Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC, before making investment decisions regarding our common stock. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. The occurrence of any of the following risks, or of additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial, could cause our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition to be materially and adversely affected.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR LIMITED OPERATING HISTORY, FINANCIAL POSITION, AND NEED FOR ADDITIONAL CAPITAL
We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a limited operating history and no products approved by regulators for commercial sale, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current and future business prospects.
Since our inception in November 2013, we have focused substantially all of our efforts and financial resources on building our drug discovery platform and developing our initial drug candidates. All of our drug candidates are still in the discovery, preclinical development, or clinical stages. Before we can commercialize our drug candidates, they require, among other steps, clinical success; development of internal or external manufacturing capacity and marketing expertise; and regulatory approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other applicable jurisdictions. We have no products approved for commercial sale and we can provide no assurance that we will obtain regulatory approvals to market and sell any drug products in the future. We therefore have never generated any revenue from drug product sales, and we do not expect to generate any revenue from drug product sales in the foreseeable future. Until we successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates, which may never occur, we expect to finance our operations through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, and strategic collaborations or similar arrangements. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. For these and other reasons discussed elsewhere in this Risk Factors section, it may be difficult to evaluate our current business and our future prospects.
We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception and anticipate that we will incur continued losses for the foreseeable future.
We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception. We had an accumulated deficit of $2.1 billion as of December 31, 2025. Substantially all of our operating losses have resulted from costs incurred in connection with research and development efforts, including clinical studies, and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect our operating expenses to increase as we continue to invest in research and development efforts and the commencement and continuation of clinical trials of our existing and future drug candidates. We also continue to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. As a result, we expect to continue to incur substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our stockholders’ deficit and working capital. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products and new technologies, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all. Even if we do become profitable, we may not be able to sustain or increase our profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.
We will need to raise substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we would be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate at least some of our product development programs, business development plans, strategic investments, and potential commercialization efforts, and to possibly cease operations.
Our mission, decoding biology to radically improve lives, is broad, expensive to achieve, and will require substantial additional capital in the future. We have programs throughout the stages of development including clinical, preclinical, late discovery and early discovery. We expect to incur additional losses in connection with our ongoing activities as we continue the research and development of, initiate clinical trials of, and potentially seek marketing approval for, our current drug candidates, and as we add to our pipeline what we believe will be an accelerating number of additional programs. Preclinical and clinical testing is expensive and can take many years, so we will
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need supplemental funding to complete these undertakings. If our drug candidates are eventually approved by regulators, we will require significant additional funding in order to launch and commercialize our products.
Our future capital requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including but not limited to the following:
• the number of drug candidates that we pursue and their development requirements;
• the scope, progress, results, and costs of our current and future preclinical and clinical trials;
• the costs, timing, and outcome of regulatory review of our drug candidates;
• if we obtain marketing approval for any current or future drug candidates, expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution;
• our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, licensing, and other strategic arrangements on favorable terms, and the success of and timing and receipts of payments from such collaborations, licensing, and strategic arrangements;
• the impact of any business interruptions to our operations or to the operations of our manufacturers, suppliers, or other vendors, including the timing and enrollment of participants in our planned clinical trials, resulting from global supply chain issues or other force majeure events;
• the extent to which we acquire or invest in businesses, products, and technologies;
• the costs of preparing, filing, and prosecuting patent and other applications covering our intellectual property; maintaining, protecting, and enforcing our intellectual property rights; and defending intellectual property-related claims of third parties;
• our headcount growth and associated costs as we expand our business operations and our research and development activities, including into new geographies and through acquisitions;
• the increase in salaries and wages and the extension of benefits required to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel;
• the increases in costs of components necessary for our business;
• inflation;
• the costs of any commitments to become carbon neutral by 2030 and other environmental, social and governance goals; and
• the costs of operating as a public company.
We historically have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our capital stock, through the net proceeds from our initial public offering, and from other public offerings, including from “at-the market” offerings. We expect that our existing cash position and short-term investments as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. However, identifying potential drug candidates and conducting preclinical development testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive, and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our drug candidates, even if approved, may not achieve commercial success. We do not anticipate that our commercial revenues, if any, will be derived from sales of products for at least several years. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives, and we may need to raise substantial additional funds sooner than expected.
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs potentially through a combination of private and public equity offerings and debt financings, as well as strategic collaborations, partnerships, and licensing arrangements. We do not have any committed external source of funds other than amounts payable by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda), by Bayer AG (Bayer) by Genentech, Inc. and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (together, Roche and Genentech), Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (Merck), Sanofi S.A. (Sanofi), and a limited number of other collaborators with respect to which Recursion has a contractual relationship as a result of the business combination with Exscientia, pursuant to the collaboration agreements. Disruptions in the financial markets in general, including due to potential pandemics, U.S. debt ceiling and budget deficit concerns, and geo-political issues may make equity and debt financing more difficult to obtain. In addition, entry into certain transactions with foreign entities may be subject to government regulations, including review related to foreign direct investment by U.S. or foreign government entities, as well as certain outbound investments. If a transaction with a foreign entity were subject to regulatory review, such regulatory review might limit our ability to enter into the desired strategic alliance and thus our ability to carry out our long-term business strategy. We cannot be certain that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings, or strategic collaborations or similar
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arrangements, on a timely basis and satisfactory terms, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay, or discontinue one or more of our research and development programs or the future commercialization of any drug candidate, or we may be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities as desired. Any of these circumstances could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations and may cause us to cease operations.
Raising additional capital and issuing additional securities may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations, require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or drug candidates, and divert management’s attention from our core business.
The terms of any financing we obtain may adversely affect the holdings or rights of our stockholders, and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. To the extent that we raise additional capital or otherwise issue additional securities through the sale of Class A common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into Class A common stock, our stockholders’ ownership interests will be diluted.
For example, we have from time to time raised capital through the issuance of shares of Class A common stock in public offerings, private placements, and “at-the-market” offerings and may do so in the future. In February 2026, we entered into a sales agreement for an at-the-market offering for the sale of up to $300 million in Class A common stock (see “Part II - Item 9B - Other Information” for further details). In addition to capital raising issuances, in connection with the acquisitions of Cyclica Inc. (Cyclica) and Valence Discovery Inc. (Valence) in May 2023, we issued 12.4 million shares of our Class A common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into Class A common stock; in November 2024, we issued approximately 102.1 million shares of our Class A common stock in connection with our business combination with Exscientia plc (Exscientia); and in July and August 2025 we issued an aggregate of 3.9 million shares of our Class A common stock in connection with our purchase of RallyBio Corporation’s 50% membership interest in the ENPP1 joint venture, RE Ventures I, LLC. We have also issued shares of our Class A common stock to Tempus AI, Inc. (formerly known as Tempus Labs, Inc.) (Tempus) in payment for license fees under the terms of that certain Master Agreement entered into by and between us and Tempus (the Tempus Agreement)—including 7.1 million shares in November 2025, 3.5 million shares in December 2024, and 3.2 million shares in December 2023—and may issue additional shares in the future under the Tempus Agreement. Issuances of a substantial number of shares of our outstanding Class A common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These issuances, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares of our Class A common stock intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our Class A common stock.
Moreover, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, favorable terms that may include liquidation, preferences, dividend payments, voting rights or other preferences that materially and adversely affect the rights of common stockholders. Debt financing, if available, would result in increased fixed payment obligations. In addition, we may be required to agree to certain restrictive covenants, which could adversely impact our ability to make capital expenditures, declare dividends, or otherwise conduct our business. We also may need to raise funds through additional strategic collaborations, partnerships, or licensing arrangements with third parties at an earlier stage than would be desirable. Such arrangements could require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates, future revenue streams, or research programs, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us. Fundraising efforts have the potential to divert our management’s attention from our core business or create competing priorities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our drug candidates and technologies.
We may be required to repurchase for cash all, or to facilitate the purchase by a third party of all, of the shares of Class A common stock that were issued to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, or the Gates Foundation, in exchange for the Exscientia American Depositary Shares (ADSs) that the Gates Foundation purchased from Exscientia in an October 2021 private placement if we default under the global access commitments agreement with Exscientia, which could have an adverse impact on us.
In connection with the purchase by the Gates Foundation of 1,590,909 of ADSs from Exscientia in a private placement that closed in October 2021, Exscientia entered into a Global Access Commitments Agreement, or the Global Access Agreement. In connection with our business combination with Exscientia, we issued approximately 1.2 million shares of Class A common stock in exchange for such ADSs and became subject to the Global Access Agreement. Pursuant to the Global Access Agreement, we are required to take certain actions to support the Gates
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Foundation’s mission. In the event that we are in breach of certain related provisions of the Global Access Agreement, following a cure period, we may be required to repurchase for cash all, or to facilitate the purchase by a third party of all, of such shares of Class A common stock issued to the Gates Foundation in the connection with the closing of our business combination with Exscientia, at terms that may not be favorable to us. If this occurs, cash used for this purpose may adversely affect our liquidity, cause us to reduce expenditures in other areas of our business, or curtail our growth plans. If we do not have sufficient cash on hand to purchase the securities, we may have to seek financing alternatives in order to meet our obligations, and there is no certainty that financing would be available on reasonable terms or at all. During any period that we are unable to repurchase such shares of Class A common stock held by the Gates Foundation or arrange for a third party to purchase such shares, we would not likely be allowed to pay dividends, repurchase the securities of any other shareholder or otherwise make any other distribution to any of our shareholders in connection with their securities. Therefore, meeting this purchase obligation, if necessary, could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
We are engaged in strategic collaborations and we intend to seek to establish additional collaborations, including for the clinical development or commercialization of our drug candidates. If we are unable to establish collaborations on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or if current and future collaborations are not successful, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.
Our product development programs and the potential commercialization of our drug candidates will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. To date our operating revenue has primarily been generated through funded research and development agreements with Roche and Genentech, Takeda, and Bayer. For example, in December 2021, we entered into a Collaboration and License Agreement with Roche and Genentech (the Roche and Genentech Agreement) for discovery of small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat key areas of neuroscience and an oncology indication, under which we received a non-refundable upfront payment of $150.0 million in January 2022, an option fee for a single molecule validation program in oncology of $3M in October 2023, an acceptance fee for our first neuroscience phenomap of $30 million in September 2024, and an acceptance of $30 million for a Microglia Map in October 2025. These collaborations cover a large number of programs under contract and, therefore, represent a large portion of potential downstream value. We intend to seek additional strategic collaborations, partnerships, and licensing arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In the near term, the value of our company will depend in part on the number and quality of the collaborations and similar arrangements that we negotiate. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, on our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the potential collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include, among others, (i) our technologies and capabilities; (ii) our intellectual property position with respect to the subject drug candidate; (iii) the design or results of clinical trials; (iv) the likelihood of approval by the FDA and similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S.; (v) the potential market for the subject drug candidate; (vi) potential competing products; and (vii) industry and market conditions generally. In addition, the significant number of business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies has reduced the number of potential future collaborators with whom we can partner.
Collaborations and similar arrangements are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. We may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, intellectual property, or future revenue streams, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us or in instances where it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights. We may be restricted under collaboration agreements from entering into future agreements on certain terms with other potential collaborators. In addition, management of our relationships with collaborators requires (i) significant time and effort from our management team; (ii) coordination of our marketing and research and development programs with the marketing and research and development priorities of our collaborators; and (iii) effective allocation of our resources across multiple projects.
Collaborations and similar arrangements may never result in the successful development or commercialization of drug candidates or the generation of sales revenue. The success of these arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborators generally have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations, and they may not pursue or prioritize the development and commercialization of partnered drug candidates in a manner that is in our best interests. Product revenues arising from collaborations are likely to be lower than if we directly marketed and sold products. Disagreements with collaborators regarding clinical development or commercialization matters can lead to delays in the development process or commercialization of the applicable drug candidate and, in some cases, the termination of the collaboration arrangement. These disagreements can be difficult to resolve if neither of the parties has final
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decision-making authority. Collaboration agreements are typically terminable by the collaborator, and any such termination or expiration would adversely affect us financially and could harm our business reputation. If we were to become involved in arbitration or litigation with any of our collaborators, it would consume time and divert management resources away from operations, damage our reputation, impact our ability to enter into future collaboration agreements, and may further result in substantial payments from us to our collaborators to settle those disputes.
We may not be able to establish additional strategic collaborations and similar arrangements on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, and to maintain and successfully conclude them. Collaborative relationships with third parties could cause us to expend significant resources and incur substantial business risk with no assurance of financial return. If we are unable to establish or maintain strategic collaborations and similar arrangements on terms favorable to us and realize the intended benefits of those partnering arrangements, our research and development efforts and potential to generate revenue may be limited and our business and operating results could be materially and adversely impacted.
We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. We or our current and future collaborators may never successfully develop and commercialize our drug candidates, which would negatively affect our results of operation and our ability to continue our business operations.
Our ability to become profitable depends upon our ability to generate substantial revenue in an amount necessary to offset our expenses. As of December 31, 2025, we have not generated any revenue from our drug candidates or technologies, other than limited grant revenues, as well as payments under collaboration agreements. We expect to continue to derive most of our revenue in the near future from collaborations. We do not expect to generate significant revenue unless and until we progress our drug candidates through clinical trials and obtain marketing approval of, and begin to sell, one or more of our drug candidates, or we otherwise receive substantial licensing or other payments under our collaborations. Even if we obtain market approval for our drug candidates, one or more of them may not achieve commercial success.
Commercialization of our drug candidates depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to our ability to:
• successfully complete preclinical studies;
• obtain approval of Investigational New Drug (IND) applications by the FDA and similar regulatory approvals outside the U.S., allowing us to commence clinical trials;
• successfully enroll subjects in, and complete, clinical trials;
• receive regulatory approvals from other applicable regulatory authorities;
• establish commercial manufacturing capabilities or make arrangements with third-party manufacturers for clinical supply and commercial manufacturing;
• obtain patent and trade secret protection or regulatory exclusivity for our drug candidates, and maintain, protect, defend, and enforce such intellectual property rights;
• launch commercial sales of our drug products, whether alone or in collaboration with other parties;
• obtain and maintain acceptance of our drug products by patients, the medical community, and third-party payors, and effectively compete with other therapies;
• obtain and maintain coverage of and adequate reimbursement for our drug products, if and when approved, by medical insurance providers; and
• demonstrate an acceptable efficacy and safety profile for drug products, obtain an NDA (New Drug Approval), and demonstrate continued acceptable profile post marketing approval.
If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates, which would materially harm our business.
Our current or future collaborators would similarly need to be effective in the above activities as they pertain to the collaborators in order to successfully develop drug candidates. We and they may never succeed in developing and commercializing drug candidates. And even if we do, we may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability; or even if our collaborators do, we may not receive option fees, milestone payments, or royalties from them that are significant enough for us to achieve profitability. Even if we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would eventually depress our value and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business,
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maintain our research and development efforts, develop a pipeline of drug candidates, enter into collaborations, or even continue our operations.
Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly due to a variety of factors and could fall below our expectations or the expectations of investors or securities analysts, which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.
The amount of our future losses, and when we might achieve profitability, is uncertain, and our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly for various reasons, including, but not limited to, the following:
• the timing of, and our levels of investment in, research and development activities relating to our drug candidates;
• the timing of, and status of staffing and enrollment for, clinical trials;
• the results of clinical trials for our drug candidates, including whether there are any unexpected health or safety concerns with our drug candidates and whether we receive marketing approval for them;
• commercialization of competing drug candidates or any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners;
• the timing and cost of manufacturing our drug candidates;
• additions and departures of key personnel;
• the level of demand for our drug candidates should they receive approval, which may vary significantly;
• changes in the regulatory environment or market or general economic conditions;
• the increase in salaries and wages and the extension of benefits required to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel;
• the increases in costs of components necessary for our business; and
• inflation.
The occurrence of one or more of these or other factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet any forecasts we provide to the market, or the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors, for any period. If one or more of these events occur, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially.
If we engage in future acquisitions or strategic partnerships, this may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders’ equity, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, and subject us to other risks.
We have engaged and may in the future engage in acquisitions and strategic partnerships, including by licensing or acquiring complementary products, intellectual property rights, technologies, or businesses. Any acquisition or strategic partnership may entail numerous risks, including but not limited to the following:
• increased operating expenses and cash requirements;
• the assumption of indebtedness or contingent liabilities;
• the issuance of our equity securities, which would result in dilution to our stockholders’ equity;
• difficulties in assimilating operations, intellectual property, products, and drug candidates of an acquired company, and with integrating new personnel;
• the diversion of our management’s attention from our existing product programs and initiatives, even if we are unable to complete such proposed transaction;
• our ability to retain key employees and maintain key business relationships;
• uncertainties associated with the other party to such a transaction, including the prospects of that party and their existing products or drug candidates and ability to obtain regulatory approvals; and
• our inability to generate revenue from acquired intellectual property, technology, and/or products sufficient to meet our objectives or even to offset the associated transaction and maintenance costs.
In addition, if we undertake such a transaction, we may assume or incur debt obligations, incur a large one-time expense, or acquire intangible assets, which could result in significant future amortization expenses and adversely impact our results of operations.
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Costs of materials necessary for our business increasing more rapidly could increase our net losses.
The costs of materials necessary for our business have risen in recent years and will likely continue to increase given stringency of demands. Competition and fixed price contracts may limit our ability to maintain existing operating margins. Costs increasing more rapidly than market prices may increase our net losses and may have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
RISKS RELATED TO THE DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF DRUG CANDIDATES
Our approach to drug discovery is unique and may not lead to successful drug products for various reasons, including, but not limited to, challenges identifying mechanisms of action for our candidates.
We image cells and use cell morphology to understand how a diseased cell responds to drugs and if or when it appears normal. If studying the shape, structure, form, and size of cells does not prove to be an accurate way to better understand diseases or does not lead to the biological insights or viable drug candidates we anticipate, our drug discovery platform may not be useful or may not lead to successful drug products, or we may have to move to a new business model, any of which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and results of operations. If the mechanism of action of a drug candidate is unknown, it may be more difficult to choose the best lead to optimize from an efficacy standpoint and to avoid potential off-target side effects that could affect safety.
We also use our drug discovery platform to conduct AI-enabled chemistry experiments and our technology platform underpins all our efforts. As a result, the quality and sophistication of our platform and technology is critical to our ability to conduct our research discovery activities, to design and deliver promising molecule candidates, and to accelerate and lower the cost of drug discovery as compared to traditional methods for our partnerships. Because AI-designed drug candidates are novel, there is greater uncertainty about our ability to develop, advance and commercialize drug candidates using our AI-design process.
Such uncertainty could make it more difficult to form partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies, as the expenses involved in late-phase clinical trials increase the level of risk related to potential efficacy and/or safety concerns and may pose challenges to IND and/or New Drug Application (NDA) approval by the FDA or other regulatory agencies.
Our drug candidates are in preclinical or clinical development, which are lengthy and expensive processes with uncertain outcomes and the potential for substantial delays.
Our current drug candidates are in preclinical or clinical development. Before we can bring any drug candidate to market, we must, among other things, successfully complete preclinical studies, have the candidate manufactured to appropriate specifications, conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy in humans, and obtain marketing approval from the FDA and other appropriate regulatory authorities, which we have not yet demonstrated our ability to do. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete, and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of a clinical trial can occur at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical development testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. We may accelerate development from cell models in our drug discovery platform directly to patients without validating results through animal studies or validate results in animal studies at the same time as we conduct Phase 1 clinical trials. This approach could pose additional risks to our success if the effect of certain of our drug candidates on diseases has not been tested in animals prior to testing in humans.
