ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Summary of Risk Factors
Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below under the heading “Risk Factors” and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC, before making an investment decision regarding our common stock.
Our management, as of December 31, 2024, and our independent registered public accounting firm, in its report on our financial statements as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, have concluded that there is substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
Our POCare business has a limited operating history and an unproven business model and faces significant challenges as the cell therapy industry is rapidly evolving. Our prospects may be considered speculative and any failure to execute our business strategy could adversely impact our business.
We are not profitable as of December 31, 2024 , have limited cash flow and, unless we increase revenues and take advantage of any commercial opportunities that arise to expand our POCare business, the perceived value of our company may decrease and our stock price could be affected accordingly.
Our research and development efforts on novel technology using cell-based therapy and our future success is highly dependent on the successful development of that technology.
We require additional capital to support our business, and this capital may not be available on acceptable terms or at all.
We have entered into collaborations and may form or seek collaborations or strategic alliances or enter into additional licensing arrangements in the future, and we may not realize the benefits of such alliances or licensing arrangements.
Our success will depend on strategic collaborations with third parties to develop and commercialize therapeutic product candidates, and we may not have control over a number of key elements relating to the development and commercialization of any such product candidate.
Our success depends on our ability to protect our intellectual property and our proprietary technologies.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
Our success depends on our ability to develop and grow our paradigm-shifting decentralized approach to CGT therapies utilizing an automated and/or closed approach validated for compliant production at or near the patient care site (“Decentralized Cell Processing or DCP Platform”) and Octomera’s cell processing business.
Our success depends on our ability to develop and roll out our Decentralized Production Units and OMPULs.
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.
We are increasingly dependent on information technology and our systems and infrastructure face certain risks, including cybersecurity and data storage risks.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to develop in-house sales and commercial distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to successfully commercialize any product in the United States or overseas, and as a result, we may not be able to generate product revenue.
Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could halt their clinical development, prevent their regulatory approval, limit their commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences.
Our product candidates are biologics, and the manufacture of our product candidates is complex, and we may encounter difficulties in production, particularly with respect to process development or scaling-out of our manufacturing capabilities.
Cell-based therapies rely on the availability of reagents, specialized equipment, and other specialty materials, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. For some of these reagents, equipment, and materials, we rely or may rely on sole source vendors or a limited number of vendors, which could impair our ability to manufacture and supply our products.
We currently have no marketing and sales organization and have no experience in marketing therapeutic products. If we are unable to establish marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may not be able to generate product revenue.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to develop in-house sales and commercial distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to successfully commercialize any product in the United States or overseas, and as a result, we may not be able to generate product revenue.
We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, many of which have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.
We are highly dependent on key personnel who would be difficult to replace, and our business plans will likely be harmed if we lose their services or cannot hire additional qualified personnel.
Extensive industry regulation has had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on our business, especially our product development, manufacturing and distribution capabilities.
Third parties to whom we may license or transfer development and commercialization rights for products covered by intellectual property rights may not be successful in their efforts and, as a result, we may not receive future royalty or other milestone payments relating to those products or rights.
Conditions in Israel, including the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and other terrorist organizations from the Gaza Strip and Israel’s war against them, may affect certain of our operations.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting could adversely affect our ability to report our results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner, which could have an adverse impact on our business.
Our securities have been delisted from Nasdaq and currently trade on the OTC Expert Market, which could make it difficult to trade our common stock.
We have not been able, and may continue to be unable, to timely file periodic reports with the SEC.
Risk Factors
An investment in our common stock involves a number of very significant risks. You should carefully consider the following risks and uncertainties in addition to other information in this report in evaluating our company and its business before purchasing shares of our company’s common stock. Our business, operating results and financial condition could be seriously harmed due to any of the following risks. You could lose all or part of your investment due to any of these risks.
Risks Related to Our Company and POCare Business
We do not currently have sufficient funds to service our operations and our expenses and other liquidity needs and require additional capital immediately. Our management, as of December 31, 2024, and our independent registered public accounting firm, in its report on our financial statements as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, have concluded that there is substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
We do not currently have sufficient funds to service our operations and our expenses and other liquidity needs beyond [DATE] and require additional capital immediately, and our independent registered public accountants and management have expressed substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
Our audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 were prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern. The going concern basis of the presentation assumes that we will continue in operation for the foreseeable future and will be able to realize our assets and satisfy our liabilities in the normal course of business and do not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets or amounts and classification of liabilities that may result from our inability to continue as a going concern. As of December 31, 2024, our management concluded that, based on expected operating losses and negative cash flows, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the twelve months after the date the financial statements were issued. Our ability to continue as a going concern is subject to our ability to raise additional capital through equity offerings or debt financings. However, we may not be to secure additional financing in a timely manner or on terms, if at all. If we cannot continue as a going , we may have to our assets and may receive less than the value at which those assets are carried on our financial statements, and it is likely that our stockholders may some or all of their investment in us. If we seek additional financing to fund our business activities in the future and there remains substantial about our ability to continue as a going , investors or other financing sources may be to provide additional funding on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
We are reliant on Alpha Prosperity Fund SPC for our immediate capital needs and will require shareholder approval to receive up to an additional $2,750,000 upon the exercise of certain warrants, which we may not be able to obtain. We intend to continue to seek delays on certain payments and explore other ways of potentially reducing expenses with the goal of preserving cash until additional financing is secured. These efforts may not be successful or sufficient in amount or on a timely basis to meet our ongoing capital requirements. We continue to actively seek additional financing. In the absence of additional sources of liquidity, we do not have sufficient existing cash resources to meet operating and liquidity needs. However, there is no assurance that we will be able to timely secure such additional liquidity or be successful in raising additional funds or that such required funds, if available, will be available on acceptable terms or that they will not have a significant dilutive effect on our existing stockholders. In addition, we are unable to determine at this time whether any of these potential sources of liquidity will be adequate to support our operations or provide sufficient cash flows to us to meet our obligations as they become due and continue as a going . In the event we determine that additional sources of liquidity will not be available to us or will not allow us to meet our obligations as they become due, we may need to file a voluntary petition for relief under the United States Code in order to implement a plan or . In addition, substantial about our ability to continue as a going may cause investors or other financing sources to be to provide funding to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. If sufficient funds are not available, we will have to , reduce the scope of, or eliminate some or all of our business activities, which would affect our business prospects and our ability to continue our operations.
Our POCare business has a limited operating history and an unproven business model and faces significant challenges as the cell therapy industry is rapidly evolving. Our prospects may be considered speculative and any failure to execute our business strategy could adversely impact our operations and the price of our common stock.
Our POCare business has a limited operating history and an unproven business model. Our plans to continue to grow our POCare cell therapy business and to further the development of ATMPs are subject to significant challenges, including having sufficient cash resources to support our operations. In addition, we may not be able to implement our POCare business or commence clinical trials or respond to competitive pressures due to other non-financial factors beyond our control. Our failure to effectively execute our business strategy could adversely affect our ability to successfully grow our POCare business and develop cell therapy product candidates, which could cause the value of your investment in our common stock to decline.
We are not profitable as of December 31, 2024 , have limited cash flow and, unless we increase revenues and take advantage of any commercial opportunities that arise to expand our POCare business, the perceived value of our company may decrease and our stock price could be affected accordingly.
For the year ended December 31, 2024 and as of the date of this report, we assessed our financial condition and concluded that based on current and projected cash resources and commitments, there is a substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern to meet our current operations for the next 12 months from the date of this report. Our auditor’s report for the year ended December 31, 2024 includes a going concern opinion on the matter. Management is unable to predict if and when we will be able to generate significant revenues or achieve profitability. Our plan regarding these matters is to continue improving the net results in our POCare business into fiscal year 2025. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in increasing revenues, improving our POCare results or that the perceived value of our company will increase. In the event that we are unable to generate significant revenues in our POCare business, our business and stock price could be affected.
Our research and development programs are based on novel technologies and are inherently risky.
