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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 26, 2021

Registration No. 333- 

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM F-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

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Evaxion Biotech A/S

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Not Applicable

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

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Dr. Neergaards Vej 5F

2970 Hørsholm

Denmark

Tel: +45 53 53 18 50

(Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)

Lars Staal Wegner, M.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Evaxion Biotech A/S

Dr. Neergaards Vej 5F

2970 Hørsholm

Denmark

Tel: +45 53 53 18 50

(Name, Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Agent For Service)

Copies to:

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Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Registration Statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☐

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If this form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

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If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

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If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933.

Emerging growth company ☒

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If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

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The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to such Section 8(a), may determine.

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Subject to Completion October 26, 2021

5,167,958 American Depositary Shares

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Representing 5,167,958 Ordinary Shares

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We are offering 5,167,958 ADSs, with each ADS representing one ordinary share DKK 1 nominal value.

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Our ADSs representing our ordinary shares are listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “EVAX.” On October 22, 2021, the last reported closing trading price of the ADSs, on Nasdaq, was $7.74 per ADS. The actual offering price will be as determined between us and the underwriters at the time of pricing, and may be at a discount to the current market price. Accordingly, the recent market price used throughout this prospectus may not be indicative of the actual public offering price.

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Investing in the ADSs involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 18 of this prospectus for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in the ADSs.

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We have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 775,193 ADSs from us at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts, within 30 days of the date of this prospectus.

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We are an “emerging growth company” and a “foreign private issuer” as defined under the U.S. federal securities laws and, as such, will be eligible for reduced public company disclosure requirements. See “Prospectus Summary – Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer” for additional information.

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None of the Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission, the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, nor any other foreign securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

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Delivery of the ordinary shares and the ADSs is expected to be made on or about            , 2021.

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We have not, and the underwriters have not, authorized anyone to provide you with information that is different from that contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any free writing prospectus we may authorize to be delivered or made available to you. We take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters are offering to sell ADSs and are seeking offers to purchase ADSs only in jurisdictions where such offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the cover page of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or the sale of any ADSs. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since the date on the cover page of this prospectus.

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For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor the underwriters have taken any action that would permit the offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the ADSs and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to the terms “Evaxion,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Evaxion Biotech A/S and our wholly owned subsidiaries. In this prospectus, any reference to any provision of any legislation shall include any amendment, modification, re-enactment or extension thereof. Words importing the singular shall include the plural and vice versa, and words importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine or neutral gender. All references to “shares” in this prospectus refer to ordinary shares of Evaxion Biotech A/S with a nominal value of DKK 1 per share.

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PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

This prospectus contains our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 and for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the related notes, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB and our unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements as of June 30, 2021, and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021 and the related notes. The unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements of the Company are prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34, “Interim Financial Reporting.” Certain information and disclosures normally included in the annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS have been condensed or omitted. Accordingly, these unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited annual consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Our financial information is presented in our presentation currency, U.S. Dollar, or USD. Our functional currency is the Danish Krone, or DKK. Certain Danish Krone amounts in this prospectus have been translated solely for convenience into USD at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.0576 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of December 31, 2020 for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019, and 2020. We used an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.2573 per $1.00, which was the official rounded exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2021 for the unaudited interim periods ended June 30, 2020 and 2021.

Foreign currency transactions are translated into our functional currency, DKK, using the exchange rates prevailing at the dates of the transactions. Foreign exchange gains and losses resulting from the settlement of such transactions and from the translation at year-end exchange rates of monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are recognized as financial income or financial expenses in the consolidated statements of comprehensive loss. Non-monetary items in foreign currency, which are measured at cost at the consolidated statements of financial position date are translated into our functional currency, DKK, using the exchange rates at the date of the transaction. Such DKK translated amounts are not necessarily indicative of the amounts of DKK that could have actually been purchased with the underlying currency being exchanged into DKK at the dates indicated.

Assets and liabilities in our functional currency are translated to our presentation currency, USD, at the exchange rates applicable on December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021 for the respective period. Income and expenses in our functional currency are translated to USD at the average exchange rate, which corresponds to an approximation of the exchange rates prevailing on each individual transaction date. Translation differences arising in the translation to presentation currency are recognized in other comprehensive income. Such USD amounts are not necessarily indicative of the amounts of USD that could actually have been purchased upon exchange of DKK at the dates indicated.

We have made rounding adjustments to some of the figures contained in this prospectus. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in some tables may not be exact arithmetic aggregations of the figures that preceded them.

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TRADEMARKS, SERVICE MARKS AND TRADE NAMES

This prospectus includes trademarks, tradenames and service marks, certain of which belong to us and others that are the property of other organizations. Solely for convenience, trademarks and tradenames referred to in this prospectus appear without the ® and ™ symbols, but the absence of those references is not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert our rights or that the applicable owner will not assert its rights to these trademarks and tradenames to the fullest extent under applicable law. We do not intend our use or display of other parties’ trademarks, trade names or service marks to imply, and such use or display should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other parties.

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MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

This prospectus contains statistical, industry, market and competitive position data that are based on industry publications and studies conducted by third parties as well as our own internal estimates and research. These industry publications and third-party studies generally state that the information they contain has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, although they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information. While we believe that each of these publications and third-party studies is reliable, we have not independently verified the market and industry data obtained from these third-party sources. Forecasts and other forward-looking information obtained from these sources are subject to the same qualifications and uncertainties as the other forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. These forecasts and forward-looking information are subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in our forecasts or estimates or those of independent third parties. While we believe our internal research is reliable and the definitions of our market and industry are appropriate, neither such research nor these definitions have been verified by any independent source.

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before deciding to invest in the American Depositary Shares, or the ADSs, you should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the sections titled “Risk Factors,” “Business” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage AI-immunology™ platform company using our proprietary artificial intelligence, or AI, technology, engineering expertise and drug development know-how to simulate the human immune system and generate predictive models to identify and develop novel immunotherapies for the treatment of various cancers, bacterial diseases and viral infections. Drug discovery and clinical development using historically prevailing techniques is a long, costly process with a high attrition rate. We believe our proprietary AI-immunology platforms, trained to translate vast amounts of data into a deep understanding of biological processes in the human body, can be harnessed to rapidly and cost effectively design and develop unique immunotherapies, thereby potentially revolutionizing the process of drug discovery and development. In an effort to validate the predictive power and scalability of our AI platforms, we have identified and are developing a pipeline of clinical product candidates initially focused in the areas of immuno-oncology and infectious disease. We are currently in the clinic with our two lead product candidates, EVX-01 and EVX-02, for the treatment of various cancers.

Recent Developments

On October 21, 2021, we entered into a Clinical Trial Collaboration and Supply Agreement, or the Merck CTCSA, with MSD International GmbH and MSD International Business GmbH, subsidiaries of Merck & Co., Inc., (known collectively as MSD outside the United States and Canada), to evaluate in a new Phase 2b clinical trial, the combination of our patient-specific neoepitope cancer immunotherapy compound, EVX-01, with MSD’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) compound, a humanized anti-human PD-1 monoclonal antibody.

We will act as the sponsor of the clinical trial under our own IND with the right of reference to the IND of MSD’s compound. The planned multi-center Phase 2b clinical trial will enroll patients with Stage III and IV advanced or metastatic unresectable melanoma and will investigate EVX-01 in combination with KEYTRUDA®. We expect to initiate the trial during the second half of 2021. Under terms of the Merck CTCSA, we will be responsible for the conduct of the study. MSD will be responsible for the supply of all of the necessary KEYTRUDA® and we will continue to collaborate with MSD as the data mature.

We will own all data (including raw data) and results generated from the clinical trial other than data related to Sample Testing Results, Joint Clinical Data or MSD Clinical Data, as those terms are defined in the Merck CTCSA, a copy of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.

Under the terms of the Merck CTCSA, MSD may terminate the agreement in the event it believes that its compound is being used unsafely. Either we or MSD may terminate the agreement if either of us determines (i) that there has been a material breach thereof by the other party, (ii) that the clinical trial may adversely affect patient safety or (iii) to withdraw the development of its compound for medical, scientific or legal reasons. In addition, either we or MSD may terminate the agreement if any regulatory authority takes any action or raises any objection that prevents the terminating party from supplying its compound.

Additionally, in July 2021, we reported results from the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of our EVX-01 cancer immunotherapy in Stage III and IV advanced or metastatic unresectable melanoma and interim results from the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of our EVX-02 cancer immunotherapy in Stage III and IV adjuvant resectable melanoma.

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EVX-01: Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial in Stage III and IV Advanced or Metastatic Unresectable Melanoma

The initial data readout from our EVX-01 Phase 1/2a clinical trial of nine patients demonstrated an overall response rate, or ORR, of 67% across all nine patients compared with a historical ORR of 40% with anti-PD-1 treatment alone. The study also demonstrated a complete response rate, or CR, of 22%, compared with a historical CR of 7% with anti-PD-1 treatment alone. Among the four patients on the highest two doses, there was an ORR of 75%. Three patients with stable disease, or SD, for 10, eight and nine months on anti-PD-1 treatment alone, achieved CR, CR and PR, respectively, following EVX-01 administration. In addition, the data showed induction of neoepitope-specific T cells in 100% of patients and 76.2% of the administered neoepitopes induced reactive T cells in patients, of which 83.3% were de novo responses. Data from the trial also showed that EVX-01 appeared to be well-tolerated with only Grade 1 and 2 adverse events such as fatigue and fever.