We have several clinical-stage drug candidates and we anticipate filing IND applications with the FDA or other regulators for Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 studies, as applicable, for these drug candidates. We may not be able to file such INDs, or INDs for any other drug candidates, and begin such studies, on the timelines we expect, if at all, and any such delays could impact any additional product development timelines. Moreover, we cannot be sure that submission of an IND will result in the FDA or other regulators allowing further clinical trials to begin or that, once begun, issues will not arise that require us to suspend or terminate these trials. For example, prior to the business combination with Recursion, Exscientia stopped the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of EXS21546 after receiving information demonstrating that the drug candidate was not sufficiently promising to justify further clinical development. Commencing each of these clinical trials is subject to finalizing the trial design based on discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities. The requirements imposed by these regulatory authorities, or their governing statutes, could change at any time, which may result in stricter approval conditions than we currently
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expect and/or necessitate completion of additional or longer clinical trials. Successful completion of our clinical trials is a prerequisite to submitting NDAs to the FDA, as well as Marketing Authorization Applications (MAAs) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for each drug candidate and, consequently, to the ultimate approval and commercial marketing of each drug candidate. We do not know whether any of our future clinical trials will begin on time or be completed on schedule, if at all.
We have experience, and may in the future experience delays in completing our preclinical studies and initiating or completing clinical trials, or numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any clinical trials, that could require us to incur additional costs or delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or to commercialize our drug candidates, including but not limited to those related to one or more of the following:
• regulators, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or to conduct a clinical trial at prospective trial sites;
• we may have difficulty reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective Contract Research Organizations (CROs), the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;
• the number of participants required for clinical trials of our drug candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, or participants may drop out of clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;
• we or our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements, fail to meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner or at all, deviate from the clinical trial protocol, or drop out of a trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators;
• the supply or quality of our drug candidates or the other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our drug candidates may be insufficient, delayed, or inadequate;
• the occurrence of delays in the manufacturing of our drug candidates;
• reports may arise from preclinical or clinical testing of other therapies that raise safety, efficacy, or other concerns about our drug candidates; and
• clinical trials may produce inconclusive, mixed, or negative results about our drug candidates, including determinations that candidates have undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics, in which event, we may decide – or our investigators or regulators, IRBs, or ethics committees may require us — to suspend or terminate the trials.
From time to time as we move through the stages of development, we have published and expect in the future to publish interim top-line or preliminary data from our clinical trials. Interim data from clinical trials are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as enrollment of participants continues and more data become available. Preliminary or top-line data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects.
Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in testing or regulatory approvals. We do not know whether any of our future clinical trials will begin as planned, or whether any of our current or future clinical trials will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, if at all. If we decide or are required to suspend or terminate a clinical trial, we may elect to abandon product development for that program. Significant preclinical study or clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our drug candidates or could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates. Any delays in or unfavorable outcomes from our preclinical or clinical development programs may significantly harm our business, operating results, and prospects.
If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to initiate, continue, and complete clinical trials for current or future drug candidates if we are unable to locate and timely enroll a sufficient number of eligible participants in these trials as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. The process of finding potential participants may prove more costly than currently expected and our ability to enroll eligible participants may be limited or may result in slower enrollment than we anticipate due to a number of factors, including but not limited to the following:
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• the severity of the disease under investigation;
• the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial in question, such as requirements that participants have specific characteristics or diseases;
• the availability of an appropriate genomic screening test;
• the perceived risks and benefits of the drug candidate under study;
• difficulties in identifying, recruiting, and enrolling a sufficient number of participants to complete our clinical studies;
• our ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience;
• the referral practices of physicians;
• whether competitors are conducting clinical trials for drug candidates that treat the same indications as ours, and the availability and efficacy of competing therapies;
• our ability to monitor participants adequately during and after the trial and to maintain participant informed consent and privacy;
• the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective participants;
• pandemics or other public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, global political instability, warfare, or other external events that may limit the availability of participants, principal investigators, study staff, or clinical sites; and
• the risk that enrolled participants will not complete a clinical trial.
If individuals are unwilling to participate in or complete our studies for any reason, or we experience other difficulties with enrollment or participation, the timeline for recruiting participants, conducting studies, and obtaining regulatory approval of potential products may be delayed.
Our planned clinical trials, or those of our current and potential future collaborators, may not be successful or may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our preclinical or nonclinical studies, which may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our drug candidates.
Before obtaining regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any products, we must demonstrate through preclinical studies and clinical trials that our drug candidates are both safe and effective for use in each target indication. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our drug candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, and initial success in clinical trials may not be indicative of results that will be obtained when such trials are completed. An extremely high rate of drug candidates fail as they proceed through clinical trials. Drug candidates in later stages of clinical trials also may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile despite having progressed through nonclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Most drug candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved for marketing, and there can be no assurance that any of our current or future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of any of our drug candidates.
As is the case with many treatments for rare diseases and other conditions, there have been, and it is likely that in the future there may be, side effects associated with the use of our drug candidates. If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our current or future drug candidates, we may have difficulty recruiting participants in our clinical trials, they may drop out of our trials, or we may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts of one or more drug candidates altogether. Moreover, if we develop drug candidates in combination with one or more disease therapies, it may be more difficult to accurately predict side effects. We, the FDA, other applicable regulatory authorities, or an IRB may suspend or terminate clinical trials of a drug candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials were later found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the product from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our business, operating results, and prospects.
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We may develop drug candidates for use in combination with other therapies, which exposes us to additional risks.
We may evaluate current or future drug candidates for use in combination with one or more currently approved therapies. If a drug candidate we develop were to receive marketing approval for use in combination with existing therapies, we would continue to bear the risks that the FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities could revoke approval of the therapies used in combination with our drug candidate or that safety, efficacy, manufacturing, or supply issues could arise with such existing therapies. This could result in our own products being removed from the market or being less successful commercially.
We may also potentially evaluate current or future drug candidates in combination with one or more other therapies that have not yet been approved for marketing by the FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities. We will not be able to market and sell any drug candidate we develop in combination with any such therapies that do not ultimately obtain marketing approval whether alone or in combination with our product. In addition, unapproved therapies face the same risks described with respect to our drug candidates currently in development and clinical trials, including the potential for serious adverse effects, delay in their clinical trials, and lack of FDA or comparable non-U.S. regulatory authorities' approval. If safety, efficacy, manufacturing, or supply issues arise with the products we choose to evaluate in combination with our drug candidates, we may be unable to obtain approval of or market such combination.
We conduct clinical trials for our drug candidates outside the United States, and the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.
We have conducted and are currently conducting clinical trials outside the United States, including in Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Spain, and may in the future choose to conduct additional clinical trials outside the United States in locations that may include Australia, Europe, Asia, or other jurisdictions. FDA acceptance of trial data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States requires that all of FDA’s clinical trial requirements be met. In addition, in cases where data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States are intended to serve as the sole basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will generally not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless (i) the data are applicable to the United States population and United States medical practice; (ii) the trials are performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence; and (iii) the data may be considered valid without the need for an on-site inspection by the FDA or, if the FDA considers such an inspection to be necessary, the FDA is able to validate the data through an on-site inspection or other appropriate means. Additionally, the FDA’s clinical trial requirements, including sufficient size of patient populations and statistical powering, must be met. Many foreign regulatory bodies have similar approval requirements, and such foreign trials would be subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the trials are conducted. There can be no assurance that the FDA or any similar foreign regulatory authority will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States or the applicable jurisdiction. If the FDA or any similar foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would result in the need for additional trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay aspects of our business plan, and which may result in our drug candidates not receiving approval or clearance for commercialization in the applicable jurisdiction.
Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU (referred to as Brexit) on January 31, 2020, and the end of the “transition period” on December 31, 2020, the EU and the United Kingdom entered into a trade and cooperation agreement that governs certain aspects of their future relationship, including the assurance of tariff-free trade for certain goods and services. As the regulatory framework for pharmaceutical products in the United Kingdom is derived from EU directives and regulations, Brexit will materially impact the future regulatory regime that applies to products and the approval of drug candidates in the United Kingdom. Longer term, the United Kingdom is likely to develop its own legislation that diverges from that in the EU, which may delay or preclude marketing approval for our drug candidates in one or both jurisdictions. As a result of our expanded operations in the United Kingdom following the business combination with Exscientia, any changes made as a result of Brexit may require us to incur additional expenses to develop, manufacture, and commercialize our drug candidates in the EU and the United Kingdom and adversely impact our ability to obtain regulatory approvals in the EU and the United Kingdom. We do not yet know the full extent to which our business could be adversely affected.
It is difficult to establish with precision the incidence and prevalence for target patient populations of our drug candidates. If the market opportunities for our drug candidates are smaller than we estimate, or if any
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approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our revenue and ability to achieve profitability will be adversely affected, possibly materially.
Even if approved for commercial sale, the total addressable market for our drug candidates will ultimately depend upon, among other things, (i) the indications and diagnostic criteria included in the final label; (ii) acceptance by the medical community; and (iii) patient access, product pricing, and reimbursement by third-party payors. The number of patients targeted by our drug candidates may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be amenable to treatment with our products, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or access, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business. Due to our limited resources and access to capital or for other reasons, we must prioritize development of certain drug candidates, which may prove to be the wrong choices and may adversely affect our business.
Although we intend to explore other therapeutic opportunities in addition to the drug candidates that we are currently developing, we may fail to identify viable new drug candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons.
Research programs to pursue the development of our existing and planned drug candidates for additional indications, and to identify new drug candidates and disease targets, require substantial technical, financial, and human resources whether or not they are ultimately successful. For example, under the Roche and Genentech Agreement, we are collaborating with Roche and Genentech to develop various projects related to the discovery of small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat “key areas” of neuroscience and an oncology indication. There can be no assurance that we will find potential targets using this approach, that the conditions targeted will be tractable, or that clinical trials will be successful. Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential indications and/or drug candidates, yet fail to yield results for clinical development for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the following:
• the research methodology used may not be successful in identifying potential indications and/or drug candidates, including as a result of the limited patient sample represented in our databases and the validity of extrapolating based on insights from a particular cellular context that may not apply to other, more relevant cellular contexts;
• potential drug candidates may, after further study, be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate they are unlikely to be effective products; or
• it may take greater human and financial resources than we can allocate to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our drug candidates or to develop suitable potential drug candidates through internal research programs, thereby limiting our ability to develop, diversify, and expand our product portfolio.
Because we have limited financial and human resources, we will have to prioritize and focus on certain research programs, drug candidates, and target indications while forgoing others. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other drug candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential or a greater likelihood of success. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities.
Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will ever be able to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our drug candidates or to develop suitable potential drug candidates through internal research programs, which could materially adversely affect our future growth and prospects.
If we are unable to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals for our drug candidates in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, or if approval is subject to limitations, we will be unable to commercialize, or will be delayed or limited in commercializing, the drug candidates in such jurisdiction and our ability to generate revenue may be materially impaired.
Our drug candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization — including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import, and export — are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Before we can commercialize any of our drug candidates, we must obtain marketing approval. As of December 31, 2025, all of our drug candidates are in development, and we have not received approval to market any of our drug candidates from regulatory
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authorities in any jurisdiction. It is possible that our current and future drug candidates will never obtain regulatory and marketing approval.
We have only limited experience in filing and supporting applications to regulatory authorities and expect to rely on CROs and/or regulatory consultants to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the drug candidate’s safety and efficacy. It also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Given our novel approach to drug discovery that uses our platform to generate data, regulatory authorities may not approve any of our drug candidates derived from our platform. They may also elect to inspect our platform and facilities and manufacturing and research practices, which may uncover regulatory deficiencies that must be addressed and remedied before research or market authorizations may occur.
The process of obtaining regulatory approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive and often takes many years. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority requires that we perform additional preclinical or clinical trials, then approval may be delayed, if obtained at all. The FDA and comparable regulatory authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application, or they may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical, or other studies. Our drug candidates could be delayed in receiving, or fail to receive, regulatory approval for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
• the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;
• we may not be able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical studies;
• we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a drug candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication or that a related companion diagnostic is suitable to identify appropriate patient populations;
• a drug candidate may be only moderately effective or may have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics;
• 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 a drug candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its 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 drug candidates may not be sufficient or of sufficient quality to support the submission of an NDA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
• the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may find deficiencies with, or fail to approve, our manufacturing processes or facilities, or those of third-party manufacturers 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 such that our clinical or manufacturing data are insufficient for approval.
Even if we obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our drug candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, thereby narrowing the commercial potential of the drug candidate. In addition, regulatory authorities may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials or may approve a drug candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that drug candidate.
If we are unable to obtain, or experience delays in obtaining, approval of our current and future drug candidates in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, or if approval is subject to limitations, the commercial prospects for the drug candidates may be harmed, and our reputation and ability to generate revenues may be materially impaired.
Our product candidates may cause significant adverse events, toxicities or other undesirable side effects when used alone or in combination with other approved products or investigational new drugs that may
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result in a safety profile that could prevent regulatory approval, prevent market acceptance, limit their commercial potential or result in significant negative consequences.
If our product candidates are associated with undesirable side effects or have unexpected characteristics in preclinical studies or clinical trials when used alone or in combination with other approved products or investigational new drugs we may need to interrupt, delay or abandon their development or limit development to more narrow 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. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled subjects to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. Any of these occurrences may prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product candidate and may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.
Patients in our ongoing and planned clinical trials may in the future suffer other significant adverse events or other side effects not observed in our preclinical studies or previous clinical trials. Our product candidates may be used in populations for which safety concerns may be particularly scrutinized by regulatory agencies. Patients treated with our product candidates may also be undergoing surgical, radiation and chemotherapy treatments, which can cause side effects or adverse events that are unrelated to our product candidate but may still impact the success of our clinical trials. The inclusion of critically ill patients in our clinical trials may result in deaths or other adverse medical events due to other therapies or medications that such patients may be using or due to the gravity of such patients’ illnesses. For example, it is possible that some of the patients enrolled in our clinical trials may die or experience major clinical events either during the course of our clinical trials or after participating in such trials, which has occurred in the past.
If further significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our current or future clinical trials, we may have difficulty recruiting patients to the clinical trials, patients may drop out of our trials, or we may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts of that product candidate altogether. We, the FDA, EMA, other comparable regulatory authorities or an IRB may suspend clinical trials of a product candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the product candidate from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our business, financial condition and prospects. Further, if any of our product candidates obtains marketing approval, toxicities associated with such product candidates previously not seen during clinical testing may also develop after such approval and lead to a requirement to conduct additional clinical safety trials, additional contraindications, warnings and precautions being added to the drug label, significant restrictions on the use of the product or the withdrawal of the product from the market. We cannot predict whether our product candidates will cause toxicities in humans that would preclude or lead to the revocation of regulatory approval based on preclinical studies or early-stage clinical trials.
Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publicly disclose preliminary, interim or topline data from our clinical trials. These interim updates are based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. For example, we may report tumor responses in certain patients that are unconfirmed at the time and which do not ultimately result in confirmed responses to treatment after follow-up evaluations. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. As a result, the topline results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. In addition, we may report interim analyses of only certain endpoints rather than all endpoints. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. Adverse changes between interim data and final data could significantly harm our business and prospects. Further, additional disclosure of interim data by us or by our competitors in the future could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.
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In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is typically selected from a more extensive amount of available information. You or others may not agree with what we determine is the material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure, and any information we determine not to disclose may ultimately be deemed significant with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular product candidate or our business. If the preliminary or topline data that we report differ from late, final or actual results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, any product candidates may be harmed, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment and/or maintenance of patients in clinical trials, our regulatory submissions or receipt of necessary marketing approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials to such trial’s conclusion as required by the FDA, EMA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Often done through biomarker testing, patient identification and enrollment are significant factors in the timing of clinical trials. Our ability to identify and enroll eligible patients may be limited or may result in slower enrollment than we anticipate. If patient identification proves unsuccessful, we may have difficulty enrolling or maintaining patients appropriate for our product candidates. Similarly, enrollment in trials for our product candidates may be limited or slower than we anticipated if any required laboratory biomarker tests are not available due to shortages of staff or reagents.
Enrollment of patients in our clinical trials and maintaining patients in our ongoing clinical trials may be delayed or limited if our clinical trial sites limit their onsite staff or temporarily close as a result of a global pandemic or other public health emergencies. Patient enrollment may be affected if our competitors have ongoing clinical trials for programs that are under development for the same indications as our product candidates, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ programs. Patient enrollment for our current or any future clinical trials may be affected by other factors, including:
• size and nature of the patient population;
• severity of the disease under investigation;
• availability and efficacy of approved drugs for the disease under investigation;
• patient eligibility criteria for the trial in question as defined in the protocol;
• perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study;
• clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new products that may be approved or other product candidates being investigated for the indications we are investigating;
• clinicians’ willingness to screen their patients for biomarkers to indicate which patients may be eligible for enrollment in our clinical trials;
• patient referral practices of physicians;
• the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment;
• proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients; and
• the risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will drop out of the trials before completion or, because they may be late-stage cancer patients, will not survive the full terms of the clinical trials.
Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates and jeopardize our ability to obtain marketing approval for the sale of our product candidates. Furthermore, even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials, we may have difficulty maintaining participation in our clinical trials through the treatment and any follow-up periods.
We may never realize a return on our investment of resources and cash in our drug discovery collaborations.
We conduct drug discovery activities for or with collaborators who are also engaged in drug discovery and development, which include pre-commercial biotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical companies. Under these collaborations, we typically provide, among other resources, the benefit of our drug discovery platform and platform experts who identify molecules that have activity against one or more specified targets. In consideration, we have received, and expect to receive in the future, (i) equity investments; (ii) upfront fees; and/or (iii) the right to receive option fees, cash milestone payments upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory, or commercial sales milestones for the drug discovery targets, and potential royalties. Our ability to receive fees and
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payments and realize returns from our drug discovery collaborations in a timely manner, or at all, is subject to a number of risks, including but not limited to the following:
• our collaborators may incur unanticipated costs or experience delays in completing, or may be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of any drug candidates;
• collaborators have significant discretion in determining the amount and timing of efforts and resources that they will apply to our collaborations and may not perform their obligations as currently expected;
• collaborators may decide not to pursue development or commercialization of drug candidates for various reasons, including results of clinical trials or other studies, changes in the collaborator’s strategic focus or available funding, their desire to develop products that compete directly or indirectly with our drug candidates, or external factors (such as an acquisition or industry slowdown) that divert resources or create competing priorities;
• existing collaborators and potential future collaborators may begin to perceive us to be a competitor more generally, particularly as we advance our internal drug discovery programs, and therefore may be unwilling to continue existing collaborations, or enter into new collaborations, with us;
• a collaborator may fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements regarding the development, manufacture, distribution, or marketing of a drug candidate or product;
• disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over intellectual property or proprietary rights, contract interpretation, or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or terminations of the research, development, or commercialization of drug candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration;
• collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, enforce, defend, or protect our intellectual property or proprietary rights, or they may use our proprietary information in such a way as to potentially lead to disputes or legal proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our or their intellectual property or proprietary rights;
• collaborators may infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability; and
• drug discovery collaborations may be terminated prior to our receipt of any significant value.
In addition, we may be over-reliant on our partners to provide information for molecules that we in-license, or such molecules may no longer be well-protected because the composition of matter patents that once protected them become expired. Moreover, we may have difficulty obtaining the quality and quantity of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for use in drug candidates, or we may be unable to ensure the stability of the molecule, all of which is needed to conduct clinical trials or bring a drug candidate to market. For those molecules that we are attempting to repurpose for other indications, our collaboration partners may not have sufficient data, may have poor quality data, or may not be able to help us interpret data, any of which could cause our collaboration to fail.
Furthermore, the amounts we are entitled to receive upon the achievement of such milestones vary depending on regulatory approval and the level of commercial success achieved, if any.
If any drug discovery collaborations that we enter into do not result in the successful development and commercialization of drug products that result in option fees, milestone payments, royalties, or other payments to us as expected, we may not receive an adequate return on the resources we have invested in such collaborations, which would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and prospects. Further, we may not have access to, or may be restricted from disclosing, certain information regarding development and commercialization of our collaborators’ drug candidates and, consequently, may have limited ability to inform our stockholders about the status of, and likelihood of achieving, option fees, milestone payments or royalties under such collaborations.
We may never realize a return on our equity investments in our drug discovery collaborators.
