Item 1A. Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” before deciding whether to invest in our common stock. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could harm our business, financial condition, operating results, and growth prospects. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations.

Risk Factor Summary

Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below and should be carefully considered, together with other information included in our December other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Requirements

We are an early stage company subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including the risk that we or our partners may never develop, obtain regulatory approval or market certain of our product candidates or generate product related revenues.

We are primarily an early stage biotechnology company that began operating in 2010, but did not commence research and development activities with respect to our current business segments until in 2019 or later. Medical device development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. There is no assurance that certain of our product candidates in development will be suitable for diagnostic or therapeutic use, or that we will be able to identify and isolate therapeutic product candidates, or develop, market and commercialize these candidates. Even if we are able to commercialize our product candidates, there is no assurance that these candidates would generate revenues or that any revenues generated would be sufficient for us to become profitable or thereafter maintain profitability.

The Axim Eye System is currently our only FDA approved product. We anticipate launching sales in the United States in the second or third quarter of 2023 to those reference and physician operated laboratories with Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (“CLIA”) Class II certifications. Although the Axim Eye System has received all necessary regulatory approvals in the United States, it may never be successfully commercialized. If the Axim Eye System or any of our other products are not successfully commercialized, we may not be able to generate enough revenue to become profitable or continue our operations. Any failure of the Axim Eye System to be successfully commercialized in the United States could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and cash flows and could result in a substantial decline in the price of our common stock.

We have incurred significant losses since inception and anticipate that we will incur continued losses for the foreseeable future.

As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, we had an accumulated deficit related to our continuing operations of $64,125,176 and $57,882,227, respectively. We continue to incur significant research and development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations. We have incurred operating losses since our inception, expect to continue to incur significant operating losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect these losses to continue as we identify and advance other product candidates, (i) incur higher salary, lab supply and infrastructure costs incurred in connection with supporting all of our programs, (ii) expand our corporate, development and manufacturing infrastructure, (iii) support our subsidiaries’, including Sapphire’s, pre-clinical development and commercialization efforts and (ix) the acquisition and further development of the eye care tests. As such, we are subject to all risks incidental to the development of new biopharmaceutical products and related companion diagnostics, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital.

We will require substantial additional funding, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. If we fail to raise the necessary additional capital, we may be unable to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidates or continue our development programs.

Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect to significantly increase our spending to advance our product candidates and launch and commercialize any product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval. We will require additional capital for the further development and commercialization of our product candidates, as well as to fund our other operating expenses and capital expenditures.

As a result of our recurring losses from operations, recurring negative cash flows from operations and substantial cumulative losses, there is uncertainty regarding our ability to maintain liquidity sufficient to operate our business effectively, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. If we are unsuccessful in our efforts to raise additional capital, we may be required to significantly reduce or cease operations. The report of our independent registered public accounting firm on our audited financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 included a “going concern” explanatory paragraph indicating that our recurring losses from operations, negative working capital, recurring negative cash flows from operations and substantial cumulative net losses raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of one or more of our product candidates. We may also seek collaborators for one or more of our current or future product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available. Any of these events could significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

In order to carry out our business plan and implement our strategy, we anticipate that we will need to obtain additional financing from time to time and may choose to raise additional funds through strategic collaborations, licensing arrangements, joint ventures, public or private equity or debt financing, asset sales, government grants or other arrangements. We cannot be sure that any additional funding, if needed, will be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. Furthermore, any additional equity or equity-related financing may be dilutive to our stockholders, and debt or equity financing, if available, may subject us to restrictive covenants and significant interest costs. If we obtain funding through a strategic collaboration or licensing arrangement, we may be required to relinquish our rights to certain of our product candidates or marketing territories.

Our inability to raise capital when needed would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations, and could cause our stock price to decline or require that we wind down our operations altogether.

We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.

U.S. and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the escalation of geopolitical tensions and the start of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops was reported. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict is highly unpredictable, the conflict in Ukraine could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions. We are continuing to monitor the situation in Ukraine and globally and assessing its potential impact on our business.

Additionally, the recent military conflict in Ukraine has led to sanctions and other penalties being levied by the United States, European Union and other countries against Russia. Additional potential sanctions and penalties have also been proposed and/or threatened. Russian military actions and the resulting sanctions could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets, potentially making it more difficult for us to obtain additional funds.

Although our business has not been materially impacted by the ongoing military conflict between Russian and Ukraine to date, it is impossible to predict the extent to which our operations, or those of our suppliers and manufacturers, will be impacted in the short and long term, or the ways in which the conflict may impact our business. The extent and duration of the military action, sanctions and resulting market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial. Any such disruptions may also magnify the impact of other risks described in this Annual Report.

We may be adversely affected by the effects of inflation.

Inflation has the potential to adversely affect our liquidity, business, financial condition and results of operations by increasing our overall cost structure. The existence of inflation in the economy has resulted in, and may continue to result in, higher interest rates and capital costs, shipping costs, supply shortages, increased costs of labor, weakening exchange rates and other similar effects. As a result of inflation, we have experienced and may continue to experience, cost increases. Although we may take measures to mitigate the impact of this inflation, if these measures are not effective our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity could be materially adversely affected. Even if such measures are effective, there could be a difference between the timing of when these beneficial actions impact our results of operations and when the cost inflation is incurred.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our business may be subject to risks arising from pandemic, epidemic, or an outbreak of diseases, such as the outbreak of COVID-19.

If a pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease occurs in the United States or elsewhere, our business may be adversely affected.

COVID-19 has spread worldwide and has resulted in government authorities implementing numerous measures to try to contain it, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter-in-place orders and shutdowns. These measures have impacted, and may further impact, our workforce and operations, the operations of our partners, and those of our suppliers. Our critical business operations, including our headquarters, are located in regions which have been impacted by COVID-19. Our suppliers and partners have also been affected and may continue to be affected by COVID-19 related restrictions and closures.

The spread of COVID-19 has caused us to modify our business practices as we comply with state mandated requirements for safety in the workplace to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our employees. These measures include personal protective equipment, social distancing, cleanliness of the facilities and daily monitoring of the health of employees in our facilities, as well as modifying our policies on employee travel and the cancellation of physical participation in meetings, events and conferences. We may take further actions as required by government authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, partners and suppliers. However, we have not developed a specific and comprehensive contingency plan designed to address the challenges and risks presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and, even if and when we do develop such a plan, there can be no assurance that such plan will be effective in mitigating the potential adverse effects on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, while the extent and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and our business in particular is difficult to assess or predict, the pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption of global financial markets, which may reduce our ability to access capital, which could negatively affect our liquidity. A recession or financial market correction resulting from the lack of containment and spread of COVID-19 could impact overall technology spending, adversely affecting demand for our products, our business and the value of our common stock.

