Item 1A. Risk Factors

This report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this report. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed below and elsewhere in this report and in any documents incorporated in this report by reference.

If any of the following risks, or other risks not presently known to us or that we currently believe to not be significant, develop into actual events, then our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially adversely affected. If that happens, the market price of our common stock could decline, and stockholders may lose all or part of their investment.

Risks related to our Business and our Industry

We have a history of net losses and expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future. We may never generate revenues or, if we are able to generate revenues, achieve profitability.

We were formed as a limited liability company in 2007 and since our inception have incurred a net loss in each of our previous operating years. Our ability to become profitable depends upon our ability to obtain marketing approval for and generate revenues from sales of our product candidates. We have been focused on product development and have not generated any revenues to date. We have incurred losses in each period of our operations, and we expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. These losses are likely to continue to adversely affect our working capital, total assets and shareholders’ equity (deficit). The process of developing our products requires significant clinical, development and laboratory testing and clinical trials. In addition, commercialization of our product candidates will require that we obtain necessary regulatory approvals and establish sales, marketing and manufacturing capabilities, either through internal hiring or through contractual relationships with others. We expect to incur substantial losses for the foreseeable future as a result of anticipated increases in our research and development costs, including costs associated with conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials, and regulatory compliance activities. We incurred net losses of $12,536,638, $10,384,953, and $8,295,698 for the years ended September 30, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. At September 30, 2018, we had stockholders’ equity of $27,865,684 and an accumulated deficit of $40,257,838. Our net cash used for operating activities was $11,318,138, $7,971,205, and $5,900,421 for the years ended September 30, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Our ability to generate revenues and achieve profitability will depend on numerous factors, including success in:

Many of these factors will depend on circumstances beyond our control. We cannot assure you that any of our products will be approved by the FDA, that we will successfully bring any product to market or, if so, that we will ever become profitable.

There is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

Currently, we do not have sufficient capital to continue our operations after the first nine months of fiscal 2019. You should not rely on our consolidated balance sheet as an indication of the amount of proceeds that would be available to satisfy claims of creditors, and potentially be available for distribution to shareholders, in the event of liquidation.

Our audited consolidated financial statements included within have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern and do not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets, or the amounts and classification of liabilities that may result if we do not continue as a going concern. We have concluded that substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern exists and our auditors have made reference to this in their audit report on our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended September 30, 2018.

We need to secure additional financing.

We anticipate that we will incur operating losses for the foreseeable future. We have received gross proceeds of approximately $35.6 million from our public and private placement offerings through September 30, 2018. Additionally, in connection with the acquisition of LMB our Executive Chairman, Leonard Mazur, made an equity investment of $3.0 million in March 2016. Mr. Mazur has also loaned us $4,710,000 pursuant to convertible promissory notes. On August 8, 2017, these notes and accrued interest of $76,240 were converted into 1,547,067 shares of common stock at a price of $3.09 per share as part of an underwritten public offering which closed on the same date.

The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

We will need to access the capital markets in the future for additional capital for research and development and for operations. Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies have funded their research and development expenditures through raising capital in the equity markets. Declines and uncertainties in these markets over the past several years have severely restricted raising new capital and have affected companies’ ability to continue to expand or fund existing research and development efforts. If these economic conditions continue or become worse, our future cost of equity or debt capital and access to the capital markets could be adversely affected. If we are not successful in securing additional financing, we may be required to delay significantly, reduce the scope of or eliminate one or more of our research or development programs, downsize our general and administrative infrastructure, or seek alternative measures to avoid insolvency, including arrangements with collaborative partners or others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain of our technologies or product candidates.

We are a late-stage development company with an unproven business strategy and may never achieve commercialization of our therapeutic products or profitability.