We have decided to take and may decide in the future to take equity stakes in our drug discovery collaborators. We may never realize a return on our equity investments in our drug discovery collaborators. None of the drug discovery collaborators in which we hold equity generate revenue from commercial sales of drug products. They are therefore dependent on the availability of capital on favorable terms to continue their operations. In addition, if the drug discovery collaborators in which we hold equity raise additional capital, our ownership interest in and degree of control over these drug discovery collaborators will be diluted, unless we have sufficient resources and choose to invest in them further or successfully negotiate contractual anti-dilution protections for our equity investment. The financial success of our equity investment in any collaborator will likely be dependent on a liquidity event, such as a public offering, acquisition or other favorable market event reflecting appreciation in the value of the equity we hold. The capital markets for public offerings and acquisitions are dynamic, and the likelihood of liquidity events for the
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companies in which we hold equity interests could significantly worsen. Further, valuations of privately held companies are inherently complex due to the lack of readily available market data. If we determine that any of our investments in such companies have experienced a decline in value, we may be required to record an impairment, which could negatively impact our financial results. All of the equity we hold in our drug discovery collaborators is subject to a risk of partial or total loss of our investment.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing, or commercializing products before, or more successfully than, we do.
The development and commercialization of new products in the biopharmaceutical and related industries is highly competitive. There are other companies focusing on technology-enabled drug discovery to identify and develop new chemical entities (NCEs) that have not previously been investigated in clinical trials and/or known chemical entities (KCEs) that have been previously investigated. Some of these competitive companies are employing scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach, and others are using entirely different approaches. These companies include large pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology companies of various sizes worldwide. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies, and other public and private research organizations. Many of the companies that we compete against, or which we may compete against in the future, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals, and marketing approval of products than we do. They may also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, in establishing clinical trial sites and patient recruitment for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, developing our programs.
Within the field of technology-enabled drug discovery, we believe that our approach utilizing a combination of wet-lab biology to generate our proprietary dataset, and the in silico tools in our closed-loop system, sets us apart and affords us a competitive advantage in initiating and advancing drug development programs. We further believe that the principal competitive factors to our business include (i) the accuracy of our computations and predictions; (ii) the ability to integrate experimental and computational capabilities; (iii) the ability to successfully transition research programs into clinical development; (iv) the ability to raise capital; and (v) the scalability of our platform, pipeline, and business.
Any drug candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with currently-approved therapies, and new therapies that may become available in the future, from segments of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other related industries. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our drug candidates, if approved, are likely to be (i) their efficacy, safety, convenience, and price; (ii) the level of non-generic and generic competition; and (iii) the availability and amount of reimbursement from government healthcare programs, commercial insurance plans, and other third-party payors. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if competing products are more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient, or are less expensive than products that we or our collaborators may develop, or if competitors obtain FDA or other regulatory approval more rapidly than us and are able to establish a strong market position before we or our collaborators are able to enter the market.
If our proprietary tools and technology and other competitive advantages do not remain in place and evolve appropriately as barriers to entry in the future, or if we and our collaboration partners are not otherwise able to effectively compete against existing and potential competitors, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
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Because we have multiple programs and drug candidates in our development pipeline and are pursuing a variety of target indications and treatment modalities, we may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular drug candidate and fail to capitalize on development opportunities or drug candidates that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
We currently focus on the development of drug candidates regardless of the treatment modality or the particular target indication. Because we have limited financial and personnel resources, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with potential target indications or drug candidates that later prove to have greater commercial potential than our current and planned development programs and drug candidates. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and other future drug candidates for specific indications may not yield any future drug candidates that are commercially viable.
We and our collaborators may not achieve projected discovery and development milestones and other anticipated key events in the time frames that we or they announce, which could have an adverse impact on our business and could cause our stock price to decline.
From time to time we have made, and in the future are likely to make, public statements regarding the expected timing of certain milestones and key events, such as the commencement and completion of preclinical and clinical studies in our internal drug discovery programs as well as developments and milestones under our collaborations. Our collaborators, such as Roche and Genentech, have also made public statements regarding expectations for the development of programs under collaborations with us and may in the future make additional statements about their goals and expectations for collaborations with us. The actual timing of these events can vary dramatically due to a number of factors, such as (i) delays or failures in our, or our current and future collaborators’, drug discovery and development programs; (ii) the amount of time, effort, and resources committed by us and our current and future collaborators; and (iii) the numerous uncertainties inherent in the development of drugs. As a result, there can be no assurance that our, or our current and future collaborators’, programs will advance or be completed in the time frames we or they announce or expect. If we or any collaborators fail to achieve one or more of these milestones or other key events as planned and announced, our business and reputation could be materially adversely affected.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR PLATFORM AND DATA
We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in research and development efforts to further enhance our drug discovery platform, which is central to our mission. If the return on these investments is lower or develops more slowly than we expect, our business and operating results may suffer.
Our drug discovery platform is central to our mission to decode biology by integrating technological innovations across biology, chemistry, automation, data science, and engineering. The platform includes the Recursion Operating System, which combines an advanced infrastructure layer to generate proprietary biological and chemical datasets, a suite of custom software, algorithms, AI models, AI agents, and machine learning tools. Our platform depends upon the continuous, effective, and reliable operation of our software, hardware, databases, and related tools and functions, as well as the integrity of our data. Our ability to develop drug candidates and increase revenue depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our platform. The success of any enhancement to our platform depends on several factors, including (i) innovation in hardware solutions; (ii) increased computational storage and processing capacity; (iii) development of more advanced algorithms; and (iv) generation of additional biological and chemical data, such as that which is necessary to our ability to identify important and emerging use cases and quickly develop new and effective innovations to address those use cases.
We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in research and development efforts, acquisitions, and licensing agreements that further enhance our platform. These investments may involve significant time, risks, and uncertainties, including the risks that any new software or hardware enhancement or the integration of software or hardware from an acquired company or third party licensor may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner; may not keep pace with technological developments; or may not achieve the functionality necessary to generate significant revenues.
Our proprietary software tools, hardware, and data sets are inherently complex. We have from time to time found defects, vulnerabilities, or other errors in our software and hardware that produce the data sets we use to discover new drug candidates, and new errors with our software and hardware may be detected in the future. The risk of
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errors is particularly significant when new software or hardware is first introduced or when new versions or enhancements of existing software or hardware are implemented. Errors may also result from the interface of our proprietary software and hardware tools with our data or with third-party systems and data.
If we are unable to successfully enhance our drug discovery platform, or if there are any defects or disruptions in our platform that are not timely resolved, our ability to develop new innovations and ultimately gain market acceptance of our products and discoveries could be materially and adversely impacted, and our reputation, business, operating results and prospects could be materially harmed.
Our information technology systems and infrastructure may fail or experience security breaches and incidents that could adversely impact our business and operations and subject us to liability.
We have experienced significant growth in the complexity of our data and the software tools that our hardware infrastructure supports. We rely significantly upon information technology systems and infrastructure owned and maintained by us or by third party providers to generate, collect, store, and transmit confidential and proprietary information and data (including but not limited to intellectual property, proprietary business information, and personal information) and to operate our business. We also outsource elements of our operations to, and obtain products and services from, third parties and engage in collaborations for drug discovery with third parties, each of which has or could have access to our confidential or proprietary information.
We deploy and operate an array of technical and procedural controls to reduce the risks to our information technology systems, infrastructure and data and to work to maintain the availability, confidentiality and integrity of our data, and we expect to continue to incur significant costs on such detection and prevention efforts.
Despite these measures, our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems face the risk of failures, interruptions, security breaches and incidents, or other harm from various causes or sources, and third parties with whom we share confidential or proprietary information, and third parties on which we otherwise rely, face similar risks and may experience similar events that materially impact us. These causes or sources include but are not limited to the following:
• service interruptions;
• system malfunctions and other technical errors;
• computer viruses and other malicious code;
• natural disasters;
• global political instability;
• warfare;
• telecommunication and electrical failures;
• inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees or third-party providers; and
• cyber-attacks by malicious third parties, including the deployment of ransomware and malware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.
With respect to cyber-attacks, the techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including outside groups and individuals with a range of motives (including industrial espionage) and expertise, such as organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, or hostile foreign governments or agencies. These risks may be heightened in connection with geopolitical events such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Sophisticated cyber attackers (including foreign adversaries engaged in industrial espionage) are skilled at adapting to existing security technology and developing new methods (including leveraging AI) of gaining access to organizations’ sensitive business data, which could result in the loss of sensitive information, including trade secrets. Further, severe ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, ability to provide our products or services, loss of sensitive data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments.
We take steps designed to detect, mitigate, and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems (such as our hardware and/or software). We may not, however, detect and remediate all such vulnerabilities on a timely basis or
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otherwise. Further, we may experience delays in deploying remedial measures and patches designed to address identified vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities could be exploited and result in a security breach or other incident.
The costs to us to investigate and mitigate actual and suspected security breaches and other incidents could be significant. We may not be able to anticipate all types of threats and implement preventive measures effective against all such threats. Additionally, actual, potential, or anticipated incidents may cause us to incur increasing costs, including costs to deploy additional personnel and protection technologies, train employees and engage third-party experts and consultants. In addition, an increased amount of work is occurring remotely, including through the use of mobile devices. This could increase our cybersecurity risk, create data accessibility concerns, and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions.
We may experience cyber-attacks, security breaches and other incidents, and other system failures, errors, or outages, although to our knowledge we have not experienced any material interruption or incident as of December 31, 2025. The loss, corruption, unavailability of, or damage to our data would interfere with and undermine the insights we draw from our platform and could impair the integrity of our clinical trial data, leading to regulatory delays or the inability to get our drug candidates approved. If we do not accurately predict and identify our infrastructure requirements and failures and timely enhance our infrastructure, or if our remediation efforts are not successful, it could result in a material disruption of our business operations and development programs, including the loss or unavailability of, damage to, or unauthorized acquisition, disclosure, use, or other processing of our trade secrets, individuals’ personal information, or other proprietary or sensitive data. A security breach or other incident that leads to unauthorized acquisition, disclosure, or other processing of our intellectual property or other proprietary information could also affect our intellectual property rights and enable competitors to compete with us more effectively. Likewise, as we rely on third parties for the manufacture of our drug candidates and to conduct clinical trials, similar events relating to their systems and operations could also have a material adverse effect on our business and lead to regulatory agency actions.
Moreover, any security breach or other incident that leads to loss of, unauthorized access to, disclosure of, or other processing of personal information, including personal information regarding clinical trial subjects, contractors, directors, or employees, or the perception any of these has occurred, could harm our reputation, compel us to comply with federal and/or state notification laws and foreign law equivalents, subject us to mandatory corrective action, and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information. For more information see “Risk Factors— We are subject to U.S. and foreign laws regarding privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity that could entail substantial compliance costs, while the failure to comply could subject us to significant liability” set forth below.
Failures, disruptions, security breaches and other incidents, cyber-attacks, and other harmful events impacting data processed or maintained in our business, or information technology systems or infrastructure used in our business, including those resulting in a loss of or damage to our information technology systems or infrastructure, or the loss of or inappropriate acquisition, disclosure, or other processing of confidential, proprietary, or personal information, or the perception any of these has occurred, could expose us to a risk of loss, enforcement measures, regulatory agency investigations, proceedings, and other actions, penalties, fines, indemnification claims, litigation, potential civil or criminal liability, collaborators’ loss of confidence, damage to our reputation, and other consequences, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations. While we maintain insurance coverage for certain expenses and liabilities related to failures or breaches of our information technology systems, it may not be adequate to cover all losses associated with such events. In addition, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on satisfactory terms or at all. Furthermore, if the information technology systems of third parties with whom we do business become subject to disruptions or security breaches or incidents, we may have insufficient recourse against them, and we may have to expend significant resources to mitigate the impact of such an event and to develop and implement protections designed to prevent events of this nature from occurring.
Interruptions in the availability of server systems or communications with internet or cloud-based services, or failure to maintain the security, confidentiality, accessibility, or integrity of data stored on such systems, could harm our business.
We rely on third-party data centers and telecommunications solutions, including cloud infrastructure services such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, to host substantial portions of our technology platforms and to support our business operations. We have no control over these cloud-based service or other third-party providers, although we attempt to reduce risk by minimizing reliance on any single third party or its operations. We have experienced,
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and expect we may in the future again experience, system interruptions, outages, or delays due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions, and capacity constraints. A prolonged service disruption affecting our cloud-based solutions could damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business.
Further, if the security measures of our third-party data center or cloud infrastructure providers are breached or otherwise compromised by cyber-attacks or other means and unauthorized access to our information technology systems or data occurs, it could result in interruptions to our operations and the loss of proprietary or confidential information, which could damage our reputation, cause us to incur substantial costs, divert our resources from other tasks, and subject us to significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities, any one of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and prospects. Such third-party providers may also be subject to natural disasters, global political instability, warfare, power losses, telecommunications failures, or other disruptive events that could negatively affect our business and require us to incur significant costs to secure alternate cloud-based solutions. In addition, any changes in our third-party providers’ service levels or features that we utilize or a termination of our agreements could also adversely affect our business.
Our solutions utilize third-party open source software (OSS), which presents risks that could adversely affect our business and subject us to possible litigation.
Our solutions include software that is licensed from third parties under open source licenses, and we expect to continue to incorporate such OSS in our solutions in the future. We cannot ensure that we have effectively monitored our use of OSS, validated the quality or source of such software, or are in compliance with the terms of the applicable open source licenses or our policies and procedures. Use of OSS may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software because open source licensors generally do not provide support, updates, or warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. OSS may also be more susceptible to security vulnerabilities. Third-party OSS providers could experience service outages, data loss, privacy breaches, cyber-attacks, and other events relating to the applications and services they provide, which could diminish the utility of these services and harm our business. We also could be subject to lawsuits by third parties claiming that what we believe to be licensed OSS infringes such parties’ intellectual property rights, which could be costly for us to defend and require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions.
Issues relating to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in our offerings could adversely affect our business and operating results.
We incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning (“AI”) solutions into our platform, in applications that are important to our operations and our drug discovery processes. There are significant risks involved in utilizing AI. Issues relating to the use of new and evolving technologies such as AI and machine learning may cause us to experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, legal liability, and new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, and we may incur additional costs to resolve such issues. Known risks of AI currently include inaccuracy, bias, toxicity, intellectual property infringement or misappropriation, privacy, data protection and cybersecurity issues, and data provenance disputes. Perceived or actual technical, legal, compliance, privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, ethical or other issues relating to the use of AI may cause public confidence in AI to be undermined, which could slow our customers’ adoption of our products and services that use AI. In addition, litigation or government regulation related to the use of AI may also adversely impact our and others’ abilities to develop and offer products that use AI, as well as increase the cost and complexity of doing so. See the section titled “—Regulatory and legislative developments related to the use of AI could adversely affect our use of such technologies in our products, services, and business.” Developing, testing and deploying AI systems may also increase the cost profile of our product offerings due to the nature of the computing costs involved in such systems, which could impact our project margin and adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, AI may have or produce errors or inadequacies that are not easily detectable. If the data used to train AI or the content, analyses, or recommendations that AI applications assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, incomplete, overbroad or biased, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected. The legal landscape and subsequent legal protection for the use of AI and the collection and use of data used to train AI models remains uncertain, and development of the law in this area could impact our ability to enforce our proprietary rights or protect against infringing uses. If we do not have sufficient rights to collect or use the data on which our AI relies or to the outputs produced by AI applications, we may incur liability through the alleged violation of certain laws, third-party privacy rights, online terms of service, or other contracts to which we or
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our data providers are a party. Our use of AI applications may also, in the future, result in security breaches or other incidents that implicate the personal data of customers or patients. Any such security breaches or other incidents related to our use of AI applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR OPERATIONS/COMMERCIALIZATION
Even if any drug candidates we develop receive marketing approval, they may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors, and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
The commercial success of our drug candidates that receive marketing approval will depend upon their degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors, and others in the medical community. The degree of market acceptance will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to the following:
• their efficacy and safety as demonstrated in pivotal clinical trials and published in peer-reviewed journals;
• their potential and perceived advantages compared to alternative treatments, including any similar generic treatments;
• the prevalence and severity of any side effects or adverse events;
• our ability to offer these products for sale at competitive prices;
• our ability to offer appropriate patient access programs, such as co-pay assistance;
• their convenience and ease of dosing and administration compared to alternative treatments;
• the clinical indications for which the drug candidate is approved by the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities;
• product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, including any limitations, contraindications, or warnings;
• restrictions on how the product is distributed;
• the timing of market introduction of competitive products;
• publicity concerning these products or competing products and treatments;
• the strength of marketing and distribution support; and
• favorable third-party coverage and sufficient reimbursement.
Sales of medical products also depend on the willingness of physicians to prescribe treatment with our drug products, which is likely to be based on a determination by these physicians that the products are safe, therapeutically effective, and cost effective. In addition, the inclusion or exclusion of products from treatment guidelines established by various physician groups, as well as the viewpoints of influential physicians, can affect the willingness of other physicians to prescribe treatment with our drug products. We cannot predict whether physicians, physicians’ organizations, hospitals, other healthcare providers, government agencies, or private insurers will determine that any product we may develop is safe, therapeutically effective and cost effective as compared with competing treatments. If any drug candidates we develop do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue, and we may not become profitable.
If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market any drug candidates we may develop, we may not be successful in commercializing those drug candidates, if and when they are approved.
We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure and have little experience in the sale, marketing, or distribution of pharmaceutical products. To achieve commercial success for any approved product for which we retain sales and marketing responsibilities, we must either develop a sales and marketing organization, develop sales and marketing software solutions, or outsource these functions to third parties. In the future, we may choose to build a focused sales, marketing, and commercial support infrastructure to market and sell our drug candidates, if and when they are approved. We may also elect to enter into collaborations or strategic partnerships with third parties to engage in commercialization activities with respect to selected drug candidates, indications, or geographic territories, including territories outside the United States, although there is no guarantee we will be able to enter into these arrangements.
There are risks involved with both establishing our own commercial capabilities and entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force or reimbursement specialists is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a
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drug candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing and other commercialization capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition commercialization personnel. Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize any approved product on our own include but are not limited to the following:
• the inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective sales, marketing, reimbursement, customer service, medical affairs, and other support personnel;
• the inability of sales personnel or software tools to obtain access to physicians or persuade adequate numbers of physicians to prescribe any future approved products;
• the inability of reimbursement professionals to negotiate arrangements for formulary access, reimbursement, and other acceptance by payors;
• the inability to price products at a sufficient price point to enable an adequate and attractive level of profitability;
• restricted or closed distribution channels that make it difficult to distribute our products to segments of the patient population;
• the lack of complementary products to be offered by sales personnel, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies with more extensive product lines; and
• unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating an independent commercialization organization.
If we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales, marketing, commercial support, and distribution services, they may also experience many of the above challenges. In addition, our product revenue or the profitability of product revenue may be lower than if we were to market and sell any products we may develop internally. We may not be successful in entering into such arrangements, or we may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us or them. We also may have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively, or they may expose us to legal and regulatory risk by not adhering to regulatory requirements and restrictions governing the sale and promotion of prescription drug products, including those restricting off-label promotion. If we do not establish commercialization capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing any future approved drug candidates.
We are subject to regulatory and operational risks associated with the physical and digital infrastructure at both our internal facilities and those of our external service providers.
Our facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah and Milton Park, United Kingdom have not been reviewed or pre-approved by any regulatory agency, such as the FDA. An inspection by the FDA could disrupt our ability to generate data and develop drug candidates. Our laboratory facilities are designed to incorporate a significant level of automation of equipment, with integration of several digital systems to improve efficiency of research operations. We have attempted to achieve a high level of digitization for a research operation relative to industry standards. While this is meant to improve operational efficiency, this may pose additional risk of equipment malfunction and even overall system failure or shutdown due to internal or external factors including, but not limited to, design issues, system compatibility, or potential security breaches or other incidents. This may lead to delay in potential drug candidate identification or a shutdown of our facility. Any disruption in our data generation capabilities could cause delays in advancing new drug candidates into our pipeline, advancing existing programs, or enhancing the capabilities of our platform, including expanding our data, the occurrence of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
In the future, we may manufacture drug substances or products at our facilities for preclinical and clinical use, and we may face risks arising from our limited prior manufacturing capability and experience.
