ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.

Investors should consider carefully the following information about these risks before deciding to purchase any of our securities. If any of the events or developments described below actually occur, our business, results of operations and financial condition would likely suffer and Investors may lose all or part of their investment. In addition, it is also possible that other risks and uncertainties that affect our business may arise or become material in the future.

Risks Related to Our Business

We will need substantial additional capital to fund our operations. If we fail to obtain additional capital, we may be unable to sustain operations.

Our operations consume substantial amounts of cash and we expect that our cash used by operations will continue to increase for the next several years. As of June 30, 2017, we had approximately $4.5 million in cash on hand. We will need to raise additional capital prior to the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2018 in order to sustain our operations and we estimate that we will need at least an additional $15 million in capital to cover operating expenses through December 2018. If we are unable to raise additional capital, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue one or more of our drug development or research and development programs. We may be required to cease operations or seek partners for our product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable and on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available. In the absence of additional capital we may also be required to relinquish, license or otherwise dispose of rights to technologies, product candidates or products that we would otherwise seek to develop or commercialize ourselves on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available.

Our corporate objectives are dependent upon one another and to the extent that there is a delay or complication in any one objective, our ability to timely complete our other goals could be adversely impacted.

Our corporate objectives are dependent upon one another and to the extent that there is a delay, complication or failure in any one objective, our ability to complete our other goals in a timely fashion could be adversely impacted. For example, we are currently conducting a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical study of our lead product candidate, AB101, a once-weekly injectable basal insulin for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (“ Study ”) while concurrently expanding our pipeline and advancing additional potential drug candidates towards clinical studies. We anticipate generating results from the Study as early as fourth quarter of calendar year 2017 when we also anticipate needing to raise additional capital. We expect that potential investors will want to review the results from the Study prior to making an investment decision and in the event that the results from the Study do not meet or exceed expectations, we may not be able to raise capital and advance additional pipeline candidates or sustain operations.

Results of preclinical testing or earlier clinical studies are not necessarily predictive of future results, therefore none of the product candidates we advance into clinical studies may have favorable results in later clinical studies or receive regulatory approval.

Success in preclinical testing does not ensure that clinical studies will generate adequate data to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of an investigational drug or biologic. For example, while we have generated promising preclinical results for AB101, there is no assurance that we will generate similar data in the Study or additional clinical studies. Even if the Study or other clinical studies for additional programs produces promising results, there is no assurance that such results will be replicated or exceeded in later clinical studies. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry, including those with greater resources and experience, have suffered significant setbacks in clinical studies, even after seeing promising results in earlier preclinical and clinical studies. We do not know whether the Study or any other clinical studies that we may conduct will demonstrate adequate efficacy and safety to justify the continuing advancement of a program. If later stage clinical studies do not produce favorable results, our ability to achieve regulatory approval for any of our product candidates may be adversely impacted. Even if we believe that our product candidates have performed satisfactorily in preclinical testing and clinical studies, we may still fail to obtain FDA approval for our product candidates.

We may experience delays in our clinical trials that could adversely affect our financial position.

Many factors could affect the timing of the Study and other clinical trials that we may conduct, including lack of cGMP drug product, slow patient recruitment, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the trial, competing clinical trials and new drugs approved for the conditions we are investigating. Other companies may be conducting clinical trials or may announce plans for future trials that will be seeking patients with the same indications as those we are studying. As a result of all of these factors, our trials may take longer to enroll patients than we anticipate. Delays in patient enrollment in the trials may increase our costs and slow down our product development and approval process. Our product development costs will also increase if we need to perform more or larger clinical trials than planned. Any delays in completing our clinical trials could adversely impact our cash position and ability to support ongoing operations.

Due to our reliance on contract research organizations or other third parties to conduct clinical trials, we may not have complete control over the timing, conduct and expense of our clinical trials.

We rely primarily on third parties to conduct our clinical trials. As a result, we will have less control over the conduct of the clinical trials, the timing and completion of the trials, the required reporting of adverse events and the management of data developed through the trial than would be the case if our own staff conducted all clinical trials. Communicating with outside parties can also be challenging, potentially leading to mistakes and difficulties in coordinating activities. Outside parties may have staffing difficulties, may undergo changes in priorities or may become financially distressed, adversely affecting their willingness or ability to conduct our trials. We may experience unexpected increased costs that are beyond our control. Problems with the timeliness or quality of the work of a contract research organization may lead us to seek to terminate the relationship and use an alternative service provider. However, making this change may be costly and may delay our trials, and contractual restrictions may make such a change difficult or impossible. Additionally, it may be impossible to find a replacement organization that can conduct our trials in an acceptable manner and at an acceptable cost.

Adverse events in our clinical trials may force us to stop development of our product candidates or prevent regulatory approval of our product candidates.