Our strategy of using collaborative partners to assist us in the development of our therapeutic products is unproven. Our success will depend upon our ability to enter into additional collaboration agreements on favorable terms and to select an appropriate commercialization strategy for each product candidate that we and our collaborators choose to pursue. If we are not successful in implementing our strategy to commercialize our product candidates, we may never achieve, maintain or increase profitability. Our ability to successfully commercialize any of our products or product candidates will depend, among other things, on our ability to:

There are no guarantees that we will be successful in completing these tasks. If we are unable to successfully complete these tasks, we may not be able to commercialize any of our product candidates in a timely manner, or at all, in which case we may be unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain and grow our business. If we experience unanticipated delays or problems, our development costs could substantially increase and our business, financial condition and results of operations will be adversely affected.

We face significant risks in our product candidate development efforts.

Our business depends on the successful development and commercialization of our product candidates. We are not permitted to market any of our product candidates in the United States until we receive approval of an NDA from the FDA, or in any foreign jurisdiction until we receive the requisite approvals from such jurisdiction. The process of developing new drugs and/or therapeutic products is inherently complex, unpredictable, time-consuming, expensive and uncertain. We must make long-term investments and commit significant resources before knowing whether our development programs will result in drugs that will receive regulatory approval and achieve market acceptance. Product candidates that appear to be promising at all stages of development may not reach the market for a number of reasons that may not be predictable based on results and data of the clinical program. Product candidates may be found ineffective or may cause harmful side effects during clinical trials, may take longer to progress through clinical trials than had been anticipated, may not be able to achieve the pre-defined clinical endpoints due to statistical anomalies even though clinical benefit may have been achieved, may fail to receive necessary regulatory approvals, may prove impracticable to manufacture in commercial quantities at reasonable cost and with acceptable quality, or may fail to achieve market acceptance.

We cannot predict whether or when we will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates that are under development and we cannot, therefore, predict the timing of any future revenues from these product candidates, if any. The FDA has substantial discretion in the drug approval process, including the ability to delay, limit or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons. For example, the FDA:

Any failure to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates would significantly limit our ability to generate revenues, and any failure to obtain such approval for all of the indications and labeling claims we deem desirable could reduce our potential revenues.

The results of pre-clinical studies and completed clinical trials are not necessarily predictive of future results, and our current product candidates may not have favorable results in later studies or trials.

Pre-clinical studies and Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials are not primarily designed to test the efficacy of a product candidate in the general population, but rather to test initial safety, to study pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, to study limited efficacy in a small number of study patients in a selected disease population, and to identify and attempt to understand the product candidate’s side effects at various doses and dosing schedules. Success in pre-clinical studies or completed clinical trials does not ensure that later studies or trials, including continuing pre-clinical studies and large-scale clinical trials, will be successful nor does it predict future results. Favorable results in early studies or trials may not be repeated in later studies or trials, and product candidates in later stage trials may fail to show acceptable safety and efficacy despite having progressed through earlier trials. In addition, the placebo rate in larger studies may be higher than expected.

We may be required to demonstrate through large, long-term outcome trials that our product candidates are safe and effective for use in a broad population prior to obtaining regulatory approval.

There is typically a high rate of attrition from the failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. In addition, certain subjects in our clinical trials may respond positively to placebo treatment - these subjects are commonly known as “placebo responders” - making it more difficult to demonstrate efficacy of the test drug compared to placebo. This effect is likely to be observed in the treatment of hemorrhoids.

If any of our product candidates fail to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy in any clinical trial, we will experience potentially significant delays in, or may decide to abandon development of that product candidate. If we abandon or are delayed in our development efforts related to any of our product candidates, we may not be able to generate any revenues, continue our operations and clinical studies, or become profitable. Our reputation in the industry and in the investment community would likely be significantly damaged. Further, it might not be possible for us to raise funds in the public or private markets, and our stock price would likely decrease significantly.

If we are unable to file for approval of Mino-Lok or Hydro-Lido under Section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act or if we are required to generate additional data related to safety and efficacy in order to obtain approval of Mino-Lok under Section 505(b)(2), we may be unable to meet our anticipated development and commercialization timelines.