We do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture drug substances or products for preclinical, clinical, or commercial use. If, in the future, we decide to produce drug substances or products for preclinical and clinical use, the costs of developing suitable facilities and infrastructure and implementing appropriate manufacturing processes may be greater than expected. We may also have difficulty implementing the full operational state of the facility, causing delays to preclinical or clinical supply or the need to rely on third-party service providers, resulting in unplanned expenses.
The manufacture of drugs is complex, and our third-party manufacturers may encounter difficulties in production or supply chain. If any of our third-party manufacturers encounter such difficulties, our ability to
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provide adequate supply of our product candidates for clinical trials or our products for patients, if approved, could be delayed or prevented.
We currently utilize contract development and manufacturing organizations to produce drug substance and investigational drug product in support of the assets within our pipeline. To date, we have obtained drug substance and drug product for our drug candidates from third party contract manufacturers. Manufacturing drugs, especially in large quantities, is complex and may require the use of innovative technologies. Each lot of an approved drug product must undergo thorough testing for identity, strength, quality, purity and potency. Manufacturing drugs requires facilities specifically designed for and validated for this purpose, as well as sophisticated quality assurance and quality control procedures. Slight deviations anywhere in the manufacturing process, including filling, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping and quality control and testing, may result in lot failures, product recalls or spoilage. When changes are made to the manufacturing process, we may be required to provide preclinical and clinical data showing the comparable identity, strength, quality, purity or potency of the products before and after such changes. If microbial, viral or other contaminations are discovered at the facilities of our manufacturer, such facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination, which could delay clinical trials and adversely harm our business. The use of biologically derived ingredients can also lead to allegations of harm, including infections or allergic reactions, or closure of product facilities due to possible contamination. Additionally, we may experience supply chain disruptions or slowdowns, including related manufacturing, logistics, labor supply or other factors related to the supply chains of products and materials that we use. If our third-party manufacturers are unable to produce sufficient quantities for clinical trials or for commercialization as a result of these challenges, or otherwise, our development and commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Changes in methods of product candidate manufacturing or formulation may result in additional costs or delay.
As product candidates progress through preclinical and clinical trials to marketing approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods and formulation, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize yield and manufacturing batch size, minimize costs and achieve consistent quality and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives. 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 conducted with the altered materials. This could delay completion of clinical trials, require the conduct of bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidates and jeopardize our ability to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, and generate revenue.
Recursion, or the third parties upon whom we depend, may be adversely affected by natural disasters, and our business continuity plans and insurance coverage may not be adequate.
Our current operations are located in Salt Lake City, Utah; New York City, New York; London and Milton Park, United Kingdom; and Montreal, Canada. A natural disaster or other serious unplanned event, such as flood, fire, explosion, earthquake, extreme weather condition, pandemic (including COVID-19), power shortage, telecommunications failure, global political instability, warfare, or man-made incident, could result in us being unable to fully utilize our facilities, delays in the development of our drug candidates, interruption of our business operations, or unexpected increased costs, which may have a material and adverse effect on our business. Our collaboration partners, as well as suppliers to us or our collaboration partners, and our third-party service providers and vendors, are similarly subject to some or all of these events. If a natural disaster, power outage, or other event occurs that (i) prevents us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters or our datacenters; (ii) damages critical infrastructure or our equipment, such as our research facilities or the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers; or (iii) otherwise significantly disrupts operations, it may be difficult, or in certain cases impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time.
Furthermore, the disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place may prove inadequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses, business interruptions, and harm to our research and development programs as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans. As part of our risk management policy, we maintain insurance coverage at levels that we believe are appropriate for our business to the extent it is available on commercially reasonable terms. However, in the event of an accident or incident at these facilities, the amounts of insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our damages and losses.
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In addition, our facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah are located in a busy downtown area. Although we believe we have taken the necessary steps to ensure our operations are safe to the surrounding area, there could be a risk to the public if we were to conduct hazardous material research, including use of flammable chemicals and materials, at our facilities. If the surrounding community perceives our facility as unsafe, it could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, operations, and prospects.
If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety, or other laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines, penalties, or personal injury or property damages.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety, and other laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for significant damages for harm to persons or property, as well as civil or criminal fines and penalties. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover costs and expenses arising from injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against all such potential liabilities.
Our insurance policies are expensive and protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.
We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter and insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive. We do not know if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage in the future, and any liability insurance coverage we acquire in the future may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. If we obtain marketing approval for any drug candidates that we or our collaborators may develop, we intend to acquire insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products, but we may be unable to obtain such insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. The coverage or coverage limits currently maintained under our insurance policies may not be adequate. If our losses exceed our insurance coverage, our financial condition would be adversely affected. Clinical trials or regulatory approvals for any of our drug candidates could be suspended, which could adversely affect our results of operations and business, including by preventing or limiting the development and commercialization of any drug candidates that we or our collaborators may identify. Additionally, operating as a public company has made it more expensive for us to obtain directors and officers liability insurance. If we do not maintain adequate levels of directors and officers liability insurance, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors and in our executive team.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
We have substantial federal and state net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses as expected, unused losses will carry forward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire, except the federal NOLs generated during and after fiscal year 2018 are carried forward indefinitely. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” its ability to use pre-change NOL carryforwards and certain other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income could be subject to an annual limitation. An “ownership change” is generally defined as a greater than 50% change by value in the ownership of the corporation’s equity by one or more 5% shareholders over a three-year period. Such annual limitation could result in the expiration of a portion of our NOL carryforwards before full utilization thereof. We may have experienced ownership changes within the meaning of Section 382 in the past and we may experience some ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, such as a result of our follow-on offerings or subsequent shifts in our stock ownership (some of which shifts are outside our control). We have not yet conducted a study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred. Future legislative or regulatory changes could also negatively impact our ability to utilize our NOL carryforwards or other tax attributes. We also have substantial foreign NOLs, which are likely subject to similar restrictions under the laws of the applicable jurisdiction. Provisions of state or foreign tax law may also suspend or otherwise limit our ability to use NOLs and accumulated state or foreign tax attributes. As a result, if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our
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NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes for federal, state or foreign tax purposes, which could result in increased tax liability and adversely affect our future cash flows.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or disagreements between us and tax authorities regarding the application of existing tax laws or regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws or regulations could be enacted at any time, which could affect our tax profile and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) eliminated the option to deduct research and development expenditures currently and requires taxpayers to capitalize and amortize them over five or fifteen years pursuant to Code Section 174, beginning in 2022. In July 2025, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBA) was signed into law, which suspended the research and development amortization requirement of TCJA with respect to domestic expenses, permitting the full deduction of domestic research and development expenses in the year they are incurred for tax years 2025 through 2029. Further, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), among other changes, imposes a one-percent excise tax on stock repurchases made on or after January 1, 2023. Any further changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
A tax authority may disagree with tax positions that we take, and may take the position that tax liabilities, interest and penalties, which could be material, are payable by us. Contesting such an assessment may be lengthy and costly and if we were unsuccessful in disputing the assessment, the implications could increase our anticipated effective tax rate, where applicable.
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (U.S. GAAP) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include stock-based compensation and valuation of our equity investments in early-stage biotechnology companies. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions.
Additionally, we regularly monitor our compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and drafts thereof that are relevant to us. As a result of new standards, changes to existing standards, or changes in their interpretation, we might be required to change our accounting policies, alter our operational policies, and implement new or enhanced systems so that they reflect new or amended financial reporting standards, or we may be required to restate our published financial statements, which may have an adverse effect on our financial position and reputation.
Product liability lawsuits could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit commercialization of any drug candidates that we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of drug candidates in human clinical trials, and we will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any medicines that we may develop. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our drug candidates or medicines caused injuries, we could incur substantial damages or settlement liability. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may also result in adverse effects including but not limited to the following:
• decreased demand for any drug candidates or therapeutics that we may develop;
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• injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
• withdrawal of clinical trial participants;
• significant costs to defend the litigation;
• substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
• loss of revenue; and
• the inability to commercialize our drug candidates.
Although we maintain product liability insurance, including coverage for clinical trials that we sponsor, it may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage as we commence additional clinical trials and if we successfully commercialize any drug candidates. The market for insurance coverage can be challenging, and the costs of insurance coverage will increase as our clinical programs increase in size. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost and with adequate limits to satisfy any and all liability that may arise.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR RELIANCE ON THIRD PARTIES
Third parties that perform some of our research and preclinical testing or conduct our clinical trials may not perform satisfactorily or their agreements may be terminated.
We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some aspects of research and preclinical testing and clinical trials. The third parties include CROs, clinical data management organizations, contract laboratories, medical institutions, and principal investigators. Any of these third parties may fail to fulfill their contractual obligations, including by not meeting deadlines for the completion of research, testing, or trials, or we or they may terminate their engagements with us. If any of our relationships with these third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, such negotiations could delay product development activities. Termination of or limitations on our relationships with foreign third parties can also occur if U.S. legislation, sanctions, trade restrictions, or other U.S. and foreign regulatory requirements, prohibitions or restrictions, limit or prevent our ability to enter into arrangements with such foreign third parties. For example, we currently rely on foreign CROs and CDMOs, including an affiliate/subsidiary of WuXi AppTec Co., Ltd. (WuXi AppTec) in China that has been listed as a biotechnology company “of concern” in proposed U.S. legislation known as the BIOSECURE Act. While the BIOSECURE Act as currently proposed would restrict purchasing of services or products from WuXi AppTec and other companies of concern in China, in its most recent form it would only impact U.S. companies that contract with or receive funding from the U.S. government, which means that our company may not be directly impacted by such legislation. As another example, the Department of Justice recently issued a final rule which took effect in April 2025 that places limitations, and in some cases prohibitions, on certain transfers of sensitive personal data to business partners located in China or with other specified links to China (and other designated countries). These rules also may broadly require us to extract promises from other third-party service providers that they will not transfer data we share with them onward to parties linked to countries of concern. These and other future further regulations, legislation, sanctions, or restrictions could adversely impact our current or future third-party arrangements with companies such as WuXi AppTec, which in turn could delay or impact clinical trials, add expenses or unforeseen burdens to the process of contracting with service providers, and consequently could delay or obstruct successful commercialization of our drug candidates or reduce our profitability.
Our reliance on third parties for research and development activities reduces our control over these activities, but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our respective clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial, as well as applicable legal, regulatory, and scientific standards. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database within certain timeframes. In addition, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities require compliance with good clinical practices (GCP) guidelines for conducting, recording, and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible, reproducible, and accurate, and that the rights, integrity, and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. Regulatory authorities enforce GCP compliance through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators, and trial sites.
If we or any of the third parties fail to comply with applicable GCP regulations, some or all of the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional nonclinical or clinical trials or to enroll additional patients before approving our
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marketing applications. In addition, if we or the third parties fail to comply with our stated protocols or applicable laws and regulations during the conduct of clinical trials, we or the third parties could be subject to warning letters or enforcement actions by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, which could result in civil penalties or criminal prosecution, as well as adverse publicity that harms our business.
We also will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for any drug candidates we may develop if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines, or conduct clinical trials in accordance with our stated protocols or regulatory requirements. As a result, we may be delayed or unable to successfully commercialize our drug candidates.
Third parties that manufacture our drug candidates for preclinical development, clinical testing, and future commercialization may not provide sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or products at an acceptable cost, which could delay, impair, or prevent our development or commercialization efforts.
We do not currently own or operate any manufacturing facilities and have no manufacturing personnel. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for drug supplies for our clinical trials, the manufacture of many of our drug candidates for preclinical development and clinical testing, as well as the commercial manufacture of our products if any of our drug candidates receive marketing approval. We may be unable to establish necessary agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or products, or will not have sufficient quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, impair, or prevent our development or commercialization efforts.
In addition, the facilities used by our contract manufacturers to manufacture our drug candidates must be inspected by the FDA pursuant to pre-approval inspections that will be conducted after we submit our marketing applications to the FDA. We do not expect to control the manufacturing process of, and will be completely dependent on, our contract manufacturers for compliance with current good manufacturing practice guidelines (cGMP) in connection with the manufacture of our drug candidates in the near to intermediate term, or possibly the long term. If our contract manufacturers cannot maintain adequate quality control and qualified personnel to successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, including cGMP guidelines, they will not be able to pass regulatory inspections and/or maintain regulatory compliance for their manufacturing facilities.
If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority finds deficiencies with, does not approve, or withdraws approval of these facilities for the manufacture of our drug candidates, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our timelines and ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, or market our drug candidates, if approved. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. Our drug candidates and any other products that we may develop may compete with the drug candidates and approved products of other companies for access to manufacturing facilities or capacity, which may further restrict our ability to secure alternative manufacturing sites.
Further, our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of drug candidates or products that may be approved, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business, supplies of our drug candidates, and prospects.
Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including but not limited to the following:
• reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;
• the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;
• the possible misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and
• the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.
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Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future third-party manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval. If it is necessary to replace any such third-party manufacturer, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any a replacement. In addition, any performance failure on the part of our distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of any drug candidates we may develop or seek to commercialize, producing additional losses and depriving us of product revenue.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture and distribution of our drug candidates or products may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis, if at all.
If we are unable to adequately source clinical and commercial supplies, equipment, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from third party vendors as our drug development pipeline matures, our business could be significantly harmed.
We procure raw materials, components, parts, consumables, reagents, and equipment used in the development and operation of our platform and the development of our drug candidates from third party vendors. We also rely on third party vendors to perform quality testing. Particular risks to our platform include reliance on third-party equipment and instrument suppliers and consumable and reagent suppliers. As we increase development of drug products and commence clinical testing and commercialization, we will require expanded capacity across our supply chain. We face risks regarding our sourcing of products and quality-testing services, including but not limited to the following:
• the inability of suppliers and service providers to grow their capacity to meet demand, whether from us or other drug manufacturers, particularly if the field of technology-enabled drug discovery continues to expand;
• termination or non-renewal of supply and service agreements with third parties in a manner or at a time that is costly or damaging to us;
• disruptions to the operations of these suppliers and service providers caused by conditions unrelated to our business or operations, including the bankruptcy of the supplier or service provider or force majeure events, such as public health crises, global political instability, natural disasters, supply chain issues, or warfare; and
• inspections of third-party facilities by regulatory authorities that could have a negative outcome and result in delays in, or termination of, their ability to meet our requirements.
Moreover, certain of our specialized equipment, as well as the API used in our drug candidates, are obtained from single-source suppliers. Our ability to successfully develop our drug candidates, and to ultimately supply our commercial products in quantities sufficient to meet the market demand, depends in part on our ability to obtain equipment and the API for these products in accordance with regulatory requirements and in sufficient quantities for clinical testing and commercialization. We do not currently have arrangements in place for a redundant or second-source supply of any such equipment or ingredients in the event any of our current suppliers fails or is unable to meet our requirements. While our single-source suppliers have generally met our demand for their products on a timely basis in the past, we are not certain that they will be able to meet our future demand, whether due to any of the above factors, the nature of our agreements with those suppliers, our limited experience with those suppliers, our relative importance as a customer, or any other reason. For all of our drug candidates, we intend to identify and qualify additional vendors and manufacturers, as available, to provide such equipment and API prior to our submission of an NDA to the FDA and/or an MAA to the EMA, which may require additional regulatory inspection or approval and result in further delay.
Any interruption or delay in the supply of components, materials, specialized equipment, API, and quality-testing sources at acceptable prices and in a timely manner could impede, delay, limit, or prevent our development efforts, which could harm our business, results of operations, and prospects.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our success significantly depends on our ability to obtain and maintain patents of adequate scope covering our proprietary technology and drug candidate products. Obtaining and maintaining patent assets is inherently challenging, and our pending and future patent applications may not issue with the scope we need, if at all.
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Our commercial success depends in significant part on our ability and the ability of our licensors and collaborators to obtain and maintain patent protection and other intellectual property rights in the United States and other countries relating to our drug product candidates and our core proprietary technologies important to the development and implementation of our business.
Patent prosecution is a complex, expensive, and lengthy process, with no guarantee that a patent will issue in a timely fashion or at all, or with sufficiently broad claims to protect our drug product candidates and proprietary technologies. Further, the laws and regulations for obtaining and maintaining patents are subject to change by legislative or judicial action in the relevant jurisdictions. The patent positions of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other life sciences companies in particular can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology patents has emerged to date in the U.S., and tests used for determining the patentability of patent claims in all technologies are in flux. The pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other life sciences patent laws and regulations outside the U.S. can be even more uncertain. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and patent offices in other jurisdictions have often required that patent applications concerning pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions be limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the patent offices and courts in the United States and abroad. Third parties may invent, publish, or file patents of their own in ways which overlap or conflict with our patent rights. Moreover, even if unchallenged, our owned patent portfolio and any patent portfolio we license may not provide us with any meaningful protection or prevent competitors from designing around our patent claims to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. For example, a third party may develop a competitive product that provides benefits similar to one or more of our drug candidates, but that has a different composition that falls outside the scope of our patent protection. In addition, patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective, non-provisional filing date, and patents protecting drug candidates might expire before or shortly after the candidates are commercialized given the amount of time required for development, testing, and regulatory review. The various governmental patent agencies also require compliance with extensive rules and fee obligations. Failure to do so can, under certain circumstances, result in the abandonment of a patent application or the termination of patent rights. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include a failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees, and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents.
We have patent applications pending before the USPTO and other patent offices, and we plan to file new applications in the future. Patent offices may require us to significantly narrow our claims based upon prior art discovered by the USPTO or through third-party submissions. Moreover, we do not always have the right to control the preparation, filing, prosecution, and maintenance of licensed patents and applications under arrangements with collaborators or licensors. We may become involved in procedural challenges, including inter partes review, which could result in the narrowing or elimination of our patent rights or those of our licensors. This could limit our ability to stop others from freely using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection covering our technology and drug candidates. Such challenges may also result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize our drug candidates without infringing third-party patent rights. Further, inadvertent or intentional public disclosures of our inventions prior to the filing of a patent application have precluded us, and in the future may preclude us, from obtaining patent protection in certain jurisdictions. We also could fail to identify patentable aspects of our technology and research and development output in time to obtain patent protection.
We also currently own a number of U.S. provisional patent applications. These provisional applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of filing one or more of our related provisional patent applications. If we do not timely file any non-provisional patent applications, we may lose our priority dates with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in such applications.
Our current patent portfolio contains a limited number of patents and patent applications, some of which are in-licensed from third parties, related to our drug product candidates and methods of their use. While we license composition of matter patents for REC-4881 and REC-2282, we expect these patents to expire prior to commercial launch. We cannot be certain that any non-provisional patent applications we or our licensors may file will result in
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issued patent claims covering the composition of matter of REC-994, REC-2282, REC-4881, REC-3964, REC-617, REC-1245, REC-3565, REC-102, or REC-4539.
We cannot provide any assurances that any of our or our licensors’ pending or future patent applications will issue, or that any pending or future patent applications that mature into issued patents will include claims with a scope sufficient to protect our drug candidates from competition. If we fail to obtain and maintain adequate intellectual property protection covering any technology, invention, or improvement that is important to our business, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to prevent third parties from launching generic versions of our products, from using our proprietary technologies, or from marketing products that are very similar or identical to ours. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications are threatened, it could also dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop, or commercialize current or future drug candidates. This could have a material, adverse effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our technology and products, and on our business, results of operations, and prospects.
Our current proprietary position for certain drug product candidates depends upon our owned or in-licensed patent filings covering components of such drug product candidates, manufacturing-related methods, formulations, and/or methods of use, which may not adequately prevent a competitor or other third party from using the same drug candidate for the same or a different use.
Composition of matter patent protection is generally considered to be desirable for drug products because it provides protection without regard to any particular method of use or manufacturing, or formulation. For some of the molecules that we in-license from our collaboration partners, we cannot rely on composition of matter patent protection as the term on those patents has already expired or is close to expiring.