We are subject to the risks of failure inherent in the development of products based on new technologies. The novel nature of our cell therapy technology creates significant challenges with respect to product development and optimization, manufacturing, government regulation and approval, third-party reimbursement and market acceptance. For example, the FDA and EMA have relatively limited experience with the development and regulation of cell therapy products and, therefore, the pathway to marketing approval for our cell therapy product candidates may accordingly be more complex, lengthy and uncertain than for a more conventional product candidate. The indications of use for which we choose to pursue development may have clinical effectiveness endpoints that have not previously been reviewed or validated by the FDA or EMA, which may complicate or delay our effort to ultimately obtain FDA or EMA approval. Because this is a new approach to treating diseases, developing and commercializing our product candidates subjects us to a number of challenges, including:
obtaining regulatory approval from the FDA, EMA and other regulatory authorities that have very limited experience with the commercial development of our technology for treating different diseases;
developing and deploying consistent and reliable processes for removing the cells from the patient engineering cells ex vivo and infusing the engineered cells back into the patient;
developing processes for the safe administration of these products, including long-term follow-up for all patients who receive our products;
sourcing clinical and, if approved, commercial supplies for the materials used to manufacture and process our products;
developing a manufacturing process and distribution network with a cost of goods that allows for an attractive return on investment;
establishing sales and marketing capabilities after obtaining any regulatory approval to gain market acceptance; and
maintaining a system of post marketing surveillance and risk assessment programs to identify adverse events that did not appear during the drug approval process.
Our efforts to overcome these challenges may not prove successful, and any product candidate we seek to develop may not be successfully developed or commercialized.
Kyslecel may not achieve patient or market acceptance, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our commercialization strategy for Kyslecel relies on medical specialists, medical facilities and patients adopting TP-IAT with Kyslecel as an accepted treatment for chronic pancreatitis. However, medical specialists are historically slow to adopt new treatments, regardless of perceived merits, when older treatments continue to be supported by established providers. Overcoming such resistance often requires significant marketing expenditure or definitive product performance and/or pricing superiority. The cost of allocating resources for such requirements might severely impact the potential for profitability of Kyslecel.
There is no guarantee that physician or patient acceptance of TP-IAT with Kyslecel will be substantial. Further, there is no guarantee that Koligo will be able to achieve patient acceptance or obtain enough customers (clinical providers) to meet its sales objectives. If we do not meet our sales objectives, our business prospects and financial performance will be materially and adversely affected.
Further, we are partially reliant on published clinical trials and scientific research conducted by third parties to justify the patient benefit and safety of TP-IAT with Kyslecel and, as such, we rely, in part, on the accuracy and integrity of those third-parties to have reported the results and correctly collected and interpreted the data from all clinical trials conducted to date. If published data turn out to later be incorrect or incomplete, our business prospects and financial performance may be materially and adversely affected.
The therapeutic efficacy of Ranpirnase and our other product candidates is unproven in humans, and we may not be able to successfully develop and commercialize Ranpirnase or any of our other product candidates.
Ranpirnase and our other product candidates are novel compounds and their potential benefit as antiviral drugs or immunotherapies is unproven. Ranpirnase and our other product candidates may not prove to be effective against the indications for which they are being designed to act and may not demonstrate in clinical trials any or all of the pharmacological effects that have been observed in preclinical studies. As a result, our clinical trial results may not be indicative of the results of future clinical trials.
Ranpirnase and our other product candidates may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen, ineffective or harmful ways. If Ranpirnase or any of our other product candidates is associated with undesirable side effects or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to abandon the development of such product candidate or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Because of these and other risks described herein that are inherent in the development of novel therapeutic agents, we may never successfully develop or commercialize Ranpirnase or any of our other product candidates, in which case our business will be harmed.
We will need to grow the size and capabilities of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.
As of December 31, 2024, we employed 77 employees. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, we must add a significant number of additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial, and other personnel. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including:
identifying, recruiting, integrating, maintaining, and motivating additional employees;
managing our internal development efforts effectively, including the clinical and FDA review process for our product candidates, while complying with our contractual obligations to contractors and other third parties; and
improving our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems, and procedures.
Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our product candidates will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth, and our management may also have to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from day-to-day activities in order to devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. This lack of long-term experience working together may adversely impact our senior management team’s ability to effectively manage our business and growth.
We currently rely, and for the foreseeable future will continue to rely, in substantial part on certain independent organizations, advisors and consultants to provide certain services. There can be no assurance that the services of these independent organizations, advisors and consultants will continue to be available to us on a timely basis when needed, or that we can find qualified replacements. In addition, if we are unable to effectively manage our outsourced activities or if the quality or accuracy of the services provided by consultants is compromised for any reason, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed, or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates or otherwise advance our business. There can be no assurance that we will be able to manage our existing consultants or find other competent outside contractors and consultants on economically reasonable terms, if at all. If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our groups of consultants and contractors, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize our product candidates and, accordingly, may not our research, development, and commercialization goals.
We require additional capital to support our business, and this capital may not be available on acceptable terms or at all.
We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and require additional funds to respond to business challenges and to grow our POCare cell therapy business and to further the development of ATMPs. Accordingly, we will need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds.
Capital and credit market conditions, adverse events affecting our business or industry, the tightening of lending standards, rising interest rates, negative actions by regulatory authorities or rating agencies, the lack of liquidity in our common stock or other factors also could negatively impact our ability to obtain future financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to support our business growth and respond to business challenges could be significantly limited. In addition, the terms of any additional equity or debt issuances may adversely affect the value and price of our common stock, our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. Any financing secured by us in the future could include restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions.
We conduct certain of our operations in Israel. Conditions in Israel, including the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and other terrorist organizations from the Gaza Strip and Israel’s war against them, may affect certain of our operations.
Because we conduct certain operations in the State of Israel, some of our business and operations may be affected by economic, political, geopolitical and military conditions in Israel. In October 2023, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel’s southern border from the Gaza Strip and conducted a series of attacks on civilian and military targets. Hamas also launched extensive rocket attacks on Israeli population and industrial centers located along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip and in other areas within the State of Israel. Following the attack, Israel’s security cabinet declared war against Hamas and a military campaign against these terrorist organizations commenced in parallel to their continued rocket and terror attacks. Moreover, the clash between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, may escalate in the future into a greater regional conflict.
Any hostilities involving Israel, or the interruption or curtailment of trade within Israel or between Israel and its trading partners could adversely affect certain of our operations and results of operations and could make it more difficult for us to raise capital. The conflict in Israel could also result in parties with whom we have agreements involving performance in Israel claiming that they are not obligated to perform their commitments under those agreements pursuant to force majeure provisions in such agreements. There have been travel advisories imposed relating to travel to Israel, and restriction on travel, or delays and disruptions as related to imports and exports may be imposed in the future. Additionally, certain members of our management and employees are located and reside in Israel. Shelter-in-place and work-from-home measures, government-imposed restrictions on movement and travel and other precautions taken to address the ongoing conflict may temporarily our management and employees’ ability to effectively perform their daily tasks.
The Israel Defense Force (the “IDF”), the national military of Israel, is a conscripted military service, subject to certain exceptions. Several of our employees are subject to military service in the IDF and have been, or may be, called to serve. It is possible that there will be further military reserve duty call-ups in the future, which may affect our business due to a shortage of skilled labor and loss of institutional knowledge, and necessary mitigation measures we may take to respond to a decrease in labor availability, such as overtime and third-party outsourcing, for example, may have unintended negative effects and adversely impact our results of operations, liquidity or cash flows.
It is currently not possible to predict the duration or severity of the ongoing conflict or its effects on our business, operations and financial conditions. The ongoing conflict is rapidly evolving and developing, and could disrupt certain of our business and operations, among others.
Currency exchange fluctuations may impact the results of our operations.
The results of our operations are affected by fluctuations in currency exchange rates in both sourcing and selling locations. Our results of operations may still be impacted by foreign currency exchange rates, primarily, the euro-to-U.S. dollar exchange rate. In recent years, the euro-to-U.S. dollar exchange rate has been subject to substantial volatility which may continue, particularly in light of recent political events regarding the European Union, or EU. Because we do not hedge against all of our foreign currency exposure, our business will continue to be susceptible to foreign currency fluctuations.
We have entered into collaborations and joint ventures and may form or seek collaborations or strategic alliances or enter into additional licensing arrangements in the future, and we may not realize the benefits of such alliances or licensing arrangements.
