Affimed N.V. [AFMD] Filings

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

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☐   REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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OR

☒   ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

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OR

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☐   TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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For the transition period from                       to

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OR

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☐   SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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Date of event requiring this shell company report

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Commission file number: 001-36619

AFFIMED N.V.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

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

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Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

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Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:

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

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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 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

†The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

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

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

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

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

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

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Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this Annual Report on Form 20-F (the “Annual Report”) to “Affimed N.V.” or “Affimed,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” “ours,” “us” or similar terms refer to Affimed N.V., together with its subsidiaries.

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TRADEMARKS

Affimed^®, ROCK^® (“Redirected Optimized Cell Killing”) and ICE^® (“Innate Cell Engager”) are our registered word trademarks. Moreover, combined word and figurative trademarks are registered for the Affimed logo in color and grayscale. The trademarks, trade names and service marks appearing in this Annual Report are property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this Annual Report may be referred to without the symbols ^® and ™, but such references should not be construed as any indication that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto.

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CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND RISK FACTOR SUMMARY

This Annual Report contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. Many of the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “expect,” “should,” “plan,” “intend,” “will,” “estimate” and “potential,” among others.

Forward-looking statements appear in a number of places in this Annual Report and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our intent, belief or current expectations. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to, those identified under the section “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk factors” in this Annual Report. These risks and uncertainties include factors relating to:

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Our actual results or performance could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements relating to those matters. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do transpire or occur, what impact they will have on our results of operations, cash flows or financial condition. It is not possible to predict or identify all such risks. There may be additional risks that we consider immaterial, or which are unknown. Except as required by law, we are under no obligation, and expressly disclaim any obligation, to update, alter or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

A.   Directors and senior management

Not applicable.

B.   Advisers

Not applicable.

C.   Auditors

Not applicable.

ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

A.   Offer statistics

Not applicable.

B.   Method and expected timetable

Not applicable.

ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

A.     [Reserved]

B.   Capitalization and indebtedness

Not applicable.

C.   Reasons for the offer and use of proceeds

Not applicable.

D.   Risk factors

You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and the other information in this Annual Report before making an investment in our common shares. Our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if any of these risks occurs, and as a result, the market price of our common shares could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. This Annual Report also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factor Summary.” Our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors.

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Risks Related to Our Business and the Development and Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

Our corporate restructuring and the associated headcount reduction may not result in anticipated savings, could result in total costs and expenses that are greater than expected and could disrupt our business.

On January 8, 2024 in connection with the evaluation of strategic alternatives and in order to extend our resources, we approved a restructuring initiative (the “Initiative”) aimed at transforming us into a focused clinical organization. As part of the Initiative, we will direct all resources towards advancing the development of our clinical programs, resulting in a reduction of up to 50% of our workforce by dissolving our research and preclinical development departments, aligned with our narrowed strategic priorities.

As a result of the Initiative, we expect to incur a one-time expenditure for termination payments in the first half of 2024, some of which we expect to be set-off by cost savings during the second half of 2024. We may not realize, in full or in part, the anticipated benefits, savings and improvements in our cost structure from the Initiative due to unforeseen difficulties, delays or unexpected costs. If we are unable to realize the expected operational efficiencies and cost savings from the Initiative, our operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected. Furthermore, the Initiative may be disruptive to our operations. For example, our headcount reductions could yield unanticipated consequences, such as increased difficulties in implementing our business strategy, including retention of our remaining employees. Employee litigation related to the headcount reduction could be costly and prevent management from fully concentrating on the business. The Initiative may also yield unintended consequences, such as attrition beyond our reduction in workforce and reduced employee morale, which may cause remaining employees to seek alternative employment.

Any future growth would impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain and integrate additional employees. Due to fewer resources, we may not be able to effectively manage our operations or recruit and retain qualified personnel, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure and operations, risks that we may not be able to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. For example, the workforce reduction may negatively impact our clinical, regulatory, technical operations and commercial functions, which would have a negative impact on our ability to successfully develop and ultimately, commercialize our product candidates. Our future financial performance and our ability to develop our product candidates or additional assets will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth or restructuring, as the case may be.

In addition, if we are not able to raise sufficient capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs and the ability to continue as a going concern would be uncertain.

Our product candidates are in preclinical or clinical development. Drug development is expensive, time consuming and uncertain, and we may ultimately not be able to obtain regulatory approvals for the commercialization of some or all of our product candidates.

The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, selling, marketing and distribution of drug products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA, the European Medicines Agency (the “EMA”), national competent authorities (the “NCAs”) in Europe, including the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute (the “PEI”) in Germany, and other non-U.S. regulatory authorities, which establish regulations that differ from country to country. We are not permitted to market our product candidates in the United States or in other countries until we receive approval of a Biologics License Application (“BLA”) or Investigational New Drug application (“IND”, together with BLAs, the “US Marketing Applications”) from the FDA, or marketing authorization application approvals from applicable regulatory authorities outside the United States. Our product candidates are in various stages of development and subject to the risks of failure inherent in drug development. Although we have submitted an IND application for a clinical study evaluating the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® (such study herein referred to as “LuminICE-203”), we continue to have limited experience in conducting and managing the clinical studies necessary to obtain regulatory approval, including by the FDA or the European Commission.

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Obtaining approval of US Marketing Applications or other marketing authorization applications from regulatory authorities outside the United States can be a lengthy, expensive and uncertain process. In addition, failure to comply with the FDA, the EMA and other non-U.S. regulatory requirements may, either before or after product approval, if any, subject our company to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions, including:

The FDA, the EMA and other non-U.S. regulatory authorities also have substantial discretion in the drug approval process. The number of preclinical studies and clinical studies that will be required for regulatory approval varies depending on the product candidate, the disease, the medical need or condition that the product candidate is designed to address, and the regulations applicable to any particular drug candidate. Regulatory agencies can delay, limit or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons, including:

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Any delay in obtaining or failure to obtain required approvals could materially adversely affect our ability to generate revenue from the particular product candidate, which likely would result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely impact our share price. Furthermore, any regulatory approval to market a product may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which we may market the product. These limitations may limit the size of the market for the product.

In addition, even if regulatory approval is granted, pricing and reimbursement may not occur due to a number of factors, including formulary restrictions and health service providers determining that the benefits of a new medicine are insufficient to support reimbursement, among others.

Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with uncertain timelines and uncertain outcomes, and results of earlier trials may not be predictive of future trial results. If clinical studies of our product candidates are prolonged or delayed, we may be unable to obtain the required regulatory approvals, and therefore be unable to commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis or at all.

We have a limited history of conducting large-scale or pivotal clinical studies, and no history commercializing pharmaceutical products, which may make it difficult to evaluate the prospects for our future viability.

Our operations to date have been limited to financing and staffing our company, developing our technology and developing acimtamig, AFM24, AFM28 and, previously, our other product candidates. We have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully complete a large-scale or pivotal clinical study, obtain marketing approval, manufacture a commercial scale product or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a history of successfully developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products.

If clinical studies for our product candidates are prolonged, delayed or stopped, we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis, which would require us to incur additional costs and delay or restrict our receipt of any product revenue. There have been significant developments in the highly dynamic field of immuno-oncology such as the earlier availability of product candidates, or earlier approval of drugs for the same indications as our product candidates, which led us to adapt our clinical programs accordingly. For example, in the past, the marketing authorization of anti-PD-1 antibodies in Hodgkin Lymphoma (“HL”) resulted in delays in clinical study initiation and/or patient recruitment for our phase 2a investigator sponsored trial of acimtamig in HL. Certain clinical studies of our product candidates are sponsored by academic sites, which are known as investigator sponsored trials (“ISTs”). By definition, the financing, design, and conduct of such studies are under the responsibility of the academic site sponsor. Therefore, we have limited control over these studies, and we do not have control over the timing and reporting of the data from these trials. In addition, we may have limited information about ISTs while they are being conducted, including the timing of planned trial initiation, the status of patient recruitment, changes to trial design, and clinical study results.

At this stage, we cannot assure you of the safety or tolerability of acimtamig, AFM24, AFM28 mono- and/or combination therapy or of their ability to demonstrate efficacy in humans.

The commencement of planned clinical studies could be substantially delayed or prevented by several factors, including:

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The completion of our clinical studies has been and could in the future be substantially delayed or prevented by several factors, including:

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For example, in our clinical studies for acimtamig and AFM24, infusion related reactions (“IRRs”) have been a commonly observed treatment-related side effect, in some cases serious. In our phase 1b study evaluating the combination of acimtamig with pembrolizumab, IRRs related to acimtamig were observed in 27 of 30 patients, or 90%, and IRRs of grade 3 or greater were observed in four patients, or 13%. IRRs were also observed in our phase 2 REDIRECT study evaluating acimtamig for the treatment of relapsed / refractory (“R/R”) positive peripheral T cell lymphoma (“PTCL”), our phase 1/2a study evaluating NK cells pre-complexed with acimatmig in patients with CD30+ lymphomas, and our phase 1/2a studies evaluating AFM24 in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (“EGFR”)-expressing tumors. While these IRRs have generally been well managed with pre-medication and interventional treatments, the incidence of IRRs has occasionally led to dose reductions and/or patients discontinuing their participation in our clinical trials. As we increase the number of clinical trials for our ICE^® molecules and study them against new tumor targets, there can be no assurance that IRRs or other side effects will not cause delays or termination of our future clinical studies or development plans.

Changes in regulatory requirements and guidance may also occur and we may need to significantly amend clinical study protocols or submit new clinical study protocols to reflect these changes with the appropriate regulatory authorities. In addition, changes in the competitive environment have occurred and may continue to occur.

Amendments may require us to renegotiate terms with CROs or resubmit clinical study protocols to IRBs or ethics committees for re-examination, which may impact the costs, timing or successful completion of a clinical study.

Our clinical studies may be suspended or terminated at any time by the FDA, the PEI, other regulatory authorities, the IRBs or ethics committees overseeing the clinical study at issue, any of our clinical study sites, or us, due to a number of factors, including:

Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical studies or marketing approvals or if we are required to conduct additional clinical studies or other testing of our product candidates. We may be required to obtain additional funding to conduct and complete such clinical studies. We cannot assure you that our clinical studies will begin as planned or be completed on schedule, if at all, or that we will not need to restructure our trials after they have begun. Significant clinical study delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which may harm our business and results of operations.

Any failure or significant delay in completing clinical studies for our product candidates would adversely affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval and our commercial prospects and ability to generate product revenue will be diminished.

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The results of previous clinical studies may not be predictive of future results, our progress in trials for one product candidate may not be indicative of progress in trials for other product candidates and the results of our current and planned clinical studies may not satisfy the requirements of the FDA, the EMA or other non-U.S. regulatory authorities.

In addition to the risks and uncertainties discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report, the results of our previous clinical studies may not be predictive of future results, our progress in trials for one product candidate may not be indicative of progress in trials for other product candidates and the results of our current and planned clinical studies may not satisfy the requirements of the FDA, the EMA or other non-U.S. regulatory authorities.

We currently have no products approved for sale and we cannot guarantee that we will ever have marketable products. Clinical failure can occur at any stage of clinical development. Clinical studies may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we or any of our current and future collaborators may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical or preclinical testing. We will be required to demonstrate with substantial evidence through well-controlled clinical studies that our product candidates are safe and effective for use in a diverse population before we can seek regulatory approvals for their commercial sale. Success in early clinical trials does not mean that future larger registration clinical studies will be successful, because product candidates in later-stage clinical studies may fail to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authorities despite having progressed through initial clinical studies. Product candidates that have shown promising results in early clinical studies may still suffer significant setbacks in subsequent registration clinical studies. Similarly, the outcome of preclinical testing and early clinical studies may not be predictive of the success of later clinical studies, and interim results of a clinical study do not necessarily predict final results. Progress in trials of one product candidate does not indicate that we will make similar progress in additional trials for that product candidate or in trials for our other product candidates. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry, including those with greater resources and experience than us, have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical studies, even after obtaining promising results in earlier clinical studies.

In addition, the design of a clinical study can determine whether its results will support approval of a product and flaws in the design of a clinical study may not become apparent until the clinical study is well advanced. We may be unable to design and execute a clinical study to support regulatory approval.

In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety and/or efficacy results between different trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial protocols, differences in size and type of the patient populations, adherence to the dosing regimen and other trial protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical study participants. We do not know whether any phase 2, phase 3 or other clinical studies we or any of our collaborators may conduct will demonstrate consistent or adequate efficacy and safety to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates.

Furthermore, changes in combination therapies that we utilize in our clinical trials may create variability between results of early-stage clinical trials and later clinical trials. For example, to date we have generated data for acimtamig combined with allogeneic NK cells in CD30+ lymphomas utilizing a NK cell product from MD Anderson Cancer Center. The NK cell used in the phase 1/2 trial is a freshly prepared, cbNK cell (cord-blood derived) that is precomplexed with acimtamig. However, in November 2022, we announced a collaboration with Artiva to advance a separate development of the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® into a potential registration enabling study, LuminICE-203. While AlloNK^® is also an allogeneic, cord blood-derived NK cell, there are differences as compared to the NK cell used in our phase 1/2 study, including the fact that AlloNK^® is cryopreserved and is manufactured and activated in different ways than the MDACC cbNK cell used in the phase 1/2 trial. Further, rather than precomplexing acimatmig with AlloNK^®, we co-administer acimtamig with AlloNK^®. In January 2023, we announced that the FDA issued a written response to our pre-IND meeting request for the LuminICE-203 study. In May 2023, we announced the FDA clearance of our IND application for the clinical study evaluating the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® in patients with R/R classical HL (“cHL”) and CD30+ PTCL. We initiated enrollment into the study in October 2023.

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Further, our product candidates may not be approved even if they achieve their primary endpoints in phase 3 clinical studies or registration trials. The FDA, the EMA or other non-U.S. regulatory authorities may disagree with our trial design and our interpretation of data from preclinical and clinical studies. In addition, any of these regulatory authorities may change requirements for the approval of a product candidate even after reviewing and providing comments or advice on a protocol for a clinical study. In addition, any of these regulatory authorities may also approve a product candidate for fewer or more limited indications than we request or may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical studies. The FDA, the EMA or other non-U.S. regulatory authorities may not accept the labeling claims that we believe would be necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of our product candidates.

We depend on enrollment of patients in our clinical studies for our product candidates. We compete with other sponsors who have ongoing clinical studies of investigational therapies for patients for our clinical studies. If we are unable to enroll patients in our clinical studies, our research and development efforts could be materially adversely affected.

Successful and timely completion of clinical studies will require that we enroll a sufficient number of patients. Trials may be subject to delays as a result of patient enrollment taking longer than anticipated. Patient enrollment depends on many factors, including the size and nature of the patient population, eligibility criteria for the trial, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the design of the clinical protocol, the availability of competing clinical studies, the availability of new drugs approved for the indication the clinical study is investigating, and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug being studied in relation to other available therapies. In addition, we compete with approved immunotherapies and investigational immunotherapies for patients for our clinical studies. Our product candidate acimtamig has orphan drug designation for the treatment of HL, from FDA and EMA, and for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma from the FDA, which means that the potential patient population is limited. As we are developing acimtamig and certain of our other product candidates for patients for whom previous therapies have failed and who may not have long to live, patients may elect not to participate in our, or any, clinical study.

The approval of new immuno-oncology drugs such as checkpoint inhibitors (“CPIs”) has changed the landscape for conducting clinical studies of other oncology drugs, including ours, both for indications for which such drugs are approved as well as for indications in which additional trials are being conducted. In addition, there are several other types of drugs in development for the indications for which we are developing acimtamig and certain of our other product candidates. We compete for patients with the sponsors of trials for all of these drugs. These factors may make it difficult for us to enroll enough patients to complete our clinical studies in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Delays in the completion of any clinical study of our product candidates will increase our costs, prolong our product candidate development and approval process and delay or potentially jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue. In addition, some of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical studies may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates.

A pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, such as COVID-19, could cause a disruption to the development of our product candidates.

Public health crises such as pandemics or similar outbreaks could adversely impact our business. In December 2019, COVID-19 spread worldwide. The coronavirus pandemic led to the implementation of various responses, including government-imposed quarantines, travel restrictions and other public health safety measures. The extent to which a pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease impacts our operations or those of our third-party partners, including our development studies or clinical trial operations, will depend on future occurrences, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration of any outbreak and the actions to contain or treat its impact, among others. The spread of an infectious disease in the United States or globally could adversely impact our product candidate development or clinical trial operations in the United States and abroad. Any negative impact infectious diseases have on patient enrollment and treatment, and the timing and execution of our clinical trials could cause costly delays to clinical trial activities, which could adversely affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval for and to advance towards commercialization, increase operating expenses and have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.

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Our business may be impacted by political events, war, terrorism, business interruptions and other geopolitical events and uncertainties beyond our control.

The potential impacts of war, terrorism, geopolitical uncertainties, international conflicts, including the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East, the effect of governmental initiatives to manage economic conditions and other business interruptions could cause damage to or disrupt our operations and those of our third-party suppliers, partners, and collaborators. In addition, territorial invasions can lead to cybersecurity attacks located far outside of the conflict zone. Interruptions to our operations could seriously harm our ability to timely proceed with any clinical programs, and could imply incurring in significant expenditures as salaries and loan payments would usually continue. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States, several European Union nations, and other countries have announced sanctions against Russia, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”) has deployed additional military forces to Eastern Europe. The invasion of Ukraine and the retaliatory measures that have been taken, or could be taken in the future, by Russia, the United States, NATO and other countries have created global security concerns that could result in a regional conflict and otherwise have a lasting impact on regional and global economies. Similarly, the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East has the potential for further disruption of economic markets, particularly if the war expands to include other state actors. Any or all of the above could disrupt our supply chain, adversely affect our ability to conduct ongoing and future clinical trials of our product candidates, and adversely affect our ability to commercialize our products (subject to regulatory approval).

We use new technologies in the development of our product candidates and the FDA and other regulatory authorities have not approved products that utilize these technologies.

Our innate cell engager product candidates in development are based on our fit-for-purpose ROCK^® platform and are capable of recruiting NK cells and / or macrophages. Regulatory approval of our product candidates is less certain than the approval of drugs that do not employ such novel technologies or methods of action. We intend to work closely with the FDA, the EMA and other regulatory authorities to perform the requisite scientific analyses and evaluation of our methods to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates. For example, final assays and specifications of our product candidates have yet to be developed, and the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities may require additional analyses to evaluate different aspects of our product quality. It is possible that the validation process may take time and resources, may require independent third-party analyses, or may not be accepted by the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities. Delays or failure to obtain regulatory approval of any of the product candidates that we are developing would adversely affect our business.

Even if our product candidates obtain regulatory approval, they will be subject to continuous regulatory review.

If marketing authorization is obtained for any of our product candidates, the product will remain subject to continuous review and therefore authorization could be subsequently withdrawn or restricted. We will be subject to ongoing obligations and oversight by regulatory authorities, including adverse event reporting requirements, marketing restrictions and, potentially, other post-marketing obligations, all of which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize such products.

If there are changes in the application of legislation or regulatory policies, or if problems are discovered with a product or our manufacture of a product, or if we or one of our distributors, licensees or co-marketers fails to comply with regulatory requirements, the regulators could take various actions. These include imposing fines on us, imposing restrictions on the product or its manufacture and requiring us to recall or remove the product from the market. The regulators could also suspend or withdraw our marketing authorizations, requiring us to conduct additional clinical studies, change our product labeling or submit additional applications for marketing authorization. If any of these events occurs, our ability to sell such product may be impaired, and we may incur substantial additional expense to comply with regulatory requirements, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We may not be successful in our efforts to use and expand our technology platforms to build a pipeline of product candidates.

A key element of our strategy is to use and expand our technology platforms to build a pipeline of product candidates and progress these product candidates through clinical development for the treatment of a variety of different types of diseases. Although our research and development efforts to date have resulted in a pipeline of product candidates directed at various cancers, we may not be able to develop product candidates that are safe and effective. Even if we are successful in continuing to build our pipeline, the potential product candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development, including as a result of being shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be products that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance. If we do not continue to successfully develop and begin to commercialize product candidates, we will face difficulty in obtaining product revenues in future periods, which could result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely affect our share price.

Even if we obtain marketing approval of any of our product candidates in a major pharmaceutical market such as the United States or Europe, we may never obtain approval or commercialize our products in other major markets, which would limit our ability to realize their full market potential.

In order to market any products in a country or territory, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries or territories regarding safety and efficacy. Clinical studies conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not mean that regulatory approval will be obtained in any other country. Approval procedures vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and validation and additional administrative review periods. Seeking regulatory approvals in all major markets could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and may require additional preclinical studies or clinical studies which would 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. Satisfying these and other regulatory requirements is costly, time consuming, uncertain and subject to unanticipated delays. In addition, our failure to obtain regulatory approval in any country may delay or have negative effects on the process for regulatory approval in other countries. 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 fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our products will be harmed.

In the United States, we may seek fast track designation of our product candidates, with the intent to pursue an accelerated approval pathway and potentially, breakthrough designation of acimtamig and/or certain of our other product candidates. There is no assurance that the FDA will grant such designation; and, even if it does grant such designations to acimtamig and/or certain of our other product candidates, such designation may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process and does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval in the United States.

Based on clinical data, either from ongoing or new clinical studies, we may seek fast-track designation of certain of our product candidates. The fast track program, a provision of the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, is designed to facilitate interactions between a sponsoring company and the FDA before and during submission of a BLA for an investigational agent that, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and which demonstrates the potential to address an unmet medical need for that disease or condition. Under the fast-track program, the FDA may consider reviewing portions of a marketing application before the sponsor submits the complete application if the FDA determines, after a preliminary evaluation of the clinical data, that a product that has been granted fast track designation may be effective. A fast-track designation provides the opportunity for more frequent interactions with the FDA, and a product that has been granted fast track designation could be eligible for priority review if supported by clinical data at the time of submission of the BLA. In September 2023, we announced that the FDA had granted us fast track designation for the development of the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^®.

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The FDA is authorized to designate a product candidate as a breakthrough therapy if it finds that the product 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 product may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For products 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. Products designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA can also be eligible for accelerated approval if the relevant criteria are met.

The FDA has broad discretion on whether or not to grant fast track or breakthrough designation. Accordingly, even if we believe our product candidates meet the criteria for fast track or breakthrough designation, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of fast-track or breakthrough therapy designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to product candidates considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and, in any event, does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as fast track or breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that the product candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

We may submit applications for our product candidates under the Accelerated Approval Program. If we are unable to obtain approval or licensure of our product candidates through the Accelerated Approval Program in the United States, we may be required to conduct additional nonclinical and clinical studies and trials beyond those that we currently contemplate. Even if we receive approval from the FDA, the FDA may seek to withdraw the approval.

We may submit applications for our product candidates under the Accelerated Approval Program. For example, we are currently conducting the LuminICE-203 study, which is investigating acimtamig in combination with AlloNK^®. We hope that a positive outcome in the LuminICE-203 study may support a future submission under the Accelerated Approval Program. If our product candidates, including acimtamig, are not accepted into the Accelerated Approval Program, we may be required to conduct additional nonclinical and clinical studies and trials beyond those that we currently contemplate, which could increase the expense of obtaining, reduce the likelihood of obtaining and/or delay the timing of obtaining, necessary marketing approval. Even if we receive approvals from the FDA through the Accelerated Approval Program, if any required confirmatory post-marketing trial does not verify clinical benefit, or if we do not comply with rigorous post-marketing requirements, the FDA may seek to withdraw the approval.

We may be unable to obtain orphan product designation or exclusivity for some of our product candidates. If our competitors are able to obtain orphan product exclusivity for their products in the same indications for which we are developing our product candidates, we may not be able to have our products approved by the applicable regulatory authority for a significant period of time. Conversely, if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for some of our product candidates, we may not be able to benefit from the associated marketing exclusivity.

Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and Europe, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a product candidate as an orphan drug if it is a drug intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals annually in the United States. In the European Union, the European Commission may designate a product candidate as an orphan medicinal product if it is a medicine for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of life-threatening or very serious conditions that affect not more than five in 10,000 persons in the European Union, or it is unlikely that marketing of the medicine would generate sufficient returns to justify the investment needed for its development. We have received orphan drug designation for acimtamig for the treatment of HL in the United States and Europe, and for T-cell lymphoma in the United States; but orphan drug status does not ensure that we will have market exclusivity in a particular market and there is no assurance we will be able to receive orphan drug designation for certain of our other product candidates or any additional product candidates. Further, the granting of a request for orphan drug designation does not alter the standard regulatory requirements and process for obtaining marketing approval.

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Generally, if a product candidate with an orphan drug designation receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which, subject to certain exceptions, precludes the FDA from approving the marketing application of the same drug from another sponsor for the same indication for that time period or precludes the EMA, and other national drug regulators in the EU, from accepting the marketing application for a similar product from another sponsor for the same indication. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in the European Union. The EU period can be reduced to six years if a product no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation or if the product is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified. In the EU, orphan exclusivity may also be extended for an additional two years (i.e., a maximum of 12 years orphan exclusivity) if the product is approved on the basis of a dossier that includes pediatric clinical study data generated in accordance with an approved pediatric investigation plan. Orphan drug exclusivity may be lost in the United States if the FDA determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition.

Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for one or more of our products that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because exclusivity can be suspended under certain circumstances. In the United States, even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve another drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. In the European Union, orphan exclusivity will not prevent a marketing authorization being granted for a similar medicinal product in the same indication if the new product is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior to the first product or if the marketing authorization holder of the first product is unable to supply sufficient quantities of the product.

Our product candidates may result in serious adverse, undesirable or unacceptable side effects which may delay or prevent marketing approval. If such side effects are identified during the development of our product candidates or following approval, if any, we may need to abandon our development of such product candidates, the commercial profile of any approved label may be limited, or we may be subject to other significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

Although all of our product candidates have undergone or will undergo safety testing to the extent possible and agreed with health authorities, not all adverse effects of drugs can be predicted or anticipated. Immunotherapy and its mode of action of harnessing the body’s immune system, especially with respect to immune cell engagers, is powerful and could lead to serious side effects that we only discover in clinical studies. Unforeseen side effects from any of our product candidates could arise either during clinical development or, if such side effects are rarer, after our product candidates have been approved by regulatory authorities and the approved product has been marketed, resulting in the exposure of additional patients. All of our product candidates are still in clinical or preclinical development. While our phase 1 clinical studies for acimtamig demonstrated a favorable safety profile, the results from ongoing and future trials of acimtamig or other NK cell-engaging bispecific antibodies may not confirm these results. The most frequently observed adverse event for acimtamig is IRRs, in some cases serious. In our phase 1b study evaluating the combination of acimtamig with pembrolizumab, IRRs related to acimtamig were observed in 27 of 30 patients, or 90%, and IRRs of grade 3 or greater were observed in four patients. IRRs were also observed in our phase 2 study evaluating acimtamig for the treatment of R/R PTCL, our phase 1/2a study evaluating NK cells pre-complexed with acimtamig in patients with CD30+ lymphomas, and our phase 1/2a studies evaluating AFM24 in patients with EGFR-expressing tumors. While these IRRs have generally been well managed with pre-medication and interventional treatments, the incidence of IRRs has occasionally led to dose reductions and/or patients discontinuing their participation in our clinical trials. If we increase the number of clinical trials for our ICE^® molecules and study them against new tumor targets, there can be no assurance that IRRs or other side effects will not cause delays or termination of our future clinical studies or development plans.

We are developing our acimtamig candidate for patients with R/R HL and other CD30+ lymphomas, and AFM24 for patients with EGFR+ solid tumor indications, for which other therapies have limited benefit and survival times may be short. Therefore, we expect that certain patients may die during the clinical studies of our product candidates, and it may be difficult to ascertain whether such deaths are attributable to the underlying disease, complications from the disease, our product candidate, or a combination thereof.

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The results of ongoing and future clinical studies may show that our product candidates cause undesirable or unacceptable side effects, which could interrupt, delay or halt clinical studies, and result in the delay of, or failure to obtain, marketing approval from the FDA, the European Commission and other regulatory authorities, or result in marketing approval from the FDA, the European Commission and other regulatory authorities with restrictive label warnings or potential product liability claims. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled subjects to complete the study or make the product candidate less attractive for partnering. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff, particularly outside of our existing or future collaborators as toxicities resulting from cancer immunotherapies are not normally encountered in the general patient population and by medical personnel. The inability to recognize and manage the potential side effects of our product candidates could result in patient deaths. Any of these occurrences may prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product candidate and may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

Additionally, if any of our product candidates receives marketing approval and we or others later identify undesirable or unacceptable side effects caused by such products:

Any of these events could prevent us, our collaborators or our potential future partners from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product or could substantially increase commercialization costs and expenses, which in turn could delay or prevent us from generating significant revenue from the sale of our products.