The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance, including our ability to execute our business strategies and initiatives in the expected time frame, will depend on future developments, including, but not limited to, the duration and continued spread of the pandemic, its severity, the actions to contain the disease or treat its impact, further related restrictions on travel, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. An extended period of economic disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic could have a material negative impact on our business, results of operations, access to sources of liquidity and financial condition, though the full extent and duration is uncertain.

Management is actively monitoring the global situation on our financial condition, liquidity, operations, suppliers, industry and workforce. Given the daily evolution of the COVID-19 outbreak and the global responses to curb its spread, we are not able to estimate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity for fiscal year 2022.

We will face challenges in bringing the Axim Eye System to market in the United States and may not succeed in executing our business plan.

There are numerous risks and uncertainties inherent in the development of new medical technologies. In addition to our requirement for additional capital, our ability to bring the Axim Eye System to market in the United States and to execute our business plan successfully is subject to the following risks, among others:

Our business is subject to health care industry and government cost-containment measures that could result in reduced sales of our Axim Eye System.

We expect that most of our customers will rely on third-party payers, including government programs and private health insurance plans, to reimburse some or all of the cost of the procedures which use our Axim Eye System. The continuing efforts of governmental authorities, insurance companies, and other health care payers to contain or reduce these costs could lead to patients being unable to obtain approval for payment from these third-party payers. If patients cannot obtain third-party payer payment approval, the use of our Axim Eye System may decline significantly and our customers may reduce or eliminate the use of our system. The cost-containment measures that health care providers are instituting, both in the U.S. and internationally, could harm our ability to operate profitably. For example, managed care organizations successfully negotiate volume discounts for medical products, may choose not to reimburse certain products or reimburse products and a low amount sometimes below our selling price. This could result in lower prices to our customers from their customers and, in turn, reduce the amounts we can charge our customers for our products. 

In addition to general health care industry cost-containment, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released its final rule implementing section 216(a) of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (“PAMA”) that requires reporting entities to report private payer rates paid to laboratories for tests, which will be used to calculate Medicare payment rates. Reporting entities, which are primarily certain qualifying customers in the U.S. that derive a certain percentage and volume of their revenue from laboratory tests from Medicare, report private payer rates for our laboratory tests which will serve under the act as a baseline for future reimbursement.

If we are subject to regulatory enforcement action as a result of our failure to comply with regulatory requirements, our commercial operations would be harmed.

Although we have received 510(k) clearance and for our Axim Eye System, we are subject to significant ongoing regulatory requirements, and if we fail to comply with these requirements, we could be subject to enforcement action by the FDA or state agencies, including:

If the government initiated any of these enforcement actions, our business could be harmed.

We are required to demonstrate and maintain compliance with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, or the QSR. The QSR is a complex regulatory scheme that covers the methods and documentation of the design, testing, control, manufacturing, labeling, quality assurance, packaging, storage and shipping of our products. The FDA must determine that the facilities which manufacture and assemble our products that are intended for sale in the United States, as well as the manufacturing controls and specifications for these products, are compliant with applicable regulatory requirements, including the QSR. The FDA enforces the QSR through periodic unannounced inspections. The FDA has not yet inspected our facilities, and we cannot assure you that we will pass any future FDA inspection. Our failure, or the failure of our suppliers, to take satisfactory corrective action in response to an adverse QSR inspection could result in enforcement actions, including a public warning letter, a shutdown of our manufacturing operations, a recall of our product, civil or criminal penalties or other sanctions, which would significantly harm our available inventory and sales and cause our business to suffer.

If we are unable to fully comply with federal and state “fraud and abuse laws,” we could face substantial penalties, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to various laws pertaining to health care fraud and abuse, including the U.S. Anti- Kickback Statute, physician self-referral laws (the “Stark Law”), the U.S. False Claims Act, the U.S. False Statements Statute, the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, and state law equivalents to these U.S. federal laws, which may not be limited to government-reimbursed items and may not contain identical exceptions. Violations of these laws are punishable by criminal and civil sanctions, including, in some instances, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from participation in U.S. federal and state health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of operations. Any action against us for violation of these laws could have a significant impact on our business. In addition, we are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Any action against us or our agents or distributors of this act could have a significant impact on our business.

We may face future product liability claims.

The testing, manufacturing, marketing and sale of therapeutic and diagnostic products entail significant inherent risks of allegations of product liability. Our use of the Axim Eye System and/or any of our products that are currently in development and commercial sale thereof could also expose us to liability claims. All of such claims might be made directly by patients, health care providers or others selling our products. We plan to purchase product liability insurance to cover certain claims that could arise during the commercial use of our products. Any coverage obtained in the future, may be inadequate to protect us in the event of successful product liability claims, and we may not increase the amount of such insurance coverage or even renew it. A successful product liability claim could materially harm our business. In addition, substantial, complex or extended litigation could result in the incurrence of large expenditures and the diversion of significant resources.

If we do not introduce new commercially successful products in a timely manner, our products may become obsolete over time, customers may not buy our products and our revenue and profitability may decline.

Demand for our products may change in ways we may not anticipate because of:

Without the timely introduction of new commercially successful products and enhancements, our products may become obsolete over time, in which case our sales and operating results would suffer. The success of our new product offerings will depend on several factors, including our ability to:

Moreover, innovations generally will require a substantial investment in research and development before we can determine the commercial viability of these innovations and we may not have the financial resources necessary to fund these innovations. In addition, even if we successfully develop enhancements or new generations of our products, these enhancements or new generations of products may not produce revenue in excess of the costs of development and they may be quickly rendered obsolete by changing customer preferences or the introduction by our competitors of products embodying new technologies or features.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers of each of the key components of the Axim Eye System and are vulnerable to fluctuations in the availability and price of our suppliers’ products and services.

We purchase each of the key components of the Axim Eye System from a limited number of third-party suppliers. Our suppliers may not provide the components or other products needed by us in the quantities requested, in a timely manner or at a price we are willing to pay. This is of particular concern currently due to global supply chain and inflationary pressures that companies in our fields have recently faced. In the event we are unable to renew our agreements with our suppliers or they become unable or unwilling to continue to provide important components in the required volumes and quality levels or in a timely and cost effective manner, or if regulations affecting the components change, we may be required to identify and obtain acceptable replacement supply sources. We may not be able to obtain alternative suppliers or vendors on a timely basis, or at all, which could disrupt or delay, or halt altogether, our ability to manufacture or deliver the Axim Eye System or our other products currently in development. If any of these events should occur, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

We face intense competition, and our failure to compete effectively could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We face intense competition in the markets for ophthalmic products and these markets are subject to rapid and significant technological change. We have numerous potential competitors in the United States and abroad. We face potential competition from industry participants marketing conventional technologies for the measurement of dye eye and other in-lab-testing technologies, and commercially available methods, such as the Schirmer Test and ocular surface staining. Many of our potential competitors have substantially more resources and a greater marketing scale than we do. If we are unable to develop and produce or market our products to effectively compete against our competitors, our operating results will materially suffer.