The results also demonstrated that our recently introduced novel proprietary AI-Immunogenetic Drug Response Platform, or AI-DeeP^TM, which seeks to infer which patients benefit from our cancer immunotherapies based on immunogenetic expression signatures in the tumor microenvironment, is able to identify patients responding to therapy with precision.

We believe that the data support progressing the development of EVX-01 into a subsequent Phase 2b trial, which we expect to initiate in the second half of 2021.

EVX-02: Phase 1/2a Adjuvant Clinical Trial in Stage III and IV Resectable Melanoma

Preliminary data from our Phase 1/2a clinical trial showed activation of neoepitope-specific T cells with tumor killing potential. In addition, EVX-02 appeared to be well tolerated.

We believe preliminary clinical immune and safety data from the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of EVX-02 together with pre-clinical data from both our DNA-based patient-specific cancer immunotherapies, EVX-02 and EVX-03, support moving into a combined Phase 2b clinical trial for which we intend to submit a regulatory filing in the first half of 2022. Our ongoing, standalone Phase 1/2a clinical trial of EVX-02 will continue to recruit patients to generate data until the end of 2021.

Financial Update

We estimate that our cash and cash equivalents were approximately $11.9 million as of October 1, 2021. This amount is unaudited and preliminary and is subject to completion of our financial closing procedures and is not necessarily indicative of any future period and should be read together with "Risk Factors," "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements," and our financial statements and related notes contained in this prospectus. As a result, this amount may differ from the amount that will be reflected in our financial statements. Our financial statements will not be available until after this offering is completed, and consequently will not be available to you prior to investing in this offering.

Our AI Platforms

Our four proprietary AI platforms include (i) PIONEER™, our immuno-oncology platform, (ii) EDEN™, our bacterial disease platform, (iii) RAVEN^TM, our viral disease platform, and (iv) AI-DeeP™, our newly developed immuno-oncology platform for prediction of drug response. Currently, we are focused on using PIONEER for the development of patient-specific immunotherapies for various cancers and using EDEN to develop immunotherapies for bacterial diseases. We plan to use our RAVEN platform to discover and develop vaccines against future coronaviruses as well as other viral infections. We intend to use AI-DeeP to determine which patients may benefit from cancer immunotherapies.

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We may, in the future, develop additional platforms to address other conditions known to have a large immunological component, examples of which could include autoimmune diseases, microbiome dysbiosis, allergies and parasites.

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Figure 1. Present (orange) and potential future (blue) AI platforms based on our AI-immunology core.

Using the powerful AI technology of our PIONEER and EDEN platforms, we are currently developing four product candidates: EVX-01, for the treatment of advanced or metastatic unresectable melanoma; EVX-02, for adjuvant treatment of resectable melanoma; EVX-03, for multiple cancer indications, and EVX-B1, a vaccine for the prevention of Staphylococcus aureus, or S. aureus (including Methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA), induced skin and soft tissue infections, or SSTI.

Upon completion of successful Phase 2b, proof-of-concept, or PoC, trials, we plan to monetize our current product candidates via out-licensing arrangements with pharmaceutical partners. Further, upon obtaining PoC on our individual AI platforms, we plan to expand our portfolio with additional product candidates derived from our platforms and pursue out-licensing agreements for such product candidates. We believe this scalable strategy will allow us to capture value from both the predictive power of our proprietary AI technology platforms and their ability to accelerate drug development.

The immune system is generally considered nature’s strongest weapon to fight disease. When the immune system is engaged, people are often able to entirely eliminate a disease or infection from the body. Using our deep understanding of the human immune system and our proprietary AI technology, we are able to mimic the human immune system in silico and predict whether the body will have an immune response to certain stimuli. Our predictive power relies on our ability to process and interpret vast amounts of data, a process known as computational immunology. Using our in silico AI models, we are able to transform such data into advanced algorithms that we believe can accurately predict cellular interactions within the immune system and identify the right targets that will stimulate a relevant response. To translate the identified targets into product candidates, we test multiple delivery modalities and move the most promising forward.

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We believe this process allows us to discover new product candidates and move them into the clinic without expending time and resources on clinical development of product candidates that may ultimately fail to produce a therapeutic or prophylactic response.

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Figure 2: Our current product development pipeline.

Our PIONEER Platform

PIONEER is our proprietary AI platform for the rapid discovery and design of patient-specific neoepitopes used to derive immuno-oncology therapies. It has been shown that neoepitopes, which arise from patient-specific tumor mutations, play a critical role in T-cell mediated antitumor immune response. Neoepitopes are absent from normal tissues, and, therefore, we believe, represent ideal immunotherapy targets because they are distinguished from germline and can be recognized as non-self by the immune system. We believe our proprietary in silico AI models within PIONEER enable us to efficiently identify and select those neoepitopes that will generate a de novo T-cell response leading to significant antitumor effect in each patient. By combining these neoepitopes with a purposefully selected delivery modality believed to further enhance this antitumor effect, we design and deliver our immunotherapies to patients, effectively training their immune systems to target and kill cancer cells with no or very limited adverse effects on healthy non-cancer cells.

Our proprietary in silico AI models within PIONEER have been trained on our internally generated data as well as other data, including, but not limited to, next generation sequencing data from tumor samples, mass spectrometry immunopeptidomics, peptide-MHC-binding affinity data, T-cell immunogenicity data and peptide-MHC-binding stability data. We have demonstrated that development and iterative training of our AI platform improves its predictive power in identifying and selecting therapeutic neoepitopes, which, when tested in pre-clinical studies, translated directly into an improved antitumor effect in mice.

Key Advantages of Our PIONEER Platform

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Our Multimodality and Manufacturing Approach for the Development of Immuno-Oncology Candidates

We are currently advancing a unique pipeline of patient-specific cancer immunotherapies derived from our PIONEER platform. For each cancer immunotherapy, we have selected the optimal delivery modality to maximize its potential antitumor effect. We are screening and testing a variety of modalities including peptides, DNA and mRNA for their ability to elicit a strong antitumor and T-cell response. Data readouts from our standardized pre-clinical models allow us to select those modalities which we believe will exert the strongest antitumor effect in patients and rapidly move them into the clinic. In addition, we also screen, and ultimately select, different modalities for their speed and cost of manufacturing ensuring they allow for rapid development and large-scale production of our cancer immunotherapies.

EVX-01

Our first lead product candidate developed using our PIONEER platform, EVX-01, is a novel liposomal, peptide-based cancer immunotherapy designed to engage a patient’s own immune system to fight various cancers by mounting a neoepitope-specific immune response against tumors. EVX-01 is administered in combination with current standard of care, PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, or CPI, and is currently in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in Stage III and IV advanced or metastatic unresectable melanoma. The trial commenced in January 2019 and is an open-label, single-arm trial. The objectives of the trial are to evaluate the safety/tolerability (primary endpoint) and immunogenicity and feasibility of manufacturing (secondary endpoint) and establish a recommended Phase 2b dose, or RP2D.

Additionally, in July 2021, we reported initial results from the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of our EVX-01 cancer immunotherapy in Stage III and IV advanced or metastatic unresectable melanoma. Clinical data indicate that the

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combination therapy appears to be well-tolerated and rapidly generates broad and long-lasting EVX-01-induced neoepitope-specific de novo T-cell responses in patients. Based on our Phase 1/2a clinical trial initial data readout, we entered into a collaboration with MSD and plan to advance EVX-01 into a Phase 2b clinical trial in combination with MSD’s KEYTRUDA. We expect to initiate our Phase 2b clinical trial in the second half of 2021.

We have designed PIONEER and our EVX-01 patient-specific immunotherapy to fit into a standard clinical workflow such that the community oncology setting does not have to alter their treatment practice. PIONEER is automated and globally deployable, enabling the delivery of patient-specific EVX-01 therapy in as little as seven weeks from biopsy to therapy administration.

Our initial goal for the clinical development of EVX-01 is to obtain a marketing authorization in combination with PD-1/PD-L1 CPIs for the first-line treatment of a variety of metastatic cancers. Though the treatment paradigm for metastatic and unresectable melanoma has been revolutionized over the last few years with the approval of PD-1/PD-L1 CPIs across treatment lines, only a minority of patients have durable responses to PD-1/PD-L1 CPIs, with a majority of patients ultimately showing progressive disease. We believe that our therapeutic neoepitopes could change the treatment paradigm in combination with PD-1/PD-L1 CPIs by expanding the patient population responding to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor treatment (CPI-resistant patients) and potentially increasing the antitumor effect in patients already responding to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition treatment. We intend to evaluate our patient-specific immunotherapies as monotherapies in the future.