Our current plans for filing additional NDAs for our product candidates include efforts to minimize the data we will be required to generate in order to obtain marketing approval for our additional product candidates and therefore possibly reduce the time and cost of development of a product candidate and obtain a shortened review period for the application. The timeline for filing and review of our planned NDA for each of Mino-Lok and Hydro-Lido is based upon our plan to submit each such NDA under Section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, wherein we will rely in part on data in the public domain or elsewhere. Depending on the data that may be required by the FDA for approval, some of the data may be related to products already approved by the FDA. If the data relied upon is related to products already approved by the FDA and covered by third-party patents we would be required to certify that we do not infringe the listed patents or that such patents are invalid or unenforceable. As a result of the certification, the third party would have 45 days from notification of our certification to initiate an action against us. In the event that an action is brought in response to such a certification, the approval of our NDA could be subject to a stay of up to 30 months or more while we defend against such a suit. Approval of any product candidate under Section 505(b)(2) may therefore be delayed until patent exclusivity expires or until we successfully challenge the applicability of those patents applicable to our product candidates. Alternatively, we may elect to generate sufficient additional clinical data so that we no longer rely on data which triggers a potential stay of the approval of any product candidate. Even if no exclusivity periods apply to an application under Section 505(b)(2), the FDA has broad discretion to require us to generate additional data on the safety and efficacy of our product candidates to supplement third-party data on which we may be permitted to rely. In either event, we could be required, before obtaining marketing approval for such product candidate, to conduct substantial new research and development activities beyond those we currently plan to engage in order to obtain approval of that product candidate. Such additional new research and development activities would be costly and time consuming.

We may not be able to obtain shortened review of our applications where available, and in any event the FDA may not agree that any of our product candidates qualify for marketing approval. If we are required to generate additional data to support approval, we may be unable to meet our anticipated development and commercialization timelines, may be unable to generate the additional data at a reasonable cost, or at all, and may be unable to obtain marketing approval of that product candidate. In addition, notwithstanding the approval of many products by the FDA pursuant to Section 505(b)(2), over the last few years, some pharmaceutical companies and others have objected to the FDA’s interpretation of Section 505(b)(2). If the FDA changes its interpretation of Section 505(b)(2), or if the FDA’s interpretation is successfully challenged in court, this could delay or even prevent the FDA from approving any Section 505(b)(2) application that we submit.

Even if we receive regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates, post-approval marketing and promotion of products is highly regulated by the FDA, and marketing campaigns which violate FDA standards may result in adverse consequences including regulatory enforcement action by the FDA as well as follow-on actions filed by consumers and other end-payers, which could result in substantial fines, sanctions and damage awards against us, any of which could harm our business.

Post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs, standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, dissemination of off-label product information, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities via the Internet are heavily scrutinized and regulated by the FDA. Drugs may only be marketed for approved indications and in accordance with provisions of the FDA approved labels. Failure to comply with such requirements may result in adverse publicity, warning letters issued by the FDA, and civil or criminal penalties.

In the event the FDA discovers post-approval violations, we could face penalties in the future including the FDA’s issuance of a cease and desist order, impounding of our products, and civil or criminal penalties. As a follow-on to such governmental enforcement activities, consumers and other end-payers of the product may initiate action against us claiming, among other things, fraudulent misrepresentation, unfair competition, violation of various state consumer protection statues and unjust enrichment. If the plaintiffs in such follow-on actions are successful, we could be subject to various damages, including compensatory damages, treble damages, punitive damages, restitution, disgorgement, prejudgment and post-judgment interest on any monetary award, and the reimbursement of the plaintiff’s legal fees and costs, any of which could have an adverse effect on our revenue, business, financial condition and prospects.

Even if we receive regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate, our ability to generate revenues from any resulting product will be subject to a variety of risks, many of which are out of our control.

Even if one of our product candidates obtain regulatory approval, the product may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, healthcare payers or the medical community. The indication may be limited to a subset of the population or we may implement a distribution system and patient access program that is limited. Coverage and reimbursement of our product candidates by third-party payers, including government payers, generally is also necessary for optimal commercial success. We believe that the degree of market acceptance and our ability to generate revenues from any approved produce candidate or acquired product will depend on a number of factors, including:

If approved, any product candidate may fail to achieve market acceptance or generate significant revenue to achieve or sustain profitability. In addition, our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payers on the benefits of any product candidate may require significant resources and may never be successful.