We are heavily dependent on the success of our technologies and product candidates, and we cannot give any assurance that certain of our product candidates will receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before such products can be commercialized, or that we will be able to successfully commercialize those products that we have secured regulatory approval for or do not need further regulatory approval for.

To date, we have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in the acquisition and development of our product candidates. As an early stage biotechnology company that has recently made significant changes to its operations, we have limited experience and have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully overcome many of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving fields, particularly in the biopharmaceutical area. Our future success is substantially dependent on our ability to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for (to the extent required), and then successfully commercialize our product candidates. Although we have secured FDA approval of our Axim Eye System, many of our product candidates are currently in preclinical development or in clinical trials. Our business depends entirely on the successful development and commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur.

The successful development, and any commercialization, of our technologies and any product candidates would require us to successfully perform a variety of functions, including:

Certain of our product candidates will require additional preclinical or clinical development; management of preclinical, clinical and manufacturing activities; regulatory approval in multiple jurisdictions; obtaining manufacturing supply; building of a commercial organization; and significant marketing efforts before we generate any revenues from product sales. We are not permitted to market or promote any of our product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the FDA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such regulatory approval for such product candidates. In addition, certain of our product development programs contemplate the development of companion diagnostics. Companion diagnostics are subject to regulation as medical devices and must themselves be approved for marketing by the FDA, or certain other foreign regulatory agencies before we may commercialize our product candidates.

If we fail to comply with manufacturing regulations, our financial results and financial condition will be adversely affected.

We currently manufacture some of our materials in-house. In addition, we may enter into collaboration and license agreements with certain collaborators, pursuant to which we may, among other things, agree to carry out manufacturing of our collaborators’ material and product candidates. However, we only recently began manufacturing such materials and do not have significant prior experience manufacturing preclinical or product candidates. Before we can begin commercial manufacture of our or any potential collaborators’ materials or product candidates, regulatory authorities must approve marketing applications that identify manufacturing facilities operated by us or our contract manufacturers that have passed regulatory inspection and manufacturing processes that are acceptable to the regulatory authorities.

Due to the complexity of the processes used to manufacture our product candidates and our potential collaborators’ product candidates, we may be unable to continue to pass or initially pass federal or international regulatory inspections in a cost-effective manner. For the same reason, any potential third-party manufacturer of our product candidates may be unable to comply with cGMP regulations in a cost-effective manner and may be unable to initially or continue to pass a federal or international regulatory inspection.

If we, or third-party manufacturers with whom we contract, are unable to comply with manufacturing regulations, we may be subject to delay of approval of our product candidates, warning or untitled letters, fines, unanticipated compliance expenses, recall or seizure of our products, total or partial suspension of production and/or enforcement actions, including injunctions, and criminal or civil prosecution. These possible sanctions would adversely affect our financial results and financial condition.

The manufacture of pharmaceutical products requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products often encounter difficulties in production, which include difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control and assurance and shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations. The third-party manufacturers we may contract with may not perform as agreed or may terminate their agreements with us. Any of these factors could cause us to delay or suspend any future clinical trials, regulatory submissions, required approvals or commercialization of one or more of our drug candidates, entail higher costs and result in our being unable to effectively commercialize products.

Material necessary to manufacture product candidates may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, which may delay the development and commercialization of product candidates.

There are a limited number of suppliers for raw materials that we use to manufacture our products and product candidates and there may be a need to assess alternate suppliers to prevent a possible disruption of the manufacture of the materials necessary to produce our product candidates for clinical trials, and if approved, ultimately for commercial sale. We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition of these raw materials by us. We typically do not have any agreements for the commercial production of these raw materials. Any significant delay in the supply of a product candidate, or the raw material components thereof, for an ongoing clinical trial due to the need to obtain or replace a third-party manufacturer could considerably delay completion of our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we are unable to purchase these raw materials after regulatory approval has been obtained for our product candidates, the commercial launch of our product candidates would be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our product candidates.

We may not be able to manufacture our products or product candidates in commercial quantities, which would prevent us from commercializing our products and product candidates.

We are largely dependent on our third-party manufacturers to conduct process development and scale-up work necessary to support greater clinical development and commercialization requirements for our products and product candidates. Carrying out these activities in a timely manner, and on commercially reasonable terms, is critical to the successful development and commercialization of our products and product candidates. We expect our third-party manufacturers are capable of providing sufficient quantities of our products and product candidates to meet anticipated clinical and full-scale commercial demands; however, if third parties with whom we currently work are unable to meet our supply requirements, we will need to secure alternate suppliers or face potential delays or shortages. While we believe that there are other contract manufacturers with the technical capabilities to manufacture our products and product candidates, we cannot be certain that identifying and establishing relationships with such sources would not result in significant delay or material additional costs.

If we are unable to successfully commercialize our products, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be materially and adversely affected.

We are currently building our sales and marketing organization. We currently anticipate that, we may rely on third parties to sell our product candidates in the U.S. and/or in international markets. If we enter into arrangements with third parties to sell and market our products, we would likely receive less revenue than if we sold our products directly. In addition, although we would intend to use due diligence in monitoring the activities of our third-party sales and marketing partners, we may have little or no control over the sales efforts of those third parties. In the event we are unable to develop our own sales force or collaborate with third parties to sell our product candidates, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates, which would negatively impact our ability to generate revenue. In the event that we elect to market our own products, we will also have to compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire and train sales and marketing personnel.

Our failure to successfully discover, acquire, develop and market additional product candidates or approved products would impair our ability to grow.

As part of our growth strategy, we intend to develop and market additional products and product candidates. We are pursuing various therapeutic opportunities through our product pipeline. We may spend several years completing our development of any particular current or future internal product candidate, and failure can occur at any stage. The product candidates to which we allocate our resources may not end up being successful. In addition, because our internal research capabilities are limited, we may be dependent upon pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic scientists and other researchers to sell or license products or technology to us. The success of this strategy depends partly upon our ability to identify, select, discover and acquire promising pharmaceutical product candidates and products. Failure of this strategy would impair our ability to grow.

The process of proposing, negotiating and implementing a license or acquisition of a product candidate or approved product is lengthy and complex. Other companies, including some with substantially greater financial, marketing and sales resources, may compete with us for the license or acquisition of product candidates and approved products. We have limited resources to identify and execute the acquisition or in-licensing of third-party products, businesses and technologies and integrate them into our current infrastructure. Moreover, we may devote resources to potential acquisitions or in-licensing opportunities that are never completed, or we may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such efforts. We may not be able to acquire the rights to additional product candidates on terms that we find acceptable, or at all.

In addition, future acquisitions may entail numerous operational and financial risks, including:

Further, any product candidate that we acquire may require additional development efforts prior to commercial sale, including extensive clinical testing and approval by the FDA and applicable foreign regulatory authorities. All product candidates are prone to risks of failure typical of pharmaceutical product development, including the possibility that a product candidate will not be shown to be sufficiently safe and effective for approval by regulatory authorities.

Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent our product candidates’ commercial success.

In both the U.S. and certain foreign jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes to the health care system that could impact our ability to sell our products profitably. The U.S. government and other governments have shown significant interest in pursuing healthcare reform. In particular, the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 revised the payment methodology for many products under the Medicare program in the U.S. This has resulted in lower rates of reimbursement. In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (collectively, the “Healthcare Reform Law”), was enacted. The Healthcare Reform Law substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers. Such government-adopted reform measures may adversely impact the pricing of healthcare products and services in the U.S. or internationally and the amount of reimbursement available from governmental agencies or other third-party payors.

There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the federal and state levels directed at broadening the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. For example, there have been public announcements by members of the U.S. Congress regarding their plans to repeal and replace the Healthcare Reform Law and Medicare, and the Biden administration has announced plans to amend and expand the scope of the Healthcare Reform Law. Although we cannot predict the ultimate content or timing of any healthcare reform legislation, potential changes resulting from any amendment, repeal, replacement or expansion of these programs, including any reduction in the future availability of healthcare insurance benefits, could adversely affect our business and future results of operations. The continuing efforts of the government, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other payors of healthcare services to contain or reduce costs of healthcare may adversely affect the demand for any product candidates for which we may obtain regulatory approval, as well as our ability to set satisfactory prices for our products, to generate revenues, and to achieve and maintain profitability.

Failure to successfully validate, develop and obtain regulatory approval for companion diagnostics could harm our long-term development strategy.

As one of the key elements of our clinical development strategy, we seek to identify patients within a disease category or indication who may derive selective and meaningful benefit from the product candidates we are developing. As such, we plan to develop, or partner with third parties to develop, companion diagnostics to help us to more accurately identify patients within a particular category or indication, both during our clinical trials and in connection with the commercialization of certain of our product candidates.

Companion diagnostics are subject to regulation by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities as medical devices and require separate regulatory approval prior to commercialization. We and our collaborators may encounter difficulties in developing and obtaining approval for the companion diagnostics, including issues relating to selectivity/specificity, analytical validation, reproducibility or clinical validation. Any delay or failure by our collaborators to develop or obtain regulatory approval of the companion diagnostics could delay or prevent approval of our product candidates. In addition, our collaborators may encounter production difficulties that could constrain the supply of the companion diagnostics, and both they and we may have difficulties gaining acceptance of the use of the companion diagnostics in the clinical community. If such companion diagnostics fail to gain market acceptance, it would have an adverse effect on our ability to derive revenues from sales of our products. In addition, any diagnostic company with whom we contract may decide to discontinue selling or manufacturing the companion diagnostic that we anticipate using in connection with development and commercialization of our product candidates or our relationship with such diagnostic company may otherwise terminate. In such instances, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with another diagnostic company to obtain supplies of an alternative diagnostic test for use in connection with the development and commercialization of our product candidates or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could adversely affect and/or delay the development or commercialization of our product candidates.

We may seek to establish collaborations and, if we are not able to establish them on commercially reasonable terms, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.

From time to time we may engage in efforts to enter into licensing, distribution and/or collaboration agreements with one or more pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies to assist us with development and/or commercialization of our other product candidates. If we are successful in entering into such agreements, we may not be able to negotiate agreements with economic terms similar to those negotiated by other companies. We may not, for example, obtain significant upfront payments, substantial royalty rates or milestones. If we fail to enter into any such agreements in a timely manner or at all, our efforts to develop and/or commercialize our product candidates may be undermined. In addition, if we do not raise funds through any such agreements, we will need to rely on other financing mechanisms, such as sales of debt or equity securities, to fund our operations. Such financing mechanisms, if available, may not be sufficient or timely enough to advance our programs forward in a meaningful way in the short-term.

We may not be successful in entering into additional collaborations as a result of many factors, including the following:

If we are unable to enter into collaborations, we may have to curtail the commercialization or the development of any product candidate on which we are seeking to collaborate, reduce or delay its development program or those for other of our other development programs, delay its potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we elect to increase our expenditures to fund development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we do not have sufficient funds, we may not be able to develop or commercialize our product candidates.

Even if we enter into collaboration agreements and strategic partnerships or license our intellectual property, we may not be able to maintain them or they may be unsuccessful, which could delay our timelines or otherwise adversely affect our business.

We, as well as any collaborators or licensees of our technologies and services, will not be able to commercialize our product candidates if preclinical studies do not produce successful results or clinical trials do not demonstrate safety and efficacy in humans.

Preclinical and clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and have an uncertain outcome. Success in preclinical testing and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. We, as well as any licensees and collaborators, may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical testing and the clinical trial process that could delay or prevent the commercialization of product candidates based on our technologies, including the following:

Significant clinical trial delays could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we, any of our licensees or our collaborators do and impair our ability to commercialize our technologies and product candidates based on our technologies. Poor clinical trial results or delays may make it impossible to license a product candidate or so reduce its attractiveness to prospective licensees that we will be unable to successfully develop and commercialize such a product candidate.

Because our development activities are expected to rely heavily on sensitive and personal information, an area which is highly regulated by privacy laws, we may not be able to generate, maintain or access essential patient samples or data to continue our research and development efforts in the future on reasonable terms and conditions, which may adversely affect our business.

Although we are not subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), as we are neither a Covered Entity nor Business Associate (as defined in HIPAA and the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”), we may have access to very sensitive data regarding patients whose tissue samples are used in our studies. This data will contain information that is personal in nature. The maintenance of this data is subject to certain privacy-related laws, which impose upon us administrative and financial burdens, and litigation risks. In the U.S., numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including state data breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws and federal and state consumer protection laws govern the collection, use, disclosure and protection of health-related and other personal information. For instance, the rules promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services under HIPAA create national standards to protect patients’ medical records and other personal information in the U.S. These rules require that healthcare providers and other covered entities obtain written authorizations from patients prior to disclosing protected health care information of the patient to companies. If the patient fails to execute an authorization or the authorization fails to contain all required provisions, then we will not be allowed access to the patient’s information and our research efforts can be substantially delayed. Furthermore, use of protected health information that is provided to us pursuant to a valid patient authorization is subject to the limits set forth in the authorization (i.e., for use in research and in submissions to regulatory authorities for product approvals). As such, we are required to implement policies, procedures and reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect individually identifiable health information we receive from covered entities, and to ensure such information is used only as authorized by the patient. Any violations of these rules by us could subject us to civil and criminal penalties and adverse publicity and could harm our ability to initiate and complete clinical trials required to support regulatory applications for our product candidates. In addition, HIPAA does not replace federal, state, or other laws that may grant individuals even greater privacy protections.

