will build upon its previous efforts to lead and conduct new discovery research, which we will fund. In return for an up-front payment and success-based milestones and royalties, we will be granted an exclusive option to license compounds arising from the collaboration and will be responsible for the continued development and commercialization of optioned compounds.

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Additional Antiviral Opportunities

In addition to our work toward developing finite and curative therapies for patients with chronic HBV infection, we have expanded our research and development organizations’ reach by pursuing exploratory research on novel compounds targeting other viruses. Our expanded focus leverages the depth and breadth of virology expertise of our research and development organization to diversify our pipeline into areas of high unmet medical need.

We expect to disclose more information regarding these discovery programs on additional viral targets in mid-2022.

Operations

We currently have corporate and administrative offices and research laboratory space in South San Francisco, California as well as registrational offices in China.

Since our inception, we have had no revenue from product sales and have funded our operations principally through debt financings prior to our initial public offering in 2010 and through equity financings and collaborations since then. Our operations to date have been primarily limited to organizing and staffing our company, licensing our product candidates, discovering and developing our product candidates, maintaining and improving our patent portfolio and raising capital.

We have generated significant losses to date, and we expect to continue to generate losses as we develop our product candidates. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $631.4 million. Because we do not generate revenue from any of our product candidates, our losses will continue as we further develop and seek regulatory approval for, and commercialize, our product candidates. As a result, our operating losses are likely to be substantial over the next several years as we continue the development of our product candidates and thereafter if none are approved or successfully launched. We are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all.

In mid-March 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, six San Francisco Bay Area counties announced a shelter-in-place order, restricting all residents to their homes, with few exceptions. Within a week, California issued a statewide stay-at-home order. As a biotechnology company, we were exempt from such orders. On June 15, 2021, California reopened its economy, and all applicable local orders were also lifted on June 15, 2021. In addition, we have taken the additional step of requiring that all of our employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

There has not been any significant interruption to date of essential activities at our offices, including work in our laboratories with proper protections and procedures in place. While we have experienced some shipping delays or shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) that are important to maintaining normal workflows in our laboratories, we have been able to continue our critical research activities through schedule shifts, use of PPE on-hand and reallocation of certain resources that allow our employees to practice “social distancing” and comply with applicable laws. Substantially all of our U.S.-based non-research employees have been working from their homes since mid-March 2020. Early in the pandemic, our current and future planned clinical trials and preclinical studies were largely unaffected, but as the pandemic has continued, we have experienced enrollment delays in our current clinical studies, particularly our two ongoing multi-drug combination studies. We continually work with our contract research organizations (CROs) and other vendors to ensure, to the extent possible, that services are provided in a timely manner while also identifying alternative vendors and strategies to utilize in the event that COVID- or third party-related delays threaten our ability to meet our timelines. We cannot currently predict the specific extent, duration or full impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our ongoing and planned research efforts, clinical studies and other business operations. We continue to monitor the situation regularly for additional potential delays, or modifications to our ongoing and planned studies and, if circumstances warrant, we may adjust our budget and operating plan.

Financial Operations Overview

Research and Development Expense

Research and development expenses consist primarily of costs incurred for our research activities, including our drug discovery efforts, target validation, lead optimization and the development of our product candidates, which include:

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Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Nonrefundable advance payments for goods or services to be received in the future for use in research and development activities are deferred and capitalized. The capitalized amounts are expensed as the related goods are delivered or the services are rendered.

We use our employee and infrastructure resources across multiple research and development programs, and we allocate internal employee-related and infrastructure costs, as well as certain third-party costs, to each of our programs based on the personnel resources allocated to such program. Our research and development expenses, by major program, are outlined in the table below (in thousands):

The successful discovery and development of our product candidates is highly uncertain. As such, at this time, we cannot reasonably estimate, or know the nature, timing and estimated costs, of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the remainder of their development. We are also unable to predict when, if ever, material net cash inflows will commence from our product candidates. This is due to the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing medicines, including the uncertainty of:

A change in the outcome of any of these variables or variables discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” with respect to the development of any of our product candidates would significantly change the costs and timing associated with the development of that product candidate.

Research and development activities are central to our business model. Product candidates in later stages of clinical development generally have higher development costs than those in earlier stages of clinical development, primarily due to the increased size and duration of later-stage clinical studies. However, we do not believe that it is possible at this time to accurately project total program-specific expenses through commercialization. There are numerous factors associated with the successful commercialization of any of our product candidates, including future trial design and

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various regulatory requirements, many of which cannot be determined with accuracy at this time based on our stage of development. Additionally, future commercial and regulatory factors beyond our control will impact our clinical development programs and plans.

