Risks related to our reliance on third parties

We are heavily dependent upon our collaboration arrangements with Gilead and certain other third parties for the development and commercialization of our products and there can be no assurance that these arrangements will deliver the benefits we expect.

In July 2019, we entered into a 10-year global research and development collaboration with Gilead. In connection with our entry into the option, license and collaboration agreement, we received an upfront payment of $3.95 billion and a €960 million ($1.1 billion) equity investment from Gilead. Under the option, license and collaboration agreement, we will fund and lead all discovery and development autonomously until the end of the relevant Phase 2 clinical study. After the completion of the Phase 2 clinical study (or, in certain circumstances, the first Phase 3 study), Gilead will have the option to acquire an exclusive commercial license to that program in all countries outside of Europe. If the option is exercised, we and Gilead will co-develop the compound and share costs equally. In addition, we are heavily dependent on Gilead for the commercialization of filgotinib and the further development of filgotinib outside of Europe. Gilead may not devote sufficient resources or give sufficient priority to the programs in respect of which it acquires a commercial license pursuant to the option, license and collaboration agreement. Furthermore, Gilead may not be successful in the commercialization of filgotinib outside of Europe and further development and commercialization of filgotinib or other programs for which it acquires a commercial license, even when they do devote resources and prioritize their efforts for such programs. To the extent that Gilead is commercializing filgotinib in one or more jurisdictions via a third party, such as Eisai for certain Asian markets, we are significantly dependent on their successful accomplishment of commercialization efforts.

In addition, the terms of the collaboration with Gilead and any collaboration or other arrangement that we may establish may not ultimately prove to be favorable to us or may not be perceived as favorable, which may negatively impact the trading price of the ADSs or our ordinary shares. In addition, pursuant to the collaboration with Gilead, we are entitled to certain option payments and tiered royalties, and milestone payments on certain products. There can be no assurance that such payments will be sufficient to cover the cost of development of the relevant product candidates.

We are subject to a number of additional risks associated with our dependence on our collaborations with third parties, the occurrence of which could cause our collaboration arrangements to fail. In particular, the collaboration we entered into in July 2019 is managed by a set of joint committees comprised of equal numbers of representatives from each of us and Gilead. Conflicts may arise between us and Gilead, such as conflicts concerning the interpretation of clinical data, the achievement of milestones, the interpretation of financial provisions or the ownership of intellectual property developed during the collaboration, and there can be no assurance that the joint committees will be able to resolve any such conflicts. If any such conflicts arise, Gilead could act in a manner adverse to our best interests. Any such disagreement could result in one or more of the following, each of which could delay or prevent the development or commercialization of product candidates subject to the collaboration arrangements, and in turn prevent us from generating sufficient revenues to achieve or maintain profitability:

• reductions or delays in the payment of milestone payments, royalties or other payments we believe are due;
• actions taken by Gilead inside or outside our collaboration which could negatively impact our rights or benefits under our collaboration including termination of the collaboration for convenience; or
• unwillingness on the part of Gilead to keep us informed regarding the progress of its development and commercialization activities or regulatory approval or to permit public disclosure of the results of those activities.

In addition to our collaboration with Gilead, we may also enter into future collaborations which will give rise to similar risks, although our ability to enter into such collaborations may be limited given the scale of our collaboration with Gilead.

If our global research and development collaboration with Gilead or other collaborations on research and development candidates do not result in the successful development and commercialization of products or if Gilead or another one of our collaboration partners terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research funding or milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these agreements, our development of our product candidates could be delayed and we may need additional resources to develop product candidates.

We may not be successful in establishing future development and commercialization collaborations, particularly given the scale of our collaborations with Gilead, and this could adversely affect, and potentially prohibit, our ability to develop our product candidates.