Our product candidates may produce serious adverse events in patients during clinical trials. These adverse events could interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials of our product candidates and could result in the FDA, or other regulatory authorities requesting additional preclinical data or denying approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. An institutional review board, independent data safety monitoring board, the FDA, other regulatory authorities or the Company itself may suspend or terminate clinical trials at any time. We cannot assure you that any of our product candidates will prove safe for human use.

We may not be successful in our efforts to partner AB101 or any of our programs with larger pharmaceutical companies.

Complete clinical programs through Phase 3 and beyond for drug candidates in diabetes and metabolic diseases are expensive and complex. We estimate that prior any regulatory approval of AB101 more than $300 million would be required to fund manufacturing scale up and clinical studies. As a result, we expect to partner with a larger pharmaceutical company with broader resources and experience to advance AB101 into later clinical studies. Even if the Study or additional early studies of AB101 produces compelling data supporting the advancement of the program, no assurance can be given that any of the larger pharmaceutical companies will be interested in partnering with us or that we would be able to enter into a collaboration on favorable terms. Our failure to partner AB101 could have a material and adverse impact on our ability to further develop the program or continue our overall operations.

We may not be successful in our efforts to identify, discover or formulate product pipeline candidates.

Research and development programs require substantial technical, financial and human resources to identify new product pipeline candidates. Our research and development programs may initially demonstrate success in identifying potential product pipeline candidates but subsequently fail to yield them. Through our research and development programs, if we are unable to formulate innovative long-acting therapies based on our microsphere platform technology or otherwise, our long-term business, financial position, income, expansion and outlook may be materially adversely affected.

Our competitors may develop and market drugs that are less expensive, more effective or safer than our product candidates.

The pharmaceutical market is highly competitive. If approved by regulatory agencies and subsequently commercialized, our product candidates that contain currently approved active ingredients will likely face competition from existing products on the market. In particular, if we successfully commercialize AB101, our product candidate would compete directly against Sanofi’s Toujeo and Lantus, Novo Nordisk’s Levemir and Tresiba and Eli Lilly’s Basaglar. Additionally, other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies may develop improved formulations of the same drugs that compete with drug products we are developing. It is possible that our competitors will develop and market products that are less expensive, more effective or safer than our future products or that will render our products obsolete. We expect that competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities and public and private research institutions will increase. Many of these competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, research and other resources than we do. We may not have the financial resources, technical and research expertise or marketing, distribution or support capabilities to successfully compete with these competitors.

After the completion of our clinical studies, we cannot predict whether or when we will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates and we cannot, therefore, predict the timing of any future revenue from these product candidates.

Even if we achieve positive clinical results and file for regulatory approval, we cannot commercialize any of our product candidates until the appropriate regulatory agencies have reviewed and approved the applications for such product candidates. We cannot assure that the regulatory agencies will complete their review processes in a timely manner or that we will obtain regulatory approval for any product candidate we develop. Satisfaction of regulatory requirements typically takes many years, is dependent upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product and requires the expenditure of substantial resources. In addition, we may experience delays or rejections based upon additional government regulation from future legislation or administrative action or changes in FDA policy during the period of product development, clinical studies and FDA regulatory review.

Even if our product candidates receive regulatory approval, they may still face future development and regulatory hurdles.

Even if US regulatory approval is obtained for a particular drug candidate, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on marketing, indicated uses and/or require potentially costly post-approval studies or post-market surveillance. For example, the label ultimately approved, if any, may include restrictions on use. Further, the FDA may require that long-term safety data may need to be obtained as a post-market requirement. Even if the FDA or a foreign regulatory agency approves a product candidate, the approval may impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses, conditions for use, labeling, advertising, promotion, marketing and/or production of such product and may impose requirements for post-approval studies, including additional research and development and clinical trials. The FDA and other agencies also may impose various civil or criminal sanctions for failure to comply with regulatory requirements, including substantial monetary penalties and withdrawal of product approval.

In addition, manufacturers of drug products and their facilities are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with current good manufacturing practices and regulations. If we or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product, the manufacturing facility or us, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing. If we, our product candidates or the manufacturing facilities for our product candidates fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency may:

The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our products and generate revenue.

If any of our product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval does not achieve broad market acceptance, the revenue that we generate from its sales, if any, will be limited

The commercial success of our product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval from the FDA or other regulatory agencies will depend upon the acceptance of these products by the medical community, including physicians, patients and payors. The degree of market acceptance of any of our approved products will depend on a number of factors, including:

If our product candidates are approved, but do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, health care payors and patients, we may not generate sufficient revenue from these products, and we may not become or remain profitable. In addition, our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful.

Our manufacturing experience is limited.

The manufacture of drugs for clinical trials and for commercial sale is subject to regulation by the FDA under cGMP regulations and by other regulators under other laws and regulations. We cannot assure you that we can successfully manufacture our products under cGMP regulations or other laws and regulations in sufficient quantities for clinical trials or for commercial sale, or in a timely or economical manner.