General and administrative expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and other related costs, including stock-based compensation, for personnel in executive, finance, accounting, business development, legal and human resources functions. Other significant costs include facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expenses, insurance costs, legal fees relating to patents and corporate matters and fees for accounting and consulting services.

We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase in the future to support continued research and development activities, potential commercialization of our product candidates and costs of operating as a public company. These increases will likely include increased costs related to the hiring of additional personnel and fees to outside consultants, lawyers and accountants, among other expenses. Additionally, we anticipate increased costs associated with being a public company, including expenses related to services associated with maintaining compliance with exchange listing and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements, insurance, and investor relations costs.

Impairment of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible asset

Goodwill and our indefinite-lived intangible asset are reviewed for impairment at least annually in the fourth quarter and more frequently if events or other changes in circumstances indicate the carrying amount of the assets may not be recoverable. Impairment of goodwill and an indefinite-lived intangible assets is determined to exist when the fair value is less than the carrying value of the asset being tested. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we concluded both goodwill and our indefinite-lived intangible asset were fully impaired resulting in the full write-off of these balances to the statement of operations and comprehensive loss.

Interest income

Interest income consists of interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements, which we have prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods. Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements describes the significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. We evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those described in greater detail below, on an ongoing basis. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

Goodwill and Indefinite-Lived Intangible Asset

Goodwill and our indefinite-lived intangible asset are reviewed for impairment at least annually in the fourth quarter and more frequently if events or other changes in circumstances indicate the carrying amount of the assets may not be recoverable.

Goodwill

We have one operating segment and reporting unit. Accordingly, our review of goodwill impairment indicators is performed at the entity-wide level. In performing each annual impairment assessment and any interim impairment assessment, we determine if we should qualitatively assess whether it is more likely than not the fair value of goodwill is less than its carrying amount (the qualitative impairment test). Some of the factors considered in the assessment include general macroeconomic conditions, conditions specific to the industry and market, cost factors, the overall financial performance and whether there have been sustained declines in our share price. If we conclude it is more

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likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, or elect not to use the qualitative impairment test, a quantitative impairment test is performed.

We use our market capitalization as an indicator of fair value. We believe that since our reporting unit is publicly traded, the ability of a controlling stockholder to benefit from synergies and other intangible assets which arise from control might cause the fair value of our reporting unit as a whole to exceed our market capitalization. However, we believe the fair value measurement need not be based solely on the quoted market price of an individual share of our common stock, but also can consider the impact of a control premium in measuring the fair value of its reporting unit. The control premium utilized is based on control premiums observed in recent acquisitions of entities similar to us which were made on a non-minority basis. Should our market capitalization be less than our total stockholders’ equity as of our annual test date or as of any interim impairment testing date, we also consider market comparables, recent trends in our stock price over a reasonable period and, if appropriate, use an income approach (discounted cash flow) to determine whether the fair value of our reporting unit is greater than our carrying amount. When we use an income approach, we establish a fair value by estimating the present value of our projected future cash flows, adjusted for probabilities of technical success, expected to be generated from our business. The discount rate applied to the projected future cash flows to arrive at the present value is intended to reflect all risks of ownership and the associated risks of realizing the stream of projected future cash flows. Our discounted cash flow methodology considers projections of financial performance for a period of several years combined with an estimated residual value.

We elected to perform a quantitative impairment assessment of goodwill for our single reporting unit in the fourth quarter of 2021 due to a sustained decline in our market capitalization, an increase in negative economic outlook for biotech markets and a fourth quarter unfavorable clinical trial result for a competitor’s curative combination therapy for HBV infection. We estimated and reconciled the fair value of our reporting unit using both a market approach, utilizing our market capitalization adjusted for an estimated control premium, and the income approach, discounting future cash flows based on management’s expectations of timelines to complete clinical trials, regulatory and commercial probabilities of technical success as well as future earnings forecast. Before completing our goodwill impairment test, we first tested our indefinite-lived intangible asset then our remaining long-lived assets for impairment. We concluded our indefinite-lived intangible asset was fully impaired and included that impairment within the net carrying value of our reporting unit for purposes of our goodwill impairment test. No impairment was identified for our long-lived assets. We concluded the fair value of our single reporting unit was less than its carrying value and therefore recognized an impairment charge of $12.6 million to write off the entire balance of our goodwill. This was primarily due to an increase in discount rates from the standpoint of a market participant and their views on how such aforementioned events increase the risks associated with the Company. The fair value measurements were primarily based on Level 3 inputs. The calculation of the impairment charge includes substantial fact-based determinations and estimates including discount rates, future revenues, profitability, cash flows, probabilities of technical success, and fair values of assets and liabilities, and any changes to these assumptions could result in changes to the fair value of our single reporting unit. The goodwill impairment charge is reflected in impairment of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible asset in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.  

