Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (Aptevo, we, us, or the Company) is a clinical-stage, research and development biotechnology company focused on developing novel immunotherapeutic candidates for the treatment of different forms cancer. We have developed two versatile and enabling platform technologies for rational design of precision immune stimulatory drugs. Our lead clinical candidate, APVO436, and preclinical candidates, ALG.APV-527 and APVO603, were developed using our ADAPTIR™ modular protein technology platform. Our preclinical candidate APVO442 was developed using our ADAPTIR-FLEX™ modular protein technology platform.

We are currently trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “APVO.”

On February 28, 2020, we entered into an LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus, pursuant to which we sold all of the issued and outstanding limited liability company interests of Aptevo BioTherapeutics LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aptevo. As a result of the transaction, Medexus obtained all right, title and interest to the IXINITY^® product and the related Hemophilia B business and intellectual property. In addition, Aptevo BioTherapeutics personnel responsible for the sale and marketing of IXINITY also transitioned to Medexus as part of the transaction. Aptevo BioTherapeutics met all the conditions to be classified as a discontinued operation, since the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics represented a strategic shift that will have a major effect on the Company’s operations and financial results. Aptevo will not have further significant involvement in the operations of the discontinued Aptevo BioTherapeutics business. The operating results of Aptevo BioTherapeutics are reported as income (loss) from discontinued operations, in the consolidated statements of operations for all periods presented. The gain recognized on the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics is presented in income from discontinued operations in the consolidated statement of operations. In addition, on the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2019, the assets and liabilities held for sale have been presented separately. See Note 2 – Discontinued Operations for additional information.

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a basis that assumes we will continue as a going concern and which contemplates the realization of assets, satisfaction of liabilities, and commitments in the normal course of business. We have suffered recurring losses from operations and negative cash flows from operating activities. We believe that our existing cash resources, the cash to be generated from future royalty and deferred payments, the Investment Amount from the Royalty Purchase Agreement with HCR, the cash generated from warrant exercises, access to cash under the Purchase Agreement with Lincoln Park, release of restricted cash securing letters of credit, and the Credit Agreement of $25 million with Midcap Financial, will be sufficient to meet our projected operating requirements and debt service for at least twelve months from the date of issuance of these financial statements. We expect to raise additional funds to support our operating and capital needs in 2021.

We continue to face significant challenges and uncertainties and, as a result, our available capital resources may be consumed more rapidly than currently expected due to: (a) changes we may make to the business that affect ongoing operating expenses; (b) changes we may make in our business strategy; (c) changes we may make in our research and development spending plans; (d) potential decreases in our expected milestone and deferred payments from Medexus with respect to IXINITY; (e) whether and to what extent future proceeds are received under our royalty purchase agreement with HCR; and (f) other items affecting our forecasted level of expenditures and use of cash resources. We may attempt to obtain additional funding through our existing equity sales agreement with Lincoln Park Financial LLC or our Equity Distribution Agreement with Piper Sandler & Co (Piper Sandler), or other public or private financing, collaborative arrangements with strategic partners, or through credit lines or other debt financing sources to increase the funds available to fund operations. However, we may not be able to secure such funding in a timely manner or on favorable terms, if at all. Furthermore, if we issue equity or debt securities to raise additional funds, our existing stockholders may experience dilution, and the new equity or debt securities may have rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of our existing stockholders. If we raise additional funds through collaboration, licensing, or other similar arrangements, it may be necessary to relinquish valuable rights to our potential products or proprietary technologies, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. Without additional funds, we may be forced to delay, scale back, or eliminate some of our research and development activities or other operations and potentially delay product development in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations. If any of these events occurs, our ability to achieve our development and commercialization goals may be adversely affected. Given the global economic climate and additional or unforeseen effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, we may experience delays or difficulties to the financing environment and raising capital due to economic uncertainty.