Developing pharmaceutical products, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval, establishing manufacturing capabilities and marketing approved products are expensive. Accordingly, we have sought and may in the future seek to enter into collaborations with companies that have more resources and experience. In the future, however, our ability to do so may be limited given the scale of the 10-year global research and development collaboration that we entered into with Gilead in July 2019. If Gilead declines to exercise its option and we are otherwise unable to obtain a collaboration partner for our product candidates, we may be unable to advance the development of our product candidates through late-stage clinical development and seek approval in any market. In situations where we enter into a development and commercial collaboration arrangement for a product candidate, we may also seek to establish additional collaborations for development and commercialization in territories outside of those addressed by the first collaboration arrangement for such product candidate. If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, we may enter into sales and marketing arrangements with third parties with respect to otherwise unlicensed or unaddressed territories. Furthermore, there are a limited number of potential collaboration partners, and we expect to face competition in seeking appropriate collaboration partners. If we are unable to enter into any development and commercial collaborations and/or sales and marketing arrangements on acceptable terms, or at all, we may be unable to successfully develop and seek regulatory approval for our product candidates and/or effectively market and sell approved products, if any.

In October 2021, we signed an agreement (as amended from time to time) with Sobi regarding the distribution of Jyseleca®. Sobi acts as our distribution and commercialization partner of filgotinib and will distribute the medicine in Central and Eastern Europe, Greece, Portugal, and the Baltic countries. Launches and first sales of filgotinib in the aforementioned countries trigger milestone payments by Sobi to us. We are significantly dependent on Sobi's successful accomplishment of commercialization efforts, and if, for any reason, the collaboration terminated, we may be unable to timely or successfully find another distribution and commercialization partner, which may interrupt or delay our commercialization efforts.

Through the acquisitions of CellPoint and AboundBio, we gained access to an innovative, scalable, decentralized and automated point-of-care cell therapy supply model as well as fully human antibody-based therapeutics platform and research capabilities for novel, differentiated CAR-T constructs. To address important limitations of current CAR-T treatments, CellPoint has developed, in a strategic collaboration with Lonza, a Swiss manufacturing company for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and nutrition sectors, a novel decentralized delivery model designed to manufacture non-frozen CAR-T therapies at the point-of-care. The platform consists of CellPoint’s end-to-end xCellit workflow management and monitoring software and Lonza’s Cocoon®, a functionally closed, automated manufacturing platform for cell therapies. Clinical studies with this decentralized supply model have been approved by regulatory authorities in Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands. If, for any reason, the collaboration is terminated or is otherwise materially changed and we are no longer entitled to use such technology platform, then we may be unable to secure alternatives to such technology and, our research, development or other efforts may be interrupted or delayed, and our financial condition and results of operation may be materially adversely affected.

We rely on third party suppliers for which a reliable supply of materials is required in order to avoid delays in the drug discovery and development process and commercial supplies of any approved product. Most goods and services are provided by several different suppliers, which mitigates the risk of loss of key suppliers.

Expanding the suppliers’ network can be time consuming as all source suppliers are subject to rigorous ethical and quality control standards. Our suppliers are required to adhere to contractual terms that include anti-bribery and anti-corruption provisions. Our general terms and conditions of purchase also contain a specific clause on anti-bribery and anti-corruption. They can be found on our website.

We have relied on and plan to continue to rely on contract research organizations, or CROs, to monitor and manage data for our preclinical and clinical programs. We and our CROs also rely on clinical sites and investigators for the performance of our clinical trials in accordance with the applicable protocols and applicable legal, regulatory and scientific standards, including Good Clinical Practices (GCPs). Regulatory authorities enforce these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, investigators and clinical sites. If CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet quality standards, regulatory requirements or expectations, such as the applicable GCPs, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates. We do retain responsibility for all our studies and are required to and have put in place measures to manage, oversee, and control our studies, including the CRO selection process, audits, strong focus on deliverables, timelines, roles & responsibilities, and oversight of conduct of the studies. In addition to GCPs, our clinical trials must be conducted with products produced under current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations.

We rely on clinical data and results obtained by third parties that could ultimately prove to be inaccurate or unreliable. If the third-party data and the results that we rely on prove to be inaccurate, unreliable or not applicable to our product candidates, we could make inaccurate assumptions and conclusions about our product candidates and our research and development efforts could be materially adversely affected.