HCW Biologics delays quarterly report for period ended June 30, 2025

What the notice says

HCW Biologics Inc. (Nasdaq: HCWB) told the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 15, 2025 that its quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2025 will be late. The Miramar, Florida company filed a Form 12b-25 notification of late filing. That form lets a registrant claim a short extension when a periodic report cannot be filed on time without unreasonable effort or expense. For a Form 10-Q, the extra time is five calendar days.

The notice, signed by Rebecca Byam, chief financial officer, says the company needed additional time to prepare its financial statements for the three months ended June 30, 2025. It says HCW expects to file the 10-Q within the five-day grace period. The company also states that all other periodic reports due in the preceding 12 months have been filed.

Beyond that wording, the notice is thin. It does not say what took longer than planned, whether the auditors have raised any adjustment, or what the quarter's revenue, net loss or cash balance was. A reader cannot tell from the notice how the quarter ended.

The legal costs behind the expected change

The notice also answers yes to whether results will change significantly from the year before. It points to the second quarter of 2024, when HCW was preparing for and taking part in hearings in a long-running arbitration. That arbitration settled on July 13, 2024. Legal fees in the second quarter of 2024 were $10.4 million. In the same period of 2025 they were $142,452.

According to the company's annual report for 2024, filed in March 2025, the July 2024 settlement agreement covered HCW, its founder Dr. Hing C. Wong, Altor BioScience, LLC, NantCell, Inc. and ImmunityBio, Inc. The settlement involved intellectual property the company developed on its TOBI drug discovery platform. The annual report says the agreement eliminated the uncertainty of the outcome of the arbitration.

The notice gives legal fees only for those two quarters and does not say whether any settlement payments or license terms are still running.

The company and its programs

The annual report describes HCW as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapies for diseases it links to chronic inflammation, especially age-related conditions. It runs two discovery platforms. The older TOBI platform uses a tissue factor scaffold to build fusion proteins. The newer T-cell Receptor β Chain constant region platform, called TRBC, is meant to produce multi-specific cytokines, checkpoint inhibitors and immune-cell engagers.

The lead clinical candidate named in the report is HCW9302, an injectable interleukin 2 fusion protein. The FDA cleared a Phase 1 study of HCW9302 in alopecia areata. The company says it plans to expand to other indications only after that study is complete. The report says the company's clinical work will centre on a few lead candidates in autoimmune disorders, solid tumors and quality-of-life conditions, and that it expects to move a larger set of non-core programs through licensing deals.

The founder and chief executive, Dr. Hing C. Wong, discovered Anktiva, also known as ALT-803, an IL-15 agonist. The annual report says Anktiva was sold to ImmunityBio, Inc. in 2017 in a $1.0 billion acquisition and that the FDA approved it for a bladder cancer indication in 2024. The approved product therefore sits with a company that was also a party to the settlement. HCW's own clinical programs are earlier, and the FDA has so far cleared HCW9302 only for a Phase 1 study.

What comes next

The notice sets no date beyond the five-day grace period under Rule 12b-25. The notice does not say what the company will report for the quarter. The 10-Q itself will carry the revenue, loss and cash figures.

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