Indefinite-Lived Intangible Asset

Our indefinite-lived intangible asset consist of in-process research and development (IPR&D) associated with small molecule core inhibitors that directly target and allosterically inhibit core protein functions associated with HBV that were acquired with the acquisition of Assembly Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2014. IPR&D represents the fair value assigned to incomplete research projects we acquired through a business combination which, at the time of acquisition, had not reached technological feasibility, regardless of whether they had alternative use. The primary basis for determining the technological feasibility or completion of these projects is obtaining regulatory approval to market the underlying products in an applicable geographic region. We classify in-process research and development acquired in a business combination as an indefinite-lived intangible asset until the completion or abandonment of the associated research and development efforts. Upon completion of the associated research and development efforts, we perform a final test for impairment and will determine the useful life of the technology and begin amortizing the assets to reflect their use over their remaining lives. Upon permanent abandonment, we would write off the remaining carrying amount of the associated IPR&D intangible asset.

In performing each annual impairment assessment and any interim impairment assessment, we determine if we should qualitatively assess whether it is more likely than not the fair value of our IPR&D asset is less than its carrying amount (the qualitative impairment test). If we conclude that is the case, or elect not to use qualitative impairment test, we

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would proceed with quantitatively determining the fair value of the IPR&D asset and comparing its fair value to its carrying value to determine the amount of impairment, if any (the quantitative impairment test).

In performing the qualitative impairment test, we consider the results of the most recent quantitative impairment test and identify the most relevant drivers of the fair value for the IPR&D asset. The most relevant drivers of fair value we have identified are consistent with the assumptions used in the quantitative estimate of the IPR&D asset discussed below. Using these drivers, we identify events and circumstances that may have an effect on the fair value of the IPR&D asset since the last time the IPR&D’s fair value was quantitatively determined. We then weigh these factors to determine and conclude if it is more likely than not the IPR&D asset is impaired. If it is more likely than not the IPR&D asset is impaired, we proceed with quantitatively determining the fair value of the IPR&D asset.

We use the income approach to determine the fair value of our IPR&D asset. This approach calculates fair value by estimating the after-tax, probability of technical success adjusted, cash flows attributable to an in-process project over its useful life and then discounting these after-tax cash flows back to a present value. This estimate includes significant assumptions regarding the estimates market participants would make in evaluating the IPR&D asset, including the probability of successfully completing clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approval to market the IPR&D asset, the timing of and the expected costs to complete IPR&D projects, future net cash flows from potential drug sales, which are based on estimates of the sales price of the drug, the number of patients who will be diagnosed and treated and our competitive position in the marketplace, and appropriate discount and income tax rates. The fair value of our IPR&D asset could vary based on the significant assumptions described. Any impairment to be recorded is calculated as the difference between the fair value of the IPR&D asset as of the date of the assessment with the carrying value of the IPR&D asset on our consolidated balance sheet.

During the fourth quarter of 2021 and prior to the goodwill impairment test, we also completed a quantitative impairment test for our IPR&D asset associated with the Assembly Pharmaceuticals, Inc. acquisition. We utilized the discounted cash flow model of the income approach and determined the carrying value of our IPR&D asset was fully impaired resulting in an impairment charge of $29.0 million. This was primarily driven by a higher discount rate applied to future cash flows based on a market participant’s view of increased risk associated with a negative economic outlook for biotech markets and a fourth quarter unfavorable clinical trial result for a competitor’s curative combination therapy for HBV infection. The fair value measurements were primarily based on Level 3 inputs. Some of the more significant assumptions inherent in the development of the model included the estimated annual cash flows, particularly net revenues, the appropriate discount rate to select in order to measure the risk inherent in the future cash flows, cost to complete the IPR&D project as well as other factors. The impairment charge recorded is reflected in impairment of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible asset in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

Research and Development Expense and Accruals 

Research and development costs include personnel-related costs, outside contracted services including clinical study costs, facilities costs, fees paid to consultants, milestone payments prior to FDA approval, license fees prior to FDA approval, professional services, travel costs, dues and subscriptions, depreciation and materials used in clinical trials as well as research and development and costs incurred under our collaboration agreements.