Even if approved for marketing by applicable regulatory bodies, we will not be able to create a market for any of our products if we fail to establish marketing, sales and distribution capabilities, or fail to enter into arrangements with third parties.

Our strategy with our product candidates is to outsource to third parties, all or most aspects of the product development process, as well as marketing, sales and distribution activities. Currently, we do not have any sales, marketing or distribution capabilities. In order to generate sales of any product candidates that receive regulatory approval, we must either acquire or develop an internal marketing and sales force with technical expertise and with supporting distribution capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services for us. The acquisition or development of a sales and distribution infrastructure would require substantial resources, which may divert the attention of our management and key personnel and defer our product development efforts. To the extent that we enter into marketing and sales arrangements with other companies, our revenues will depend on the efforts of others. These efforts may not be successful. If we fail to develop sales, marketing and distribution channels, or enter into arrangements with third parties, we will experience delays in product sales and incur increased costs.

The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully against new entrants or established companies.

Competition in the pharmaceutical and medical products industries is intense and is characterized by costly and extensive research efforts and rapid technological progress. We are aware of several pharmaceutical companies also actively engaged in the development of therapies for at least some of the same conditions we are targeting. Many of these companies have substantially greater research and development capabilities as well as substantially greater marketing, financial and human resources than we do. In addition, many of these companies have significantly greater experience than us in undertaking pre-clinical testing, human clinical trials and other regulatory approval procedures. Our competitors may develop technologies and products that are more effective than those we are currently marketing or researching and developing. Such developments could render our product candidates, if approved, less competitive or possibly obsolete. We are also competing with respect to marketing capabilities and manufacturing efficiency, areas in which we have no current capabilities and in which we have limited experience. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and similar events may also significantly increase the competition we face. In addition, new developments, including the development of other drug technologies and methods of preventing the incidence of disease, occur in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries at a rapid pace. These developments may render our products and product candidates obsolete or noncompetitive. Compared to us, many of our potential competitors have substantially greater:

As a result of these factors, our competitors may obtain regulatory approval of their products more rapidly than we can or may obtain patent protection or other intellectual property rights that limit our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidates. Our competitors may also develop drugs or surgical approaches that are more effective, more useful and less costly than ours and may also be more successful in manufacturing and marketing their products. In addition, our competitors may be more effective than us in commercializing their products and as a result, our business and prospects might be materially harmed.

Physicians and patients might not accept and use any of our products for which regulatory approval is obtained.

Even if the FDA approves one of our product candidates, physicians and patients might not accept and use it. Acceptance and use of our approved products will depend upon a number of factors, including:

If our current product candidates are approved, we expect their sales to generate substantially all of our revenues for the foreseeable future, and as a result, the failure of these products to find market acceptance would harm our business and would require us to seek additional financing.

Our two product candidates, Mino-Lok and Hydro-Lido, are combination products consisting of components that have each been separately approved by the FDA for other indications and which are commercially available and marketed by other companies. Our approval under 505(b)(2), if received, would not preclude physicians, pharmacists and patients from obtaining individual drug products and titrating the dosage of these drug products as close to our approved dose as possible.

Our Hydro-Lido product candidate for the treatment of hemorrhoids is a combination product consisting of two drugs, hydrocortisone and lidocaine, that have each been separately approved by the FDA for other indications and which are commercially available and marketed by other companies. Hydrocortisone creams are available from strengths ranging from 0.5% to 2.5% and lidocaine creams are also available in strengths up to 5%. From our market analysis and discussions with a limited number of physicians, we know that patients sometimes obtain two separate cream products and co-administer them as prescribed, giving them a combination treatment which could be very similar to what we intend to study and seek approval for. As a branded, FDA-approved product with safety and efficacy data, we intend to price our product substantially higher than the generically available individual creams. We will then have to convince third-party payers and pharmacy benefit managers of the advantages of our product and justify our premium pricing. We may encounter resistance from these entities and will then be dependent on patients’ willingness to pay the premium and not seek alternatives. In addition, pharmacists often suggest lower cost prescription treatment alternatives to both physicians and patients. Our 505(b)(2) approval and the market exclusivity we may receive will not guarantee that such alternatives will not exist, that substitution will not occur, or that there will be immediate acceptance to our pricing by payer formularies.

