Risk Factors Related to argenx’s Dependence on Third Parties

We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some of our research activities and clinical trials and for parts of the development and commercialization of our existing and future research programs, products and product candidates. If our relationships with such third parties are not successful, our business may be adversely affected.

We have relied upon and plan to continue to rely upon third parties, including independent clinical investigators, CROs, CMOs and other third-party service providers, to assist us in the conduct of certain of our research activities and clinical trials and to monitor and manage data for our ongoing preclinical trials and clinical trials. We also depend on our collaborators and on medical institutions and CROs to conduct our research activities and clinical trials in compliance with regulatory and legal requirements, including GCPs or GMPs, our standard operating procedures and our applicable protocols. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical trials and clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements and scientific standards, and our reliance on these third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. To the extent our collaborators or the CROs or investigators fail to enroll participants for our clinical trials, fail to conduct the clinical trial to GCP standards or in full compliance with legal and regulatory requirements or are delayed for a significant time in the execution of clinical trials, including achieving full enrollment, we may be affected by increased costs, program delays or both, which may harm our business.

In addition, we are, and expect to continue to be, dependent on partnerships with partners and licensees relating to the development and commercialization of our existing and future research programs, products and product candidates. We currently have collaborative research relationships with various pharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie, Zai Lab, Genmab and with various academic and research institutions worldwide for the development of product candidates resulting from such collaborations. We also have distribution agreements with Medison, Genpharm and Handok for the distribution of VYVGART. We had, have and will continue to have discussions on potential partnering opportunities with various pharmaceutical companies. If we fail to enter into or maintain collaborations on reasonable terms or at all, our ability to develop our existing or future research programs and product candidates and to commercialize our existing or future products could be delayed, the commercial potential of our products could change and our costs of development and commercialization could increase.

While we have agreements governing our relationships with these third parties, we have limited influence over their actual performance and control only certain aspects of their activities. If independent investigators, third-party service providers or CROs fail to devote sufficient resources to the development of our product candidates, or if their performance is substandard, it may delay or compromise the prospects for approval and commercialization of any product candidates that we develop. In addition, regulatory authorities enforce these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we, our investigators or any of our CROs fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the Relevant Regulatory Authorities or comparable regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. Upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority may determine that our clinical trials do not fully comply with GCP regulations, which may require us to repeat clinical trials and delay the regulatory approval process. Our collaborative partners may not adhere or terminate collaboration agreements with all associated consequences or disagree on the interpretation of contractual terms. We may not be able to control our collaborative partners’ compliance with all applicable requirements for the commercialization of our products, which could adversely affect such commercialization and the profitability of such products. Failures by our collaborative partners to meet their contractual, regulatory, or other obligations to us or any disruption in the relationships between us and our collaborative partners, could have a material adverse effect on our product pipeline and business.

We face significant competition in establishing successful relationships with third-party service providers and appropriate collaborative partners. These third-party service providers may have contractual relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors, which may draw their time and resources away from our programs. In addition, some of our third-party service providers or CROs have the ability to terminate their respective agreements with us, and if such agreements terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or investigators or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, we may not be able to find appropriate collaboration partners. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a partnership will depend, among other things, upon an assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed partnership and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. These factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of regulatory approval, the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership regardless of the merits of the challenge and industry and market conditions generally. The collaborator may also consider alternative product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a partnership could be more attractive than the one with us.

Disruptions caused by our reliance on third parties for our manufacturing process may delay or disrupt our business, product development and commercialization efforts.

We do not have the ability to internally source the raw materials necessary to produce our products or product candidates, and do not currently have, nor do we plan to acquire, the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture our products or product candidates and depend on a worldwide supply chain and third parties for both. Disruptions caused by our reliance on such third-party suppliers, service providers and manufacturers may delay or disrupt our business, product development and commercialization efforts.

Reliance on Third-Party Suppliers and Service Providers

For some of our raw materials, we rely on a single source of supply and there are limited supplies of the raw materials. If we were to experience an unexpected loss of supply of or if any supplier was unable to meet our demand for any of our products and product candidates, including for example if VYVGART is approved for additional indications, we could experience delays in our research or planned clinical trials or risk shortages in commercial supply which could materially impact our revenue potential. These issues could be made worse during a pandemic or due to geopolitical events, including trade disputes or economic sanctions enacted as a result of international conflict.

Additionally, certain of the raw materials required in the manufacture and the formulation of our products and product candidates may be derived from biological sources, including mammalian tissues, bovine serum and human serum albumin. There are certain European regulatory restrictions on using these biological source materials including rigorous testing requirements, which could limit or delay production. If there are changes in the regulation requirements that our suppliers are unable to meet, our clinical development or commercial activities may be delayed or interrupted.

