FATE THERAPEUTICS INC (FATE)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and accompanying notes included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the financial statements and accompanying notes thereto for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 and the related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, which are contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 26, 2026 (Annual Report).

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). Such forward-looking statements, which represent our intent, belief, or current expectations, involve risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “believe,” “should” and similar expressions. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences in results include, but are not limited to, those set forth under “Risk Factors” under Item 1A of Part II below and the section titled, “Forward-Looking Statements” in our Annual Report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report or to reflect actual outcomes.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing a transformative pipeline of off-the shelf cellular immunotherapies to patients.

We have pioneered a therapeutic approach that we generally refer to as cellular programming: we create and engineer human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to incorporate novel synthetic controls of cell function; after the engineering step that incorporates multiple functional elements into the iPSCs, we generate a clonal master iPSC line for use as a renewable source of starting materials for the manufacture of cell therapies; through the manufacturing process, we direct the fate of the clonal master iPSC line to produce our cell therapy product candidates that are uniform in composition. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, we believe our proprietary clonal master iPSC lines can be used to mass produce multiplexed-engineered cellular immunotherapies which have off-the-shelf availability and on-demand availability, and that can be combined and administered alone or in combination with standard-of-care therapies, to make cell therapies accessible to all.

Utilizing our iPSC product platform, we are developing off-the-shelf, multiplexed-engineered T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell product candidates which are selectively designed and incorporate novel synthetic controls of cell function to uniquely enhance the therapeutic capacity of the drug product to deliver multiple therapeutic mechanisms to patients. We have a pipeline of iPSC-derived, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-targeted T-cell and NK cell product candidates currently under development. In addition, we have entered into research collaborations and license agreements with academic institutions to support the development of our iPSC product platform and our off-the-shelf product candidates.

We have also entered into collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to research, develop and commercialize off-the-shelf, multiplexed-engineered, iPSC-derived CAR T-cell and CAR NK cell product candidates for the treatment of cancer. In September 2018, we entered into a collaboration and option agreement (Ono Agreement) with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Ono), under which we are currently researching and developing iPSC-derived CAR T-cell and CAR NK cell product candidates for the treatment of solid tumors.

We were incorporated in Delaware in 2007 and are headquartered in San Diego, California. Since our inception in 2007, we have devoted substantially all of our resources to our cell programming approach and the research and development of our product candidates, the creation, licensing and protection of related intellectual property, and the provision of general and administrative support for these activities. To date, we have funded our operations primarily through the public and private sale of common stock and warrants, the private placement of preferred stock and convertible notes, commercial bank debt and revenues from collaboration activities and grants.

We have never been profitable and have incurred net losses in each year since inception. Substantially all of our net losses resulted from costs incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect to continue to incur operating losses for at least the foreseeable future. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We expect our expenses will remain significant in connection with our ongoing and planned activities as we:

•
conduct our ongoing and planned preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates, which may include higher clinical trial expenses associated with arrangements we may enter into with clinical research organizations (CROs) for the execution and management of certain clinical trials, including trials outside of the United States;

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•
conduct Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production, including through the use of contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) for the conduct of some or all of the activities required for manufacturing our iPSC-derived cell product candidates, process and scale-up development and technology transfer activities for the manufacture of our product candidates, including those undergoing clinical investigation and Investigational New Drug (IND) application-enabling preclinical development;

•
procure laboratory equipment, materials and supplies for the manufacture of our product candidates to support our clinical trials and the conduct of our research activities;

•
continue our research, development and manufacturing activities, including under our sponsored research and collaboration agreement with Ono;

•
maintain, prosecute, protect, expand and enforce our intellectual property portfolio;

•
engage with regulatory authorities for the development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates;

•
continue our business operations at our corporate headquarters, including maintaining internal GMP production capabilities; and

•
continue operating as a public company and support our operations.

We do not expect to generate any meaningful revenues from product sales, royalties, or sales milestones unless and until we successfully complete development and obtain regulatory approval for one or more of our product candidates, which we expect will take a number of years. If we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. Accordingly, we will seek to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings, collaboration arrangements, or other sources. However, we may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed would have a negative effect on our financial condition and ability to develop our product candidates. We believe we have sufficient funding to operate for at least twelve months from the date of issuance of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Financial Operations Overview

We conduct substantially all of our activities through Fate Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, at our facilities headquartered in San Diego, California. Our results of operations include our operations and those of our consolidated subsidiaries. To date, the aggregate operations of our subsidiaries have not been significant and all intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.

Collaboration Revenue

To date, we have not generated any revenues from therapeutic product sales or royalties. Our revenues have been derived from collaboration agreements and government grants.

Agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

On September 14, 2018, we entered into the Ono Agreement for the joint development and commercialization of two iPSC-derived CAR T-cell product candidates (Candidate 1 and Candidate 2). Pursuant to the terms of the Ono Agreement, we received an upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $10.0 million. Additionally, we were entitled to receive fees for the conduct of research and preclinical development under a joint development plan, which fees were estimated to be $20.0 million in aggregate.