As part of the process of preparing our consolidated financial statements, we are required to estimate certain research and development expenses. This process involves reviewing quotations and contracts, reviewing the terms of our license agreements, communicating with our vendors and applicable personnel to identify services that have been performed on our behalf and estimating the level of service performed and the associated cost incurred for the service when we have not yet been invoiced or otherwise notified of the actual cost. The majority of our service providers invoice us monthly in arrears for services performed or when contractual milestones are met. Payments made prior to the receipt of goods or services to be used in research and development are capitalized until the goods or services are received. Such payments are evaluated for current or long-term classification based on when they will be realized or consumed. Examples of estimated amortized or accrued research and development expenses include fees to:

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We base our expenses related to clinical studies on our estimates of the services received and efforts expended pursuant to contracts with multiple research institutions and contract research organizations that conduct and manage clinical studies on our behalf. The financial terms of these agreements are subject to negotiation, vary from contract to contract and may result in uneven payment flows and expense recognition. Payments under some of these contracts depend on factors such as the successful enrollment of patients and the completion of clinical trial milestones. In either amortizing or accruing service fees, we estimate the time period over which services will be performed and the level of effort to be expended in each period. If the actual timing of the performance of services or the level of effort varies from our estimate, we adjust the related prepayment or accrual accordingly. Our understanding of the status and timing of services performed relative to the actual status and timing of services performed may vary and may result in our reporting changes in estimates in any particular period. Adjustments to prior period estimates have not been material for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020.

We have and may continue to enter into license agreements to access and utilize certain technology. In each case, we evaluate if the license agreement results in the acquisition of an asset or a business. To date, none of our license agreements have been considered to be acquisitions of businesses. For asset acquisitions, the upfront payments to acquire such licenses, as well as any future milestone payments, are immediately recognized as research and development expense when paid, provided there is no alternative future use of the rights in other research and development projects. These license agreements may also include contingent consideration in the form of cash payments to be made for future milestone events. We assess whether such contingent consideration meets the definition of a derivative and to date we have determined that such contingent consideration are not derivatives.

Results of Operations

General

At December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $631.4 million primarily as a result of research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses. While we may in the future generate revenue from a variety of sources, including license fees, milestone payments, research and development payments in connection with strategic partnerships and/or product sales, our product candidates are in the clinical stage of development or in varying stages of nonclinical development and may never be successfully developed or commercialized. Accordingly, we expect to continue to incur substantial losses from operations for the foreseeable future and there can be no assurance that we will ever generate significant revenues.

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

Collaboration Revenue

The following table summarizes the period-over-period changes in our collaboration revenue (in thousands, except for percentages):

Collaboration revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 consists of the recognition of deferred revenue allocated to 2158 under the BeiGene Agreement upon discontinuing development of 2158. Collaboration revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 consists of $31.0 million recognized for the transfer of the VBR License upon entering into the BeiGene Agreement and the remaining deferred revenue balance of $37.0 million and reimbursements incurred under the Allergan Agreement, for which AbbVie Inc. (formerly Allergan) gave written notice of termination in June 2020 following its acquisition of Allergan.

Research and Development Expense 

The following table summarizes the period-over-period changes in our research and development expenses (in thousands, except for percentages):

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Research and development expenses were $68.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to $106.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The $38.3 million decrease in research and development expenses was primarily related to the wind-down of the Microbiome program and includes a $3.0 million gain on the sale of Microbiome assets. The decrease was partially offset by an increase of $0.7 million in research and development expenses related to the HBV program, which were primarily due to increases in clinical activities, chemistry and manufacturing control activities to support clinical development of our compounds and increased salary and benefits due to our hiring of additional employees. Research and development expenses include stock-based compensation expenses of $0.5 million and $11.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The decrease in stock-based compensation expense is primarily due to a decrease in the grant date fair value of stock option awards and reversals of $4.8 million of previously recognized stock-based compensation expense related to awards forfeited by terminated employees.