Adverse events in the field of immuno-oncology could damage public perception of our product candidates and negatively affect our business.

The commercial success of our products will depend in part on public acceptance of the use of cancer immunotherapies. Serious adverse events and other adverse events in clinical studies of our product candidates or in clinical studies of others developing similar products and the resulting publicity, as well as any other adverse events in the field of immuno-oncology that may occur in the future, could result in a decrease in demand for any products that we may develop. Although the mode of action of our innate cell engagers differs from that of other immuno-oncology approaches in development, the public may not always differentiate between our therapies and others in the field. If public perception is influenced by claims that the use of cancer immunotherapies is unsafe, our products may not be accepted by the general public or the medical community.

Future adverse events in immuno-oncology or the biopharmaceutical industry could also result in greater governmental regulation, stricter labeling requirements and potential regulatory delays in the testing or approval of our products. Any increased scrutiny could delay or increase the costs of obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates.

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Even if approved, if any of our product candidates do not achieve broad market acceptance among physicians, patients, the medical community and third-party payors, our revenue generated from their sales will be limited.

The commercial success of our product candidates will depend upon their acceptance among physicians, patients and the medical community. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates will depend on a number of factors, including:

If any of our product candidates are approved, but do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, patients and the medical community, we may not generate sufficient revenue from these products, and we may not become or remain profitable. In addition, efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful.

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We are subject to manufacturing risks that could substantially increase our costs and limit supply of our products or prevent us from achieving a commercially viable production process.

The process of manufacturing our products is complex, highly regulated and subject to several risks, including:

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We currently have no marketing, sales or distribution infrastructure. If we are unable to develop sales, marketing and distribution capabilities on our own or through collaborations, or if we fail to achieve adequate pricing and/or reimbursement we will not be successful in commercializing our product candidates.

We currently have no marketing, sales and distribution capabilities because our lead product candidates are still in clinical development. If any of our product candidates are approved, we intend either to establish a sales and marketing organization with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize our product candidates, or to outsource this function to a third party. Either of these options would be expensive and time consuming. These costs may be incurred in advance of any approval of our product candidates. In addition, we may not be able to hire a sales force that is sufficient in size or has adequate expertise in the medical markets that we intend to target. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of our products.

To the extent that we enter into collaboration agreements with respect to marketing, sales or distribution, our product revenue may be lower than if we directly marketed or sold any approved products. In addition, any revenue we receive will depend in whole or in part upon the efforts of these third-party collaborators, which may not be successful and are generally not within our control. If we are unable to enter into these arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any approved products. If we are not successful in commercializing any approved products, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, our future product revenue will suffer and we may incur significant additional losses.

We may not be able to achieve the prices for our products that we may need for sustained profitability. In particular, there are different and changing reimbursement regulations in major market countries and other countries, and we might not be able to show the specific benefit or other requirements required for reimbursement or reimbursement at a specified pricing level in one or more jurisdictions.

In addition, if we successfully develop combinations of our product candidates with other potentially expensive agents, the market may not allow premium pricing of our products and hence may impair our ability to achieve profitability.

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We face significant competition and if our competitors develop and market products that are more effective, safer or less expensive than our product candidates, our commercial opportunities will be negatively impacted.

The life sciences industry is highly competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. We are currently developing therapeutics that will compete with other drugs and therapies that currently exist or are being developed. Products we may develop in the future are also likely to face competition from other drugs and therapies, some of which we may not currently be aware. We have competitors both in the United States and internationally, including major multinational pharmaceutical companies, established biotechnology companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, universities and other research institutions. Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, drug development, technical and human resources than we do. Large pharmaceutical companies, in particular, have extensive experience in clinical testing, obtaining regulatory approvals, recruiting patients and in manufacturing pharmaceutical products. These companies also have significantly greater research and marketing capabilities than we do and may also have products that have been approved or are in late stages of development, and collaborative arrangements in our target markets with leading companies and research institutions. Established pharmaceutical companies may also invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel compounds or to in-license novel compounds that could make the product candidates that we develop obsolete. As a result of all of these factors, our competitors may succeed in discovering, developing, obtaining patent protection, marketing approval and commercialize products in our field before we do.

There are many companies developing or marketing treatments for cancer disorders, including many major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These treatments consist of small molecule drug products, biologic therapeutics that work either by using next-generation antibody technology platforms or new immunological approaches to address specific cancer targets, as well as genetically engineered cellular therapeutics. These treatments are often combined with one another in an attempt to maximize efficacy. In addition, several companies are developing therapeutics that work by targeting multiple specificities using a single recombinant molecule, as we are.

Clinical phase 2 data with the anti-PD-1 CPIs nivolumab and pembrolizumab in HL have been published, as has pembrolizumab phase 3 data. These data indicate that treatment with anti-PD-1 antibodies results in high response rates in the salvage setting of HL. In 2016, the FDA granted accelerated approval, and the European Commission granted approval for nivolumab in cHL patients who have relapsed or progressed after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (“ASCT”) and brentuximab vedotin (“Adcetris^®”). In 2017, the FDA granted accelerated approval, and the European Commission granted approval for pembrolizumab in adult and pediatric patients with refractory cHL who have relapsed after 3 or more prior lines of therapy, and the European Commission granted approval for pembrolizumab in adult patients with R/R cHL who have failed ASCT and Adcetris^®, or who are transplant-ineligible and have failed Adcetris^®. In 2020, the FDA approved an expanded label for pembrolizumab in R/R cHL. Additional studies of Adcetris^® in combination with nivolumab are either planned or ongoing. If acimtamig, alone or in combination, were to be approved for HL, we could be in competition with these therapies, as well as any other therapies or combination regimens that comprise the standard of care that our offering could potentially displace. Adcetris^®, an antibody-drug conjugate targeting CD30, was approved by the FDA in R/R HL in 2011. In addition, Adcetris^® was approved by the FDA in 2018 for the treatment of previously untreated Stage 3/4 cHL in combination with chemotherapy. In the European Union, Adcetris^® is approved for similar indications. Adcetris^® is also indicated for previously treated systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (“ALCL”), primary cutaneous ALCL, and CD30+ mycosis fungoides, as well as for previously untreated systemic ALCL or other CD30+ PTCL in combination with chemotherapy in the US and for previously untreated systemic ALCL in Europe. Adcetris^® is currently being investigated in various combinations in HL, including CPIs.

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We expect that our ROCK^® platform as well as our novel antibody formats derived from this platform will serve as the basis for future product candidates and collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. Other companies have also developed platform technologies that compete with our platforms. For example, Dragonfly Therapeutics is developing TriNKET, which specifically activates cells of the innate and adaptive immune system and has several TriNKETs in clinical development, some in collaborations with partners. GT Biopharma is developing its TriKEs and TetraKEs platform designed to target NK cells and tumor cells forming an immune synapse between the NK cell and the tumor cell thereby inducing NK cell activation at that site. Innate Pharma is developing several multi-specific NK cell engagers for oncology indications based on their ANKET platform. Furthermore, there may be other companies we have not identified that develop technologies that also engage NK cells in oncology, which would put them into competition with our therapies. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe effects, are more convenient, have a broader label, are marketed more effectively, are reimbursed or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA, European Commission or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Even if our product candidates achieve marketing approval, they may be priced at a significant premium over competitive products if any have been approved by then, resulting in reduced competitiveness.

In addition, our ability to compete in the future may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payors seeking to encourage the use of biosimilar products. In March 2010, former President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, (collectively, the “ACA”), a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for health care and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms. The ACA also created a new regulatory scheme authorizing the FDA to approve biosimilars. Under the ACA, a manufacturer may submit an application for licensure of a biologic product that is “biosimilar to” or “interchangeable with” a previously approved biological product or “reference product,” without the need to submit a full package of preclinical and clinical data. Under this new statutory scheme, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following approval of the reference product. The FDA may not approve a biosimilar product until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was approved. Even if a product is considered to be a reference product eligible for exclusivity, another company could market a competing version of that product if the FDA approves a full BLA for such product containing the sponsor’s own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical studies to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of their product. Furthermore, recent legislation has proposed that the 12-year exclusivity period for each reference product may be reduced to seven years.

Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical study sites and patient registration for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. In addition, the biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by rapid technological change. If we fail to stay at the forefront of technological change, we may be unable to compete effectively. Technological advances or products developed by our competitors may render our technologies or product candidates obsolete, less competitive or not economical.

Enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates and may affect the prices we may set. The successful commercialization of our product candidates will depend in part on the extent to which governmental authorities and health insurers establish adequate coverage and reimbursement levels and pricing policies.

In the United States, the European Union, and its respective member states and other foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system. These changes could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to sell profitably any products for which we obtain marketing approval. Among policy makers and payors in the United States and elsewhere, there is significant interest in promoting changes in healthcare systems with the stated goals of containing healthcare costs, improving quality and/or expanding access to healthcare.

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In the United States, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, (the “Medicare Modernization Act”) changed the way Medicare covers and pays for pharmaceutical products. The legislation expanded Medicare coverage for drug purchases by the elderly and introduced a new reimbursement methodology based on average sale prices for physician-administered drugs. In addition, this legislation provided authority for limiting the number of drugs that will be covered in any therapeutic class. Cost-reduction initiatives and other provisions of this legislation could decrease the coverage and price that we receive for any approved products. If we successfully develop combinations of our product candidates with other potentially expensive agents, we may not achieve premium pricing for our products, which may impair our ability to achieve profitability. While the Medicare Modernization Act applies only to drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement rates. Therefore, any reduction in reimbursement that results from the Medicare Modernization Act may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors.

In addition, the ACA, among other things, increased rebates a manufacturer must pay to the Medicaid program, addressed a new methodology by which rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program are calculated for drugs that are inhaled, infused, instilled, implanted or injected, established a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must provide 50% point-of-sale discounts on products covered under Part D and implemented payment system reforms including a national pilot program on payment bundling to encourage hospitals, physicians and other providers to improve the coordination, quality and efficiency of certain healthcare services through bundled payment models. Further, the new law imposed a significant annual fee on companies that manufacture or import branded prescription drug products. Substantial new provisions affecting compliance were enacted, which may affect our business practices with health care practitioners. The goal of the ACA is to reduce the cost of health care and substantially change the way health care is financed by both governmental and private insurers. While we cannot predict what impact on federal reimbursement policies this legislation will have in general or on our business specifically, the ACA may result in downward pressure on pharmaceutical reimbursement, which could negatively affect market acceptance of, and the price we may charge for, any products we develop that receive regulatory approval.

Additionally, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, enacted in 2013, imposed new obligations on manufacturers of pharmaceutical products related to product tracking and tracing.

In recent years, members of Congress and the former Trump Administration considered legislation to fundamentally change or repeal the ACA. While Congress has not passed repeal legislation to date, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”) includes a provision repealing the individual insurance coverage mandate included in the ACA, effective January 1, 2019. Congress may consider other legislation to replace elements of the ACA. The implications of the ACA, its possible repeal, any legislation that may be proposed to replace the ACA, or the political uncertainty surrounding any repeal or replacement legislation for our business and financial condition, if any, are not yet clear.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (the “IRA”) was signed into law. The IRA includes several provisions that could impact our business to varying degrees, including provisions that create a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for Medicare Part D beneficiaries, impose new manufacturer financial liability on all drugs in Medicare Part D, allow the U.S. government to negotiate Medicare Part B and Part D pricing for certain high-cost drugs and biologics without generic or biosimilar competition, require companies to pay rebates to Medicare for drug prices that increase faster than inflation, and delay the rebate rule that would require pass through of pharmacy benefit manager rebates to beneficiaries. The effect of the IRA on our business and the healthcare industry in general is not yet known.

Although a number of these and other proposed measures may require authorization through additional legislation to become effective, and the Biden administration may reverse or otherwise change these measures, both the Biden administration and Congress have indicated that they will continue to seek new legislative measures to control drug costs.

We expect that additional United States federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that the United States federal government will pay for healthcare drugs and services, which could result in reduced demand for any of our product candidates or additional pricing pressures.

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Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain drug access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. Legally mandated price controls on payment amounts by third-party payors or other restrictions could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, state health authorities, regional health systems, and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs. This could reduce the ultimate demand for our drugs or put pressure on our drug pricing, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We anticipate that Congress, state legislatures and third-party payors may continue to review and assess alternative healthcare delivery and payment systems and may in the future propose and adopt legislation or policy changes or implementations effecting additional fundamental changes in the healthcare delivery system. Additionally, any new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other health care funding, which could have a material adverse effect on our customers and accordingly, our financial operations. We cannot assure you as to the ultimate content, timing, or effect of changes, nor is it possible at this time to estimate the impact of any such potential legislation.

The delivery of healthcare in the European Union, including the establishment and operation of health services and the pricing and reimbursement of medicines, is almost exclusively a matter for national, rather than European Union, law and policy. National governments and health service providers have different priorities and approaches to the delivery of health care and the pricing and reimbursement of products in that context. In general, however, the healthcare budgetary constraints in most European Union member states have resulted in restrictions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines by relevant health service providers. Coupled with ever-increasing European Union and national regulatory burdens on those wishing to develop and market products, this could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to commercialize any products for which we obtain marketing approval.

Our business may become subject to economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with international operations.

Our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business internationally. A number of our suppliers and collaborative and clinical study relationships are located outside the United States. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:

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Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

We have incurred significant losses since inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. We have no products approved for commercial sale, and to date we have not generated any revenue or profit from product sales. We may never achieve or sustain profitability.

We are a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company. We have incurred significant losses since our inception. As of December 31, 2023, our accumulated deficit was €536.1 million. Our losses have resulted principally from expenses incurred in research and development of our product candidates and from general and administrative expenses that we have incurred while building our business infrastructure. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect these losses to increase as we continue our research and development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates, prepare for and begin to commercialize any approved products, and add infrastructure and personnel to support our product development efforts and operations as a public company. The net losses and negative cash flows incurred to date, together with expected future losses, have had, and likely will continue to have, an adverse effect on our shareholders’ equity and working capital. The amount of future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability. For example, our expenses could increase if we are required by the FDA or the EMA to perform trials in addition to those that we currently expect to perform, or if there are any delays in completing our currently planned clinical studies or in the development of any of our product candidates.

To become and remain profitable, we must succeed in developing and commercializing products with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities for which we are only in the preliminary stages, including developing product candidates, obtaining regulatory approval for them, and manufacturing, marketing and selling those products for which we may obtain regulatory approval. We may never succeed in these activities and may never generate revenue from product sales that is significant enough to achieve profitability. Our ability to generate future revenue from product sales depends heavily on our success in many areas, including but not limited to:

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Even if one or more of the product candidates that we develop is approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any approved product candidate. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties of pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods. Our failure to become or remain profitable would depress our market value and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, develop other product candidates, or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.

We will require substantial additional funding, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all, and, if not available, may require us to delay, scale back, or cease our product development programs or operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on acceptable terms, we may need to delay, reduce or terminate our product development programs and may be unable to continue as a going concern and could ultimately go into insolvency.

We are advancing our product candidates through clinical development. Developing pharmaceutical products, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical studies, is expensive. In order to obtain such regulatory approval, we will be required to conduct clinical studies for each indication for each of our product candidates. We will require additional funding to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidates and to continue to advance the development of our other product candidates, and such funding may not be available or acceptable due to factors beyond our control, such as rising interest rates, uncertainty in financial markets, or economic instability, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. Although it is difficult to predict our liquidity requirements, based upon our current operating plan, assuming all of our programs advance as currently contemplated, we anticipate that our existing liquidity will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2025. Because successful development of our product candidates is uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require to complete research and development and to commercialize our product candidates. In the event we are not able to generate sufficient funds from these measures, we may be unable to continue as a going concern, our business, financial condition and/or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected and we may ultimately go into insolvency.

Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including but not limited to:

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Until we can generate sufficient product revenues to finance our cash requirements, which we may never do, we expect to finance future cash needs primarily through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic collaborations and grant funding. If sufficient funds on acceptable terms are not available when needed, or at all, we could be forced to significantly reduce operating expenses and delay, scale back or eliminate one or more of our development programs or our business operations or even go bankrupt.

Raising additional capital may dilute our shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our intellectual property or future revenue streams.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, grants and licenses and development agreements in connection with any collaborations. We do not have any committed external source of funds. In the event we need to seek additional funds, we may raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities. In such an event, our shareholders’ ownership interests will be diluted, and the terms of these new securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect our shareholders’ rights as holders of our common shares. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends.

On January 8, 2021, we entered into a term loan agreement with Bootstrap Europe (formerly Silicon Valley Bank German Branch), as lender. The loan agreement provides us with loans of up to €25.0 million, available in three tranches: €10 million available at closing, an additional €7.5 million upon the achievement of certain conditions, including milestones related to our pipeline and market capitalization, and a third tranche of €7.5 million upon the achievement of certain additional conditions related to our pipeline and liquidity. The first tranche of €10 million was drawn in February 2021 and the second tranche of €7.5 million was drawn in December 2021. The third tranche of €7.5 million expired undrawn at the end of 2022. The loans will mature at the end of November 2025.

If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, product candidates, intellectual property or future revenue streams. If we are unable to raise additional funds when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

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We have broad discretion in the use of our cash on hand and may not use it effectively.

As of December 31, 2023, we had €72.0 million in cash and cash equivalents and investments, with an anticipated cash runway into the second half of 2025. Our management will have broad discretion in the use of such funds and could spend them in ways that do not improve our results of operations or enhance the value of our common shares. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could result in financial losses that could have a material adverse effect on our business, cause the price of our common shares to decline and delay the development of our product candidates. Pending their use, we may invest our cash and cash equivalents in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

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

Our ability to utilize our net operating losses (“NOLs”) is currently limited, and may be limited further, under Section 8c of the Körperschaftsteuergesetz (the “German Corporation Income Tax Act”) and Section 10a of the Gewerbesteuergesetz (the “German Trade Tax Act”). These limitations apply if a qualified ownership change, as defined by Section 8c of the Körperschaftsteuergesetz, occurs and no exemption is applicable. Generally, a qualified ownership change occurs if more than 50% of the share capital or the voting rights are directly or indirectly transferred to a shareholder or a group of shareholders within a period of five years. A qualified ownership change may also occur in case of an increase in capital leading to a respective change in the shareholding. In the case of such qualified ownership change all tax losses and tax loss carry forwards available as of the time of the ownership change, cannot be utilized in the future. However, to the extent that the tax losses and tax loss carry forwards do not exceed hidden reserves taxable in Germany or the qualified ownership change is made for purposes of the Company’s restructuring (zum Zwecke der Sanierung), they may be further utilized despite a qualified ownership change. Furthermore, Section 8c of the Körperschaftsteuergesetz is— under strict requirements—not applicable to a company provided that such company continues only those operations which are causing the loss (Section 8d Körperschaftsteuergesetz). In addition, the question whether the aforementioned described provisions of Section 8c of the Körperschaftsteuergesetz do comply with the German constitution is currently pending with the Bundesverfassungsgericht (the “German Supreme Court”). On March 29, 2017, the German Supreme Court ruled that Section 8c of the Körperschaftsteuergesetz has not complied with the German constitution to the extent it formerly stated that a harmful ownership change should occur partially if more than 25% but less than 50% of the share capital or the voting rights are directly or indirectly transferred to a shareholder or a group of shareholders within a period of five years. As a consequence of this decision, the German legislator abolished that part of the provision.

As of December 31, 2023, we had estimated NOL carry forwards for German tax purposes of approximately €472 million. Future changes in share ownership may also trigger an ownership change and, consequently, a Section 8c Körperschaftsteuergesetz or a Section 10a Gewerbesteuergesetz limitation. Any limitation may result in the expiration of a portion or the complete tax loss carry forwards before they can be utilized. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change NOL carry forwards to reduce German income tax may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future cash tax liability to us.

Our business and operations would suffer in the event of a security breach, system failure, invasion, corruption, destruction or interruption of our or our business partners’ critical information technology systems or infrastructure.

In the ordinary course of business, we and our business partners store sensitive data, including intellectual property and proprietary information related to our business and our business partners, on our information technology systems. We and certain of our service providers are from time to time subject to cyberattack attempts or incidents and security incidents. To mitigate risks, we have made a substantial investment in cybersecurity and information security.

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Despite the implementation of technical and organizational security measures, these systems are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, cyber-attacks, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication, electrical and other system failures due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions. We could experience a business interruption, intentional theft of confidential information or reputational damage, including damage to key customer and partner relationships, from system failures, espionage attacks, malware, ransomware or other cyber-attacks. Such cyber-security breaches may compromise our system infrastructure or lead to data leakage, either internally or at our contractors or consultants. In particular, system failures or cyber-security breaches could result in the loss of nonclinical or clinical trial data from completed, ongoing or planned trials, which could cause delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased.

To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, including protected health information or personal data of employees or former employees, we could be subject to legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws and regulations governing the protection of health and other personally identifiable information and related regulatory penalties. In any such event, our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows could be materially adversely affected. (See “Item 16K—Cybersecurity.”)

Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties

Our existing collaborations on research and development candidates are important to our business, and future collaborations may also be important to us. If we are unable to maintain any of these collaborations, if these collaborations are not successful or if we fail to enter into new strategic relationships, our business could be adversely affected.

We have entered into collaborations with other companies that we believe have provided us with valuable funding or other resources such as access to technologies, including our collaborations with Artiva, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (the “LLS”), Genentech, the MDACC and Roivant. In the future, we may enter into additional collaborations to leverage our technology platforms, fund our research and development programs or to gain access to sales, marketing or distribution capabilities. Our existing collaborations, and any future collaborations we enter into, may pose a number of risks, including the following:

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

All of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval and commercialization described in this Annual Report also apply to the activities of our program collaborators. Additionally, subject to its contractual obligations to us, if one of our collaborators is involved in a business combination, the collaborator might deemphasize or terminate the development or commercialization of any product candidate licensed to it by us. If one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may find it more difficult to attract new collaborators.

For some of our product candidates, we may in the future determine to collaborate with additional pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for development and potential commercialization of therapeutic products. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. These factors may include the design or results of clinical studies, the likelihood of approval by the FDA, the EMA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States, the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge and industry and market conditions generally. The collaborator may also consider alternative product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us for our product candidate.

Collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. Negotiation and diligence of potential partnerships, collaborations and alliances could require diversion of significant business resources, which could adversely impact our business operations. Furthermore, these negotiations and diligences may not eventually result in a signed agreement.

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In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators. If we are unable to reach agreements with suitable collaborators on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, we may have to curtail the development of a product candidate, reduce or delay one or more of our other development programs, delay its potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we elect to fund and undertake development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional expertise and additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we fail to enter into collaborations and do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or bring them to market or continue to develop our technology platforms and our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We may also be restricted under existing collaboration agreements from entering into future agreements on certain terms with potential collaborators. Subject to certain specified exceptions, our former collaboration with Amphivena contains restrictions on our engaging in activities that were the subject of the collaboration with third parties for specified periods of time. These restrictions survived the expiration of the agreement in July 2016.

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CROs and independent clinical investigators that we engage to conduct our clinical studies may not devote sufficient time or attention to our clinical studies or be able to repeat their past success.

We expect to continue to depend on independent clinical investigators and CROs to conduct our clinical studies. CROs may also assist us in the collection and analysis of data. There is a limited number of third-party service providers that specialize or have the expertise required to achieve our business objectives. Identifying, qualifying and managing the performance of third-party service providers can be difficult, time consuming and cause delays in our development programs. These investigators and CROs will not be our employees and we will not be able to control, other than by contract, the amount of resources, including time, which they devote to our product candidates and clinical studies. In addition, certain clinical studies in which we are involved, and which are testing our product candidates are sponsored by ISTs. By definition, the financing, design and conduct of the clinical study are under the sole responsibility of the respective ISTs. Therefore, we have limited control over these clinical studies, and we do not have control over the timing and reporting of the data from these trials. In addition, we may have limited information about ISTs while they are being conducted, including the status of trial initiation and patient recruitment, changes to trial design and clinical study results. The acimtamig phase 2a study in HL and the phase 1b/2a study in CD30+ lymphoma with cutaneous manifestations were ISTs. An additional acimtamig phase 1/2 IST is currently conducted by the MDACC with CD30+ lymphoma patients. If independent investigators or CROs fail to devote sufficient resources to the development of our product candidates, or if their performance is substandard, it may delay or compromise the completion of trials of our product candidates as well as the prospects for approval and commercialization of any product candidates that we develop. In addition, the use of third-party service providers requires us to disclose our proprietary information to these parties, which could increase the risk that this information will be misappropriated. Further, the FDA and other regulatory authorities require that we comply with standards, commonly referred to as current Good Clinical Practice (“GCP”), and other local legal requirements, e.g., data privacy, for conducting, recording and reporting clinical studies to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial subjects are protected. Failure of clinical investigators or CROs to meet their obligations to us or comply with GCP procedures or other applicable legal requirements could adversely affect the clinical development of our product candidates and harm our business.

We contract with third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for clinical testing in mono- and combination therapy settings and expect to continue to do so for commercialization. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products, or compounds of such third parties, or such quantities at an acceptable cost, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.

We anticipate continuing our engagement of contract manufacturing organizations to provide our clinical supply as we advance our product candidates into and through clinical development. We expect to use third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for clinical testing, as well as for commercial manufacture. We plan to eventually enter into long-term supply agreements with several manufacturers for commercial supplies. We may be unable to reach agreement on satisfactory terms with contract manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates.

Additionally, the facilities that manufacture our product candidates must be the subject of a satisfactory inspection before the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities approve a BLA or grant a marketing authorization for the product candidate manufactured at that facility. We will depend on these third-party manufacturing partners for compliance with the FDA’s and the EMA’s requirements for the manufacture of our finished products. If our manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the FDA, European Commission and other regulatory authorities’ cGMP requirements, our product candidates will not be approved or, if already approved, may be subject to recalls. Reliance on third-party manufacturers entails risks to which we would not be subject if we manufactured the product candidates ourselves, including:

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Any of these factors could cause the delay of approval or commercialization of our product candidates, cause us to incur higher costs or prevent us from commercializing our product candidates successfully. Furthermore, if any of our product candidates are approved and contract manufacturers fail to deliver the required commercial quantities of finished product on a timely basis and at commercially reasonable prices, and we are unable to find one or more replacement manufacturers capable of production at a substantially equivalent cost, in substantially equivalent volumes and quality and on a timely basis, we would likely be unable to meet demand for our products and could lose potential revenue. It may take several years to establish an alternative source of supply for our product candidates and to have any such new source approved by the FDA, the EMA or any other relevant regulatory authorities.

If we wish to pursue further development of acimtamig, AFM24, AFM28 or any of our other ICE^® molecules in combination with pembrolizumab, atezolizumab or any other CPI, we will need to reach an agreement with Merck, Roche or another partner for such supply of pembrolizumab, atezolizumab or another CPI, respectively. In addition, we are currently dependent on collaborators, such as the MDACC, Genentech, Roivant and Artiva, for the supply of NK cells for clinical and preclinical studies that evaluate our ICE^® molecules in combination with NK cells. If we do not have an adequate supply and/or cannot reach an agreement with the applicable partner, we may not be able to develop acimtamig, AFM24, AFM28 or any of our other ICE^® molecules in any such combination. Any future supply agreement with a partner for combination trials with our ICE^® molecules could influence our clinical development strategy or our intellectual property or our economic rights, and therefore might impact the content we can derive from such clinical development.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain and enforce patent protection for our product candidates and related technology, our business could be materially harmed.

Issued patents may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated or circumvented. In addition, court decisions may introduce uncertainty in the enforceability or scope of patents owned by biotechnology companies. The legal systems of certain countries do not favor the aggressive enforcement of patents, and the laws of non-U.S. countries may not allow us to protect our inventions with patents to the same extent as the laws of the United States and Europe. Because patent applications in the United States, Europe and many other non-U.S. jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all, and because publications of discoveries in scientific literature lag behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our issued patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for protection of the inventions set forth in our patents or patent applications. As a result, we may not be able to obtain or maintain protection for certain inventions. Therefore, the enforceability and scope of our patents in the United States, Europe and in other non-U.S. countries cannot be predicted with certainty; as a result, any patents that we own, or license may not provide sufficient protection against competitors. We may not be able to obtain or maintain patent protection from our pending patent applications, from those we may file in the future, or from those we may license from third parties. Moreover, even if we are able to obtain patent protection, such patent protection may be of insufficient scope to achieve our business objectives.