EVX-02

Our second lead product candidate developed using our PIONEER platform, EVX-02, is a novel, DNA-based cancer immunotherapy designed to induce a therapeutic immune response in the adjuvant setting in patients with resected melanoma. We initiated a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in the third quarter of 2020. The trial is a first-in-human, open label, safety and pharmacodynamic multi-center trial in Stage III and IV resectable melanoma in the adjuvant setting. Each patient will, upon tumor resection, receive a unique EVX-02 immunotherapy designed based on their tumor genomic fingerprint in combination with PD-1 CPI.

In July 2021, we announced preliminary data readout from our Phase 1/2a clinical trial of EVX-02 demonstrating activation of neoepitope-specific T cells with tumor killing potential. EVX-02 appeared to be well-tolerated. We believe that the preliminary clinical immune and safety data from the Phase 1/2a clinical trial together with pre-clinical data from both our DNA-based patient-specific cancer immunotherapies, EVX-02 and EVX-03, support moving this candidate into a combined EVX-02/EVX-03 Phase 2b clinical trial. We intend to submit a regulatory filing in the first half of 2022. Additionally, we plan to continue our standalone EVX-02 Phase 1/2a clinical trial. As of September 30, 2021, 14 patients were enrolled, and we will continue to recruit patients to generate data until the end of 2021.

Our initial goal for the clinical development of EVX-02 is to obtain a marketing authorization in combination with PD-1/-L1 CPIs for the adjuvant treatment of resectable melanoma. Despite the recent significant advances with the use of CPIs for melanoma, there continues to be a significant unmet medical need for patients with Stage IIIB/IIIC/IIID and Stage IV melanoma that are completely surgically excised. With current standard of care, approximately 30.0% of patients relapse within one year and more than 40.0% within three years and eventually succumb to their disease. Thus, we believe well-tolerated and effective treatments are still needed in the adjuvant setting of melanomas to improve clinical outcomes. In the future, we may explore the use of EVX-02 in additional adjuvant and metastatic settings in cancers amenable to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition.

EVX-03

Our third product candidate developed using our PIONEER platform, EVX-03, is an innovative, DNA-based neoepitope immunotherapy with an antigen presenting cell, or APC, targeting unit, intended for the treatment of multiple cancers. EVX-03 is in late pre-clinical development. Data from ongoing pre-clinical studies has shown high levels of neoepitope-reactive T cells as well as antitumor effect. We intend to submit a regulatory filing for initiation of a combined Phase 2b clinical trial of our DNA-based cancer immunotherapies, EVX-02 and EVX-03, in the first half of 2022.

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Our EDEN Platform

EDEN is our second AI-driven platform that rapidly identifies novel, highly protective antigens for use in pathogen-specific prophylactic vaccines against bacteria, including drug-resistant bacteria. Within EDEN, our proprietary algorithms allow us to predict and identify those antigens that we believe will trigger a robust, protective immune response against almost any bacterial infectious disease. EDEN has also been constructed to optimize vaccine antigens.

The core of our EDEN technology is a proprietary machine learning ensemble of AI models used to interpret immunological-relevant information in relation to bacterial antigens that incur protection in a vaccine setting. EDEN has been trained on our own curated data set derived by trawling through publicly available patents and publications reported to identify truly protective and non-protective antigens tested in clinical and pre-clinical settings. The input to the AI models is a feature transformation of the protein data set, in which several global and sequence-resolved properties are extracted. These structural and functional features have been selected for their relevance in protein chemistry, immunology and protein structure and their ability to guide the network in discriminating protective versus non-protective antigens.

We believe our approach can be used to target almost any bacterial infection and rapidly enables the discovery and development of vaccine product candidates. We have applied EDEN in seven pathogens to test its predictive power. For each pathogen, EDEN identified novel vaccine antigens which were subsequently expressed as proteins and tested in pre-clinical, mouse infection models, demonstrating protection against all seven pathogens. We intend to use EDEN to develop a pipeline of vaccine product candidates for the prevention of bacterial diseases. We are currently focused on the development of EVX-B1, our novel vaccine product candidate for the prevention of S. aureus (including MRSA) induced SSTI. We expect to submit a regulatory filing for initiation of our clinical trial in the second half of 2022.

Key Advantages of our EDEN Platform

We believe that our AI-based vaccine discovery and design approach has several advantages over more traditional approaches.

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EVX-B1

Our EVX-B1 product candidate, derived from our EDEN platform, is a multi-component subunit vaccine, initially being developed for the prevention of S. aureus induced SSTI in patients undergoing hernia surgery. EVX-B1 includes two proprietary and highly protective antigens identified by EDEN in combination with our proprietary toxin fusion protein formulated together with a potent adjuvant, CAF01. We believe our EVX-B1 will be an effective vaccine as it targets multiple virulence factors and covers the diversity of different S. aureus strains.

S. aureus is a leading cause of community and healthcare facility acquired infections in the United States and worldwide. S. aureus has been known to cause symptoms ranging from superficial SSTI to invasive infections, sepsis, and death. Antibiotic-resistant S. aureus, and in particular MRSA infections, are of critical concern and remain a prevention priority. According to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, there were an estimated 119,247 S. aureus bloodstream infections with 19,832 deaths in 2017. According to an independent study and based on CDC incidence rates, the estimated economic impact of MRSA on US hospitals alone is $3.2 to $4.2 billion. To date, no prophylactic vaccine for the prevention of S. aureus infections has received marketing authorization. With the development of EVX-B1, we are addressing this unmet medical need and believe our EVX-B1 product candidate has the potential to be the first vaccine to receive approval for the prevention of S. aureus infections. EVX-B1 is currently in pre-clinical development. We intend to assess the final formulation of EVX-B1 in a repeated, non-clinical dose toxicity study and submit a regulatory filing for initiation of our clinical trial in the second half of 2022. Upon successful completion of a Phase 2b clinical trial, we intend to expand development of EVX-B1 for the prevention of S. aureus in surgical infections beyond abdominal hernia surgery, such as orthopedic surgical infections, and may explore other recurrent skin infection indications including acne, diabetic foot ulcers and impetigo. We expect to select a second bacterial target for our EVX-B2 product candidate in the second half of 2022.

Our RAVEN Platform

We are developing our third, proprietary AI platform, RAVEN, to bring our unique, AI approach to vaccine design and development for viral diseases. RAVEN combines the essential AI models from our PIONEER platform with structural bioinformatic tools from EDEN to arrive at a novel, potent B- and T-cell vaccine design concept. RAVEN is being developed to identify protein constructs for generation of neutralizing antibodies (B-cell driven) and to incorporate potent T-cell epitopes with high population coverage from the entire viral genome to ensure elimination of infected cells in any stage of the viral replication cycle. We combine both elements seamlessly into a novel vaccine the effects of which we believe will be further enhanced by application of our proprietary APC targeting DNA delivery modality. We believe the combination of these technologies, including our novel approach to DNA plasmid manufacturing, will allow for rapid development of new and innovative vaccines against viral diseases.

We are currently utilizing the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 as a model to develop the RAVEN platform to be able to rapidly identify and develop novel prophylactic vaccines against any future, emergent coronavirus strains as well as other viral diseases. In a pre-clinical PoC study, we demonstrate that RAVEN identifies novel immunogenic T cell epitopes outside the spike protein, showing RAVEN’s potential to rapidly support the design of novel vaccines against current and future coronavirus variants. In addition, when applying our proprietary, targeted DNA vaccine technology for a COVID-19 vaccine, utilizing the receptor-binding domain from the spike protein, we demonstrate its ability elicit a T-cell response and neutralizing antibodies at comparable levels to those measured in convalescent human sera. We expect to select a commercial viral target for our EVX-V1 product candidate in the second half of 2022.

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Our Management Team

We believe that our fully AI-driven approach and our portfolio of AI platforms places us at the forefront of effectively translating the immune system into novel drug candidates that trigger the immune system to treat a variety of diseases. To deliver on our objectives, we have built an experienced and broadly skilled management team. Our Chief Executive Officer, Lars Staal Wegner, M.D., joined us on August 17, 2017. He served as part of the Senior Management team, leading all commercial and medical affairs efforts, at Bavarian Nordic A/S, a Nasdaq Copenhagen listed biotech company, for 10 years prior to joining our company. Prior to that, Dr. Wegner worked in oncology at Pfizer Inc. and served as a clinician at public institutions. Our Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Niels Møller, M.D., has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to founding our Company, Dr. Møller held positions as Medical Director at Medical Prognosis, a bioinformatic company, and as Medical Advisor on new oncology product development at AstraZeneca PLC. Our Chief Financial Officer, Glenn S. Vraniak, served as Chief Financial Officer of electroCore, Inc., a US publicly traded company, from August 2016 until April of 2019 when he joined us. On October 15, 2021, Mr. Vraniak informed us that he will be leaving to pursue opportunities outside the biopharmaceutical industry effective on November 1, 2021. At that time, Dr. Møller will replace Mr. Vraniak as our interim Chief Financial Officer. Dr. Erik Deichmann Heegaard, Ph.D., DMSc, joined us in April 2021 as our Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Heegaard has more than 25 years of experience within oncology and infectious diseases. Prior to joining us, Dr. Heegaard served as Nordic Medical Director at Novartis Oncology and as Chief Medical Officer of the oral GLP-1 project at Novo Nordisk where he successfully completed Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for the project and served as chief architect of the global Phase 3 clinical development program for the project. Prior to that, Dr. Heegaard held numerous research and clinical positions in companies such as Sandia National Laboratories, Bavarian Nordic and Statens Serum Institut. Our other Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Andreas Holm Mattsson, is a pioneer within in silico development, having already initiated the framework of our proprietary AI platforms while he was enrolled in academic studies, and eventually inventing the EDEN platform. Our Chief Scientific Officer, Birgitte Rønø, Ph.D., joined us in September 2017. Dr Rønø has more than 15 years’ experience in biopharmaceutical drug discovery from academia and industry. Prior to joining Evaxion, Dr. Rønø, served as a specialist, team leader and project manager at Novo Nordisk, from 2013-2017, where she was leading early drug discovery projects, evaluating in-licensing opportunities, and supporting drug development projects with pre-clinical and biomarker expertise.