In December 2020, we entered into a letter agreement with Ono (the Ono Letter Agreement) pursuant to which Ono delivered proprietary antigen binding domains targeting an antigen expressed on certain solid tumors for incorporation into Candidate 2 and paid us a milestone fee of $10.0 million for further research and preclinical development of Candidate 2. In addition, Ono terminated all further research and preclinical development with respect to Candidate 1, and we retained all rights to research, develop and commercialize Candidate 1 throughout the world without any obligation to Ono.

In June 2022, we entered into an amendment with Ono to the Ono Agreement (the 2022 Ono Amendment). Pursuant to the 2022 Ono Amendment, the companies agreed to designate an additional antigen expressed on certain solid tumors for research and preclinical development, and Ono agreed to contribute proprietary antigen binding domains targeting such additional solid tumor antigen (Candidate 3). Similar to Candidate 2, we granted to Ono, during a specified period of time, a preclinical option (Candidate 3 Development Option) to obtain an exclusive license under certain intellectual property rights, subject to payment of an option exercise fee to us by Ono, to further develop and commercialize Candidate 3 in all territories of the world, where we retain rights to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 3 in the United States and Europe under a joint arrangement with Ono pursuant to which we are

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eligible to share at least 50% of the profits and losses. The Candidate 3 Development Option represents an option with no material right.

In November 2022, Ono exercised its option to obtain a license to develop and commercialize Candidate 2 (the Candidate 2 Development Option), and we exercised our option to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 2 in the United States and Europe. We and Ono are proceeding under a joint development plan for the ongoing development of Candidate 2, and, as such, we have initiated clinical studies for Candidate 2. The costs of this joint development plan are accounted for in accordance with ASC 808, and cost sharing payments to us from Ono are recorded as contra-research and development expenses.

In 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, the Company entered into amendments with Ono to the Ono Agreement (the Ono Amendments). Under the Ono Amendments, aggregate estimated research and preclinical development fees payable by Ono to the Company for Candidate 3 were increased to a total estimated $44.5 million over the course of the joint development plan.

As of June 30, 2026, the performance obligations related to the research and precl

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ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included under Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing a transformative pipeline of off-the shelf cellular immunotherapies to patients.

We have pioneered a therapeutic approach that we generally refer to as cellular programming: we create and engineer human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to incorporate novel synthetic controls of cell function; after the engineering step that incorporates multiple functional elements into the iPSCs, we generate a clonal master iPSC line for use as a renewable source of starting materials for the manufacture of cell therapies; through the manufacturing process, we direct the fate of the clonal master iPSC line to produce our cell therapy product candidates that are uniform in composition. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, we believe our proprietary clonal master iPSC lines can be used to mass produce multiplexed-engineered cellular immunotherapies which have off-the-shelf availability and on-demand availability, and that can be combined and administered alone or in combination with standard-of-care therapies, to make cell therapies accessible to all.

Utilizing our iPSC product platform, we are developing off-the-shelf, multiplexed-engineered T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell product candidates which are selectively designed and incorporate novel synthetic controls of cell function to uniquely enhance the therapeutic capacity of the drug product to deliver multiple therapeutic mechanisms to patients. We have a pipeline of iPSC-derived, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-targeted T-cell and NK cell product candidates currently under development. In addition, we have entered into research collaborations and license agreements with academic institutions to support the development of our iPSC product platform and our off-the-shelf product candidates.

We have also entered into collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to research, develop and commercialize off-the-shelf, multiplexed-engineered, iPSC-derived CAR T-cell and CAR NK cell product candidates for the treatment of cancer. In September 2018, we entered into a collaboration and option agreement (Ono Agreement) with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Ono), under which we are currently researching and developing iPSC-derived CAR T-cell and CAR NK cell product candidates for the treatment of solid tumors.

We were incorporated in Delaware in 2007 and are headquartered in San Diego, California. Since our inception in 2007, we have devoted substantially all of our resources to our cell programming approach and the research and development of our product candidates, the creation, licensing and protection of related intellectual property, and the provision of general and administrative support for these activities. To date, we have funded our operations primarily through the public and private sale of common stock and warrants, the private placement of preferred stock and convertible notes, commercial bank debt and revenues from collaboration activities and grants.