Our Mino-Lok solution contains minocycline, disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (edetate), and ethyl alcohol, all of which have been separately approved by the FDA for other indications, or are used as excipients in other parenteral products.

Our ability to generate product revenues will be diminished if any of our approved products sell for inadequate prices or patients are unable to obtain adequate levels of reimbursement.

Our ability to commercialize our product candidates, alone or with collaborators, will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement will be available from:

Significant uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved healthcare products. Healthcare payers, including Medicare, are challenging the prices charged for medical products and services. Government and other healthcare payers increasingly attempt to contain healthcare costs by limiting both coverage and the level of reimbursement for drugs. Even if our product candidates are approved by the FDA, insurance coverage might not be available, and reimbursement levels might be inadequate, to cover our products. If government and other healthcare payers do not provide adequate coverage and reimbursement levels for our products, once approved, market acceptance of such products could be reduced. Proposals to modify the current health care system in the U.S. to improve access to health care and control its costs are continually being considered by the federal and state governments. In March 2010, the U.S. Congress passed landmark healthcare legislation. Portions of this legislation have been repealed recently and members of the U.S. Congress and some state legislatures continue to seek to overturn at least some remaining portions of the legislation and we expect they will continue to review and assess this legislation and possibly alternative health care reform proposals. We cannot predict what impact on federal reimbursement policies this legislation will have in general or on our business specifically. We cannot predict whether new proposals will be made or adopted, when they may be adopted or what impact they may have on us if they are adopted.

Health administration authorities in countries other than the U.S. may not provide reimbursement for our products at rates sufficient for us to achieve profitability, or at all. Like the U.S., these countries have considered health care reform proposals and could materially alter their government-sponsored health care programs by reducing reimbursement rates. Any reduction in reimbursement rates under Medicare or foreign health care programs could negatively affect the pricing of our products. If we are not able to charge a sufficient amount for our products, then our margins and our profitability will be adversely affected.

We rely exclusively on third parties to formulate and manufacture our product candidates.

We do not have and do not intend to establish our own manufacturing facilities. Consequently, we lack the physical plant to formulate and manufacture our own product candidates, which are currently being manufactured entirely by a commercial third party. If any additional product candidate we might develop or acquire in the future receives FDA approval, we will rely on one or more third-party contractors to manufacture our products. If, for any reason, we become unable to rely on our current source or any future source to manufacture our product candidates, either for clinical trials or, for commercial quantities, then we would need to identify and contract with additional or replacement third-party manufacturers to manufacture compounds for preclinical, clinical and commercial purposes. We might not be successful in identifying additional or replacement third-party manufacturers, or in negotiating acceptable terms with any that we do identify. If we are unable to secure and maintain third-party manufacturing capacity, the development and sales of our products and our financial performance might be materially affected.

In addition, before any of our collaborators can begin to commercially manufacture our product candidates, each must obtain regulatory approval of the manufacturing facility and process. Manufacturing of drugs for clinical and commercial purposes must comply with the FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP, and applicable non-U.S. regulatory requirements. The cGMP requirements govern quality control and documentation policies and procedures. Complying with cGMP and non-U.S. regulatory requirements will require that we expend time, money, and effort in production, recordkeeping, and quality control to assure that the product meets applicable specifications and other requirements. Our contracted manufacturing facilities must also pass a pre-approval inspection prior to FDA approval. Failure to pass a pre- approval inspection might significantly delay FDA approval of our products. If any of our collaborators fails to comply with these requirements, we would be subject to possible regulatory action which could limit the jurisdictions in which we are permitted to sell our products. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations might be materially harmed.

