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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2025
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying consolidated financial statements are presented in United States (“U.S.”) dollars and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”).
Use of Estimates 
The preparation of the financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. In preparing these financial statements, management used significant estimates in the following areas, among others: recoverability of the Company’s net deferred tax assets and related valuation allowance, useful lives and recoverability of property and equipment, determining the incremental borrowing rate for calculating lease liabilities and related right-of-use assets and finance lease assets, revenue recognition, clinical trial accruals, accrual estimates for all contingent value rights (“CVRs”), and the value attributed to employee stock options and other stock-based awards. On an ongoing basis, the Company reviews its estimates to ensure that they appropriately reflect changes in the business or as new information becomes available. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
Segment Information
The Company determines and presents operating segments based on the information internally provided to the Chief Operating Decision Makers (“CODM”) in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 280, Segment Reporting. The Company’s CODMs are (i) the Chief Executive Officer and (ii) the President and Chief Financial Officer. The Company is a clinical stage biotechnology company that operates as a single operating segment and has one reportable segment. Refer to Note 15, Segment Information, for further information related to the Company’s segment.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all highly-liquid investments purchased with original maturities of 90 days or less at time of purchase to be cash equivalents. Cash and cash equivalents include cash held in banks and are stated at fair value.
The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash in the balance sheets that sum to the total of the same such amounts shown in the statements of cash flows (in thousands):

December 31,
20252024
Cash and cash equivalents$103,845 $136,586 
Restricted cash339 339 
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash$104,184 $136,925 
Cash equivalents consist of money market funds in which the carrying value equals the fair value (see Note 5, Fair Value of Financial Instruments). Restricted cash includes $0.3 million in cash deposits the Company maintains with its bank as collateral for the irrevocable letters of credit related to its lease obligations.
Concentrations of Credit Risk 
Financial instruments that subject the Company to significant concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash and cash equivalents. The Company’s cash and cash equivalent accounts, at times, may exceed federally insured limits. As of December 31, 2025, the Company had $103.7 million in excess of the federally insured limits. The Company places its cash in financial institutions that management believes to be of high credit quality.
Investments
Investment securities at December 31, 2025 consist of U.S. treasury notes. The Company classifies these securities as held-to-maturity. Held-to-maturity securities are those securities in which the Company has the ability and intent to hold the security until maturity. Held-to-maturity securities are recorded at amortized cost, adjusted for the amortization or accretion of premiums or discounts. Premiums and discounts are amortized or accreted over the life of the related held-to-maturity security as an adjustment to yield using the effective interest method. The Company reassesses the classification of held-to-maturity at each reporting period.
The allowance for credit losses on held-to-maturity securities is a contra-asset valuation account determined in accordance with ASC 326, which is deducted from the securities' amortized cost basis at the balance sheet date as a result of management's assessment of the net amount expected to be collected. Securities that are determined to be uncollectible are written off against the allowance. The Company did not recognize an allowance for credit losses as of December 31, 2025. Interest income is recognized when earned. Additional information regarding held-to-maturity investments is included in Note 4, Investments.
Revenue Recognition
The Company recognizes revenue when its customers obtain control of promised goods or services in an amount that reflects the consideration that the Company expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements within the scope of Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”), the Company performs the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.
In applying the ASC 606 framework, the Company must apply judgment to determine the nature of the promises within a revenue contract and whether those promises represent distinct performance obligations. In determining the transaction price, the Company does not include amounts subject to uncertainties unless it is probable that there will be no significant reversal of cumulative revenue when the uncertainty is resolved. Milestone and other forms of variable consideration that the Company may earn are subject to significant uncertainties of research and development related achievements, which generally are deemed not probable until such milestones are actually achieved. For arrangements that include sales-based royalties, including milestone payments based on the level of sales, and where the license is deemed to be the predominant item to which the royalties relate, the Company recognizes revenue at the later of (i) when the related sales occur, or (ii) when the performance obligation to which some or all of the royalty has been allocated has been satisfied (or partially satisfied). Additionally, the Company develops assumptions that require judgment to determine the standalone selling price of each performance obligation identified in the contract. The Company then allocates the total transaction price to each performance obligation based on the estimated standalone selling prices of each performance obligation for which it recognizes revenue as or when the performance obligations are satisfied. At the end of each subsequent reporting period, the Company re-evaluates the variable consideration and any related constraint and, if necessary, adjusts its estimate of the overall transaction price. Any such adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis.
Under the Company’s license agreements, the Company grants the license to a customer as it exists at the point of transfer and the nature of the license is a right to use the Company’s intellectual property as transferred. If the license to the Company’s intellectual property is determined to be distinct from the other performance obligations identified in the arrangement, the Company recognizes revenue from non-refundable, upfront fees allocated to the license when the license is transferred to the customer and the customer is able to use and benefit from the license. As of December 31, 2025, the Company has two revenue-generating agreements that are related to the legacy Neoleukin business as part of the reverse merger: the December 2023 CVR Licensing Agreement (as defined below) and the April 2024 CVR Licensing Agreement (as defined below). Refer to Note 9, Commitments and Contingencies, for further discussion on the CVR components.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
Management believes that the carrying amounts of the Company’s financial instruments, including cash, prepaid and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses, approximate fair value due to the short-term nature of these instruments. Certain assets and liabilities are carried at fair value. 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. Financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value are to be classified and disclosed in one of the following three levels of the fair value hierarchy, of which the first two are considered observable and the last is considered unobservable:
Level 1 – Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets that are accessible to the reporting entity at the measurement date for identical assets and liabilities.
Level 2 – Inputs other than quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities that are observable either directly or indirectly for substantially the full term of the asset or liability. Level 2 inputs include the following:
quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets.
quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active.
observable inputs other than quoted prices that are used in the valuation of the asset or liabilities (e.g., interest rate and yield curve quotes at commonly quoted intervals).
inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means.
Level 3 – Unobservable inputs for the assets or liability (i.e., supported by little or no market activity). Level 3 inputs include management’s own assumptions about the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability (including assumptions about risk).
Property and Equipment
Property and equipment costs are stated at cost, net of accumulated depreciation and amortization. The cost of property and equipment costs are depreciated on the straight-line method over the following estimated useful lives:
TypeEstimated useful
life
Lab equipment5 years
Manufacturing equipment10 years
Leasehold improvements Lesser of the remaining economic life of the
asset or the lease-term
Furniture and fixtures5 years
Software3 years
Leasehold improvements are amortized over the shorter of the estimated useful life of the assets or the remaining lease term. Major additions and betterments are capitalized; maintenance and repairs, which do not improve or extend the life of the respective assets, are charged to operating expenses as incurred. Depreciation has been calculated using the straight-line method over their estimated useful lives once the asset is placed in service. Costs of software obtained for internal use are capitalized in accordance with ASC 350 and are recognized on a straight-line basis over the useful life. Software costs that do not meet the capitalization criteria, including costs incurred in the maintenance and minor upgrade and enhancement of software without additional functionality, are expensed as incurred. No depreciation has been calculated on work in progress assets.
Capitalized Software Development Costs
Implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement that is a service contract are capitalized and recorded in prepaid expenses and other current assets and other non-current assets on the consolidated balance sheets. Capitalized implementation costs include external professional service costs related to technical development. Post-implementation training and maintenance costs are expensed as incurred. Capitalized eligible implementation costs related to cloud computing service contracts are included in prepaid expenses and other current assets and other non-current assets were $0.3 million and $0.4 million as of December 31, 2025, and 2024, respectively. Capitalized cloud computing implementation costs are amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected term of the arrangement. Expense recognized related to the implementation costs capitalized was $0.1 million and $0.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Cloud computing arrangements are tested for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances occur that could impact the recoverability of these assets. No impairment of cloud computing arrangements occurred in 2025 or 2024.
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets
Management assesses the carrying value of property and equipment and software whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. If there is indication of impairment, management prepares an estimate of future undiscounted cash flows expected to result from the use of the asset and its eventual disposition. If these cash flows are less than the carrying amount of the asset, an impairment loss is recognized to write down the asset to its estimated fair value. For the years ended December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, the Company recorded impairment losses on idle equipment of $0.1 million and $0.1 million, respectively.
Leases
Operating and finance leases are accounted for in accordance with ASU 2016-02, Leases as amended. They are presented in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet as right-of-use assets from leases, current lease liabilities, and long-term lease liabilities. At the inception of a contractual arrangement, the Company determines whether the contract contains a lease by assessing whether there is an identified asset and whether the contract conveys the right to control the use of the identified asset in exchange for consideration over a period of time. If both criteria are met, the Company records the associated lease liability and corresponding right-of-use asset upon commencement of the lease using the implicit rate or a discount rate based on a credit-adjusted secured borrowing rate commensurate with the term of the lease. As the Company’s leases do not provide an implicit rate, the Company utilizes the appropriate incremental borrowing rate, determined as the rate of interest that the Company would have to pay to borrow on a collateralized basis over a similar term and in a similar economic environment.
Both operating and finance lease assets represent a right to use an underlying asset for the lease term, and operating and finance lease liabilities represent an obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. Lease liabilities with a term greater than one year and their corresponding right-of-use assets are recognized on the balance sheet at the commencement date of the lease based on the present value of lease payments over the expected lease term.
Certain of the Company’s lease agreements at the adoption date contain renewal options. The Company does not recognize right-of-use assets or lease liabilities for renewal periods upon lease inception date unless it is determined that the Company is reasonably certain of renewing the lease at inception or when a triggering event occurs. The Company also made an accounting policy election to utilize the short-term lease exemption, whereby leases with a term of 12 months or less will not follow the recognition and measurement requirements of the standard.
The Company’s leases do not contain any residual value guarantees. Since the Company elected to account for each lease component and its associated non-lease components as a single combined lease component, all contract consideration is allocated to the combined lease component. Some of the Company’s lease agreements contain rent escalation clauses. For operating leases, the Company recognizes the minimum rental expense on a straight-line basis based on the fixed components of a lease arrangement. The Company will amortize this expense over the term of the lease beginning with the lease commencement date. Certain lease agreements contain variable payments, which are expensed as incurred and not included in the lease right-of-use assets and liabilities. These amounts include payments for maintenance and utilities. Variable lease components represent amounts that are not fixed in nature and are not tied to an index or rate and are recognized as incurred.
Additional information and disclosures are included in Note 9, Commitments and Contingencies.
Contingent Value Rights
In conjunction with the reverse merger, the Company entered into a CVR Agreement on December 18, 2023 with the Rights Agent named therein (the “CVR Agreement”) prior to Closing. Included in the CVR Agreement are three different types of CVRs: (i) the Lease CVR, (ii) the Intellectual Property CVR, and (iii) the Sales Tax CVR (each as defined in the CVR Agreement). The Company evaluated each of the CVRs to determine if they qualified as derivatives under ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, and concluded that since certain scope exceptions were met, the CVRs did not qualify as derivatives. Instead, the Company records a contingent consideration liability associated with the CVRs when payments are probable and estimable under ASC 450, Contingencies. In assessing whether payments are probable and estimable, the Company considers the existence of or ability to enter agreements with third parties or government agencies and the timing of potential payments. Refer to Note 9, Commitments and Contingencies, for further discussion on the CVRs.
Exit and Disposal Costs
In connection with the reverse merger and through fiscal year 2025, the Company has incurred costs to wind-down Neoleukin’s Phase 1 trial of the NL-201 study. This trial has ceased further development, and the Company has no plans to continue developing Neoleukin’s de novo protein technology. As a result, the trial’s activities do not provide the Company any future economic benefit. In accordance with ASC 420, Exit or Disposal Costs, the Company accrued the remaining costs incurred in the trial. The trial wind-down activities were completed in September 2025. The liability was classified as accrued expenses and other current liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet.
A summary of the accrued liabilities activity recorded in connection with the wind-down of Neoleukin’s Phase 1 trial of NL-201 for the year ended December 31, 2025 is as follows (in thousands):
Balance at December 31, 2024Liability AdjustmentAmounts PaidBalance at December 31, 2025
Trial wind-down costs:
Phase 1 NL-201 Trial$209 $(92)$(117)$— 
Research and Development 
Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. These costs include, but are not limited to, employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits and travel of the Company’s research and development personnel, facilities, supplies, rent, insurance, stock-based compensation, depreciation and external expenses incurred under agreements with contract research organizations and investigative sites that conduct preclinical studies and manufacture the drug product for the preclinical activities and other costs associated with preclinical activities.
Before a compound receives regulatory approval, the Company records upfront and milestone payments to third parties under licensing arrangements as expense provided that there is no alternative future use of the rights in other research and developments projects.
Non-refundable prepayments for research and development costs that are paid in advance of performance are capitalized as a prepaid expense and amortized over the service period as the services are provided. Costs for certain development activities, such as outside research programs funded by the Company, are recognized based on an evaluation of the progress to completion of specific tasks with respect to their actual costs incurred. Payments for these activities are based on the terms of the individual arrangements, which may differ from the pattern of costs incurred, and are reflected in the financial statements as prepaid or accrued research and development expense as applicable. There can be judgment involved in measuring the research and development expenses to be recognized in a particular period. In some cases, expense is recorded using an underlying assumption of the progress to completion of specific activities. For example, costs may be recognized based on the passage of time for activities that span reporting periods. If the provision of services is not linear then this assumption could impact the amount of expense recognized. The level of judgment varies based on the nature of the services being performed and the underlying support obtained. For some activities, such as for certain clinical trials, expense is recorded based on information obtained from vendors as an intermediary to those performing the underlying services, such as contract research organizations. These estimates are inherently more judgmental since the quality and availability of the underlying data may vary. The Company does not need to make significant estimates where costs incurred are supported by invoices or reports of costs incurred are obtained from a vendor that is directly performing the underlying services, such as a consultant or contract manufacturing organization.
In-process research and development (“IPR&D”) that is acquired through licensing arrangements and accounted for as asset acquisitions are expensed immediately and within research and development expenses if the IPR&D has no alternative future use.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel expenses, including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation expense, for employees and consultants in executive, finance and accounting, legal, operations support, information technology and human resource functions. General and administrative expenses also include corporate facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expense, including rent, utilities, depreciation and maintenance, as well as legal fees related to intellectual property and corporate matters and fees for accounting and consulting services.
Stock-Based Compensation 
The Company accounts for stock-based compensation awards in accordance with ASC Topic 718, Compensation – Stock Compensation (“ASC 718”). ASC 718 requires all stock-based payments, including grants of stock options and restricted stock, to be recognized in the consolidated statements of operations based on their fair values. All of the stock-based awards are subject only to service-based vesting conditions. Management estimates the fair value of the stock option awards using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which requires the input of assumptions, including (a) the fair value of the Company’s common stock, (b) the expected stock price volatility, (c) the calculation of expected term of the award, (d) the risk-free interest rate and (e) expected dividends. Management estimates the fair value of the restricted stock awards using the fair value of the Company’s common stock. Forfeitures are recognized as they are incurred.
The fair value of the Company’s common stock is based on the closing stock price on the date of grant as reported on the Nasdaq Global Market. The expected life of the stock options in years is estimated using the “simplified method,” as prescribed in SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 107, as the Company has no historical information from which to develop reasonable expectations about future exercise patterns and post-vesting employment termination behavior for its stock option grants. The simplified method is the midpoint between the vesting period and the contractual term of the option. For stock price volatility, the Company uses comparable public companies as a basis for its expected volatility to calculate the fair value of option grants. The risk-free rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve commensurate with the expected life of the option. The expected dividend yield is zero as the Company has no history of paying dividends and no plans to do so in the near term.
The Company classified stock-based compensation expense in its consolidated statement of operations in the same manner of the award recipient’s payroll costs.
Income Taxes 
The Company accounts for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740, Income Taxes, which prescribes the use of the liability method whereby deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on the difference between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. A valuation allowance is provided to reduce the net deferred tax assets to a level which, more likely than not, will be realized.
The Company assesses its income tax positions and records tax benefits based upon management’s evaluation of the facts, circumstances, and information available at the reporting date. For those tax positions where it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will be sustained, the Company records the amount of tax benefit with a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement with a taxing authority having full knowledge of all relevant information. For those income tax positions for which it is not more likely than not that a tax benefit will be sustained, no tax benefit is recognized in the financial statements. Potential interest and penalties associated with such uncertain tax positions is recorded as a component of income tax expense.
Net Loss Per Share Attributable to Common Stockholders
Basic net loss per share of common stock is computed by dividing net income attributable to the Company by the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. In periods of losses, diluted net loss per share is computed on the same basis as basic net loss per share as the inclusion of any other potential shares outstanding would be anti-dilutive. Outstanding pre-funded warrants as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 were 6,792,559 and 6,124,996, respectively. Pre-funded warrants are considered outstanding as of their issuance date and are included in basic and diluted net loss per share because they are fully vested and exercisable for nominal cash consideration.

The following potentially dilutive securities have been excluded from the diluted per share calculations as they would be antidilutive:
Year Ended December 31,
20252024
Outstanding stock options2,088,550 1,387,556 
Restricted stock units256,361 222,530 
Performance stock units252,124 252,124 
Shares issuable under 2023 Employee Stock Purchase Plan2,773 — 
Total2,599,808 1,862,210 
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
From time to time, new accounting pronouncements are issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) or other standard setting bodies that the Company adopts as of the specified effective date. Unless otherwise discussed below, the Company does not believe that the adoption of recently issued standards have or may have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted
In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (“ASU 2024-03”) which requires public entities to provide disaggregated disclosure of income statement expenses. Public entities are required to disaggregate, in a tabular presentation, each relevant expense caption on the face of the consolidated statements of operations such as the following expenses: purchases of inventory, employee compensation, intangible asset amortization, and depreciation. In January 2025, the FASB issued ASU 2025-01, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Expense Disaggregation Disclosures, to clarify the effective date. The updated effective date for the Company to adopt ASU 2024-03 is for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026 and interim periods within annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the potential impact that ASU 2024-03 may have on its financial statement disclosures.
In September 2025, the FASB issued ASU 2025-06, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other - Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40) (“ASU 2025-06”) which removes all references to project stages throughout ASC 350-40, Intangibles — Goodwill and Other, Internal-Use Software. Cost capitalization will now begin solely when (1) management has authorized and committed to funding the software project, and (2) it is ‘probable’ the project will be completed and the software used to perform its intended function (referred to as the probable-to-complete recognition threshold). The effective date for the Company to adopt ASU 2025-06 is for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027 and interim reporting periods within those annual reporting periods, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the potential impact that ASU 2025-06 will have on its financial statement disclosures.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, which focuses on the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid. ASU No. 2023-09 requires a public business entity (“PBE”) to disclose, on an annual basis, a tabular rate reconciliation using both percentages and currency amounts, broken out into specified categories with certain reconciling items further broken out by nature and jurisdiction to the extent those items exceed a specified threshold. In addition, all entities are required to disclose income taxes paid, net of refunds received, disaggregated by federal, state/local, and foreign and by jurisdiction if the amount is at least 5% of total income tax payments, net of refunds received. For PBEs, the new standard is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted. For entities other than PBEs, the requirements will be effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2025. An entity may apply the amendments in this ASU prospectively by providing the revised disclosures for the period ending December 31, 2025 and continuing to provide the pre-ASU disclosures for the prior periods, or may apply the amendments retrospectively by providing the revised disclosures for all period presented. As of December 31, 2025, the Company adopted this new ASU retrospectively and it only impacts the Company's income tax disclosures with no impact to its operations, cash flows, or financial condition.