Our Strengths

Since our inception, we have applied our AI-immunology capabilities to transform complex biological data into tangible immunotherapies. We believe that we were one of the first companies to challenge status quo in drug discovery and development using AI technology. By building our AI-immunology capabilities, gathering data and developing our AI platforms, we have created an ever-growing AI-immunology product engine.

Our key strengths include:

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Our Strategy

Our strategy is to utilize an AI-immunology driven approach for the rapid development of immunotherapies to the benefit of patients worldwide. To do so, we plan to:

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Risks Associated with Our Business

Our business is subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before making an investment decision. These risks are discussed more fully in the section of this prospectus titled “Risk Factors” immediately following this prospectus summary. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:

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Corporate Information

We were incorporated under the laws of the Kingdom of Denmark on August 11, 2008, as a private limited liability company (in Danish: Anpartsselskab, or ApS) and are registered with the Danish Business Authority (in Danish: Erhvervsstyrelsen) in Copenhagen, Denmark under registration number 31762863. On March 29, 2019, our company was converted into a public limited liability company (in Danish: Aktieselskab, or A/S). Our principal executive offices are located at Dr. Neergaards Vej 5F, 2970 Hørsholm, Denmark and our telephone number is +45-53-53-18-50. Our website address is www.evaxion-biotech.com. The information on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of and is not incorporated by reference into this prospectus. We have included our website address as an inactive textual reference only.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer

Emerging Growth Company

As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we are an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. As such, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to publicly traded entities that are not emerging growth companies. These exemptions include an exemption from the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and, to the extent that we no longer qualify as a foreign private issuer, (i) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and (ii) exemptions from the requirement to hold a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation, including golden parachute compensation; and an exemption from compliance with the requirement that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has adopted regarding a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements.

As a result, the information contained in this prospectus may be different from the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold shares. Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies. This provision allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. This transition period is only applicable under United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or U.S. GAAP. As a result, we will adopt new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required or permitted by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB.

We may take advantage of these provisions for up to five years or until such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company upon the earliest to occur of: (i) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenues exceed $1.07 billion, (ii) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the closing of our initial public offering, or IPO (December 31, 2026), (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the previous three years and (iv) the first day of the year following the first year in which, as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the market value of our common equity held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million.

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Foreign Private Issuer

We are a foreign private issuer within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, as long as we continue to qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we will be exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including:

Notwithstanding these exemptions, we have filed and will continue to file with the SEC, within four months after the end of each fiscal year, or such applicable time as required by the SEC, an annual report on Form 20-F containing financial statements audited by an independent registered public accounting firm.

We may take advantage of these exemptions until such time as we are no longer a foreign private issuer. We would cease to be a foreign private issuer at such time as more than 50% of our outstanding voting securities are held by U.S. residents and any of the following three circumstances applies: (i) the majority of our executive management or directors are U.S. citizens or residents, (ii) more than 50% of our assets are located in the United States or (iii) our business is administered principally in the United States.

Both foreign private issuers and emerging growth companies also are exempt from certain more stringent executive compensation disclosure rules. Thus, even if we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, but remain a foreign private issuer, we will continue to be exempt from the more stringent compensation disclosures required of companies that are neither an emerging growth company nor a foreign private issuer.

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THE OFFERING

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Unless otherwise indicated, the number of our ordinary shares to be outstanding after the offering is based on 19,198,668 ordinary shares, DKK 1 nominal value per share, each outstanding as of September 30, 2021, and excludes:

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Unless otherwise indicated, all information contained in this prospectus assumes the following:

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SUMMARY FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables set forth our summary financial data for the periods indicated. We have derived the summary statements of comprehensive loss data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 from our audited financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have derived the summary consolidated statements of comprehensive loss for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021 and the summary consolidated statements of financial position as of June 30, 2021, from the unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have prepared the unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements on the same basis as the audited financial statements, and the unaudited condensed consolidated financial data include all adjustments, that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of our financial position and results of operations as of and for the periods presented.

Our financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB. IFRS differ in certain significant respects from U.S. GAAP. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of results expected for future periods and our consolidated operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the entire year ended December 31, 2021.

The summary financial data below should be read together with our financial statements and related notes, and our unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, as well as the sections of this prospectus titled “Selected Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Summary Statements of Comprehensive Loss

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The following table presents our summary consolidated statement of financial position as of June 30, 2021 (i) on an actual basis, and (ii) on an as adjusted basis to give further effect to the sale of 5,167,958 ADSs representing 5,167,958 ordinary shares by us in the offering at an assumed public offering price of $7.74 per ADS (the last reported closing trading price of the ADSs on The Nasdaq Capital Market on October 22, 2021), and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

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Summary Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

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RISK FACTORS

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company with no pharmaceutical products approved for commercial sale. Investing in the ADSs involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including our financial statements and related notes, before investing in the ADSs. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that affect us. If any of the following risks occur, our business, operating results and/or prospects could be materially harmed. In that event, the price of the ADSs could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to our Financial Condition and Capital Requirements

We have incurred significant losses since our inception and we anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, which makes it difficult to assess our future viability. We have not generated significant revenue and may never be profitable.

We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception in 2008, including net losses of $5.5 million, $11.2 million, and $15.0 million and for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively, and $6.8 million and $10.9 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had accumulated deficit of $27.3 million.

We have devoted most of our financial resources to research and development, including our pre-clinical and clinical development activities and the development of our AI platform technologies, PIONEER, EDEN and RAVEN. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity securities, issuance of convertible debt instruments and through private and governmental grants. The amount of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of our future expenditures and our ability to obtain funding through equity or debt financings, sales of assets, collaborations and grants. We believe that the cost and expense of late stage clinical testing, regulatory and marketing approval and commercialization of products for such disease indications are beyond the resources of all but the large biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, we intend to develop our product candidates through Phase 2b clinical trials and then enter into partnership arrangements with these large biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies to conduct late stage clinical trials, regulatory and marketing approval and commercialization of our product candidates. We have not yet entered into any such partnership agreements and may be unable to do so on economically viable terms, if at all. As a result, late stage clinical trials as well as pivotal clinical trials for our product candidates have not been commenced and even if such trials are commenced in the near future, it will be several years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization by one of our partners. Even if our future partners obtain regulatory approval to market a product candidate, our future revenues will depend upon the size of any markets in which our product candidates receive such approval, upfront, milestone and any other payments we receive from our future partners, and our future partners’ ability to achieve sufficient market acceptance, reimbursement from third-party payors, and adequate market share in those markets. We may never achieve profitability.

Our ability to generate revenue and achieve profitability depends on our ability to successfully complete the development of, and our partners’ ability to obtain the regulatory approvals necessary to commercialize, our product candidates. We do not anticipate generating substantial revenues in the near term from any of our commercialization partnerships we may establish.

We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially as we:

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Our ability to generate future revenues from our potential commercialization partnerships depends heavily on our success in:

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Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict. If our operating results fall below expectations, the market price of the ADSs could decline.

Our financial condition and operating results have varied in the past and will continue to fluctuate from one financial period to the next due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Factors relating to our business that may contribute to these fluctuations include the following, as well as other factors described elsewhere in this prospectus:

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Due to the various factors mentioned above, and others, the projected financial information included in this prospectus should not be relied upon as indications of our future operating performance.

The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from one reporting period to the next, such that a period-to-period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance.

In any particular period, our operating results could be below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, which could cause the market price of the ADSs to decline. While as a general matter we intend to periodically report on the status of our product candidate pipeline, including articulating anticipated next steps in the form of development plans or potential data readouts, we may not always be able to provide forward-looking guidance on the timing of those next steps. In addition, we do not control the timing of disclosures of any milestones related to any of our product candidates that are managed by our partners. Any disclosure by a partner of data that are perceived as negative, whether or not such data are related to other data that we or others release, may have a material adverse impact on the market price of the ADSs or overall valuation. The market price of the ADSs may decline as a result of unexpected clinical trial results in one or more of our programs, including adverse safety events reported for any of our programs.