We own and/or control our acimtamig patent portfolio, which includes three patent families. The first patent family relates to the mode of action of acimtamig, the recruitment of immune effector cells via a specific receptor, i.e., an antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof having the CDRs of acimtamig. These patents will expire in 2026 in Europe and in 2029 in the US. A second patent family on acimtamig claims the method for the production of acimtamig and the product produced by this method and respective issued patents will expire in 2040. A further patent application on acimtamig relating to its combination with anti-PD1 antibodies was filed in 2016. The already granted Chinese, European, Japanese and US patent will expire in 2036 as all other patents issued on still pending applications in this family. Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g. acimtamig and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039. A patent family is jointly owned and/or controlled with Artiva and is directed to the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® and respective possibly issued patents will not expire before 2042.

Moreover, we own and/or control our AFM24 patent portfolio, which includes one patent family directed to the compound of AFM24. The non-provisional patent application was filed in 2019 and issued patents will not expire before 2039. Patents in this family have already been granted e.g. in the US. Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g. AFM24 and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039.

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For AFM28 we own and/or control a patent portfolio that includes one patent family directed to AFM28. The non-provisional patent application was filed in 2022 and issued patents will not expire before 2042. Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g., AFM28 and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039, and the antibody scaffold of AFM28 is further protected by a patent family owned and controlled by us with the respective granted patents not expiring before 2039.

Our strategy depends on our ability to identify and seek patent protection for our discoveries. This process is expensive and time consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all jurisdictions where protection may be commercially advantageous, or we may financially not be able to protect our proprietary rights at all. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may be able to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. The issuance of a patent does not ensure that it is valid or enforceable, so even if we obtain patents, they may not be valid or enforceable against third parties. In addition, the issuance of a patent does not give us the right to practice the patented invention. Third parties may have blocking patents that could prevent us from marketing our own patented product and practicing our own patented technology. Third parties may also seek to market biosimilar versions of any approved products. Alternatively, third parties may seek approval to market their own products similar to, or otherwise competitive with our products. In these circumstances, we may need to defend and/or assert our patents, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement. In any of these types of proceedings, a court or agency with jurisdiction may find our patents invalid and/or unenforceable. Even if we have valid and enforceable patents, these patents still may not provide protection against competing products or processes sufficient to achieve our business objectives.

The patent position of pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, including ours, is generally uncertain and involves complex legal and factual considerations for which legal principles remain unsolved. The standards which the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) and its non-U.S. counterparts use to grant patents are not always applied predictably or uniformly and can change. There is also no uniform, worldwide policy regarding the subject matter and scope of claims granted or allowable in pharmaceutical or biotechnology patents. The laws of some non-U.S. countries do not protect proprietary information to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and many companies have encountered significant problems and costs in protecting their proprietary information in these non-U.S. countries. Outside the United States, patent protection must be sought in individual jurisdictions, further adding to the cost and uncertainty of obtaining adequate patent protection outside of the United States. Accordingly, we cannot predict whether additional patents protecting our technology will issue in the United States or in non-U.S. jurisdictions, or whether any patents that do issue will have claims of adequate scope to provide competitive advantage. Moreover, we cannot predict whether third parties will be able to successfully obtain claims or the breadth of such claims. The allowance of broader claims may increase the incidence and cost of patent interference proceedings, opposition proceedings, and/or re-examination proceedings, the risk of infringement litigation, and the vulnerability of the claims to challenge. On the other hand, the allowance of narrower claims does not eliminate the potential for adversarial proceedings and may fail to provide a competitive advantage. Our issued patents may not contain claims sufficiently broad to protect us against third parties with similar technologies or products or provide us with any competitive advantage.

Our commercial success depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. Other entities may have or obtain patents or proprietary rights that could limit our ability to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import our future approved products or impair our competitive position.

Patents could be issued to third parties that we may ultimately be found to infringe. Third parties may have or obtain valid and enforceable patents or proprietary rights that could block us from developing product candidates using our technology. We develop product candidates with various technologies to which third parties could obtain or have obtained proprietary rights. Our failure to obtain a license to any third-party technology that we require may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, our failure to maintain a license to any technology that we require may also materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, we could be exposed to the threat of litigation if we fail to obtain or maintain any such license that we require.

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In the pharmaceutical industry, significant litigation and other proceedings regarding patents, patent applications, trademarks and other intellectual property rights have become commonplace. The types of situations in which we may become a party to such litigation, or proceedings include:

These lawsuits would be costly and could affect our results of operations and divert the attention of our management and scientific personnel. There is a risk that a court would decide that we or our collaborators are infringing the third party’s patents and would order us or our collaborators to stop the activities covered by the patents. In that event, we or our collaborators may not have a viable alternative to the technology protected by the patent and may need to halt work on the affected product candidate or cease commercialization of an approved product. In addition, there is a risk that a court will order us or our collaborators to pay the other party damages. An adverse outcome in any litigation or other proceedings could subject us to significant liabilities to third parties and require us to cease using the technology that is at issue or to license the technology from third parties. We may not be able to obtain any required licenses on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Any of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have produced a significant number of patents, and it may not always be clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of products or methods of use. The coverage of patents is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform or predictable. If we are sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claims are invalid, and we may not be able to do this. Proving invalidity is difficult. For example, in the United States, proving invalidity requires showing clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Even if we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and divert management time and attention in pursuing these proceedings, which could have a material adverse effect on us. If we are unable to avoid infringing the patent rights of others, we may be required to seek a license, defend an infringement action or challenge the validity of the patents in court. Patent litigation is costly and time consuming. We may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion. In addition, if we do not obtain a license, develop or obtain non-infringing technology, fail to defend an infringement action successfully or have infringed patents declared invalid, we may incur substantial monetary damages, encounter significant delays in bringing our product candidates to market and be precluded from manufacturing or selling our product candidates.

The cost of any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the cost of such litigation and proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time.

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The patent protection and patent prosecution for some of our product candidates is dependent on third parties.

While we normally seek to obtain the right to control prosecution, maintenance and enforcement of the patents relating to our product candidates, there may be times when the filing and prosecution activities for patents relating to our product candidates are controlled by our licensors. Although we monitor the ongoing prosecution and maintenance of the licensed patents, if any of our future licensing partners fail to prosecute, maintain and enforce such patents and patent applications in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business, including by payment of all applicable fees for patents covering acimtamig, AFM24, AFM28 or any of our product candidates, we could lose our rights to the intellectual property or our exclusivity with respect to those rights, our ability to develop and commercialize those product candidates may be adversely affected and we may not be able to prevent competitors from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing competing products.

Our business may be adversely affected if we are unable to gain access to relevant intellectual property rights of third parties, or if our licensing partners terminate our rights in certain technologies that are licensed or sublicensed to us.

We currently rely, and may in the future rely, on certain intellectual property rights licensed from third parties in order to be able to use various proprietary technologies that are material to our business.

In some cases, we do not control the prosecution, maintenance or filing of the patents to which we hold licenses, and the enforcement of our licensed patents or defense of any claims asserting the invalidity of these patents is subject to the control or cooperation of our licensors. We cannot be certain that our licensors will prosecute, maintain, enforce and defend the licensed patent rights in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. We also cannot be certain that drafting or prosecution of the licensed patents by our licensors have been conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and will result in valid and enforceable patents and other intellectual property rights.

We are a party to a number of agreements, including license agreements, through which we have gained rights to certain intellectual property that relate to our business and we expect to enter into additional such agreements in the future. We expect that future agreements will impose various diligence, commercialization, milestone payment, royalty, and other obligations on us. Certain of our licenses contain provisions that allow the licensor to terminate the license upon the occurrence of specific events or conditions. For example, our rights under each of the licenses described above are subject to our continued compliance with the terms of the licenses, certain diligence and development obligations, the payment of royalties, milestone payments and other fees, and certain disclosure and confidentiality obligations. If we are found to be in breach of any of our license agreements, in certain circumstances our licensors may take action against us, including by terminating the applicable license. Because of the complexity of our product candidates and the patents we have licensed, determining the scope of the licenses and related obligations may be difficult and could lead to disputes between us and the licensor. An unfavorable resolution of such a dispute could lead to an increase in the royalties payable pursuant to the license or a termination of the license. If any of our licensors were to terminate our license agreement with them, we may be prevented from the continued use of certain technologies, in clinical studies or, if our products are approved for marketing, from using such technologies in the manufacturing of products that could be sold commercially. This could delay or prevent us from offering our product candidates. We might not have the necessary rights or the financial resources to develop, manufacture or market our current or future product candidates without the rights granted under these licenses, and the loss of sales or potential sales in such product candidates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Under certain of our agreements, our licensors have the right to convert an exclusive license to a non-exclusive license upon the expiration of the initial exclusivity period or upon the occurrence of certain events. Such a conversion would potentially allow third parties to practice the technologies licensed under the agreement and could materially adversely affect the value of the product candidate we are developing under the agreement.

In addition to the above risks, certain of our intellectual property rights are sublicenses under intellectual property owned by third parties. The actions of our licensors may therefore affect our rights to use our sublicensed intellectual property, even if we are in compliance with all of the obligations under our license agreements.

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If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information, the value of our technology and products could be adversely affected.

In addition to patent protection, we also rely on other proprietary rights, including protection of trade secrets, and other proprietary information. To maintain the confidentiality of trade secrets and proprietary information, we enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, to the extent a confidentiality obligation is not covered by their employment agreements, consultants, collaborators and others upon the commencement of their relationships with us. These agreements require that all confidential information developed by the individual or made known to the individual by us during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties and the public domain, so that it cannot be used for patent protection anymore, either by local law or if not applicable pursuant to specific agreements with employees and our personnel policies it is intended that any inventions conceived by the individual in the course of rendering services to us shall be our exclusive property. However, we may not obtain these agreements in all circumstances, and individuals with whom we have these agreements may or may not comply with their terms or with local law. Thus, despite such legal provisions or agreement, such inventions may become assigned to third parties. In the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets or proprietary information, these legal provisions or agreements, even if obtained, may not provide meaningful protection, particularly for our trade secrets or other confidential information. To the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use technology or know-how owned by third parties in their work for us, disputes may arise between us and those third parties as to the rights in related inventions. To the extent that an individual who is not an Affimed employee and thus not obligated to assign rights in intellectual property to us and is rightfully an inventor of intellectual property, we may need to obtain an assignment or a license to that intellectual property from that individual, or a third party or from that individual’s assignee. Such assignment or license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Adequate remedies may not exist in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our proprietary information. The disclosure of our trade secrets would impair our competitive position and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position. In addition, others may independently discover or develop our trade secrets and proprietary information, and the existence of our own trade secrets affords no protection against such independent discovery.

As is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, we employ individuals who were previously or concurrently employed at research institutions and/or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees, or we, have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers, or that patents and applications we have filed to protect inventions of these employees, even those related to one or more of our product candidates, are rightfully owned by their former or concurrent employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in our defense, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

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Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, documentary, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to the USPTO and various non-U.S. patent offices at various points over the lifetime of our patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we rely on our outside counsel/patent annuity service provider to pay these fees when due. Additionally, the USPTO and various non-U.S. patent offices require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with rules applicable to the particular jurisdiction. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we are responsible for the payment of patent fees for patent rights that we have licensed from other parties. If any licensor of these patents does not itself elect to make these payments, and we fail to do so, we may be liable to the licensor for any costs and consequences of any resulting loss of patent rights.

Certain of our employees and patents are subject to German law.

Approximately 70 of our personnel (after the workforce reduction), including certain of our managing directors and most of our employees working in research and development, work in Germany and are subject to German employment law. Ideas, developments, discoveries and inventions made by such employees are subject to the provisions of the German Act on Employees’ Inventions (Arbeitnehmererfindungsgesetz), which regulates the ownership of, and compensation for, inventions made by employees. We face the risk that disputes may occur between us and our employees or ex-employees pertaining to the sufficiency of compensation paid by us, allocation of rights to inventions under this act or alleged non-adherence to the provisions of this act, any of which may be costly to resolve and take up our management’s time and efforts whether we prevail or fail in such dispute.

If we do not obtain protection under the Hatch-Waxman Amendments and similar non-U.S. legislation for extending the term of patents covering each of our product candidates, our business may be materially harmed.

Depending upon the timing, duration and conditions of FDA marketing approval of our product candidates, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments and one or more of European Union patents may be eligible for extension for up to five years under similar legislation in the European Union. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent term extension of up to five years for a patent covering an approved product as compensation for effective patent term lost during product development and the FDA regulatory review process and certain European Union regulations provide a Supplementary Protection Certificate (“SPC”) that confers the same rights as conferred by the patent protecting the product. However, we may not receive an extension or SPC if we fail to apply within applicable deadlines, fail to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise fail to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the length of the extension or SPC could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or an SPC or the term of any such extension or SPC is less than we request, the period during which we can enforce our patent rights for that product will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval to market competing products sooner. As a result, our revenue from applicable products could be reduced, possibly materially.

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

Even after they have been issued, our patents and any patents which we license may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated or circumvented. If our patents are invalidated or otherwise limited or will expire prior to the commercialization of our product candidates, other companies may be better able to develop products that compete with ours, which could adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects and financial condition.

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The following are examples of litigation and other adversarial proceedings or disputes that we could become a party to involving our patents or patents licensed to us:

These lawsuits and proceedings would be costly and could affect our results of operations and divert the attention of our managerial and scientific personnel. There is a risk that a court or administrative body would decide that our patents are invalid or not infringed by a third party’s activities, or that the scope of certain issued claims must be further limited. An adverse outcome in a litigation or proceeding involving our own patents could limit our ability to assert our patents against these or other competitors, affect our ability to receive royalties or other licensing consideration from our licensees, and may curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making, using and selling similar or competitive products. Any of these occurrences could adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects and financial condition.

The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain because legal means afford only limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. For example:

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If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.

Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented or declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition by potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively, and our business may be adversely affected.

We may engage in strategic transactions that could impact our liquidity, increase our expenses and present significant distractions to our management.

From time to time, we may consider strategic transactions, including acquisitions or divestitures of companies, asset purchases or sales and out-licensing or in-licensing of intellectual property, products or technologies. Additional potential transactions that we may consider in the future include a variety of business arrangements, including spinoffs, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, collaborations, restructurings, divestitures, business combinations and investments. Any future transactions could increase our near and long-term expenditures, result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, or the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses or acquired in-process research and development expenses, and could expose us to the risk of litigation, any of which could affect our financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. Future acquisitions may also require us to obtain additional financing, which may not be available on favorable terms or at all. These transactions may never be successful and may require significant time and attention of our management, as well as significant costs, whether or not successfully consummated. In addition, the integration of any business that we may acquire in the future may disrupt our existing business and may be a complex, risky and costly endeavor for which we may never realize the full benefits of the acquisition. For any alliances or joint ventures that we enter into in the biopharmaceutical industry, we may encounter numerous difficulties in discovering, developing, manufacturing and marketing any new products or product candidates related to such businesses, which may delay or prevent us from realizing the expected benefits or enhancing our business. Divestiture transactions may adversely impact the price of our common shares, to the extent investors believe the value of the consideration received in the transaction is not equivalent to the value of the asset or program divested. Although there can be no assurance that we will undertake or successfully complete a divestiture or any additional transactions of the nature described above, any such transactions that we do complete could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary rights to our product candidates through acquisitions and in-licenses.

We currently have rights to intellectual property, through licenses from third parties and under patents that we own, to develop our product candidates. Because our programs may require the use of proprietary rights held by third parties, the growth of our business will likely depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license, maintain or use these proprietary rights. In addition, our product candidates may require specific formulations to work effectively and efficiently and the rights to these formulations may be held by others. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes, or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary for our product candidates. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources, and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities.

For example, we sometimes collaborate with U.S. and non-U.S. academic institutions to accelerate our preclinical research or development under written agreements with these institutions. Typically, these institutions provide us with an option to negotiate a license to any of the institution’s rights in technology resulting from the collaboration. Regardless of such an option, we may be unable to negotiate a license within the specified timeframe or under terms that are acceptable to us. If we are unable to do so, the institution may offer the intellectual property rights to other parties, potentially blocking our ability to pursue our applicable product candidate or program.

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In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment. If we are unable to successfully obtain a license to third-party intellectual property rights necessary for the development of a product candidate or program, we may have to abandon development of that product candidate or program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

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

Filing, prosecuting, and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States and Europe. In addition, the laws of some countries outside the United States and Europe, such as China, do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States and laws in Europe. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States and Europe, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States, Europe or other jurisdictions. As part of ordinary course prosecution and maintenance activities, we determine whether and in which countries to seek patent protection outside the United States and Europe. This also applies to patents we have acquired or in-licensed from third parties. In some cases, this means that we, or our predecessors in interest or licensors of patents within our portfolio, have sought patent protection in a limited number of countries for patents covering our product candidates. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained or are unable to adequately enforce patent protection to develop their own products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States and Europe. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

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

Our information technology systems could face serious disruptions that could adversely affect our business.

Our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems, including corporate firewalls, servers, leased lines and connection to the Internet, face the risk of systemic failure that could disrupt our operations. A significant disruption in the availability of our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems could cause interruptions in our collaborations with our partners and delays in our research and development work. (See “Item 16K—Cybersecurity.”)

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Risks Related to Legal Compliance Matters

Because we and our suppliers are subject to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we may become exposed to liability and substantial expenses in connection with environmental compliance or remediation activities which may adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Our operations, including our research, development, testing and manufacturing activities, are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These laws and regulations govern, among other things, the controlled use, handling, release and disposal of, and the maintenance of a registry for, hazardous materials and biological materials, such as chemical solvents, human cells, carcinogenic compounds, mutagenic compounds and compounds that have a toxic effect on reproduction, laboratory procedures and exposure to blood-borne pathogens. If we fail to comply with such laws and regulations, we could be subject to fines or other sanctions.

As with other companies engaged in activities similar to ours, we face a risk of environmental liability inherent in our current and historical activities, including liability relating to releases of or exposure to hazardous or biological materials. Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations are becoming more stringent. We may be required to incur substantial expenses in connection with future environmental compliance or remediation activities, in which case, our production and development efforts may be interrupted or delayed, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

The third parties with whom we contract to manufacture our product candidates are also subject to these and other environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Liabilities they incur pursuant to these laws and regulations could result in significant costs or in certain circumstances, an interruption in operations, any of which could adversely impact our business and financial condition if we are unable to find an alternate supplier in a timely manner.

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

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with FDA, EMA or other regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA,the EMA or other regulations or intentional failures to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical studies, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. We have adopted a compliance management system (comprising a code of conduct, a code of conduct for business partners, several other compliance policies, a third-party due diligence process for a comprehensive background check of our key vendors and a whistleblowing hotline) which is based on three pillars: prevent, detect and respond to misconduct and an insider trading policy, each of which is communicated on a regular basis. However, it is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with these laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

We are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations in the European Union and European Economic Area (the “EEA”) related to privacy, data protection and data security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

We are subject to diverse laws and regulations relating to data privacy and security in the European Union and eventually in the EEA, including Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”). The GDPR applies extraterritorially and implements stringent operational requirements for controllers and processors of personal data. Additionally, virtually every jurisdiction in which we conduct clinical trials has established its own data security and privacy frameworks with which we must comply. New global privacy rules are being enacted and existing ones are being updated and strengthened. We are likely to be required to expend capital and other resources to ensure ongoing compliance with these laws and regulations.

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Complying with these numerous, complex and often changing regulations is expensive and difficult. Failure by us, any partners, our service providers, or our employees or contractors to comply with the GDPR could result in regulatory investigations, enforcement notices and/or fines of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of our total worldwide annual revenue. In addition to the foregoing, a breach of privacy laws or data security laws, particularly those resulting in a significant security incident or breach involving the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized use or disclosure of sensitive or confidential patient or consumer information, could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation and financial condition.

As a data controller, we are accountable for any third-party service providers we engage to process personal data on our behalf, including our clinical research organizations, or CROs. We attempt to mitigate the associated risks by performing security assessments and due diligence of our vendors and requiring all such third-party providers with data access to sign agreements and obligating them to only process data according to our instructions and to take sufficient security measures to protect such data. There is no assurance that these contractual measures and our own privacy and security-related safeguards will protect us from the risks associated with the third-party processing, storage and transmission of such information. Any violation of data or security laws by our third-party processors could have a material adverse effect on our business and result in the fines and penalties outlined above.

When we transfer personal data out of the European Union and EEA, we do so in compliance with the relevant data export requirements. After the European Court of Justice had declared the US Privacy Shield invalid in June 2020, there was uncertainty about how to comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union to the US. Now, as the European Commission adopted the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework on July 10, 2023 , we have reliable set of rules and safeguards that govern the transfer of personal data between the EU to the US, however guidance form the authorities is developing continuously and needs to be monitored regularly to be able to ensure compliance. We are also subject to evolving European privacy laws on cookies and on e-marketing. The European Union is in the process of replacing the e-Privacy Directive (2002/58/EC) with a new set of rules taking the form of a regulation, which will be directly implemented in the laws of each European member state. The draft e-Privacy Regulation imposes strict opt-in marketing rules with limited exceptions for business-to-business communications, alters rules on third-party cookies, web beacons and similar technology and significantly increases fining powers to the greater of €20 million or 4% of total worldwide annual revenue. While the e-Privacy Regulation was originally intended to be adopted on May 25, 2018 (alongside the GDPR), it is still going through the European legislative process, and it is still not clear when it will be adopted. Draft regulations were rejected by the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the European Union on November 22, 2019; it is not clear when new regulations will be adopted.

We process personal data in relation to participants in our clinical trials in the EEA, including the health and medical information of these participants. The GDPR is directly applicable in each European Union Member State, however, it provides that European Union Member States may introduce further conditions, including limitations which could limit our ability to collect, use and share personal data (including health and medical information), or could cause our compliance costs to increase, ultimately having an adverse impact on our business. The GDPR imposes onerous accountability obligations requiring data controllers and processors to maintain a record of their data processing and implement policies as part of its mandated privacy governance framework. It also requires data controllers to be transparent and disclose upon request to data subjects (in a concise, intelligible and easily accessible form) how their personal information is to be used, imposes limitations on retention of personal data; defines for the first time pseudonymized (i.e., key-coded) data; introduces mandatory data breach notification requirements; and sets higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained valid consent for certain data processing activities. In addition to the foregoing, a breach of the GDPR could result in regulatory investigations, reputational damage, orders to cease/change our use of data, enforcement notices, as well potential civil claims including class action type litigation where individuals suffer harm.

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Risks Relating to Employee Matters and Managing Growth

Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel and managing transitions among these personnel, such as the recent resignations of our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer.

We are highly dependent on the research and development, clinical and business development expertise of our managing directors and other key employees. We have entered into multi-year executive agreements with our managing directors. If any of our managing directors or other key employees becomes unavailable to perform services for us, we may not be able to find a qualified replacement in a timely fashion, which could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives and seriously harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. We do not maintain any key person insurance for our managing directors at this time.

Our success depends on our ability to manage transitions among our senior management and other key personnel. In late 2023, our chief financial officer and ending February 2024 our chief scientific officer resigned from our company. Additionally, our chief executive officer resigned from the company in January 2024. These recent changes in our senior management may be disruptive to our business, and if we are unable to manage an orderly transition in these cases or for other key personnel in the future, our business may be adversely affected.

In addition, we will need to expand and effectively manage our managerial, operational, financial, development and other resources in order to successfully pursue our research, development and commercialization efforts for our existing and future product candidates. Furthermore, replacing members of our supervisory board, management board or other key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval of and commercialize products. Competition to hire from this limited pool is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these key personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, our ability to pursue our growth strategy will be limited.

Risks Related to Our Common Shares

Our share price has been and may in the future be volatile, which could cause holders of our common shares to incur substantial losses.

You should consider an investment in our common shares as risky and invest only if you can withstand a significant loss and wide fluctuations in the market value of your investment. Our share price has been, and in the future may again be subject to substantial price volatility. In addition, the stock market has recently experienced significant volatility, particularly with respect to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other life sciences company stocks. The volatility of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other life sciences company stocks often does not relate to the operating performance of the companies represented by the stock. Some of the factors that may cause the market price of our common shares to fluctuate include:

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In addition, in the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our shareholders brought a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit and divert the time and attention of our management, which could seriously harm our business.

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If we are unable to comply with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, our common shares could be delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market, which would seriously harm the liquidity of our common shares and our ability to raise capital.

In April 2023, we received a letter from Nasdaq indicating that for the last thirty consecutive business days, the bid price for our common shares had closed below the minimum $1.00 per share requirement for continued listing on Nasdaq under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2). In accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we were provided an initial period of 180 calendar days, or until October 2, 2023, to regain compliance. As the common shares remained below the minimum bid price, we applied for a transfer of our common shares from the Nasdaq Global Select Market to the Nasdaq Capital Market. On October 4, 2023 we announced that we received approval from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq to transfer the listing of our common shares from the Nasdaq Global Market to the Nasdaq Capital Market. This transfer was effective as of the opening of business on October 4, 2023 and provided us with an additional 180 calendar days, or until April 1, 2024, to regain Nasdaq listing compliance. On March 25, 2024, we received a letter from Nasdaq stating that, for the last 10 consecutive business days, the closing bid price of our common shares was $1.00 per share or greater and, accordingly, we regained compliance with Listing Rule 5550(a)(2).

Pursuant to the shareholder approval obtained at our annual general meeting of shareholders held in June 2023, our supervisory board and management board effectuated a 1-for-10 reverse stock split on March 8, 2024 (the “Reverse Stock Split”). On March 11, 2024, the common shares began trading on a post-split basis under the Company’s existing trading symbol “AFMD.” The Reverse Stock Split was undertaken with the objective of meeting the minimum $1.00 per share requirement for maintaining the listing of our common shares on the Nasdaq Capital Markets. All the share and per share information for all periods presented herein have been adjusted to reflect the 1-for-10 Reverse Stock Split. There is no guarantee that the post-split share price will be sufficient to continue to meet such standards.  

A continued decline in the closing price of our common shares on Nasdaq could result in suspension or delisting procedures in respect of our common shares. The commencement of suspension or delisting procedures by Nasdaq remains, at all times, at the discretion of Nasdaq and would be publicly announced by the exchange. If a suspension or delisting were to occur, there would be significantly less liquidity in the suspended or delisted securities. In addition, our ability to raise additional necessary capital through equity or debt financing would be greatly impaired. Furthermore, with respect to any suspended or delisted common shares, we would expect decreases in institutional and other investor demand, analyst coverage, market making activity and information available concerning trading prices and volume, and fewer broker-dealers would be willing to execute trades with respect to such common shares. If our common shares are removed from the Nasdaq Capital Market, an investor could find it more difficult to dispose of, or to obtain accurate quotations as to the market value of, our common shares. Additionally, our common shares may then be subject to “penny stock” regulations.

Future sales, or the possibility of future sales, of a substantial number of our common shares could adversely affect the price of the shares and dilute shareholders.

Future sales of a substantial number of our common shares, or the perception that such sales will occur, could cause a decline in the market price of our common shares. We had approximately 15.2 million common shares outstanding as of March 15, 2024. If our existing shareholders sell substantial amounts of common shares in the public market, or the market perceives that such sales may occur, the market price of our common shares and our ability to raise capital through the issuance of equity securities in the future could be adversely affected. In addition, we have registered on a Form S-8 registration statement all common shares that we may issue under our equity compensation plans. As a result, these shares can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to volume limitations applicable to affiliates.

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We have a shelf registration statement pursuant to which we may offer and sell, in one or more offerings, our common shares, senior debt securities, subordinated debt securities, warrants, purchase contracts or units. We have also entered into a sales agreement to offer and sell our common shares under a prior registration statement pursuant to an “at-the-market” (“ATM”) offering. Because the price per share of each share sold under the registration statement will depend on the market price of our shares at the time of the sale and other market conditions, it is not possible at this stage to predict the number of shares that ultimately may be offered and sold under the registration statement. If we sell common shares, convertible securities or other equity securities, existing shareholders may be diluted by such sales, and in certain cases new investors could gain rights superior to our existing shareholders. Any sales of our common shares, or the perception that such sales could occur, could have a negative impact on the trading price of our shares.

We are a foreign private issuer and, as a result, we are not subject to U.S. proxy rules and are subject to reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) that, to some extent, are more lenient and less frequent than those of a U.S. domestic public company.