On November 6, 2020, Tang Capital Partners LP, Tang Capital Management, LLC and Kevin Tang (collectively, “Tang”) jointly filed a statement on Schedule 13D to report that Tang had purchased 1,760,000 shares of our common stock, representing approximately 54% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares of common stock as of the date of filing such Schedule 13D. As of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, Tang has subsequently been diluted to a 39.6% beneficial ownership position, primarily through the exercise of certain warrants that were issued and outstanding prior to Tang acquiring its ownership position in Aptevo. Additionally, on November 18, 2020, our Board received a written unsolicited, non-binding indication of interest from Tang, proposing to acquire all of the outstanding shares of our common stock not already beneficially owned by Tang for $50.00 per share in cash, subject to confirmatory due diligence conducted under a customary non-disclosure agreement. We have had a series of communications with Tang during which we attempted to negotiate a non-disclosure agreement to permit discussions covering our nonpublic information and our operations. Further, on February 9, 2021, Tang announced its intention to nominate two candidates for election to our board of directors at our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders and submitted an advisory stockholder proposal for consideration at our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders to commence a process to sell Aptevo to the highest bidder. We have incurred and may continue to incur additional expenses by retaining the services of various professionals to advise us on responding to these matters.

The Aptevo Board was open to exploring the indication of interest from Tang and made earnest efforts to evaluate it. However, it was unable to do so because it was unable to reach agreement with Tang on the terms of a customary non-disclosure agreement, including limitations on the use of confidential information by Tang. Had agreement on the terms of a non-disclosure agreement been reached, it would have permitted the exchange of confidential information and would have enabled both parties to conduct due diligence. In this early stage of the Company’s development, the Aptevo Board believes it is difficult for the market to accurately value the potential of Aptevo’s proprietary platform technologies and therapeutic candidates, which have just begun to demonstrate their effectiveness and potentially life-saving capabilities to the Company’s patients, shareholders and other stakeholders. The Board will continue to carefully evaluate any indications of interest and proposals for strategic transactions that it receives from current shareholders or otherwise, in line with its fiduciary duties and commitment to acting in the best interests of all of the Company’s shareholders.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These consolidated financial statements include all adjustments, which include normal recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair presentation of the Company’s financial position.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these estimates and changes in these estimates are recorded when known.

In March 2020, we effected a 1-for-14 reverse stock split (the “Reverse Split”) of our common stock pursuant to which every 14 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding as of March 26, 2020 were automatically combined into one issued and outstanding share of common stock. No fractional shares were issued as a result of the reverse stock split. Stockholders of record who would otherwise have been entitled to receive a fractional share received a cash payment in lieu thereof. All share and per share information with respect to our common stock have been restated to reflect the effect of the Reverse Split for all periods presented. Refer to Note 9 for additional information.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosures of contingent liabilities in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Estimates are used for, but not limited to, useful lives of equipment, clinical trial accruals, income taxes, commitments and contingencies, stock-based compensation, and collectability of receivables. Given the global economic climate and additional or unforeseen effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, these estimates are becoming more challenging, and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the company and its wholly owned subsidiaries: Aptevo Research and Development LLC and Aptevo BioTherapeutics LLC (for the period prior to the sale on February 28, 2020). All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

Cash equivalents are highly liquid investments with a maturity of 90 days or less at the date of purchase and include time deposits and investments in money market funds with commercial banks and financial institutions.

As of December 31, 2020, we had current restricted cash of $2.6 million related to securing letters of credit. We classify our restricted cash as either current or non-current based on the term of the underlying letters of credit.

Financial instruments that potentially subject Aptevo to concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash and cash equivalents, certain investments and royalties receivable. Aptevo places its cash and cash equivalents with high quality financial institutions and may maintain cash balances in excess of insured limits. Management believes that the financial risks associated with its cash and cash equivalents are minimal.

Property and equipment are stated at cost. Depreciation is computed using the straight-line method over the following estimated useful lives:

Furniture and equipment	7-10 years
Software and hardware	3-5 years or product life
Leasehold improvements	Lesser of the asset life or the remaining lease term

Upon retirement or sale, the cost of assets disposed of and the related accumulated depreciation are removed from the accounts and any resulting gain or loss is credited or charged to operations. Repairs and maintenance costs are expensed as incurred.

