UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): November 13, 2016

XENCOR, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

111 West Lemon Avenue

Monrovia, California 91016

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (626) 305-5900

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):

o Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

o Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Item 8.01. Other Events.

On November 13, 2016, Xencor, Inc. (the Company) announced preliminary data from XmAb5871-03, an ongoing, open-label, pilot Phase 2 study of XmAb5871 in patients with active IgG4-RD. Data show that 82% of patients achieved an initial response to therapy within two weeks of their first dose. The data was presented by John H. Stone, M.D., MPH, director of rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, at the American College of Rheumatology 2016 Annual Meeting in the Miscellaneous Rheumatic and Inflammatory Disease session on November 13, 2016.

As of a data cutoff of October 31, 2016, 12 patients with active IgG4-RD have been enrolled and dosed with XmAb5871 (median number of infusions = 7, range 1-12). Patients had a median IgG4-RD responder index (RI) of 10 (range 2-30) with a median of four organs involved (range 1-10) at the time of study entry. Organ site involvement occurring at a frequency of greater than or equal to 50% included lymph nodes, submandibular glands, parotid glands and lacrimal glands.

Preliminary Safety Data:

Every other week intravenous administration of XmAb5871 has been well tolerated. As of October 31, 2016, no serious adverse events (AEs) have been reported. Treatment-related AEs have occurred in five patients (42%). Treatment-related AEs that occurred in more than one patient were abdominal pain/discomfort in three patients (25%), occurring as part of Grade 1 (mild) infusion-related gastrointestinal symptoms (nausea and/or vomiting and/or diarrhea) during the first infusion, and Grade 1 (mild) headaches in two patients (16.7%). One patient discontinued the study as the result of an AE. The patient developed a Grade 2 (moderate) hypersensitivity reaction with rash and arthritis, commonly referred to as serum sickness, following the fifth infusion. The event resolved quickly without the need for medical management. This patient was subsequently found to have developed anti-drug antibodies.

Preliminary Efficacy Data:

11 of the 12 patients dosed with XmAb5871 have had at least one IgG4-RD RI performed following dosing as of the data cutoff date. Nine of 11 patients (82%) have had an initial response to XmAb5871 therapy of at least a three-point reduction in the IgG4-RD RI within two weeks of the first dose. Five patients attained disease remission (an IgG4-RD RI of 0) during the study. Two patients entering the study on corticosteroids have been able to taper and discontinue steroid use during the study.

In addition to the patient with early study termination due to an AE, two other patients have discontinued treatment prior to receipt of all 12 planned infusions. One patient had a response to therapy (IgG4-RD RI reduction of six points), but lost response following the sixth infusion, at which point this patient discontinued treatment. One patient had no response to therapy as defined by a greater than or equal to two-point decrease in the IgG4-RD RI. This patient had an atypical presentation of larynx involvement as the only organ involved. The patient discontinued the study after six infusions. Neither of these two patients have responded to subsequent rituximab treatment.

On November 29, 2016, the Company updated the slide presentation to be used by the Company at investor meetings by adding a slide presenting data from XmAb5871-03. A copy of that revised slide is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.

The Company is filing certain information for the purpose of updating descriptions of the Company’s risk factors contained in the Company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A copy of this additional disclosure is attached as Exhibit 99.2 to this report and incorporated herein by reference.

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Forward Looking Statements:

Statements contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K regarding matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including expectations relating to the Company’s business, research and development programs, including ongoing clinical trials of XmAb5871, and the immune inhibitory Fc domain technology, partnering efforts or the Company’s capital requirements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements, including those of the complete clinical trial of XmAb5871, and the timing of events to be materially different from those implied by such statements, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such risks include, without limitation, the risks associated with the process of discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing drugs that are safe and effective for use as human therapeutics and other risks described in the Company’s public securities filings. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current information and belief as well as assumptions made by the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

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EXHIBIT INDEX

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Exhibit 99.1

Exhibit 99.2

Risk Factors

The following risk factors may affect our future financial condition and results of operations. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. In addition to the risks set forth below, additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business.

Risks Relating to Our Business and to the Discovery, Development and Regulatory Approval of Our Product Candidates

We have incurred significant losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through equity and debt financings and our research and licensing agreements and have incurred significant operating losses since our inception in 1997. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, we earned net income of $32.7 million and our net loss for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 respectively, was $17.6 million, $16.4 million and $60.3 million (including a $48.6 million loss on settlement of convertible notes). As of September 30, 2016, we had an accumulated deficit of $228.9 million. We expect to incur additional losses in the future as we execute our plan to continue our discovery, research and development activities, including the ongoing and planned clinical development of our antibody product candidates, and incur the additional costs of operating as a public company. We are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if ever. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on an ongoing basis which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of uncertainty. We have never generated any revenue from product sales and may never be profitable.

We have devoted substantially all of our financial resources and efforts to developing our proprietary XmAb technology platform, identifying potential product candidates and conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials. We and our partners are still in the early stages of developing our product candidates, and we have not completed development of any products. Our revenue to date has been primarily revenue from the license of our proprietary XmAb technology platform for the development of product candidates by others or revenue from our partners. Our ability to generate revenue and achieve profitability depends in large part on our ability, alone or with partners, to achieve milestones and to successfully complete the development of, obtain the necessary regulatory approvals for, and commercialize, product candidates. We do not anticipate generating revenues from sales of products for the foreseeable future. Our ability to generate future revenues from product sales depends heavily on our and our partners’ success in:

·                  completing clinical trials through all phases of clinical development of our current product candidates, XmAb5871, XmAb7195 XmAb14045 and XmAb13676 as well as the product candidates that are being developed by our partners and licensees;

·                  seeking and obtaining marketing approvals for product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

·                  obtaining satisfactory acceptance, formulary placement and reimbursement coverage for our approved products from third-party payors, including private health insurers, managed care providers and governmental payor programs, including Medicare and Medicaid;

·                  launching and commercializing product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval with a partner or, if launched independently, successfully establishing a sales force and marketing and distribution infrastructure;

·                  identifying and developing new XmAb-engineered therapeutic antibody candidates;

·                  establishing and maintaining supply and manufacturing relationships with third parties;

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·                  obtaining additional licensing and partnering opportunities, similar to our partnerships with Novartis, Amgen and MorpohSys, with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies;

·                  achieving the milestones set forth in our agreements with our partners;

·                  conducting further research into the function and application of antibody Fc domains in order to expand the scope of our proprietary XmAb technology platform;

·                  maintaining, protecting, expanding and enforcing our intellectual property; and

·                  attracting, hiring and retaining qualified personnel.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with biologic product development, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased expenses and when we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability, if ever. In addition, our expenses could increase beyond expectations if we are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or foreign regulatory agencies, to perform studies and trials in addition to those that we currently anticipate, or if there are any delays in our or our partners completing clinical trials or the development of any of our product candidates. If one or more of the product candidates that we independently develop is approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing such product candidates. Even if we or our partners are able to generate revenues from the sale of any approved products, we may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations, which may not be available to us on favorable terms, if at all. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would depress the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our research and development efforts, diversify our product offerings or even continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.

We will require additional financing and may be unable to raise sufficient capital, which could lead us to delay, reduce or abandon research and development programs or commercialization.