We have entered into collaborations and joint ventures and may form or seek strategic alliances, create joint ventures or collaborations, or enter into additional licensing arrangements with third parties that we believe will complement or augment our development and commercialization efforts with respect to our product candidates and any future product candidates that we may develop. Any of these relationships may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing stockholders, or disrupt our management and business. In addition, we face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic partners for which the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Moreover, we may not be successful in our efforts to establish a strategic partnership or other alternative arrangements for our product candidates because they may be deemed to be at too early of a stage of development for collaborative effort and third parties may not view our product candidates as having the requisite potential to demonstrate safety and efficacy. Further, collaborations involving our product candidates, such as our collaborations with third-party research institutions, are subject to numerous risks, which may include the following:
collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to a collaboration;
collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected;
collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of our product candidates or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical trial results, changes in their strategic focus due to the acquisition of competitive products, availability of funding, or other external factors, such as a business combination that diverts resources or creates competing priorities;
collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial, stop a clinical trial, abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials, or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing;
collaborators could fail to make timely regulatory submissions for a product candidate;
collaborators may not comply with all applicable regulatory requirements or may fail to report safety data in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements;
collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our products or product candidates;
product candidates developed in collaboration with us may be viewed by our collaborators as competitive with their own product candidates or products, which may cause collaborators to cease to devote resources to the commercialization of our product candidates;
a collaborator with marketing and distribution rights to one or more products may not commit sufficient resources to their marketing and distribution;
collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our intellectual property or proprietary information in a way that gives rise to actual or threatened litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to potential liability;
disputes may arise between us and a collaborator that cause 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; and
collaborators may own or co-own intellectual property covering our products that results from our collaborating with them and, in such cases, we would not have the exclusive right to commercialize such intellectual property.
As a result, if we enter into collaboration agreements and strategic partnerships or license our products or businesses, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture, which could delay our timelines or otherwise adversely affect our business. The success of our existing and future collaboration arrangements and strategic partnerships, which include research and development services by our collaborators to improve our intellectual property, will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators and may not be successful. We also cannot be certain that, following a strategic transaction or license, we will achieve the revenue or specific net income that justifies such transaction. Any in entering into new or strategic partnership agreements related to our product candidates could the development and commercialization of our product candidates in certain geographies for certain indications, which would our business prospects, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our success will depend on strategic collaborations with third parties to develop and commercialize therapeutic product candidates, and we may not have control over a number of key elements relating to the development and commercialization of any such product candidate.
A key aspect of our strategy is to seek collaborations with partners, such as a large pharmaceutical organization, that are willing to further develop and commercialize a selected product candidate. To date, we have entered into a number of collaborative arrangements with cell therapy organizations. By entering into any such strategic collaborations, we may rely on our partner for financial resources and for development, regulatory and commercialization expertise. Our partner may fail to develop or effectively commercialize our product candidate because they:
do not have sufficient resources or decide not to devote the necessary resources due to internal constraints such as limited cash or human resources;
decide to pursue a competitive potential product developed outside of the collaboration;
cannot obtain the necessary regulatory approvals;
determine that the market opportunity is not attractive; or
cannot manufacture or obtain the necessary materials in sufficient quantities from multiple sources or at a reasonable cost.
We may not be able to enter into additional collaborations on acceptable terms, if at all. We face competition in our search for partners from other organizations worldwide, many of whom are larger and are able to offer more attractive deals in terms of financial commitments, contribution of human resources, or development, manufacturing, regulatory or commercial expertise and support. If we are not successful in attracting a partner and entering into a collaboration on acceptable terms, we may not be able to complete development of or commercialize any product candidate. In such event, our ability to generate revenues and achieve or sustain profitability would be significantly hindered and we may not be able to continue operations as proposed, requiring us to modify our business plan, curtail various aspects of our operations or operations.
Our success depends on our ability to protect our intellectual property and our proprietary technologies.
Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection and trade secret protection for our product candidates, proprietary technologies, and their uses as well as our ability to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. We can provide no assurance that our patent applications or those of our licensors will result in additional patents being issued or that issued patents will afford sufficient protection against competitors with similar technologies, nor can there be any assurance that the patents issued will not be infringed, designed around or invalidated by third parties. Even issued patents may later be found unenforceable or may be modified or revoked in proceedings instituted by third parties before various patent offices or in courts. The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain. Only limited protection may be available and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. Composition-of-matter patents on the biological or chemical active pharmaceutical ingredients are generally considered to offer the protection of intellectual property and provide the broadest scope of patent protection for pharmaceutical products, as such patents provide protection without regard to any method of use or any method of manufacturing. While we have issued patents in the United States, we cannot be certain that the in our issued patent will not be found or unenforceable if .
We cannot be certain that the claims in our issued United States methods of use patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.
We cannot be certain that the pending applications covering among others the bioconjugates comprising sulfated polysaccharides; Ranpirnase and other ribonucleases for treating viral diseases; therapeutic compositions comprising exosomes, bioxomes, and redoxomes; bioreactors for cell culture, automated devices for supporting cell therapies, and point-of-care systems; immune cells, ribonucleases, or antibodies for treating COVID-19; or chimeric antigen receptors (CARs); will be considered patentable by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and courts in the United States or by the patent offices and courts in foreign countries, nor can we be certain that the claims in our issued patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged. Even if our patent applications covering these inventions issue as patents, the patents protect specific products and may not be enforced against competitors making and marketing a product that has the same activity. Method-of-use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method or for treatment of a particular indication. These types of patents may not be enforced against competitors making and marketing a product that provides the same activity but is used for a method not included in the patent. Moreover, even if competitors do not actively promote their product for our targeted indications, physicians may prescribe these products “off-label.” Although off-label prescriptions may or contribute to the of method-of-use patents, the practice is common and such is to prevent or .
The patent application process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we or any of our future development partners will be successful in protecting our product candidates by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:
the USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other provisions during the patent process. There are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, competitors might be able to enter the market earlier than would otherwise have been the case;
patent applications may not result in any patents being issued;
patents that may be issued or in-licensed may be challenged, invalidated, modified, revoked, circumvented, found to be unenforceable or otherwise may not provide any competitive advantage;
our competitors, many of whom have substantially greater resources and many of whom have made significant investments in competing technologies, may seek or may have already obtained patents that will limit, interfere with or eliminate our ability to make, use, and sell our potential product candidates;
there may be significant pressure on the U.S. government and international governmental bodies to limit the scope of patent protection both inside and outside the United States for disease treatments that prove successful, as a matter of public policy regarding worldwide health concerns; and
countries other than the United States may have patent laws less favorable to patentees than those upheld by U.S. courts, allowing foreign competitors a better opportunity to create, develop and market competing product candidates.
In addition, we rely on the protection of our trade secrets and proprietary know-how. Although we have taken steps to protect our trade secrets and unpatented know-how, including entering into confidentiality agreements with third parties, and confidential information and inventions agreements with employees, consultants and advisors, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed, and third parties may still obtain this information or may come upon this or similar information independently. Additionally, if the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are deemed inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating its trade secrets. If any of these events occurs or if we otherwise lose protection for our trade secrets or proprietary know-how, our business may be harmed.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
Our commercial success depends upon our ability and the ability of our collaborators to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property and proprietary rights of third parties. There is considerable patent and other intellectual property litigation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. We may become party to, or threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our technology and product candidates, including interference proceedings, post grant review, inter partes review, and derivation proceedings before the USPTO and similar proceedings in foreign jurisdictions such as oppositions before the European Patent Office.
The legal threshold for initiating litigation or contested proceedings is low, so that even lawsuits or proceedings with a low probability of success might be initiated and require significant resources to defend. Litigation and contested proceedings can also be expensive and time-consuming, and our adversaries in these proceedings may have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to prosecuting these legal actions than we can. The risks of being involved in such litigation and proceedings may increase if and as our product candidates near commercialization. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future, regardless of merit. We may not be aware of all such intellectual property rights potentially relating to our technology and product candidates and their uses, or we may conclude that third party intellectual property is or that our activities and product candidates do not such intellectual property. Thus, we do not know with certainty that our technology and product candidates, or our development and commercialization thereof, do not and will not , or otherwise any third party’s intellectual property.
Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations or methods, such as methods of manufacture or methods for treatment, related to the discovery, use or manufacture of the product candidates that we may identify or related to our technologies. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that the product candidates that we may identify may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. Moreover, as noted above, there may be existing patents that we are not aware of or that we have incorrectly concluded are invalid or not infringed by our activities. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover, for example, the manufacturing process of the product candidates that we may identify, any molecules formed during the manufacturing process or any final product itself, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product candidate unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire.
Generally, conducting clinical trials and other development activities in the United States is not considered an act of infringement. If and when products are approved by the FDA, that certain third party may then seek to enforce its patents by filing a patent infringement lawsuit against us or our licensee(s). In such lawsuit, we or our licensees may incur substantial expenses defending our rights or our licensees’ rights to commercialize such product candidates, and in connection with such lawsuit and under certain circumstances, it is possible that we or our licensees could be required to cease or delay the commercialization of a product candidate and/or be required to pay monetary damages or other amounts, including royalties on the sales of such products. Moreover, any such lawsuit may also consume substantial time and resources of our management team and board of directors. The threat or consequences of such a lawsuit may also result in royalty and other monetary obligations being imposed on us, which may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize the product candidates that we may identify. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, pay royalties, redesign our infringing products or obtain one or more licenses from third parties, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure.
We may choose to take a license or, if we are found to infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could also be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing, manufacturing and marketing our technology and product candidates. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors and other third parties access to the same technologies licensed to us and could require us to make substantial licensing and royalty payments. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing, manufacturing and commercializing the infringing technology or product. In addition, we could be found liable for significant monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have a patent or other intellectual property right and could be to indemnify our customers or . A finding of could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates or us to some of our business operations, which could materially our business. In addition, we may be to redesign our product candidates, seek new regulatory approvals and indemnify third parties pursuant to contractual agreements. that we have the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.
We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any products. For example, we may be sued if our product candidates cause or are perceived to cause injury or are found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability or a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully ourselves product liability , we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates. Even a defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability may result in:
decreased demand for our products;
injury to our reputation;
withdrawal of clinical trial participants and inability to continue clinical trials;
initiation of investigations by regulators;
costs to defend the related litigation;
a diversion of management’s time and our resources;
substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;
loss of revenue;
exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources;
the inability to commercialize any product candidate; and
a decline in our share price.
Because most of our products have not reached commercial stage, we do not currently need to carry clinical trial or extensive product liability insurance. In the future, our inability to obtain additional sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products we develop, alone or with collaborators. Such insurance policies may also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage.
It may be difficult to enforce a U.S. judgment against us, our officers and directors and the foreign persons named in this Annual Report on Form 10-K in the United States or in foreign countries, or to assert U.S. securities laws claims in foreign countries or serve process on our officers and directors and these experts.
While we are incorporated in the State of Nevada, currently a majority of our directors and executive officers are not residents of the United States, and the foreign persons named in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are located outside of the United States. The majority of our assets are located outside the United States. Therefore, it may be difficult for an investor, or any other person or entity, to enforce a U.S. court judgment based upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us or any of these persons in a U.S. or foreign court, or to effect service of process upon these persons in the United States. Additionally, it may be difficult for an investor, or any other person or entity, to assert U.S. securities law claims in original actions instituted in foreign countries in which we operate. Foreign courts may refuse to hear a claim based on a violation of U.S. securities laws on the grounds that foreign countries are not necessary the most appropriate forum in which to bring such a claim. Even if a foreign court agrees to hear a claim, it may determine that foreign law and not U.S. law is applicable to the claim. If U.S. law is found to be applicable, the content of applicable U.S. law must be proved as a fact, which can be a time-consuming and process. Certain matters of procedure will also be governed by foreign countries’ laws. There is little binding case law in foreign countries addressing the matters described above.
We may be subject to numerous and varying privacy and security laws, and our failure to comply could result in penalties and reputational damage.
We are subject to laws and regulations covering data privacy and the protection of personal information, including health information. The legislative and regulatory landscape for privacy and data protection continues to evolve, and there has been an increasing focus on privacy and data protection issues which may affect our business. In the U.S., numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including state security breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws, and federal and state consumer protection laws, govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of personal information. Each of these laws is subject to varying interpretations by courts and government agencies, creating complex compliance issues for us. If we fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations, we could be subject to penalties or sanctions, including criminal penalties if we knowingly obtain or disclose individually identifiable health information from a covered entity in a manner that is not authorized or permitted by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HIPAA.
Numerous other countries have, or are developing, laws governing the collection, use and transmission of personal information as well. The EU and other jurisdictions have adopted data protection laws and regulations, which impose significant compliance obligations. In the EU, for example, effective May 25, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaced the prior EU Data Protection Directive (95/46) that governed the processing of personal data in the European Union. The GDPR imposes significant obligations on controllers and processors of personal data, including, as compared to the prior directive, higher standards for obtaining consent from individuals to process their personal data, more robust notification requirements to individuals about the processing of their personal data, a strengthened individual data rights regime, mandatory data breach notifications, limitations on the retention of personal data and increased requirements pertaining to health data, and strict rules and restrictions on the transfer of personal data outside of the EU, including to the U.S. The GDPR also imposes additional obligations on, and required contractual provisions to be included in, contracts between companies subject to the GDPR and their third-party processors that relate to the processing of personal data. The GDPR allows EU member states to make additional laws and regulations further limiting the processing of genetic, biometric or health data.
Adoption of the GDPR increased our responsibility and liability in relation to personal data that we process and may require us to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance. Any failure to comply with the requirements of GDPR and applicable national data protection laws of EU member states, could lead to regulatory enforcement actions and significant administrative and/or financial penalties against us (fines of up to Euro 20,000,000 or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher), and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.
We are increasingly dependent on information technology and our systems and infrastructure face certain risks, including cybersecurity and data storage risks.
Significant disruptions to our information technology systems or breaches of information security could adversely affect our business. In the ordinary course of business, we collect, store and transmit confidential information, and it is critical that we do so in a secure manner in order to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. Our information technology systems are potentially vulnerable to service interruptions and security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, partners, vendors, or from attacks by malicious third parties. Maintaining the secrecy of this confidential, proprietary, and/or trade secret information is important to our competitive business position. While we have taken steps to protect such information and invested in information technology, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent service or security in our systems or the or access or disclosure of confidential information that could affect our business operations or result in the , dissemination, or of or sensitive information. A of our security measures or the , disclosure, dissemination or or of trade secrets, proprietary information, or other confidential information, whether as a result of theft, hacking, or other forms of , or for any other cause, could others to produce competing products, use our proprietary technology and/or affect our business position. Further, any such , security , or disclosure of confidential information could result in financial, legal, business, and reputational to us and could have a material effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and/or cash flow.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to develop in-house sales and commercial distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to successfully commercialize any product in the United States or overseas, and as a result, we may not be able to generate product revenue.
A variety of risks associated with operating our business internationally could materially adversely affect our business. We plan to seek regulatory approval of our product candidates outside of the United States and, accordingly, we expect that we, and any potential collaborators in those jurisdictions, will be subject to additional risks related to operating in foreign countries, including:
differing regulatory requirements in foreign countries, unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers, price and exchange controls, and other regulatory requirements;
economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular foreign economies and markets;
compliance with tax, employment, immigration, and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad;
foreign taxes, including withholding of payroll taxes;
foreign currency fluctuations, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced revenue, and other obligations incident to doing business in another country;
difficulties staffing and managing foreign operations;
workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States;
potential liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 or comparable foreign laws;
challenges enforcing our contractual and intellectual property rights, especially in those foreign countries that do not respect and protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the United States;
production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad; and
business interruptions resulting from geo-political actions, including war, and terrorism or disease outbreaks.
These and other risks associated with our planned international operations may materially adversely affect our ability to attain or maintain profitable operations.
If we are unable to integrate acquired businesses effectively, our operating results may be adversely affected.