Method of use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method and formulation patents cover formulations to deliver therapeutics. While we file applications covering method of use for our programs at appropriate times in the development process, we cannot be certain that claims in any future patents issuing from these applications will cover all commercially-relevant applications of molecules in competing uses. These types of patents do not prevent a competitor or other third party from developing, marketing, or commercializing a similar or identical product for an indication that is outside the scope of the patented method, or from developing a different formulation that is outside the scope of the patented formulation. Moreover, with respect to method of use patents, even if competitors or other third parties do not actively promote their product for our targeted indications or uses for which we may obtain patents, physicians may recommend that patients use these products off-label, or patients may do so themselves. Although off-label use may infringe or contribute to the infringement of method of use patents, the practice is common and this type of infringement is difficult to prevent or enforce. Additionally, some commercially-relevant jurisdictions do not allow for patents covering a new method of use of an otherwise-known molecule. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in the United States or abroad, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting, maintaining, and defending patents related to our drug product candidates or other proprietary technologies we may develop in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products, and our patent rights or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, such as certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patent rights or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights generally. In addition, some jurisdictions, such as Europe, Japan and China, may have a higher standard for patentability than in the United States, including, for example, the requirement of claims having literal support in the original patent filing and the
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limitation on using supporting data that is not in the original patent filing. Under those heightened patentability requirements, we may not be able to obtain sufficient patent protection in certain jurisdictions even though the same or similar patent protection can be secured in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.
Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patent rights at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly, could put our owned or in-licensed patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we or any of our licensors are forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
In 2012, the European Patent Package, or EU Patent Package, regulations were passed with the goal of providing a single pan-European Unitary Patent and a new European Unified Patent Court, or UPC, for litigation involving European patents. Implementation of the EU Patent Package began in June 2023, when the UPC opened for business. Under the UPC, all European patents, including those issued prior to ratification of the European Patent Package, will by default automatically fall under the jurisdiction of the UPC. The UPC provides our competitors with a new forum to centrally revoke our European patents and allow for the possibility of a competitor to obtain pan-European injunctions. It will be several years before we will understand the scope of patent rights that will be recognized and the strength of patent remedies that will be provided by the UPC. Under the EU Patent Package, we have the right to opt our patents out of the UPC over the first seven years of the court’s existence, but doing so may preclude us from realizing the benefits of the new unified court.
If we do not obtain patent term extension and data exclusivity for any drug product candidates we may develop, our business may be materially harmed.
Depending upon the timing, duration, and specifics of any FDA marketing approval of any drug candidates we may develop, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Action of 1984, referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent extension term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond 14 years from the date of product approval. Only one patent may be extended and only those claims covering the approved drug, a method for using it, or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents, or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.
We may need to license certain intellectual property from third parties, and such licenses may not be available or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.
The growth of our business may depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license or use third-party intellectual property and proprietary rights. A third party may hold intellectual property that is important or necessary to the development of our products. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our products, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third. For example, when we explore repurposing molecules owned by our collaboration partners or other third parties, we in-license the rights to use those molecules for our use. In addition, our drug product candidates may require specific formulations to work effectively and efficiently, we may develop product candidates containing our compounds and pre-existing pharmaceutical compounds, or we may be required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to provide a companion diagnostic test or tests with our product candidates, any of which could require
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us to obtain rights to use intellectual property held by third parties. In addition, with respect to any patent or other intellectual property rights we may co-own with third parties, we may require licenses to such co-owners’ interest to such patent or other intellectual property rights. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary or important to our business operations. In addition, we may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Were that to happen, we may need to cease use of the compositions or methods covered by those third-party intellectual property rights, and may need to seek to develop alternative approaches that do not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate those intellectual property rights, which may entail additional costs and development delays, even if we were able to develop such alternatives, which may not be feasible. Even if we are able to obtain a license, it may be non-exclusive, which means that our competitors may also receive access to the same technologies licensed to us. In that event, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to develop or license replacement technology.
If we are not able to obtain a license, or to obtain one on commercially reasonable terms and with sufficient breadth to cover the intended use of third-party intellectual property, our business could be materially harmed.
The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and companies that may be more established or have greater resources than we do may also be pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider necessary or attractive in order to commercialize our product candidates. More established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully complete these types of negotiations and ultimately acquire the rights to the intellectual property related to the products or product candidates that we may seek to develop or market. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property or to maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of certain programs and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could suffer.
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. Assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, prior to March 2013, in the United States, the first to invent the claimed invention was entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application was entitled to the patent. After March 2013, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the America Invents Act) enacted in September 2011, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after March 2013, but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by such third party. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are typically not published until 18 months after filing or until issuance, or in some cases not at all, we cannot be certain that we were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our therapeutic and diagnostic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our owned or in-licensed patent applications.
The America Invents Act also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and also may affect patent litigation. These include allowing third party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution and additional procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review and derivation proceedings. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. Therefore, the America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our owned or in-licensed patent
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applications and the enforcement or defense of patents issuing from those patent applications, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, the patent positions of companies in the development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals are particularly uncertain. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. For example, U.S. Supreme Court rulings, such as Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi , 598 U.S. 594, 143 S. Ct. 1243 (2023), may limit the breadth of certain genus patent claims covering composition of matter of pharmaceutical products if enough compounds with shared claimed features are not provided. As such, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to obtain patents covering our drug product candidates. These cases and others like them have created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways. In addition, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws have also increased in recent years. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our owned and in-licensed patent portfolio and our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property in the future.
Issued patents covering our drug product candidates and proprietary technology that we have developed or may develop in the future could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad.
Our patent rights may be subject to priority, validity, inventorship and enforceability disputes. Legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims, with or without merit, are unpredictable and generally expensive and time-consuming and likely to divert significant resources from our core business, including distracting our management and scientific personnel from their normal responsibilities and generally harm our business. If we or our licensors are unsuccessful in any of these proceedings, such patents and patent applications may be narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, we may be required to obtain licenses from third parties, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or we may be required to cease the development, manufacture or commercialization of our product candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we or one of our licensors initiated legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering our drug product candidates or methods of their use, or other proprietary technologies, we may develop, the defendant could counterclaim that such patent is invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may raise claims challenging the validity or enforceability of a patent before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, derivation proceedings, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Such proceedings could result in the revocation of, cancellation of or amendment to our patent rights in such a way that they no longer cover our drug product candidates or methods of their use, and other proprietary technologies we may develop. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we or our licensing partners and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a third party were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our drug product candidates or methods of their use, or other proprietary technologies, that we may develop. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our owned or in-licensed patent rights and other intellectual property.
We may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our patent rights, trade secrets, or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our therapeutic and diagnostic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or our patent rights, trade secrets or
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other intellectual property. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, intellectual property that is important to our therapeutic and diagnostic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to our management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.
The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights, and particularly those arising from patents, is uncertain because these rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. Examples where our intellectual property rights may not further our competitive advantage include but are not limited to the following:
• others may be able to duplicate or utilize similar technology in a manner that infringes our patents but is undetectable or done in a jurisdiction where we have not secured, or cannot secure or enforce, patent rights;
• we, or our licensing partners or collaborators, might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by our owned or licensed current or future patent applications;
• we, or our licensing partners or collaborators, might not have been the first to file patent applications covering our or their inventions;
• others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our owned or licensed intellectual property rights;
• it is possible that our owned or licensed current or future patent applications will not lead to issued patents;
• any patent issuing from our owned or licensed current or future patent applications may be held invalid or unenforceable, including as a result of legal challenges by our competitors or other third parties, or may not provide us with any competitive advantages;
• our competitors or other third parties might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;
• it is possible that there are prior public disclosures that could invalidate our or our licensors’ patents;
• we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable;
• the patents or pending or future patent applications of others, if issued, may harm our business; and
• we may choose not to file a patent in order to maintain certain trade secrets or know-how, and a third party may subsequently file a patent covering such intellectual property.
Should any of these events occur, they could have a material, adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and prospects.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets and know-how, our business and competitive position may be harmed.
In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and contractual arrangements to protect proprietary know-how, information, and technology that is not covered by our patents. With respect to curating our data and our library of small molecules generally, we consider trade secrets and know-how to be our primary intellectual property. Unpatented proprietary rights, including trade secrets and know-how, can be difficult to protect and may lose their value if their secrecy is lost or if they are independently developed by a third party.
We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties that have access to them, including our collaborators, scientific advisors, employees, and consultants. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary technology and processes. Our agreements with our employees and consultants also require them to acknowledge ownership by us of inventions they may conceive as a result of their work for us and to perfect such ownership by assignment. However, we may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our trade secrets or other confidential information through these agreements or other preventative measures. In addition, third parties, including our competitors, could independently develop and lawfully use the same or substantially equivalent trade secrets and know-how. Enforcing
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a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. Any loss of trade secret protection or other unpatented proprietary rights could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We may be subject to claims that third parties have an ownership interest in our trade secrets. For example, we may have disputes arise from conflicting obligations of our employees, consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidate. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging ownership of our trade secrets. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable trade secret rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, trade secrets that are important to our therapeutic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to our management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may not identify relevant third-party patents or may incorrectly interpret the relevance, scope or expiration of a third-party patent, which might adversely affect our ability to develop and market our drug product candidates.
We cannot guarantee that any of our patent searches or analyses, including the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending patent application in the United States and abroad that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our current and future products and product candidates in any jurisdiction. The scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of a patent or a pending patent application may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to market our products. We may incorrectly determine that our drug product candidates are not covered by a third-party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third party’s pending patent application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect, and we may incorrectly conclude that a third-party patent is invalid and unenforceable. Our failure to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our drug product candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may be subject to claims that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of third parties or are in breach of their non-competition or non-solicitation agreements with third parties.
We take efforts intended to ensure that our employees and consultants do not use the intellectual property, proprietary information, know-how, or trade secrets of others in their work for us, or breach any applicable non-competition or non-solicitation agreement. However, we may in the future be subject to claims that we or these individuals have, inadvertently or otherwise, used or disclosed the alleged trade secrets or other proprietary information of a third party, including a former employer or competitor, or that we caused an employee or contractor to breach the terms of their non-competition or non-solicitation agreement with a third party. In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in obtaining such agreements or an assignment of rights to us.
Litigation may be necessary to defend against or enforce these claims, which may be costly, a distraction to management, and of uncertain outcome. If we are found liable for disclosure or misuse of a third party’s proprietary information, or if we are unable to secure rights to intellectual property developed by an employee or contractor a court could prohibit us from using technologies or features that may be essential to our drug candidates that incorporate or are derived from such proprietary information, in addition to awarding damages. Moreover, any such litigation could also adversely affect our ability to hire or retain employees or contractors. If we are unable to establish our rights to valuable intellectual property or retain key personnel, this failure may prevent us from
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successfully commercializing our drug candidates and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operation.
Litigation to defend against third party claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation or other violations against us or our collaborators, or to enforce our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of our collaborators, presents numerous risks.
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by extensive and frequent litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Intellectual property litigation or other legal proceedings, with or without merit, is generally expensive and time consuming, potentially distracting to technical and management personnel, and subject to uncertain outcomes. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios.
Our commercial success depends upon our ability, and the ability of our collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market, and sell our drug product candidates, and to use our proprietary technologies, without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties. Given the vast and continually increasing number of patents in our field of technology, we cannot be certain that we do not infringe existing patents or that we will not infringe patents granted in the future. We may in the future become party to, or threatened with, litigation or adversarial proceedings initiated by our competitors or other third parties alleging that our products or technologies are covered by their patents.
Many companies have obtained patents or filed patent applications in areas important to our business, including artificial intelligence and deep learning, technology-aided drug discovery, CRISPR, high-throughput screening, and combinations of any or all of these fields. For example, we sublicense CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology from a licensed vendor, which provides critical tools upon which portions of our drug discovery process relies. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is a field that is highly active for patent filings and there are ongoing disputes between third parties, which we are not party to, regarding the ownership of and licensing rights related to the technology. The extensive patent filings related to CRISPR and Cas make it difficult for us to assess the full extent of relevant patents and pending applications that may cover this technology, and there may be third-party patents, or pending patent applications with claims that may issue in the future, covering our use of CRISPR-Cas9.
If we or our collaborators are found to infringe a third party’s patent or other intellectual property rights, such determination could result in significant damages and costs including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement or royalties. In the event of a successful infringement claim against us or our collaborators, we may have to redesign the infringing products or technologies, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In addition, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our drug product candidates or other proprietary technology, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or to cease developing and commercializing the infringing technology or drug product candidates altogether. If we are prevented from commercializing our drug product candidates or forced to cease some of our business operations, this restriction could materially harm our reputation and have a significant adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and prospects.
We may initiate litigation, or file counterclaims, to protect or enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights if we believe competitors or other third parties have infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of our collaborators in certain circumstances. Our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of our collaborators is subject to litigation risks, including that the opposing party may seek counterclaims against us, as well as uncertainty as to the protection and enforceability of those rights in some countries. If we seek to enforce our patents or the patents of our collaborators, we may be subject to findings that these patents should be interpreted narrowly and do not cover the technology at issue, or that these patents are invalid or unenforceable. If we are unable to enforce and protect our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of our collaborators, or if they are circumvented, invalidated, or rendered obsolete by the rapid pace of technological change, it could have an adverse impact on our competitive position, business, financial position, and prospects.
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Competing products may also be sold in other countries in which our patent coverage might not exist or might not be as strong. The legal systems of some countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights, and other jurisdictions may have limited enforcement rights for patent holders. This could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents, if obtained, or the misappropriation of our other intellectual property rights in other countries. Consequently, we and our licensors or collaborators may have limited remedies in those foreign countries if patents are infringed, or we or our licensors may be compelled to grant a license to a third party, which could materially diminish the value of those patents and could limit our potential revenue opportunities. In addition, competitors may use our technologies to develop their own products that compete with ours in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection or where we have patent protection but limited enforcement rights. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we own or license.
Even if resolved in our favor, the foregoing proceedings could be very expensive, particularly for a company of our size, and time-consuming. Such proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such proceedings adequately. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of litigation or administrative proceedings.
If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we collaborate with or license intellectual property rights from third parties, if the licenses are terminated, if a dispute regarding these licenses arises, or we otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our collaborators or licensors, we could lose rights that are important to our business.
We license certain intellectual property that is important to our business and, in the future, we may enter into additional agreements that provide us with licenses to valuable intellectual property or technology. Our current license agreements impose, and we expect our future license agreements will impose, various development, diligence, commercialization, and other obligations on us in order to maintain the licenses. In spite of our efforts, a licensor might conclude that we have materially breached our obligations under a license agreement and seek to terminate the agreement, thereby removing or limiting our ability to develop and commercialize products and technology covered by the agreement. If these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying patent rights licensed thereunder fail to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors or other third parties would have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products identical to ours and we may be required to cease development and commercialization of certain of our drug candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.
Moreover, disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including but not limited to the following:
• the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;
• whether and the extent to which our technology and processes infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;
• the sublicensing of patent and other rights under our collaborative development relationships;
• our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;
• the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners;
• our right to transfer or assign the license agreement; and
• the priority of invention of patented technology.
The agreements under which we license intellectual property or technology from third parties are, and future agreements are likely to be, complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or it could increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected drug candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.
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These and similar issues may arise with respect to our collaboration agreements, such as the Bayer Agreement and the Roche and Genentech Agreement. The Bayer Agreement, the Roche and Genentech Agreement, the Merck Agreement, and the Sanofi Agreement are some of our key collaborations, and there is no assurance that these collaborations will continue past their current terms, on favorable terms or at all, or that at any time while the collaborations are in effect the parties will operate under the agreements without disputes.
Some of our intellectual property has been, and in the future may be, discovered through government-funded programs and thus may be subject to federal regulations such as “march-in” rights, certain reporting requirements, and a preference for U.S.-based companies, and compliance with such regulations may limit our exclusive rights and our ability to contract with non-U.S. manufacturers.
Our intellectual property rights may be subject to a reservation of rights by one or more third parties. For example, certain intellectual property rights that we have licensed, or may in the future license, have been generated through the use of U.S. government funding. As a result, the U.S. government may have certain rights to intellectual property embodied in our current or future processes and related products and services. These U.S. government rights include a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable worldwide license to use inventions for any governmental purpose. In addition, the U.S. government has the right, under certain limited circumstances, to require the licensor to grant exclusive, partially exclusive, or non-exclusive licenses to any of these inventions to a third party if the U.S. government determines that (1) adequate steps have not been taken to commercialize the invention and achieve practical application of the government-funded technology, (2) government action is necessary to meet public health or safety needs, (3) government action is necessary to meet requirements for public use under federal regulations or (4) we have failed to meet requirements of federal regulations (also collectively referred to as “march-in rights”).
The U.S. government also has the right to take title to these inventions if we or our licensors fail to disclose the invention to the government or fail to file an application to register the intellectual property within specified time limits. These rights may permit the U.S. government to disclose our confidential information to third parties. In addition, our rights in such inventions may be subject to requirements to manufacture products embodying such inventions in the United States. Intellectual property generated under a government-funded program is also subject to certain reporting requirements, compliance with which may require us to expend substantial resources.
Any exercise by the U.S. government of such rights could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.
Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic, or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition among potential collaborators or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors may adopt trade names or trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to our intellectual property may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
RISKS RELATED TO ACQUISITIONS
The anticipated benefits of the business combination with Exscientia may vary from expectations.
Recursion may fail to realize the anticipated cost savings or other benefits expected from the business combination with Exscientia, which could adversely affect its business, financial condition and operating results. The success of the business combination will depend, in significant part, on Recursion’s ability to successfully integrate the businesses of Recursion and Exscientia and realize the anticipated strategic benefits and synergies from the business combination. Recursion and Exscientia believe that the combination of the two businesses will
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complement each party’s strategy by providing a balanced and diversified product portfolio, operational efficiencies, supply chain optimization, complementary geographic footprints, product development synergies and capital raising opportunities. However, achieving these goals requires, among other things, realization of the targeted cost synergies expected from the business combination. The anticipated benefits of the business combination and actual operating, technological, strategic and revenue opportunities may not be realized fully or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected. If Recursion is not able to achieve these objectives and realize the anticipated benefits and synergies expected from the business combination within the anticipated timeframe or at all, Recursion’s business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.
The future results of Recursion will suffer if Recursion does not effectively manage its expanded operations resulting from the business combination with Exscientia.
As a result of the business combination with Exscientia, the size of the business of Recursion has increased significantly. Recursion’s future results depends, in part, upon its ability to manage this expanded business, which will pose substantial challenges for management, including challenges related to the management and monitoring of new operations and associated increased costs and complexity. There can be no assurance that Recursion will be successful or that it will realize the expected operating efficiencies, cost savings, revenue enhancements and other benefits currently anticipated from the business combination.
Business issues currently faced by Recursion or Exscientia may be imputed to the operations of the other.
To the extent either Recursion or Exscientia had, or is perceived by business partners to have had, operational challenges, such as performance, management or workforce issues, those challenges may raise concerns by existing business partners of the other company, which may limit or impede Recursion’s future ability to obtain additional business from those business partners.
Recursion is exposed to greater foreign currency exchange risk.
As a result of integrating the businesses of Exscientia, Cyclica, and Valence, a greater portion of Recursion’s business takes place in international markets. Recursion will conduct its business and prepare its consolidated financial statements in its functional currency, while the financial statements of each of its subsidiaries will be prepared in the functional currency of that entity and the business of that entity will be conducted in the functional currency of that entity. Accordingly, it is expected that Recursion’s revenues and earnings will be exposed to the risks that may arise from fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which could have a material adverse effect on Recursion’s business, results of operations or financial condition.
As a company with substantial operations outside of the United States, we are subject to economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with international operations.