As of September 30, 2016, we had $301.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing development activities, including additional clinical trials of XmAb5871, XmAb7195 and XmAb 14045, continued development of our other bispecific drug candidates, including XmAb13676, and other research activities. Identifying potential product candidates and conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials are time-consuming, expensive and uncertain processes that take years to complete, and we or our partners may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain regulatory 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 products that we do not expect to be commercially available for many years, if at all. If we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution. 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 any future commercialization efforts.

We believe our existing cash, together with interest thereon, will be sufficient to fund our operations beyond the end of 2019. However, changing circumstances or inaccurate estimates by us may cause us to use capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more money than currently expected because of circumstances beyond our control. For example, our current or planned clinical trials for XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045 and XmAb13676 or our clinical trials for other drug candidates, including XmAb18087 and XmAb20717, may encounter technical, enrollment or other issues that could cause our development costs to increase more than we expect. We do not have sufficient cash to complete the clinical development of any of our product candidates and will require additional funding in order to complete the development activities required for regulatory approval of XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045, XmAb13676 or any other future product candidates that we develop independently. Because successful development of our product candidates is uncertain, we are unable to estimate the

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actual funds we will require to complete research and development and commercialize our product candidates. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations; even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. 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 any future commercialization efforts.

The development and commercialization of biologic products is subject to extensive regulation, and we may not obtain regulatory approvals for any of our product candidates.

The clinical development, manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, advertising, promotion, export, import, marketing and distribution and other possible activities relating to XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045 and XmAb13676, our current lead antibody product candidates, as well as any other antibody product candidate that we may develop in the future, are subject to extensive regulation in the United States as biologics. Biologics require the submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the FDA and we are not permitted to market any product candidate in the United States until we obtain approval from the FDA of a BLA for that product. A BLA must be supported by extensive clinical and preclinical data, as well as extensive information regarding chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) sufficient to demonstrate the safety, purity, potency and effectiveness of the applicable product candidate to the satisfaction of the FDA.

Regulatory approval of a BLA is not guaranteed, and the approval process is an expensive and uncertain process that may take several years. The FDA and foreign regulatory entities also have substantial discretion in the approval process. The number and types of preclinical studies and clinical trials that will be required for BLA approval varies depending on the product candidate, the disease or the condition that the product candidate is designed to target and the regulations applicable to any particular product candidate. Despite the time and expense associated with preclinical studies and clinical trials, failure can occur at any stage, and we could encounter problems that require us to repeat or perform additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or generate additional CMC data. The FDA and similar foreign authorities could delay, limit or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons, including because they:

·                  may not deem our product candidate to be adequately safe and effective;

·                  may not find the data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials or CMC data to be sufficient to support a claim of safety and efficacy;

·                  may not approve the manufacturing processes or facilities associated with our product candidate;

·                  may conclude that we have not sufficiently demonstrated long-term stability of the formulation of the drug product for which we are seeking marketing approval;

·                  may change approval policies or adopt new regulations; or

·                  may not accept a submission due to, among other reasons, the content or formatting of the submission.

Generally, public concern regarding the safety of drug and biologic products could delay or limit our ability to obtain regulatory approval, result in the inclusion of unfavorable information in our labeling, or require us to undertake other activities that may entail additional costs.

We have not submitted an application for approval or obtained FDA approval for any product. This lack of experience may impede our ability to obtain FDA approval in a timely manner, if at all, for our product candidates.

To market any biologics outside of the United States, we and current or future collaborators must comply with numerous and varying regulatory and compliance related requirements of other countries. Approval procedures vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods, including obtaining reimbursement and pricing approval in select markets. The time required to obtain approval in other countries

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might differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process in other countries may include all of the risks associated with FDA approval as well as additional, presently unanticipated, risks. 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, including the risk that our product candidates may not be approved for all indications requested and that such approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the drug may be marketed. Certain countries have a very difficult reimbursement environment and we may not obtain reimbursement or pricing approval, if required, in all countries where we expect to market a product, or we may obtain reimbursement approval at a level that would make marketing a product in certain countries not viable.

If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for our product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Even if we receive regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense. Additionally, our product candidates, if approved, could be subject to labeling and other restrictions and market withdrawal and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our products.

Any regulatory approvals that we or our partners receive for our product candidates may also be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials, and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate. In addition, if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of our product candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion, import, export and recordkeeping for the product will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration, as well as continued compliance with current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs), and current good clinical practices (cGCPs), for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, undesirable side effects caused by the product, problems encountered by our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, either before or after product approval, may result in, among other things:

·                  restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product;

·                  requirements to include additional warnings on the label;

·                  requirements to create a medication guide outlining the risks to patients;

·                  withdrawal of the product from the market;

·                  voluntary or mandatory product recalls;

·                  requirements to change the way the product is administered or for us to conduct additional clinical trials;

·                  fines, warning letters or holds on clinical trials;

·                  refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or our strategic partners, or suspension or revocation of product license approvals;

·                  product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products;

·                  injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties; and

·                  harm to our reputation.

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Additionally if any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, the FDA could require us to adopt a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to ensure that the benefits of the therapy outweigh its risks, which may include, among other things, a medication guide outlining the risks for distribution to patients and a communication plan to health care practitioners.

Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the product or the particular product candidate at issue and could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

The FDA’s policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.

We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. In addition, some of our competitors have ongoing clinical trials for product candidates that treat the same indications as our product candidates, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates.

Patient enrollment is affected by other factors including:

·                  the severity of the disease under investigation;

·                  the patient eligibility criteria for the study in question;

·                  the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study;

·                  our payments for conducting clinical trials;

·                  the patient referral practices of physicians;

·                  the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment; and

·                  the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients.

Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for any of our clinical trials could result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates and in delays to commercially launching our product candidates, if approved, which would cause the value of our company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing.

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The manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, including XmAb-engineered antibodies, is complex and manufacturers often encounter difficulties in production. If we or any of our third-party manufacturers encounter any loss of our master cell banks or if any of our third-party manufacturers encounter other difficulties, or otherwise fail to comply with their contractual obligations, our ability to provide product candidates for clinical trials or our products to patients, once approved, the development or commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed or stopped.

The manufacture of biopharmaceutical products is complex and requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. We and our contract manufacturers must comply with cGMP regulations and guidelines. Manufacturers of biopharmaceutical products often encounter difficulties in production, particularly in scaling up and validating initial production and contamination. These problems include difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product, quality assurance testing, operator error, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations. Furthermore, if microbial, viral or other contaminations are discovered in our products or in the manufacturing facilities in which our products are made, such manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination.

All of our XmAb engineered antibodies are manufactured by starting with cells which are stored in a cell bank. We have one master cell bank for each antibody manufactured in accordance with cGMP and multiple working cell banks and believe we would have adequate backup should any cell bank be lost in a catastrophic event. However, it is possible that we could lose multiple cell banks and have our manufacturing severely impacted by the need to replace the cell banks.