General and Administrative Expense

The following table summarizes the period-over-period change in our general and administrative expenses (in thousands, except for percentages):

General and administrative expenses were $28.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to $37.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. General and administrative expenses include stock-based compensation expense of $4.7 million and $10.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The decrease in stock-based compensation expense of $5.8 million was due to a decrease in the grant date fair value of recent stock option awards and a reversal of $2.1 million of previously recognized stock-based compensation expense during the year ended December 31, 2021 related to awards forfeited by terminated employees. Additionally, during the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized $0.7 million as a cumulative catch-up adjustment of stock-based compensation expense for RSUs with performance-based vesting conditions granted to an executive officer for which the underlying performance condition was deemed probable. We also experienced a decrease of $2.6 million in professional fees during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 due to the amortized incremental contract costs associated with entering into the BeiGene Agreement in 2020.

Impairment of Goodwill and Indefinite-Lived Intangible Asset

The following table summarizes the period-over-period change in our impairment of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible asset (in thousands, except for percentages):

In the fourth quarter of 2021, we concluded our goodwill and IPR&D asset were impaired due to a sustained decline in our stock price as well as industry and market factors which caused an increase in the estimated discount rate applied to future cash flows. This resulted in the entire write-off of our goodwill and IPR&D asset of $12.6 million and $29.0 million, respectively.

Interest and Other Income, Net

The following table summarizes the period-over-period changes in our interest and other income, net (in thousands, except for percentages):

Interest and other income, net was $0.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to $2.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to less interest income earned on marketable

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securities, corporate bonds and money market funds caused by lower yields and a decrease in the total amount invested in marketable securities in 2021.  

Income Tax Benefit

The following table summarizes the period-over-period changes in our income tax benefit (in thousands, except for percentages):

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we recognized an income tax benefit of $2.5 million due to the reversal of deferred tax liabilities associated with our in-process research and development which was fully impaired in 2021.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity

As a result of our significant research and development expenditures and the lack of any FDA-approved products to generate product sales revenue, we have not been profitable and have generated operating losses since we were incorporated in October 2005. We have funded our operations through December 31, 2021 principally with debt prior to our initial public offering, and thereafter with equity financing, raising an aggregate of $604.6 million in net proceeds from public offerings and private placements from inception to December 31, 2021.

In December 2019, we sold to various investors an aggregate of 6,287,878 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $16.50 per share, which included the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase 1,136,363 shares of common stock, and pre-funded warrants to purchase 2,424,242 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $16.499. We received aggregate net proceeds of $134.7 million from the offering and the option exercise, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable.

In December 2020, we sold an aggregate of 892,840 shares of common stock through “at-the-market” offerings (2020 ATM), resulting in net proceeds of $5.5 million.

In 2021, we sold an aggregate of 11,234,207 shares of common stock through the 2020 ATM, resulting in net proceeds of $52.8 million.

Future Funding Requirements

We expect our expenses related to HBV program to increase in 2022 and to generally increase over time in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue the research, development and clinical studies of our product candidates and pursue our intellectual property strategy. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts.

We monitor our cash needs and the status of the capital markets on a continuous basis. From time to time, we opportunistically raise capital and have done so numerous times since our initial public offering by issuing equity securities, most recently in November 2021. We expect to continue to raise capital when and as needed and at the time and in the manner most advantageous to us.

We expect our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next twelve months. Our contractual obligations include operating lease obligations totaling $6.5 million as of December 31, 2021, of which $3.6 million are short-term. We are subject to paying milestone, royalty and other contingent fees associated with certain collaboration and license agreements upon the successful achievement of development and regulatory milestones of our core inhibitor product candidates. We also enter into contracts in the normal course of business with CROs for clinical trials and CMO’s for clinical supply manufacturing and with vendors for preclinical research studies and other services and products for operating purposes, which generally provide for termination within 30 days of notice. Since our inception, we have not engaged in any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4) of Regulation S-K.   

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

Identifying potential product candidates and conducting nonclinical testing and clinical studies is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenues, if any, will be derived from sales of medicines that we do not expect to be commercially available for years, if at all. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financings to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financings may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements. We do not have any committed external source of funds. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends.

If we raise funds through additional collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

Cash Flows

A summary of our cash flows for the periods presented was as follows (in thousands):

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Net Cash Used in Operating Activities

Net cash used in operating activities was $93.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. This was primarily due to our net loss of $129.9 million, partially offset by the $41.6 million we recognized for the impairment of our goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible asset.

Net cash used in operating activities was $63.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. This was primarily due to $62.2 million of net loss and a $28.1 million decrease in deferred revenue from recognition of deferred revenue under the Allergan Agreement, partially offset by an increase in deferred revenue under the BeiGene Agreement. These were offset by non-cash adjustments of $21.9 million of stock-based compensation and $5.2 million of amortization of operating lease right-of-use assets.