Our expenses could increase beyond our expectations if we are required by the FDA, the European Medicines Agency, or the EMA, or other regulatory agencies to perform clinical and other trials or make changes to our manufacturing or quality systems in addition to those that we currently anticipate. Even if we are able to generate revenues from our agreements with future partners, if any, we may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations.

The amount of NOLs and research and development credits and our ability to use the same to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations and uncertainty.

In Denmark, we have unused tax loss carryforwards for corporate taxes, though we have not recognized deferred tax assets related to such loss carryforwards for IFRS reporting purposes. In general, NOL carryforwards in Denmark do not expire. They are, however, subject to review and possible adjustment by the Danish tax authorities. Furthermore, under current Danish tax laws, certain substantial changes in the Company’s ownership and business may further limit the amount of NOL carryforwards that can be used annually to offset future taxable income. In addition, we may in the future have federal and state NOL carryforwards if we establish operations in the United States, Australia and other jurisdictions where we maintain a subsidiary.

We may not be able to utilize a material portion of our NOLs or credits in either Denmark, the United States, Australia, or other jurisdictions where we maintain a subsidiary or otherwise engage in business. In addition, the rules regarding the timing of revenue and expense recognition for tax purposes in connection with various transactions are complex and uncertain in many respects, and our recognition could be subject to challenge by taxing authorities. In the event any such challenge is sustained, our NOLs could be materially reduced or we could be determined to be a material cash taxpayer for one or more years. Furthermore, our ability to use our NOLs or credits is conditioned upon our attaining profitability and generating taxable income. As described above, we have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future. We do not know whether or when we will generate the taxable income necessary to utilize our NOL or credit carryforwards.

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We will need substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this capital on acceptable terms, or at all, could force us to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development programs, commercialization efforts or other operations.

As of June 30, 2021, we had $18.8 million in cash and cash equivalents. The net proceeds from our IPO completed in February 2021 was $25.3 million, based on the initial public offering price of $10.00 per ADS, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $36.5 million (or $42.2 million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs in full), based on the public offering price of $7.74 per ADS, which is the last reported closing trading price on October 22, 2021 as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We expect that the net proceeds from our IPO, this offering and our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through at least 12 months from the date of this prospectus.

However, our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings, government or other third-party funding, sales of assets, other collaborations and licensing arrangements, or a combination of these approaches. In any event, we will require additional capital to achieve our goals. Even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans, we may seek additional capital if market conditions are favorable or if we have specific strategic considerations. Our spending will vary based on new and ongoing development and corporate activities. Due to high uncertainty of the length of time and activities associated with discovery and development of our product candidates, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for our development activities.

Our future funding requirements, both near and long term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity securities, issuance of convertible debt instruments and from private and governmental grants and we cannot be certain that additional funding will be available

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on favorable terms, or at all. Until we can generate sufficient upfront fees, milestone payments and royalty revenues from our agreements with future partners, if any, to finance our operations, which we may never do, we expect to finance our future cash needs through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings, sales of assets, licensing arrangements, and other product development arrangements. Any fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop our product candidates. In addition, we cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts, at the right time, on favorable terms, or at all. Negative clinical trial data or setbacks, or perceived setbacks, in our programs or with respect to our technology could impair our ability to raise additional financing on favorable terms, or at all. Moreover, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our shareholders, and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of the ADSs to decline. If we raise additional funds through public or private equity offerings, the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that may adversely affect our securityholders’ rights.

Further, to the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of ADSs, ordinary shares or securities convertible or exchangeable into ordinary shares, our shareholders’ ownership interest will be diluted. In addition, we may enter into credit facilities from time to time, which may be secured, to fund certain of our operations. If we raise additional capital through debt financing, we would be subject to fixed payment obligations and may be subject to security interests in our assets and covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional capital through sales of assets or other collaborations, or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish certain valuable rights to our product candidates, technologies, future revenue streams or research programs. We also could be required to seek future partners for one or more of our current or future product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or relinquish our rights to product candidates or intellectual property that we otherwise would seek to develop ourselves. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts, at the right time, on favorable terms, or at all, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development of one or more of our product candidates, or one or more of our other research and development initiatives. Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations, cause the market price of the ADSs to decline, and negatively impact our ability to fund operations.

Any additional financing that we could seek may not be available on favorable terms or at all. For example, while the potential impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and our business in particular may be difficult to assess or predict, the pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our future plans and our ability to execute our strategy could be adversely affected, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We will need to develop and expand our company, and we may encounter difficulties in managing this development and expansion, which could disrupt our operations.

As of September 30, 2021, we had 57 full-time equivalent employees and, in connection with the growth and advancement of our pipeline and becoming a public company, we expect to increase the number of employees and the scope of our operations. To manage our anticipated development and expansion, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational, legal, compliance and financial systems, expand our facilities, and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Also, our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from its day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these development activities.

As a growing biotechnology company, we are actively pursuing drug classes, platforms and product candidates in many therapeutic areas and across a wide range of diseases. Successfully developing product candidates for and fully understanding the regulatory and manufacturing pathways to all of these therapeutic areas and disease states requires a significant depth of talent, resources and corporate processes in order to allow simultaneous execution across multiple areas. Due to our limited resources, we may not be able to effectively manage this simultaneous execution and the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. This may result in weaknesses in our

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infrastructure, give rise to operational mistakes, legal or regulatory compliance failures, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. The physical expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of our product candidates. If our management is unable to effectively manage our expected development and expansion, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate or increase our revenue could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to compete effectively and develop our product candidate will depend in part on our ability to effectively manage the future development and expansion of our company.

We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to remediate this material weakness, or if we experience additional material weaknesses in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations and investors may lose confidence in our financial reports and the market price of the ADSs could be adversely affected.

As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal control. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and, beginning with our second annual report following our IPO, which will be for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2022, provide a management report on internal control over financial reporting. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act also requires that our management report on internal control over financial reporting be attested to by our independent registered public accounting firm, to the extent we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” as defined by the JOBS Act. We do not expect to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to our management report on internal control over financial reporting for so long as we are an emerging growth company.

We are in the process of designing and implementing the internal control over financial reporting required to comply with this obligation, which will be time consuming, costly and complex. Prior to the completion of our IPO in February 2021, we were a private company with limited accounting personnel and other resources to address our internal control over financial reporting. In preparation of our financial statements to meet the requirements of the offering, we determined that a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting relating to the lack of accounting and supervisory personnel that possessed an appropriate level of technical accounting experience and training, and their lack of supervision over third party service providers in areas such as bookkeeping, financial controlling, and financial statement preparation existed during each of the years ended December 31, 2018, December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020 and was unremediated as of June 30, 2021. As a result of the material weakness, management failed to identify material misstatements in various areas including accounting for external research and development expenditures and related accruals and prepayments, share-based compensation and governmental grants. We have used the assistance of the aforementioned outside advisors with expertise in these matters to assist us in the preparation of our financial statements and in our compliance with SEC reporting obligations related to this offering, our IPO, and annual report and we expect to continue to do so while we remediate this material weakness.

We have commenced measures to remediate the material weaknesses. We have retained an accounting consulting firm to provide additional depth and breadth to our technical accounting and financial reporting capabilities and are taking steps such as the hiring of additional finance staff. Prior to the end of 2021, we also plan to hire between two to four additional accounting personnel, with financial statement closing experience and technical IFRS knowledge for the purposes of timely and reliable financial reporting in accordance with IFRS and the requirements set forth by the SEC, to perform specific functions, design and implement improved processes and internal controls, build our financial management and reporting infrastructure, and further develop and document our accounting policies and financial reporting procedures, including ongoing senior management review and audit committee oversight. Since our IPO we have hired four accounting personnel. We intend to implement this plan to remediate this material weakness, however, we cannot predict the success of such plan or the outcome of our assessment of these plans at this time. We can give no assurance that this implementation will remediate this material weakness in our internal control or that other material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future. If we are unable to remediate this material weakness, or if we experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations and investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial

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reports and the market price of the ADSs could be adversely affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

As a public company listed on Nasdaq, we are required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, among other things, to assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at the end of each fiscal year. We anticipate being required to issue management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the first time in connection with issuing our annual financial statements as of and for the year ending December 31, 2022.

In connection with the audit of our financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, as noted above, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting and related to accounting for external research and development expenditures and related accruals and prepayments, share-based compensation and governmental grants, which remained unremediated as of December 31, 2020.

Our insurance policies are expensive and protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.

We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter, and insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive. We do not know if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage, and any liability insurance coverage we acquire in the future may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. If our future partners obtain marketing approval for any product candidates that we or our future partners may develop, we intend to acquire insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products, but we may be unable to obtain such insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts, if at all. If our losses exceed our insurance coverage, our financial condition would be adversely affected. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or be penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources. Clinical trials or regulatory approvals for any of our product candidates could be suspended, which could adversely affect our results of operations and business, including by preventing or limiting the development and commercialization of any product candidates that we or our future partners may develop. We also expect that operating as a public company will make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our Board, our board committees or our management team.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

Our AI approach to the discovery and development of product candidates is novel and unproven, and we do not know whether we will be able to develop any products of commercial value.