We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of any of our product candidates or products will not occur in the future. Additionally, our manufacturer may experience manufacturing difficulties due to resource constraints or as a result of labor disputes or unstable political environments. If our manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties, or otherwise fail to comply with their contractual obligations, our ability to provide any product candidates to patients in clinical trials and products to patients, once approved, would be jeopardized. Any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial supplies could delay the completion of clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at additional expense or terminate clinical trials completely. Any adverse developments affecting clinical or commercial manufacturing of our product candidates or products may result in shipment delays, inventory shortages, lot failures, product withdrawals or recalls, or other interruptions in the supply of our product candidates or products. We may also have to take inventory write-offs and incur other charges and expenses for product candidates or products that fail to meet specifications, undertake costly remediation efforts or seek more costly manufacturing alternatives. Accordingly, failures or difficulties faced at any level of our supply chain could materially adversely affect our business and delay or impede the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates or products and could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Adverse side effects or other safety risks associated with our product candidates could delay or preclude approval, cause us to suspend or discontinue clinical trials, abandon product candidates, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

Undesirable side effects caused by our product candidates could result in the delay, suspension or termination of clinical trials by us, our collaborators, the FDA or other regulatory authorities for a number of reasons. If we elect or are required to delay, suspend or terminate any clinical trial of any product candidates that we develop, the commercial prospects of such product candidates will be harmed and our ability to generate product revenues from any of these product candidates will be delayed or eliminated. Serious adverse events observed in clinical trials could hinder or prevent market acceptance of the product candidate at issue. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations significantly.

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In our Phase 1b/2a clinical trial of XmAb5871, for example, some subjects reported mild to moderate gastrointestinal toxicities (nausea, vomiting and diarrhea). Other treatment-related adverse events experienced in more than two XmAb5871-treated patients were pyrexia (fever) and headache. Treatment-related serious adverse events occurred in two patients that received XmAb5871: infusion related reaction and venous thrombosis. Further, interim analysis in our Phase 1a clinical trial of XmAb7195 resulted in subjects having urticaria and dose limiting thrombocytopenia. If these or other side effects cause excessive discomfort, safety risks or reduction in acceptable dosage, then the development and commercialization of XmAb5871 or XmAb7195 could suffer significant negative consequences. We cannot predict if additional types of adverse events or more serious adverse events will be observed in future clinical trials of XmAb5871, XmAb7195 or any future product candidate.

In addition, we observed detectable levels of immunogenicity, or the creation by the immune system of anti-XmAb5871 antibodies, in 44% of subjects receiving XmAb5871 in the Phase 1a clinical trial. While a common occurrence for antibody therapies, immunogenicity to XmAb5871 or any of our other product candidates could neutralize the therapeutic effects of XmAb5871 or such other candidates and/or alter their pharmacokinetics, which could have a material adverse effect on the effectiveness of our product candidates and on our ability to commercialize them.

We may not be successful in our efforts to use and expand our XmAb technology platform to build a pipeline of product candidates and develop marketable products.

We are using our proprietary XmAb technology platform to develop engineered antibodies, with an initial focus on four properties: immune inhibition, cytotoxicity, extended half-life and most recently, heterodimeric Fc domains enabling molecules with dual target binding. This platform has led to our lead product candidates, XmAb5871, XmAb7195 and XmAb14045, and our other bispecific development candidates, including XmAb13676, XmAb18087 and XmAb20717, as well as the other programs that utilize our technology and that are being developed by our partners and licensees. While we believe our preclinical and clinical data to date, together with our established partnerships, has validated our platform to a degree, we are at a very early stage of development and our platform has not yet, and may never lead to, approved or marketable therapeutic antibody products. Even if we are successful in continuing to build our pipeline, the potential product candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development, including as a result of their harmful side effects, limited efficacy or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be products that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance. If we do not successfully develop and commercialize product candidates based upon our technological approach, we may not be able to obtain product or partnership revenues in future periods, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are intensely competitive. We have competitors both in the United States and internationally, including major multinational pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, universities and other research institutions. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, such as larger research and development staff and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations and well-established sales forces. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing on an exclusive basis, drug products that are more effective or less costly than any product candidate that we are currently developing or that we may develop.

We face intense competition in autoimmune disease drug development from multiple monoclonal antibodies, other biologics and small molecules approved for the treatment of autoimmune diseases many of which are being developed or marketed by large multinational pharmaceutical companies. GlaxoSmithKline’s Benlysta (belimumab) is currently the only monoclonal antibody that we are aware of that is approved for the treatment of lupus although we believe that Biogen Idec/Genentech’s Rituxan (rituximab) is prescribed, off label, for this indication. In addition, these and other pharmaceutical companies have monoclonal antibodies or other biologics in clinical development for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

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Many companies have approved therapies or are developing drugs for the treatment of asthma including multinational pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Roche/Genentech, Novartis AG and AstraZeneca plc. Xolair is currently the only monoclonal antibody that we are aware of that is approved for the treatment of severe asthma.

Competition in blood cancer drug development is intense, with more than 250 compounds in clinical trials by large multinational pharmaceutical companies and Rituxan is just one of many monoclonal antibodies approved for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphomas or other blood cancers. Both Roche and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals have bispecific CD20 drug candidates in Phase 1 of development and there are many other companies developing their own bispecific platform technologies and drug candidates. CSL-Janssen has a CD123 that is currently in Phase 2.

Our ability to compete successfully will depend largely on our ability to leverage our experience in drug discovery and development to:

·                  discover and develop products that are superior to other products in the market;

·                  attract qualified scientific, product development and commercial personnel;

·                  obtain and maintain patent and/or other proprietary protection for our products and technologies;

·                  obtain required regulatory approvals; and

·                  successfully collaborate with pharmaceutical companies in the discovery, development and commercialization of new products.

The availability and price of our competitors’ products could limit the demand, and the price we are able to charge, for any of our product candidates, if approved. We will not achieve our business plan if acceptance is inhibited by price competition or the reluctance of physicians to switch from existing drug products to our products, or if physicians switch to other new drug products or choose to reserve our products for use in limited circumstances.

Established biopharmaceutical companies may invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of products that could make our product candidates less competitive. In addition, any new product that competes with an approved product must demonstrate compelling advantages in efficacy, convenience, tolerability and safety in order to overcome price competition and to be commercially successful. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection, receiving FDA approval or discovering, developing and commercializing medicines before we do, which would have a material adverse impact on our business. We will not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates without establishing sales and marketing capabilities internally or through collaborators.

Risks Relating to Our Dependence on Third Parties

Our existing partnerships are important to our business, and future partnerships may also be important to us. If we are unable to maintain any of these partnerships, or if these partnerships are not successful, our business could be adversely affected.

Because developing biologics products, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval, establishing manufacturing capabilities and marketing approved products are expensive, we have entered into partnerships, and may seek to enter into additional partnerships, with companies that have more resources and experience than us, and we may become dependent upon the establishment and successful implementation of partnership agreements.