We report, under the Exchange Act, as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Because we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act and although we are subject to Dutch laws and regulations with regard to such matters and intend to furnish quarterly financial information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), we are exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including (i) the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of securities registered under the Exchange Act, (ii) the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their stock ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time and (iii) the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K, upon the occurrence of specified significant events. In addition, foreign private issuers are not required to file their annual report on Form 20-F until four months after the end of each fiscal year, while U.S. domestic issuers that are accelerated filers are required to file their annual report on Form 10-K within 75 days after the end of each fiscal year. Foreign private issuers are also exempt from Regulation Fair Disclosure, aimed at preventing issuers from making selective disclosures of material information. As a result of the above, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of U.S. domestic public companies.

As a foreign private issuer and as permitted by the listing requirements of Nasdaq, we follow certain home country governance practices rather than the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq.

We are a foreign private issuer. As a result, in accordance with the listing requirements of the Nasdaq Capital Market, we follow home country governance requirements and certain exemptions thereunder rather than comply with the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq. In accordance with Dutch law and generally accepted business practices, our Articles of Association do not provide quorum requirements generally applicable to general meetings of shareholders in the United States. To this extent, our practice varies from the requirement of Nasdaq Listing Rule 5620(c), which requires an issuer to provide in its bylaws for a generally applicable quorum, and that such quorum may not be less than one-third of the outstanding voting stock. Although we must provide shareholders with an agenda and other relevant documents for the general meeting of shareholders, Dutch law does not have a regulatory regime for the solicitation of proxies and the solicitation of proxies is not a generally accepted business practice in the Netherlands, thus our practice will vary from the requirement of Nasdaq Listing Rule 5620(b). As permitted by the listing requirements of Nasdaq, we have also opted out of the requirements of Nasdaq Listing Rule 5605(d), which requires, inter alia, an issuer to have a compensation committee that consists entirely of independent directors, and Nasdaq Listing Rule 5605(e), which requires independent director oversight of director nominations. Also, Dutch law does not require that we disclose information regarding third party compensation of our directors or director nominees. As a result, our practice varies from the third-party compensation disclosure requirements of Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(b)(3). In addition, we have opted out of shareholder approval requirements, as included in the Nasdaq Listing Rules, for the issuance of securities in connection with certain events such as the acquisition of stock or assets of another company, the establishment of or amendments to equity-based compensation plans for our management board and supervisory board, employees and consultants, a change of control of us and certain private placements. To this extent, our practice varies from the requirements of Nasdaq Rule 5635, which generally requires an issuer to obtain shareholder approval for the issuance of securities in connection with such events. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to these Nasdaq requirements.

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We may lose our foreign private issuer status which would then require us to comply with the Exchange Act’s domestic reporting regime and cause us to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses.

We are a foreign private issuer and therefore we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. If, in the future, we are not a foreign private issuer, as of the end of the second fiscal quarter in any fiscal year, we would be required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, including the application of US GAAP, in the subsequent fiscal year. In order to maintain our current status as a foreign private issuer, either (a) a majority of our common shares must be either directly or indirectly owned of record by non-residents of the United States or (b)(i) a majority of our managing directors or supervisory directors may not be United States citizens or residents, (ii) more than 50 percent of our assets cannot be located in the United States and (iii) our business must be administered principally outside the United States. If we were to lose this status, we would be required to comply with the Exchange Act reporting and other requirements applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, which are more detailed and extensive than the requirements for foreign private issuers. We may also be required to make changes in our corporate governance practices in accordance with various SEC and stock exchange rules. The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws if we are required to comply with the reporting requirements applicable to a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly higher than the cost we would incur as a foreign private issuer. As a result, we expect that a loss of foreign private issuer status would increase our legal and financial compliance costs and would make some activities highly time consuming and costly. We also expect that if we were required to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, it would make it more difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified supervisory directors.

We are a Dutch public company with limited liability. The rights of our shareholders may be different from the rights of shareholders in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions and may not protect investors in a similar fashion afforded by incorporation in a U.S. jurisdiction.

We are a Dutch public company with limited liability (naamloze vennootschap) organized under the laws of the Netherlands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our Articles of Association and by the laws governing companies incorporated in the Netherlands. However, there can be no assurance that Dutch law will not change in the future or that it will serve to protect investors in a similar fashion afforded under corporate law principles in the United States, which could adversely affect the rights of investors.

The rights of shareholders and the responsibilities of managing directors and supervisory directors may be different from the rights and obligations of shareholders and board members in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions. In the performance of its duties, our management board and supervisory board are required by Dutch law to consider the interests of our company, its shareholders, its employees and other stakeholders, in all cases with due observation of the principles of reasonableness and fairness. It is possible that some of these parties will have interests that are different from, or in addition to, your interests as a shareholder.

Our authorized share capital increased as of June 19, 2018, following an amendment of our Articles of Association approved by a resolution of the general meeting of shareholders. On August 4, 2020, following an amendment of our Articles of Association, approved by a resolution of the general meeting of shareholders, the composition of our authorized share capital was amended, and the cumulative preferred shares included in the share capital were abolished and converted into common shares. Following the amendment of our Articles of Association in conjunction with the reverse split on March 8, 2024, our authorized share capital currently amounts to €3,119,500, comprised of 31,195,000 common shares, each with a nominal value of €0.1.

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Provisions of our Articles of Association or Dutch corporate law might deter acquisition bids for us that might be considered favorable and prevent or frustrate any attempt to replace or remove the then management board and supervisory board.

Certain provisions of our Articles of Association may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us or effect a change in our management board or supervisory board. These provisions include: staggered maximum four-year terms of our supervisory directors; a provision that our managing directors and supervisory directors may only be removed by the general meeting of shareholders by a two-thirds majority of votes cast representing more than 50% of our outstanding share capital (unless the removal was proposed by the supervisory board); and a requirement that certain matters, including an amendment of our Articles of Association, may only be brought to our shareholders for a vote upon a proposal by our management board that has been approved by our supervisory board.

We are not obligated to and do not comply with all the best practice provisions of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. This may affect your rights as a shareholder.

As a Dutch company we are subject to the Dutch Corporate Governance Code (“DCGC”). The DCGC contains both principles and best practice provisions that regulate relations between the management board, the supervisory board and the shareholders (i.e., the general meeting of shareholders). The DCGC is based on a “comply or explain” principle. Accordingly, companies are required to disclose in their annual reports, filed in the Netherlands, whether they comply with the provisions of the DCGC. If they do not comply with those provisions (e.g., because of a conflicting Nasdaq requirement), the company is required to give the reasons for such non-compliance.

The DCGC applies to all Dutch companies listed on a government-recognized stock exchange, whether in the Netherlands or elsewhere, including Nasdaq. We do not comply with all the best practice provisions of the DCGC. In our annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, we will report on our compliance with the DCGC. This may affect your rights as a shareholder, and you may not have the same level of protection as a shareholder in a Dutch company that fully complies with the DCGC.

Claims of U.S. civil liabilities may not be enforceable against us.

We are incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands, and our headquarters are located in Germany. Substantially all of our assets are located outside the United States. The majority of our managing directors and supervisory directors reside outside the United States. As a result, it may not be possible for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon such persons or to enforce against them or us in U.S. courts, including judgments predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States.

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The United States and the Netherlands currently do not have a treaty providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments, other than arbitration awards, in civil and commercial matters. Consequently, a final judgment for payment given by a court in the United States, whether or not predicated solely upon U.S. securities laws, would not automatically be recognized or enforceable in the Netherlands. In order to obtain a judgment which is enforceable in the Netherlands, the party in whose favor a final and conclusive judgment of the U.S. court has been rendered will be required to file its claim with a court of competent jurisdiction in the Netherlands. Such party may submit to the Dutch court the final judgment rendered by the U.S. court. If and to the extent that the Dutch court finds that the jurisdiction of the U.S. court has been based on grounds which are internationally acceptable, that the proceedings before the U.S. court complied with principles of proper procedures, that recognition and/or enforcement of such judgment would not contravene the public policy of the Netherlands, and that recognition and/or enforcement of the judgment is not irreconcilable with a decision of a Dutch court rendered between the same parties or with an earlier decision of a foreign court rendered between the same parties in a dispute that is about the same subject matter and that is based on the same cause, provided that earlier judgment can be recognized in the Netherlands, the court of the Netherlands will, in principle, give binding effect to the judgment of the U.S. court. Dutch courts may deny the recognition and enforcement of punitive damages or other awards on the basis that recognition and enforcement would contravene public policy of the Netherlands. Moreover, a Dutch court may reduce the amount of damages granted by a U.S. court and recognize damages only to the extent that they are necessary to compensate actual losses or damages. In addition, there is doubt as to whether a Dutch court would impose civil liability on us, our managing directors or supervisory directors or certain experts named herein in an original action predicated solely upon the U.S. federal securities laws brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in the Netherlands against us or such directors or experts, respectively. Enforcement and recognition of judgments of U.S. courts in the Netherlands are solely governed by the provisions of the Dutch Civil Procedure Code.

The United States and Germany currently do not have a treaty providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments, other than arbitration awards, in civil and commercial matters. Consequently, a final judgment for payment given by a court in the United States, whether or not predicated solely upon U.S. securities laws, would not automatically be recognized or enforceable in Germany. German courts may deny the recognition and enforcement of a judgment rendered by a U.S. court if they consider the U.S. court not to be competent or the decision not in line with German public policy principles. For example, recognition of court decisions based on class actions brought in the United States typically raises public policy concerns and judgments awarding punitive damages are generally not enforceable in Germany.

In addition, actions brought in a German court against us, our managing directors or supervisory directors, our senior management and the experts named herein to enforce liabilities based on U.S. federal securities laws may be subject to certain restrictions. In particular, German courts generally do not award punitive damages. Litigation in Germany is also subject to rules of procedure that differ from the U.S. rules, including with respect to the taking and admissibility of evidence, the conduct of the proceedings and the allocation of costs. Proceedings in Germany would have to be conducted in the German language and all documents submitted to the court would, in principle, have to be translated into German. For these reasons, it may be difficult for a U.S. investor to bring an original action in a German court predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us, our managing directors or supervisory directors, our senior management and the experts named in this Annual Report.

Based on the lack of a treaty as described above, U.S. investors may not be able to enforce against us or managing directors or supervisory directors, officers or certain experts named herein who are residents of the Netherlands, Germany, or other countries other than the United States any judgments obtained in U.S. courts in civil and commercial matters, including judgments under the U.S. federal securities laws.

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If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, shareholders could lose confidence in our financial and other public reporting, which would harm our business and the trading price of our common shares.

Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement the required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or any subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. Inferior internal controls could also impair our ability to raise revenue, result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements and subject us to regulatory scrutiny and sanctions, which in turn could harm the market value of our common shares.

We are required to disclose changes made in our internal controls and procedures and our management is required to assess the effectiveness of these controls annually. Our independent registered public accounting firm is required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation.

Changes in accounting standards could impact our results.

The IASB, or other regulatory bodies, periodically introduce modifications to financial accounting and reporting standards or issue new financial accounting and reporting standards under which we prepare our consolidated financial statements. These changes can materially impact the means by which we report financial information, affecting our results of operations. Also, we could be required to apply new or revised standards retroactively.

We believe it is likely that we were a “passive foreign investment company”, or a PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes in 2023, and we may be a PFIC in 2024 or one or more future taxable years. A U.S. investor may suffer adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences if we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which the U.S. investor holds common shares.

Under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), we will be a passive foreign investment company (“PFIC”) for any taxable year in which, after the application of certain “look-through” rules with respect to subsidiaries, either (i) 75% or more of our gross income consists of “passive income,” or (ii) 50% or more of the average quarterly value of our assets consist of assets that produce, or are held for the production of, “passive income.” Passive income generally includes interest, dividends, rents, certain non-active royalties and capital gains. Although we have not performed a definitive PFIC analysis using U.S. federal income tax principles, based on certain estimates as to the composition of our income and assets during 2023, including the implied value, based on our market capitalization, of our assets that produce non-passive income, including, for this purpose, certain elements of our net working capital, we believe it is likely that we were a PFIC for our 2023 taxable year.

Whether we will be a PFIC in 2024 or any future taxable year is uncertain because, among other things, we currently own a substantial amount of passive assets, including cash, and because the valuation of our assets that generate non-passive income for PFIC purposes, including our intangible assets, is uncertain and may vary substantially over time. In addition, the composition of our assets and income may vary substantially over time. The average quarterly value of our assets for purposes of determining our PFIC status for any taxable year will generally be determined in part by reference to our market capitalization, which has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate significantly over time. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC in 2024 or for any future taxable year. In addition, we may, directly or indirectly, hold equity interests in other entities, including certain of our subsidiaries, that are PFICs, or “Lower-tier PFICs.”

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If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. investor holds common shares, we generally will continue to be treated as a PFIC with respect to that U.S. investor for all succeeding years during which the U.S. investor holds common shares, even if we cease to meet the threshold requirements for PFIC status. Such a U.S. investor may be subject to adverse tax consequences, including (i) the treatment of all or a portion of any gain on disposition as ordinary income, (ii) the application of a deferred interest charge on such gain and the receipt of certain dividends and (iii) compliance with certain reporting requirements. To avoid the application of the foregoing rules, a U.S. investor can make an election to treat us and each Lower-tier PFIC as a qualified electing fund (a “QEF Election”) in the first taxable year that we and each Lower-tier PFIC are treated as PFICs with respect to the U.S. investor. We currently intend to provide the information necessary for a U.S. investor to make a QEF Election with respect to us and each Lower-tier PFIC that we control for 2023 and for any future years with respect to which we determine that we or any Lower-tier PFIC that we control are or are likely to be a PFIC. A U.S. investor can also avoid certain of the adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences described above by making a mark-to-market election with respect to its common shares, provided that the common shares are “marketable.” U.S. investors should consult their tax advisers regarding the availability and advisability of making a QEF Election or a mark-to-market election in their particular circumstances. See “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations” for further information regarding the consequences to a U.S. investor if we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which the U.S. investor holds common shares.

One or more taxing authorities could challenge the German tax residency of the Company, and if such challenge were to be successful, the Company could be subject to increased and/or different taxes than we expect.

By reason of the Company’s incorporation under Dutch law, it is deemed tax resident in the Netherlands for purposes of the Dutch Dividend Withholding Tax Act 1965 and the Dutch Corporate Income Tax Act 1969. As long as it continues to have its place of effective management in Germany, and not in the Netherlands, under the Convention between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income of 2012 (the “German-Dutch tax treaty”), the Company should be considered to be exclusively tax resident in Germany. However, the applicable tax laws or interpretations thereof, including the German-Dutch tax treaty and the interpretation thereof, may change. Furthermore, whether the Company has its place of effective management in Germany and is as such tax resident in Germany is largely a question of fact and degree based on all the circumstances, rather than a question of law, which facts and degree may also change. Changes to applicable laws or interpretations thereof and changes to applicable facts and circumstances (e.g., a change of board members or the place where board meetings take place), may result in the Company becoming a tax resident of a jurisdiction other than Germany, potentially resulting in the denial of benefits under the German-Dutch tax treaty. In that case, there would be a risk that both jurisdictions would levy dividend withholding tax, in addition to the risk of double taxation on the profits of the Company itself. These changes could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s financial results and/or the future marketability of the Company’s common shares.

General Risk Factors

If any product liability lawsuits are successfully brought against us or any of our collaborators, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.

We face an inherent risk of product liability lawsuits related to the testing of our product candidates in seriously ill patients and will face an even greater risk if product candidates are approved by regulatory authorities and introduced commercially. Despite mandatory product liability insurances in the countries in which we are conducting our clinical studies, we cannot exclude that any claims will be brought against us or our collaborators although product liability claims by participants enrolled in our clinical studies will be usually covered by our insurances. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against any such claims, we may incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of their merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

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If any of our product candidates are approved for commercial sale, we will be highly dependent upon consumer perceptions of us and the safety and quality of our products. We could be adversely affected if we are subject to negative publicity. We could also be adversely affected if any of our products or any similar products distributed by other companies prove to be, or are asserted to be, harmful to patients. Because of our dependence upon consumer perceptions, any adverse publicity associated with illness or other adverse effects resulting from patients’ use or misuse of our products or any similar products distributed by other companies could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition or results of operations.

We have insurance, but our current insurance coverage and any additional coverage for further clinical studies may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We may need to increase and expand our insurance coverage when we begin the commercialization of our product candidates. Insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive. As a result, we may be unable to maintain or obtain sufficient insurance at a reasonable cost to protect us against losses that could have a material adverse effect on our business. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us, particularly if judgments exceed any insurance coverage we may have, could decrease our cash resources and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operation.

Exchange rate fluctuations may materially affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Potential future revenue may be derived from abroad, particularly from the United States. As a result, our business and share price may be affected by fluctuations in foreign exchange rates between the euro and these other currencies, which may also have a significant impact on our reported results of operations and cash flows from period to period, such as the U.S. dollar. We have converted into euros only the portion of the proceeds from our financings and our research collaboration and license agreements with Genentech and Roivant that was spent or we expect will be spent in euros according to our budget. If the projected payments in either euro or U.S. dollar change, we may be subject to foreign exchange-rate risk. Currently, we do not have any other exchange rate hedging measures in place.

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Future acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships or alliances could be difficult to integrate and/or identify, divert the attention of key management personnel, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value and/or adversely affect our financial results.

We may consider entering into partnerships or into acquisitions of other companies, businesses, assets or technologies that are complementary to our business and operations as part of our growth strategy. Acquisitions, partnerships, alliances and subsequent integrations thereof would require significant managerial, operational and financial resources and could result in a diversion of resources from our existing business, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our growth and business operations. We must necessarily base any assessment of potential acquisitions, partnerships or alliances on assumptions with respect to operations, profitability and other matters that may subsequently prove to be incorrect. Future acquisitions and alliances, as well as other investments, may not produce anticipated synergies or perform in accordance with our expectations. The cost and duration of integrating newly acquired businesses could also materially exceed our expectations. It is also possible that we may not identify suitable acquisition targets, strategic investments or partnership candidates. Our inability to identify such opportunities, or our inability to complete such transactions, may negatively affect our competitiveness and growth prospects. Any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends, and accordingly, shareholders must rely on stock appreciation for any return on their investment.

We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our businesses. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common shares will be your sole source of gain on your investment for the foreseeable future. Investors seeking cash dividends should not invest in our common shares.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common shares depends on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. We cannot assure you that analysts will cover us or provide favorable coverage. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

ITEM 4. INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

A.   History and development of the company

We are a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focused on developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies. Our product candidates represent an innovative approach to cancer treatment that seeks to harness the body’s own immune defenses to fight tumor cells. The most potent cells of the human defense arsenal are types of white blood cells called innate immune cells (NK cells and macrophages) and T cells. Leveraging our fit-for-purpose ROCK^® platform, we develop proprietary, next-generation bispecific antibodies, so-called innate cell engagers (ICE^®), which are designed to direct innate immune cells and establish a bridge to cancer cells. Our innate cell engagers have the ability to bring innate immune cells into the proximity of tumor cells and trigger an activation cascade that leads to the destruction of cancer cells. Due to their novel tetravalent architecture with four binding domains, our innate cell engagers bind to their targets with high affinity. Different dosing schemes are being explored to allow for improved exposure in heavily pretreated patient populations. Based on their mechanism of action as well as the preclinical and clinical data we have generated to date, we believe that our product candidates as monotherapy and / or in combination, may ultimately improve response rates, clinical outcomes and survival in cancer patients, and could eventually become a cornerstone of modern targeted oncology care. Building on our leadership in the innate cell engager space, we have developed novel antibody formats with the potential to tailor innate cell-engaging therapy to different indications and settings.

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We were founded in 2000 based on technology developed by the group led by Professor Melvyn Little at Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (“DKFZ”), the German Cancer Research Center, in Heidelberg, Germany.

Focusing our efforts on antibodies that specifically bind to innate cells through the FcgRIIIA (“CD16A”) receptor, a key activating receptor, we have built a clinical and preclinical pipeline of innate cell-engaging bispecific antibodies designed to activate both innate and adaptive immunity. Compared to a variety of T cell-engaging technologies, our innate cell engagers appear to have a better safety profile and have the potential to achieve more potent and deeper immune responses potentially through enhancing crosstalk of innate and adaptive immunity. The safety profiles of our molecules make them suitable for development as combination therapies (e.g. with CPIs, adoptive NK cells or cytokines).

We are focusing our development efforts on three programs, for which we retain full global commercial rights: acimtamig, AFM24 and AFM28. Because our tetravalent bispecific antibodies can be engineered to bind to different antigens that are known to be present on various cancer cells, our product candidates could be developed for the treatment of different cancer indications. We intend to clinically develop our product candidates to treat high medical need indications, including as a salvage therapy for patients who have relapsed after treatment with standard therapies, or patients who are refractory to these therapies, meaning they do not respond to treatment with standard therapies, whom we collectively refer to as R/R patients. These patients have limited life expectancy and few therapeutic options. We believe this strategy will allow for a faster path to approval and will likely require smaller clinical studies compared to indications with more therapeutic options and larger patient populations. We believe such specialized market segments in oncology can be effectively targeted with a small and dedicated marketing and sales team. We currently intend to establish a commercial sales force in the United States and/or Europe to commercialize our product candidates when and if they are approved.

We also see an opportunity in the clinical development of our innate cell engagers in combination with other agents that harness the immune system to fight cancer cells, such as CPIs, adoptive NK cell transfer and cytokines. Such combinations of cancer immunotherapies may ultimately prove beneficial for larger patient populations in earlier stages of diseases, beyond the R/R disease setting.

Our main facilities are located at Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 2 in Mannheim, where we employ 70 people, approximately 74% of whom have an advanced academic degree. As of March 15, 2024, our total headcount was 78 (76 full-time equivalents). On January 8, 2024, we announced a reduction of our workforce by approximately 50%, which is already anticipated in the headcount numbers. For more information as to the risks associated with our workforce reduction, see Item 3.D: “Risk factors.”

In 2009, we formed AbCheck s.r.o. (“AbCheck”), our previously 100% owned, independently run antibody screening platform company, located in the Czech Republic. In December 2023, we reached a definitive agreement to sell AbCheck to Ampersand Biomedicines.

Our legal and commercial name is Affimed N.V., and we are a public company with limited liability (naamlozevennootschap) incorporated under Dutch law. Our principal executive offices are located at Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 2, 68165 Mannheim, Germany, and our telephone number is (+49) 621-560-030.

Our principal expenditures since inception have been our research and development expenses. To date, we have relied on the issuance of equity securities and the incurrence of loans to finance our operations. For more information, please see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects.”

The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports and other information about issuers, like us, that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that website is www.sec.gov. Our website can be found at www.affimed.com. The information on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report, and you should not consider information contained on our website to be a part of this Annual Report.

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B.   Business overview

Our Strategy

Our goal is to develop new treatment options for patients in need by activating innate immunity (e.g. NK cells and macrophages), the body’s first line of defense, to fight cancer. We are developing single agent and combination therapies to treat a variety of cancers. Our proprietary antibody platform, ROCK^®, has the potential to deliver several unique types of next-generation tetravalent antibody formats, including bispecific innate cell engagers. Based on the distinctive properties and mechanism of action of these products, which have demonstrated preclinical and / or clinical activity, we believe that our product candidates, alone or in combination, could eventually become a key element of improving clinical outcomes in cancer patients. Key elements of our strategy to achieve this goal are to:

Our Strengths

We believe we are a leader in developing innate immunity-based cancer immunotherapies due to several factors:

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Our Pipeline

We are developing a pipeline of innate cell engagers for the treatment of cancer as shown below:

Acimtamig

Our most advanced candidate, acimtamig, is a first-in-class ICE^® designed for the treatment of certain CD30-positive (“CD30+”) malignancies, including HL and certain Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas (“NHLs”). Acimtamig selectively binds to CD30, a clinically validated target, and CD16A, an integral membrane glycoprotein receptor expressed on the surface of NK cells and macrophages, triggering a signal cascade that leads to the destruction of CD30+ tumor cells. In contrast to conventional full-length antibodies, acimtamig does not bind to CD16B, which prevents binding to other cell types, e.g., neutrophils, and binds with equal affinity to CD16A polymorphisms at position 158. Furthermore, acimtamig binds CD16A with an approximately 1000-fold higher affinity than monoclonal antibodies (“mAbs”) thereby significantly increasing potency and efficacy, as preclinically demonstrated.

LuminICE-203 Phase 2 study

Acimtamig is currently being investigated in combination with AlloNK^® in LuminICE-203, an open-label, multi-center, multi-cohort, phase 2 study evaluating the efficacy and safety of the treatment in patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. Fast Track designation was granted by the FDA in September 2023.

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LuminICE-203 builds on the clinical findings from the phase 1/2 acimtamig (AFM13-104) trial (NCT04074746), in which investigators assessed acimtamig in combination with cord blood-derived natural killer cells in heavily pretreated patients with CD30-positive Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Data presented to date from this trial have shown outstanding clinical results in late-stage, multi-refractory patients. In the 32 R/R HL patients treated at the recommended phase 2 dose level (“RP2D”), the objective response rate (“ORR”) reached 97%, with a complete response (“CR”) rate of 78%. Median Event-Free Survival (EFS) stood at 9.8 months, with 84% of patients alive at 12 months. The median duration of response (“DoR”) was 8.8 months. Notably, patients were heavily pretreated (median of 7 prior lines), had received checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) and brentuximab vedotin (“BV”), and were refractory to their most recent therapy. Additionally, patients received up to four cycles of therapy, and treatment was well-tolerated with no instances of cytokine release syndrome (“CRS”), graft-versus-host disease (“GvHD”), or immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (“ICANS”).

In November 2022, we announced a collaboration with Artiva with the goal of advancing the development of the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® into a potential registration enabling study. In January 2023, the FDA issued a written response to our pre-investigational new drug meeting request for the acimtamig/AlloNK^® co-administered combination therapy in R/R HL and the exploratory arm evaluating the combination in R/R CD30+ lymphomas. Based on the FDA’s written response, we submitted and received clearance from FDA for an IND application during the second quarter of 2023. We initiated enrollment into the study in October 2023.

AFM13-202 (the REDIRECT study)

Acimtamig was investigated as a monotherapy in a phase 2 study (the “REDIRECT” study) in patients with CD30+ R/R PTCL. In April 2023, final results from the study at the American Association for Cancer Research (“AACR”) Annual Meeting by Dr. Won Seog Kim, Professor of Hematology-Oncology at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul and a principal investigator for the study, and established that acimtamig monotherapy showed efficacy in the treatment of R/R PTCL patients with a differentiated safety profile. Primary efficacy measures included an ORR of 32.4% and a CR of 10.2%. Key secondary and exploratory outcome measures include safety, durability of response, progression free survival and overall survival. Median DoR was 2.3 months, median progression free survival (“PFS”) was 3.5 months and median overall survival (“OS”) was 13.8 months. PFS and OS were comparable with currently approved therapies for R/R PTCL. Of all PTCL subsets, patients with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (“AITL”) exhibited the highest ORR (53.3%) and CR (26.7%) with DoR not meaningfully different across the various subsets. The safety profile of acimtamig was well managed and consistent with previously reported data of prior and ongoing clinical studies with acimtamig. Most common treatment-emergent adverse events (“TEAEs”) were IRR (25%), neutropenia (10.2%) and pyrexia (8.3%). No acimtamig-related fatal toxicities were observed.

AFM24

Our second candidate, AFM24, is a tetravalent, bispecific EGFR and CD16A-binding ICE^®. AFM24 is designed to address limitations, such as toxicities or treatment resistance, associated with current therapeutic anti-EGFR mAbs, while also offering the potential for better efficacy and safety by using activation of the innate immunity to target EGFR-expressing solid tumors rather than inhibition of EGFR-mediated signal transduction. AFM24 was investigated as monotherapy in a first-in-human phase 1/2a study, and in two combination clinical studies investigating AFM24 with adoptive NK cells and a PD-L1 inhibitor, atezolizumab.  

In June 2023, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (the “ASCO”) annual meeting, we announced our intention to focus future clinical development of AFM24 on the combination with atezolizumab (AFM24-102), and the discontinuation of AFM24-101 (monotherapy) and AFM24-103 (combination of AFM24 with SNK01 autologous NK cells). We anticipate that our research and development expenses in 2024 for AFM24 will decrease compared to those in 2023, due to our decision to pursue a focused clinical development.