As a result of our acquisitions, we now have substantial operations in Canada, England, Scotland, and our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business outside of the United States. Many of our suppliers and clinical trial relationships are now located outside the United States. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:
• economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in certain non-U.S. economies and markets;
• differing and changing regulatory requirements for product approvals;
• differing jurisdictions could present different issues for securing, maintaining or obtaining freedom to operate in such jurisdictions;
• potentially reduced protection for intellectual property and proprietary rights;
• difficulties in compliance with different, complex and changing laws, regulations and court systems of multiple jurisdictions and compliance with a wide variety of foreign laws, treaties and regulations;
• changes in non-U.S. regulations and customs, tariffs and trade barriers;
• changes in currency exchange rates of the pound sterling, euro and the risk of the imposition of currency controls;
• changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic environment;
• trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements or other restrictive actions by governments;
• differing reimbursement regimes and price controls in certain non-U.S. markets;
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• negative consequences from changes in tax laws or practice;
• compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or travelling abroad, including, for example, the variable tax treatment in different jurisdictions of options granted under our share option schemes or equity incentive plans;
• workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States;
• litigation or administrative actions resulting from claims against us by current or former employees or consultants individually or as part of class actions, including claims of wrongful terminations, discrimination, misclassification or other violations of labor law or other alleged conduct;
• difficulties associated with staffing and managing international operations, including differing labor relations;
• 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 natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires and other natural disasters caused by climate change.
We have in the past and may in the future acquire other companies or technologies, which could divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our shareholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results.
In May 2023, we acquired Cyclica and Valence, and in November 2024, we entered into a business combination with Exscientia. We may in the future seek to acquire or invest in additional businesses, solutions or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our solutions, enhance our technical capabilities, or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of potential acquisitions or business combinations may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated.
Our success in realizing any such growth opportunities and cost synergies, and the timing of this realization, depends on the successful integration of any acquired company’s, business and operations with our business and operations. Even if we are able to integrate our business with acquired businesses or the business of a future acquisition target successfully, this integration may not result in the realization of the outcomes and benefits, growth opportunities, and cost synergies we expect within the anticipated time frame or at all. Moreover, we may incur substantial expenses in connection with the integration of any acquired company’s business with our business. While we may be able to anticipate that certain expenses will be incurred, such expenses are difficult to estimate accurately, and may exceed our estimates. Accordingly, the outcomes and benefits from any future acquisition may be offset by costs incurred or delays in integrating the potential acquisition targets, which could cause the outcomes and benefits we may anticipate to be inaccurate or not realized.
In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may suffer.
RISKS RELATED TO GOVERNMENT REGULATION
We may be unable to obtain U.S. or foreign regulatory approval and, as a result, may be unable to commercialize our product candidates.
Our product candidates are and will continue to be subject to extensive governmental regulations relating to, among other things, research, testing, development, manufacturing, safety, efficacy, approval, recordkeeping, reporting, labeling, storage, packaging, advertising and promotion, pricing, marketing and distribution of drugs. Rigorous preclinical testing and clinical trials and an extensive regulatory approval process must be successfully completed in the United States and in many foreign jurisdictions before a new drug can be approved for marketing. Satisfaction of these and other regulatory requirements is costly, time consuming, uncertain and subject to unanticipated delays. We cannot provide any assurance that any product candidate we may develop will progress through required clinical testing and obtain the regulatory approvals necessary for us to begin selling them.
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We have not conducted, managed or completed large-scale or pivotal clinical trials nor managed the regulatory approval process with the FDA or any other regulatory authority. The time required to obtain approvals from the FDA and other regulatory authorities is unpredictable and requires successful completion of extensive clinical trials which typically takes many years, depending upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidate. The standards that the FDA and its foreign counterparts use when evaluating clinical trial data can, and often does, change during drug development, which makes it difficult to predict with any certainty how they will be applied. We may also encounter unexpected delays or increased costs due to new government regulations, including future legislation or administrative action, or changes in FDA policy during the period of drug development, clinical trials and FDA regulatory review. The FDA’s decision to release “real-time” newly issued Complete Response Letter associated with withdrawn or abandoned applications, if applicable to any of our product candidates, can materially impact our business and competitive advantage. Further, future government shutdowns or other lapses in government funding could delay or otherwise interfere with obtaining regulatory approval for our clinical trials or product candidates.
Any delay or failure in seeking or obtaining required approvals would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue from any particular product candidates we are developing and for which we are seeking approval. Furthermore, any regulatory approval to market a drug may be subject to significant limitations on the approved uses or indications for which we may market, promote and advertise the drug or the labeling or other restrictions. In addition, the FDA has the authority to require a REMS plan as part of approving a marketing application, or after approval, which may impose further requirements or restrictions on the distribution or use of an approved drug. These requirements or restrictions might include limiting prescribing to certain physicians or medical centers that have undergone specialized training, limiting treatment to patients who meet certain safe-use criteria and requiring treated patients to enroll in a registry. These limitations and restrictions may significantly limit the size of the market for the drug and affect reimbursement by third-party payors.
We are also subject to numerous foreign regulatory requirements governing, among other things, the conduct of clinical trials, manufacturing and marketing authorization, pricing and third-party reimbursement. The foreign regulatory approval process varies among countries, and generally includes all of the risks associated with FDA approval described above as well as risks attributable to the satisfaction of local regulations in foreign jurisdictions. Moreover, the time required to obtain approval may differ from that required to obtain FDA approval.
The FDA, EMA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from trials conducted in locations outside of their jurisdiction.
The acceptance of study data by the FDA, EMA or other comparable foreign regulatory authority from clinical trials conducted outside of their respective jurisdictions may be subject to certain conditions. In cases where data from United States clinical trials are intended to serve as the basis for marketing approval in the foreign countries outside the United States, the standards for clinical trials and approval may be different. There can be no assurance that any United States or foreign regulatory authority would accept data from trials conducted outside of its applicable jurisdiction. If the FDA, EMA or any applicable foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would result in the need for additional trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay aspects of our business plan, and which may result in our product candidates not receiving approval or clearance for commercialization in the applicable jurisdiction.
Uncertainty in the regulatory framework could also result in disruption to the supply and distribution as well as the import/export both of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished product. Such a disruption could create supply difficulties for ongoing clinical trials. The cumulative effects of the disruption to the regulatory framework, uncertainty in future regulation, and changes to existing regulations may increase our development lead time to marketing authorization and commercialization of products in the EU and/or the UK and increase our costs. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and future regulation on our business or the results of our operations.
Even if we receive FDA or other regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and other conditions that may result in significant additional expense, as well as the potential recall or market withdrawal of an approved product if unanticipated safety issues are discovered.
Even if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of our drug candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion, and recordkeeping for the product will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements also include submission of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, establishment registration and listing, as well as continued compliance with cGMPs for manufacturing processes
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and GCPs for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our drug candidates may also be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or they may contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing studies and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the drug product.
Any failure to comply with regulatory requirements, or any discovery of previously unknown problems with a drug product — including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency — or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, may result in, among other things:
• restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the drug product, withdrawal of the product from the market, or voluntary or mandatory product recalls;
• clinical trial holds;
• fines, warning letters or other regulatory enforcement action;
• refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us;
• product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of drug products; and
• injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
The occurrence of any of the foregoing actions could materially and adversely affect our reputation, business,
results of operation, and prospects.
Though we have been granted orphan drug designation for certain of our drug candidates, we may be unsuccessful or unable to maintain the benefits associated with such a designation, including the potential for market exclusivity.
As part of our business strategy, we have sought orphan drug designation for certain of our drug candidates and may do so for other drug candidates in the future. Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and Europe, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. The FDA may designate a drug as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition. In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers.
Similarly in Europe, the European Commission, upon the recommendation of the EMA’s Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, grants orphan drug designation for drugs intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening, seriously debilitating or serious and chronic condition when, without incentives, it is unlikely that sales of the drug in Europe would be sufficient to justify the necessary investment in developing the drug. In Europe, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers. We have received orphan drug designation from the FDA and European Commission for REC-4881 for the potential treatment of FAP, but we may be unsuccessful with respect to other drug candidates in the future.
Generally, if a drug with an orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the drug is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the FDA or the EMA from approving another marketing application for the same drug and indication for that time period, except in limited circumstances. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in Europe. The European exclusivity period can be reduced to six years if a drug no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified.
Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a drug, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the drug from competition because different drugs can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve a different drug for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective, or makes a major contribution to patient care. In addition, a designated orphan drug may not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the indication for which it received orphan designation. Moreover, orphan drug exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the drug to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition or if another drug with the same active part of the molecule is determined to be safer, more effective, or represents a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug, nor gives the drug any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process. While we may seek orphan drug designation for our drug candidates, we may never receive such designations. Even if we do receive such designations, there is no guarantee that we will enjoy the benefits of those designations.
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In response to the court decision in Catalyst Pharms., Inc. v. Becerra , 14 F.4th 1299 (11th Cir. 2021), in January 2023, which challenged FDA’s orphan exclusivity determination, the FDA published a notice in the Federal Register to clarify that while the agency complies with the court’s order in Catalyst , the FDA intends to continue to apply its longstanding interpretation of the regulations to matters outside of the scope of the Catalyst order – that is, the agency will continue tying the scope of orphan-drug exclusivity to the uses or indications for which a drug is approved, which permits other sponsors to obtain approval of a drug for new uses or indications within the same orphan designated disease or condition that have not yet been approved. It is unclear how future litigation, especially in view of Supreme Court’s overturn of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo , legislation, agency decisions, and administrative actions under the new Trump administration will impact the scope of the orphan drug exclusivity.
Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our drug candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of our drug candidates in other jurisdictions.
We may submit marketing applications in countries other than the United States. Regulatory authorities in jurisdictions outside of the United States have requirements for approval of drug candidates with which we must comply prior to marketing in those jurisdictions. For example, our trials to date have consisted of small patient populations and some international regulatory filings may require larger patient populations or additional nonclinical studies or clinical trials.
Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties, and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or fail to receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our drug candidates will be harmed.
Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our drug candidates in one jurisdiction does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain regulatory approval in any other jurisdiction, although a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. For example, even if the FDA grants marketing approval of a drug candidate, comparable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing, marketing, and promotion of the drug candidate in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States. These may include additional nonclinical studies and clinical trials since clinical trials conducted in one jurisdiction may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. In short, the foreign regulatory approval process involves all of the risks associated with FDA approval. In many jurisdictions outside the United States, a drug candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that jurisdiction. In some cases, the price that we may intend to charge for our drug products will also be subject to regulatory approval.
Increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from governments, regulators, and third-parties relating to environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies and practices may cause us to incur additional costs, expose us to additional risks or impact our reputation.
In recent years, there has been increasing public focus and scrutiny from certain investors, employees and other stakeholders concerning corporate responsibility, specifically related to ESG factors. In addition to the changing rules and regulations related to ESG matters imposed by governmental and self-regulatory organizations, a variety of third-party organizations, institutional investors and customers evaluate the performance of companies on ESG topics, and the results of these assessments are widely publicized. These changing rules, regulations and stakeholder expectations have resulted in, and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and increased management time and attention spent complying with or meeting such regulations and expectations. Reduced access to or increased cost of capital may occur as financial institutions and investors increase expectations related to ESG matters. Third-party providers of ESG ratings and reports on companies have increased in number, resulting in varied and, in some cases, inconsistent standards and frameworks. Topics considered in such assessments include, among others, our efforts and impacts with respect to climate change; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); and the role of our board of directors in supervising various sustainability issues.
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Developing and acting on initiatives within the scope of ESG, and collecting, measuring and reporting ESG-related information and metrics can be costly, difficult, and time consuming and is subject to evolving reporting standards. We may also communicate certain initiatives and goals, regarding environmental matters, diversity, social investments and other ESG-related matters, in our SEC filings or in other public disclosures. These initiatives and goals within the scope of ESG could be difficult and expensive to implement, the technologies needed to implement them may not be cost effective and may not advance at a sufficient pace, and we could be criticized for the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the disclosure. Furthermore, statements about our ESG-related initiatives and goals, and progress against those goals, may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing, internal controls and processes that continue to evolve and assumptions that are subject to change in the future. In addition, we could be criticized for the scope or nature of such initiatives or goals, or for any revisions to these goals. If our ESG-related data, processes and reporting are incomplete or inaccurate, or if we fail to achieve progress with respect to our goals, including our previously announced commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, within the scope of ESG on a timely basis, or at all, our reputation, business, financial performance and growth could be adversely affected. In addition, in recent years “anti-ESG” sentiment has gained momentum across the U.S., with several states and Congress having proposed or enacted “anti-ESG” policies, legislation, or initiatives or issued related legal opinions, and the President having recently issued an executive order opposing DEI initiatives in the private sector. Such anti-ESG and anti-DEI-related policies, legislation, initiatives, litigation, legal opinions, and scrutiny could result in our facing additional compliance obligations, becoming the subject of investigations and enforcement actions, or sustaining reputational harm.
If our business practices do not meet evolving investor, government agency or other stakeholder expectations and standards with respect to ESG, then our reputation, our ability to attract or retain employees and the market price of our securities could be negatively impacted. New governmental regulations could result in new directives and new or more stringent forms of ESG oversight and disclosures which may lead to increased expenditures for sustainability initiatives, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations and could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.
Failure to comply with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws and anti-money laundering laws, and similar laws, could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We have expanded our operations outside of the United States, use service providers in many regions outside the U.S. and expect our foreign activities to increase in the future. If we continue expanding our operations outside of the United States, we must dedicate additional resources to comply with U.S. laws governing activities in other countries, as well as numerous laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which we plan to operate, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, and similar laws, U.S. and foreign anti-money laundering laws and regulations.
Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly to generally prohibit companies, their employees, agents, representatives, business partners, and third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private sector. Compliance with the FCPA is expensive and difficult, particularly in countries in which corruption is a recognized problem. In addition, the FCPA presents particular challenges in the pharmaceutical industry, because, in many countries, hospitals are operated by the government, and doctors and other hospital employees are considered foreign officials. Certain payments to hospitals in connection with clinical trials and other work have been deemed to be improper payments to government officials and have led to FCPA enforcement actions.
We have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of governmental agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities or other organizations. We engage third parties for clinical trials and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, patent registrations, and other regulatory approvals and to otherwise assist in conducting our business abroad. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, agents, representatives, business partners and third parties, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have prior knowledge of such activities. These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. We cannot assure you that all of our employees, agents, representatives, business partners, or third-party intermediaries will not take actions in violation of applicable law for which we may be ultimately held responsible. As we increase our international sales and business, our risks under these laws may increase.
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Changing, inconsistent, or conflicting laws, rules and regulations governing international business practices, and ambiguities in their interpretation and application, create uncertainty and challenges. Any allegations or failure to comply with any such laws or regulations may result in whistleblower complaints, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, enforcement actions, fines, damages, adverse media coverage, investigations, substantial civil and criminal penalties, and suspension or debarment from government contracting, all of which may have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and prospects. Responding to any investigation or action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees. The SEC also may suspend or bar issuers from trading securities on U.S. exchanges for violations of the FCPA’s accounting provisions.
We are subject to various governmental export controls, trade and economic sanctions, and import laws and regulations that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.
Our products and technologies are subject to export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and our products, technologies, and activities are subject to trade and economic sanctions, including those administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, as well as regulations administered by the governments of the United Kingdom and authorities in the European Union, which we collectively refer to as trade controls. As such, licenses and notices may be required to import products, technologies, and services from or export or re-export products, technologies, and services to certain countries and end users and for certain end uses. For example, the U.S. government continues to add additional entities in China and elsewhere to restricted party lists impacting the ability of U.S. companies to provide products, technology, and services to, and in some cases receive products, technologies, and services from, these entities. These controls may impact our ability to import certain products, technology, or services from or export or re-export certain products, technology, or services to China and other destinations, and it is also possible that the Chinese government will retaliate in ways that could impact our business. The process for obtaining necessary licenses and making required notices may be time-consuming or unsuccessful, potentially causing delays in sales or losses of sales opportunities. Trade controls are complex and dynamic regimes and monitoring and ensuring compliance can be challenging. Any failure to comply with these regimes could subject us to both civil and criminal penalties, including substantial fines, possible incarceration of responsible individuals for willful violations, possible loss of our export or import privileges, and reputational harm. In addition, investigating or defending against any such allegations, actions, or investigations will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.
In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including through import permit and license requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or could limit our end-customers’ ability to implement our products in those countries. Changes in our products or changes in export and import regulations in such countries may create delays in the introduction of our products into international markets, prevent our end-customers with international operations from deploying our products globally or, in some cases, prevent or delay the export or import of our products to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import laws or regulations, economic sanctions, or related legislation, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing export, import, or sanctions laws or regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such export, import, or sanctions laws or regulations, could result in decreased use of our products by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our products to, existing or potential end-customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products or limitation on our ability to export to or sell our products in international markets could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Tariffs could also have a material impact on our product costs and decrease our ability to sell our products and services to existing or potential customers as well as harm our ability to compete internationally. Recent escalations in tariffs imposed by the United States on imports from its trading partners, retaliatory actions taken by affected countries, as well as uncertainties concerning further changes in tariff and non-tariff trade policies, particularly regarding those between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and the between the United States and China, have been significant. The U.S. government has implemented additional broad tariffs on the import of most items from virtually all U.S. trading partners and has imposed particularly significant tariffs on imports from China. China responded by imposing significant tariffs on a variety of items imported from the United States, implementing new export controls on certain commodities, and imposing trade restrictions targeting particular U.S. companies. These
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tariffs could materially and adversely affect our ability to compete internationally. The future of these tariffs, as well as the possibility for new tariffs, remains very uncertain. Other causes of uncertainty include the effects of new tariffs implemented by the United States on imports from Mexico and Canada that do not qualify for duty-free treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The macroeconomic effect of any such tariffs on major trading partners, including China, Mexico, Canada, and other countries could be significant, and our business and financial results could be negatively affected as a result.
Any changes in our product or in export or import regulations or legislation; shifts or changes in enforcement; or changes in the countries, persons or technologies targeted by these regulations could delay us introducing new products in international markets, decrease use of our products by, or decrease our ability to export or sell our products to existing or potential customers with international operations, adversely affecting our business and results of operations.
Though we have been granted priority review designation for certain drug candidates, such designation may not lead to a faster regulatory review or regulatory approval process, and we might not receive such designation for additional drug candidates in the future.
If the FDA determines that a drug candidate offers a treatment for a serious condition and, if approved, the drug product would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness, the FDA may designate the drug candidate for priority review. The FDA has broad discretion with respect to whether or not to grant priority review status to a drug candidate, so even if we believe a particular drug candidate is eligible for such designation or status, the FDA may decide not to grant it. While we have been granted priority review designation for REC-4881 for the potential treatment of FAP, a priority review designation does not necessarily result in an expedited regulatory review or regulatory approval process or necessarily confer any advantage with respect to regulatory approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. Receiving priority review from the FDA does not guarantee regulatory approval within the six-month review cycle or at all. We may request priority review for additional drug candidates from time to time.
Breakthrough therapy designation and fast track designation by the FDA, even if granted for any of our drug candidates, may not lead to a faster development, regulatory review, or regulatory approval process, and each designation does not increase the likelihood that any of our drug candidates will receive marketing approval in the United States.
We may seek a breakthrough therapy designation for some of our drug candidates. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For drugs that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor of the trial can help to identify the most efficient path for clinical development while minimizing the number of patients placed in ineffective control regimens. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA may also be eligible for priority review and accelerated approval. Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our drug candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a breakthrough therapy designation for a drug candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to therapies considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our drug candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that such drug candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.
We may seek fast track designation for some of our drug candidates from time to time. If a drug candidate is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the drug candidate demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this condition, the drug sponsor may apply for fast track designation. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant this designation, so even if we believe a particular drug candidate is eligible for this designation, we cannot ensure that the FDA would decide to grant it. Even if we do receive fast track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, regulatory review or regulatory approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may withdraw fast track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. Fast track designation alone does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s priority review procedures.
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The FDA, EMA, and other regulatory authorities may implement amended or additional regulations or restrictions on the development and commercialization of our drug candidates.
The FDA, other agencies at both the federal and state level, and U.S. Congressional committees have expressed interest in further regulating the small molecule pharmaceutical industry, as have the EMA and regulatory authorities in other countries. Such action may delay or prevent commercialization of some or all of our drug candidates. Adverse developments in clinical trials conducted by others may cause the FDA or other oversight bodies to change the requirements for regulatory approval of any of our drug candidates. These regulatory review agencies and committees, and any new requirements or guidelines they promulgate, may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies or trials, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent regulatory approval and commercialization of our drug candidates, or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. As we advance our drug candidates, we will be required to consult with these regulatory authorities and comply with applicable regulatory requirements and guidelines. If we fail to do so, we may be required to delay or discontinue development of such drug candidates. These additional processes may result in a review and approval process that is longer than we otherwise would have expected. Delays as a result of a more stringent or lengthier regulatory approval process, or further restrictions on the development of our drug candidates, could be costly and could negatively impact our ability to complete clinical trials and commercialize our current and future drug candidates in a timely manner, if at all.
Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in other jurisdictions.
Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain regulatory approval in any other jurisdiction. For example, even if the FDA or EMA grants marketing approval of a product candidate, comparable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing, marketing and promotion and reimbursement of the product candidate in those countries. However, a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials as clinical trials conducted in one jurisdiction may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions outside the United States, a product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that jurisdiction. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for our products is also subject to approval.
Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and establishing and maintaining compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. If we or any future collaborator fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets or fail to receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our potential product candidates will be harmed.
Even if our product candidates receive regulatory approval, they will be subject to significant post-marketing regulatory requirements and oversight.
Any regulatory approvals that we may receive for our product candidates will require the submission of reports to regulatory authorities and on-going surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate, may contain significant limitations related to use restrictions for specified age groups, warnings, precautions or contraindications, and may include burdensome post-approval study or risk management requirements and regulatory inspection. For example, the FDA may require a REMS in order to approve our product candidates, which could entail requirements for a medication guide, physician training and communication plans or additional elements to ensure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. If the FDA finds that the clinical data used to support approval do not sufficiently represent the diversity of the real-world patient population, the FDA may require additional data on underrepresented populations post-approval, including as a post-marketing requirement, or the FDA may enter into a written agreement with the applicant to collect additional data as a post-marketing commitment. In addition, if the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities approve our product candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion, import, export and recordkeeping for our product candidates will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and
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other post-marketing information and reports, registration, as well as on-going compliance with cGMPs and GCPs for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. In addition, manufacturers of drug products and their facilities are subject to continual review and periodic, unannounced inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP regulations and standards. If we or a regulatory agency discover previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facilities where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product, the manufacturing facility or us, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing. In addition, failure to comply with FDA, EMA and other comparable foreign regulatory requirements may subject our company to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions, including:
• delays in or the rejection of product approvals;
• restrictions on our ability to conduct clinical trials, including full or partial clinical holds on ongoing or planned trials;
• restrictions on the products, manufacturers or manufacturing process;
• warning or untitled letters;
• civil and criminal penalties;
• injunctions;
• suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals;
• product seizures, detentions or import bans;
• voluntary or mandatory product recalls and publicity requirements;
• total or partial suspension of production; and
• imposition of restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing requirements.
Moreover, the FDA strictly regulates the promotional claims that may be made about drug products. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, and generate revenue.
The FDA and other regulatory agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses.
If any of our product candidates are approved and we are found to have improperly promoted off-label uses of those products, we may become subject to significant liability. The FDA and other regulatory agencies strictly regulate the promotional claims that may be made about prescription products, such as our product candidates, if approved. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA or such other regulatory agencies as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. If we are found to have promoted such off-label uses, we may become subject to significant liability. The U.S. federal government has levied large civil and criminal fines against companies for alleged improper promotion of off-label use and has enjoined several companies from engaging in off-label promotion. The FDA has also requested that companies enter into consent decrees or permanent injunctions under which specified promotional conduct is changed or curtailed. If we cannot successfully manage the promotion of our product candidates, if approved, we could become subject to significant liability, which would materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.
We may face difficulties from changes to current regulations and future legislation. Healthcare legislative reform measures in the U.S. and abroad, such as changes in healthcare spending and policy, may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and prospects.
The policies of the FDA, the competent authorities of the E.U. Member States, the EMA, the European Commission and other comparable regulatory authorities responsible for clinical trials may change and additional government regulations may be enacted. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright , which gives deference to regulatory agencies’ statutory interpretations in litigation against federal government agencies, such as the FDA, where the law is ambiguous. This landmark Supreme Court decision may invite various
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stakeholders to bring lawsuits against the FDA and other federal agencies to challenge longstanding decisions and policies, which can lead to uncertainty in the industry and disrupt the agencies’ normal operations. Further, changes in the leadership of the FDA and other federal agencies under the new Trump administration can result in changes in agency funding, operations, policies and regulatory actions, which may impact our clinical development plans and timelines.
We operate in a highly regulated industry, and new laws and regulations, or new interpretations of laws and regulations by regulatory authorities or the courts, related to healthcare availability and the method of delivery of, or payment for, healthcare products and services could negatively impact our business. The U.S. and many foreign jurisdictions have enacted or proposed legislative and regulatory changes affecting the healthcare system that could impact our clinical trials; prevent or delay marketing approval of our current or future drug candidates; restrict or regulate potential post-approval activities; and/or affect our ability to profitably sell a drug product for which we obtain marketing approval. For any of our drug candidates that receive marketing approval, such laws and regulations could require, for example, (i) changes to our manufacturing arrangements; (ii) additions or modifications to drug product labeling; (iii) the recall or discontinuation of our drug products; and/or (iv) additional record-keeping and data transfer requirements.
There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the U.S. federal and state levels and abroad directed at increasing the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering healthcare costs. For example, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers in the U.S., and significantly impacted the pharmaceutical industry. Since its enactment, there have been legislative and judicial efforts to repeal, replace, or change some or all of the ACA. In June 2021, the United States Supreme Court held that Texas and other challengers had no legal standing to challenge the ACA, dismissing the case without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA. It is unclear how future litigation and healthcare measures promulgated by the new Trump administration will impact the implementation of the ACA, our business, financial condition and results of operations. Complying with any new legislation or reversing changes implemented under the ACA could be time-intensive and expensive, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted. These changes included aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, effective April 1, 2013, which will stay in effect through 2032, unless Congress takes additional action. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on customers for our drugs, if approved, and accordingly, our financial operations.
Moreover, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny recently over the manner in which drug manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. For example, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 eliminated the statutory cap on Medicaid Drug Rebate Program rebates that manufacturers pay to state Medicaid programs. Elimination of this cap may require pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay more in rebates than it receives on the sale of products, which could have a material impact on our business. In August 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), which includes prescription drug provisions that have significant implications for the pharmaceutical industry and Medicare beneficiaries, including allowing the federal government to negotiate a maximum fair price for certain high-priced single-source Medicare drugs, imposing penalties and excise tax for manufacturers that fail to comply with the drug price negotiation requirements, requiring inflation rebates for all Medicare Part B and Part D drugs, with limited exceptions, if their drug prices increase faster than inflation, and redesigning Medicare Part D to reduce out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for beneficiaries, among other changes. Various industry stakeholders, including various pharmaceutical companies and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, have initiated lawsuits against the federal government asserting that the price negotiation provisions of the IRA are unconstitutional. Further, uncertainties created by the IRA, including its long-term impact on drug pricing, may negatively impact investments, company valuation, royalty-based earnings, mergers, and acquisitions in the industry. The current administration has issued executive orders focused on decreasing prescription drug prices, including directing the Secretary of HHS to establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy drugs directly from manufacturers who sell at a most-favored-nation price and directing the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure foreign countries are
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not engaged in practices that purposefully and unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the U.S. In November 2025, CMS announced a voluntary initiative called the GENEROUS Model (GENErating cost Reductions for U.S. Medicaid Model) to introduce the option of most-favored-nation pricing to the Medicaid program, whereby a drug manufacturer may voluntarily offer supplemental rebates to participating state Medicaid programs for a manufacturer’s covered outpatient drugs. Government agreements with pharmaceutical companies and other measures that use most-favored-nation pricing targets for prescription drugs or that increase generic and biosimilar drug entry sooner than expected can have a material adverse effect on our industry, ability to set adequate pricing for new drugs to recover R&D costs, ability to attract potential investors and potential buyers in the future, or the pricing of our approved product in the U.S. and in foreign countries. The impact of future legislative, executive, and administrative actions and agency rules implemented by the current administration on us and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole is unclear. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize our product candidates if approved. Complying with any new legislation and regulatory changes could be time-intensive and expensive, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business, and expose us to greater liability.
At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. A number of states are considering or have recently enacted state drug price transparency and reporting laws that could substantially increase our compliance burdens and expose us to greater liability under such state laws once we begin commercialization after obtaining regulatory approval for any of our products. In addition, the FDA has authorized the state of Florida to develop Section 804 Importation Programs to import certain prescription drugs from Canada for a limited period time to help reduce drug costs, provided that Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration meets the requirements set forth by the FDA. Other states may follow Florida. We are unable to predict the future course of federal or state healthcare legislation in the United States directed at broadening the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. These and any further changes in the law or regulatory framework that reduce our revenue or increase our costs could also have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our relationships with healthcare professionals, clinical investigators, CROs and third party payors in connection with our current and future business activities may be subject to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, transparency laws, government price reporting, and health information privacy and security laws, which could expose us to significant losses, including, among other things, criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, exclusion from governmental healthcare programs, reputational harm, administrative burdens and diminished profits and future earnings.
Healthcare providers and third-party payors play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with healthcare professionals, clinical investigators, CROs, third-party payors and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we research, as well as market, sell and distribute our products for which we obtain marketing approval. Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations may include the following:
• the federal AKS prohibits, among other things, persons and entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order or recommendation of, any good or service, for which payment may be made under a federal healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid;
• the federal false claims laws, including the civil FCA, which can be enforced by private citizens through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, and civil monetary penalties laws, prohibit individuals or entities from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent or making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;
• the federal HIPAA, prohibits, among other things, executing or attempting to execute a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or making false statements relating to healthcare matters;
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• HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and their implementing regulations, also imposes obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, on covered entities, which are health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and certain health care providers, as those terms are defined by HIPAA, and their respective business associates, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;
• the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires applicable manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, with specific exceptions, to annually report to CMS information regarding payments and other transfers of value to covered recipients, including physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), certain non-physician healthcare providers (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and teaching hospitals, as well as information regarding ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members; and
• analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance regulations promulgated by the federal government and may require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers, marketing expenditures, or drug pricing; state and local laws that require the registration of pharmaceutical sales and medical representatives; state laws that govern the privacy and security of health information in some circumstances (such as Washington’s My Health, My Data Act, which, among other things, provides for a private right of action), many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.
Efforts to ensure that our current and future business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare and data privacy laws and regulations will involve on-going substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from participation in government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, integrity oversight and reporting obligations, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. Defending against any such actions can be costly, time-consuming and may require significant financial and personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any such actions that may be brought against us, our business may be impaired. Further, if any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business is found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.
We are subject to U.S. and foreign laws regarding privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity that could entail substantial compliance costs, while the failure to comply could subject us to significant liability.
Privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity have become significant issues in the U.S., Europe, and other jurisdictions where we conduct or may in the future conduct our operations. The regulatory framework for the collection, use, safeguarding, sharing, transfer, and other processing of health and other personal information is rapidly evolving worldwide and is likely to remain in flux for the foreseeable future. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to us are often uncertain, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among different jurisdictions.
In the U.S., HIPAA, as amended by the HITECH Act, imposes on covered entities certain requirements relating to the privacy, security, and transmission of individually identifiable health information. The legislation also increased the civil and criminal penalties that may be assessed for violations and gave state attorneys general the authority to file civil actions in federal courts to enforce the HIPAA rules. In addition, for clinical trials conducted in the U.S., any personal information that is collected is further regulated by the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects. Privacy laws are also being enacted or considered at the state level, including significant privacy
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legislation in California, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended and supplemented by the California Privacy Rights Act (the CCPA). Numerous other states have proposed, and in many cases enacted, laws and regulations addressing privacy and cybersecurity. Many of these are general privacy statutes similar to the CCPA. While these laws provide for certain exceptions for protected health information subject to HIPAA and clinical trial regulations, these and other state privacy laws may impact our business activities, and there continues to be uncertainty about how these laws will be interpreted and enforced. Other states have passed privacy legislation, including general privacy legislation similar to the CCPA, and legislation such as Washington’s My Health, My Data Act, that also may impact our business activities, in the future and additional states are evaluating similar legislation.
In the event we enroll subjects in clinical trials in the European Union (EU) or other jurisdictions, or otherwise acquire or process personal data of individuals in those jurisdictions, we may be subject to additional restrictions and obligations relating to the collection, use, storage, transfer, and other processing of this data. In Europe, the EU and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulations (respectively, the GDPR and the UK GDPR, together the GDPR) each impose strict requirements around the processing of personal data: Under the GDPR, companies may face temporary or definitive bans on data processing and other corrective actions; fines of up to 20 million Euros under the E.U. GDPR, 17.5 million pounds sterling under the U.K. GDPR or, in each case, 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater; or private litigation related to processing of personal data brought by classes of data subjects or consumer protection organizations authorized at law to represent their interests. Other countries outside of Europe and the United Kingdom have enacted or are considering enacting similar comprehensive data privacy and security laws and regulations, which could increase the cost and complexity of operating our business.
In the ordinary course of business, we may transfer personal data from Europe and other jurisdictions to the U.S. or other countries. Europe and other jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring data to be localized or limiting the transfer of personal data to other countries. The European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom each restricts the transfer of personal data to the United States and other countries whose privacy laws it generally believes are inadequate. Other jurisdictions may adopt similarly stringent interpretations of their data localization and cross-border data transfer laws. Certain mechanisms may be used to transfer personal data from the EEA and United Kingdom to the United States in compliance with law, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the United Kingdom’s International Data Transfer Agreement and United Kingdom Transfer Addendum, and the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the United Kingdom’s Extension to such framework (which allows for transfers for relevant U.S.-based organizations who self-certify compliance and participate in the relevant framework and/or extension), such mechanisms are subject to potential legal challenges, and there is no assurance that we can satisfy or rely on these measures to lawfully transfer personal data to the United States. If there is no lawful manner for us to transfer personal data from the EEA, the United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions to the United States, or if the requirements for a legally-compliant transfer are too onerous, we could face significant adverse consequences, including the interruption or degradation of our operations, the need to relocate business or data processing activities to other jurisdictions (such as Europe) at significant expense, increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines and penalties, the inability to transfer data and work with partners, vendors and other third parties, and injunctions against our processing or transferring of personal data necessary to operate our business. Additionally, companies that transfer personal data out of the EEA and United Kingdom to other jurisdictions, particularly to the United States, are subject to increased scrutiny from regulators, individual litigants, and activist groups. Some European regulators have ordered certain companies to suspend or permanently cease certain transfers out of Europe for allegedly violating the GDPR’s cross-border data transfer limitations.
We may need to take additional steps, such as new contractual negotiations or modifications to our policies or practices relating to cross-border transfers of personal data, to comply with these restrictions and obligations. More generally, laws and regulations governing privacy and data protection exist in many other countries around the world, and these laws (which are evolving and expanding) create complicated and potentially inconsistent obligations that may impact our business.
The increasing number, complexity, and potential inconsistency of current and future laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity in the U.S. and other countries make our compliance obligations more difficult and costly. This is particularly true with respect to healthcare data or other personal information acquired as a result of our research activities and clinical trials. More recently, the Department of Justice recently issued a final rule which took effect in April 2025 that places limitations, and in some cases prohibitions, on certain transfers of sensitive personal data to data to business partners located in China or with other specified links to China (and other designated countries). These rules also may broadly require us to extract promises from other third-party service providers that they will not transfer data we share with them onward to parties linked to countries of
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concern. If we fail to comply with applicable laws, regulations, or other actual or asserted obligations relating to privacy, data protection or cybersecurity, or experience a security breach or incident – or if a third party with whom we share personal information or who processes such information for us fails to comply with applicable actual or asserted obligations or experiences a security breach or incident – or if any of these is reported or perceived to have occurred, it could lead to government investigations, enforcement actions, and other proceedings, as well as civil claims and litigation against us. We could incur substantial costs to defend against any such claims or proceedings and may also be held liable for significant fines, penalties, and monetary judgments. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, reputation, and prospects, including but not limited to: loss of customers; interruptions or stoppages in our business operations (including clinical trials); interruptions or stoppages of data collection needed to train our algorithms; inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or substantial changes to our business model or operations.
Regulatory and legislative developments related to the use of AI could adversely affect our use of such technologies in our products, services, and business.
We use AI throughout our business, including in our drug discovery processes and technology. As the regulatory framework for AI (including generative AI) evolves, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. The regulatory framework for AI and similar technologies is changing rapidly. It is possible that new laws and regulations will be adopted in the United States and in non-U.S. jurisdictions, or that existing laws and regulations may be interpreted in ways that would affect the operation of our drug discovery platform and data analytics and the way in which we use AI and similar technologies. We may not be able to adequately anticipate or respond to these evolving laws and regulations, and we may need to expend additional resources to adjust our offerings in certain jurisdictions if applicable legal frameworks are inconsistent across jurisdictions. In addition, because these technologies are themselves highly complex and rapidly developing, it is not possible to predict all of the legal or regulatory risks that may arise relating to our use of such technologies. Further, the cost to comply with such laws or regulations could be significant and would increase our operating expenses, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
For example, in Europe, the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) entered into force on August 1, 2024. The AI Act establishes a risk-based governance framework for regulating high-risk AI systems operating in or being used by the EU market. The AI Act could impact our products, business, and use of AI, even if we do not have a direct presence in the EU. This framework categorizes AI systems based on the risks associated with such AI systems’ intended purposes as creating “unacceptable”, “high” or “limited” risks. While the AI Act has not yet been enforced, there is a risk that our current or future AI-powered software or applications may be categorized as “high” risk or “limited” risk, obligating us to comply with the applicable requirements of the AI Act, which may impose additional costs on us, increase our risk of liability, or adversely affect our business. For example, “high” risk AI systems are required, amongst other things, to implement and maintain certain risk and quality management systems, conduct certain conformity and risk assessments, use appropriate data governance and management practices, including in development and training, and meet certain standards related to testing, technical robustness, transparency, human oversight, and cybersecurity. Even if our AI systems are not categorized as “high” risk we may be subject to additional transparency and other obligations for “low” risk AI system providers. The AI Act sets forth certain penalties, including fines of the greater of EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover (as defined in the AI Act) for the prior year for violations related to offering prohibited AI-systems or data governance, fines of the greater of EUR 15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover for the prior year for violations related to the requirements for “high” risk AI systems, and fines of the greater of EUR 7.5 million or 1.5% of worldwide annual turnover for the prior year for violations related to supplying incorrect, incomplete or misleading information to the EU and member state authorities. The AI Act’s regulatory framework is expected to have a material impact on the way AI is regulated in the EU and across the world. Other jurisdictions also have proposed, and in certain cases enacted, laws and regulations addressing the use and development of AI. For example, in the United States, numerous states have proposed or have enacted laws addressing these matters, and in the United Kingdom, the government has published a white paper calling for existing regulators to implement certain specific principles to guide and inform the responsible development and use of AI. The AI Act and other evolving laws and regulations addressing AI, together with developing guidance and/or decisions in this area, may affect our use of AI and our ability to provide and to improve our services, require additional compliance measures and changes to our operations and processes, result in increased compliance costs and potential increases in civil claims against us, and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Our employees, independent contractors, consultants, and vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading laws, which could cause significant liability for us and harm our reputation.
We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, independent contractors, CROs, consultants, and vendors. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless, or negligent conduct that causes us to fail to comply with, among other things, FDA regulations or similar regulations of comparable foreign regulatory authorities, drug manufacturing standards, and healthcare fraud and abuse laws. Such misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, as well as violations of HIPAA and other laws relating to privacy, data protection and cybersecurity in the U.S and foreign jurisdictions, including the GDPR. We are also exposed to risks in connection with potential insider trading violations by employees or others affiliated with us. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee or other individual misconduct. The precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses, or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from noncompliance with applicable laws, standards, regulations, or codes of conduct. If any such actions are instituted against us, whether with or without merit, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, they may result in damages, fines, and other sanctions that could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and reputation.