Our manufacturing facilities require specialized personnel and are expensive to operate and maintain. Any delay in the regulatory approval of product candidates to be manufactured in these facilities will require us to continue to operate these expensive facilities and retain specialized personnel, which may increase our losses. Construction of our manufacturing facility and original validation has been completed. Validation is an ongoing process that must be maintained to allow us to manufacture under cGMP guidelines. We cannot guarantee that the FDA or any foreign regulatory agencies will approve our other facilities or, once approved, that any of our facilities will remain in compliance with cGMP regulations.

The manufacture of pharmaceutical products is a highly complex process in which a variety of difficulties may arise from time to time. Specifically, the manufacture of microspheres consists of twelve highly engineered unit operations to produce a sterile dry powder in vial for resuspension. We may not be able to resolve any such difficulties with this process in a timely fashion, if at all. We are currently the sole manufacturer of AB101 and if anything were to interfere with our continuing manufacturing operations in our facility, it could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.

If one or more of our product candidates progress to mid- to late-stage development, we may incur significant expenses in the expansion and/or construction of manufacturing facilities and increases in personnel in order to manufacture product candidates. We cannot assure you that we have the necessary funds or that we will be able to develop this manufacturing infrastructure in a timely or economical manner, or at all.

Currently, our other potential product candidates are manufactured in small quantities for use in various studies. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully manufacture additional product candidates at a larger scale in a timely or economical manner, or at all. If and when any of these product candidates are ready for clinical trials, we will need to manufacture them in larger quantities. If we are unable to successfully increase our manufacturing scale or capacity, the regulatory approval of such clinical studies may be delayed.

If we fail to develop manufacturing capacity and experience, fail to manufacture our product candidates economically or on reasonable scale or volumes, or in accordance with cGMP regulations, our development programs and commercialization of any approved products will be materially adversely affected. This may result in delays in filing our IND or in commencing our clinical trials. Any such delays could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.

If our product candidates do not meet safety or efficacy requirements, they will not receive regulatory approval and we will be unable to market them.

The process of drug development, regulatory review and approval typically is expensive, takes many years and the timing of any approval cannot be accurately predicted. If we fail to obtain regulatory approval for our current or future product candidates, we will be unable to market and sell such products and therefore may never be profitable.

As part of the regulatory approval process, we must conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials for each product candidate to demonstrate safety and efficacy. The number of preclinical studies and clinical trials that will be required varies depending on the product candidate, the indication being evaluated, the trial results and regulations applicable to any particular product candidate.

The results of preclinical studies and initial clinical trials of our product candidates do not necessarily predict the results of later-stage clinical trials. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy despite having progressed through initial clinical trials. We cannot assure you that the data collected from the preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates will be sufficient to support approval by FDA or a foreign regulatory authority. In addition, the continuation of a particular study after review by an independent data safety monitoring board does not necessarily indicate that our product candidate will achieve the clinical endpoint.

The FDA and other regulatory agencies can delay, limit or deny approval for many reasons, including:

Any delay in, or failure to receive or maintain, approval for any of our products could prevent us from ever generating meaningful revenues or achieving profitability.

Our product candidates are prone to the risks of failure inherent in drug development. Before obtaining regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any product candidate for a target indication, we must demonstrate safety in preclinical studies and effectiveness with substantial evidence gathered in well-controlled clinical studies. With respect to approval in the US, to the satisfaction of the FDA and, with respect to approval in other countries, to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities in those countries, we must demonstrate that the product candidate is safe and effective for use for that target indication and that the manufacturing facilities, processes and controls are adequate.

Despite our efforts, our product candidates may not:

We are not permitted to market AB101 or any of our other product candidates in the US until we receive approval of a new drug application, or approval of a biologics license application, from the FDA, or in any foreign countries until we receive the requisite approval from such countries. We have not submitted a new drug application or biologics license application or received marketing approval for any of our product candidates.

Preclinical testing and clinical studies are long, expensive and uncertain processes. We may spend several years completing our testing for any particular product candidate, and failure can occur at any stage. Negative or inconclusive results or adverse medical events during a clinical study could also cause us or the FDA to terminate a clinical study or require that we repeat it or conduct additional clinical studies. Additionally, data obtained from a clinical study is susceptible to varying interpretations and the FDA or other regulatory authorities may interpret the results of our clinical studies less favorably than we do. The FDA and equivalent foreign regulatory agencies have substantial discretion in the approval process and may decide that our data is insufficient to support a marketing application and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies.

Any failure or delay by our third-party suppliers on which we rely or intend to rely to provide materials necessary to develop and manufacture our drug products may delay or impair our ability to commercialize our product candidates.