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AFM24-101 phase 1/2 study

In June 2023, at the ASCO annual meeting we presented safety and efficacy data from the EGFR mutant NSCLC expansion cohort of our AFM24-101 phase 1/2 study investigating ICE^® AFM24 as monotherapy. An EGFR mutant NSCLC cohort was part of the AFM24-101 open-label, non-randomized, multi-center, phase 1/2a study (NCT04259450) investigating the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of AFM24 monotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic EGFR+ solid tumors. Other cohorts investigated included colorectal cancer (“CRC”) and renal cell carcinoma (“RCC”). At the planned interim analysis, 15 patients with EGFR mutant NSCLC and a median of 2 prior lines of therapy had been treated with a median of 11 doses of AFM24. As of the cut-off date, the data showed clinical activity and signals of anti-tumor activity in 7 out of 15 heavily pre-treated patients, including two confirmed partial responses and five patients with stable disease resulting in an objective response rate of 13% and a disease control rate of 47%. Concurrent with the presentation, we announced our intention to focus near-term clinical development of AFM24 on the combination with atezolizumab (“AFM24-102)”, and announced the discontinuation of AFM24-101. As a result of these findings an EGFR mutant cohort was added to the study of AFM24 in combination with atezolizumab.

AFM24-102 phase 1/2a study

AFM24-102 is a phase 1/2a open-label, non-randomized, multicenter, dose escalation, and expansion study evaluating AFM24 in combination with a PD-L1 inhibitor, atezolizumab, in patients with selected EGFR-expressing advanced solid malignancies whose disease has progressed after treatment with previous anticancer therapies (NCT05109442).

As of January 4, clinical response update to the Phase 1/2a AFM24-102 trial in EGFR-wt NSCLC reported 4 confirmed responses, including 1 CR and 3 PR, and 7 stable diseases in the 15 heavily pre-treated evaluable patients, resulting in a disease control rate of 73 percent. Of special importance is the fact that three of the four responders had never achieved an objective response to PD(L) 1 therapy and that the only patient with a response to PD1 containing treatment responded to a combination of doublet chemotherapy plus PD1 and therefore even in this patient, the contribution of PD1 therapy is unclear. Based on the promising response data from the EGFRwt NSCLC cohort, the Company expanded enrollment to 40 patients. In addition, the company continues to enroll in the EGFR-mut NSCLC cohort for a planned number of 25 patients.

Mature PFS data from the 15 EGFR-wildtype NSCLC patients and initial efficacy from the EGFR-mutant NSCLC cohort are expected in Q2 2024.

AFM24-103 (combination with SNK01 autologous NK cells)

In August 2023, data from the dose escalation phase on safety and efficacy of the ICE^® AFM24 in combination with NKGen Biotech’s SNK01 (autologous non-genetically modified NK cells) in patients with advanced or metastatic EGFR-expressing solid tumors (NCT05099549) , was presented at a poster presentation at the ASCO Breakthrough conference in Yokohama, Japan. As of June 2023, seven patients with a mean number of five prior therapies received the combination of AFM24 and SNK01. No unexpected or dose-limiting toxicities were observed, and the pharmacokinetic (“PK”) properties were similar to AFM24 monotherapy. The best objective response was stable disease in three out of the seven patients, including patients with heavily pretreated microsatellite stable colorectal cancer (“MSS CRC”). Despite these data, we and NKGen Biotech mutually decided to discontinue the presented study. In line with our NK cell combination experience for acimtamig, we are evaluating better options to advance AFM24 with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

AFM28

Our third, wholly-owned ICE^® molecule, AFM28 is designed to bind to CD123, an established target in myeloid malignancies. We chose CD123 as it is almost universally expressed on leukemic blasts and leukemic stem cells (“LSCs”) in patients with AML, both at diagnosis and at relapse, and independently of cytogenetic risk. AFM28 is being developed for the treatment of patients with AML. Clinical development of AFM28 is planned as both single-agent and in combination with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

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AFM28-101

In June 2022, we submitted an IND to the FDA for AFM28. Following feedback from the FDA related to the design of the dose escalation study, we made a strategic decision to voluntarily withdraw the IND and to focus early clinical development of AFM28 in jurisdictions outside of the United States. We initiated recruitment into a phase 1 clinical study in the first quarter of 2023, and enrolled patients into the study in Spain and France.

AFM28 is investigated in a multi-center phase 1 open-label, dose-escalation study (AFM28-101), in R/R AML. In March 2023, we announced that the first patient was dosed in a phase 1 multicenter, open label, first-in-human dose escalation study of the innate cell engager (ICE^® AFM28 monotherapy in patients with CD123-positive R/R AML. AFM28 efficiently directs NK cells to CD123-positive leukemic cells in our preclinical models, including leukemic blasts, LSCs and leukemic progenitor cells, inducing their depletion in samples of patients with AML and myelodysplastic syndrome (“MDS”.) As of end of February 2024, we completed enrollment of the fifth cohort (250 mg), recruiting patients in the sixth cohort in the multi-center Phase 1 open-label, dose-escalation study (AFM28-101). No dose-limiting toxicities were reported in cohorts treated prior. Further clinical development of AFM28 is planned in combination with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

Immune System and Cancer Background

Immune System

The human immune system is characterized by an early, nonspecific initial response called innate immunity, and a highly specific response adapted to pathogenic or tumorigenic antigens called adaptive immunity. Although the human immune system is normally capable of recognizing foreign or aberrant cells, cancer cells have developed highly effective ways to escape the surveillance and defense mechanisms of the immune system. As a result, immune cells such as NK cells and macrophages (parts of the innate immune system) and T cells (a part of the adaptive immune system) cannot recognize tumor cells as foreign or aberrant and therefore cannot fight them.

Better understanding of the fundamentals of cellular and molecular tumor immunology has identified many ways by which the immune system can be augmented to treat cancer, including priming/boosting of the immune system, T cell modulation, reducing immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment and enhancing adaptive immunity. This new area of medicine, termed cancer immunotherapy, has the potential to offer adaptable and durable cancer control across a variety of tumor types. Our ROCK^® platform-based immune cell engagers (ICE^®) enable a direct interaction of NK cells, macrophages or T cells with cancer cells, leading to the destruction of the tumor cells.

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Cancer

Cancer is a broad group of diseases in which cells divide and grow in an uncontrolled fashion, forming malignancies that can invade other parts of the body. In normal tissues, the rates of new cell growth and cell death are tightly regulated and kept in balance. In cancerous tissues, this balance is disrupted as a result of gene mutations, causing unregulated cell growth that leads to tumor formation. While tumors can grow slowly or rapidly, the dividing cells will nevertheless accumulate, and the normal organization of the tissue will become disrupted. Cancers subsequently can spread throughout the body by processes known as invasion and metastasis. Cancer cells that arise in the lymphatic system and bone marrow are referred to as hematological malignancies. Cancer cells that arise in other tissues or organs are referred to as solid tumors.

According to the American Cancer Society, cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States. In the United States, more than 2 million new cases of cancer are expected to be diagnosed in 2024, and more than 611,720 deaths from cancer are expected to occur. The 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers diagnosed during 2019-2023 was 69% among white people and 65% among black people ( https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2024/2024-cancer-facts-and-figures-acs.pdf). According to a United States National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute estimate, national expenditures for cancer care in the United States in 2023 were approximately $209 billion (https://progressreport.cancer.gov/after/economic_burden).

The most common methods of treating patients with cancer are surgery, radiation and drug therapy. For patients with localized disease, surgery and radiation therapy are particularly effective. Drug therapies are generally used by physicians in patients who have cancer that has spread beyond the primary site or cannot otherwise be treated through surgery, such as most hematological malignancies. The goal of drug therapies is to damage and kill cancer cells or to interfere with the molecular and cellular processes that control the proliferation, growth and survival of cancer cells. In many cases, drug therapy entails the administration of several different drugs in combination. Over the past several decades, drug therapy has evolved from non-specific drugs that kill both healthy and cancerous cells, to drugs that target specific molecular pathways involved in cancer.

An early approach to pharmacological cancer treatment was to develop drugs, referred to as chemotherapies or cytotoxic drugs, which kill rapidly proliferating cancer cells through mechanisms, such as stopping cell division, disrupting cell metabolism or causing damage to cellular components required for tumor survival and rapid growth. While these drugs have been effective in the treatment of some cancers, cytotoxic drug therapies act in an indiscriminate manner, killing healthy cells along with cancerous cells. Due to their mechanism of action, many cytotoxic drugs have a narrow therapeutic window, i.e., dose range above which the toxicity causes unacceptable or even fatal levels of damage and below which the drugs are not effective in eradicating cancer cells.

The next approach to pharmacological cancer treatment was to develop drugs, referred to as targeted therapeutics, including mAbs, which are antibodies that derive from a single parent cell, that target specific biological molecules in the human body that play a role in cell growth and the spread of cancer. Included in this category are small molecule drugs as well as large molecule drugs, also known as biologics. With heightened vigilance and new diagnostic tests, targeted therapies (including mAbs such as Herceptin^®, Rituxan^®, Erbitux^® and Avastin^® as well as small molecules such as Nexavar^® and Tarceva^®), have resulted in improvements in overall survival for many cancer patients. More recently, antibodies have been developed that are optimized regarding their effector function, also known as Fc optimized antibody drugs, for example obinutuzumab. These molecules are designed to engage NK cells and macrophages more effectively in the elimination of cancer cells.

Cancer immunotherapy plays an increasingly important role among emerging cancer drug therapies. The science behind immunotherapies is to harness the body’s own immune system to fight tumor cells. There are different approaches: vaccinations, checkpoint inhibitors, T cell and innate cell engagers, and chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR”-) T cells. Ipilimumab (“Yervoy^®”), sipuleucel-T (“Provenge^®”), and more recently nivolumab (“Opdivo^®”), pembrolizumab (“Keytruda^®”), and blinatumomab (“Blincyto^®”) were amongst the first cancer immunotherapies to enter the market. Our bispecific antibodies add further promise to the field of immuno-oncology.

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Our Technologies

We have developed our proprietary fit-for-purpose ROCK^® antibody platform to enable the generation of first-in-class multivalent, multi-specific immune cell engagers. Our antibodies have been shown to retarget innate and adaptive immune cells. ROCK^® enables us to tailor tetravalent, bispecific immune cell engagers with high affinity and avidity, as well as variable PK profiles for different indications and settings. Leveraging the ROCK^® platform, we are able to generate molecules against validated oncology targets to address the limitations of existing standard treatments.

Schematic Representation of our Fit-For-Purpose ROCK ^(R) Platform

Our ROCK^® platform offers modularity and versatility for customizable antibody generation, is differentiated from other technologies and is designed to deliver immune cell engagers that:

Leveraging our fit-for-purpose ROCK^® platform, we develop proprietary, next-generation bispecific antibodies, so-called innate cell engagers (ICE^®). These ICE^® molecules are designed to direct and establish a bridge between innate immune cells and cancer cells. Our innate cell engagers have the ability to create an immunological synapse between innate immune cells and cancer cells and trigger an activation cascade that leads to the destruction of cancer cells. Due to their novel tetravalent architecture (which provides for four binding domains), our innate cell engagers bind to their targets with high affinity and have half-lives that support intravenous administration and dosing schedules similar to mAbs to achieve potent antitumor efficacy. In addition to our lead candidates, acimtamig, AFM24 and AFM28, we have the potential to tetravalent, bispecific antibody formats with the potential to tailor immune-engaging therapies to different indications and settings.

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Innate Cell Engagers

Our fit-for-purpose ROCK^® platform enables the design and development of various antibody formats. Specifically, our innate cell engagers are designed to have the following properties:

Innate cell engagers bind to innate immune cells and enable both the recognition of tumor cells and their redirection to these tumor cells by forming an immunological synapse. These cells then release perforins, creating pores in the tumor cell membrane through which granzymes enter the cell, triggering apoptosis and resulting in tumor cell death.

Schematic representation of the mode of action of a tetravalent bispecific innate cell engager

​

Innate immune cells, such as NK cells and macrophages, distinguish between healthy cells and foreign or aberrant cells through a process that is governed by a complex interaction of activating and inhibitory receptors that regulate their activity. While innate immune cells can bind to the Fc regions of native full-length antibodies through Fcg receptors to induce a cytotoxic effect, our ICE ^® molecules are designed to enhance the activity of innate immune cells in killing targeted tumor cells because they bind the CD16A receptor on innate immune cells with high specificity and approximately 1,000-fold higher affinity than IgG-based antibodies, and greater than 25-fold higher affinity than typical Fc-optimized IgG antibodies.

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CD16A is an integral membrane glycoprotein found on the surface of innate immune cells, namely NK cells and macrophages but not neutrophils. Classical mAbs bind not only to CD16A, but, to our knowledge, also to the highly homologous CD16B, an isoform differing from CD16A by only a few amino acids. CD16B is expressed on neutrophils, which are the most numerous white blood cells (leukocytes), and blood plasma contains high levels of soluble CD16B cleaved from the daily turnover of apoptotic neutrophils. Thus CD16B, being readily available to bind to any Fc-based antibody formats, facilitates target-mediated drug disposition for such antibodies. To engage and activate innate immune cells, we have generated a highly effective and specific human antibody that specifically targets the CD16A receptor and does not cross-react with CD16B. This antibody also binds to both CD16A allotypes (amino acid 158 with either valine or phenylalanine) with equal affinity, a polymorphism that has been shown to reduce efficacy of marketed classical antibodies such as trastuzumab or elotuzumab (see figure below).

Binding of Innate Cell Engager to CD16A (high-and low affinity genetic variants (allotypes) 158V and 158F, respectively) and to CD16B (SH, NA1 and NA2 allotypes), the latter showing no response (i.e. no binding)

Our lead innate cell engager acimtamig, binds to CD16A on innate immune cells and to CD30, a receptor found on malignant cells that have been implicated in lymphoma, including HL and T cell lymphoma.

CD30-positive Malignancies

CD30 is a cell membrane protein and tumor marker of different hematological malignancies, including PTCL, CTCL, HL and DLBCL (as defined below).

HL is a type of lymphoma, a cancer originating from white blood cells called lymphocytes. There are approximately 9,000 new cases of HL in the United States every year and about 20,000 new cases in North America, the European Union and Japan. Depending on disease stage, patients with newly diagnosed HL are treated primarily with chemotherapy and sometimes in combination with radiotherapy or targeted treatments such as Adcetris^®. The current initial standard regimens are highly effective but associated with acute and chronic toxicity. A number of patients are either refractory to or relapsing from initial standard therapy, and we believe these represent a total of approximately 4,000-6,000 patients every year in North America, the European Union and Japan.

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Adcetris^® is the first approved targeted therapy for HL patients. Adcetris^® targets CD30, the same target as acimtamig, but has a different mode of action, acting as a targeted chemotherapy, rather than as a targeted immunotherapy. As an antibody-drug conjugate, Adcetris^® delivers a toxin (monomethyl auristatin E) to the cells that carry the CD30 antigen. The drug conjugate is internalized by the tumor cell, which is then destroyed. In a phase 2 clinical study, Adcetris^® treatment in R/R HL patients resulted in an overall response rate of 75% and a CR rate of 34%. However, the median PFS after Adcetris^® is 5.6 months. In addition, the treatment is associated with considerable adverse events like neutropenia (low neutrophils) and neuropathy (damage to the peripheral nervous system).

The FDA and EMA approved nivolumab in R/R cHL patients that have relapsed or progressed after ASCT and Adcetris^® in 2016. In 2017, the FDA granted accelerated approval, and the European Commission granted approval for pembrolizumab in adult and pediatric patients with R/R cHL who have relapsed after 3 or more prior lines of therapy, and the European Commission granted approval for pembrolizumab in adult patients with R/R cHL who have failed ASCT and Adcetris^®, or who are transplant-ineligible and have failed Adcetris^®. In 2020, the FDA approved an expanded label for pembrolizumab in R/R cHL. Overall response rates for the anti-PD-1 antibodies (nivolumab and pembrolizumab) in R/R cHL patients post Adcetris^® are 66 to 69%, with complete remission rates of 14-25%.

Beyond HL, other CD30+ hematological malignancies include T cell lymphoma (“TCL”). Approximately 4% of all new cancer cases in the US are NHL (SEER Database). In 2023, approximately 80,500 new cases of NHL were diagnosed in the US (SEER estimate). 5-10% of all NHLs are PTCL, implying. there are between 4,000-8,000 newly diagnosed cases of PTCL in the US every year, of which approximately 50-70% are positive for CD30. We estimate there are approximately 4,000-6,000 R/R CD30+ PTCL cancer cases per year in North America, the European Union and Japan.

EGFR-positive Malignancies

Current treatment options for solid tumors consist of a mix of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapies. While chemotherapy or radiotherapy were historically standard treatment strategies, specific tumor characteristics currently guide decision-making for an optimal treatment regimen for individual patients. This has led to the implementation of innovative treatments as standard of care in many solid tumors, including mAbs and tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

EGFR, an important target that is exploited by these targeted therapies, is expressed in a wide range of solid tumors and is considered a validated target for their treatment. Erbitux^® and Vectibix^® are anti-EGFR mAbs that are approved for the treatment of rat sarcoma (“RAS”)-wild type metastatic CRC, which represents a subset of ~45-50% of all CRC patients. However, Erbitux^® and Vectibix^® are not effective in Kirsten rat sarcoma (“KRAS”) mutated CRC. The activating KRAS mutations put RAS in a constitutively activated status that bypasses the signal transduction inhibition produced by EGFR targeting antibodies. In addition, Erbitux^® is also approved for the treatment of locally advanced and recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer. The anti-EGFR mAb Necitumumab is approved for squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.

Beyond these approved indications, there are signals of clinical activity of anti-EGFR mAbs from early clinical studies in a wide range of different indications.

Immunotherapies play an increasing role in solid tumors. PD-1 and PD-L1 CPIs have been approved for the treatment of many different types of cancer, including melanoma, lung cancer, renal cancer, gastric / gastroesophageal cancer, bladder cancer and head and neck cancer. Many studies with cancer immunotherapies are ongoing. It is expected that immunotherapies will play an increasing role in the standard treatment of solid tumors. However, even with these advances, a cure is still the exception for the majority of late-stage tumors, in particular metastatic tumors, and the medical need for new and safe treatment approaches remains generally high for solid tumors.

CD123-positive Malignancies

CD123, also known as the interleukin-3 (IL-3) receptor alpha chain (IL3Rα), is a cytokine receptor which is overexpressed in multiple hematologic malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS). Importantly, CD123 is expressed on leukemic stem and progenitor cells as well as on leukemic blasts while it shows limited expression in non-malignant tissues in AML. CD123 overexpression in AML is associated with increased proliferative activity, poor prognosis, and has been positively correlated with the presence of residual disease.

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AML originates in hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) or progenitor cells that acquire genetic and/or epigenetic mutations but retain self-renewing properties and can maintain and/or propagate the disease, e.g., via leukemic stem cells. Consequently, depletion of CD123-expressing cells in AML holds the potential to reduce the disease burden and delay or prevent disease relapse by eradicating leukemic stem cells with limited toxicity in healthy tissue. CD123 is therefore an interesting target for CD123-targeting therapies.

However, CD123-targeting approaches, such as IgG1-based antibodies or T cell engagers, showed limited efficacy and safety up to now. The clinically most advanced T cell engagers flotetuzumab and vibecotamab require continuous dosing regimes and/or are associated with the risk of infusion related reactions (IRRs) and cytokine release syndrome (CRS), whereas the development of the Fc-enhanced IgG1-based antibody talacotuzumab was terminated due to insufficient efficacy and signs of toxicity.

Our Product Candidates

Our development pipeline currently comprises three distinct product candidates for which we retain full commercial rights: acimtamig, AFM24 and AFM28. Initially, we intend to pursue indications in which the medical need is high and for which there is a significant population of patients needing treatment in the salvage setting. This unmet medical need could mean that our therapeutics could be approved on an expedited basis. If and when we obtain approval for our product candidates as salvage therapies, we plan to explore whether they could also be used as first- or second-line treatments, most likely in combination with one or more treatments that comprise the existing standard of care. All of our product candidates have the potential to target several indications, which could represent significant additional commercial opportunities in the future.

Acimtamig (AFM13)

Overview

Acimtamig is a first-in-class innate cell engager that is engineered to bind with high affinity to both CD30-expressing tumor cells and to CD16A surface proteins to activate NK cells and macrophages. Acimtamig is intravenously administered and has several advantageous characteristics:

The clinical and preclinical data that we have generated to date suggest that acimtamig appears to be well-differentiated from Adcetris^®, an approved targeted therapy for HL and TCL patients. Although acimtamig employs the same target as Adcetris^®, namely CD30, the two compounds are fundamentally different in their mechanism of action. Adcetris^® is a targeted chemotherapy, while acimtamig is a targeted immunotherapy. Adcetris^® delivers a toxin (monomethyl auristatin E) to the cells that carry the CD30 receptor, and the cell is killed by the action of the toxin after its internalization and release from the antibody. In contrast, acimtamig does not need to enter the cell but serves as a connector on the cell surface between the CD30 receptor and a CD16A-positive immune cell. Once the cells are in contact, the killing activity of the immune cell is triggered.

Tumor cells have the ability to activate a multi-drug resistance system (“MDR”), which we believe may contribute to the development of resistance to Adcetris^®. The MDR, however, does not affect the efficacy of an immunotherapy like acimtamig. We believe that this difference may not only translate into efficacy of acimtamig in patients relapsing from Adcetris^® therapy, but ultimately into a longer clinical benefit. In addition, the off-target toxicity of Adcetris^® toxin monomethyl auristatin E causes severe neutropenia (low neutrophils) and neuropathy (damage to the peripheral nervous system). We believe acimtamig may avoid these side effects because it does not introduce a toxin such as monomethyl auristatin E into the cells. Hence, acimtamig may address Adcetris^®’ safety limitation.

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Acimtamig has been granted orphan drug status for the treatment of HL in the United States and the European Union, and for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma in the United States.

Clinical development of acimtamig as monotherapy in T-cell Lymphoma

In April 2023, we announced the final results from our phase 2 REDIRECT study, a registration-directed study of acimtamig as monotherapy in R/R patients with CD30+ PTCL. The results were presented at the AACR Annual Meeting by Dr. Won Seog Kim, Professor of Hematology-Oncology at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul and a principal investigator for the study, and established that acimtamig monotherapy showed efficacy in the treatment of R/R PTCL patients with a differentiated safety profile. Primary efficacy measures included an ORR of 32.4% and a CR of 10.2%. Key secondary and exploratory outcome measures include safety, durability of response, progression free survival and overall survival. Median DoR was 2.3 months, median PFS was 3.5 months and median overall survival OS was 13.8 months. PFS and OS were comparable with currently approved therapies for R/R PTCL. Of all PTCL subsets, patients with AITL exhibited the highest ORR (53.3%) and CR (26.7%) with DoR not meaningfully different across the various subsets. The safety profile of acimtamig was well managed and consistent with previously reported data of prior and ongoing clinical studies with acimtamig. Most common Treatment Emergent Adverse Events (TEAEs) were IRR (25%), neutropenia (10.2%) and pyrexia (8.3%). No acimtamig-related fatal toxicities were observed.

Based on the compelling data seen in HL for the combination of acimtamig with cord blood-derived NK cells in the acimtamig (AFM13-104) study – as described in the section “Clinical development of acimtamig in combination with adoptive NK cells”- we believe that the combination with AlloNK^® has a higher probability to deliver increased anti-tumor activity and a more durable clinical benefit to address the unmet need in the PTCL patient population. Accordingly, we do not intend to pursue an accelerated approval for acimtamig monotherapy in PTCL and will focus investment on clinical development in the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^®.

We have also previously supported a phase 1b/2a IST of acimtamig in patients with R/R CD30+ lymphoma with cutaneous presentation led by investigators at Columbia University in New York. In addition to determining clinical efficacy, this study was also translational in nature, designed to allow for serial biopsies that enable assessment of NK cell biology and tumor cell killing within the tumor microenvironment. Final clinical efficacy and safety analysis of this study was presented at the annual ASH conference in December 2020. In 15 patients (dosed at 1.5-7.0 mg/kg) acimtamig was well-tolerated and showed therapeutic activity as a single agent, with an ORR of 42% (6 of 14 patients, 1 patient not assessed). In detail, one CR, five PRs and five stable diseases (“SDs”) were observed. An analysis of biomarker correlatives showed a decrease in circulating NK cells (CD56+ CD3-, CD56+ CD16+, NKp46+) during therapy, with post-therapy recovery. In addition, increased CD69 expression on circulating NK cells from responders vs. non-responders was demonstrated. Tumor biopsies showed increased infiltration of CD56+ NK cells pre-therapy in responders compared to non-responders, while circulating CD4+ CD25+ T cells (Tregs) decreased in responders compared to non-responders.

Clinical development of acimtamig in combination with adoptive NK cells

In December 2016, we entered into a clinical development and commercialization collaboration with the MDACC to evaluate acimtamig in combination with MDACC’s cord-blood derived NK cell product. MDACC conducted preclinical research aimed at investigating its NK cells derived from umbilical cord blood in combination with acimtamig. In December 2018, we presented data at the ASH Annual Meeting, outlining the successful approach of a novel premixed product comprising expanded cord-blood derived NK cells loaded with acimtamig to redirect their specificity against CD30+ malignancies.

In September 2020, MDACC dosed the first patient in a phase 1/2 study. The study is designed to administer a stable complex of acimtamig pre-complexed with cord blood-derived allogeneic NK cells in different doses (numbers of pre-complexed NK cells) to patients with R/R CD30+ lymphoid malignancies followed by three doses of acimtamig as monotherapy. We fund research and development expenses for this collaboration and have licensed exclusive worldwide rights to further develop and commercialize any product developed under the collaboration. As of December 2022, a total of 41 patients with CD30+ R/R HL and NHL (36 and 5 patients, respectively) were treated with the novel combination of cbNK cells pre-complexed with acimtamig. Three patients were treated with 1×10⁶, three patients with 1×10⁷ and 35 patients with 1×10⁸ acimtamig-pre-complexed cbNK cells per kg body weight. Of the 35 patients treated at 1x10⁸ per kg dose level, 31 patients had HL and 4 patients had NHL.

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As of the cutoff date, 38 of 41 patients (93%) had achieved an objective response to the treatment according to investigator assessment, with 27 CR and 11 PR. In the 31 patients with HL treated at the RP2D level of 10⁸ cbNK cells per kg, a 97% ORR and 77% CR rate was observed according to investigator assessment. In four patients with NHL treated at the RP2D, three patients achieved an objective response with one patient achieving a CR according to investigator assessment. Of note, there were no instances of immune-related AEs such as cytokine release syndrome, immune cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome or graft-versus-host disease.

In November 2022, we announced a collaboration with Artiva with the goal of advancing the development of the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® into a potential registration enabling study. In January 2023, the FDA issued a written response to our pre-investigational new drug meeting request for the acimatmig/AlloNK^® co-administered combination therapy in R/R HL and the exploratory arm evaluating the combination in R/R CD30+ lymphomas. Based on the FDA’s written response, we submitted and received clearance from FDA for an IND application during the second quarter of 2023. We initiated enrollment into the study in October 2023.

In December 2023, we presented final data from the investigator-initiated trial at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2023 Annual Meeting. A total of 42 patients were enrolled in the study with 36 patients treated at the RP2D. 32 of the 36 patients treated at the RP2D were HL patients. All 32 HL patients were heavily pretreated with multiple lines of chemotherapy, all had previously received CPIs and BV, and were refractory to their most recent line of therapy with active progressive disease at the time of enrollment. Across all dose levels, the treatment regimen achieved an ORR of 93% with a CR rate of 67%; among the 32 HL patients treated at the RP2D the treatment regimen achieved an ORR of 97% and a CR rate of 78%. In addition, the treatment regimen demonstrated a good safety and tolerability profile with no cases of CRS, ICANS or GvHD of any grade. Mild to moderate infusion related reactions (IRRs) were seen in 7.7% of the acimtamig infusions. Across all dose levels, median event free survival (EFS) was 8.8 months and median overall survival (OS) was not reached. For the HL patients treated at the RP2D, median EFS was 9.8 months – with 84% patients alive at 12 months. The median DoR was 8.8 months and 72% CR assessed at 6 months for HL patients treated at the RP2D; 30% of patients with complete response remained in CR beyond 12 months.

We previously published preclinical data with the DKFZ (the German Cancer Research Center) presenting evidence of acimtamig modulating NK cells by sensitizing them to IL-2 and/or IL-15 stimulation. In this study, after exposure to acimtamig, the NK cells showed improved IL-2- and IL-15-mediated proliferation and cytotoxicity. This data supports the rationale for further investigation of combining our NK cell engagers with IL-2-or IL-15 to potentially achieve deeper clinical responses.