Our reliance on a limited number of third-party manufacturers exposes us to the following risks:

Each of these risks could delay our clinical trials or the approval, if any, of our product candidates by the FDA or any foreign regulatory agency or the commercialization of our product candidates and could result in higher costs or deprive us of potential product revenues. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations might be materially harmed.

We are and will be dependent on third-party contract research organizations to conduct all of our future human trials.

We are and will be dependent on third-party research organizations to conduct all of our human trials with respect to our product candidates, including those that we may develop in the future. If we are unable to obtain any necessary testing services on acceptable terms, we may not complete our product development efforts in a timely manner. If we rely on third parties for human trials, we may lose some control over these activities and become too dependent upon these parties. These third parties may not complete testing activities on schedule or when we so request. We may not be able to secure and maintain suitable research organizations to conduct our human trials. We are responsible for confirming that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with our general plan and protocol. Moreover, the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies require us to comply with regulations and standards, commonly referred to as good clinical practices, for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the trial participants are adequately protected. Our reliance on third parties does not relieve us of these responsibilities and requirements. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or regulatory obligations or meet expected deadlines, if the third parties need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our preclinical development activities or clinical trials may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for our future product candidates.

Any termination or breach by or conflict with our strategic partners or licensees could harm our business .

If we or any of our collaborators or licensees fail to renew or terminate any of our collaboration or license agreements or if either party fails to satisfy its obligations under any of our collaboration or license agreements or complete them in a timely manner, we could lose significant sources of revenue, which could result in volatility in our future revenue. In addition, our agreements with our collaborators and licensees may have provisions that give rise to disputes regarding the rights and obligations of the parties. These and other possible disagreements could lead to termination of the agreement or delays in collaborative research, development, supply or commercialization of certain products, or could require or result in litigation or arbitration. Any such conflicts with our collaborators could reduce our ability to obtain future collaboration agreements and could have a negative impact on our relationship with existing collaborators, adversely affecting our business and revenues. Finally, any of our collaborations or license agreements may prove to be unsuccessful.

We might seek to grow and develop our business through acquisitions of or investment in new or complementary businesses, products or technologies, and the failure to manage these acquisitions or investments, or the failure to integrate them with our existing business, could have a material adverse effect on us.

We might consider opportunities to acquire or invest in other technologies, products and businesses that might enhance our capabilities or complement our current product candidates. Potential and completed acquisitions and strategic investments involve numerous risks, including potential problems or issues associated with the following:

We have no current commitments with respect to any acquisition or investment in other technologies or businesses. We do not know if we will identify suitable acquisitions, whether we will be able to successfully complete any acquisitions, or whether we will be able to successfully integrate any acquired product, technology or business into our business or retain key personnel, suppliers or collaborators.

Our ability to successfully develop our business through acquisitions would depend on our ability to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate suitable target businesses or technologies and obtain any necessary financing. These efforts could be expensive and time consuming and might disrupt our ongoing operations. If we are unable to efficiently integrate any acquired business, technology or product into our business, our business and financial condition might be adversely affected.

If we are unable to retain or hire additional qualified personnel, our ability to grow our business might be harmed.

We utilize the services of a clinical management team on part-time basis to assist us in managing our ongoing Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials and intend to do so for future trials. While we believe this will provide us with sufficient staffing for our current and future development efforts, we will need to hire or contract with additional qualified personnel with expertise in preclinical testing, clinical research and testing, government regulation, formulation and manufacturing and sales and marketing in connection with the continued development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates. We compete for qualified individuals with numerous pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, universities and other research institutions. Competition for these individuals is intense, and we cannot be certain that our search for such personnel will be successful. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel will be critical to our success. In addition, we may be unable to attract and retain those qualified officers, directors and members of board committees required to provide for effective management. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified employees, officers and directors, the management and operation of our business could be adversely affected.

We expect to need to increase the size of our organization to further develop our product candidates, and we may experience difficulties in managing growth.

We will need to manage our anticipated growth and increased operational activity. Our personnel, systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Our need to effectively execute our growth strategy will require that we:

This planned future growth could place a strain on our administrative and operational infrastructure and may require our management to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from our day-to-day activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, and give rise to operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. We may not be able to make improvements to our management information and control systems in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing systems and controls. If our management is unable to effectively manage our expected growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate or increase our revenues could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.