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Our partnership and license agreements include those we have announced with Novartis, Amgen, MorphoSys, Novo Nordisk, CSL and others. These partnerships and license agreements also have provided us with important funding for our development programs, and we expect to receive additional funding under these partnerships in the future. Our existing partnerships, and any future partnerships we enter into, may pose a number of risks, including the following:

·                  our collaboration agreement with Novartis provides for us to codevelop with Novartis our two lead bispecific candidates, XmAb14045 and XmAb13676, and share development costs equally. Such an arrangement may require us to incur substantial costs in excess of our available resources;

·                  collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these partnerships;

·                  collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected;

·                  collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of any product candidates that achieve regulatory approval or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical trial results, changes in the collaborators’ strategic focus or available funding, or external factors, such as an acquisition, that divert resources or create competing priorities;

·                  collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing;

·                  collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our products or product candidates if the collaborators believe that competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours, which may cause collaborators to cease to devote resources to the commercialization of our product candidates;

·                  a collaborator with marketing and distribution rights to one or more of our product candidates that achieve regulatory approval may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product or products;

·                  disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over proprietary rights, contract interpretation or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or termination of the research, development or commercialization of product candidates, might lead to additional responsibilities for us with respect to product candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration, any of which would be time-consuming and expensive;

·                  while we have generally retained the right to maintain and defend our intellectual property under our agreements with collaborators, certain collaborators may not properly maintain or defend certain of our intellectual property rights or may use our proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information;

·                  collaborators may infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability;

·                  collaborators may learn about our technology and use this knowledge to compete with us in the future;

·                  results of collaborators’ preclinical or clinical studies could produce results that harm or impair other products using our XmAb technology platform;

·                  there may be conflicts between different collaborators that could negatively affect those partnerships and potentially others; and

·                  the number and type of our partnerships could adversely affect our attractiveness to future collaborators or acquirers.

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If our partnerships and license agreements do not result in the successful development and commercialization of products or if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research and development funding or milestone or royalty payments under the arrangement. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these arrangements, our continued development of our product candidates could be delayed and we may need additional resources to develop additional product candidates. All of the risks described in these risk factors relating to product development, regulatory approval and commercialization also apply to the activities of our collaborators and there can be no assurance that our partnerships and license agreements will produce positive results or successful products on a timely basis or at all.

Our partnership agreements generally grant our collaborators exclusive rights under certain of our intellectual property, and may therefore preclude us from entering into partnerships with others relating to the same or similar compounds, indications or diseases. In addition, partnership agreements may place restrictions or additional obligations on our ability to license additional compounds in different indications, diseases or geographical locations. If we fail to comply with or breach any provision of a partnership agreement, a collaborator may have the right to terminate, in whole or in part, such agreement or to seek damages. Many of our collaborators also have the right to terminate the partnership agreement for convenience. If a partnership agreement is terminated, in whole or in part, we may be unable to continue the development and commercialization of the applicable product candidates, and even if we are able to do so, such efforts may be delayed and result in additional costs.

There is no assurance that a collaborator who is acquired by a third party would not attempt to change certain contract provisions that could negatively affect our partnership. The acquiring company may also not accept the terms or assignment of our contracts and may seek to terminate the agreements. Any one of our partners could breach covenants, restrictions and/or sub-license agreement provisions leading us into disputes and potential breaches of our agreements with other partners.

We may in the future determine to partner with additional pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for development and potential commercialization of therapeutic products. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a partnership will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed partnership and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. If we elect to fund and undertake development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional expertise and additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we fail to enter into partnerships and do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or bring them to market or continue to develop our product platform and our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We rely upon third-party contractors and service providers for the execution of most aspects of our development programs. Failure of these collaborators to provide services of a suitable quality and within acceptable timeframes may cause the delay or failure of our development programs.

We outsource certain functions, tests and services to contract research organizations (CROs), medical institutions and collaborators as well as outsourcing manufacturing to collaborators and/or contract manufacturers, and we rely on third parties for quality assurance, clinical monitoring, clinical data management and regulatory expertise. We also have engaged, and may in the future engage, a CRO to run all aspects of a clinical trial on our behalf. There is no assurance that such individuals or organizations will be able to provide the functions, tests, biologic supply or services as agreed upon or in a quality fashion and we could suffer significant delays in the development of our products or processes.

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In some cases there may be only one or few providers of such services, including clinical data management or manufacturing services. In addition, the cost of such services could be significantly increased over time. We rely on third parties and collaborators as mentioned above to enroll qualified patients and conduct, supervise and monitor our clinical trials. Our reliance on these third parties and collaborators for clinical development activities reduces our control over these activities. Our reliance on these parties, however, does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities, including ensuring that our clinical trials are conducted in accordance with GCP regulations and the investigational plan and protocols contained in the regulatory agency applications. In addition, these third parties may not complete activities on schedule or may not manufacture under GMP conditions. Preclinical or clinical studies may not be performed or completed in accordance with Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) regulatory requirements or our trial design. If these third parties or collaborators do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, obtaining regulatory approval for manufacturing and commercialization of our product candidates may be delayed or prevented. We rely substantially on third-party data managers for our clinical trial data. There is no assurance that these third parties will not make errors in the design, management or retention of our data or data systems. There is no assurance these third parties will pass FDA or regulatory audits, which could delay or prohibit regulatory approval.

We rely on third parties to manufacture supplies of our preclinical and clinical product candidates. The development of such candidates could be stopped or delayed if any such third party fails to provide us with sufficient quantities of product or fails to do so at acceptable quality levels or prices or fails to maintain or achieve satisfactory regulatory compliance.

We do not currently have nor do we plan to acquire the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture our clinical drug supplies for use in the conduct of our clinical trials, and we lack the resources and the capability to manufacture any clinical candidates on a clinical scale. Instead, we rely on our third-party manufacturing partner, Catalent, for the production of XmAb5871 and XmAb7195 and on third parties for fill and testing services. We rely on KBI for the production of our bispecific development candidates, including XmAb14045 and XmAb13676. Any of our contract manufacturers may not perform as agreed, may be unable to comply with cGMP requirements and with FDA, state and foreign regulatory requirements or may terminate their respective agreements with us.

In addition, manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspection by the FDA and other governmental authorities to ensure strict compliance with government regulations. We do not control the manufacturing processes of either Catalent or KBI and are currently completely dependent on each of Catalent and KBI for the production of XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045 and XmAb13676 in accordance with cGMP, which includes, among other things, quality control, quality assurance and the maintenance of records and documentation. If we were to experience an unexpected loss of supply, we could experience delays in our planned clinical trials, as Catalent or KBI would need to manufacture additional clinical drug supply and would need sufficient lead time to schedule a manufacturing slot. While there are other potential suppliers of clinical supplies of our biologics, the long transition periods necessary to switch manufacturers for any of XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045 or XmAb13676 would significantly delay our clinical trials and the commercialization of such products, if approved.

We intend to rely on third parties to manufacture commercial supplies of our product candidate. If we are unable to enter into commercial supply agreements with third-party suppliers or if any such third-party supplier fails to provide us with sufficient quantities or fails to comply with regulatory requirements, commercialization of such products could be delayed or stopped.

We do not currently have nor do we plan to acquire the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture our products on a commercial scale. Although we have entered into agreements for the manufacture of clinical supplies of XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045 and XmAb13676, we have not entered into a commercial supply agreement with either Catalent or KBI and neither has demonstrated that it will be capable of manufacturing XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045 or XmAb13676 on a large commercial scale. We expect to move manufacturing services to another contract manufacturing organization to support late-stage clinical trials for XmAb5871 as well as commercial supplies. We might be unable to identify manufacturers for late stage clinical trials or commercial supply on acceptable terms or at all. A change to the manufacturing process for XmAb5871 or any of our product candidates would cause us to incur significant costs and to devote significant efforts to implement such a change. Additionally, the late-stage clinical development and commercialization of XmAb5871 or other product candidates by us or our collaborators may be delayed as a result, which would materially and adversely affect our business.