Clinical development of acimtamig in combination with CPIs

In 2019, we completed a phase 1b clinical study investigating the combination of acimtamig with Merck’s anti-PD-1 antibody Keytruda^® (“pembrolizumab”) in HL patients who had relapsed after or were refractory to chemotherapy and Adcetris^®. The study was designed to establish a dosing regimen for the combination therapy and to assess its safety and efficacy. In this study, the combination was well-tolerated with most of the adverse events observed to be manageable with standard care and mild to moderate in nature. Best response assessment data from 24 patients treated at the highest acimtamig dose level (7 mg/kg) as reported by central read, showed an ORR of 88% (21 of 24 patients), including complete metabolic responses in 46% (11 of 24 patients) and partial metabolic responses (“PmRs”) in 42% (10 of 24 patients).

Other acimtamig clinical studies

A phase 2a clinical study of acimtamig in patients with HL started recruitment in the second quarter of 2015. The study enrolled 25 R/R HL patients previously treated with Adcetris^® and/or anti-PD1 antibodies. Different dosing protocols of acimtamig were explored to allow for improved exposure in more heavily pre-treated patient populations. Final data was presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Hematology in December 2020. The overall response rate was 16.6% (95% CI, 4.5-36.1%). Twelve-month PFS and OS estimates were 12.6% (95% CI, 3.2 - 28.9%) and 62.0% (95%, CI 39.6 - 78.1) respectively. Treatment with acimtamig was deemed to be well tolerated.

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AFM13-101 phase 1 dose escalation clinical study

From September 2010 to April 2013, we conducted a phase 1 clinical study of acimtamig, AFM13-101, in patients with HL. All patients in this study suffered from heavily pre-treated R/R disease and had documented progression of disease at study entry. The objectives of the study were to: determine the safety and tolerability of increasing doses of single cycles of acimtamig as a monotherapy; determine the maximum tolerated dose and optimal biological dose of acimtamig; determine the PK profile of acimtamig; analyze immunological markers, NK cell activity, NK cell markers, serum outcome markers and cytokine release; assess the immunogenicity, or ability to provoke an immune response, of acimtamig; and assess the activity of acimtamig. The phase 1 study was conducted in Germany and the United States. We submitted a Clinical Trial Application (“CTA”) for the phase 1 study to the PEI in May 2010 and an IND application to the FDA in June 2010.

The study enrolled 28 patients (16 males, 12 females) in eight dose cohorts. In the dose escalation part, 24 patients received increasing doses of acimtamig ranging from 0.01 mg/kg to 7.0 mg/kg on a weekly dosing schedule for four weeks. In addition, four patients were treated with 4.5 mg/kg twice weekly for four weeks. Of the 28 patients, 14 had refractory disease and the remainder had relapsed disease. The patients had received a median of six (range three to 11) previous lines of therapy for HL. Nine patients had previously received Adcetris^®.

The clinical results were first presented to the medical community by Professor Andreas Engert, University Hospital of Cologne, the lead investigator for the study, at the Lugano International Meeting on Malignant Lymphoma in 2013. Acimtamig showed an acceptable safety profile. An independent data monitoring committee (“IDMC”), was responsible for the review of safety data on an ongoing basis. It was concluded that the maximum feasible single dose of 7 mg/kg was reached without any toxicity concerns, and consequently the maximum tolerated dose was not reached. The four patients who were treated with 4.5 mg/kg twice weekly completed treatment without raising any toxicity concerns for the IDMC. The most common adverse events were fever and chills, and in general, they were of mild to moderate severity. Overall, less than 30% of all adverse events were severe.

Of the 28 patients, 26 were eligible for efficacy evaluation. For the remaining two patients, efficacy assessments have not been performed. Of the 26 patients, three had a partial remission, 13 had stable disease and 10 had disease progression as best overall response. With the exception of the 0.04 mg/kg dose cohort, anti-tumor activity was observed at all dose levels tested but was more pronounced at or above 1.5 mg/kg. In this subgroup (n=13), 3 PRs (>50% tumor shrinkage) and 7 cases with stable disease were observed, with an overall response rate of 23% (3/13) and a disease control rate of 77%.

Six of seven patients refractory to Adcetris^® as their most recent treatment experienced stabilization of disease (“SD”), following acimtamig treatment. One experienced progressive disease (“PD”). Certain biomarkers indicated dose-dependent effects suggesting most active doses at or above 1.5 mg/kg. PK data were assessed in patients of all dosing cohorts. A dose proportional increase of systemic exposure (AUC0- (or Area Under the Curve from zero to infinity in a plot of the concentration of the drug in blood plasma against time, which represents the total drug exposure over time) and Cmax (or the maximum (or peak) concentration of the drug measured in plasma after the drug has been administered)) was observed. Acimtamig was detectable in peripheral blood up to 168 hours post infusion in the highest dosing cohort. The mean half-life (t1/2) for dose cohorts 1.5 mg/kg and above was 9-19 hours. Acimtamig treatment resulted in an increase of activated NK cells, which are characterized by CD69 expression on their surface. There was a trend showing that higher doses result in a more pronounced increase of CD69+ NK cells. Moreover, CD69 levels rose after acimtamig administration and fell to about baseline prior to the next dose (see figure below), indicating a pattern that reflected the PK of acimtamig. All 28 patients in the study had measurable levels of soluble CD30 (“sCD30”), at the start of acimtamig treatment. sCD30 is shed by the tumor and is/was measurable in peripheral blood. In 24 patients the level was decreased at the end of treatment. Patients treated in dose cohorts 1.5 mg/kg and higher all had a marked decrease of sCD30.

Based on the phase 1 data we concluded, together with experts and authorities, that acimtamig has a favorable safety profile. In addition, acimtamig showed activity in terms of tumor response and pharmacodynamics (“PD”), even in Adcetris^® refractory patients. However, PK and PD indicate that the dose regimen has to be optimized and that the measured clinical effect is likely to underestimate the potency of acimtamig in HL. Consequently, it was determined that in the phase 2a proof of concept study, the acimtamig dose had to be 1.5 mg/kg, be administered more frequently, at least for a certain time; the treatment duration had to be longer than four weeks; and a second cycle had to be mandated in patients that showed benefit from acimtamig treatment in the first cycle, i.e., CR, PR or SD.

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AFM24

Overview

We are developing AFM24, a tetravalent, bispecific EGFR and CD16A-binding innate cell engager, for patients with advanced cancers known to express EGFR. AFM24 is engineered to broadly treat EGFR-expressing solid tumors through innate immune cell activation, potentially avoiding safety and mutational status limitations, as well as resistance mechanisms associated with other therapies. AFM24 is unique in that it activates innate immunity to kill solid tumors by inducing both antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (“ADCC”) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (“ADCP”), as compared to other therapies that rely heavily on signal or checkpoint inhibition. We have successfully completed a toxicology study in cynomolgus monkeys at a range of dose levels up to 75mg/kg over 4 weeks with no observed toxicities even at high dose levels. In contrast, Cetuximab, an approved anti-EGFR antibody, revealed significant toxicity at the same dose-range.

Clinical development of AFM24 as monotherapy

In November 2019, our IND application for AFM24 cleared the required 30-day review by the FDA and is in effect for a phase 1/2a clinical trial of AFM24 in patients with advanced cancers known to express EGFR. We also received regulatory approvals to commence the clinical trial in jurisdictions outside of the US. The initial goal of the study is to determine the maximum tolerated dose and R2PD of AFM24, as well as to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, PD and preliminary efficacy in patients with advanced cancers known to express EGFR. The dose expansion phase of the study is intended to collect preliminary evidence of efficacy and to further confirm the safety of AFM24 as a monotherapy in patients with select solid tumor subtypes. The study started enrolling patients in the second quarter of 2020 and a weekly dose of 480 mg has been identified as the R2PD based on a comprehensive review of safety, PK and pharmacodynamic data, including exposure and NK cell CD16A receptor occupancy. A maximum tolerated dose has not been determined. AFM24 monotherapy showed a well-manageable safety profile. Three expansion cohorts have been initiated at the recommended phase 2 monotherapy dose including Renal cell carcinoma (clear cell), failing standard of care (“SoC”) including TKIs and PD1/PD-L1 targeted therapy; non-small cell lung cancer (“NSCLC, EGFR-mutant”), failing SoC TKIs; and colorectal cancer, failing chemotherapy plus VEGF- and EGFR-targeted antibodies.

In June 2023, at the ASCO annual meeting we presented safety and efficacy data from the EGFR mutant NSCLC expansion cohort of our ongoing AFM24-101 phase 1/2 study investigating ICE^® AFM24 as monotherapy. The AFM24 EGFR mutant NSCLC cohort is part of the AFM24-101 open-label, non-randomized, multi-center, phase 1/2a study (NCT04259450) investigating the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of AFM24 monotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic EGFR+ solid tumors. Other cohorts being investigated included CRC and RCC. At the planned interim analysis, 15 patients with EGFR mutant NSCLC and a median of 2 prior lines of therapy had been treated with a median of 11 doses of AFM24. As of the cut-off date, the data showed clinical activity and signals of anti-tumor activity in 7 out of 15 heavily pre-treated patients, including two confirmed partial responses and five patients with stable disease resulting in an objective response rate of 13% and a disease control rate of 47%. Concurrent with the presentation, we announced our intention to focus near-term clinical development of AFM24 on the combination with atezolizumab (AFM24-102) and announced the discontinuation of AFM24-101.

Clinical development of AFM24 in combination with adoptive NK cells

In March 2021, the FDA cleared an IND application we co-sponsored with NKGen Biotech (formerly known as NKMax America) to initiate a first-in-human phase 1/2a study of AFM24 in combination with SNK01 NK cells in patients with advanced cancers known to express EGFR. The goal of this study is to determine the safety, pharmacokinetics and PD, as well as the maximum tolerated dose and R2PD, of AFM24 in combination with SNK01 NK cells. We initiated enrollment in the study in November 2021.

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In July 2023, we announced that an abstract with clinical trial results of our ICE^® AFM24 in combination with NKGen Biotech’s SNK01 (autologous non-genetically modified NK cells), was accepted for a poster presentation at the ASCO Breakthrough conference from 3-5 August 2023 in Yokohama, Japan. The presentation includes dose escalation phase data on safety and efficacy of the ICE^® AFM24 phase 1 study in patients with advanced or metastatic EGFR-expressing solid tumors (NCT05099549). As of June 2023, seven patients with a mean number of five prior therapies received the combination of AFM24 and SNK01. No unexpected or dose-limiting toxicities were observed, and the PK properties were similar to AFM24 monotherapy. The best objective response was stable disease in three out of the seven patients, including patients with heavily pretreated MSS CRC. Despite these data, we and NKGen Biotech mutually decided to discontinue the presented study. In line with our NK cell combination experience for acimtamig, we are currently evaluating the best option to advance AFM24 with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

In addition, in November 2020, we entered an R&D collaboration with Artiva to assess the feasibility and preclinical activity of combinations of Artiva’s cryopreserved, off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cells AlloNK^® and our ICE^® molecules, building on earlier preclinical studies demonstrating synergistic cytotoxic activity.

Clinical development of AFM24 in combination with CPIs

In February 2021, we entered into a clinical research collaboration with Roche to explore the combination of AFM24 with Roche’s PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (“Tecentriq^®”). Pursuant to the collaboration, we are funding and conducting a phase 1/2a clinical trial to investigate the combination of AFM24 and atezolizumab for the treatment of advanced EGFR expressing malignancies in patients whose disease has progressed after treatment with previous anticancer therapies. Roche supplies us with atezolizumab for the clinical trial. The phase 1/2a study will establish a dosing regimen for the combination therapy and assess safety and potential activity of AFM24 in combination with atezolizumab. We initiated enrollment in the study in December 2021. Interim data from the dose escalation portion of the study were reported at the 37^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (“SITC”) in November 2022. Among three patients evaluated in the first dose escalation cohort treating patients with 160 mg of AFM24 weekly combined with atezolizumab biweekly, clinical activity was observed in two patients, while one patient awaited tumor assessment at cut-off date. One ongoing confirmed PR was observed in a patient with gastric cancer and skin metastases who had rapidly progressed following four prior lines of therapy, including a PD-1 inhibitor, and an ongoing stable disease at 4+ months with symptomatic improvement was observed in a patient with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Dose escalation was completed during the first quarter of 2023 with a weekly AFM24 dose of 480 mg confirmed as the R2PD. The phase 2 expansion phase of the study was initiated in the first quarter of 2023.

AFM24-102 is a phase 1/2a open-label, non-randomized, multicenter, dose escalation, and expansion study evaluating AFM24 in combination with a PD-L1 inhibitor, atezolizumab, in patients with selected EGFR-expressing advanced solid malignancies whose disease has progressed after treatment with previous anticancer therapies (NCT05109442).

As of January 4, clinical response update to the Phase 1/2a AFM24-102 trial in EGFR-wt NSCLC reported 4 confirmed responses, including 1 CR and 3 PR, and 7 stable diseases in the 15 heavily pre-treated evaluable patients, resulting in a disease control rate of 73 percent. Of special importance is the fact that three of the four responders had never achieved an objective response to PD(L) 1 therapy and that the only patient with a response to PD1 containing treatment responded to a combination of doublet chemotherapy plus PD1 and therefore even in this patient, the contribution of PD1 therapy is unclear. Based on the promising response data from the EGFRwt NSCLC cohort, the Company expanded enrollment to 40 patients. In addition, the company continues to enroll in the EGFR-mut NSCLC cohort for a planned number of 25 patients.

Mature PFS data from the 15 EGFR-wildtype NSCLC patients and initial efficacy from the EGFR-mutant NSCLC cohort are expected in Q2 2024.

AFM28

AFM28 is designed to bind to CD123, an established target in myeloid malignancies. We chose CD123 as it is almost universally expressed on leukemic blasts and LSCs in patients with AML, both at diagnosis and at relapse, and independently of cytogenetic risk. AFM28 is being developed for the treatment of patients with AML.

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Preclinical data suggested that AFM28 potently depletes primary CD123 + tumor cells via NK cell-mediated ADCC and promises to effectively target both leukemic blasts and LSCs. High-binding affinity, potent NK-cell activation and target cell lysis with low risk of CRS suggest AFM28 is superior to previously developed Fc-enhanced anti-CD123 IgG and T cell-based therapies. In a cynomolgus toxicology model AFM28 was well-tolerated and demonstrated the anticipated pharmacodynamic activity. Clinical development of AFM28 is planned as both single-agent and in combination with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

AFM28-101

In June 2022, we submitted an IND to the FDA for AFM28. Following feedback from the FDA related to the design of the dose escalation study, we made a strategic decision to voluntarily withdraw the IND and to focus early clinical development of AFM28 in jurisdictions outside of the United States. We initiated recruitment into a phase 1 clinical study in the first quarter of 2023.

AFM28 is investigated in a multi-center phase 1 open-label, dose-escalation study (AFM28-101), in R/R AML. In March 2023, we announced that the first patient was dosed in a phase 1 multicenter, open label, first-in-human dose escalation study of the innate cell engager (ICE^®) AFM28 monotherapy in patients with CD123-positive R/R AML. AFM28 efficiently directs NK cells to CD123-positive leukemic cells in our preclinical models, including leukemic blasts, LSCs and leukemic progenitor cells, inducing their depletion in samples of patients with AML and MDS. As of end of February 2024 we completed enrollment of the fifth cohort (250 mg), recruiting patients in the sixth cohort. No dose-limiting toxicities were reported in cohorts treated prior. Further clinical development of AFM28 is planned in combination with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

Collaborations

We have entered into strategic collaborations for some of our development programs. As part of our business development strategy, we aim to increase the number of our research collaborations in order to derive further value from our platforms and additionally exploit their potential. Key terms of our current material collaborations are summarized below. We believe that our collaborations help to validate and more rapidly advance our discovery efforts, technology platforms and product candidates. As part of our business development strategy, we aim to enter into additional collaborations in order to derive further value from our platform and more fully leverage its potential.

Artiva Biotherapeutics

Overview

On November 1, 2022, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Artiva for the clinical development and commercialization of a combination therapy for any uses in humans or animals, comprising our products consisting of acimtamig and AlloNK^® (the “Artiva Agreement”).  As of the effective date of the Artiva Agreement, the following indications were included in the joint development plan: CD30+ HL and PTCL. While the collaboration is initially limited to the United States, the parties will, upon our request, in good faith discuss an expansion to certain other territories.

Collaboration agreement

Artiva has granted Affimed, with respect to the clinical development of the combination therapy an exclusive, and with respect to the promotion of the combination therapy under the Artiva Agreement a non-exclusive, non-transferable (except to affiliates and successors in interest), royalty-free and non-sublicensable (with certain exceptions) license under Artiva patents and know-how. We have granted Artiva a non-exclusive, non-transferable (except to affiliates and successors in interest), royalty-free license and non-sublicensable (with certain exceptions) license under our patents and know-how for use in the clinical development of the combination therapy under the Artiva Agreement.

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Under the terms of the Artiva Agreement and the development plan agreed between the parties, we will be primarily responsible for the development of the combination therapy, the conduct of the relevant clinical trials and the preparation and filing of regulatory materials during the clinical development. Artiva will support us in the development, in particular through the supply of AlloNK^®and certain other products to be used in the clinical trials. Affimed will have the sole right and responsibility to promote the combination therapy according to a jointly aligned promotion plan.

Each party must use commercially reasonable efforts to perform the tasks assigned to it under the Artiva Agreement and the development plan. We must also use commercially reasonable efforts to file an IND for the combination therapy and dose first patients within certain timeframes. In addition, each party must use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals required to commercialize its product as part of the combination therapy. Each party must also use commercially reasonable efforts to supply its respective product in the quantities required for the clinical trials according to a jointly agreed clinical demand plan (which forms part of the development plan) as well as for commercialization according to jointly agreed commercial demand projections (which will be updated on a rolling quarterly basis during the commercial phase).

During the term of the Artiva Agreement, and subject to certain exceptions, neither party nor its affiliates is allowed to clinically develop or commercialize any product or therapy outside of the Artiva Agreement comprising its product in the territory for any indication which is included in the development plan under the Artiva Agreement. In addition, during the term of the Artiva Agreement, and subject to certain exceptions, we may not combine acimtamig with other NK cells, and Artiva may not clinically develop or commercialize the any product that directly and specifically binds to CD30.

The financial terms of the Artiva Agreement foresee that Affimed shall be responsible for all costs associated with the development of the combination therapy (including all clinical trial costs), except that we and Artiva shall each bear 50% of the costs and expenses incurred in connection with the performance of any confirmatory clinical trial required by the FDA. Artiva shall be solely responsible for all costs incurred by Artiva Biotherapeutics for the supply of AlloNK^® and certain other products used in the clinical trials. In addition, under the Artiva Agreement, the parties have agreed to make payments to each other to achieve a proportion of 67%/33% (Affimed/Artiva) of revenues generated by both parties from commercial sales of each party’s product as part of the combination therapy (such payment obligations to expire country-by-country upon expiry of collaboration patents and data exclusivity or upon biosimilar market entry).

Each party will own intellectual property that solely constitutes an improvement or enhancement to its respective background intellectual property. Other inventions generated in the performance of the development under the Artiva Agreement will be jointly owned by Affimed and Artiva. The clinical data generated in connection with the clinical trials under the Artiva Agreement shall be jointly owned, provided that prior to publication of such data, both parties are subject to certain usage restrictions of such data outside the collaboration.

The parties’ collaboration will be overseen by a joint steering committee (the “JSC”) with respect to the development and by a joint commercialization committee (the “JCC”) with respect to the commercialization, each consisting of an equal number of representatives of Affimed and Artiva. If the JSC or JCC is unable to reach an agreement in a particular matter, the dispute shall be escalated to the joint executive committee (the “JEC”) consisting of two executive members of either party. We will have the final decision-making authority on the JEC, provided that certain matters (including the expansion of the development to additional indications and the adjustment of the protocol) require unanimous vote.

The Artiva Agreement will expire if there is no payment obligation under the Artiva Agreement in the territory. Either party may terminate the Artiva Agreement in its entirety for any uncured (within 60 days after notice) material breach of the Artiva Agreement by the other party or upon the other party’s insolvency. In addition, we may terminate the Artiva Agreement if the futility assessment in an already pending trial for AlloNK^® is not passed.

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Both parties may (during certain time windows during the development phase, but only before initiation of a confirmatory clinical trial for the combination therapy) opt out of the further development and promotion of the combination therapy. If a party opts out, the other party may continue the development and promotion of the combination therapy, in which case the opting-out party is required to provide certain continued support activities (e.g., supply of its product), and the revenue ratio applicable to each party shall be adjusted. In addition, if we opt out, we will be compensated for a portion of its costs incurred before the opt-out through a buy-down payment from Artiva (which will not become payable if we opt out after a change of control of Affimed).

Roivant Sciences

Overview

On November 9, 2020, we announced that we entered into a license and strategic collaboration agreement with a subsidiary of Roivant to develop and commercialize novel ICE^® molecules, including AFM32, in oncology. Under the terms of the agreement, we received $60 million in upfront consideration, comprised of $40 million in cash and pre-paid R&D funding, and $20 million of newly issued shares in Roivant. We are eligible to receive up to an additional $2 billion in milestones over time upon achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties on net sales.

Research collaboration and license agreement

Pursuant to the Roivant Agreement, Affivant was created and is primarily responsible for clinical development and commercialization worldwide in respect of each product candidate, while we will collaborate in the discovery and research phases of molecule development. Each product candidate will be developed pursuant to a research program (“Research Program”) and conducted by a joint project team, which will be overseen by a JSC, consisting of an equal number of representatives of Affivant and our company. If the JSC is unable to reach agreement on a particular matter, Affivant will generally have final decision-making authority, provided that the JSC may not decide on matters that (i) relate exclusively to the use of our innate cell engaging ROCK^® technology platform as generally applied and not specifically applied to any licensed antibody products developed under their corresponding Research Program and directed, as applicable, to the lead target or any additional Affivant targets or (ii) would increase the then current number of full-time equivalents (“FTEs”) that we have assigned to the performance of the research plan for a certain Research Program by more than a certain number of additional FTEs. Except with respect to the activities being conducted by Affivant and us under the Research Programs and subject to our co-promotion option, Affivant shall have sole responsibility for, and bear all costs for, researching, developing and commercializing each product candidate, including all regulatory matters in relation thereto. The Research Programs will be funded by Affivant through an upfront payment to us.

We are subject to certain effort requirements in connection with our research activities under the Roivant Agreement, provision of technical assistance to Affivant and agreement with Affivant upon designation of the exclusive targets. Affivant must use diligent efforts to clinically develop and commercialize at least one licensed product that binds to each exclusive target in the United States, the European Union or Japan.

Affivant will own intellectual property that solely relates to the composition, method of use or manufacture of the any antibody product directed against the designated targets. We will own intellectual property that is an improvement of or otherwise solely relates to our innate cell engaging ROCK^® technology. Other newly developed intellectual property will either be owned solely by a party if that party solely developed it or will be jointly owned by us and Affivant if developed by both parties.

The Roivant Agreement will expire on a country-by-country basis and licensed product-by-licensed product basis when there is no remaining royalty payment or other payment obligation in such country with respect to a licensed product. Either party may terminate the Roivant Agreement in its entirety, or with respect to a particular target, for any uncured material breach of the Roivant Agreement by the other party. Either party may also terminate the Roivant Agreement upon the other party’s insolvency.

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Affivant also has the right to unilaterally terminate the Roivant Agreement in its entirety, in its sole discretion, upon certain advance written notice. If the Roivant Agreement is terminated in its entirety, either by Affivant for convenience or by us as a result of Affivant’s uncured material breach or bankruptcy, we have a right to negotiate commercially reasonable terms under which Affivant grants to us a license to the licensed products with respect to any exclusive target existing as of such termination date. If we do not agree with Affivant on such terms, the dispute will be settled by arbitration.

Genentech

Overview

On August 24, 2018 we entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, for the development and commercialization of certain product candidates that contain novel NK cell engager-based immuno-therapeutics to treat multiple cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, in the fourth quarter of 2018, we received $96 million.

Research collaboration and license agreement

Under the terms of the research collaboration and license agreement (for purposes of this subsection, the “Agreement”), we granted Genentech an exclusive, royalty-bearing, sublicensable worldwide license during the term of the Agreement and thereafter under patent rights and know-how to commercialize the licensed portfolio and any additional product candidates developed pursuant to the Agreement against the exclusive targets designated by Genentech. Genentech has granted us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, worldwide license under certain of its intellectual property solely to fulfill our research obligations under the Agreement.

In addition to the $96 million in payments received in 2018, we are eligible to receive up to approximately $5.0 billion in total milestone payments upon successful development and commercialization of all product candidates developed pursuant to the Agreement. Of the $5.0 billion in milestone payments, approximately $250 million relate to development activities, $1.1 billion relate to receipt of regulatory approvals, and $3.6 billion relate to achievement of specified thresholds of worldwide net sales. In addition, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties from Genentech on net sales of licensed product candidates on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis until the later of the date when there are no valid patent claims under our licensed patents covering such licensed product in the applicable country and the tenth anniversary of the date of first commercial sale of such licensed product in such country. In March 2019, we were informed that an initial pre-clinical milestone was approved by Genentech. On November 7, 2019, we also announced that Genentech exercised its final option for an exclusive target under the companies’ collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize novel NK cell engager-based immuno-therapeutics generated by our ROCK^® platform to treat multiple cancers. The target selection triggered a milestone payment, in an undisclosed amount, to us from Genentech. During 2020, Genentech initiated a phase 1 clinical study for RO7297089, which triggered an additional milestone payment in an undisclosed amount.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Genentech will be responsible for the majority of the research, development and commercialization costs incurred in respect of each product candidate. The development of each product candidate will be overseen by a joint project team, which will in turn be overseen by a joint research committee (“JRC”), consisting of an equal number of representatives of Genentech and us. If the JRC is unable to reach agreement, Genentech generally has final decision-making authority, provided that the JRC may not increase or decrease costs dedicated to our research activities under any research plan without our consent.

We are subject to certain efforts requirements in connection with our research activities under the Agreement, provision of technical assistance to Genentech and agreement with Genentech upon designation of the exclusive targets. Genentech must use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize in one of the United States, European Union or Japan at least one licensed product that binds to each exclusive target.

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We will own intellectual property that we solely develop under the Agreement or that predominantly relates to its antibody engineering platform or molecule fragments that bind to the NK cell. Genentech will own intellectual property that it solely develops under the Agreement or that predominantly relates to an antibody designed to solely bind to an exclusive target. Other newly developed intellectual property will be jointly owned by us and Genentech. The parties will jointly prosecute related patents and Genentech will make final decisions regarding prosecution of patents that claim exclusive targets or relate to developed intellectual property that it solely owns under the Agreement and we will make final decisions regarding prosecution of patents that relate to developed intellectual property that we solely own under the Agreement.

The Agreement will expire on a country-by-country basis and licensed product-by-licensed product basis until there is no remaining royalty payment or other payment obligation in such country with respect to a licensed product. Either party may terminate the Agreement in its entirety, or with respect to a particular target, for any uncured material breach of the Agreement by the other party. Either party may also terminate the Agreement upon the other party’s insolvency. Genentech also has the right to unilaterally terminate the Agreement in its entirety or with respect to a particular target, in its sole discretion, upon certain advance written notice. If the Agreement is terminated in its entirety or with respect to a particular exclusive target, either by Genentech for convenience or by us for material breach, we have a right to negotiate commercially reasonable terms under which Genentech grants to us (i) the right to transfer licensed products under any terminated exclusive target to us and (ii) a license for Genentech’s intellectually property to such licensed products for further commercialization of such licensed products. If we do not agree with Genentech on such terms, the dispute will be finally settled by arbitration.

During the second quarter of 2021, Genentech informed us that the phase 1 study of RO7297089 (anti-BCMA/CD16A) was discontinued. A portion of these potential milestone payments are associated with that molecule.

MD Anderson Cancer Center

In December 2020, we entered into a patent and technology license agreement with the MDACC (the “MDACC License Agreement”), for the development and commercialization of certain novel oncology therapeutics resulting from the combination of cbNK and ICE^® molecules, including acimtamig. Under the terms of the MDACC License Agreement, we were granted an exclusive, royalty-bearing, sublicensable worldwide license during the term of the MDACC License Agreement to develop, manufacture and commercialize combination products requiring MDACC’s patent rights and know-how. Pursuant to the MDACC License Agreement, we paid MDACC a nonrefundable upfront license fee, and MDACC is eligible to receive payments for development, regulatory and commercial milestones on a product-by-product basis. Milestone payments include, (i) for acimtamig, up to $27 million in development milestones, $52.5 million in regulatory milestones and $90 million in commercial milestones, and (ii) for any other combination product, up to $14.25 million in development milestones, $26.25 million in regulatory milestones and $45 million in commercial milestones. MDACC is also eligible to receive low single-digit, tiered royalties on net sales of products developed pursuant to the MDACC License Agreement. MDACC is also eligible to receive certain payments pursuant to any sublicense of our rights under the MDACC License Agreement.

