Company: WHWK
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-015269
Chunk: 89

Company: Whitehawk Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 89
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 to invite litigation or other intellectual property related proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our proprietary information and intellectual property or expose us to potential litigation or other intellectual property related proceedings;

•disputes may arise between the collaborators and us that result in the delay or termination of the research, development or commercialization of our product candidates or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources;

•collaborations may be terminated and, if terminated, may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable product candidates;

•collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of any product candidates that we may develop in the most efficient manner or at all;

•collaborators may not provide us with timely and accurate information regarding development progress and activities under the collaboration or may limit our ability to share such information, which could adversely impact our ability to report progress to our investors and otherwise plan our own development of any product candidates that we may develop in the future;

•collaborators may own or co-own intellectual property covering our products that results from us collaborating with them, and in such cases, we would not have the exclusive right to develop or commercialize such intellectual property; and

•a collaborator’s sales and marketing activities or other operations may not be in compliance with applicable laws, resulting in civil or criminal proceedings.

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Disputes between us and our collaborators may result in litigation or arbitration which would increase our expenses and divert the attention of our management. Further, these transactions and arrangements are contractual in nature and may be terminated or dissolved under the terms of the applicable agreements. For example, on June 27, 2022, EOC elected to terminate the EOC License Agreement, effective immediately, due to alleged material breaches by us. See Note 7 to our annual Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2024 included herein for more information about the EOC License Agreement, its termination, and resulting arbitration (including the arbitration panel’s final award in our favor).  

Risks Related to Employee Matters, Managing Our Growth and Other Risks Related to our Business

Our success is highly dependent on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled executive officers, key scientific personnel and employees.

To succeed, we must recruit, retain, manage and motivate qualified clinical, scientific, technical and management personnel, and we face significant competition for experienced personnel. We are highly dependent on the principal members of our management and scientific and medical staff. If we do not succeed in