We rely upon a small number of third-party suppliers for the manufacture of certain raw materials that are necessary to formulate our drug products, including AB101, for preclinical and clinical testing purposes. We intend to continue to rely on them in the future. We also expect to rely upon third parties to produce materials required for the commercial production of our product candidates if we succeed in obtaining necessary regulatory approvals. If we are unable to arrange for third-party sources, or do so on commercially unreasonable terms, we may not be able to complete development of or market our product candidates.

There are a small number of suppliers for raw materials that we use to manufacture our drugs. Such suppliers may not sell these raw materials at the times we need them or on commercially reasonable terms. We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition of these raw materials by our manufacturers. Moreover, we currently do not have any agreements for the commercial production of these raw materials. Although we generally do not begin a clinical study unless we believe we have a sufficient supply of a product candidate to complete the clinical study, any significant delay in the supply of raw material components needed to produce a product candidate for a clinical study due to the need to replace a third-party manufacturer could considerably delay completion of our clinical studies, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we or our manufacturers 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 of such product candidates, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our product candidates.

If we successfully commercialize any of our product candidates, we may be required to establish commercial manufacturing capabilities of larger scale. In addition, as our drug development pipeline increases and matures, we will have a greater need for clinical study and commercial manufacturing capacity. We have no experience manufacturing pharmaceutical products on a commercial scale and we may need to rely on third-party manufacturers with capacity for increased production scale to meet our projected needs for commercial manufacturing, the satisfaction of which on a timely basis may not be met.

Recently enacted and future legislation or regulatory reform of the health care system in the US and foreign jurisdictions may affect our ability to sell our products profitably.

Our ability to commercialize our future products successfully, alone or with collaborators, will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement for the products will be available from government and health administration authorities, private health insurers and other third-party payors. The continuing efforts of the US and foreign governments, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other payors of health care services to contain or reduce health care costs may adversely affect our ability to set fair prices for our products, generate revenues and achieve and maintain profitability.

Specifically, in both the US and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals to change the health care system in ways that could impact our ability to sell our products profitably. In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively, the Health Care Reform Law, a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms.

We will not know the full effects of the Health Care Reform Law until applicable federal and state agencies issue regulations or guidance under the new law. Although it is too early to determine the effect of the Health Care Reform Law, the new law appears likely to continue the pressure on pharmaceutical pricing, especially under the Medicare program, and also may increase our regulatory burdens and operating costs. We expect further federal and state proposals and health care reforms to continue to be proposed by legislators, which could limit the prices that can be charged for the products we develop and may limit our commercial opportunity.

Also in the US, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, also called the Medicare Modernization Act, or MMA, changed the way Medicare covers and pays for pharmaceutical products. The legislation expanded Medicare coverage for drug purchases by the elderly and introduced a new reimbursement methodology based on average sales prices for drugs. In addition, this legislation authorized Medicare Part D prescription drug plans to use formularies where they can limit the number of drugs that will be covered in any therapeutic class. As a result of this legislation and the expansion of federal coverage of drug products, we expect that there will be additional pressure to contain and reduce costs. These cost reduction initiatives and other provisions of this legislation could decrease the coverage and price that we receive for any approved products and could seriously harm our business. While the MMA applies only to drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement rates, and any reduction in reimbursement that results from the MMA may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors.

The continuing efforts of government and other third-party payors to contain or reduce the costs of health care through various means may limit our commercial opportunity. It will be time-consuming and expensive for us to go through the process of seeking reimbursement from Medicare and private payors. Our products may not be considered cost-effective, and government and third-party private health insurance coverage and reimbursement may not be available to patients for any of our future products or sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a competitive and profitable basis. Our results of operations could be adversely affected by the MMA, the Health Care Reform Law, and additional prescription drug coverage legislation, by the possible effect of this legislation on amounts that private insurers will pay and by other health care reforms that may be enacted or adopted in the future. In addition, increasing emphasis on managed care in the US will continue to put pressure on the pricing of pharmaceutical products. Cost control initiatives could decrease the price that we or any potential collaborators could receive for any of our future products and could adversely affect our profitability.

In some foreign countries, including major markets in the European Union and Japan, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take up to 12 months or longer after the receipt of regulatory marketing approval for a drug product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical study that compares the cost effectiveness of our product candidates to other available therapies. Such pharmacoeconomic studies can be costly and the results uncertain. Our business could be harmed if reimbursement of our products is unavailable, limited in scope or amount or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels.

We face potential product liability exposure, and, if successful claims are brought against us, we may incur substantial liability.