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If our third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the applicable regulatory authorities’ strict regulatory requirements, or pass regulatory inspection, they will not be able to secure or maintain regulatory approval for the manufacturing facilities. In addition, we have no control over the ability of any third-party manufacturer to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. The facilities used by our third-party manufacturers to manufacture XmAb5871, XmAb7195, XmAb14045, XmAb13676 and any other potential product candidates that we may develop in the future must be approved by the applicable regulatory authorities, including the FDA, pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit our BLA to the FDA. In addition, manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspection by the FDA and other governmental authorities to ensure strict compliance with government regulations. If the FDA or any other applicable regulatory authorities do not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our products or if they withdraw any such approval in the future, or if our suppliers or third-party manufacturer decide they no longer want to supply our biologics or manufacture our products, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to market our products and our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain, maintain and enforce intellectual property protection covering our products, others may be able to make, use or sell products substantially the same as ours, which could adversely affect our ability to compete in the market.

Our commercial success depends, in part, on our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patents, trade secrets, trademarks and other intellectual property rights and to operate without having third parties infringe, misappropriate or circumvent the rights that we own or license. If we are unable to obtain, maintain and enforce intellectual property protection covering our products, others may be able to make, use or sell products that are substantially the same as ours without incurring the sizeable development and licensing costs that we have incurred, which would adversely affect our ability to compete in the market. As of December 31, 2015, we held over 200 issued patents and pending patent applications. We file patent applications in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe and other major markets either directly or via the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing our product candidates is dependent upon the extent to which we have rights under valid and enforceable patents or trade secrets that cover these activities. However, the patent positions of biopharmaceutical companies, including ours, can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in patents in these fields has emerged to date in the United States. The U.S. patent laws have recently changed, there have been changes regarding how patent laws are interpreted, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the PTO) has also implemented changes to the patent system. Some of these changes are currently being litigated, and we cannot accurately determine the outcome of any such proceedings or predict future changes in the interpretation of patent laws or changes to patent laws which might be enacted into law. Those changes may materially affect our patents, our ability to obtain patents or the patents and applications of our collaborators and licensors. The patent situation in the biopharmaceutical industry outside the United States is even more uncertain. Therefore, there is no assurance that our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of patents or that we will develop additional proprietary products which are patentable. Moreover, patents issued or to be issued to us may not provide us with any competitive advantage. Our patent position is subject to numerous additional risks, including the following:

·                  we may fail to seek patent protection for inventions that are important to our success;

·                  our pending patent applications may not result in issued patents;

·                  we cannot be certain that we are the first to invent the inventions covered by pending patent applications or that we were the first to file such applications and, if we are not, we may be subject to priority disputes;

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·                  we may be required to disclaim part or all of the term of certain patents or all of the term of certain patent applications;

·                  we may file patent applications but have claims restricted or we may not be able to supply sufficient data to support our claims and, as a result, may not obtain the original claims desired or we may receive restricted claims. Alternatively, it is possible that we may not receive any patent protection from an application;

·                  we could inadvertently abandon a patent or patent application, resulting in the loss of protection of certain intellectual property rights in a certain country. We, our collaborators or our patent counsel may take action resulting in a patent or patent application becoming abandoned which may not be able to be reinstated or if reinstated, may suffer patent term adjustments;

·                  the claims of our issued patents or patent applications when issued may not cover our product candidates;

·                  no assurance can be given that our patents would be declared by a court to be valid or enforceable or that a competitor’s technology or product would be found by a court to infringe our patents. Our patents or patent applications may be challenged by third parties in patent litigation or in proceedings before the PTO or its foreign counterparts, and may ultimately be declared invalid or unenforceable, or narrowed in scope;

·                  there may be prior art of which we are not aware that may affect the validity or enforceability of a patent claim. There also may be prior art of which we are aware, but which we do not believe affects the validity or enforceability of a claim, which may, nonetheless, ultimately be found to affect the validity or enforceability of a claim;

·                  third parties may develop products which have the same or similar effect as our products without infringing our patents. Such third parties may also intentionally circumvent our patents by means of alternate designs or processes or file applications or be granted patents that would block or hurt our efforts;

·                  there may be dominating patents relevant to our product candidates of which we are not aware;

·                  our patent counsel, lawyers or advisors may have given us, or may in the future give us incorrect advice or counsel. Opinions from such patent counsel or lawyers may not be correct or may be based on incomplete facts;

·                  obtaining regulatory approval for biopharmaceutical products is a lengthy and complex process, and as a result, any patents covering our product candidates may expire before, or shortly after such product candidates are approved and commercialized;

·                  the patent and patent enforcement laws of some foreign jurisdictions do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States, and many companies have encountered significant difficulties in protecting and defending such rights in foreign jurisdictions. If we encounter such difficulties or we are otherwise precluded from effectively protecting our intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions, our business prospects could be substantially harmed; and

·                  we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable.

Any of these factors could hurt our ability to gain full patent protection for our products. Registered trademarks and trademark applications in the United States and other countries are subject to similar risks as described above for patents and patent applications, in addition to the risks described below.

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Many of our product development partnership agreements are complex and may call for licensing or cross-licensing of potentially blocking patents, know-how or intellectual property. Due to the potential overlap of data, know-how and intellectual property rights there can be no assurance that one of our collaborators will not dispute our right to use, license or distribute data, know-how or other intellectual property rights, and this may potentially lead to disputes, liability or termination of a program. There are no assurances that our actions or the actions of our collaborators would not lead to disputes or cause us to default with other collaborators. For example, we may become involved in disputes with our collaborators relating to the ownership of intellectual property developed in the course of the partnership. We also cannot be certain that a collaborator will not challenge the validity or enforceability of the patents we license.

We cannot be certain that any country’s patent and/or trademark office will not implement new rules which could seriously affect how we draft, file, prosecute and/or maintain patents, trademarks and patent and trademark applications. We cannot be certain that increasing costs for drafting, filing, prosecuting and maintaining patents, trademarks and patent and trademark applications will not restrict our ability to file for patent protection. For example, we may elect not to seek patent protection in certain jurisdictions or for certain inventions in order to save costs. We may be forced to abandon or return the rights to specific patents due to a lack of financial resources.

We currently rely, and may in the future rely, on certain intellectual property rights licensed from third parties to protect our technology. In particular, we have licensed and sublicensed certain intellectual property relating to our Xtend technology from a third party. Under our license, we have no right to control patent prosecution of this intellectual property or to enforce the patents, and as such the licensed rights may not be adequately maintained by the licensors. The termination of this or other licenses could also prevent us from commercializing product candidates covered by the licensed intellectual property.

Furthermore, the research resulting in the in-licensed patents was developed in the course of research funded by the U.S. government. As a result, the U.S. government may have certain rights (“march-in rights”) to intellectual property embodied in our Xtend products. Government rights in certain inventions developed under a government-funded program include a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable worldwide license to use inventions for any governmental purpose. Circumstances that trigger march-in rights include, for example, failure to take, within a reasonable time, effective steps to achieve practical application of the invention in a field of use, failure to satisfy the health and safety needs of the public and failure to meet requirements of public use specified by federal regulations. Federal law requires any licensor of an invention that was partially funded by the federal government to obtain a covenant from any exclusive licensee to manufacture products using the invention substantially in the United States. The U.S. government also has the right to use and disclose, without limitation, scientific data relating to licensed technology that was developed in whole or in part at government expense. The government funding agency can elect to exercise these march-in rights on their own initiative or at the request of a third party. It is also possible that we might knowingly or unknowingly in-license additional technology that is subject to U.S. government march-in rights.