California recently enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which creates new individual privacy rights for California consumers and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA requires covered companies to provide new disclosure to consumers about such companies’ data collection, use and sharing practices, provide such consumers new ways to opt-out of certain sales or transfers of personal information, and provide consumers with additional causes of action. The CCPA went into effect on January 1, 2020, and beginning July 1, 2020, the California Attorney General may bring enforcement actions for violations. The CCPA, among other things, requires covered companies to provide disclosures to California consumers concerning the collection and sale of personal information, and will give such consumers the right to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA may increase our company's compliance costs and potential liability, and we cannot yet predict the impact of the CCPA on our business.

International data protection laws, including Regulation 2016/679, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), may also apply to health-related and other personal information obtained outside of the United States. The GDPR went into effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR strengthened data protection requirements in the European Union, as well as potential fines for noncompliant companies of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of annual global revenue. The regulation imposes numerous new requirements for the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information, including more stringent requirements relating to consent and the information that must be shared with data subjects about how their personal information is used, the obligation to notify regulators and affected individuals of personal data breaches, extensive new internal privacy governance obligations and obligations to honor expanded rights of individuals in relation to their personal information, including the right to access, correct and delete their data. In addition, the GDPR includes restrictions on cross-border data transfers. The GDPR increased our responsibility and liability in relation to personal data that we process where such processing is subject to the GDPR, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the GDPR, including as implemented by individual countries. Further, the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, often referred to as Brexit, has created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom. In particular, it is unclear how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated.

Failure to comply with data protection laws and regulations could result in government enforcement actions, which may involve civil and criminal penalties, private litigation and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights or breached our contractual obligations, even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time-consuming to defend and could result in adverse publicity that could harm our business.

We can provide no assurance that future legislation will not prevent us from generating or maintaining personal data or that patients will consent to the use of their personal information, either of which may prevent us from undertaking or publishing essential research. These burdens or risks may prove too great for us to reasonably bear and may adversely affect our ability to achieve profitability or maintain profitably in the future.

We may be exposed to liability claims associated with the use of hazardous materials and chemicals.

Our research and development activities may involve the controlled use of hazardous materials and chemicals. Although we believe that our safety procedures for using, storing, handling and disposing of these materials comply with federal, state and local laws and regulations, we cannot eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from these materials. In the event of such an accident, we could be held liable for any resulting damages and any liability could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We do not currently maintain hazardous materials insurance coverage. In addition, the federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous or radioactive materials and waste products may require us to incur substantial compliance costs that could materially harm our business.

If we are unable to retain and recruit qualified scientists and advisors, or if any of our key executives, key employees or key consultants discontinues his or her employment or consulting relationship with us, it may delay our development efforts or otherwise harm our business.

We may not be able to attract or retain qualified management and scientific and clinical personnel in the future due to the intense competition for qualified personnel among biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other businesses, particularly in the San Diego, California area. Our industry has experienced a high rate of turnover of management personnel in recent years. If we are not able to attract, retain and motivate necessary personnel to accomplish our business objectives, we may experience constraints that will significantly impede the successful development of any product candidates, our ability to raise additional capital and our ability to implement our overall business strategy. In addition, our CMO operations will depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain an appropriately skilled and sufficient workforce to operate our development and manufacturing facilities. The facilities are located in a growing biotechnology hub and competition for skilled workers will continue to increase as the industry undergoes further growth in the area.

We are highly dependent on key members of our management and scientific staff, especially John W. Huemoeller II., Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President, Catalina Valencia, Sapphire’s Chief Executive Officer, and Sergei Svarovsky, our Chief Science Officer. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled junior, mid-level and senior managers as well as junior, mid-level and senior scientific and medical personnel. The loss of any of our executive officers, key employees or key consultants and our inability to find suitable replacements could impede the achievement of our research and development objectives, and potentially harm our business, financial condition and prospects. Furthermore, recruiting and retaining qualified scientific personnel to perform research and development work in the future is critical to our success. We may be unable to attract and retain personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and health care companies, universities and non-profit research institutions for experienced scientists. Certain of our current officers, directors, scientific advisors and/or consultants or certain of the officers, directors, scientific advisors and/or consultants hereafter appointed may from time to time serve as officers, directors, scientific advisors and/or consultants of other biopharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on any of our officers or employees. All of our employees are employed “at will” and, therefore, each employee may leave our employment at any time.

We may not be able to attract or retain qualified management and scientific personnel in the future due to the intense competition for a limited number of qualified personnel among biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other businesses. Many of the other pharmaceutical 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 and better chances for career advancement. Some of these characteristics may be more appealing to high quality candidates than what we have to offer. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can develop and commercialize product candidates will be limited.

We plan to grant stock options or other forms of equity awards in the future as a method of attracting and retaining employees, motivating performance and aligning the interests of employees with those of our stockholders. If we are unable to implement and maintain equity compensation arrangements that provide sufficient incentives, we may be unable to retain our existing employees and attract additional qualified candidates. If we are unable to retain our existing employees, including qualified scientific personnel, and attract additional qualified candidates, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our employees may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with FDA regulations, provide accurate information to the FDA, comply with manufacturing standards we have established, comply with federal and state health-care fraud and abuse laws and regulations, comply with laws and regulations (including, but not limited to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1 (“FCPA”)) and internal policies restricting payments to government agencies and representatives, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. 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. We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, but 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 or regulations. 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 and results of operations, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

We may be subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws and health information privacy and security laws. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.

If we obtain FDA approval for any of our product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the U.S., our operations may be directly, or indirectly through our customers, subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the federal False Claims Act. These laws may impact, among other things, our proposed sales, marketing and education programs. In addition, we may be subject to patient privacy regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk for the commercialization of any products. For example, we may be sued if any product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability, and a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates, if approved. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

Our inability to obtain and retain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products we develop. We plan to carry product liability insurance and errors and omissions insurance that we believe is appropriate for our company. Any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Insurance policies also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have insufficient or no coverage. If we have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts. In addition, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive, and we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost. We also may not be able to obtain additional insurance coverage that will be adequate to cover product liability risks that may arise. Consequently, a product liability claim may result in losses that could be material to our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We will need to increase the size of our company and may not effectively manage our growth.

Our success will depend upon growing our business and our employee base. Over the next 12 months, we plan to add additional employees to assist us with research and development and our commercialization efforts. Our future growth, if any, may cause a significant strain on our management, and our operational, financial and other resources. Our ability to manage our growth effectively will require us to implement and improve our operational, financial and management systems and to expand, train, manage and motivate our employees. These demands may require the hiring of additional management personnel and the development of additional expertise by management. Any increase in resources devoted to research and product development without a corresponding increase in our operational, financial and management systems could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Any disruption in our research and development facilities could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our principal executive offices, which house our research and development programs, are in San Diego, California. Our facilities may be affected by natural or man-made disasters. Earthquakes are of particular significance since our facilities are located in an earthquake-prone area. We are also vulnerable to damage from other types of disasters, including power loss, attacks from extremist organizations, fires, floods and similar events. If our facilities are affected by a natural or man-made disaster, we may be forced to curtail our operations and/or rely on third-parties to perform some or all of our research and development activities. Although we believe we possess adequate insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business from casualties, such insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. In the future, we may choose to expand our operations in either our existing facilities or in new facilities. If we expand our worldwide manufacturing locations, there can be no assurance that this expansion will occur without implementation difficulties, or at all.

Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our CROs and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, cybersecurity attacks or hacking, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may face increased cybersecurity risks due to our reliance, and the reliance of our CROs, contractors and consultants reliance, on internet technology and the number of our employees, and employees of our CROs, contractors and consultants, who are working remotely, which may create additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities. While we have not experienced any such system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our drug development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. To the extent that any disruption or security breach was to result in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur material legal claims and liability, damage to our reputation, suffer loss or harm to our intellectual property rights and the further research, development and commercial efforts of our products and product candidates could be delayed. If we are held liable for a claim against which we are not insured or for damages exceeding the limits of our insurance coverage, whether arising out of cybersecurity matters, or from some other matter, that claim could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Further, a cybersecurity attack, data breach or privacy violation that leads to disclosure or modification of, or prevents access to, patient information, including personally identifiable information or protected health information, could harm our reputation, compel us to comply with federal and/or state breach notification laws and foreign law equivalents, subject us to mandatory corrective action, require us to verify the correctness of database contents and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect personal data, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenue. Portions of our information technology systems may experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with ongoing systems implementation work. Cybersecurity attacks in particular are evolving and include, but are not limited to, threats, malicious software, ransom ware, attempts to gain unauthorized access to data and other electronic security breaches that could lead to disruptions in systems, misappropriation of confidential or otherwise protected information and corruption of data. If we are unable to prevent such cybersecurity attacks, data security breaches or privacy violations or implement satisfactory remedial measures, our operations could be disrupted, and we may suffer loss of reputation, financial loss and other regulatory penalties because of lost or misappropriated information, including sensitive patient data. In addition, these breaches and other inappropriate access can be difficult to detect, and any delay in identifying them may lead to increased harm of the type described above.

Comprehensive tax reform legislation could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Our effective income tax rate in the future could be adversely affected by a number of factors, including: changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in tax laws, and the outcome of income tax audits in various jurisdictions. We regularly assess all of these matters to determine the adequacy of its tax provision, which is subject to significant discretion.

Compliance with changing regulations concerning corporate governance and public disclosure may result in additional expenses.

There have been changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley”), new regulations promulgated by the SEC and rules promulgated by the national securities exchanges. The Dodd-Frank Act, enacted in July 2010, expanded federal regulation of corporate governance matters and imposes requirements on public companies to, among other things, provides stockholders with a periodic advisory vote on executive compensation and also adds compensation committee reforms and enhanced pay-for-performance disclosures. While some provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act were effective upon enactment, others have been and will be implemented upon the SEC’s adoption of related rules and regulations. The scope and timing of the adoption of such rules and regulations is uncertain and, accordingly, the cost of compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act is also uncertain. Areas subject to potential change, amendment or repeal include the Dodd-Frank Act, including § 619 (12 U.S.C. § 1851) known as the Volcker Rule and various swaps and derivatives regulations, the authority of the Federal Reserve and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and renewed proposals to separate banks’ commercial and investment banking activities.

These new or changed laws, regulations and standards are, or will be, subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies, which could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. As a result, our efforts to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards are likely to continue to result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. Members of our board of directors and our principal executive officer and principal financial officer could face an increased risk of personal liability in connection with the performance of their duties. As a result, we may have difficulty attracting and retaining qualified directors and executive officers, which could harm our business. If the actions we take in our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards differ from the actions intended by regulatory or governing bodies, we could be subject to liability under applicable laws or our reputation may be harmed.

We cannot provide assurance that our commercialization agreement with Verséa Ophthalmics, LLC will be successful.

On September 19, 2022 the Company announced that it had signed an exclusive global commercialization agreement with Verséa Ophthalmics, LLC, a business division of Verséa Holdings, Inc. (“Verséa”). We cannot provide assurances that this agreement will be successful and the loss of this key distributor could have a material adverse effect on our business, revenues and operating results.

Risks Related to Acquisitions

We have acquired, and may in the future acquire, assets, businesses and technologies as part of our business strategy. If we acquire companies or technologies in the future, they could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and adversely affect our operating results and the value of our common stock.

As part of our business strategy, we may acquire, enter into joint ventures with, or make investments in complementary or synergistic companies, services, and technologies in the future. Acquisitions and investments involve numerous risks, including without limitation:

As a result, if we fail to properly evaluate acquisitions or investments, we may not achieve the anticipated benefits of any such acquisitions, we may incur costs in excess of what we anticipate, and management resources and attention may be diverted from other necessary or valuable activities.

Any acquisitions we make could disrupt our business and seriously harm our financial condition.

We have in the past made (and may, from time to time, consider) acquisitions of complementary companies, products or technologies. Acquisitions involve numerous risks, including difficulties in the assimilation of the acquired businesses, the diversion of our management’s attention from other business concerns and potential adverse effects on existing business relationships. In addition, any acquisitions could involve the incurrence of substantial additional indebtedness. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully integrate any acquisitions that we pursue or that such acquisitions will perform as planned or prove to be beneficial to our operations and cash flow. Any such failure could seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our ability to protect our intellectual property rights will be critically important to the success of our business, and we may not be able to protect these rights in the U.S. or abroad.

Our success, competitive position and future revenues will depend in part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection for our product candidates, methods, processes and other technologies, to prevent third parties from infringing on our proprietary rights, exclude others from using our technology and to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of third parties. We will be able to protect our proprietary rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our proprietary rights are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. We attempt to protect our proprietary position by maintaining trade secrets and by filing U.S. and foreign patent applications related to our proprietary technology, inventions and improvements that are important to the development of our business. The first of the patent applications related to our ongoing business operations was issued in 2020, and we continue to file additional patent applications for our product candidates and technology.

We have commenced generating a patent portfolio to protect each product candidate in our pipeline. However, the patent position of biopharmaceutical companies involves complex legal and factual questions, and therefore we cannot predict with certainty whether any patent applications that we have filed or that we may file in the future will be approved, will cover our products or product candidates or that any resulting patents will be enforced. In addition, third parties may challenge, seek to invalidate, limit the scope of or circumvent any of our patents, once they are issued. Thus, any patents that we own or license from third parties or joint venture or development partners may not provide any protection against competitors. Any patent applications that we have filed or that we may file in the future, or those we may license from third parties or joint venture or development partners, may not result in patents being issued. Moreover, disputes between our licensing or joint development partners and us may arise over license scope, or ownership, assignment, inventorship and/or rights to use or commercialize patent or other proprietary rights, which may adversely impact our ability to obtain and protect our proprietary technology and products. Also, patent rights may not provide us with adequate proprietary protection or competitive advantages against competitors with similar technologies or products.