From time to time, we seek to expand our business through acquisitions. We may not be able to successfully integrate acquired businesses and, where desired, their product portfolios into ours, and therefore we may not be able to realize the intended benefits. If we fail to successfully integrate acquisitions or product portfolios, or if they fail to perform as we anticipate, our existing businesses and our revenue and operating results could be adversely affected. If the due diligence of the operations of acquired businesses performed by us and by third parties on our behalf is inadequate or flawed, or if we later discover unforeseen financial or business liabilities, acquired businesses and their assets may not perform as expected. Additionally, acquisitions could result in difficulties assimilating acquired operations and, where deemed , transitioning overlapping products into a single product line and the of capital and management’s attention away from other business issues and . The to integrate acquired businesses effectively may impact our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Decentralized Production Units or OMPULs (“DPU & Os”)
We may not be able to operate our DPU & Os in all cities or desired locations and the sizes and use of our laboratories in such DPU & Os may be restricted due to zoning, environmental, medical waste, or other licensing regulations.
We may be subject to local zoning ordinances or other similar restrictions that may limit where the DPU & Os can be located and the extent of their size and use. In addition, international, federal, state and local environmental and other administrative and licensing regulations could restrict the ability of the DPU & Os to connect with local power, water, sewer, and other infrastructure. Our success depends on our ability to develop and roll out our DPU & Os which may become more difficult or more expensive by such applicable regulations. Changes in any of these regulations could require us to close or move our DPU & Os which would affect our ability to conduct and grow our business.
If our existing DPU & O facilities become damaged or inoperable or if we are required to vacate our existing facilities, our ability to perform our tests and pursue our research and development efforts may be jeopardized.
We currently perform a majority of tests relating to our POCare Services out of our DPU & Os. Our facilities and equipment could be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including war, fire, earthquake, power loss, communications failure or terrorism, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to operate for some period of time. In addition, since there is no lengthy history of use of DPU & Os and the DPU & Os are still in the development stage, we are unable to predict the normal wear and tear on such DPU & Os or how many years each DPU & Os will remain operational.
The inability to perform our tests or to reduce the backlog that could develop if our facilities are inoperable, for even a short period of time, may result in the loss of customers or harm to our reputation, and we may be unable to regain those customers or repair our reputation. Furthermore, our DPU & O facilities and the equipment we use to perform our research and development work could be unavailable or costly and time-consuming to repair or replace. It would be difficult, time-consuming and expensive to rebuild our facilities, or to locate and qualify new facilities.
We carry insurance for damage to our property and disruption of our business, but this insurance may not cover all of the risks associated with damage or disruption to our facility and business, may not provide coverage in amounts sufficient to cover our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all.
Changes in the price and availability of our raw materials could be detrimental to our DPU & O operations.
Supply chain issues, including limited supply of certain raw material or supply interruptions, delays or shortages of material may disrupt our daily operations as the DPU & Os may be unable to retain an inventory of materials required to maintain operations or to build or repair such DPU & Os.
We are dependent on skilled human capital for our DPU & Os.
Our ability to innovate and execute is dependent on the ability to hire, replace, and train skilled personnel. The employment market suffers from shortage of candidates that may continue in future years and cause delays and inabilities to execute our plans. Additionally, based on current trends in the US labor market, there could be a shortage of available trained staff for the DPU & Os in the United States. Staff retention could also be a significant operational issue.
If we are unable to successfully secure our locations and premises, we may be unable to operate out of our DPU & Os or keep our employees and laboratory equipment safe.
In certain cities and urban markets, homelessness, rising crime rates and decreased police funding, could impact the security of the DPU & Os and the safety of employees and patients. If we are unable to successfully secure our DPU & Os, our research and development could be negatively impacted.
Our DPU & Os are operated in a heavily regulated industry, and changes in regulations or violations of regulations may, directly or indirectly, reduce our revenue, adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition, and harm our business.
The clinical laboratory testing industry is highly regulated, and there can be no assurance that the regulatory environment in which we operate will not change significantly and adversely to us in the future. Areas of the regulatory environment that may affect our ability to conduct our DPU & O business include, without limitation:
federal and state laws governing laboratory testing, including CLIA, and state licensing laws;
federal and state laws and enforcement policies governing the development, use and distribution of diagnostic medical devices, including laboratory developed tests, or LDTs;
federal, state and local laws governing the handling and disposal of medical and hazardous waste;
federal and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules and regulations; and
European Union GMP approvals, which may be delayed because of the use DPU & Os which could then delay manufacturing for clinical trials.
Risks Related to Our Trans-Differentiation Technologies for Diabetes and the THM License Agreement
THM is entitled to cancel the THM License Agreement.
Pursuant to the terms of the THM License Agreement with THM, Orgenesis Ltd, the Israeli Subsidiary (currently in liquidation proceedings), must develop, manufacture, sell and market the products pursuant to the milestones and time schedule specified in the development plan. In the event the Israeli Subsidiary fails to fulfill the terms of the development plan under the THM License Agreement, THM shall be entitled to terminate the THM License Agreement by providing the Israeli Subsidiary with written notice of such a breach and if the Israeli Subsidiary does not cure such breach within one year of receiving the notice. THM may also terminate the THM License Agreement if the Israeli Subsidiary breaches an obligation contained in the THM License Agreement and does not cure it within 180 days of receiving notice of the breach. We also run the risk that THM may attempt cancel or, at the very least challenge, the License Agreement with the Israeli Subsidiary as we continue to expand our focus to other therapies and business activities. While we have not received any notice of of the THM License Agreement, we have received an regarding the scope of the rights by THM that may present future for our Israeli Subsidiary to continue to develop, manufacture, sell and market the products pursuant to the milestones and time schedule specified in the development plan of the THM License Agreement. In addition, THM has filed a us in the Tel Aviv District Court relating to the scope of such THM license and the royalties and other payments that THM is entitled to thereunder. See “Legal Proceedings” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Such may lead to further risk of of the THM License Agreement.
The Israeli Subsidiary is a licensed technology that demonstrates the capacity to induce a shift in the developmental fate of cells from the liver and differentiating (converting) them into “pancreatic beta cell-like” insulin-producing cells for patients with diabetes. Our intention is to develop our technology to the clinical stage for regeneration of functional insulin-producing cells, thus enabling normal glucose regulated insulin secretion, via cell therapy. By using therapeutic agents that efficiently convert a sub-population of liver cells into pancreatic islets phenotype and function, this approach allows the diabetic patient to be the donor of his/her own therapeutic tissue and to start producing his/her own insulin in a glucose-responsive manner, thereby eliminating the need for insulin injections. Because this is a new approach to treating diabetes, developing and commercializing our product candidates subjects us to a number of challenges, including:
obtaining regulatory approval regulatory authorities that have very limited experience with the commercial development of the trans-differentiating technology for diabetes;
developing and deploying consistent and reliable processes for engineering a patient’s liver cells ex vivo and infusing the engineered cells back into the patient;
developing processes for the safe administration of these products, including long-term follow-up for all patients who receive our products;
sourcing clinical and, if approved, commercial supplies for the materials used to manufacture and process our products;
developing a manufacturing process and distribution network with a cost of goods that allows for an attractive return on investment;
establishing sales and marketing capabilities after obtaining any regulatory approval to gain market acceptance; and
maintaining a system of post marketing surveillance and risk assessment programs to identify adverse events that did not appear during the drug approval process.
Risks Related to Development and Regulatory Approval of Our Therapies and Product Candidates
Research and development of biopharmaceutical products is inherently risky.
We may not be successful in our efforts to use and enhance our technology platform to create a pipeline of product candidates and develop commercially successful products. Furthermore, we may expend our limited resources on programs that do not yield a successful product candidate and fail to capitalize on product candidates or diseases that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success. If we fail to develop additional product candidates, our commercial opportunity will be limited. Even if we are successful in continuing to build our pipeline, obtaining regulatory approvals and commercializing additional product candidates will require substantial additional funding and are prone to the risks of failure inherent in medical product development. Investment in biopharmaceutical product development involves significant risk that any potential product candidate will to demonstrate adequate efficacy or an acceptable safety profile, regulatory approval, and become commercially viable. We cannot provide you any assurance that we will be to advance any of these additional product candidates through the development process. Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet to yield product candidates for clinical development or commercialization for many reasons, including the following:
our platform may not be successful in identifying additional product candidates;
we may not be able or willing to assemble sufficient resources to acquire or discover additional product candidates;
our product candidates may not succeed in preclinical or clinical testing;
a product candidate may on further study be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate it is unlikely to be effective or otherwise does not meet applicable regulatory criteria;
competitors may develop alternatives that render our product candidates obsolete or less attractive;
product candidates we develop may nevertheless be covered by third parties’ patents or other exclusive rights;
the market for a product candidate may change during our program so that the continued development of that product candidate is no longer reasonable;
a product candidate may not be capable of being produced in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, or at all; and
a product candidate may not be accepted as safe and effective by patients, the medical community or third- party payers, if applicable.