We determine if an arrangement is a lease at inception date. Leases are to be classified as finance or operating leases at the lease commencement date, which affects the classification of expense recognition in the income statement. Right-of-use assets represent the right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent the obligation to make lease payments, as agreed to in the lease. Operating lease liabilities and the corresponding right-of-use assets are recognized based on the present value of the future minimum lease payments over the lease term at commencement date. An operating right-of-use asset is measured as the amount of the initial measurement of the lease liability, adjusted for prepaid or accrued lease payments, the remaining balance of any lease incentive received, unamortized initial direct costs, and any impairment of the right-of-use asset. The initial measurement of the lease liabilities and right-to-use assets of finance leases is the same as for operating leases. We include options to extend the lease and certain termination options in our lease liability and right-of-use asset when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise those options.

As our existing leases do not contain an implicit interest rate, we estimate our incremental borrowing rate (IBR) based on information available at commencement date in determining the present value of future payments. Due to the significant judgment involved and the complex analysis needed to determine this discount rate, we engaged a third-party valuation specialist to advise us in our determination of our IBR for the initial adoption of the standard.

Lease expense for operating leases is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term as part of our selling, general and administrative expenses and our research and development expenses on our consolidated statements of operations. Lease expense for financing leases consists of amortization of the right-of-use asset and interest on the lease liability as part of our research and development expenses on our consolidated statements of operations.

We measure and record cash equivalents and investment securities considered available-for-sale at fair value in the accompanying financial statements. Fair value is defined as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability, an exit price, in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. Valuation techniques used to measure fair value must maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs.

The carrying amounts of our short-term financial instruments, which include cash and cash equivalents, royalties receivable and accounts payable, approximate their fair value due to their short maturities.

Aptevo defers costs related to debt issuance and amortizes these costs to interest expense over the term of the debt, using the effective interest method. Debt issuance costs are presented in the consolidated balance sheet as a reduction of the carrying amount of the debt liability.

We are entitled to receive royalty revenue from Pfizer related to sales of a rituximab biosimilar product, RUXIENCE. The payment from Pfizer relates to an agreement acquired by Aptevo as part of its spin-off from Emergent BioSolutions in 2016, which applies a fixed royalty rate of 2.5% on global net sales. The agreement was originally executed by Trubion Pharmaceuticals (which was subsequently acquired by Emergent BioSolutions Inc.) and Wyeth (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer). The royalty term runs until the seventh anniversary of the first commercial sale of the CD20 biosimilar. CD20 biosimilar product (royalty) payments to Aptevo are due within 60 days after the end of each quarter. We do not have future performance obligations under this agreement. We apply the royalty recognition constraint required under the guidance for sales-based royalties, which requires a sales-based royalty to be recorded no sooner than the underlying sale. Therefore, royalties on sales of products commercialized by Pfizer are recognized in the quarter the product is sold. Pfizer generally reports sales information to us within 60 days of quarter end. Unless we receive finalized sales information for the respective quarter, we estimate the expected royalty proceeds based on an analysis of historical experience, analyst expectations, interim data provided by Pfizer, including their publicly announced sales, and other publicly available information. Differences between actual and estimated royalty revenues are adjusted for in the period in which they become known, typically the following quarter.

We are entitled to receive future deferred payments and future milestone payments from Medexus. The payments from Medexus constitute contingent consideration related to our sale of IXINITY in 2020, which is treated as a discontinued operation in the accompanying statement of operations. We treat contingent consideration arising from discontinued operations as gain contingencies in accordance with ASC 450-30 – Contingencies: Gain Contingencies, whereby such gain contingencies usually are not recognized in the financial statements until the period in which all contingencies are resolved and the gain is realized or realizable. As Medexus communicates payment amounts and sales details subsequent to quarter-end, and there is uncertainty as to the amount of the payment before quarter-end, we record deferred payments in the quarter the payment is received.

Research and development expenses are expensed as incurred. Research and development costs primarily consist of internal labor costs, fees paid to outside service providers and the costs of materials used in clinical trials and research and development. Other research and development expenses include facility, maintenance, and related support expenses.

A substantial portion of Aptevo’s pre-clinical studies and all of its clinical studies have been performed by third-party CROs. The Company reviews the activities performed by the CROs each period. For pre-clinical studies, the significant factors used in estimating accruals include the percentage of work completed to date and contract milestones achieved. For clinical study expenses, the significant factors used in estimating accruals include the number of patients enrolled and services provided but not yet invoiced. The Company’s estimates are highly dependent upon the timeliness and accuracy of the data provided by its CROs regarding the status of each program and total program spending and adjustments are made when deemed necessary.

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs and professional fees in support of our executive, business development, finance, accounting, information technology, legal and human resource functions. Other costs include facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expense.

Under the ASC 718, Compensation—Stock-based Compensation, we measure and recognize compensation expense for restricted stock units (RSUs), and stock options granted to our employees and directors based on the fair value of the awards as of the date of grant. The fair value of stock options is estimated at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model that requires management to apply judgment and make estimates, including:

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the expected term of the stock option award, which we calculate using the simplified method, as permitted by the SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 110, Share-Based Payment, as we have insufficient historical information regarding our stock options to provide a basis for an estimate;

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the expected volatility of our underlying common stock, which we estimate based on the historical volatility of the historical and implied future volatility of our common stock;

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the risk-free interest rate, which we based on the yield curve of U.S. Treasury securities with periods commensurate with the expected term of the options being valued;

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the expected dividend yield, which we estimate to be zero based on the fact that we have never paid cash dividends and have no present intention to pay cash dividends; and

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the fair value of our common stock on the date of grant.

Stock-based compensation expense for RSUs is recognized on a straight-line basis over the vesting period of the respective award. Stock-based compensation expense for our stock options, both converted and Aptevo granted, is recognized on a straight-line basis over the vesting period of the respective award.

We have elected to estimate a forfeiture rate to calculate the stock-based compensation expense for our awards. We have estimated a forfeiture rate of sixteen-percent. We routinely evaluate the appropriateness of the forfeiture rate based on actual forfeiture experience, analysis of employee turnover, and expectations of future option exercise behavior.

Income taxes are accounted for using the liability method. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for future tax consequences attributable to differences between financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases and net operating loss and tax credit carry forwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the year in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled.

Aptevo’s ability to realize deferred tax assets depends upon future taxable income, as well as the limitations discussed below. For financial reporting purposes, a deferred tax asset must be reduced by a valuation allowance if it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized prior to expiration. Aptevo considers historical and future taxable income, future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, taxable income in prior carryback years, and ongoing tax planning strategies in assessing the need for valuation allowances. In general, if Aptevo determines that it is more likely than not to realize more than the recorded amounts of net deferred tax assets in the future, Aptevo will reverse all or a portion of the valuation allowance established against its deferred tax assets, resulting in a decrease to the provision for income taxes in the period in which the determination is made. Likewise, if Aptevo determines that it is not more likely than not to realize all or part of the net deferred tax asset in the future, Aptevo will establish a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets, with an offsetting increase to the provision for income taxes, in the period in which the determination is made.

Because tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations, significant judgment is required. As a result, Aptevo makes certain estimates and assumptions, in (1) calculating Aptevo’s income tax expense, deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities, (2) determining any valuation allowance recorded against deferred tax assets and (3) evaluating the amount of unrecognized tax benefits, as well as the interest and penalties related to such uncertain tax positions. Aptevo’s estimates and assumptions may differ significantly from tax benefits ultimately realized.

We have determined that we operate in a single segment and have one reporting unit: the discovery and development of novel oncology therapeutics.