We are leveraging our PIONEER, EDEN and RAVEN AI platform technologies to create a pipeline of cancer immunotherapies and bacterial and viral infectious disease product candidates for patients whose diseases have not been adequately addressed to date by other approaches, and to design and conduct efficient clinical trials with a potentially greater likelihood of success. While we believe that applying our AI platform technologies to create medicines for defined patient populations may potentially enable drug research and clinical development that is more efficient than conventional drug research and development, our approach is both novel and unproven and, therefore, the cost and time needed to develop our product candidates is difficult to predict. Our efforts may not result in the discovery and development of commercially viable medicines. We may also be incorrect about the effects of our product candidates on the diseases of our targeted patient populations, which may limit the utility of our approach or the perception of the utility of our approach. Furthermore, our defined patient populations available for study and treatment may be lower than expected, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct clinical trials and may also adversely affect the size of any market for medicines we may successfully commercialize. Our approach may not result in clinical effect, time savings, higher success rates or reduced costs as we expect and, if not, we may not attract future partners or develop new drug candidates as quickly or cost effectively as expected and therefore our future partners may not be able to commercialize our approach as originally expected.

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Our AI approach may fail to help us discover and develop additional product candidates.

Any drug discovery that we are conducting using our AI platform technologies may not be successful in identifying compounds that have commercial value or therapeutic utility. Our AI platform technologies may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield viable product candidates for clinical development or commercialization for a number of reasons, including:

We may experience challenges with the acquisition, development, enhancement or deployment of technology necessary for our AI platform technologies.

Our business requires sophisticated computer systems and software. Some of the technologies are changing rapidly and we must continue to adapt to these changes in a timely and effective manner at an acceptable cost. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to develop, acquire, enhance, deploy or integrate new technologies, that these new technologies will meet our needs or achieve our expected goals, or that we will be able to do so as quickly or cost-effectively as our competitors. Significant technological change could render our AI platform technologies obsolete. Our continued success will depend on our ability to adapt to changing technologies, manage and process ever-increasing amounts of data and information and improve the performance features of our AI platform technologies in response to an ever-changing patient population. We may experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful design, development, testing, and introduction of advanced versions of our AI platform technologies, limiting our ability to identify new product candidates. Any of these failures could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

Our product candidates may not work as intended, may cause undesirable side effects or may have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

As with most biological and vaccine products, use of our product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events which can vary in severity from minor reactions to death and in frequency from infrequent to prevalent. The potential for adverse events is especially acute in the oncology setting, where patients may have advanced disease, have compromised immune and other systems and be receiving numerous other therapies. Undesirable side effects or unacceptable toxicities caused by our product candidates could cause us, our future partners or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA, the EMA or comparable regulatory authorities. Results of clinical trials of our product candidates could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects.

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If unacceptable side effects arise in the development of our product candidates, we, our future partners, the FDA, the EMA, competent authorities of European Union member states, ethics committees, the institutional review boards, or IRBs, at the institutions in which clinical trials of our product candidates are conducted, or a Data Safety Monitoring Board, or DSMB, could suspend or terminate our clinical trials. The FDA, the EMA or comparable regulatory authorities could also order us or our future partners to cease clinical trials or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete any of our or our partners’ clinical trials or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. We expect that we or our future partners may have to train medical personnel using our product candidates to understand the side effect profiles for our clinical trials and upon any commercialization of any of our product candidates. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of our product candidates could result in patient injury or death. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

Monitoring the safety of patients receiving our product candidates is challenging, which could adversely affect our and our partners’ ability to obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our product candidates.

In our ongoing and planned clinical trials, we have contracted with and are expected to continue to contract with academic medical centers and hospitals experienced in the assessment and management of toxicities arising during clinical trials. Nonetheless, these centers and hospitals may have difficulty observing patients and treating toxicities, which may be more challenging due to personnel changes, inexperience, shift changes, house staff coverage or related issues. This could lead to more severe or prolonged toxicities or even patient deaths, which could result in us, our future partners or the FDA, EMA or other comparable regulatory authority delaying, suspending or terminating one or more of our clinical trials, and which could jeopardize regulatory approval. We also expect the centers using our product candidates, if approved, on a commercial basis could have similar difficulty in managing adverse events. Medicines used at centers to help manage adverse side effects of our product candidates may not adequately control the side effects and may have a detrimental impact on the treatment. Use of these medicines may increase with new physicians and centers administering our product candidates.

In addition, even if our future partners successfully advance one or more of our product candidates into and through late stage clinical trials, such trials will likely only include a limited number of subjects and limited duration of exposure to our product candidates. As a result, we cannot be assured that adverse effects of our product candidates will not be discovered when a significantly larger number of patients are exposed to the product candidate. Further, any clinical trials may not be sufficient to determine the effect and safety consequences of taking our product candidates over a multi-year period.

If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval and we, our future partners or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by such products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

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Any of the foregoing events could prevent our future partners from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular product candidate, even if approved, and result in the loss of significant revenues to us, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations and business. In addition, if one or more of our product candidates generally prove to be unsafe, our AI platform technologies and product pipeline could be affected, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Pre-clinical development, including the timeline from target identification to clinical development, is uncertain. Our pre-clinical programs may experience delays or may never advance to clinical trials, which would adversely affect our partners’ ability to obtain regulatory approvals or commercialize these programs on a timely basis or at all and would have an adverse effect on our business.

A portion of our product pipeline is in pre-clinical development and these programs could be delayed or not advance into the clinic. Before we can initiate clinical trials for product candidates, we must complete extensive pre-clinical studies, including IND-enabling Good Laboratory Practice toxicology testing that supports our planned INDs in the United States or similar applications in the EMA and other jurisdictions. We must also complete extensive work on CMC activities (including collecting yield, purity and stability data) to be included in the IND filing or other equivalent regulatory filing. CMC activities for a new category of medicines require extensive manufacturing processes and analytical development, which are uncertain and lengthy. For instance, issues have occurred as we scale up our manufacturing and may occur in the future. In addition, we may have difficulty identifying appropriate buffers and storage conditions to enable sufficient shelf life of batches of our pre-clinical or clinical product candidates. If we are required to produce new batches of our product candidates due to insufficient shelf life, it may delay the commencement or completion of pre-clinical studies or clinical trials of such product candidates. For example, we cannot be certain of the timely completion or outcome of our pre-clinical testing and studies and cannot predict if the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities will accept the results of our pre-clinical testing or our proposed clinical programs or if the outcome of our pre-clinical testing, studies and CMC activities will ultimately support the further development of our programs. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs or similar applications for our pre-clinical programs on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of INDs or similar applications will result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities allowing clinical trials to begin. Additionally, while we have demonstrated our ability to move from target identification to clinical development within as little as 18 months with our EVX-02 product candidate, which is now in Phase 1/2a trial, no assurance can be given that we will be able to do the same with other product candidates in various phases of clinical development and trials in the future.

Clinical development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and delays can occur for a variety of reasons outside of our or our future partners’ control. Clinical trials of our product candidates may be delayed, and certain programs may never advance in the clinic or may be more costly to conduct than we anticipate, any of which can affect our ability to fund our company and would have a material adverse impact on our business.

Clinical testing is expensive and complex and can take many years to complete. Its outcome is inherently uncertain. We and our future partners may not be able to initiate, may experience delays in, or may have to discontinue clinical trials for our product candidates. We and our future partners also may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any clinical trials that we or our future partners conduct that could delay or prevent us or our future partners from successfully developing our product candidates, including:

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In addition, the regulatory agencies may conduct inspections of clinical trial sites. Any findings by regulatory agencies and failure to comply with requirements may lead to delay in development, approval and failure to commercialize the potential product candidate.

We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, our future partners, the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities, ethics committees, or the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, or if such trial is recommended for suspension or termination by the DSMB. We may in the future be delayed in gaining clearance from the FDA, the EMA or other regulators to initiate clinical trials through, among other things, the imposition of a clinical hold in order to address comments from such regulators on our or our partners’ clinical trial design or other elements of our or our partners’ clinical trials. A suspension or termination may be imposed due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols; inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold; unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects; failure to demonstrate a benefit, or adequate benefit-risk ratio, from using a product candidate; failure to establish or achieve clinically meaningful trial endpoints; changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions; or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. We or future partners could also experience delays if physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in clinical trials of our product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles. We and our future partners must also complete extensive work on CMC activities that require extensive manufacturing processes and analytical development, which are uncertain and lengthy.

We expect the novel nature of our product candidates to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory approval. For example, the FDA, the EMA and regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions have limited experience with commercial development of product candidates developed using our PIONEER AI technology platform. The FDA may require an Advisory Committee to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data to support licensure. The opinion of the Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our or our partners’ ability to obtain licensure of the product candidates based on the completed clinical trials, as the FDA often adheres to the Advisory Committee’s recommendations. Accordingly, the regulatory approval pathway for our product candidates may be uncertain, complex, expensive and lengthy, and approval may not be certain.