We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, independent contractors, CROs, consultants, and vendors. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless, and/or negligent conduct that causes us to fail to comply with FDA regulations or similar regulations of comparable foreign regulatory authorities, provide accurate information to the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, comply with manufacturing standards, comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations and similar laws and regulations established and enforced by comparable foreign regulatory authorities, report financial information or data accurately, or disclose unauthorized activities to us. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. This could include violations of HIPAA, other U.S. federal and state law, and requirements of foreign jurisdictions, including the GDPR. We are also exposed to risks in connection with any insider trading violations by employees or others affiliated with us, including inadvertent violations such as a sale of pledged shares by a lender when the pledgor is in possession of material nonpublic information.
It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws, standards, regulations, guidance, or codes of conduct. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred and our employees may, from time to time, bring lawsuits against us for employment issues, including injury, discrimination, wage and hour disputes, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, or other employment issues. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business, results of operations, financial condition, reputation, and prospects.
Climate change-related risks and uncertainties and legal or regulatory responses to climate change could negatively impact our results of operations, financial condition and/or reputation.
We are subject to increasing climate-related risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of our control. Climate change may result in more frequent severe weather events, potential changes in precipitation patterns, and extreme variability in weather patterns, which can disrupt our operations as well as those of our vendors, suppliers, and collaborators.
The transition to lower greenhouse gas emissions technology, the effects of carbon pricing, and changes in public sentiment, regulations, taxes, public mandates, or requirements and increases in climate-related lawsuits, insurance premiums, and implementation of more robust disaster recovery and business continuity plans could increase costs
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to maintain or resume our operations or achieve any sustainability commitments we make, which would negatively impact our results of operations.
We are reviewing our impact on climate change and determining if it is economically feasible for us to be carbon neutral by 2030. We are also working on other environmental, social and governance goals. Execution and achievement of any future commitments or goals are subject to risks and uncertainties. Given the focus on sustainable investing and corporate and social responsibility, if we fail to make a climate change commitment by 2030 and adopt policies and practices to enhance environmental, social and governance initiatives, our reputation and our customer and other stakeholder relationships could be negatively impacted and it may be more difficult for us to compete effectively or gain access to financing on acceptable terms when needed, which would have an adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition, reputation and prospects.
RISKS RELATED TO EMPLOYEE MATTERS AND MANAGING GROWTH
Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and experienced scientists or technologists, and to attract, retain, and motivate qualified personnel.
We are highly dependent on the research and development, clinical, and business development expertise of our executive, management, scientific, technological, and clinical teams. Although we have entered into employment agreements with our executive officers, certain officers have, and any of them may in the future terminate their employment with us at any time or may not be able to perform the services we need in the future. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers, other key employees or qualified consultants could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization or other business objectives in our drug discovery business or harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Replacing any executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval of, and commercialize products in the life sciences industry. In addition, our consultants and advisors may have commitments or non-competition obligations under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us.
Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, manufacturing, and sales and marketing personnel is also critical to our success. For example, we rely on our employees to help operate and repair our equipment, and on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategies. Because of the specialized scientific nature of our business, we are highly dependent upon attracting and retaining qualified scientific, technical, and managerial personnel. While we strive to reduce the impact of the potential loss of existing employees by having an established organizational talent review process that identifies successors and potential talent needs, there is still significant competition for qualified personnel in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology fields and technology fields. Therefore, we may not be able to attract and retain the qualified personnel necessary for the continued development of our business. The loss of the services of existing personnel, as well as the failure to recruit and train additional key scientific, technical, and managerial personnel in a timely manner, could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects. We may also experience difficulties recruiting scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions.
In addition, increases in salaries and wages, extensions of personal and other leave policies, other governmental regulations affecting labor costs, and a diminishing pool of potential qualified personnel when the unemployment rate falls could significantly increase our labor costs and make it more difficult to retain, attract, and motivate qualified personnel, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial performance, and cash reserves. As a result of inflationary pressures and other initiatives, our net losses may increase and we may need to raise capital sooner than otherwise anticipated. Because we employ a large workforce, any salary or wage increase and/or expansion of benefits mandates will have a particularly significant impact on our labor costs. Our vendors, contractors and business partners are similarly impacted by wage and benefit cost inflation, and many have or will increase their price for goods, construction and services in order to offset their increasing labor costs. If one or more of our clinical trials are unsuccessful, it may become more challenging to recruit and retain qualified scientific personnel.
We currently have operations in the United States (Salt Lake City and New York), The United Kingdom (London and Milton Park) and Canada (Montreal). While these locations are in or near major biotechnology and technology hubs,
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we face intense competition in these markets for talent. In addition, many of the other pharmaceutical, biotechnology or technology companies that we compete against for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles, and a longer history in the industry than we do. They also may provide more diverse opportunities, better chances for career advancement and more attractive compensation packages. If we are unable to compete effectively in these specific geographic markets or if we are unable to recruit personnel willing to relocate to them, our ability to hire qualified personnel will be limited.
If we are unable to hire, retain, and motivate highly qualified senior executives and personnel, the rate and success with which we can discover and develop drug candidates, our ability to pursue our growth strategy, and our business may be adversely impacted.
If we achieve success in our clinical trials, we would need to scale our operations to support commercialization, and we may encounter difficulties in managing this growth.
While we do not anticipate significant growth in our workforce or the scope of our operations in the near-term, our long-term strategy depends on the successful development and subsequent commercialization of our product candidates. If we achieve positive clinical results, we expect to experience a period of rapid scaling to build the necessary development, regulatory, sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities. To manage this future growth, we must continue to improve our managerial, operational, and financial systems. Shifting from a research-focused organization to a commercial-stage company presents significant operational and cultural challenges. We may not be able to effectively manage this future expansion or recruit and train the additional qualified personnel required for commercialization. If we are unable to manage this long-term scaling effectively, our ability to generate revenue from our product candidates would be compromised.
To manage future growth, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational, and financial systems; expand our facilities; and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the limited experience of our management team in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. The expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.
We may acquire additional businesses, products, form strategic alliances, or create joint ventures and we may not realize the benefits of such transactions.
We may acquire additional businesses or products, form strategic alliances, or create joint ventures with third parties that we believe will complement or augment our existing business. If we acquire businesses with promising markets or technologies, we may not be able to realize the benefit of acquiring such businesses if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture. We may encounter numerous difficulties in developing, manufacturing, and marketing any new products resulting from a strategic alliance or acquisition that delay or prevent us from realizing their expected benefits or enhancing our business. We cannot ensure that, following any such acquisition, we will achieve the expected synergies to justify the transaction.
We have recently undertaken a cost reduction plan and may do so again in the future. The assumptions underlying these activities may prove to be inaccurate, or we may fail to achieve the expected benefits therefrom.
As part of our strategic positioning to reduce costs and adapt to regulatory policy uncertainty, we announced in June 2025 a cost reduction plan to promote the long-term sustainability and scalability of the Company. As part of this plan, we have reduced our workforce. This reduction in force, and any other future reductions, and the attrition that may occur following them, result in the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise and the reallocation and combination of certain roles and responsibilities across the organization, all of which could adversely affect our operations. These actions and other additional measures we might take to reduce costs could strain our workforce, divert management attention, yield attrition beyond our intended reduction in force, reduce employee morale, cause us to delay, limit, reduce or eliminate certain development plans or otherwise interfere with our ability to operate and grow our business effectively, each of which could have an adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. We may not complete the current or any cost reduction plan and reorganization on
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the anticipated timetable, and even if successfully completed, we may not achieve the anticipated cost savings, operating efficiencies or other benefits of such activities.
Increased labor costs, potential organization of our workforce, employee strikes and other labor-related disruption may adversely affect our operations.
None of our employees are represented by a labor union or, other than as set out below, subject to a collective bargaining agreement. We provide no assurance that our labor costs going forward will remain competitive for various reasons, such as: (i) our workforce may organize in the future and labor agreements may be put in place that have significantly higher labor rates and company obligations; (ii) our competitors may maintain significantly lower labor costs, thereby reducing or eliminating our comparative advantages vis-à-vis one or more of our competitors or the larger industry; and (iii) our labor costs may increase in connection with our growth.
RISKS RELATED TO THE SECURITIES MARKETS AND OWNERSHIP OF OUR CLASS A COMMON STOCK
The dual-class structure of our common stock affects the concentration of voting power, which limits our Class A common stockholders’ ability to influence the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of our board of directors, the adoption of amendments to our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and the approval of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transactions.
Our Class A common stock, the class of our common stock listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market, has one vote per share, and our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share. As of December 31, 2025, Dr. Gibson, our former CEO and Chair of the board of directors, and his affiliates held 159,341 shares of our Class A common stock and all of the issued and outstanding shares of our Class B common stock, representing approximately 9.6% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock, which voting power may increase over time as Dr. Gibson exercises or vests in equity awards. If all such equity awards held by Dr. Gibson had been exercised or vested and exchanged for shares of Class B common stock as of December 31, 2025, Dr. Gibson and his affiliates would hold approximately 10.8% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock.
As a result, Dr. Gibson may be able to significantly influence any action requiring the approval of our stockholders, including the election of our board of directors, the adoption of amendments to our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and the approval of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transaction. Dr. Gibson may have interests that differ from our Class A common stockholders and may vote in a way with which our Class A stockholders disagree and which may be adverse to our Class A stockholders’ interests. The concentrated control of Dr. Gibson may have the effect of delaying, preventing, or deterring a change in control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale in our company, and, thus, may affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
Future transfers by the holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares automatically converting into shares of Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers for estate planning. Transfers or exchanges of shares of Class B common stock may result in the issuance of additional shares of Class A common stock and such issuances will be dilutive to holders of our Class A common stock. In addition, each share of Class B common stock will convert automatically into one share of Class A common stock upon the earliest of (i) April 16, 2028; (ii) the date specified by written consent or agreement of the holders of 66 2/3% of our then outstanding shares of Class B common stock; (iii) nine months after Dr. Gibson ceases to hold any positions as an officer or director with the Company; or (iv) nine months after the death or disability of Dr. Gibson. We refer to the date on which such final conversion of all outstanding shares of Class B common stock pursuant to the terms of amended and restated certificate of incorporation occurs as the Final Conversion Date.
Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant influence over matters subject to stockholder approval.
As of December 31, 2025, our executive officers, directors, holders of 5% or more of our capital stock, and their respective affiliates, including Dr. Gibson and his affiliates, beneficially owned shares representing more than 20.2% of our voting power. These stockholders, acting together, may be able to impact matters requiring stockholder approval, including the elections of directors; amendments of our organizational documents; and approval of any
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merger, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transaction. This beneficial ownership concentration may also have the effect of deterring, delaying, or preventing unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our capital stock that other stockholders may feel are in their best interest. The interests of this group of stockholders may not always coincide with each other’s interests or the interests of other stockholders, and this group may act in a manner that advances its best interests and not necessarily those of other stockholders generally, including seeking a premium value for their Class A common stock, which might therefore affect the market price for our Class A common stock.
The price of our Class A common stock may be volatile and fluctuate substantially, which could result in substantial losses for holders of our common stock.
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been volatile since our initial public offering and it is likely that the price will fluctuate substantially in the future. The stock price may be influenced by many factors, a number of which are beyond our control, which factors include but are not limited to the following:
• the success of competitive products or technologies;
• results of clinical trials of our drug candidates or those of our competitors;
• regulatory or legal developments in the United States and other countries;
• developments or disputes concerning patent applications, issued patents, or other proprietary rights;
• the recruitment or departure of key personnel;
• the level of expenses related to any of our drug candidates or clinical development programs;
• the results of our efforts to discover, develop, acquire, or in-license additional drug candidates or drug products;
• actual or anticipated changes in estimates as to financial results, development timelines, or recommendations by securities analysts;
• variations in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived to be similar to us;
• changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems;
• inflation, general supply chain matters, global political instability, or warfare;
• performance of the overall stock market and shares of biotechnology companies in particular, as well as general economic conditions; and
• the other factors described in this “Risk Factors” section.
As a result of this volatility, holders of our Class A common stock may not be able to sell their stock at or above the price they originally paid for it, which could result in the loss of a part or all of their investment.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that one or more holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares, could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
Also, shares of Class A common stock that are either subject to outstanding equity awards or that are reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans are eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. Some holders of shares of our Class A common stock issued and issuable upon conversion of Class B common stock are entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares purchased by affiliates.
We have, and may in the future, issue additional securities in connection with any financings, investments, or acquisitions, and the number of shares issued could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding common stock. For example, we issued shares of Class A common stock in private placement financings in October 2022 and July 2023; in an underwritten public offering in June 2024; and from time-to-time in “at-the-market” offerings, including in February 2026 when we entered into a sales agreement for an at-the-market offering for the sale of up to $300 million in Class A common stock (see “Part II - Item 9B - Other Information” for further details). In addition to
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capital raising issuances, in connection with the acquisitions of Cyclica and Valence in May 2023, we issued 12.4 million shares of our Class A common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into Class A common stock; in November 2024, we issued approximately 102.1 million shares of our Class A common stock in connection with our business combination with Exscientia; and in July and August 2025 we issued an aggregate of 3.9 million shares of our Class A common stock in connection with our purchase of RallyBio Corporation’s 50% membership interest in the ENPP1 joint venture, RE Ventures I, LLC. We have also issued an aggregate of 13.8 million shares of our Class A common stock to Tempus in payment for license fees under the terms of the Tempus Agreement and may issue additional shares in the future under the Tempus Agreement.
The sale of a significant number of shares of our Class A common stock under any of the above circumstances, or otherwise, in the public market at any time, or the perception that they may be sold, could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our Class A common stock. In that event, holders of our Class A common stock may not be able to sell their stock at or above the price they originally paid for it, which could result in the loss of part or all of their investment.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America is the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, another State court in Delaware or the federal district court for the District of Delaware, is the exclusive forum for the following, except for any claim as to which such court determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of such court, and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of such court within 10 days following such determination, which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than such court or for which such court does not have subject matter jurisdiction:
• any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;
• any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty;
• any action asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended- and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; and
• any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine.
This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") or any other clai m for which the U.S. federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Our amended and restated bylaws further provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.
These ex clusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, and may result in increased costs to stockholders of bringing a claim, each of which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. There is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provisions, and the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ charter documents has been challenged in legal proceedings. It is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable, and if a court were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could seriously harm our business.
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Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law might discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the market prices of our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could depress the market prices of our Class A common stock by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions, among other things:
• establish a classified board of directors so that not all members of our board are elected at one time;
• permit only the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill vacancies on the board;
• authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board could use to implement a stockholder rights plan (also known as a “poison pill”);
• eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders;
• prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
• prohibit cumulative voting;
• authorize our board of directors to amend the bylaws;
• establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings; and
• require a super-majority vote of stockholders to amend some provisions described above.
In addition, Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (DGCL) prohibits a publicly-held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder, generally a person which together with its affiliates owns, or within the last three years has owned, 15% of our voting stock, for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, or DGCL that has the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of Class A common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our stock.
Our actual operating results may differ significantly from any guidance that we provide.
From time to time, we may provide guidance in our quarterly earnings releases, or otherwise, regarding our future performance that represents our management’s estimates as of the date of release. This guidance, which would include forward-looking statements, would be based on projections prepared by our management. Neither our registered public accountants nor any other independent expert or outside party would compile or examine the projections. Accordingly, no such person would express any opinion or any other form of assurance with respect to the projections.
Projections are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future business decisions, some of which will change. The principal reason that we would release guidance is to provide a basis for our management to discuss our business outlook with analysts and investors. We do not accept any responsibility for any projections or reports published by any such third parties. Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions underlying any guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. Accordingly, our guidance would be only an estimate of what management believes is realizable as of the date of release. Actual results may vary from our guidance and the variations may be material.
As a public company, we are obligated to develop and maintain a proper and effective system of disclosure controls and internal controls over financial reporting. Any failure to maintain the adequacy of this system and these internal controls may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.
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We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations of the applicable listing standards of The Nasdaq Stock Market. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs; make some activities more difficult, time-consuming, and costly; and place significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file or submit with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that information required to be disclosed in reports we will file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive and financial officers to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources, including accounting-related costs and significant management oversight.
Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. In addition, changes in accounting principles or interpretations could also challenge our internal controls and require that we establish new business processes, systems, and controls to accommodate such changes. We have limited experience with implementing the systems and controls that are necessary to operate as a public company, as well as adopting changes in accounting principles or interpretations mandated by the relevant regulatory bodies. Our chief financial officer has only been the chief financial officer of a publicly traded company since our initial public offering and our chief executive officer has only been the chief executive officer of a publicly traded company since our initial public offering. Neither has been involved in the long-term operations of a public company. Additionally, if these new systems, controls, or standards and the associated process changes do not give rise to the benefits that we expect or do not operate as intended, it could adversely affect our financial reporting systems and processes, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial reports, or the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Moreover, our business may be harmed if we experience problems with any new systems and controls that result in delays in their implementation or increased costs to correct any post-implementation issues that may arise.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we are required to furnish a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment must include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. If we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. For example, in connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023, our management and auditors identified a material weakness related to the Company’s processes to estimate costs used to calculate revenue related to its revenue license agreement, which was remediated as of December 31, 2025. Further, in connection with the business combination with Exscientia, material weaknesses related to internal controls over financial reporting were identified related to ineffective process and controls, which resulted in an immaterial misstatement to unearned revenue and unearned revenue, non-current in our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2024, which remain unremediated as of December 31, 2025 (see “Part II - Item 9A - Controls and Procedures” for further details). If we fail to maintain effective internal controls, we may be unable to produce timely and accurate financial statements, and we may conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, which could adversely impact our investors’ confidence and our stock price. We cannot assure you that we will be able to remediate such material weaknesses or that there will not be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future.
Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition, or results of operations. If at any time we are unable to conclude that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we are unable to remediate any existing weaknesses or deficiencies in a timely manner or at all, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of shares of our Class A common stock could decline, and
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we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the Nasdaq Stock Market, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, or if we identify additional material weakness in the future or otherwise fail to maintain effective internal controls, we may be unable to produce timely and accurate financial statements, which could adversely impact our investors’ confidence and our stock price.
In connection with the business combination with Exscientia, material weaknesses related to internal controls over financial reporting were identified related to ineffective process and controls, which resulted in an immaterial misstatement to unearned revenue and unearned revenue, non-current in our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2024, which remain unremediated as of December 31, 2025 (see “Part II - Item 9A - Controls and Procedures” for further details). A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Although we are taking steps to improve our internal control over financial reporting and remediate these material weaknesses, we cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.
The identification of material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, the inability to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the inability to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or the inability of our independent registered public accounting firm to express an opinion that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, could cause investors lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected. As a result of such failures, we could also become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, and become subject to litigation from investors and stockholders, which could harm our reputation and financial condition or divert financial and management resources from our regular business activities.
GENERAL RISKS
Unfavorable global economic conditions could adversely affect our business.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets. For example, global political instability, supply chain issues, and inflation have caused significant volatility and uncertainty in U.S. and international markets. Uncertainty in the U.S. regarding the federal government’s debt ceiling and related budgetary matters may also cause volatility and uncertainty in the global markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our drug candidates and impaired ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. A weak or declining economy could also strain our suppliers or result in supply disruption. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We are subject to the risks of litigation that may arise in the ordinary course of our business, which could be costly and time-consuming to pursue or defend.
We periodically are, and in the future may be, involved in legal proceedings or claims that arise in the ordinary course of business, such as those regarding commercial or contractual disputes, intellectual property rights, employment matters, product liability, or data privacy.
As a public company, we and our directors and officers are also subject to potential securities class action litigation, particularly if the market price of our Class A common stock is volatile. The stock market in general, and Nasdaq-listed and biotechnology companies in particular, experience significant price and volume fluctuations from time to time that often are unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. In the past,
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companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action lawsuits, and we may be the target of such litigation in the future.
Litigation, whether with or without merit, may be expensive to pursue or defend; divert management’s attention; result in adverse judgments for damages, injunctive relief, penalties, and fines; and harm our business and reputation. S ome third parties may be able to sustain the costs of litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. Insurance may not cover all claims or may cover only a portion of our expenses and losses, and may not continue to be available on terms acceptable to us.
If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they publish negative evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock relies, in part, on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. If only a small number of analysts maintain coverage of us, the trading price of our stock would likely decrease. If an analyst covering our stock downgrade their evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.
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