Company: APM
Filing Date: 2025-10-06
Form Type: S-4
Source: 0001213900-25-096656
Chunk: 240

Company: Aptorum Group Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-10-06
Form: S-4
Chunk 240
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. We refer to these as our “Project Companies” and their products or areas of focus as our Lead Projects (i.e., ALS -4and SACT -1). The selection of a drug candidate is based on our estimate of the market potential for that candidate, the scientific expertise required to develop it, and our overall corporate strategy, including our ability to commit personnel and future investment to that candidate. To pursue a number of our current projects, our Project Companies have entered into standard license agreements with various universities and licensing entities customized to the nature of each project. These license agreements largely contain the same terms, as is typically seen in license agreements for an early -stagelife science invention; such terms include a worldwide license with licensed field comprising indications in the intended treatment areas, having upfront payments, certain royalty rates, sublicensing royalties, as well as provisions for payments upon occurrence of 120 development and/or regulatory milestones. Under the license agreements, the Project Company must also adhere to certain diligence obligations (which may include specific diligence) and the types of activities or achievements that will satisfy those diligence obligations. Additionally, our Project Company may or may not be required to obtain prior consent from the licensor to sublicense the invention. The license terms of our Lead Projects are discussed in detail below. Generally speaking, pharmaceutical development consists of preclinical and clinical phases. The preclinical phase can further sub -dividedinto the following stages: • Target Identification & Selection: The target is the naturally existing cellular or modular structure that appears to have an important role in a particular disease pathway and will be targeted by the drug that will subsequently be developed. Target validation techniques for different disease areas can be very different but typically include from in vitro and in silico methods through to the use of whole animal models. • Lead Discovery: Following “Target Identification & Selection,” compound screening assays are developed as part of the Lead Discovery. ‘Lead’ molecules can mean slightly different things to different researchers or companies, but in this document, we refer to Lead Discovery as the process of identifying one or more small molecules with the desired activity against the identified targets. Leads can be identified through one or more approaches, which can depend on the target and what, if any, previous knowledge exists. • Lead Optimization: In this stage of the drug discovery process, the aim is to produce a preclinical drug candidate by maintaining the desired and favorable properties in the lead compounds, while repairing or reducing deficiencies in their structures. For example, to optimize the chemical structures to improve, among others, efficacy, reduce