Significant pre-clinical or nonclinical testing and studies or clinical trial delays for our product candidates also could allow our competitors to bring products to market before our future partners do, potentially impairing our future partners ‘ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in the development of our product candidates may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

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

We and our future partners depend on enrollment of participants in the clinical trials for our product candidates. In the past, we and our future partners have found, and we or our future partners may in the future find, it difficult to enroll participants in clinical trials, which could delay or prevent clinical trials of our product candidates. Identifying and qualifying participants to participate in clinical trials of our product candidates is critical to our and our future partners’ success. The timing of our and our future partners clinical trials depends on the speed at which we and our future partners can recruit trial participants to participate in testing our product candidates. Delays in enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our and our partners’ ability to advance the development of our product candidates. If trial participants are unwilling to participate in our or our partners’ studies because of negative publicity from adverse events in the clinical trials or other clinical trials of similar product candidates, or those related to a specific therapeutic area, or for other reasons, including competitive clinical trials for similar patient populations, the timeline for recruiting trial participants, conducting studies, and obtaining regulatory approval of potential products may be delayed. These delays could result in increased costs, delays in advancing our product development, delays in testing the effectiveness of our product candidates, or termination of the clinical studies altogether.

We and our future partners may not be able to identify, recruit and enroll a sufficient number of trial participants, or those with required or desired characteristics to achieve diversity in a study, to complete clinical trials of our product candidates in a timely manner. Patient and subject enrollment is affected by factors including:

In addition, our and our partners’ clinical trials will compete with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of trial participants available to us and our future partners because some trial participants who might have opted to enroll in our

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or our partners’ clinical trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by a third party. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we and our future partners will likely conduct some of our or our partners’ clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our and our partners’ competitors use, which will reduce the number of trial participants who are available for our clinical trials at such clinical trial sites. Moreover, because in some cases our product candidates represent a departure from more traditional methods for disease treatment and prevention, potential trial participants and their doctors may be inclined to use conventional therapies or other new therapies rather than enroll trial participants in any future clinical trial involving patient-specific product candidates. Additionally, if new product candidates, such as gene editing therapies, show encouraging results, potential trial participants and their doctors may be inclined to enroll trial participants in clinical trials using those product candidates. If such new product candidates show discouraging results or other adverse safety indications, potential trial participants and their doctors may be less inclined to enroll trial participants in our or our future partners’ clinical trials.

A variety of risks associated with conducting research and clinical trials in the United States and other countries outside of Denmark and marketing our product candidates, if approved, by our future partners internationally could materially adversely affect our business.

While clinical trials of EVX-01, our lead product candidate in Phase 1/2a trial, are currently being conducted only in Denmark, we expect that clinical trials or commercialization of our product candidates, if approved, may take place globally. Accordingly, we expect that we and our future partners will be subject to additional risks related to operating in multiple countries, including:

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These and other risks associated with our international operations and our collaborations with our future partners may materially adversely affect our ability to attain or maintain profitable operations.

Interim top-line and preliminary data from studies or trials that we and/or our future partners announce or publish from time to time may change as more data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.

From time to time, we and/or our future partners may publish interim top-line or preliminary data from pre-clinical studies or clinical trials. Interim data are subject to the risk that one or more of the outcomes may materially change as more data become available. We and/or our future partners may also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of the analyses of data, and we and/or our future partners may not have received or had the opportunity to fully evaluate all data. As a result, the top-line results that we and/or our future partners report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Preliminary or top-line data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Additionally, interim data from clinical trials that we and/or our future partners may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects.

Further, others, including the FDA, the EMA and other regulatory agencies, may not accept or agree with our and/or our partners’ assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program, the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate or product and our company in general. In addition, the information we and/or our future partners choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is the material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure. Any information we and/or our future partners determine not to disclose may ultimately be deemed significant by you or others with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular product candidate or our business. If the top-line data that we and/or our future partners report differ from actual results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, product candidates may be harmed, which could significantly harm our business prospects.

Results of pre-clinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of future trial results.

Success in pre-clinical studies and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful. A number of companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials, even after positive results in earlier pre-clinical studies or clinical trials. These setbacks have been caused by, among other things, pre-clinical findings made while clinical trials were underway and safety or efficacy observations made in clinical trials, including previously unreported adverse events. Notwithstanding any potential promising results in earlier studies and trials, we and/or our future partners cannot be certain that we and/or our future partners will not face similar setbacks. Even if our or our partners’ clinical trials are completed, the results may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates. In addition, the results of our pre-clinical studies may not be predictive of the results of outcomes in human clinical trials. For example, our EVX-01 cancer immunotherapy product candidate and any future product candidates may demonstrate different chemical, biological and pharmacological properties in patients than they do in pre-clinical mouse studies or may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen or

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harmful ways. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired pharmacological properties or safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through pre-clinical studies and initial clinical trials. Even if we and/or our future partners are able to initiate and complete clinical trials, the results may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

Our planned clinical trials or those of our future partners may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our pre-clinical or nonclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could delay or terminate clinical trials, or delay or prevent regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates.

There is typically an extremely high rate of attrition for product candidates across categories of medicines proceeding through clinical trials. These product candidates may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile in later stages of clinical trials despite having progressed through nonclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in later-stage clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products and there can be no assurance that any of our current or future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of any of our product candidates.

Some of our product candidates may need to be co-administered with other developmental therapies or approved medicines. Such combinations may have additional side effects, which may be difficult to predict in future clinical trials.

If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our and/or our future partners’ current or future clinical trials, we and/or our future partners may have difficulty recruiting trial participants to any of our and/or our partners’ clinical trials, trial participants may withdraw from trials, or we and/or our future partners may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts of one or more product candidates altogether. We, and/or our future partners, the FDA, the EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities, ethics committees or an IRB may impose a clinical hold on, or suspend or terminate, clinical trials of a product candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that participants in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the drug from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, an unfavorable benefit-risk ratio may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our business, financial condition and prospects.

We and/or our future partners may not be able to develop or obtain approval for companion diagnostics required for commercialization of some of our product candidates.

Some of our product candidates may require the use of companion diagnostic tools. If safe and effective use of a biologic product depends on an in vitro companion diagnostic, then the FDA generally requires approval or clearance of the diagnostic, known as a companion diagnostic, concurrently with approval of the therapeutic product. To date, the FDA has generally required in vitro companion diagnostics intended to select the patients who will respond to cancer treatment to obtain a pre-market approval, or PMA, for that diagnostic, which can take up to several years, simultaneously with approval of the biologic product. Similarly, in the European Union, an in vitro companion diagnostic may be placed on the market only if it conforms to certain “essential requirements” and bears the Conformité Européenne Mark, or CE Mark, and the conformity assessment process to obtain the CE Mark can be lengthy.

For our patient-specific immunotherapy candidates, the FDA and similar regulatory authorities outside of the United States may require the development and regulatory approval of a companion diagnostic assay as a condition to approval. The FDA may require PMA supplemental approvals for use of that same companion diagnostic as a condition of approval of additional individualized therapeutic candidates. We do not have experience or capabilities in developing or commercializing companion diagnostics and plan to rely in large part on third parties to perform these functions. Companion diagnostic assays are subject to regulation by the FDA and other comparable regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions as medical devices and require separate regulatory approval prior to the use of such diagnostic assays with our therapeutic candidates. If we, or any third parties that we engage to assist us, are unable to successfully develop companion diagnostic assays for use with our therapeutic candidates, or are unable to obtain regulatory approval or

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experience delays in either development or obtaining regulatory approval, we and/or our future partners may be unable to identify patients with the specific profile targeted by our product candidates for enrollment in our clinical trials. Accordingly, further investment may be required to further develop or obtain the required regulatory approval for the relevant companion diagnostic assay, which would delay or substantially impact our ability to conduct additional clinical trials or obtain regulatory approval.

The FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities may not consider the endpoints of our clinical trials to provide clinically meaningful results.

There may not be pharmacologic therapies approved to treat the underlying causes of many diseases that we and/or our future partners may address in the future. For instance, we and/or our future partners may apply our technology to develop therapeutics in indications such as certain rare diseases, including some for which no or few clinical trials have been attempted. As a result, any future design and conduct of clinical trials of product candidates for the treatment of certain rare diseases may take longer, be more costly, or be less effective as part of the novelty of development in these diseases. Even if we decide to conduct clinical trials and the FDA does find our success criteria to be sufficiently validated and clinically meaningful, we may not achieve the pre-specified endpoint to a degree of statistical significance in any pivotal or other clinical trials we and/or our future partners may conduct for our programs. Further, even if we and/or our future partners do achieve the pre-specified criteria, our and/or our partners’ trials may produce results that are unpredictable or inconsistent with the results of the more traditional efficacy endpoints in the trial. The FDA also could give overriding weight to other efficacy endpoints over a primary endpoint, even if we and/or our future partners achieve statistically significant results on that endpoint, if we and/or our future partners do not do so on the secondary efficacy endpoints. The FDA also weighs the benefits of a product against its risks and the FDA may view the efficacy results in the context of safety as not being supportive of licensure. Other regulatory authorities in Europe and other countries may make similar findings with respect to these endpoints.