In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. If we fail to apply for intellectual property protection or if we cannot adequately protect our intellectual property rights in these foreign countries, our competitors may be able to compete more effectively against us, which could adversely affect our competitive position, as well as our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to the PTO and various foreign patent offices at various points over the lifetime of our patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we rely on our outside counsel or service providers to pay these fees when due. Additionally, the PTO and various foreign patent offices require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with rules applicable to the particular jurisdiction. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we are responsible for the payment of patent fees for patent rights that we have licensed from other parties. If any licensor of these patents does not itself elect to make these payments, and we fail to do so, we may be liable to the licensor for any costs and consequences of any resulting loss of patent rights.

We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming and divert the time and attention of our management and scientific personnel. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringe their patents, in addition to counterclaims asserting that our patents are invalid or unenforceable, or both. In any patent infringement proceeding, there is a risk that a court will decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue. There is also a risk that, even if the validity of such patents is upheld, the court will construe the patent’s claims narrowly or decide that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue on the grounds that our patent claims do not cover the invention. An adverse outcome in a litigation or proceeding involving our patents could limit our ability to assert our patents against those parties or other competitors, and may curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making and selling similar or competitive products. Any of these occurrences could adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects and financial condition. Similarly, if we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the marks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has superior rights to the marks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks.

Even if we establish infringement, the court may decide not to grant an injunction against further infringing activity and instead award only monetary damages, which may or may not be an adequate remedy. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of shares of our common stock. Moreover, there can be no assurance that we will have sufficient financial or other resources to file and pursue such infringement claims, which typically last for years before they are concluded. Even if we ultimately prevail in such claims, the monetary cost of such litigation and the diversion of the attention of our management and scientific personnel could outweigh any benefit we receive as a result of the proceedings.

Our long-term success depends on intellectual property protection; if our intellectual property rights are invalidated or circumvented, our business will be adversely affected.

Our long-term success depends on our ability to continually discover, develop and commercialize innovative new pharmaceutical products. Without strong intellectual property protection, we may be unable to generate the returns necessary to support the enormous investments in research and development and capital as well as other expenditures required to bring new drugs to the market and for commercialization.

Intellectual property protection varies throughout the world and is subject to change over time. In the U.S., for small molecule drug products, such as SPX-009 (which is held by our subsidiary, Sapphire), the Hatch-Waxman Act provides generic companies powerful incentives to seek to invalidate our pharmaceutical patents. As a result, we expect that our U.S. patents on major pharmaceutical products will be routinely challenged, and there can be no assurance that our patents will be upheld. We face generic manufacturer challenges to our patents outside the U.S. as well. In addition, competitors or other third parties may claim that our activities infringe patents or other intellectual property rights held by them. If successful, such claims could result in our being unable to market a product in a particular territory or being required to pay damages for past infringement or royalties on future sales.

If any of our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information is disclosed, the value of our trade secrets, know-how and other proprietary rights would be significantly impaired and our business and competitive position would suffer.

Our success also depends upon the skills, knowledge and experience of our scientific and technical personnel and our consultants and advisors, as well as our licensors. To help protect our proprietary know-how and our inventions for which patents may be unobtainable or difficult to obtain, or prior to seeking patent protection, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements. Unlike some of our competitors, in addition to certain manufacturing processes, we maintain our proprietary libraries for ourselves as trade secrets. To this end, we require all our employees, consultants, advisors and contractors to enter into agreements which prohibit the disclosure of confidential information and, where applicable, require disclosure and assignment to us of the ideas, developments, discoveries and inventions important to our business. These agreements may not provide adequate protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use or disclosure or the lawful development by others of such information. If any of our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information is disclosed, the value of our trade secrets, know-how and other proprietary rights would be significantly impaired and our business and competitive position would suffer. Moreover, our third-party licensing partners may retain rights in some of our proprietary or joint trade secrets, know-how, patented inventions or other proprietary information, including rights to sublicense and rights of publication, which may adversely impact our ability to obtain patents and protect trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information. In addition, the U.S. government may retain rights in some of our patents or other proprietary information.

In addition, many of the formulations used and processes developed by us in manufacturing any of our collaborators’ products are subject to trade secret protection, patents or other intellectual property protections owned or licensed by such collaborator. While we make significant efforts to protect our collaborators’ proprietary and confidential information, including requiring our employees to enter into agreements protecting such information, if any of our employees breaches the non-disclosure provisions in such agreements, or if our collaborators make claims that their proprietary information has been disclosed, our reputation may suffer damage and we may become subject to legal proceedings that could require us to incur significant expenses and divert our management’s time, attention and resources.

Claims that we infringe upon the rights of third parties may give rise to costly and lengthy litigation, and we could be prevented from selling products, forced to pay damages, and defend against litigation.

Third parties may assert patent or other intellectual property infringement claims against us or our strategic partners or licensees with respect to our technologies and product candidates or potential product candidates. If our products, methods, processes and other technologies infringe upon the proprietary rights of other parties, we could incur substantial costs and we may have to:

Even if we were to prevail, any litigation could be costly and time-consuming and would divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations. Furthermore, as a result of a patent infringement suit brought against us or our strategic partners or licensees, we or our strategic partners or licensees may be forced to stop or delay developing, manufacturing or selling technologies, product candidates or potential products that are claimed to infringe a third party’s intellectual property unless that party grants us or our strategic partners’ or licensees’ rights to use its intellectual property. Ultimately, we may be unable to develop some of our technologies or potential products or may have to discontinue development of a product candidate or cease some of our business operations as a result of patent infringement claims, which could severely harm our business.

In addition, our collaborators’ products may be subject to claims of intellectual property infringement and such claims could materially affect our business if their products cease to be manufactured and they have to discontinue the use of the infringing technology which we may provide. Any of the foregoing could affect our ability to compete or could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our position as a relatively small company may cause us to be at a significant disadvantage in defending our intellectual property rights and in defending against infringement claims by third parties.

Litigation relating to the ownership and use of intellectual property is expensive, and our position as a small company in an industry dominated by very large companies may cause us to be at a significant disadvantage in defending our intellectual property rights and in defending against claims that our technology infringes or misappropriates third party intellectual property rights. However, we may seek to use various post-grant administrative proceedings, including new procedures created under the America Invents Act, to invalidate potentially overly-broad third party rights. Even if we can defend our position, the cost of doing so may adversely affect our ability to grow, generate revenue or become profitable. In the course of the ongoing litigation or any future additional litigation to which we may be subject, we may not be able to protect our intellectual property at a reasonable cost, or at all. The outcome of litigation is always uncertain, and in some cases could include judgments against us that require us to pay damages, enjoin us from certain activities or otherwise affect our legal, contractual or intellectual property rights, which could have a significant adverse effect on our business.

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay our drug discovery and development efforts.

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties.

There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including PTO administrative proceedings, such as inter parties reviews, and reexamination proceedings before the PTO or oppositions and revocations and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others.