We may not be able to engage a back-up or alternative supplier or service provider in a timely manner or at all if any of these third parties were to cease or interrupt production or otherwise fail to supply these materials, products, or services to us for any reasons, including due to regulatory requirements or actions (including recalls), adverse financial developments at or affecting the supplier, failure by the supplier to comply with cGMPs, contamination, business interruptions, or labor shortages or disputes. Interruptions in the supply of these materials, products or services may also result from international conflict, trade disputes or economic sanctions enacted by, or imposed on, the U.S., the UK, the EU or any other country or region.

Reliance on Third-Party Manufacturing

We rely on and expect to continue to rely on CMOs. We also rely on certain third parties to perform filling, finishing, distribution, laboratory testing and other services related to the manufacture of our products and product candidates.

Although we do not control the manufacturing process at our CMOs and are completely dependent on them for the production of our products and product candidates in accordance with relevant regulations (such as cGMPs), we are responsible for ensuring that our products comply with regulatory requirements. If our CMOs cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the Relevant Regulatory Authorities or other comparable regulatory authorities, our business could be adversely affected in a number of ways, including an inability to initiate or continue clinical trials of product candidates under development, delay in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving regulatory approvals for product candidates, including new indications, subjecting third-party manufacturing facilities to additional inspections by regulatory authorities, requirements to cease distribution or to recall batches of our products or product candidates and an inability to meet commercial demands for our marketed products.

We contract with Lonza based in Slough, UK, Portsmouth, U.S., Singapore and Visp, Switzerland and Fujifilm based in Denmark for activities relating to the development of cell banks, development of our manufacturing processes and the manufacturing of drug substance, and use additional contract manufacturers to fill, test, label, package, store and distribute our (investigational) drug products. Our products and product candidates are biologics and require multiple processing steps that are more difficult than those required for most small molecule chemical pharmaceuticals. Problems with these manufacturing processes, such as capacity issues, or even minor deviations from the normal process or from the materials used in the manufacturing process, which may not be detectable by us in a timely manner, could lead to manufacturing failures or product defects, resulting in lot failures, product recalls, product liability claims and insufficient inventory.

We face risks inherent in relying on limited CMOs, as any failure in their ability to successfully manufacture our products or product candidates as described above or any disruption, such as a fire, pandemic, natural hazards or vandalism at the CMO could significantly interrupt our manufacturing capability. Alternative production plans in place or disaster-recovery facilities available to us may not be sufficient. In case of a disruption, we may have to establish additional alternative manufacturing sources. This would require substantial investment on our part, which we may not be able to obtain on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Additionally, we may experience significant manufacturing delays as we build or locate replacement facilities and seek and obtain necessary regulatory approvals. If this occurs, we will be unable to satisfy manufacturing needs on a timely basis, if at all. Also, operating any new facilities may be more expensive than operating at our current facilities. Further, business interruption insurance may not adequately compensate us for any losses that may occur, and we would have to bear the additional cost of any disruption. For these reasons, a significant disruptive event of the manufacturing facility could have drastic consequences, including placing our financial stability at risk.

Accuracy and timing of our financial reporting is partially dependent on information received from third-party partners, which we do not control.

We have collaborated, and plan to continue to collaborate, with third parties, including distributor and licensing partners, on certain product candidates. As part of some of these collaborations, our collaboration partners are responsible for providing us with financial information regarding specific projects, including funds spent, liabilities incurred and expected future costs, on which we rely for our own financial reporting. If our collaboration partners fail to provide us with the necessary financial information within the agreed upon timeframes, or if such financial information proves inaccurate, it would adversely impact the timing and accuracy of our own financial reporting. Any inaccuracy in our financial reporting could cause investors to lose confidence in our financial reporting. This in turn may lead to reputational damage or affect our ability to obtain, and the terms of, any future financing, which may harm our business.

We and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers may become exposed to liability, fines, penalties or other sanctions and substantial expenses in connection with environmental compliance or remediation activities.

Our third-party manufacturers and suppliers operations, including research, development, testing and manufacturing activities, are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These laws and regulations govern, among other things, the controlled use, handling, release and disposal of and the maintenance of a registry for, hazardous materials and biological materials, laboratory procedures and exposure to pathogens. We do not have control over our manufacturers’ or suppliers’ compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. If we, or they fail to comply with such laws and regulations, we could be subject to liability, fines, penalties or other sanctions and incur substantial expenses to comply or remediate the activities.

We face a risk of environmental liability inherent in our current and historical activities, including liability relating to releases of or exposure to hazardous or biological materials. Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations are becoming more stringent. We may be required to incur substantial expenses in connection with future environmental compliance or remediation activities, in which case, our production and development efforts may be interrupted or delayed, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.