If any of these events occur, we may be forced to abandon our development efforts for a program or programs, or we may not be able to identify, discover, develop, or commercialize additional product candidates, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations.
Extensive industry regulation has had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on our business, especially our product development, manufacturing and distribution capabilities.
All pharmaceutical companies are subject to extensive, complex, costly and evolving government regulation. For the U.S., this is principally administered by the FDA and to a lesser extent by the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) and state government agencies, as well as by varying regulatory agencies in foreign countries where products or product candidates are being manufactured and/or marketed. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Controlled Substances Act and other federal statutes and regulations, and similar foreign statutes and regulations, govern or influence the testing, manufacturing, packing, labeling, storing, record keeping, safety, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution of our future products. Under these regulations, we may become subject to periodic inspection of our facilities, procedures and operations and/or the testing of our future products by the FDA, the DEA and other authorities, which conduct periodic inspections to confirm that we are in compliance with all applicable regulations. In addition, the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies conduct pre-approval and post-approval reviews and plant inspections to determine whether our systems and processes are in compliance with current GMP and other regulations. Following such inspections, the FDA or other agency may issue observations, notices, citations and/or warning letters that could cause us to modify certain activities identified during the inspection. FDA guidelines specify that a warning letter is issued only for of “regulatory significance” for which the to and promptly may be expected to result in an enforcement action. We may also be required to report events associated with our future products to FDA and other regulatory authorities. or health or safety would result in labeling changes, , market withdrawals or other regulatory actions.
The range of possible sanctions includes, among others, FDA issuance of adverse publicity, product recalls or seizures, fines, total or partial suspension of production and/or distribution, suspension of the FDA’s review of product applications, enforcement actions, injunctions, and civil or criminal prosecution. Any such sanctions, if imposed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and cash flows. Under certain circumstances, the FDA also has the authority to revoke previously granted drug approvals. Similar sanctions as detailed above may be available to the FDA under a consent decree, depending upon the actual terms of such decree. If internal compliance programs do not meet regulatory agency standards or if compliance is deemed deficient in any significant way, it could materially harm our business.
The European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) will regulate our future products in Europe. Regulatory approval by the EMA will be subject to the evaluation of data relating to the quality, efficacy and safety of our future products for its proposed use. The time taken to obtain regulatory approval varies between countries. Different regulators may impose their own requirements and may refuse to grant, or may require additional data before granting, an approval, notwithstanding that regulatory approval may have been granted by other regulators.
Regulatory approval may be delayed, limited or denied for a number of reasons, including insufficient clinical data, the product not meeting safety or efficacy requirements or any relevant manufacturing processes or facilities not meeting applicable requirements.
Further trials and other costly and time-consuming assessments of the product may be required to obtain or maintain regulatory approval. Medicinal products are generally subject to lengthy and rigorous pre-clinical and clinical trials and other extensive, costly and time-consuming procedures mandated by regulatory authorities. We may be required to conduct additional trials beyond those currently planned, which could require significant time and expense. In addition, even after the technology approval, both in the U.S. and Europe, we will be required to maintain post marketing surveillance of potential adverse and risk assessment programs to identify adverse events that did not appear during the clinical studies and drug approval process. All of the foregoing could require an investment of significant time and expense.
We have generated limited revenue from therapeutic product sales, and our ability to generate any significant revenue from product sales and become profitable depends significantly on our success in a number of factors.
We have a limited number of therapeutic products approved for commercial sale, and we have generated only limited revenue from product sales. Our ability to generate revenue of more significant scale and achieve profitability depends significantly on our success in many factors, including:
completing research regarding, and nonclinical and clinical development of, our product candidates;
obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing authorizations for product candidates for which we complete clinical studies;
developing a sustainable and scalable manufacturing process for our product candidates, including establishing and maintaining commercially viable supply relationships with third parties and establishing our own manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure;
launching and commercializing product candidates for which we obtain regulatory approvals and marketing authorizations, either directly or with a collaborator or distributor;
obtaining market acceptance of our product candidates as viable treatment options;
addressing any competing technological and market developments;
identifying, assessing, acquiring and/or developing new product candidates;
negotiating favorable terms in any collaboration, licensing, or other arrangements into which we may enter;
maintaining, protecting, and expanding our portfolio of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets, and know-how; and
attracting, hiring, and retaining qualified personnel.
Even if more of the product candidates that we develop are approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any approved product candidate. Our expenses could increase beyond expectations if we are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, or other regulatory agencies, domestic or foreign, to change our manufacturing processes or assays, or to perform clinical, nonclinical, or other types of studies in addition to those that we currently anticipate. If we are successful in obtaining regulatory approvals to market more of our product candidates, our revenue will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval, the accepted price for the product, the ability to get reimbursement at any price, and whether we own the commercial rights for that territory. If the number of our addressable disease patients is not as significant as we estimate, the indication approved by regulatory authorities is narrower than we expect, or the reasonably accepted population for treatment is narrowed by competition, physician choice or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenue from sales of such products, even if approved. If we are not able to generate revenue from the sale of any approved products, we may never become profitable.
When we commence any clinical trials, we may not be able to conduct our trials on the timelines we expect.
Clinical testing is expensive, time consuming, and subject to uncertainty. We cannot guarantee that any clinical studies will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. We cannot be sure that we will be able to submit an IND, and we cannot be sure that submission of an IND will result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to begin. Moreover, even if these trials begin, issues may arise that could suspend or terminate such clinical trials. A failure of one or more clinical studies can occur at any stage of testing, and our future clinical studies may not be successful. Events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include:
the inability to generate sufficient preclinical or other in vivo or in vitro data to support the initiation of clinical studies;
delays in reaching a consensus with regulatory agencies on study design;
delays in establishing CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls) which is a cornerstone in clinical study submission and later on, the regulatory approval;
the FDA not allowing us to use the clinical trial data from a research institution to support an IND if we cannot demonstrate the comparability of our product candidates with the product candidate used by the relevant research institution in its clinical studies;
delays in obtaining required Institutional Review Board, or IRB, approval at each clinical study site;
imposition of a temporary or permanent clinical hold by regulatory agencies for a number of reasons, including after review of an IND application or amendment, or equivalent application or amendment;
a result of a new safety finding that presents unreasonable risk to clinical trial participants;
a negative finding from an inspection of our clinical study operations or study sites;
developments on trials conducted by competitors for related technology that raises FDA concerns about risk to patients of the technology broadly;
if the FDA finds that the investigational protocol or plan is clearly deficient to meet its stated objectives;
delays in recruiting suitable patients to participate in our clinical studies;
difficulty collaborating with patient groups and investigators;
failure to perform in accordance with the FDA’s current good clinical practices, or cGCPs, requirements, or applicable regulatory guidelines in other countries;
delays in having patients complete participation in a study or return for post-treatment follow-up;
patients dropping out of a study;
occurrence of adverse events associated with the product candidate that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits;
changes in regulatory requirements and guidance that require amending or submitting new clinical protocols;
changes in the standard of care on which a clinical development plan was based, which may require new or additional trials;
the cost of clinical studies of our product candidates being greater than we anticipate;
clinical studies of our product candidates producing negative or inconclusive results, which may result in our deciding, or regulators requiring us, to conduct additional clinical studies or abandon product development programs; and
delays in manufacturing, testing, releasing, validating, or importing/exporting sufficient stable quantities of our product candidates for use in clinical studies or the inability to do any of the foregoing.
Any inability to successfully complete preclinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we may be required to, or we may elect to conduct additional studies to bridge our modified product candidates to earlier versions. Clinical study delays could also shorten any periods during which our products have patent protection and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations.