The FDA, EMA or other comparable regulatory authorities may disagree with our and/or our future partners’ regulatory plan and we and/or our future partners may fail to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates.

If the results of our and/or our future partners’ clinical trials are sufficiently compelling, we and/or our future partners intend to discuss with the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities, submission of a BLA, MAA or other comparable submissions or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere, an EU marketing authorization or other regulatory authorization for our product candidates. However, we and/or our future partners do not have any agreement or guidance from the FDA that our and/or our partners’ regulatory development plans will be sufficient for submission of a BLA, MAA or other comparable submissions or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere for any of our product candidates. The FDA, EMA or other regulatory agencies may grant accelerated approval for our product candidates and, as a condition for accelerated approval, the FDA, EMA or other regulatory agencies may require a sponsor of a drug or biologic receiving accelerated approval to perform post-marketing studies to verify and describe the predicted effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical endpoint, and the drug or biologic may be subject to withdrawal procedures by the FDA, EMA or other regulatory agencies that are more accelerated than those available for regular approvals. In addition, the standard of care may change with the approval of new products in the same indications that we are studying. This may result in the FDA, EMA or other regulatory agencies requesting additional studies to show that our product candidate is superior to the new products.

Our and/or our future partners’ clinical trial results may also not support approval. In addition, our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

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We and/or our future partners may not be able to file INDs with the FDA, clinical trial applications with the competent authorities of European Union member states or similar applications with other comparable regulatory authorities to commence additional clinical trials on the timelines we and/or our future partners expect, and even if we and/or our future partners are able to, one or more of these regulatory authorities may not permit us to proceed.

The timing of filing on our product candidates is dependent on further pre-clinical, clinical and manufacturing success. We and/or our future partners cannot be sure that filing of an IND or IND amendment with the FDA, a clinical trial application with the competent authorities of European Union member states or similar application with other comparable regulatory authorities will result in the FDA, the competent authorities of European Union member states or any comparable regulatory authority allowing testing and clinical trials to begin, or that, once begun, issues will not arise that result in the suspension or termination of such clinical trials. Additionally, even if such regulatory authorities agree with the design and implementation of the clinical trials set forth in an IND, clinical trial application or similar applications, no assurance can be given that such regulatory authorities will not change their requirements in the future.

We and/or our future partners may seek orphan drug designation for some or all of our product candidates across various indications, but we and/or our future partners may be unable to obtain such designations or to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug designation, including market exclusivity, which may cause our revenue, if any, to be reduced.

We and/or our future partners may seek for orphan drug designation where available for our product candidates. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is defined as one occurring in a patient population of fewer than 200,000 in the United States, or a patient population of 200,000 or greater in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug or biologic will be recovered from sales in the United States. In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives, such as opportunities for grant funding toward clinical trial costs, tax advantages, and user-fee waivers. In addition, if a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications, including a full new drug application, or NDA, or a BLA, to market the same drug or biologic for the same indication for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity or where the original manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient product quantity. Similar rules apply in the European Union with respect to drugs or biologics designated as orphan medicinal products.

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In addition, exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be limited if we seek approval for an indication broader than the orphan-designated indication or may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective. Further, even if we and/or our future partners obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different drugs with different active moieties may receive and be approved for the same condition, and only the first applicant to receive approval will receive the benefits of marketing exclusivity. Even after an orphan-designated product is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve a later drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior if it is shown to be safer, more effective, or makes a major contribution to patient care. Similar considerations apply in the European Union with respect to drugs or biologics designated as orphan medicinal products. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug, nor gives the drug any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process. In addition, while we and/or our future partners may seek orphan drug designation for our product candidates, we may never receive such designations.

We and/or our future partners may seek breakthrough therapy or fast-track designation for one or more of our product candidates, but we and/or our future partners may not receive such designations. Even if we and/or our future partners do receive such designations, it may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and it may not increase the likelihood that such product candidates will receive marketing approval.

We and/or our future partners may seek a breakthrough therapy designation in the United States for one or more of our product candidates. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For drugs that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor of the trial can help to identify the most efficient path for clinical development while minimizing the number of patients placed in ineffective control regimens. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA are also eligible for priority review if supported by clinical data at the time of the submission of the BLA.

Designation as a breakthrough therapy is at the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we and/or our future partners believe that one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a breakthrough therapy designation for a drug may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and it would not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that the product candidate no longer meets the conditions for qualification, or it may decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

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

We expect some of the product candidates we develop will be regulated as biologics in the United States and elsewhere and therefore they may be subject to competition from biosimilars approved through an abbreviated regulatory pathway.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or the ACA, includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or the BPCIA,

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which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-approved reference biological product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first approved by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first approved. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a BLA for the competing product containing the sponsor’s own pre-clinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of the other company’s product. The law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation and meaning are subject to uncertainty.

We believe that any of our product candidates approved as a biological product under a BLA should qualify for a 12-year period of exclusivity. However, there is a risk that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider our product candidates to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for generic competition sooner than anticipated. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biological products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing.

We and/or our future partners may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates under applicable international regulatory requirements. The denial or delay of such approval would delay commercialization of our product candidates and adversely impact our potential to generate revenue, our business and our results of operations.

Approval by the FDA in the United States, if obtained, does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions. In order to eventually market any of our product candidates in any other jurisdiction, we and/or our future partners must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis regarding safety and efficacy. In addition, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not guarantee regulatory approval in any other country. Approval processes vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and validation and additional administrative review periods.

Seeking regulatory approval in other jurisdictions could result in difficulties and costs for us and require additional pre-clinical studies or clinical trials which could be costly and time-consuming. Regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in those countries. The European Union and other jurisdictions’ regulatory approval processes involve all of the risks associated with FDA approval. We do not have any product candidates approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we and/or our future partners fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in international markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our products will be unrealized.

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

Even if we and/or our future partners obtain regulatory approval in a jurisdiction, the applicable regulatory authority may still impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses or marketing of our product or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies or post-market surveillance. For example, the holder of an approved BLA is obligated to monitor and report adverse events and any failure of a product to meet the specifications in the BLA. The holder of an approved BLA must also submit new or supplemental applications and obtain FDA approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling or manufacturing process. Advertising and promotional materials

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must comply with FDA rules and are subject to FDA review, in addition to other potentially applicable federal and state laws.

If we and/or our future partners fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of any of our product candidates, a regulatory agency may:

Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our and/or our partners’ ability to commercialize any approved products and generate revenues.

If any of our product candidates cause undesirable side effects, it could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences following any potential marketing approval. Product candidates we and/or our future partners may develop may be associated with an adverse immune response or other serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or unexpected characteristics. In addition to serious adverse events or side effects caused by any of our product candidates, the administration process or related procedures also can cause undesirable side effects. If any such events occur, the clinical trials of any of our product candidates could be suspended or terminated.

If in the future, we and/or our future partners are unable to demonstrate that such adverse events were caused by factors other than our product candidates, the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of, or deny approval of, any of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Even if we and/or our future partners are able to demonstrate that all future serious adverse events are not product-related, such occurrences could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled trial participants to complete the trial. Moreover, if we and/or our future partners elect, or are required, to delay, suspend or terminate any clinical trial of any of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of such product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate product sale revenues from any of these product candidates may be delayed or eliminated. Any of these occurrences may harm our and/or our partners’ ability to identify and develop product candidates, and may harm our business, financial condition, result of operations and prospects significantly.

Additionally, if we and/or our future partners successfully obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate, the FDA or other regulatory authority could require us to adopt a REMS or a risk management plan, or RMP, to ensure that the benefits of treatment with such product candidate outweigh the risks for each potential patient, which may include, among other things, a medication guide outlining the risks of the product for distribution to patients, a communication plan to health care practitioners, extensive patient monitoring, or distribution systems and processes that are highly controlled, restrictive, and more costly than what is typical for the industry. Furthermore, if we, our future partners or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by any product that we and/or our future partners develop based on one or more of our product candidates, several potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

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Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of any products we and/or our future partners may identify and develop based on one or more of our product candidates and could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If we and/or our future partners are successful in gaining approval for any of our product candidates, we and/or our future partners will continue to face significant regulatory oversight of the manufacturing and distribution of our products. Product manufacturers and their facilities are subject to payment of user fees and continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with Current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP, and adherence to commitments made in the BLA. If we, our future partners or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions relative to that product or the manufacturing facility, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing.

If we and/or our future partners, as applicable, are not successful in discovering, developing and commercializing additional product candidates beyond our current portfolio, our ability to expand our business and achieve our strategic objectives would be impaired.

A key element of our strategy is to discover, develop and, through our future partners, potentially commercialize additional product candidates beyond our current portfolio to treat various conditions and in a variety of therapeutic areas. We intend to do so by investing in our own AI technology platforms to engage in drug and target discovery efforts, exploring potential collaborations for the development of new product candidates, and in-licensing delivery technologies. Identifying new product candidates requires substantial technical, financial and human resources, whether or not any product candidates are ultimately identified. Even if we identify product candidates that initially show promise, we and/or our future partners may fail to successfully develop and commercialize such product candidates for many reasons, including the following: