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Nature of Business
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2025
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Nature of Business

1. Nature of Business

Business Overview

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Atea Pharmaceuticals Securities Corporation, is referred to herein on a consolidated basis as “Atea” or the “Company”.

The Company is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral antiviral therapeutics to improve the lives of patients suffering from serious viral infections. The Company’s lead product candidate, the regimen of bemnifosbuvir, a nucleotide NS5B inhibitor, and ruzasvir, an NS5A inhibitor is being developed for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (“HCV”). In April 2025, the Company commenced enrollment of patients in the HCV Phase 3 program evaluating the regimen.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of March 31, 2025, the Company had $425.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, which the Company believes will be sufficient to fund the share repurchase program discussed in Note 15 and its operations for a period through at least twelve months from the issuance date of these consolidated financial statements.

The Company is a party to an amended and restated open market sales agreement (“Sales Agreement”) with Jefferies LLC (“Jefferies”), under which the Company may from time to time offer and sell shares of its common stock (“Common Stock”) for an aggregate offering price of up to $200.0 million, through or to Jefferies, acting as sales agent or principal. The shares will be offered and sold under the Company’s shelf registration statement on Form S-3 and a related prospectus declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on November 19, 2024. The Company has agreed to pay Jefferies a commission of 3.0% of the aggregate gross proceeds from each sale of shares, reimburse legal fees and disbursements and provide Jefferies with customary indemnification and contribution rights. As of March 31, 2025, no shares have been issued under the Sales Agreement.

Risks and Uncertainties

The Company is subject to risks and uncertainties common to clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies. These risks include, but are not limited to, potential failure of preclinical and clinical studies, uncertainties associated with research and development activities generally, competition from technical innovations of others, dependence upon key personnel, compliance with governmental regulations, the need to obtain marketing approval for any product candidate that the Company may develop, the need to gain broad acceptance among patients, payers and health care providers to successfully commercialize any product for which marketing approval is obtained and the need to secure and maintain adequate intellectual property protection for the Company’s proprietary technology and products. Further, the Company is currently dependent on third-party service providers for much of its preclinical research, clinical development and manufacturing activities. Product candidates currently under development, including most notably the regimen of bemnifosbuvir and ruzasvir for the treatment of HCV, will require significant amounts of additional capital and additional research and development efforts, and all will require regulatory approval, prior to commercialization. Even if the Company is able to generate revenues from the sale of its product candidates, if any are approved and commercialized, it may not become profitable. If the Company fails to become profitable or is unable to sustain profitability on a continuing basis, then it may be unable to continue its operations at planned levels and be forced to reduce its operations.

The Company may seek additional capital through one or more of a combination of financing through the sale of additional equity securities, debt financing, or funding in connection with any new collaborative relationships it may enter into or other arrangements. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to obtain such additional funding, on terms acceptable to the Company, on a timely basis or at all. The terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of the Company’s existing stockholders. Geopolitical events, including civil or political unrest and terrorism, have resulted in a significant disruption of global business and financial markets. In addition, recent or future market volatility, increased inflation and higher interest rates, if

sustained, may increase the Company’s cost of financing and may restrict our access to potential sources of future liquidity.