We intend to file applications for trademark registrations in connection with our product candidates in various jurisdictions, including the United States. No assurance can be given that any of our trademark applications will be registered in the United States or elsewhere, or that the use of any registered or unregistered trademarks will confer a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Furthermore, even if we are successful in our trademark registrations, the FDA and regulatory authorities in other countries have their own process for drug nomenclature and their own views concerning appropriate proprietary names. No assurance can be given that the FDA or any other regulatory authority will approve of any of our trademarks or will not request reconsideration of one of our trademarks at some time in the future. The loss, abandonment, or cancellation of any of our trademarks or trademark applications could negatively affect the success of the product candidates to which they relate.

If we are not able to prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information, the value of our technology and products could be significantly diminished.

We rely on trade secret protection to protect our interests in proprietary know-how and in processes for which patents are difficult to obtain or enforce. We may not be able to protect our trade secrets adequately. We have a policy of requiring our consultants, advisors and collaborators to enter into confidentiality agreements and our employees to enter into invention, non-disclosure and non-compete agreements. However, no assurance can be given that we have entered

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into appropriate agreements with all parties that have had access to our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information. There is also no assurance that such agreements will provide for a meaningful protection of our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use or disclosure of information. Furthermore, we cannot provide assurance that any of our employees, consultants, contract personnel, or collaborators, either accidentally or through willful misconduct, will not cause serious damage to our programs and/or our strategy, for example by disclosing important trade secrets, know-how or proprietary information to our competitors. It is also possible that our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information could be obtained by third parties as a result of breaches of our physical or electronic security systems. Any disclosure of confidential data into the public domain or to third parties could allow our competitors to learn our trade secrets and use the information in competition against us. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information. Any action to enforce our rights is likely to be time consuming and expensive, and may ultimately be unsuccessful, or may result in a remedy that is not commercially valuable. These risks are accentuated in foreign countries where laws or law enforcement practices may not protect proprietary rights as fully as in the United States or Europe. Any unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets or proprietary information could harm our competitive position.

We may be required to reduce the scope of our intellectual property due to third-party intellectual property claims.

Our competitors may have filed, and may in the future file, patent applications covering technology similar to ours. Any such patent application may have priority over our patent applications, which could further require us to obtain rights to issued patents covering such technologies. If another party has filed a U.S. patent application on inventions similar to ours that claims priority to an application filed prior to March 16, 2013, we may have to participate in an interference proceeding declared by the PTO to determine priority of invention in the United States. The costs of these proceedings could be substantial, and it is possible that such efforts would be unsuccessful if, unbeknownst to us, the other party had independently arrived at the same or similar invention prior to our own invention, resulting in a loss of our U.S. patent position with respect to such inventions. In addition, changes enacted on March 15, 2013 to the U.S. patent laws under the America Invents Act resulted in the United States changing from a “first to invent” country to a “first to file” country. As a result, we may lose the ability to obtain a patent if a third party files with the PTO first and could become involved in proceedings before the PTO to resolve disputes related to inventorship. We may also become involved in similar proceedings in other jurisdictions.

Furthermore, recent changes in U.S. patent law under the America Invents Act allows for post-issuance challenges to U.S. patents, including ex parte reexaminations, inter parte reviews and post-grant oppositions. There is significant uncertainty as to how the new laws will be applied and if our U.S. patents are challenged using such procedures, we may not prevail, possibly resulting in altered or diminished claim scope or loss of patent rights altogether. Similarly, some countries, notably members of the European Union, also have post grant opposition proceedings that can result in changes in scope and/or cancellation of patent claims.

Our products could infringe patents and other property rights of others, which may result in costly litigation and, if we are not successful, could cause us to pay substantial damages or limit our ability to commercialize our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our commercial success depends upon our ability, and the ability of our collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties. There is considerable intellectual property litigation in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. For example, we are aware of issued U.S. patents and patent applications owned by Genentech that may relate to and claim components of certain of our product candidates, including XmAb5871, XmAb7195 and XmAb5574/MOR208 or their manufacture. We believe that these patents and patent applications will expire in the United States in 2020 and 2021, respectively.  Furthermore, we are aware of a recently issued patent owned by Merus B.V. that may relate to and claim components of our bispecific product candidates, including XmAb14045 and XmAb13676, and will putatively expire in 2033.  It is possible that these terms could be extended, for example, as a result of patent term restoration to compensate for regulatory delays. While we believe that our current development of these five candidates currently falls into the “safe harbor” of non-infringement under 35 U.S.C. §271(e)(1), this protection terminates upon commercialization. In addition, there can be no assurance that our interpretation of this

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statutory exemption would be upheld.  Furthermore, while we believe that claims in the Genentech patents are either invalid or not infringed, we cannot assure you that if we were sued for infringement of these patents that we would prevail. We are currently evaluating the Merus patent; based on our analysis to date we believe there exist reasonable arguments of invalidity and/or non-infringement, however, we cannot assure that this position will not change upon further investigation.  In order to successfully challenge the validity of any issued U.S. patent, we would need to overcome a presumption of validity. This burden is a high one requiring us to present clear and convincing evidence as to the invalidity of such claims. There is no assurance that a court would find these claims to be invalid or not infringed.

In addition, as the biopharmaceutical industry expands and more patents are issued, the risk increases that there may be patents issued to third parties that relate to our products and technology of which we are not aware or that we must challenge to continue our operations as currently contemplated. Our products may infringe or may be alleged to infringe these patents. Because some patent applications in the United States may be maintained in secrecy until the patents are issued, because patent applications in the United States and many foreign jurisdictions are typically not published until eighteen months after filing and because publications in the scientific literature often lag behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that others have not filed patents that may cover our technologies, our product candidates or their use. Additionally, pending patent applications which have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our technologies, our products or the use of our products. We may become party to, or threatened with, future adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our products and technology. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future.

If we are sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claims are invalid, and we may not be able to do this. Proving invalidity is difficult. For example, in the United States, proving invalidity requires a showing of clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Even if we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and divert management’s time and attention in pursuing these proceedings, which could have a material adverse effect on us.

Any such claims are likely to be expensive to defend, and some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources.

If we are found to infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our products and technology. We may also elect to enter into such a license in order to settle litigation or in order to resolve disputes prior to litigation. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us, and could require us to make substantial royalty payments. We could also be forced, including by court order, to cease commercializing the infringing technology or product. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could materially harm our business. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business.

Our intellectual property may be infringed upon by a third party.