Our clinical trial results may also not support approval, whether accelerated approval, conditional marketing authorizations, or regular approval. The results of preclinical and clinical studies may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, and product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. In addition, our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:
the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;
the population studied in the clinical program may not be sufficiently broad or representative to assure safety in the full population for which we seek approval;
we may be unable to demonstrate that our product candidates’ risk-benefit ratios for their proposed indications are acceptable;
the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;
we may be unable to demonstrate that the clinical and other benefits of our product candidates outweigh their safety risks;
the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates may not be sufficient to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes, our own manufacturing facilities, or our third-party manufacturers’ facilities with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and
the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.
Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could halt their clinical development, prevent their regulatory approval, limit their commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences.
As with most biological drug products, use of our product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events which can vary in severity from minor reactions to death and in frequency from infrequent to prevalent. Any of these occurrences may materially and adversely harm our business, financial condition and prospects.
Our product candidates are biologics, and the manufacture of our product candidates is complex, and we may encounter difficulties in production, particularly with respect to process development or scaling-out of our manufacturing capabilities.
If we encounter such difficulties, our ability to provide supply of our product candidates for clinical trials or our products for patients, if approved, could be delayed or stopped, or we may be unable to maintain a commercially viable cost structure. Our product candidates are biologics and the process of manufacturing our products is complex, highly regulated and subject to multiple risks. As a result of the complexities, the cost to manufacture biologics is generally higher than traditional small molecule chemical compounds, and the manufacturing process is less reliable and is more difficult to reproduce.
Our manufacturing process will be susceptible to product loss or failure due to logistical issues associated with the collection of liver cells, or starting material, from the patient, shipping such material to the manufacturing site, shipping the final product back to the patient, and infusing the patient with the product, manufacturing issues associated with the differences in patient starting materials, interruptions in the manufacturing process, contamination, equipment or reagent failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, inconsistency in cell growth, failures in process testing and variability in product characteristics. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, product defects, and other supply disruptions. If for any reason we lose a patient’s starting material or later-developed product at any point in the process, the manufacturing process for that patient will need to be restarted and the resulting may affect that patient’s outcome. If microbial, viral, or other contaminations are discovered in our product candidates or in the manufacturing facilities in which our product candidates are made, such manufacturing facilities may need to be for an extended period of time to and remedy the contamination. Because our product candidates are manufactured for each particular patient, we will be required to maintain a chain of identity and tractability of all reagents and viruses involved in the process with respect to materials as they move from the patient to the manufacturing facility, through the manufacturing process, and back to the patient. Maintaining such a chain of identity is and complex, and to do so could result in patient outcomes, of product, or regulatory action including withdrawal of our products from the market. Further, as product candidates are developed through preclinical to -stage clinical trials towards approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not these intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials.
Although we are working to develop commercially viable processes, doing so is a difficult and uncertain task, and there are risks associated with scaling to the level required for advanced clinical trials or commercialization, including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-out, process reproducibility, stability issues, lot consistency, and timely availability of reagents or raw materials. We may ultimately be unable to reduce the cost of goods for our product candidates to levels that will allow for an attractive return on investment if and when those product candidates are commercialized.
In addition, the manufacturing process for any products that we may develop is subject to FDA and foreign regulatory authority approval process, and we will need to contract with manufacturers who can meet all applicable FDA and foreign regulatory authority requirements on an ongoing basis. If we are unable to reliably produce products to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the approvals we need to commercialize such products. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that either we or our subsidiaries and joint ventures will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product, or to meet potential future demand. Any of these challenges could delay completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidate, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods, and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
The manufacture of biological drug products is complex and requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of biologic products often encounter difficulties in production, particularly in scaling up or out, validating the production process, and assuring high reliability of the manufacturing process (including the absence of contamination). These problems include logistics and shipping, difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product, product testing, operator error, availability of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations. Furthermore, if contaminants are discovered in our supply of our product candidates or in the manufacturing facilities, such manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination. We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of our product candidates will not occur in the future. Additionally, our manufacturers may experience manufacturing due to resource constraints or as a result of labor or political environments. If our manufacturers were to encounter any of these , or otherwise to comply with their contractual obligations, our ability to provide our product candidate to patients in clinical trials would be . Any or in the supply of clinical trial supplies could the completion of clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of , require us to begin new clinical trials at additional expense or clinical trials completely.
Cell-based therapies rely on the availability of reagents, specialized equipment, and other specialty materials, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. For some of these reagents, equipment, and materials, we rely or may rely on sole source vendors or a limited number of vendors, which could impair our ability to manufacture and supply our products.
Manufacturing our product candidates will require many reagents and viruses, which are substances used in our manufacturing processes to bring about chemical or biological reactions, and other specialty materials and equipment, some of which are manufactured or supplied by small companies with limited resources and experience to support commercial biologics production. We currently depend on a limited number of vendors for certain materials and equipment used in the manufacture of our product candidates. Some of these suppliers may not have the capacity to support commercial products manufactured under GMP by biopharmaceutical firms or may otherwise be ill-equipped to support our needs. We also do not have supply contracts with many of these suppliers and may not be able to obtain supply contracts with them on acceptable terms or at all. Accordingly, we may experience delays in receiving key materials and equipment to support clinical or commercial manufacturing.
For some of these reagents, viruses, equipment, and materials, we rely and may in the future rely on sole source vendors or a limited number of vendors. An inability to continue to source product from any of these suppliers, which could be due to regulatory actions or requirements affecting the supplier, adverse financial or other strategic developments experienced by a supplier, labor disputes or shortages, unexpected demands, or quality issues, could adversely affect our ability to satisfy demand for our product candidates, which could adversely and materially affect our product sales and operating results or our ability to conduct clinical trials, either of which could significantly harm our business.
As we continue to develop and scale our manufacturing process, we expect that we will need to obtain rights to and supplies of certain materials and equipment to be used as part of that process. We may not be able to obtain rights to such materials on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, and if we are unable to alter our process in a commercially viable manner to avoid the use of such materials or find a suitable substitute, it would have a material adverse effect on our business.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to further develop in-house sales and commercial distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to successfully commercialize any product in the United States or overseas, and as a result, we may not be able to generate product revenue.
A variety of risks associated with operating our business internationally could materially adversely affect our business. We plan to seek regulatory approval of our product candidates outside of the United States and, accordingly, we expect that we, and any potential collaborators in those jurisdictions, will be subject to additional risks related to operating in foreign countries, including:
differing regulatory requirements in foreign countries, unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers, price and exchange controls, and other regulatory requirements;
economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular foreign economies and markets;
compliance with tax, employment, immigration, and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad;
foreign taxes, including withholding of payroll taxes;
foreign currency fluctuations, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced revenue, and other obligations incident to doing business in another country;
difficulties staffing and managing foreign operations;
workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States;
potential liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 or comparable foreign laws;
challenges enforcing our contractual and intellectual property rights, especially in those foreign countries that do not respect and protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the United States;
production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad; and
business interruptions resulting from geo-political actions, including war and terrorism.
These and other risks associated with our planned international operations may materially adversely affect our ability to attain or maintain profitable operations.
We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.
The biopharmaceutical industry, and the rapidly evolving market for developing cell-based therapies is characterized by intense competition and rapid innovation. Our competitors may be able to develop other compounds or drugs that are able to achieve similar or better results. Our potential competitors include major multinational pharmaceutical companies, established biotechnology companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research institutions. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, such as larger research and development staff and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations as well as established sales forces. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors, either alone or with partners, may in developing, acquiring or licensing on an basis drug or biologic products that are more , safer, more commercialized, or less than our product candidates or may develop proprietary technologies or secure patent protection that we may need for the development of our technologies and products.
We are highly dependent on our key personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting, motivating and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.
Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries depends upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on our senior management, particularly our Chief Executive Officer, Vered Caplan. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers, other key employees, and other scientific and medical advisors, and our inability to find suitable replacements, could result in delays in product development and harm our business. Competition for skilled personnel is intense and the turnover rate can be high, which may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all.
To induce valuable employees to remain at our company, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided stock option grants that vest over time. The value to employees of these equity grants that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. Although we have employment agreements with our key employees, most these employment agreements provide for at-will employment, which means that any of our employees could leave our employment at any time, with or without notice. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the lives of all of these individuals or the lives of any of our other employees.
Risks Related to our Common Stock
Our common stock has been delisted from Nasdaq.