The use of our product candidates in clinical studies and the sale of any products for which we obtain marketing approval expose us to the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims might be brought against us by consumers, health care providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling or otherwise coming into contact with our products. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we could incur substantial liabilities. In addition, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims may result in:

We currently have clinical trial insurance on AB101, our lead product candidate. This product liability insurance coverage for our clinical studies may not be sufficient to reimburse us for all expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive, and, in the future, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. If and when we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products; however, we may be unable to obtain this product liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms. On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on drugs that had unanticipated adverse effects. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us could cause our stock price to decline and, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could decrease our cash and adversely affect our business.

If we use hazardous and biological materials in a manner that causes injury or violates applicable law, we may be liable for damages.

Our research and development activities involve the controlled use of potentially hazardous substances, including toxic chemical and biological materials. We could be held liable for any contamination, injury or other damages resulting from these hazardous substances. In addition, our operations produce hazardous waste products. While third parties are responsible for disposal of our hazardous waste, we could be liable under environmental laws for any required cleanup of sites at which our waste is disposed. Federal, state, foreign and local laws and regulations govern the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous materials. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations at any time, or if they change, we may be subject to criminal sanctions and substantial civil liabilities, which may harm our business. Even if we continue to comply with all applicable laws and regulations regarding hazardous materials, we cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or discharge and our resultant liability for any injuries or other damages caused by these accidents.

If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may be unable to generate any revenue.

We currently do not have dedicated staff for the sale, marketing and distribution of drug products. The cost of establishing and maintaining such a staff may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. In order to market any products that may be approved by the FDA, we must build our sales, marketing, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. If we are unable to establish adequate sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, whether independently or with third parties, we may not be able to generate product revenue and may not become profitable. We will be competing with many companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations. Without an internal team or the support of a third party to perform marketing and sales functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies.

Guidelines and recommendations published by various organizations may adversely affect the use of any products for which we may receive regulatory approval.

Government agencies issue regulations and guidelines directly applicable to us and to our product candidates. In addition, professional societies, practice management groups, private health or science foundations and organizations involved in various diseases from time to time publish guidelines or recommendations to the medical and patient communities. These various sorts of recommendations may relate to such matters as product usage and use of related or competing therapies. For example, organizations like the American Diabetes Association have made recommendations about therapies in the diabetes therapeutics market. Changes to these recommendations or other guidelines advocating alternative therapies could result in decreased use of any products for which we may receive regulatory approval, which may adversely affect our results of operations.

Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report, contained herein, includes an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

Our financial statements have been prepared on the basis that we will continue as a going concern. For the period from March 24, 2010 to June 30, 2017, we have an accumulated deficit of approximately $64,322,000. As of June 30, 2017, our total stockholder’s equity was approximately $8,528,000 and we had working capital of approximately $3,157,000. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future as we develop and commercialize AB101, and we must raise additional capital from external sources in order to sustain our operations. Primarily as a result of our history of losses and limited cash balances, our independent registered public accounting firm has included in their audit report an explanatory paragraph expressing substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Our ability to continue as a going concern is contingent upon, among other factors, our ability to obtain financing to continue to fund our operations. We cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to raise additional capital. If we are unable to secure additional capital, we may be required to curtail our research and development initiatives and take additional measures to reduce costs in order to conserve our cash in amounts sufficient to sustain operations and meet our obligations. These measures could cause significant delays in the development of AB101 and other product candidates.

We are at an early stage of development as a company and we do not have, and may never have, any products that generate significant revenues.

We are at an early stage of development as a proprietary product specialty pharmaceutical company and we do not have any commercial products. Our existing product candidates will require extensive additional clinical evaluation, regulatory review, significant marketing efforts and substantial investment before they generate any revenues. Our efforts may not lead to commercially successful products, for a number of reasons, including:

We do not expect to be able to market any of our product candidates for a number of years. If we are unable to develop, receive approval for, or successfully commercialize any of our product candidates, we will be unable to generate significant revenues. If our development programs are delayed, we may have to raise additional capital or reduce or cease our operations.

Initially, we expect to derive all of our revenues, if any, from AB101. As we cannot currently enter the market with AB101, it is uncertain whether AB101 will achieve and sustain high levels of demand and market acceptance. Our success will depend to a substantial extent on our ability to successfully commercialize and market our products. Failure of consumers to accept AB101 would significantly adversely affect our revenues and profitability.

We have never generated any revenues and may never become profitable.

Since inception, we have not generated any revenues and have incurred an accumulated deficit of approximately $64,322,000 through June 30, 2017. We expect to continue to incur substantial operating losses for the next several years as we move AB101 and other product candidates into clinical trials and continue our research and development efforts. To become profitable, we must successfully develop, manufacture and market our product candidates, either alone or in conjunction with possible collaborators. We may never have any revenues or become profitable.

Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects.

Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, acquiring product and technology rights and conducting preclinical studies. We have not demonstrated an ability to produce product under cGMP conditions, conduct clinical trials, obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize a product candidate. Consequently, any predictions about our future performance may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a history of successfully testing, developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products.