We are subject to certain efforts requirements in connection with our research and commercialization activities under the MDACC License Agreement.

MDACC, at its own cost, shall have control over the filing, prosecution, maintenance, and enforcement of any patents or patent applications under the Patent Rights.

The MDACC License Agreement will expire on the later of (i) December 2060 or (ii) expiration, on a country-by-country basis, of all licensed patents and the cancellation, withdrawal, or express abandonment of all licensed patent applications. MDACC may terminate the MDACC License Agreement upon our bankruptcy or insolvency. We may also terminate the agreement unilaterally upon certain advance written notice.

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The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Overview. In 2013, we entered into a research funding agreement with the LLS, for the clinical development of acimtamig. Pursuant to the research funding agreement, LLS agreed to co-fund the clinical phase 2a development of acimtamig and to contribute up to approximately $4.4 million over two years to support the project. We agreed to match LLS’s contributions toward the project budget. Our receipt of the $4.4 million total that LLS has agreed to contribute is conditioned on the achievement of certain milestones in connection with the development of acimtamig. All milestones have been met and we have received $4.4 million in funds from LLS. We also have retained exclusive commercialization and distribution rights to acimtamig. In June 2016, the research funding agreement was amended to reflect a shift to the development of combination therapeutic approaches so that the milestones now relate primarily to the development of acimtamig as a combination therapy.

Intellectual property and licenses. Each party owns inventions made and data and know-how generated exclusively by such party or its affiliates prior to and during the term of the research funding agreement relating to the acimtamig development program. If any of such data, inventions and know-how is jointly made, it is jointly owned. LLS grants us an exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up license to its rights in any such joint inventions and any invention made by any LLS employee resulting from the acimtamig development program for purposes specified in the research funding agreement. We have granted LLS an exclusive license to acimtamig that is only effective if we have ceased, or ceased commercially reasonable efforts with respect to, research, development and commercialization of all acimtamig products for a specified period, which period may be extended. As an alternative to this license, we may elect to pay LLS a payment equal to the amount that LLS actually funded to us plus interest. LLS has agreed to make reasonable adjustments and accommodations to this license in the event it impedes our ability to seek a partner to commercialize acimtamig.

Royalties. In consideration of LLS’s payments to us, we have agreed to pay LLS a mid-single digit royalty on net sales of products containing acimtamig until we have paid LLS a low single digit multiple of the funding they provided to us. After we have reached this initial royalty cap, we will pay LLS a sub-single digit royalty on net sales until the earlier of (i) the expiration of the last to expire patent covering the acimtamig products and (ii) ten years after the initial royalty cap is satisfied. These royalty payments are calculated on a country-by-country and product-by-product basis. We have also agreed to make certain low-to-mid-single digit royalty payments to LLS in the event of certain transfers of rights to any product containing acimtamig or in the event we undergo certain change of control transactions, in each case up to the royalty cap described above.

Term and termination. Unless earlier terminated pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the research funding agreement terminates when there are no longer any payment obligations owing from one party to another. The research funding agreement may be terminated by either party for the other party’s material breach, material violation of applicable law, or if a representation or warranty made by the other party in the research funding agreement is not true in any material respect, subject to a specified cure period. If LLS terminates for our default, our royalty obligations and the interruption license will survive such termination. Either party may terminate if the other party undergoes specified bankruptcy or insolvency-related events.

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Intellectual Property

Overview

We strive to protect the proprietary technologies that we believe are important to our business, including seeking and maintaining patent protection intended to protect, for example, the composition of matter of our product candidates, their methods of use, the technology platforms used to generate them, related technologies and/or other aspects of the inventions that are important to our business. We also rely on trade secrets and careful monitoring of our proprietary information to protect aspects of our business that are not amenable to, or that we do not consider appropriate for, patent protection.

We plan to continue to expand our intellectual property estate by filing patent applications directed to dosage forms, methods of treatment and additional compositions created or identified from our technology platforms and ongoing development of our product candidates. Specifically, we seek patent protection in the United States and internationally for novel compositions of matter directed to aspects of the molecules, basic structures and processes for manufacturing these molecules and the use of these molecules in a variety of therapies.

Our success will depend significantly on our ability to obtain and maintain patent and other proprietary protection for commercially important technology, inventions and know-how related to our business, defend and enforce our patents, maintain our licenses to use intellectual property owned by third parties, preserve the confidentiality of our trade secrets and operate without infringing the valid and enforceable patents and other proprietary rights of third parties. We also rely on know-how, continuing technological innovation and in-licensing opportunities to develop, strengthen, and maintain our proprietary positions. To date, we have not identified any potential infringement of our patents by third parties.

A third party may hold intellectual property, including patent rights that are important or necessary to the development of our product candidates or use of our technology platforms. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our product candidates, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or our business could be harmed, possibly materially.

Our Platforms and Programs

The patent portfolios for our most advanced programs are summarized below.

Acimtamig

We own and/or control a patent family that relates to the mode of action of acimtamig, the recruitment of immune effector cells via a specific receptor. We filed a related PCT application in 2006. Any patents resulting from these patent applications, if issued, also will expire in 2026. Patents have been granted in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Russia, Europe (France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Austria, Denmark and Sweden) and certain claims have been granted in the United States (expiry of the US patent in 2029).

In 2016 a patent application claiming a combination of acimtamig with PD-1 antibodies was filed. The respective PCT application is pending in Brazil, and Canada, . Patents have been granted in Australia, Europe (validated in 37 contracting states including Austria, Belgium, Switzerland/Liechtenstein, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, San Marino und Turkey), China, India, Japan, Russia and the United Sates. An additional PCT application claiming a method for the production of acimtamig and the related product was filed in 2020 and respective issued patents will expire 2040. This application was nationalized/regionalized in Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the US.

Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g. acimtamig and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039. This application was nationalized/regionalized in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, the United States and South Africa. A patent family is jointly owned and/or controlled with Artiva directed to the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^®, and respective issued patents will not expire before 2042.

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AFM24

We own and/or control patents that cover our EGFR/CD16A compound. As is the case for acimtamig, these include a patent family relating to the recruiting of immune effector cells via a specific receptor, which will expire in 2026, generally, and in 2029 in the United States. Patents have been granted in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Russia, Europe (France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden) and in the United States. In 2019, a PCT patent application was filed which relates to the specific AFM24 compound. Patents in this family have been granted in the United States, Russia, Japan, and South Africa. National phases of the application are pending in Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and India. Any patents resulting from these patent applications, if issued, will expire in 2039.

Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g., AFM24 and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039. This application was nationalized/regionalized in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, the United States and South Africa and, in the meantime granted in South Africa.

AFM26

We have out licensed the patents which cover our BCMA/CD16A compound. These include a patent family directed to BCMA/CD16A TandAb constructs granted in Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Japan and the United States. In 2019 a patent application was filed which relates to specific multivalent antibody constructs and the specific AFM26 compound. The application was nationalized in Argentina, Taiwan, the Gulf Cooperation Council, United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, China, Columbia, Egypt, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Any patents resulting from these patent applications, if issued, will expire in 2039. In the United States, China, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, and Hong Kong patents specific for the AFM26 compound have been granted.

Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g., AFM26 and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039. This application was nationalized/regionalized in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, the United States and South Africa and, in the meantime granted in South Africa.

AFM28

We own and/or control a patent application relating to specific multivalent antibody constructs and claims the format of the AFM28 compound in the generic manner of the ROCK^® platform. The application was nationalized in Argentina, Taiwan, the Gulf Cooperation Council, United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, China, Columbia, Egypt, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Any patents resulting from these patent applications, if issued, will expire in 2039.

Additionally, we also own and/or control a patent portfolio, which includes one patent family directed to the compound of AFM28. The non-provisional patent application was filed in 2022 with pending applications in Argentina, Taiwan and a PCT application and issued patents will not expire before 2042.

Moreover, we own and/or control a patent family that relates to cryopreserved NK cells preloaded with an ICE^®, e.g., AFM28 and the respective issued patents will not expire before 2039. This application was nationalized/regionalized in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, the United States and South Africa and, in the meantime granted in South Africa.

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ROCK ^® Platform

We own and/or control our immune cell engager platform patent portfolio. This includes a patent family that covers multivalent antibody constructs comprised of four variable domains which are fused by linkers in different length. The claims cover “Multivalent FV antibodies” and the respective patent family comprises granted patents in Australia, Israel, India, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and South Africa and pending applications in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore and Hong Kong. The latest patent application relating to specific Fc-comprising ROCK^® antibody constructs, which claims the generic format of AFM26, AFM28 and AFM32 as well as the specific AFM26 compound was filed in 2019. The application was nationalized in Argentina, Taiwan, the Gulf Cooperation Council, United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, China, Columbia, Egypt, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Any patents resulting from these patent applications, if issued, will expire in 2039.

An additional, recently developed variant of an ICE^® in a ROCK^® platform format is the Duplexbody format. A PCT application claiming this format was filed in 2022 and respectively granted patents would expire in 2042. The PCT application comprises pending applications in Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Europe, the United States and South Africa.

Trispecific Antibodies

Another platform development effort resulted in the successful generation of a trispecific antibody format, for which we submitted a patent application in 2015 and applications are pending in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, South Korea, and the U.S. in 2015. Patents based on this application have been granted in Australia, Europe (patent maintained after opposition), Japan and South Africa. Another International PCT-application was filed in 2016 for further trispecific antibody formats. These patent applications were submitted to cover several dimeric and trispecific antibody formats which are based on variable domains characterized by a common specific dimerization pattern. While applications are pending in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Mexico, Singapore, and South Korea, respective patents have been granted in Japan, Russia, the United States and South Africa and such patents will expire in 2036.

Additionally, a further trispecific ICE^® platform (Trispecific Binders) was developed and a respective non-provisional patent application was filed in 2021 with national/regional applications pending in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, the United States and South Africa.

Novel Multivalent Bi- and Trispecific Antibody Formats

We are exploring various multivalent, bi- and trispecific immune cell engagement formats designed to prolong both serum PK and PD.

In-Licensed Intellectual Property

We have entered into exclusive as well as non-exclusive patent and know-how license agreements which grant us the right to develop, use and commercialize our immune cell engager antibody platform and product candidates derived thereof. The licenses include obligations to pay development milestones and sales royalties on products we develop and commercialize that were generated using patented technologies.

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FDA Regulatory Review Process

The Hatch-Waxman Act permits a patent term extension for FDA-approved drugs of up to five years beyond the expiration of the patent. The length of the patent term extension is related to the length of time the drug is under regulatory review. Patent extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval and only one patent applicable to an approved drug may be extended. Similar provisions are available in other jurisdictions to extend the term of a patent that covers an approved drug, or to offer similar protection for an extended period, as is the case in the European Union. In the future, if and when our pharmaceutical product candidates receive FDA approval, we expect to apply for patent term extensions on patents covering those products. We intend to seek patent term extensions to any of our issued patents in any jurisdiction where these are available, however there is no guarantee that the applicable authorities, including the FDA in the United States, will agree with our assessment of whether such extensions should be granted, and even if granted, the length of such extensions.

Trade Secrets

We also rely on trade secret protection for our confidential and proprietary information. Included in our trade secrets are various aspects of our manufacturing process that we conduct in cooperation with contract manufacturers.

Although we take technical and organizational steps to protect our proprietary information and trade secrets, including through contractual means with our employees, contractors and consultants, third parties may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques or otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or disclose our technology. Thus, we may not be able to meaningfully protect our trade secrets. It is our policy to require our employees, contractors, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, sponsored researchers and other advisors to execute confidentiality agreements upon the commencement of employment or consulting relationships with us. These agreements provide that all confidential information concerning our business or financial affairs developed or made known to the individual during the course of the individual’s relationship with us is to be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties except in specific circumstances. German law provides that all inventions conceived by the individual, and which are related to our current or planned business or research and development or made during normal working hours, on our premises or using our equipment or proprietary information, are our exclusive property. In many cases our confidentiality and other agreements with consultants, outside scientific collaborators, sponsored researchers and other advisors require them to assign or grant us licenses to inventions they invent as a result of the work or services they render under such agreements or grant us an option to negotiate a license to use such inventions.

Manufacturing

We express our tetravalent bispecific ICE^® product candidates in mammalian cells and develop our production processes on a laboratory scale. The research grade material made in our laboratories is suitable for conducting compound profiling activities. In the course of preclinical development, we transfer the process to external manufacturers called Contract Manufacturing Organizations (the “CMOs”) which we select according to a standardized operating procedure. Before and during the cooperation with a CMO we conduct audits to assess quality and compliance with the mutually agreed process descriptions and current GMP regulations. The CMOs themselves are controlled by their in-house quality assurance functions and inspected by regulatory agencies, including EMEA and the FDA.

The technology transfer generally includes several different aspects: the development of a production cell line, the development of research, master and working cell banks, the development and qualification of upstream and downstream processes, the development of the drug product form and process and the development of suitable validated analytical methods for test and release, as well as stability testing. During the development of our drug candidates, our CMOs scale the manufacturing process to suitable size. Such upscaling typically takes several steps and may involve modification of the process, in which case comparability of the resulting material to earlier preclinical and clinical material must be demonstrated to the relevant authorities before proceeding with further clinical studies. From our CMOs we receive process development-derived material for preclinical testing and material meeting GMP standards for clinical supplies.

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We rely on and will continue to rely on CMOs for both drug substance and drug product. We seek to establish a good relationship in order to expeditiously solve problems should they arise. Our contract manufacturers have extensive capacities and a certain flexibility to adjust to demand. Likewise, our manufacturers purchase and stock materials required for production usually from multiple sources and should therefore be less vulnerable to potential shortages. Generally, we need to commit to certain manufacturing slots and capacities in advance, which typically involves the payment of reservation fees.

We have successfully scaled up the processes for acimtamig, AFM24, and AFM28 and manufactured material to meet the clinical drug supply demands for our clinical studies. We are currently working with several external companies to establish a manufacturing process with a productivity adequate for the commercial phase.

Commercialization

We have not yet established a sales, marketing or product distribution infrastructure because our lead product candidate is still in clinical development.

Prior to receiving marketing approvals, we plan to build a focused sales and marketing organization to sell our products if and when marketing approval is granted. We believe that such an organization will be able to address the community of oncologists who are the key specialists in treating the patient populations for which our product candidates are being developed.

We also plan to build a marketing and sales management organization to create and implement marketing strategies for any products that we market through our own sales organization and to oversee and support our salesforce. The responsibilities of the marketing organization would include developing educational initiatives with respect to approved products and establishing relationships with thought leaders in relevant fields of medicine.

Competition

The biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and a strong emphasis on proprietary products. While we believe that our technology, knowledge, experience and scientific resources provide us with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with existing therapies and new therapies that may become available in the future.

There are many companies developing or marketing treatments for cancer, including many major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These treatments consist both of small molecule drug products, as well as biologic therapeutics that work, among others, either by using next-generation antibody technology platforms or by new immunological approaches to address specific cancer targets. These treatments are often combined with one another in an attempt to maximize the response rate. In addition, several companies are developing therapeutics that work by targeting multiple specificities using a single recombinant molecule, as we are.

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Clinical phase 2 and phase 3 data from the anti-PD-1 CPIs nivolumab and pembrolizumab in HL have been published. These data indicate that treatment with anti-PD-1 antibodies results in high response rates in the salvage setting of HL. In 2016, the FDA granted accelerated approval, and the European Commission granted approval for nivolumab in cHL patients who have relapsed or progressed after ASCT and Adcetris^®. In 2017, the FDA granted accelerated approval, and the European Commission granted approval for pembrolizumab in adult and pediatric patients with refractory cHL who have relapsed after 3 or more prior lines of therapy, and the European Commission granted approval for pembrolizumab in adult patients with R/R cHL who have failed ASCT and Adcetris^®, or who are transplant-ineligible and have failed Adcetris^®. In 2020, the FDA approved an expanded label for pembrolizumab in R/R cHL. Phase 2 and phase 3 studies of Adcetris^® in combination with nivolumab are either planned or ongoing. If acimtamig, alone or in combination, were to be approved for HL, we could be in competition with these therapies, as well as any other therapies or combination regimens that comprise the standard of care that our offering could potentially displace. Adcetris^®, an antibody-drug conjugate targeting CD30, was approved by the FDA in R/R HL in 2011. In addition, Adcetris^® was approved by the FDA in 2018 for the treatment of previously untreated Stage 3/4 cHL in combination with chemotherapy. In the European Union, Adcetris^® is approved for similar indications. Adcetris^® is also indicated for previously treated systemic ALCL, primary cutaneous ALCL, and CD30+ mycosis fungoides, as well as for previously untreated systemic ALCL or other CD30+ PTCL in combination with chemotherapy in the US and for previously untreated systemic ALCL in Europe. Adcetris^® is currently being investigated in various combinations in HL, including CPIs.

We expect that our ROCK^® platform as well as our novel antibody formats derived from this platform will serve as the basis for future product candidates and collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. Other companies also have developed platform technologies that may compete with our platforms. For example, Dragonfly Therapeutics is developing TriNKET, which specifically activates cells of the innate and adaptive immune system and has recently started clinical development of one of these TriNKET assets. GT Biopharma is developing its TriKEs and TetraKEs platform designed to target NK cells and tumor cells forming an immune synapse between the NK cell and the tumor cell thereby inducing NK cell activation at that site. Innate Pharma is developing several multi-specific NK cell engagers for oncology indications based on their ANKET platform. Furthermore, there may be other companies we have not identified that develop technologies that also engage NK cells in oncology, which would put them into competition with our therapies.

Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, drug development, technical and human resources than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining top qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and patient registration for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our therapeutic product candidates, if approved, are likely to be their efficacy, safety, dosing convenience, price, the effectiveness of companion diagnostics in guiding the use of related therapeutics, our marketing capabilities, the level of generic competition and the availability of reimbursement from government and other third-party payors.

Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe effects, are more convenient, have a broader label, are marketed more effectively, are reimbursed or are less expensive than any products that we may develop.

Our competitors also may obtain FDA, European Commission or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Even if our product candidates achieve marketing approval, they may be priced at a significant premium over competitive products if any have been approved by then, resulting in reduced competitiveness.

In addition, our ability to compete may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payors seeking to encourage the use of biosimilar products. Biosimilar products are expected to become available over the coming years. The regulatory framework to approve biosimilar products has already been created in Europe and the United States.

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The most common methods of treating patients with cancer are surgery, radiation and drug therapy. There are a variety of available drug therapies marketed for cancer. In many cases, these drugs are administered in combination to enhance efficacy. While our product candidates may compete with many existing drug and other therapies, to the extent they are ultimately used in combination with or as an adjunct to these therapies, our product candidates will not be competitive with them as such. Some of the currently approved drug therapies are branded and subject to patent protection, and others are available on a generic basis. Many of these approved drugs are well established therapies and are widely accepted by physicians, patients and third-party payors.

In addition to currently marketed therapies, there are also a number of products in late-stage clinical development to treat cancer. These product candidates in development may provide efficacy, safety, dosing convenience and other benefits that are not provided by currently marketed therapies or our drugs. As a result, they may provide significant competition for any of our product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.

If our lead product candidates are approved for the indications for which we are currently undertaking clinical studies, they will compete with the therapies and currently marketed drugs discussed elsewhere in this document.

Government Regulation and Product Approval

Government authorities in all major pharmaceutical markets extensively regulate, among other things, the research, non-clinical and clinical development, testing, manufacture, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing and import and export of pharmaceutical products such as those we are developing. Although our initial focus will be on the United States and Europe, we will develop and seek marketing approval for our products also in other countries and territories, such as Canada or Japan, and for markets that follow the leading authorities, such as Brazil or South Korea. The processes for obtaining regulatory approvals in the United States, Europe and in other countries, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.

International Conference on Harmonization

The International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (“ICH”) is a project that brings together the regulatory authorities of Europe, Japan and the United States and experts from the pharmaceutical industry in the three regions to discuss scientific and technical aspects of pharmaceutical product registration. The purpose of the ICH is to reduce or obviate the need to duplicate the testing carried out during the research and development of new medicines by recommending ways to achieve greater harmonization in the interpretation and application of technical guidelines and requirements for product registration. Harmonization would lead to a more economical use of human, animal and material resources, the elimination of unnecessary delay in the global development and availability of new medicines while maintaining safeguards on quality, safety, and efficacy, and regulatory obligations to protect public health.

The ICH guidelines have been adopted as law in several countries. In many areas of drug development the ICH has resulted in comparable requirements, for instance with respect to the Common Technical Document, which has become the standard dossier format for filings for market authorization in several jurisdictions. Thus, the ICH has facilitated a more efficient path to markets.

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FDA Approval Process

All of our current product candidates are subject to regulation in the United States by the FDA as biological products, or biologics. The FDA subjects biologics to extensive pre- and post-market regulation. The Public Health Service Act (“PHSA”), the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and other federal and state statutes and regulations govern, among other things, the research, non-clinical and clinical development, testing, manufacture, storage, recordkeeping, approval, labeling, promotion and marketing, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, sampling, and import and export of biologics. Failure to comply with applicable U.S. requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as FDA refusal to approve pending BLAs, withdrawal of approvals, clinical holds, warning letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines or civil or criminal penalties.

The PHSA emphasizes the importance of manufacturing control for biological products whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. The PHSA also provides authority to the FDA to immediately suspend licenses in situations where there exists a danger to public health, to prepare or procure products in the event of shortages and critical public health needs, and to authorize the creation and enforcement of regulations to prevent the introduction or spread of communicable diseases in the United States and between states.

The process required by the FDA before a new biologic may be marketed in the United States is long and expensive and due to the nature of biological products inherently uncertain. Biologics development in the United States typically involves preclinical laboratory and animal tests, the submission to the FDA of an IND application which must become effective before clinical testing may commence. Furthermore, adequate and well-controlled clinical studies are required in order to establish the safety and effectiveness of the biologic for each indication for which FDA approval is sought. Developing the data to satisfy FDA marketing authorization requirements typically takes many years and the actual time required may vary substantially based upon the type, complexity, and novelty of the product or disease.

Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry, formulation, and toxicity, as well as animal studies to assess the characteristics and potential safety and efficacy of the product. The conduct of the preclinical tests must comply with federal regulations and requirements, including good laboratory principles (“GLP”). The results of preclinical testing are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND along with other information, including information about product chemistry, manufacturing and controls, and a proposed clinical study protocol. Long term preclinical tests, such as animal tests of reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity, may continue after the IND is submitted.

An IND must become effective before United States clinical studies may begin. A 30-day waiting period after the submission of each IND is required prior to the commencement of clinical testing in humans. If the FDA has does not issue a clinical hold within this 30-day period, the clinical study proposed in the IND may begin.

Clinical studies involve the administration of the IND or biologic to healthy volunteers or patients with the condition under investigation, all under the supervision of a qualified investigator. Clinical studies must be conducted: (i) in compliance with federal regulations; (ii) in compliance with GCP, an international standard meant to protect the rights and health of patients and to define the roles of clinical study sponsors, investigators and monitors; as well as (iii) under protocols detailing the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. Each protocol involving testing on U.S. patients and subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND.

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The FDA may order the temporary, or permanent, discontinuation of a clinical study at any time, or impose other sanctions, if it believes that the clinical study either is not being conducted in accordance with FDA requirements or presents an unacceptable risk to the clinical study participants. The study protocol and informed consent information for participants in clinical studies must also be submitted to an IRB for approval. An IRB may also require the clinical study at the site to be halted, either temporarily or permanently, for failure to comply with the IRB’s requirements, or may impose other conditions. The study sponsor may also suspend a clinical study at any time on various grounds, including a determination that the subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk.

Clinical studies to support BLAs for marketing approval are typically conducted in three sequential phases, but the phases may overlap or be combined. In phase 1, the biologic is initially introduced into healthy human subjects or patients and is tested to assess PK, pharmacological actions, side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, early evidence on effectiveness. In the case of some products for more severe or life-threatening diseases, such as cancer treatments, initial human testing may be conducted in the intended patient population. Phase 2 usually involves studies in a limited patient population to determine the effectiveness of the biologic for a particular indication, dosage tolerance and optimum dosage and to identify common adverse effects and safety risks. If a compound demonstrates evidence of effectiveness and an acceptable safety profile in phase 2 studies, phase 3 studies are undertaken to obtain additional information about clinical efficacy and safety in a larger number of patients, typically at geographically dispersed clinical study sites. These phase 3 clinical studies are intended to establish data sufficient to demonstrate substantial evidence of the efficacy and safety of the product to permit the FDA to evaluate the overall benefit-risk relationship of the biologic and to provide adequate information for the labeling of the biologic. Studies conducted outside of the US under similar, GCP-compliant conditions in accordance with local applicable laws may also be acceptable to the FDA in support of product licensing.

Sponsors of clinical studies for investigational drugs must publicly disclose certain clinical study information, including detailed study design and study results in NIH public ClinicalTrials.gov databases. These requirements are subject to specific timelines and apply to most controlled clinical studies of FDA-regulated products.

After completion of the required clinical testing, a BLA is prepared and submitted to the FDA. FDA review and approval of the BLA is required before marketing of the product may begin in the United States. The BLA must include the results of all preclinical, clinical and other testing and a compilation of data relating to the product’s pharmacology, chemistry, manufacture and controls and must demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the product based on these results. The BLA must also contain extensive manufacturing information. The cost of preparing and submitting a BLA is substantial. Under federal law, the submission of most BLAs is additionally subject to a substantial application user fee, as well as annual product and establishment user fees, which may total several million dollars and are typically increased annually.

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The FDA has 60 days from its receipt of a BLA to determine whether the application will be accepted for filing based on the agency’s threshold determination that it is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth review. The FDA has agreed to certain performance goals in the review of BLAs. Most such applications for standard review biologics are reviewed within ten months from the date the application is accepted for filing. Although the FDA often meets its user fee performance goals, it can extend these timelines if necessary and its review may not occur on a timely basis at all. The FDA usually refers applications for novel biologics many times to an advisory committee—typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts—for review and evaluation of data concerning the safety and efficacy of marketed investigational drug products for use in the treatment of patients and makes appropriate recommendations to the FDA Commissioner. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of an advisory committee, but it generally follows such recommendations. Before approving a BLA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP. Additionally, the FDA will inspect the facility or the facilities at which the biologic is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the product unless it verifies that compliance with cGMP standards is satisfactory and the BLA contains data that provide substantial evidence that the biologic is safe and effective in the indication studied.

After the FDA evaluates the BLA and the manufacturing facilities, it issues either an approval letter or a complete response letter. A complete response letter generally outlines the deficiencies in the submission which requires substantial additional testing and / or information, in order for the FDA to reconsider the application. Once those deficiencies have been addressed to the FDA’s satisfaction in a resubmission of the BLA, the FDA will issue an approval letter. The FDA has committed to reviewing such resubmissions in two or six months depending on the type of information included. The FDA approval is never guaranteed, and the FDA may refuse to approve a BLA if applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied.

Under the PHSA, the FDA may approve a BLA if it determines that the product is safe, effective, pure and potent and the facility where the product will be manufactured meets standards designed to ensure that it continues to be safe, pure and potent. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the biologic with specific prescribing information for specific indications. The extension of an approval for a biologic may be significantly more limited than initially requested in the application, which might restrict the commercial value of the product. The FDA may also require that certain contraindications, warnings, or precautions are included in the prescription leaflet. In addition, as a condition of BLA approval, the FDA may require a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (“REMS”) in order to track and thereby ensure that the benefits of the biologic outweigh the potential risks for patients. REMS can include medication guides, communication plans for healthcare professionals, and elements to assure safe use (“ETASU”). ETASU can include, but are not limited to, special training or certification for prescribing or dispensing, dispensing only under certain circumstances, special monitoring and the use of patient registries. The requirement for a REMS might materially affect the potential market and profitability of the biologic. Moreover, product approval may require, as a condition of approval, substantial post-approval commitments, including, e.g., the testing and surveillance of the biologic’s safety or efficacy. Once granted, product approvals may be withdrawn if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or safety concerns are identified following initial marketing.

As part of the manufacturing process, the marketing authorization holder is required to perform specific tests for each drug substance and drug product batch before it is released for distribution. If the product is subject to official lot release by the FDA, marketing authorization holder has to submit specific release data of each product batch to the FDA together with a release protocol, showing a summary of previous release specification data from all the batches produced so far as well as the data from the current batch. The FDA may also perform certain confirmatory tests on batches of some products, such as viral vaccines, before releasing the lots for distribution by the manufacturer. In addition, the FDA conducts laboratory research related to the regulatory standards on the safety, purity, potency and effectiveness of biological products. After approval of biologics, marketing authorization holder must address any safety issues that arise, are subject to recalls or a halt in manufacturing, and are subject to periodic inspection.