We have never been profitable and have incurred net losses in each year since inception. Substantially all of our net losses resulted from costs incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect to continue to incur operating losses for at least the foreseeable future. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We expect our expenses will remain significant in connection with our ongoing and planned activities as we:

•
conduct our ongoing and planned preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates, which may include higher clinical trial expenses associated with arrangements we may enter into with clinical research organizations (CROs) for the execution and management of certain clinical trials, including trials outside of the United States;

•
conduct Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production, including through the use of contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) for the conduct of some or all of the activities required for manufacturing our iPSC-derived cell product candidates, process and scale-up development and technology transfer activities for the manufacture of our product candidates, including those undergoing clinical investigation and Investigational New Drug (IND) application-enabling preclinical development;

•
procure laboratory equipment, materials and supplies for the manufacture of our product candidates to support our clinical trials and the conduct of our research activities;

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•
continue our research, development and manufacturing activities, including under our sponsored research and collaboration agreement with Ono;

•
maintain, prosecute, protect, expand and enforce our intellectual property portfolio;

•
engage with regulatory authorities for the development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates;

•
continue our business operations at our corporate headquarters, including maintaining internal GMP production capabilities; and

•
continue operating as a public company and support our operations.

We do not expect to generate any meaningful revenues from product sales, royalties, or sales milestones unless and until we successfully complete development and obtain regulatory approval for one or more of our product candidates, which we expect will take a number of years. If we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. Accordingly, we will seek to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings, collaboration arrangements, or other sources. However, we may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed would have a negative effect on our financial condition and ability to develop our product candidates. We believe we have sufficient funding to operate for at least twelve months from the date of issuance of the financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Financial Operations Overview

We conduct substantially all of our activities through Fate Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, at our facilities headquartered in San Diego, California. Our results of operations include the operations of the Company and its subsidiaries. To date, the aggregate operations of our subsidiaries have not been significant and all intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.

Collaboration Revenue

To date, we have not generated any revenues from therapeutic product sales or royalties. Our revenues have been derived from collaboration agreements and government grants.

Agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

On September 14, 2018, we entered into the Ono Agreement for the joint development and commercialization of two iPSC-derived CAR T-cell product candidates (Candidate 1 and Candidate 2). Pursuant to the terms of the Ono Agreement, we received an upfront, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $10.0 million. Additionally, we were entitled to receive fees for the conduct of research and preclinical development under a joint development plan, which fees were estimated to be $20.0 million in aggregate.

In December 2020, we entered into a letter agreement with Ono (the Ono Letter Agreement) pursuant to which Ono delivered proprietary antigen binding domains targeting an antigen expressed on certain solid tumors for incorporation into Candidate 2 and paid us a milestone fee of $10.0 million for further research and preclinical development of Candidate 2. In addition, Ono terminated all further research and preclinical development with respect to Candidate 1, and we retained all rights to research, develop and commercialize Candidate 1 throughout the world without any obligation to Ono.

In June 2022, we entered into an amendment with Ono to the Ono Agreement (the 2022 Ono Amendment). Pursuant to the 2022 Ono Amendment, the companies agreed to designate an additional antigen expressed on certain solid tumors for research and preclinical development, and Ono agreed to contribute proprietary antigen binding domains targeting such additional solid tumor antigen (Candidate 3). In addition, for both Candidate 2 and Candidate 3, the companies expanded the scope of the collaboration to include the research and preclinical development of iPSC-derived CAR NK cell product candidates (in addition to iPSC-derived CAR T-cell product candidates) targeting the designated solid tumor antigens. Similar to Candidate 2, we granted to Ono, during a specified period of time, a preclinical option (Candidate 3 Development Option) to obtain an exclusive license under certain intellectual property rights, subject to payment of an option exercise fee to us by Ono, to further develop and commercialize Candidate 3 in all territories of the world, where we retain rights to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 3 in the United States and Europe under a joint arrangement with Ono pursuant to which we are eligible to share at least 50% of the profits and losses. The Candidate 3 Development Option represents an option with no material right. Under the 2022 Ono Amendment, aggregate estimated research and preclinical development fees have been increased by approximately $9.3 million, for a total estimated $29.3 million in aggregate research and preclinical development fees over the course of the joint research plan.

In November 2022, Ono exercised its option to obtain a license to develop and commercialize Candidate 2 (the Candidate 2 Development Option), and we exercised our option to co-develop and co-commercialize Candidate 2 in the United States and Europe.

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As a result, we received and recognized an option exercise fee of $12.5 million from Ono during the year ended December 31, 2022. We and Ono are proceeding under a joint development plan for the ongoing development of Candidate 2, and, as such, we have initiated clinical studies for Candidate 2. The costs of this joint development plan are accounted for in accordance with ASC 808, and cost sharing payments to us from Ono are recorded as contra-research and development expenses.

In November 2023, we entered into an amendment with Ono to the Ono Agreement (the 2023 Ono Amendment). Under the 2023 Ono Amendment, aggregate estimated research and preclinical development fees payable to us by Ono for Candidate 3 have been increased by approximately $1.4 million, for a total estimated $30.7 million in aggregate research and preclinical development fees over the course of the joint research plan.

In May 2024, following Ono’s exercise of the Candidate 2 Development Option and grant of the development and commercialization license, we achieved a $5.0 million clinical development milestone for Candidate 2. We determined that we had completed our performance obligation with respect to such milestone during the year ended December 31, 2024 and accordingly, recognized such amount as revenue duri

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