Net Cash Provided by Investing Activities

Net cash provided by investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $26.5 million. This was primarily due to proceeds of $27.3 million from sales and maturities of marketable securities, net of purchases, and proceeds of $1.5 million from the sale of Microbiome assets. This was partially offset by our purchase of leased equipment for $3.1 million that we then sold for $0.9 million in connection with the wind-down of the Microbiome program.  

Net cash provided by investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $68.1 million. This was due to proceeds of $70.3 million from sales and maturities of marketable securities, net of purchases, used to fund our operations, offset by $1.8 million from the purchase of in-process research and development.

Net Cash Provided by Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $53.1 million resulting from the net proceeds of $52.8 million from the sale of 11,234,207 shares of our common stock under the 2020 ATM and $0.3 million from the issuance of 88,820 shares of common stock under the Assembly Biosciences Amended and Restated 2018 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (2018 ESPP).

Net cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $7.6 million resulting from the net proceeds of $5.5 million from the sale of 892,840 shares of our common stock under the 2020 ATM, $1.5 million from the exercise of stock options to purchase 175,579 shares of common stock and $0.7 million from the issuance of 86,812 shares of common stock under our 2018 ESPP.

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Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Not applicable.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

The financial statements required to be filed pursuant to this Item 8 are appended to this report. An index of those financial statements is found on page F-1.

Not applicable.

Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We maintain a system of disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) promulgated under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), that is designed to provide reasonable assurance that information, which is required to be disclosed in our reports filed pursuant to the Exchange Act, is accumulated and communicated to management in a timely manner. At the end of fiscal year ending December 31, 2021, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision, and with the participation of, our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(b). Based upon that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures for the fiscal year ending as of December 31, 2021 were effective at reasonable assurance levels.

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f). Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance to our management and Board of Directors regarding the preparation and fair presentation of published financial statements. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can only provide reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Because of these inherent limitations, management does not expect that our internal controls over financial reporting will prevent all error and all fraud. Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued in 2013 by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on our evaluation under the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2021.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting in the fourth quarter of 2021 that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Item 9B. Other Information

Not applicable.

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections

Not applicable.

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PART III

ITEM 10.  Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

Except as set forth below, the information required by this item will be contained in our definitive proxy statement to be filed with the SEC in connection with the Annual Meeting of Stockholders (Proxy Statement) within 120 days after the conclusion of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 and is incorporated in this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference.

Code of Ethics

Our Board has adopted a Code of Ethics for our principal executive officer and all senior financial officers and a Code of Conduct applicable to all of our employees and our directors. Both Codes are available under the “Investors—Corporate Governance” section of our website at www.assemblybio.com. If we make any substantive amendments to, or grant any waivers from, the Code of Ethics for our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer, controller or persons performing similar functions, or any officer or director, we will disclose the nature of such amendment or waiver on our website or in a Current Report on Form 8-K.

ITEM 11.  Executive Compensation

The information required by this item will be contained in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference.

ITEM 12.  Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

Except for the table regarding equity compensation plans, which is included in Part II, Item 5 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the information required by this item will be contained in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference.

ITEM 13.  Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions, and Director Independence

The information required by this item will be contained in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference.

ITEM 14.  Principal Accounting Fees and Services

The information required by this item will be contained in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference.

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ITEM 15.  Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

(a) Exhibits.   The following exhibits are filed as part of this registration statement:

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Item 16.  Form 10-K Summary.

None.

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SIGNATURES

In accordance with Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act, the Registrant caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints John G. McHutchison, A.O., M.D. and Jason A. Okazaki, jointly and severally, his or her attorneys-in-fact, each with the power of substitution, for him or her in any and all capacities, to sign any amendments to this report, and to file the same, with exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereby ratifying and confirming all that each of said attorneys-in-fact, or his or her substitute or substitutes may do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed by the following persons on behalf of the registrant in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

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ASSEMBLY BIOSCIENCES, INC.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

F-1

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Assembly Biosciences, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Assembly Biosciences, Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, changes in stockholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2021, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Basis for Opinion

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

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

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

Critical Audit Matters

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

F-2

F-3

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2015.

Redwood City, California

March 11, 2022

F-4

ASSEMBLY BIOSCIENCES, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands except for share amounts and par value)