If we are unable to successfully remediate the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

In connection with the audit of the fiscal 2017 consolidated financial statements of AntriaBio, Inc., our auditors noted a material weakness in our controls, principally as a result of not having segregated duties as our Chief Accounting Officer can initiate and complete transactions, not having measures that would prevent the Chief Accounting Officer from overriding the internal control system, and the Chief Accounting Officer is responsible for complex accounting issues without additional reviews within the Company. A material weakness is a deficiency or combination of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting that results in more than reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We have also begun evaluating and implementing additional procedures to improve the segregation of duties. We cannot assure that these or other measures will fully remediate the deficiencies or material weakness described above. We also cannot assure you that we have identified all of our existing significant deficiencies and material weaknesses, or that we will not in the future have additional significant deficiencies or material weaknesses.

Operations outside the United States may be affected by different local politics, business and cultural factors, different regulatory requirements and prohibitions between jurisdictions.

Operations outside the United States may be affected by different local business and cultural factors, different regulatory requirements and prohibitions between jurisdictions, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments; and changes in regulatory requirements for financing activities.

We are currently in the process of establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary in the Republic of Korea (South Korea).  Our operations, once established, will be subject to various political, economic, and other risks and uncertainties inherent to the country.  Among other risks, the registrant’s operations are subject to the risks of political conditions and governmental regulations.  If there are any changes to government regulations that affect our ability to operate, we may face significant losses.

The persistently weak global economic and financial environment in many countries and increasing political and social instability may have a material adverse effect on our results.

Many of the world’s largest economies and financial institutions continue to be impacted by a weak ongoing global economic and financial environment, with some continuing to face financial difficulty, liquidity problems and limited availability of credit. It is uncertain how long these effects will last, or whether economic and financial trends will worsen or improve. Such uncertain times may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and, if circumstances worsen, our ability to raise capital at reasonable rates.

In addition, the varying effects of difficult economic times on the economies, currencies and financial markets of different countries could unpredictably impact, the conversion of our operating results into our reporting currency, the US dollar. Alternately, inflation could accelerate, which could lead to higher interest rates, which would increase our costs of raising capital.

In addition, increasing political and social instability around the world may lead to significant business disruptions or other adverse business conditions. Similarly, increased scrutiny of corporate taxes and executive pay may lead to significant business disruptions or other adverse business conditions, and may interfere with our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel in South Korea.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our current patent positions and license portfolio may not include all patent rights needed for the full development and commercialization of our product candidates. We cannot be sure that patent rights we may need in the future will be available to license on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.

We typically develop our product candidates using compounds that we have acquired or in-licensed, including the original composition of matter patents and patents that claim the activities and methods for such compounds’ production and use. For example, in 2017 we in-licensed a kallikrein inhibitor portfolio from ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals and in consideration for such license, we will owe milestone payments and  royalties to ActiveSite if and when we progress product candidates through development.

As we learn more about the mechanisms of action and new methods of manufacture and use of these product candidates, we may file additional patent applications for these new inventions or we may need to ask our licensors to file them. We may also need to license additional patent rights or other rights on compounds, treatment methods or manufacturing processes because we learn that we need such rights during the continuing development of our product candidates.

Although our patents may prevent others from making, using or selling similar products, they do not ensure that we will not infringe the patent rights of third parties. We may not be aware of all patents or patent applications that may impact our ability to make, use or sell any of our product candidates or proposed product candidates. For example, because we sometimes identify the mechanism of action or molecular target of a given product candidate after identifying its composition of matter and therapeutic use, we may not be aware until the mechanism or target is further elucidated that a third party has an issued or pending patent claiming biological activities or targets that may cover our product candidate. US patent applications filed after November 29, 2000 are confidential in the US Patent and Trademark Office for the first 18 months after such applications’ earliest priority date, and patent offices in other countries often publish patent applications for the first time six months or more after filing. Furthermore, we may not be aware of published or granted conflicting patent rights. Any conflicts resulting from patent applications and patents of others could significantly reduce the coverage of our patents and limit our ability to obtain meaningful patent protection. If others obtain patents with conflicting claims, we may need to obtain licenses to these patents or to develop or obtain alternative technology.

We may not be able to obtain any licenses or other rights to patents, technology or know-how from third parties necessary to conduct our business as described in this report and such licenses, if available at all, may not be available on commercially reasonable terms. Any failure to obtain such licenses could delay or prevent us from developing or commercializing our drug candidates or proposed product candidates, which would harm our business. Litigation or patent interference proceedings may be necessarily brought against third parties, as discussed below, to enforce any of our patents or other proprietary rights or to determine the scope and validity or enforceability of the proprietary rights of such third parties.

If our or our licensors’ patent positions do not adequately protect our product candidates or any future products, others could compete with us more directly, which would harm our business.