Third parties may infringe one or more of our issued patents or trademarks. We cannot predict if, when or where a third party may infringe one or more of our issued patents or trademarks. To counter infringement, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming. There is no assurance that we would be successful in a court of law in proving that a third party is infringing one or more of our issued patents or trademarks. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could also provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us, alleging that we infringe their intellectual property. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, construe the patent’s claims narrowly and/or refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question, any of which may adversely affect our business. Even if we are successful in proving in a court of law that a

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third party is infringing one or more of our issued patents or trademarks there can be no assurance that we would be successful in halting their infringing activities, for example, through a permanent injunction, or that we would be fully or even partially financially compensated for any harm to our business. We may be forced to enter into a license or other agreement with the infringing third party at terms less profitable or otherwise commercially acceptable to us than if the license or agreement were negotiated under conditions between those of a willing licensee and a willing licensor. We may not become aware of a third-party infringer within legal timeframes for compensation or at all, thereby possibly losing the ability to be compensated for any harm to our business. Such a third party may be operating in a foreign country where the infringer is difficult to locate and/or the intellectual property laws may be more difficult to enforce. Some third-party infringers may be able to sustain the costs of complex infringement litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. Any inability to stop third-party infringement could result in loss in market share of some of our products or even lead to a delay, reduction and/or inhibition of the development, manufacture or sale of certain products by us. There is no assurance that a product produced and sold by a third-party infringer would meet our or other regulatory standards or would be safe for use. Such third-party infringer products could irreparably harm the reputation of our products thereby resulting in substantial loss in market share and profits.

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

We employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. We may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed confidential information of our employees’ former employers or other third parties. We may also be subject to claims that former employers or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. There is no guarantee of success in defending these claims, and if we do not prevail, we could be required to pay substantial damages and could lose rights to important intellectual property. Even if we are successful, litigation could result in substantial cost and be a distraction to our management and other employees.

Risks Related to Employee Matters and Managing Growth and Other Risks Related to Our Business

We are subject to competition for our skilled personnel and may experience challenges in identifying and retaining key personnel that could impair our ability to conduct and grow our operations effectively.

Our future success depends on our ability to retain our executive officers and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel. If we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy. Although we have not experienced problems attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel in the recent past, our industry has experienced a high rate of turnover of management personnel in recent years. Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified management, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on our current management team, whose services are critical to the successful implementation of our product candidate development and regulatory strategies. In order to induce valuable employees to continue their employment with us, we have provided stock options that vest over time. The value to employees of stock options that vest over time is significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control, and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies.

Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management team may terminate their employment with us at any time, with or without notice. Further, we do not maintain “key person” insurance for any of our executives or other employees. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers and our inability to find suitable replacements could harm our business, financial condition, prospects and ability to achieve the successful development or commercialization of our product candidates. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled scientific and medical personnel at all levels.

We may experience growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, especially in clinical development. This growth will place a significant strain on our management, operations and financial resources, and we may have difficulty managing this future potential growth. Moreover, no assurance can be provided that we will be able to attract new employees to assist in our growth. Many of the other biotech and pharmaceutical companies and

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academic institutions that we compete against for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles and a longer history in the industry than we do. We also may employ consultants or part-time and contract employees. There can be no assurance that these individuals are retainable. While we have been able to attract and retain skilled and experienced personnel and consultants in the past, no assurance can be given that we will be able to do so in the future.

We may become subject to the risk of product liability claims.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk if we or our partners commercialize any products. Human therapeutic products involve the risk of product liability claims and associated adverse publicity. Currently, the principal risks we face relate to patients in our clinical trials, who may suffer unintended consequences. Claims might be made by patients, healthcare providers or pharmaceutical companies or others. For example, we may be sued if any product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability and a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates, if approved. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

·                  decreased demand for our products due to negative public perception;

·                  injury to our reputation;

·                  withdrawal of clinical trial participants or difficulties in recruiting new trial participants;

·                  initiation of investigations by regulators;

·                  costs to defend or settle the related litigation;

·                  a diversion of management’s time and resources;

·                  substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

·                  product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;

·                  loss of revenues from product sales; and

·                  the inability to commercialize any of our product candidates, if approved.

We may not have or be able to obtain or maintain sufficient and affordable insurance coverage to cover product liability claims, and without sufficient coverage any claim brought against us could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We run clinical trials through investigators that could be negligent through no fault of our own and which could affect patients, cause potential liability claims against us and result in delayed or stopped clinical trials. We are required by contractual obligations to indemnify collaborators, partners, third-party contractors, clinical investigators and institutions. These indemnifications could result in a material impact due to product liability claims against us and/or these groups. We currently carry at least $10.0 million in product liability insurance, which we believe is appropriate for our current clinical trials. Although we maintain such insurance, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We will

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have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts. We may also need to expand our insurance coverage as our business grows or if any of our product candidates is commercialized. We may not be able to maintain or increase insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.

Our employees may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with manufacturing standards we have established, to comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, or to report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, but it is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions, and our reputation.

In addition, during the course of our operations our directors, executives, and employees may have access to material, nonpublic information regarding our business, our results of operations, or potential transactions we are considering. We may not be able to prevent a director, executive, or employee from trading in our common stock on the basis of, or while having access to, material, nonpublic information. If a director, executive, or employee was to be investigated or an action was to be brought against a director, executive, or employee for insider trading, it could have a negative impact on our reputation and our stock price. Such a claim, with or without merit, could also result in substantial expenditures of time and money, and divert attention of our management team from other tasks important to the success of our business.

We may be vulnerable to disruption, damage and financial obligation as a result of system failures.

Despite the implementation of security measures, any of the internal computer systems belonging to us, our collaborators or our third-party service providers are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failure. Any system failure, accident or security breach that causes interruptions in our own, in collaborators’ or in third-party service vendors’ operations could result in a material disruption of our drug discovery and development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future clinical trials could result in delays in our or our partners’ regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs in order to recover or reproduce the lost data. To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we may incur liability as a result, our drug discovery programs and competitive position may be adversely affected and the further development of our product candidates may be delayed. Furthermore, we may incur additional costs to remedy the damages caused by these disruptions or security breaches.

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Our business involves the controlled use of hazardous materials and as such we are subject to environmental and occupational safety laws. Continued compliance with these laws may incur substantial costs and failure to maintain compliance could result in liability for damages that may exceed our resources.

Our research, manufacturing and development processes, and those of our third-party contractors and partners, involve the controlled use of hazardous materials. We and our manufacturers are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of such materials and certain waste products. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. The risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials cannot be completely eliminated. In the event of such an accident, we could be held liable for any damages that result, and any such liability could exceed our resources. We are not insured against this type of liability. We may be required to incur significant costs to comply with environmental laws and regulations in the future, and our operations, business or assets may be materially adversely affected by current or future environmental laws or regulations or any liability thereunder.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

The market price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Prior to our recently completed initial public offering, there was no public market for our common stock. The trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile. Since our IPO, the trading price of our common stock has ranged from a low of approximately $5.75 to a high of approximately $27.54. Our stock price could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors, including the following:

·                  adverse results or delays in clinical trials;

·                  inability to obtain additional funding;

·                  any delay in filing a BLA for any of our product candidates and any adverse development or perceived adverse development with respect to the FDA’s review of that BLA;

·                  failure to successfully develop and commercialize our product candidates;

·                  changes in laws or regulations applicable to our products;

·                  inability to obtain adequate product supply for our product candidates, or the inability to do so at acceptable prices;

·                  adverse regulatory decisions;

·                  introduction of new products or technologies by our competitors;

·                  failure to meet or exceed product development or financial projections we provide to the public;

·                  the perception of the pharmaceutical industry by the public, legislatures, regulators and the investment community;

·                  announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments by us or our competitors;

·                  disputes or other developments relating to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for our technologies;

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·                  additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel;

·                  significant lawsuits, including patent or stockholder litigation;

·                  changes in the market valuations of similar companies;

·                  sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders in the future; and

·                  trading volume of our common stock.