Despite safe harbor provisions, third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents, of which we are currently unaware, with claims to materials, formulations, methods of doing research or library screening, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent published applications which may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our product candidates, any molecules formed during the manufacturing process or any final product itself, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product candidate unless we obtain a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or they are finally determined to be held invalid or unenforceable. Similarly, if any third-party patent were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of our formulations, processes for manufacture or methods of use, including combination therapy or patient selection methods, the holders of any such patent may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize the applicable product candidate unless we obtain a license, limit our uses, or until such patent expires or is finally determined to be held invalid or unenforceable. In either case, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, cease marketing our products or developing our product candidates, limit our uses, pay royalties or redesign our infringing product candidates, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. We cannot predict whether any such license would be available at all or whether it would be available on commercially reasonable terms. Furthermore, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to advance our research or allow commercialization of our product candidates. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In that event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on all of our product candidates throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. 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 U.S. These products may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued patents and our patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business.

If we breach any of the agreements under which we license commercialization rights to our product candidates from third parties, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

We license the use, development and commercialization rights for some of our product candidates and may enter into similar licenses in the future. Under our existing license agreements, we are subject to commercialization and development, diligence obligations, milestone payment obligations, royalty payments and other obligations. If we fail to comply with any of these obligations or otherwise breach our license agreements, our licensing partners may have the right to terminate the license in whole or in part.

Generally, the loss of any one of our current licenses or other licenses in the future could materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our competitive advantage.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, and may not adequately protect our business, or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. The following examples are illustrative:

Should any of these events occur, they could significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly, and investors in our common stock may lose all or a part of their investment.

The market prices for securities of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have historically been highly volatile, and the market has from time-to-time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. For example, from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, our closing stock price ranged from $0.027 to $0.399 per share. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as:

Further, the equity markets in general have recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. Continued market fluctuations could result in extreme volatility in the price of our common stock, which could cause a decline in the value of our common stock. Price volatility of our common stock might worsen if the trading volume of our common stock is low. The realization of any of the above risks or any of a broad range of other risks, including those described in these “Risk Factors,” could have a dramatic and material adverse impact on the market price of our common stock.

We have never paid cash dividends and do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any return on investment may be limited to the value of our common stock.

We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. The payment of dividends on our capital stock will depend on our earnings, financial condition and other business and economic factors affecting us at such time as the board of directors may consider relevant. We currently anticipate that we will re-invest any funds that we receive into the business to further our business strategy, and not to pay dividends. If we do not pay dividends, our common stock may be less valuable because a return on your investment will only occur if the common stock price appreciates.

A sale of a substantial number of shares of the common stock may cause the price of our common stock to decline.

If our stockholders sell, or the market perceives that our stockholders intend to sell for various reasons, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, including shares issued in connection with the exercise of outstanding options or warrants, the market price of our common stock could fall. Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock may make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem reasonable or appropriate. We may become involved in securities class action litigation that could divert management’s attention and harm our business.

The stock markets have from time-to-time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market prices for the common stock of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies. These broad market fluctuations may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of our securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. We may become involved in this type of litigation in the future. Litigation often is expensive and diverts management’s attention and resources, which could adversely affect our business.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly.

We expect our operating results to be subject to quarterly fluctuations. Our net loss and other operating results will be affected by numerous factors, including:

If our quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Furthermore, any quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate substantially.

Existing stockholders’ interest in us may be diluted by additional issuances of equity securities and raising funds through acquisitions, lending and licensing arrangements may restrict our operations or require us to relinquish proprietary rights.

We may issue additional equity securities to fund future expansion and pursuant to equity incentive or employee benefit plans. We may also issue additional equity for other purposes. These securities may have the same rights as our common stock or, alternatively, may have dividend, liquidation or other preferences to our common stock. The issuance of additional equity securities will dilute the holdings of existing stockholders and may reduce the share price of our common stock.

If we raise additional funds through collaboration, licensing or other similar arrangements, it may be necessary to relinquish potentially valuable rights to our product candidates, potential products or proprietary technologies, or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If adequate funds are not available, our ability to achieve profitability or to respond to competitive pressures would be significantly limited and we may be required to delay, significantly curtail or eliminate the development of our product candidates.

Our investors could experience substantial dilution of their investments as a result of subsequent exercises of our outstanding options, including the CEO Performance Award, or the grant of future equity awards by us.

As of December 31, 2022, 40 million shares of our common stock were authorized for issuance under our 2015 Stock Incentive Plan, of which 19,860,715 shares of our common stock were subject to options outstanding at such date at a weighted-average exercise price of $0.49 per share. To the extent outstanding options are exercised, our existing stockholders may incur dilution.

We rely on equity awards to motivate current employees and to attract new employees. The grant of future equity awards by us to our employees and other service providers may further dilute our stockholders.

Our directors and executive officers own a significant percentage of our capital stock, and they may make decisions that you do not consider to be in your best interests or those of our other stockholders.

As of December 31, 2022, our directors and executive officers beneficially owned, in the aggregate, approximately 67.02% of our outstanding voting securities. As a result, if some or all of them acted together, they would have the ability to exert significant influence over the election of our board of directors and the outcome of issues requiring approval by our stockholders. This concentration of ownership may also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company that may be favored by other stockholders. This could prevent transactions in which stockholders might otherwise recover a premium for their shares over current market prices.

Our articles of incorporation, as amended, and bylaws provide for indemnification of officers and directors at our expense and limits their liability, which may result in a major cost to us and hurt the interests of our stockholders because corporate resources may be expended for the benefit of our officers and/or directors.

Our articles of incorporation, as amended, bylaws and applicable Nevada law provide for the indemnification of our directors, officers, employees, and agents, under certain circumstances, against attorney’s fees and other expenses incurred by them in any litigation to which they become a party arising from their association with or activities on our behalf. We will also bear the expenses of such litigation for any of our directors, officers, employees, or agents, upon such person’s promise to repay us, therefore if it is ultimately determined that any such person shall not have been entitled to indemnification. This indemnification policy could result in substantial expenditures by us, which we will be unable to recover.

We have issued Preferred Stock.

Our articles of incorporation, as amended, authorize the issuance of up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock with designations, rights and preferences determined from time to time by our Board of Directors. As of December 31, 2022, of the 5,000,000 preferred shares authorized: (i) 1,000,000 shares were designated as Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, of which none were issued and outstanding, (ii) 500,000 shares were designated as Series B Convertible Preferred Stock, of which none were issued and outstanding, and (iii) 500,000 shares were designated as Series C Convertible Preferred Stock (“Series C Preferred Stock”), of which 500,000 shares were issued and outstanding. The holders of our Series C Preferred Stock have voting control of the Company. Our Board of Directors is empowered, without stockholder approval, to designate and issue preferred stock with dividend, liquidation, conversion, voting, or other rights which could adversely affect the voting power or other rights of the holders of the common stock. The issuance of additional shares of preferred stock could be utilized, under certain circumstances, as a method of discouraging, delaying or preventing a change in control of the Company.