Our commercial success will depend in part on our and our licensors’ ability to obtain additional patents and protect our existing patent positions, particularly those patents for which we have secured exclusive rights, as well as our ability to maintain adequate protection of other intellectual property for our technologies, product candidates and any future products in the US and other countries. If we or our licensors do not adequately protect our intellectual property, competitors may be able to use our technologies and erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which could materially harm our business, negatively affect our position in the marketplace, limit our ability to commercialize our product candidates and delay or render impossible our achievement of profitability. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the US, and we may encounter significant problems in protecting our proprietary rights in these countries.

The patent positions of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including our own patent position, involve complex legal and factual questions, and, therefore, validity and enforceability cannot be predicted with certainty. Patents may be challenged, deemed unenforceable, invalidated or circumvented. We and our licensors will be able to protect our proprietary rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our proprietary technologies, product candidates and any future products are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets.

The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain, and we cannot ensure that:

We may be unable to adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information.

We rely on trade secrets to protect our proprietary know-how and technological advances, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We rely in part on confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, sponsored researchers and other advisors to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information. Costly and time consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights. Failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could enable competitors to use our proprietary information to develop products that compete with our products or cause additional, material adverse effects upon our competitive business position.

Litigation regarding patents, patent applications and other proprietary rights may be expensive and time consuming. If we are involved in such litigation, it could cause delays in bringing product candidates to market and harm our ability to operate.

Our commercial success will depend in part on our ability to manufacture, use, sell and offer to sell our product candidates and proposed product candidates without infringing patents or other proprietary rights of third parties. Although we are not currently aware of any litigation or other proceedings or third-party claims of intellectual property infringement related to our product candidates, the pharmaceutical industry is characterized by extensive litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Other parties may obtain patents in the future and allege that the use of our technologies infringes these patent claims or that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. Likewise, third parties may challenge or infringe upon our or our licensors’ existing or future patents. Proceedings involving our patents or patent applications or those of others could result in adverse decisions regarding the patentability of our inventions relating to our product candidates or the enforceability, validity or scope of protection offered by our patents relating to our product candidates.

Even if we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and divert management’s time and attention in pursuing these proceedings. If we are unable to avoid infringing the patent rights of others, we may be required to seek a license, defend an infringement action or challenge the validity of the patents in court. Patent litigation is costly and time-consuming. We may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion. In addition, if we do not obtain a license, develop or obtain non-infringing technology, fail to defend an infringement action successfully or have our patents declared invalid, we may incur substantial monetary damages; encounter significant delays in bringing our product candidates to market; or be precluded from participating in the manufacture, use or sale of our product candidates or methods of treatment requiring licenses.

If our patent and other intellectual property protection is inadequate, our sales and profits could suffer or competitors could force our products completely out of the market.

Patents which prevent the manufacture or sale of our products may be issued to others. We may have to license those patents and pay significant fees or royalties to the owners of the patents in order to keep marketing our products. This would cause profits on sales to suffer.

We have been granted patents or licensed patents in the US, but patent applications that have been, or may in the future be, filed by us may not result in the issuance of additional patents. The scope of any patent issued may not be sufficient to protect our technology. The laws of foreign jurisdictions in which we intend to sell our products may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the US.

In addition to patent protection, we also rely on trade secrets, proprietary know-how and technology advances. We enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees and others, but these agreements may not be effective in protecting our proprietary information. Others may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or obtain access to our know-how. Litigation, which is expensive, may be necessary to enforce or defend our patents or proprietary rights and may not end favorably for us. We may also choose to initiate litigation against other parties who we come to believe are infringing these patents. If such litigation is unsuccessful or if the patents are invalidated or canceled, we may have to write off the related intangible assets and such an event could significantly reduce our earnings. Any of our licenses, patents or other intellectual property may be challenged, invalidated, canceled, infringed or circumvented and may not provide any competitive advantage to us.

If the Company is required to impair their long-lived assets, the Company’s financial condition and results could be negatively affected.

If we are unable to manufacture products in our manufacturing facilities or successfully develop products using our patents that were purchased, the Company may conclude our long-lived assets may be impaired. If we evaluate our long-lived assets and deem that there is an impairment, under current accounting standards, the Company will be required to write down the assets. Any write-down would have a negative effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

Investors may experience dilution if we issue additional shares of common stock.

In general, stockholders do not have preemptive rights to any common stock issued by us in the future. Therefore, stockholders may experience dilution of their equity investment if we issue additional shares of common stock in the future. This includes shares issuable under equity incentive plans, or if we issue securities that are convertible into shares of our common stock. Given that we will we require additional capital, we intend to raise funds in the future by issuing common stock that will cause dilution to our stockholders. We also have significant outstanding warrants to purchase common stock as well as a stock option pool available to employees, which if exercised, would cause dilution to our stockholders.