In addition, the stock market in general, and the NASDAQ Global Market and biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.

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

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

Based on information available to us as of September 30, 2016, our executive officers, directors, 5% stockholders and their affiliates beneficially owned, as a group, approximately 55% of our voting stock, which amount includes approximately 25.3% of our voting stock beneficially owned by John Stafford III, a former director of the Company, and his family members.

Therefore, our officers, directors and 5% stockholders and their affiliates will have the ability to influence us through this ownership position and so long as they continue to beneficially own a significant amount of our outstanding voting stock. These stockholders may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval and this concentration of ownership may deprive other stockholders from realizing the true value of our common stock. For example, these stockholders, acting together, may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals, offers for our common stock or other transactions or arrangements that you may believe are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including:

·                  not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting;

·                  not being required to comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements;

·                  reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation; and

·                  exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

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Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, are subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we are an emerging growth company. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

We will remain an emerging growth company until December 31, 2016, and for the 2016 year-end financial statement audit we will be required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements in the assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting.

Raising additional funds through debt or equity financing may be dilutive or restrict our operations and raising funds through licensing may require us to relinquish rights to our technology or product candidates.

To the extent that additional capital is raised through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of those securities could result in substantial dilution for our current stockholders and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our current stockholders. Existing stockholders may not agree with our financing plans or the terms of such financings. Moreover, the incurrence of debt financing could result in a substantial portion of our operating cash flow being dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on such indebtedness and could impose restrictions on our operations. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. In addition, if we raise additional funds through product development partnerships and licensing arrangements, it may be necessary to relinquish potentially valuable rights to our products or proprietary technologies, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. If we are unable to obtain additional funding on required timelines, we may be required to (1) seek collaborators for one or more of our product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available; (2) relinquish or license on unfavorable terms our rights to technologies or product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves; or (3) significantly curtail one or more of our research or development programs or cease operations altogether. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

The clinical development stage of our operations may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, developing our proprietary XmAb technology platform, identifying potential product candidates, and conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials. We have or are currently conducting early phase clinical trials for XmAb5871 and XmAb7195, but have not completed any late stage clinical trials for these or any other product candidate. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully complete any pivotal clinical trials, obtain regulatory approvals, manufacture a commercial scale product, or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, any predictions you make about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we were further advanced in development of our product candidates.

In addition, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors. We will need to transition at some point from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.

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We expect our financial condition and operating results to continue to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, you should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual periods as indications of future operating performance.

If our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our stock price.

Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports in a timely manner. For example, in connection with the audit of our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013, we concluded that there were a material weakness and significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting. Although we have remediated the weakness and the significant deficiencies that were identified, if we fail to adequately staff our accounting and finance function to address the additional demands that will be placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or fail to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting, any new or recurring material weakness could prevent our management from concluding our internal control over financial reporting is effective and impair our ability to prevent material misstatements in our financial statements, which could cause our business to suffer.

We regularly review and update our internal controls, disclosure controls and procedures, and corporate governance policies. We are required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to report annually on our internal control over financial reporting, but as an emerging growth company we have been exempt from the requirement to have our independent accountants attest to our internal control over financial reporting. As of December 31, 2016, we will no longer qualify as an emerging growth company. As a result, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to issue an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. We are in the process of determining whether our existing internal controls over financial reporting systems are compliant with Section 404.  This process requires the investment of substantial time and resources, including by members of our senior management, and may divert internal resources and take a significant amount of time and effort to complete. In addition, even if our management concludes that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective, our independent registered public accounting firm may conclude that there are material weaknesses or significant deficiencies with respect to our internal controls or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, implemented or reviewed.

If it were to be determined that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, such a shortcoming could result in an adverse reaction in the marketplace due to a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which ultimately could negatively affect the market price of our shares, increase the volatility of our stock price and adversely affect our ability to raise additional funding.

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

If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline. In addition a substantial number of shares of common stock are subject to outstanding options that are or will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules. If these additional shares of common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans, could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.

We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our stockholders may experience substantial dilution. We may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. These sales may also result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing stockholders.

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Pursuant to our 2013 equity incentive plan (2013 plan), our management is authorized to grant stock options and other equity-based awards to our employees, directors and consultants. The number of shares available for future grant under the 2013 plan will automatically increase each year by 4% of all shares of our capital stock outstanding as of December 31 of the prior calendar year, subject to the ability of our Board of Directors to take action to reduce the size of the increase in any given year. Generally, we plan to register the increased number of shares available for issuance under the 2013 plan each year. If our Board of Directors elects to increase the number of shares available for future grant by the maximum amount each year, our stockholders may experience additional dilution, which could cause our stock price to fall.

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

Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income may be limited. Upon analysis, we believe that we triggered “ownership change” as a result of the sale of stock in connection with our IPO in December 2013 and our net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards have been limited as a result. The limitation of our tax credits and our net operating loss carryforwards could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.

We may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of future offerings and other subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset United States federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.

We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock so any returns will be limited to the value of our stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the appreciation of their stock.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us or increase the cost of acquiring us, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders or remove our current management.

Some provisions of our charter documents and Delaware law may have anti-takeover effects that could discourage an acquisition of us by others, even if an acquisition would be beneficial to our stockholders and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management. These provisions include:

·                  authorizing the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued without stockholder approval;

·                  prohibiting stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;

·                  eliminating the ability of stockholders to call a special meeting of stockholders; and

·                  establishing advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings.

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These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our Board of Directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with an interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an interested stockholder, unless such transactions are approved by our Board of Directors. This provision could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control, whether or not it is desired by or beneficial to our stockholders. Further, other provisions of Delaware law may also discourage, delay or prevent someone from acquiring us or merging with us. Any provision of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.

Requirements associated with being a public reporting company will continue to increase our costs significantly, as well as divert significant company resources and management attention.

We have only been subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and the other rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since December 2013. We are working with our legal, independent accounting, and financial advisors to identify those areas in which changes should be made to our financial and management control systems to manage our growth and our obligations as a public reporting company. These areas include corporate governance, corporate control, disclosure controls and procedures, and financial reporting and accounting systems. We have made, and will continue to make, changes in these and other areas. Compliance with the various reporting and other requirements applicable to public reporting companies will require considerable time, attention of management, and financial resources. In addition, the changes we make may not be sufficient to allow us to satisfy our obligations as a public reporting company on a timely basis.

Further, the listing requirements of the NASDAQ Global Market require that we satisfy certain corporate governance requirements relating to director independence, distributing annual and interim reports, stockholder meetings, approvals and voting, soliciting proxies, conflicts of interest and a code of conduct. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements. Moreover, the reporting requirements, rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. These reporting requirements, rules and regulations, coupled with the increase in potential litigation exposure associated with being a public company, could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or board committees or to serve as executive officers, or to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ insurance, on acceptable terms.

In addition, being a public company could make it more difficult or more costly for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, and we may be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these events could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers.

Any changes we make to comply with these obligations may not be sufficient to allow us to satisfy our obligations as a public company on a timely basis, or at all.

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