Our common stock was delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market in October 2024. Following the delisting of our common stock from the Nasdaq Capital Market, our common stock began trading on the OTCQX operated by OTC Markets beginning on October 21, 2024. On June 3, 2025, following delays in our Exchange Act filings and the expiration of the applicable grace period, OTC Markets moved the trading of our common stock from OTCQX to the Pink Limited tier. On July 29, 2025, due to further delays in our Exchange Act filings, OTC Markets moved the trading of our common stock from OTC Pink Limited to the OTC Expert Market tier. As a result of the delisting of our securities, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:
●a limited availability of market quotations for our shares;
●reduced liquidity for our shares;
●a determination that our Common Stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Common Stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our shares;
●a limited amount of news and analyst coverage;
●a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future, including due to our inability to use a Form S-3 for a shelf financing;
●a loss of interest from institutional investors, which may further decrease liquidity and market visibility; and
●a loss of confidence among customers, vendors, suppliers, and employees, which could negatively impact our business operations and future prospects.
Trading on the OTC Markets is often thin, volatile, and sporadic, leading to wide fluctuations in trading prices that may not reflect the company’s actual operating performance. These factors can also impair our ability to raise additional capital through public or private sales of equity securities, as well as limit our ability to use our securities as consideration for acquisitions or investments.
We have not been able, and may continue to be unable, to timely file periodic reports with the SEC.
We were not able to file this annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 with the SEC within the time period specified by the Exchange Act, due in part to having insufficient funds to service our operations, expenses and other liquidity needs, including the retention of services providers necessary to assist in the preparation and review of our financial statements and periodic reports. If we are not able to file our future periodic reports in the time specified by the Exchange Act, stockholders and potential investors will not have current public information about us, which will likely have a negative effect on our ability to obtain future capital. Failure to make timely filings also impairs our ability to conduct certain kinds of public offerings on short form registration statements that provide more efficient automatic forward incorporation of future SEC filings. More broadly, our inability to maintain current public information pursuant to SEC and OTC reporting rules will have a negative impact on how we are viewed by our stockholders, potential financing sources, the investing public and strategic and commercial parties with whom we do business. to maintain current public information is in of certain contractual obligations of the Company and could result in an event of under certain of our indebtedness. Additionally, if our SEC filing are , the SEC could institute administrative proceedings to our registration under the Exchange Act and the trading of our common stock. Our to timely file periodic reports now and in the future could materially and affect our continuing business and operations, as well as our future business growth and financial condition.
If we issue additional shares of common stock in the future, it will result in the dilution of our existing stockholders.
Our articles of incorporation authorize the issuance of up to 14,583,333 shares of our common stock with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Pursuant to the Convertible Loan Agreement for a credit facility of up to $10,000,000, dated as of September 10, 2025, by and among Theracell Laboratories IKE (“Theracell”), a subsidiary of Octomera LLC, which is a subsidiary of Orgenesis Inc., and Alpha Prosperity Fund SPC, acting on behalf of and for the account of Segregated Portfolio P (the “Lender”), the Lender has the option, at its sole discretion, to convert the outstanding amount of the loan (currently, $10,000,000 drawn under the credit facility as well as $775,000 paid over and above the $10,000,000 credit line amount) into equity of either us or Theracell, such that the Lender would hold up to 80% of the outstanding share capital of the applicable entity. The conversion of the loan into our shares is subject to shareholder approval of the issuance of the required shares. In addition, the Agreement provides that the Lender will be issued a warrant to purchase 15% of the fully diluted share capital of either us or Theracell, at the Lender’s discretion, for an aggregate exercise price of $250,000 and exercisable for three years from issuance. The issuance of shares upon exercise of the warrant is likewise subject to shareholder approval of the issuance of such shares. Additional warrants would be issued in connection with each cumulative drawdown of an additional $1,000,000 under the credit facility. Accordingly, the issuance of shares of common stock pursuant to the Convertible Loan Agreement and warrants referenced above would have the following effects:
●our existing stockholders’ proportionate ownership interest in us will decrease significantly and it would trigger a change of control of our company;
●the amount of cash available per share, including for payment of dividends (if any) in the future, may decrease;
●the relative voting strength of each previously outstanding share of our common stock may be diminished; and
●the market price of shares of our common stock may decline.
In addition, our Board of Directors may choose to issue shares to acquire one or more companies or products and to fund our overhead and general operating requirements. The issuance of any such shares will reduce the book value per share and may contribute to a reduction in the market price of the outstanding shares of our common stock. If we issue any such additional shares, such issuance will reduce the proportionate ownership and voting power of all current stockholders. Further, such issuance may result in a change of control of our company.
If the Lender converts its outstanding loan amount into shares representing up to 80% of our outstanding common stock, the Lender could significantly influence the outcome of our corporate matters.
If the Lender elects to convert its outstanding loan amount into shares of our common stock representing up to 80% of our outstanding shares and/or exercise its warrants to purchase 15% of our fully diluted share capital, the Lender could, as a result, have the ability to exercise significant influence over all matters that require us to obtain shareholder approval, including the election of directors to our board and approval of significant corporate transactions that we may consider, such as a merger or sale of our company or its assets. This concentration of ownership in our shares by the Lender could limit other shareholders’ ability to influence corporate matters and may have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring control over us.
Our stock price and trading volume may be volatile, which could result in losses for our stockholders.
The equity trading markets have recently experienced high volatility resulting in highly variable and unpredictable pricing of equity securities. If the turmoil in the equity trading markets continues, the market for our common stock could change in ways that may not be related to our business, our industry or our operating performance and financial condition. In addition, the trading volume in our common stock may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. Some of the factors that could negatively affect our share price or result in fluctuations in the price or trading volume of our common stock include:
actual or anticipated quarterly variations in our operating results;
changes in expectations as to our future financial performance or changes in financial estimates, if any;
announcements relating to our business;
conditions generally affecting the biotechnology industry;
the success of our operating strategy; and
the operating and stock performance of other comparable companies.
Many of these factors are beyond our control, and we cannot predict their potential effects on the price of our common stock. In addition, the stock market is subject to extreme price and volume fluctuations. During the 52 weeks ended December 31, 2024, our stock price has fluctuated from a low of $ 0.89 to a high of $10. This volatility has had a significant effect on the market price of securities issued by many companies for reasons unrelated to their operating performance and could have the same effect on our common stock.
No assurance can be provided that a purchaser of our common stock will be able to resell their shares of common stock at or above the price that they acquired those shares. We can provide no assurances that the market price of common stock will increase or that the market price of common stock will not fluctuate or decline significantly.
We do not intend to pay dividends on any investment in the shares of stock of our company.
We have never paid any cash dividends, and currently do not intend to pay any dividends for the foreseeable future. The Board of Directors has not directed the payment of any dividends and does not anticipate paying dividends on the shares for the foreseeable future and intends to retain any future earnings to the extent necessary to develop and expand our business. Payment of cash dividends, if any, will depend, among other factors, on our earnings, capital requirements, and the general operating and financial condition, and will be subject to legal limitations on the payment of dividends out of paid-in capital. Because we do not intend to declare dividends, any gain on an investment in our company will need to come through an increase in the stock’s price. This may never happen, and investors may lose all of their investment in our company.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting could adversely affect our ability to report our results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner, which could have an adverse impact on our business.
Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis has been, and will continue to be, costly and a time-consuming effort. In addition, the rapid changes in our operations and corporate structure have created a need for additional resources within the accounting and finance functions in order to produce timely financial information and to ensure the level of segregation of duties customary for a U.S. public company.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). Our management is also required, on a quarterly basis, to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal controls and to disclose any changes and material weakness identified. As described in Item 9A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, there were several material weaknesses identified in our internal control over financial reporting.
We are working to remediate our material weaknesses as soon as practicable. Our remediation plan, which is continuing to be developed, can only be accomplished over time, and these initiatives may not accomplish their intended effects. Failure to maintain our internal control over financial reporting could adversely impact our ability to report our financial position and results from operations on a timely and accurate basis or result in misstatements. Likewise, if our financial statements are not filed on a timely basis, we could be subject to regulatory actions, legal proceedings or investigations by FINRA, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could result in a material adverse effect on our business and/or we may not be able to maintain compliance with certain of our agreements. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could have a effect on our stock price, business strategies and ability to raise capital.
Management does not expect that our internal controls will ever prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. No evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the business will have been detected.