There is a limited trading market for our common stock, which could make it difficult to liquidate an investment in our common stock, in a timely manner.

Our common stock is currently traded on the OTCQB. Because there is a limited public market for our common stock, investors may not be able to liquidate their investment whenever desired. We cannot assure that an active trading market for our common stock will ever develop and the lack of an active public trading market means that investors may be exposed to increased risk. In addition, if we failed to meet the criteria set forth in SEC regulations, various requirements would be imposed by law on broker-dealers who sell our securities to persons other than established customers and accredited investors. Consequently, such regulations may deter broker-dealers from recommending or selling our common stock, which may further affect its liquidity.

With a limited trading market for our common stock, the trading price can be impacted by naked short selling.

Our stock price has been under downward pressure for over a year and we have been puzzled as to why there would be consistent downward pressure on our stock even in the face of positive news about the Company and our prospects. Following some investigation and with the assistance of outside advisors, we believe we are the target of naked short selling. Naked short selling is when an investor sells short shares that they do not possess and have not confirmed their ability to possess. If the trade associated with the short does not take place within the clearing time period and the short-seller does not tender shares to the buyer, the trade is considered a “failure to deliver.”

Naked short selling, a practice that is prohibited by the SEC's Regulation SHO, reduces the value of companies and shareholders' investments by artificially pushing a company’s stock price down. For smaller companies like ours that are looking to raise working capital, it makes the process difficult. Upon tracking our trading activity, we have determined that approximately 44% of our daily trading volume is short selling and we believe that the short sellers have been lax at complying with Regulation SHO since early 2013. There are no assurances that we will be able to curb the naked short selling of our stock.

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade us or our sector, the price of our common stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrades us or the industry in which we operate or the stock of any of our competitors, the price of our common stock will likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage altogether, we could lose visibility, which could also lead to a decline in the price of the common stock.

We cannot ensure that our common stock will be listed on a securities exchange, which may adversely affect your ability to dispose of our common stock in a timely fashion.

We plan to seek listing of our common stock on the NYSE MKT or NASDAQ exchange as soon as reasonably practicable. In 2011, the NYSE MKT and the NASDAQ amended their listings to restrict the ability of companies that have completed reverse mergers to list their securities on such exchanges. In order to become eligible to list their securities on such exchange, reverse merger companies must have had their securities traded on an over-the-counter (OTC) market for at least one year, maintained a certain minimum closing price for no less than 30 of the most recent 60 days prior to the filing of an initial listing application and prior to listing, and timely filed with the SEC all required reports since consummation of the reverse merger, including one annual report containing audited financial statements for a full fiscal year commencing after the date of the filing of the Form 8-K containing the Company’s Form 10 information. To date the Company has not met all of the filing requirements above and may not be able to satisfy the initial listing standards of the NYSE MKT or NASDAQ exchanges in the foreseeable future or at all. Even if we are able to list our common stock on such exchange, we may not be able to maintain a listing of the common stock on such stock exchange.

The market price and trading volume of our common stock may be volatile, which may adversely affect its market price.

The market price of our common stock could be subject to significant fluctuations due to factors such as:

As a result, shares of our common stock may trade at prices significantly below the price an investor paid to acquire them. Furthermore, declines in the price of our common stock may adversely affect the Company’s ability to conduct future offerings or to recruit and retain key employees.

Our common stock may be considered a “penny stock.”

Trades of our common stock are subject to Rule 15g-9 promulgated by the SEC under the Exchange Act, which imposes certain requirements on broker/dealers who sell securities subject to the rule to persons other than established customers and accredited investors. For transactions covered by the rule, broker/dealers must make a special suitability determination for purchasers of the securities and receive the purchaser’s written agreement to the transaction prior to sale. The SEC also has other rules that regulate broker/dealer practices in connection with transactions in “penny stocks.” Penny stocks generally are equity securities with a price of less than $5.00 (other than securities listed on a national securities exchange, provided that current price and volume information with respect to transactions in that security is provided by the exchange or system). The penny stock rules require a broker/dealer, prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from the rules, to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document prepared by the SEC that provides information about penny stocks and the nature and level of risks in the penny stock market. The broker/dealer also must provide the customer with current bid and offer quotations for the penny stock, the compensation of the broker/dealer and its salesperson in the transaction, and monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer’s account. The bid and offer quotations, and the broker/dealer and salesperson compensation information, must be given to the customer orally or in writing prior to effecting the transaction and must be given to the customer in writing before or with the customer’s confirmation. These disclosure requirements have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity in the secondary market for our common stock. As a result of the foregoing, investors may find it difficult to sell their shares.

We have no current plan to pay dividends on our common stock and investors may lose the entire amount of their investment.

We have no current plans to pay dividends on our common stock. Therefore, investors will not receive any funds absent a sale of their shares. We cannot assure investors of a positive return on their investment.