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Expedited Program

Speeding the availability of drugs that treat serious diseases are in everyone’s interest, in particular when the drugs are the first available treatment or if the drug has advantages over existing treatments. The FDA has developed four distinct approaches to making such drugs available as rapidly as possible: a) Priority Review, b) Breakthrough Therapy, c) Accelerated Approval and d) Fast Track. In short:

Biosimilars

The ACA includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009. That Act created an approval pathway authorizing the FDA to approve biosimilars. Biosimilars are biological products which are “highly similar” to a previously approved biologic product or “reference product” and for which there are no meaningful differences between the biosimilar product and the reference product in terms of analytics, safety, purity, potency and clinical efficacy. To date, several biosimilars have been approved under the BPCIA framework.

Advertising and promotion

Once a BLA is approved, a product will be subject to continuing post-approval regulatory requirements. For instance, the FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of biologics, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, off-label promotion, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities involving the internet. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in significant penalties, including the issuance of warning letters directing a company to correct deviations from FDA standards, a requirement that future advertising and promotional materials be pre-cleared by the FDA, and federal and state civil and criminal investigations and prosecutions.

Biologics may be marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. Changes to some of the conditions established in an approved application, including changes in indications, labeling, or manufacturing processes or facilities, require submission and FDA approval of a new BLA or BLA supplement before the change can be implemented. A BLA supplement for a new indication typically requires clinical data similar to that in the original application, and the FDA uses the same procedures and actions in reviewing BLA supplements as it does in reviewing BLAs.

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Adverse event reporting and cGMP compliance

Adverse event reporting and submission of periodic safety reports are required following FDA approval of a BLA. The FDA also may require post-marketing testing, known as phase 4 testing, REMS, and surveillance to monitor the effects of an approved product, or the FDA may place conditions on an approval that could restrict the distribution or use of the product. In addition, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, storage and distribution procedures must continue to conform to cGMPs after approval. Biologics manufacturers and certain of their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies. Registration with the FDA subjects entities to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, during which the agency inspects manufacturing facilities to assess compliance with cGMPs. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality control to maintain compliance with cGMPs. Regulatory authorities may withdraw product approvals, request product recalls, or impose marketing restrictions through labeling changes or product removals if a company fails to comply with regulatory standards, if it encounters problems following initial marketing, or if previously unrecognized problems are subsequently discovered.

Orphan drug

Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to biologics intended to treat a rare disease or condition—generally a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting a BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the biologic and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not necessarily convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process. The first BLA applicant to receive FDA approval for a particular product to treat a particular disease with FDA orphan drug designation is entitled to a seven-year exclusive marketing period in the United States for that product, for that indication. During the seven-year exclusivity period, the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same drug for the same disease, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from approving a different biologic for the same disease or condition, or the same biologic for a different disease or condition. Among the other benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the BLA application user fee.

We have received orphan drug designation for acimtamig for the treatment of HL in the United States and Europe and for and T-cell lymphoma in the United States.

Other healthcare laws and compliance requirements

In the United States, our activities are potentially subject to regulation by federal, state and local authorities in addition to the FDA, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (for example, the Office of Inspector General), the U.S. Department of Justice and individual U.S. Attorney offices within the Department of Justice and state and local governments.

European Union Approval Process

The EMA is a decentralized scientific agency of the European Union. It coordinates the evaluation and monitoring of centrally authorized medicinal products. It is responsible for the scientific evaluation of applications for European Union marketing authorizations, as well as the development of technical guidance and the provision of scientific advice to sponsors. The EMA decentralizes its scientific assessment of medicines by working through a network of about 4,500 experts throughout the European Union, nominated by the member states. The EMA draws on resources of over 40 NCAs of European Union member states. The PEI is one of the NCAs for Germany, and regulates, among others, antibody products.

The process regarding approval of medicinal products in the European Union follows roughly the same lines as in the United States and likewise generally involves satisfactorily completing each of the following:

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Preclinical studies

Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, formulation and stability, as well as studies to evaluate toxicity in animal studies, in order to assess the potential safety and efficacy of the product. The conduct of the preclinical tests and formulation of the compounds for testing must comply with the relevant European Union regulations and requirements. The results of the preclinical tests, together with relevant manufacturing information and analytical data, are submitted as part of the CTA.

Clinical study approval

Pursuant to the Clinical Trials Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 536/2014), a system for the approval of clinical studies in the European Union has been implemented through national legislation of the member states. Under this system, approval must be obtained from the competent national authority of each European Union member state in which a study is planned to be conducted. To this end, a CTA is submitted, which must be supported by an investigational medicinal product dossier and further supporting information prescribed by the Clinical Trials Regulation and other applicable guidance documents. Furthermore, a clinical study may only be started after a competent ethics committee has issued a favorable opinion on the clinical study application in that country.

Manufacturing and import into the European Union of investigational medicinal products is subject to the holding of appropriate authorizations and must be carried out in accordance with current GMPs.

Health authority interactions

During the development of a medicinal product, frequent interactions with the health authorities are important to ensure all relevant input and guidelines/regulations are taken into account in the overall program. We have had several interactions with the FDA as well as European competent authorities (both national and EMA) at key timepoints in the development of our antibody products.

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Paediatric studies

Regulation (EC) 1901/2006, which came into force on January 26, 2007, aims to facilitate the development and accessibility of medical products for use in children without subjecting children to unnecessary studies, or delaying the authorization of medicinal products for use in adults. The regulation established the Paediatric Committee (the “PDCO”), which is responsible for coordinating the EMA’s activities regarding medicines for children. The PDCO’s main role is to determine all the studies that marketing authorization applicants need to do in the pediatric population as part of the so-called Paediatric Investigation Plans (“PIPs”). All applications for marketing authorization for new medicines that were not authorized in the European Union before January 26, 2007 have to include either the results of studies carried out in children of different ages (as agreed with the PDCO), or proof that a waiver or a deferral of these studies has been obtained from the PDCO. As indicated, the PDCO determines what pediatric studies are necessary and describes them in a PIP. This requirement for pediatric studies also applies when a company wants to add a new indication, pharmaceutical form or route of administration for a medicine that is already authorized. The PDCO can grant deferrals for some medicines, allowing a company to delay development of the medicine in children until there is enough information to demonstrate its effectiveness and safety in adults and can also grant waivers when development of a medicine in children is not needed or is not appropriate, such as for diseases that only affect the elderly population.

Before a MAA can be filed, or an existing marketing authorization can be varied, the EMA checks that companies are in compliance with the agreed studies and measures listed in each relevant PIP.

Regulation (EC) 1901/2006 also introduced several incentives for the development of medicines for children in the EU:

The indications we pursue, especially those in certain hematologic malignancies, involve pediatric patients and we shall prepare PIPs at the appropriate time.

Marketing authorization application

Authorization to market a product in the European Union member states proceeds under one of four procedures: a centralized authorization procedure, a mutual recognition procedure, a decentralized procedure or a national procedure. Since our products by their virtue of being antibody-based biologics fall under the mandatory scope of the centralized procedure, only this procedure will be described here.

Centralized authorization procedure

Certain drugs, including medicinal products developed by means of biotechnological processes, must be approved via the centralized authorization procedure for marketing authorization. A successful application under the centralized authorization procedure results in a marketing authorization from the European Commission, which is automatically valid in all European Union member states. The other European Economic Area member states (namely Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) are also obligated to recognize the Commission decision. The EMA and the European Commission administer the centralized authorization procedure.

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Under the centralized authorization procedure, the CHMP serves as the scientific committee that renders opinions about the safety, efficacy and quality of human products on behalf of the EMA. The CHMP is composed of experts nominated by each member state’s national drug authority, with one of them appointed to act as Rapporteur for the co-ordination of the evaluation with the possible assistance of a further member of the Committee acting as a Co-Rapporteur. After approval, the Rapporteur(s) continue to monitor the product throughout its life cycle. The CHMP is required to issue an opinion on an initial MAA within 210 days of receipt of a valid application, though the clock is stopped if it is necessary to ask the applicant for clarification or further supporting data. The process is complex and involves extensive consultation with the regulatory authorities of member states and a number of experts. If the CHMP concludes that the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicinal product are sufficiently proven, it adopts a positive opinion. The CHMP’s opinion is sent to the European Commission, which uses the opinion as the basis for its decision whether or not to grant a marketing authorization. If the opinion is negative, information is given as to the grounds on which this conclusion was reached. Once the procedure is completed, a European Public Assessment Report (“EPAR”), is produced.

After a drug has been authorized and launched, it is a condition of maintaining the marketing authorization that all aspects relating to its quality, safety and efficacy must be kept under review. Sanctions may be imposed for failure to adhere to the conditions of the marketing authorization. In extreme cases, the authorization may be revoked, resulting in withdrawal of the product from sale.

Accelerated assessment procedure

When an application is submitted for a marketing authorization in respect of a drug for human use which is of major interest from the point of view of public health and in particular from the viewpoint of therapeutic innovation, the applicant may request an accelerated assessment procedure pursuant to Article 14(9) of Regulation (EC) 726/2004. Under the accelerated assessment procedure, the CHMP is required to issue an opinion within 150 days of receipt of a valid application, subject to clock stops. We believe that many of our product candidates may qualify for this provision and we will take advantage of this provision as appropriate.

Conditional approval

As per Article 14(7) of Regulation (EC) 726/2004, a medicine that would fulfill an unmet medical need may, if its immediate availability is in the interest of public health, be granted a conditional marketing authorization on the basis of less complete clinical data than are normally required, subject to specific obligations being imposed on the authorization holder. These specific obligations are to be reviewed annually by the EMA. The list of these obligations shall be made publicly accessible. Such an authorization shall be valid for one year, on a renewable basis.

Period of authorization and renewals

A marketing authorization is initially valid for five years and may then be renewed on the basis of a re-evaluation of the risk-benefit balance by the EMA or by the competent authority of the authorizing member state. To this end, the marketing authorization holder shall provide the EMA or the competent authority with a consolidated version of the file in respect of quality, safety and efficacy, including all variants introduced since the marketing authorization was granted, at least six months before the marketing authorization ceases to be valid. Once renewed, the marketing authorization shall be valid for an unlimited period, unless the Commission or the competent authority decides, on justified grounds relating to pharmacovigilance, to proceed with one additional five-year renewal. Any authorization which is not followed by the actual placing of the drug on the European Union market (in case of centralized procedure) or on the market of the authorizing member state within three years after authorization shall cease to be valid (the so-called sunset clause).

Orphan drug designation

Regulation (EC) 141/2000 states that a drug shall be designated as an orphan drug if its sponsor can establish:

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Regulation (EC) 847/2000 sets out criteria for the designation of orphan drugs.

An application for designation as an orphan product can be made any time prior to the filing of an application for approval to market the product. Marketing authorization for an orphan drug leads to a ten-year period of market exclusivity. This period may, however, be reduced to six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established that the product no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation, for example because the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify continued market exclusivity. Market exclusivity can be revoked only in very selected cases, such as consent from the marketing authorization holder, inability to supply sufficient quantities of the product, demonstration of “clinically relevant superiority” by a similar medicinal product, or, after a review by the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, requested by a member state in the fifth year of the marketing exclusivity period (if the designation criteria are believed to no longer apply). Medicinal products designated as orphan drugs pursuant to Regulation (EC) 141/2000 shall be eligible for incentives made available by the European Union and by the member states to support research into, and the development and availability of, orphan drugs.

We have applied for and been granted orphan status in the European Union for acimtamig for the treatment of HL.

Regulatory data protection

Without prejudice to the law on the protection of industrial and commercial property, marketing authorizations for new medicinal products benefit from an 8+2+1 year period of regulatory protection.

This regime consists of a regulatory data protection period of eight years plus a concurrent market exclusivity of ten years plus an additional market exclusivity of one further year if, during the first eight years of those ten years, the marketing approval holder obtains an approval for one or more new therapeutic indications which, during the scientific evaluation prior to their approval, are determined to bring a significant clinical benefit in comparison with existing therapies. Under the current rules, a third party may reference the preclinical and clinical data of the reference product beginning eight years after first approval, but the third party may market a generic version only after ten (or eleven) years have lapsed.

As indicated, an additional period of exclusivity can be applied for when an applicant has complied with all requirements as set forth in an approved PIP.

International Regulation

In addition to regulations in the United States and Europe, a variety of foreign regulations govern clinical studies, commercial sales, and distribution of product candidates. The approval process varies from country to country and the time to approval may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA or European Commission approval.

Pharmaceutical Coverage, Pricing and Reimbursement

In the United States and other countries, sales of any products for which we receive regulatory approval for commercial sale will depend in part on the availability of reimbursement from third-party payors, including government health administrative authorities, managed care providers, private health insurers and other organizations. Third-party payors are increasingly examining the medical necessity and cost effectiveness of medical products and services in addition to safety and efficacy and, accordingly, significant uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved therapeutics. Third-party reimbursement adequate to enable us to realize an appropriate return on our investment in research and product development may not be available for our products.

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The division of competences within the European Union leaves to Member States the power to organize their own social security systems, including health care policies to promote the financial stability of their health care insurance systems. According to Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the “TFEU”), “Union action shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organization and delivery of health services and medical care.”

In this context, the national authorities are free to set the prices of medicinal products and to designate the treatments that they wish to reimburse under their social security system. However, the European Union has defined a common procedural framework through the adoption of Council Directive 89/105/EEC, which is generally known as the “Transparency Directive.” This instrument aims to ensure that national pricing and reimbursement decisions are made in a transparent manner and do not disrupt the operation of the internal market.

The Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement systems established by Member States are usually quite complex. Each country uses different schemes and policies, adapted to its own economic and health needs. We would have to develop or access special expertise in this field to prepare health economic dossiers on our medicinal products if we would market our products, if and when approved, in the European Union.

C.   Organizational structure

The registrant corporation Affimed N.V. has two direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries—Affimed GmbH and Affimed, Inc. that are each listed in Exhibit 8.1 filed hereto. We primarily operate our business out of our operating subsidiary, Affimed GmbH. Affimed, Inc. is a direct subsidiary of the operating subsidiary Affimed GmbH.

D.   Property, plant and equipment

Our headquarters are in Mannheim, Germany, where we occupy office and laboratory space at Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 2. The contractual lease term is ten years including a cancellation option after five years beginning on October 1, 2023. The terms provide for a renewal option after 10 years.

ITEM 4A. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

Not applicable.

ITEM 5. OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the information in our consolidated audited financial statements, including the notes thereto, included in this Annual Report. The following discussion is based on our financial information prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) as issued by the IASB, which might differ in material respects from generally accepted accounting principles in other jurisdictions. The following discussion includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including, but not limited to, those described under “Risk factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. As of March 8, 2024, Affimed effected a 1-for-10 reverse stock split of its outstanding common shares. All share and per share information have been retroactively adjusted to reflect this change.

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A.   Operating Results Overview

We are a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focused on developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies. Our product candidates are being developed in the field of immuno-oncology, which represents an innovative approach to cancer treatment that seeks to harness the body’s own immune defenses to fight tumor cells. The most potent cells of the human defense arsenal are types of white blood cells called innate immune cells (NK cells and macrophages) and T cells. Leveraging our fit-for-purpose ROCK^® platform, we have the potential to develop proprietary, next-generation bispecific antibodies, so-called innate cell engagers, which are designed to direct and establish a bridge between innate immune cells and cancer cells. Our innate cell engagers have the ability to bring innate immune cells into proximity and trigger a signal cascade that leads to the destruction of cancer cells. Due to their novel tetravalent architecture (which provides for four binding domains), our innate cell engagers bind to their targets with high affinity and have half-lives that allow regular intravenous administration, with different dosing schemes being explored to allow for improved exposure in heavily pretreated patient populations. We believe, based on their mechanism of action and the preclinical and clinical data we have generated to date, that our product candidates, alone or in combination, may ultimately improve response rates, clinical outcomes and survival in cancer patients and could eventually become a cornerstone of modern targeted oncology care. Building on our leadership in the innate immune cell space, we also have the ability to develop novel tetravalent, bispecific antibody formats with the potential to tailor immune-engaging therapy to different indications and settings.

To date, we have financed our operations primarily through our public offerings of our common shares, private placements of equity securities, the incurrence of loans including convertible loans and through government grants and payments for collaborative research and development services. Through December 31, 2023, we have raised an aggregate of €570.6 million (gross proceeds) through the issuance of equity and incurrence of loans. To date, we have not generated any revenues from product sales or royalties. Based on our current plans, we do not expect to generate product or royalty revenues unless and until we or any collaboration partner obtain marketing approval for, and commercialize, any of our product candidates.

We have generated losses since we began our drug development operations in 2000. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred a net loss of €105.9 million. As of December 31, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of €536.1 million.

In April 2023, Affimed conducted a reorganization of its operations to focus on the Group’s three clinical stage development programs. As a result of the reorganization, the Group reduced its full-time equivalent headcount by approximately 25%. On January 8, 2024, we announced a restructuring initiative aimed at transforming us into a focused clinical organization, positioned to successfully advance our programs to key value inflection points. As part of the restructuring, we intend to direct all resources towards advancing the development of our clinical programs, ultimately resulting in a reduction of up to 50% of our workforce by dissolving our research and preclinical development departments, which aligns with our narrowed strategic priorities. Based on our operating budget assumptions, our cash runway is into the second half of 2025.

We expect to continue incurring losses as we continue our preclinical and clinical development programs, apply for marketing approval for our product candidates and, subject to obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates, build a marketing and sales team to commercialize our product candidates. Our profitability is dependent upon the successful development, approval and commercialization of our product candidates and achieving a level of revenues adequate to support our cost structure. We may never achieve profitability and unless and until we do, we will continue to need to raise additional cash. We intend to fund future operations through additional equity and debt financings and we may seek additional capital through arrangements with strategic partners or from other sources. See Note 2, Going concern, in the Notes to the consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 20-F for additional information.

Collaboration Agreements

We have entered into strategic collaborations for some of our therapeutic programs. As part of our business development strategy, we aim to increase the number of our research collaborations in order to derive further value from our platforms and more fully exploit their potential. Key terms of our current material collaborations are summarized below and more details are given under “Item 4. B. Business overview.”

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Artiva Biotherapeutics

In November 2022, we announced a collaboration with Artiva with the goal of advancing the development of the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK^® into a potential registration enabling study. We shall be responsible for all costs associated with the development of the combination therapy (including all clinical trial costs), except that we and Artiva shall each bear 50% of the costs and expenses incurred in connection with the performance of any confirmatory clinical trial required by the FDA. Artiva shall be solely responsible for all costs incurred by Artiva for the supply of AlloNK^® and certain other products used in the clinical trials. In addition, under the Collaboration Agreement, the parties have agreed to make payments to each other to achieve a proportion of 67%/33% (Affimed/Artiva) of revenues generated by both parties from commercial sales of each party’s product as part of the combination therapy.

Roivant

On November 9, 2020, we announced that we entered into a license and strategic collaboration agreement with a subsidiary of Roivant to develop and commercialize novel ICE^® molecules, including AFM32, in oncology. Under the terms of the agreement, we received $60 million in upfront consideration, comprised of $40 million in cash and pre-paid R&D funding, and $20 million of newly issued shares in Roivant. We are eligible to receive up to an additional $2 billion in milestones over time upon achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties on net sales.

We recognized revenues of €7.1 million in 2023.

Genentech

On August 24, 2018 we entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, for the development and commercialization of certain product candidates that contain novel NK cell engager-based immunotherapeutics to treat multiple cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, in the fourth quarter of 2018 we received $96 million in initial upfront payments and other funding and additional payments in 2019 for development milestones and a final target nomination.

We recognized revenues of €7.1 million from the research services completed in 2023. A amount of remaining funding of €1.4 million was repaid to Roivant.

Financial Operations Overview

Revenue

To date, our revenues have consisted principally of collaboration and service revenue.

Collaboration revenue. Collaboration revenue for year ended December 31, 2023 amounted to €7.8 million, with €0.6 million from the Genentech collaboration and €7.1 million from the Roivant collaboration. Collaboration revenue for year ended December 31, 2022 amounted to €41.2 million, with €18.5 million from the Genentech collaboration and €22.7 million from the Roivant collaboration. The decrease in collaboration revenue is due the completion of the research collaborations in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Service revenue. Service revenue is primarily revenue from service contracts entered into by AbCheck, our previously wholly owned, independently operated antibody screening platform. We recognized €0.5 million and €0.2 million of third party service revenue in 2023 and 2022, respectively. Service revenue from AbCheck is derived from third party contracts as well as from the utilization of the entity by Affimed. Effective December 28, 2023, Affimed sold its shareholding in AbCheck, further details are provided below under “Other income”.

In the future, the timing of our revenue may vary significantly from the receipt of the related cash flows, as the revenue from some upfront or initiation payments is deferred and recognized as revenue over the estimated service period, while other revenue is earned when received, such as milestone payments or service fees.

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Our revenue has varied substantially, especially due to the impact of collaboration revenue received from Genentech and Roivant. The amount of future revenue is dependent on the services performed and milestones reached for our existing collaborations and on our ability to conclude new collaboration arrangements and the terms we are able to negotiate with our partners. As our project work for both Genentech and Roivant has come to an end, we expect that recognition of revenue related to the upfront payments from such collaborations will significantly decrease in 2024. We remain eligible for milestones under the collaborations, and the revenues associated with any such milestones will be recognized at the time they are achieved.

Other Income

Other income for years 2022 and 2023 primarily relates to government grants for research and development projects of €0.6 million in 2022 and €0.2 million in 2023 and research collaborations where costs are shared equally between both parties of €0.9 million in 2022 and €1.0 million in 2023.

Further, on December 28, 2023, the Group entered into an agreement regarding the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary AbCheck s.r.o. (“AbCheck Sale Agreement”) to Ampersand Biomedicines Inc (“Ampersand”) for a gross purchase price of €5.8 million ($6.4 million), consisting of €4.9 million ($5.4 million) in cash to be paid in two tranches, and €0.9 million ($1.0 million) to be paid by delivery in a variable number of Ampersand shares subject to certain adjustments (€0.3 million) and a holdback. The sale became effective on December 28, 2023. As of December 28, 2023, an amount of €1.6 million ($1.8 million) of the purchase price had been received. The balance of the purchase price of €3.1 million presented as other receivable in the consolidated statement of financial position is expected to be received latest by the end of 2024. The transaction resulted in a gain of €4.3 million ($4.8 million), recognized as other income.

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist principally of:

Based on our current budget we expect that our total research and development expenses in 2024 will decrease as compared to 2023. Our research and development expenses primarily relate to the following key programs.

Acimtamig. The following is a summary of completed and ongoing research and development activities for acimtamig:

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AFM24. AFM24, a tetravalent, bispecific EGFR, and CD16A-binding innate cell engager. We expect to report data from the ongoing AFM24 study in the second quarter of 2024.

AFM24-101. In June 2023, at the ASCO annual meeting we presented safety and efficacy data from the EGFR mutant NSCLC expansion cohort of our ongoing AFM24-101 phase 1/2 study investigating ICE^® AFM24 as monotherapy. Concurrent with the presentation, we announced our intention to focus near-term clinical development of AFM24 on the combination with atezolizumab (AFM24-102), and announced the discontinuation of AFM24-101.

AFM24-102. Enrollment was completed in the 480 mg dose escalation cohort of the phase 1/2a combination study of AFM24 with the anti-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (“Tecentriq^®”) in patients with advanced EGFR-expressing solid tumors. AFM24-102 includes patients with NSCLC (EGFR wildtype), gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma and pancreatic/hepatocellular/biliary tract cancer. The treatments continue to show a well-managed safety profile. Dose escalation was completed during the first quarter of 2023 with a weekly AFM24 dose of 480 mg confirmed as the R2PD. The phase 2 expansion phase of the study was initiated in the first quarter of 2023. Clinical development of AFM24 in combination with atezolizumab will focus in NSCLC patients (EGFR wildtype and mutant).

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As of January 4, clinical response update to the Phase 1/2a AFM24-102 trial in EGFR-wt NSCLC reported 4 confirmed responses, including 1 CR and 3 PR, and 7 stable diseases in the 15 heavily pre-treated evaluable patients, resulting in a disease control rate of 73 percent. Of special importance is the fact that three of the four responders had never achieved an objective response to PD(L) 1 therapy and that the only patient with a response to PD1 containing treatment responded to a combination of doublet chemotherapy plus PD1 and therefore even in this patient, the contribution of PD1 therapy is unclear. Based on the promising response data from the EGFRwt NSCLC cohort, the Company expanded enrollment to 40 patients. In addition, the company continues to enroll in the EGFR-mut NSCLC cohort for a planned number of 25 patients. Mature PFS data from the 15 EGFR-wildtype NSCLC patients and initial efficacy from the EGFR-mutant NSCLC cohort are expected in Q2 2024.

AFM28. AFM28 is designed to bind to CD123, an established target in myeloid malignancies. We chose CD123 as it is almost universally expressed on leukemic blasts and LSCs in patients with AML, both at diagnosis and at relapse, and independently of cytogenetic risk. AFM28 is being developed for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia. In June 2022, we submitted an IND to the FDA for AFM28. Following feedback from the FDA related to the design of the dose escalation study, we made a strategic decision to voluntarily withdraw the IND and to focus early clinical development of AFM28 in jurisdictions outside of the United States. Clinical trial applications were cleared in Belgium, Denmark, France and Spain and we initiated recruitment into a phase 1 clinical study in the first quarter of 2023. As of the end of February 2024,  we completed enrollment of the fifth cohort (250 mg), recruiting patients in the sixth cohort. No dose-limiting toxicities were reported in cohorts treated prior. Further clinical development of AFM28 is planned in combination with an allogeneic off-the-shelf NK cell product.

Other projects and infrastructure costs. Our other research and development expenses relate to our Genentech, Roivant and Artiva collaborations and early-stage development/discovery activities. We have allocated a material amount of our resources to such discovery activities. The expenses mainly consist of salaries, manufacturing costs for pre-clinical study material and pre-clinical studies. In addition, we incur a significant amount of costs associated with our research and development that are non-project specific, including intellectual property-related expenses, depreciation expenses and facility costs. Because these are less dependent on individual ongoing programs, they are not allocated to specific projects. We assume that other projects and infrastructure costs will decrease in 2024 due to the dissolving of early stage discovery activities.

Since January 1, 2012, we have cumulatively spent €510.9 million on research and development. In the years ended December 31, 2021, 2022 and 2023, we spent €81.5 million, €98.8 million and €95.0 million, respectively, on research and development; €19.8 million, €15.1 million and €32.9 million thereof on acimtamig; €20.0 million, €21.7 million and €19.3 million thereof on AFM24 and €6.5 million, €9.3 million and €6.3million on AFM28. Our research and development expenses may vary substantially from period to period based on the timing of our research and development activities, including due to timing of initiation of clinical trials and enrollment of patients in clinical trials. Research and development expenses are expected to decrease as we are focusing on the clinical development of acimtamig, AFM24, and AFM28. The successful development of our product candidates is highly uncertain. At this time we cannot reasonably estimate the nature, timing and estimated costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the development of, or the period, if any, in which material net cash inflows may commence from, any of our product candidates. This is due to numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing drugs, including the uncertainty of:

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A change in the outcome of any of these variables with respect to the development of acimtamig, AFM24, or AFM28 could mean a significant change in the costs and timing associated with the development of such product candidate. For example, if the FDA or other regulatory authority were to require us to conduct preclinical and clinical studies beyond those which we currently anticipate will be required for the completion of clinical development, if we experience significant delays in enrollment in any clinical trials or if we encounter difficulties in manufacturing our clinical supplies, we could be required to expend significant additional financial resources and time on the completion of the clinical development.

General and Administrative Expenses

Our general and administrative expenses consist principally of:

We expect that our general and administrative expenses in 2024 will be lower compared to the expenses in 2023, due to the initiated restructuring. These decreases will likely be due to a decline in headcount, reduction in infrastructure costs, IT expenses and managing directors’ and supervisory directors’ liability insurance premiums. In addition, due to headcount reduction the share-based compensation awards to key management personnel and other employees may further contribute to a decrease in general and administrative expenses in 2024.

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Results of Operations

The numbers below have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2023. The discussion below should be read along with these financial statements, and it is qualified in its entirety by reference to them.

A discussion of changes in our results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 has been omitted from this Annual Report on Form 20-F, but may be found in “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on March 23, 2023, which is available free of charge on the SECs website at www.sec.gov and on our investor relations website at https://www.affimed.com/investors/sec-and-financial-reports/.

Comparison of the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2023

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