Risks Related to Our Regulatory and Legal Environment

We are subject to extensive and costly government regulation.

Product candidates and approved products such as ours are subject to extensive and rigorous domestic government regulation including regulation by the FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Justice, state and local governments, and their respective foreign equivalents. The FDA regulates the research, development, preclinical and clinical testing, manufacture, safety, effectiveness, record keeping, reporting, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import, and export of pharmaceutical products. The FDA regulates small molecule chemical entities, whether administered orally, topically or by injection, as drugs, subject to an NDA, under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. If our product candidates are to be marketed abroad, they will also be subject to extensive regulation by foreign governments, whether or not they have obtained FDA approval. Such foreign regulation might be equally or more demanding than corresponding U.S. regulation. Government regulation substantially increases the cost and risk of researching, developing, manufacturing, and selling our products. The regulatory review and approval process, which includes preclinical testing and clinical trials of each product candidate, is lengthy, expensive, and uncertain. Our collaborators or we must obtain and maintain regulatory authorization to conduct clinical trials and approval for each product we intend to market, and the manufacturing facilities used for the products must be inspected and meet legal requirements. Securing regulatory approval requires submitting extensive preclinical and clinical data and other supporting information for each proposed therapeutic indication in order to establish the product’s safety and efficacy for each intended use. The development and approval process might take many years, requires substantial resources, and might never lead to the approval of a product. Even if we are able to obtain regulatory approval for a particular product, the approval might limit the indicated medical uses for the product, limit our ability to promote, sell, and distribute the product, require that we conduct costly post-marketing surveillance, and/or require that we conduct ongoing post-marketing studies. Material changes to an approved product, such as, for example, manufacturing changes or revised labeling, might require further regulatory review and approval. Once obtained, any approvals might be withdrawn, including, for example, if there is a later discovery of previously unknown problems with the product, such as a previously unknown safety issue.

If we, our collaborators, or our contract manufacturers fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements at any stage during the regulatory process, such noncompliance could result in, among other things, delays in the approval of applications or supplements to approved applications; refusal of a regulatory authority, including the FDA, to review pending market approval applications or supplements to approved applications; warning letters; fines; import and export restrictions; product recalls or seizures; injunctions; total or partial suspension of production; civil penalties; withdrawals of previously approved marketing applications or licenses; recommendations by the FDA or other regulatory authorities against governmental contracts; and/or criminal prosecutions.

We might not obtain the necessary U.S. regulatory approvals to commercialize any product candidates.

We cannot assure you that we will receive the approvals necessary to commercialize for sale any product candidates we are currently developing or that we may acquire or develop in the future. We will need FDA approval to commercialize our product candidates in the U.S. In order to obtain FDA approval of any product candidate, we must submit to the FDA an NDA demonstrating that the product candidate is safe for humans and effective for its intended use. This demonstration requires significant research, pre-clinical studies, and clinical trials. Satisfaction of the FDA’s regulatory requirements typically takes many years, depends upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidate and requires substantial resources for research, development and testing. We cannot predict whether our research and clinical approaches will result in additional drugs that the FDA considers safe for humans and effective for their indicated uses. The FDA has substantial discretion in the product approval process and might require us to conduct additional pre-clinical and clinical testing, perform post-marketing studies or otherwise limit or impose conditions on any additional approvals we obtain. The approval process might also be delayed by changes in government regulation, future legislation or administrative action or changes in FDA policy that occur prior to or during our regulatory review. Delays in obtaining regulatory approvals might:

Even if we comply with all FDA requests, the FDA might ultimately reject one or more of our NDAs. We cannot be sure that we will ever obtain regulatory clearance for our product candidates. Failure to obtain FDA approval of our product candidates will severely undermine our business by leaving us without saleable products, and therefore without any potential sources of revenues, until another product candidate could be developed or obtained. There is no guarantee that we will ever be able to develop or acquire any product candidate.

Following any regulatory approval of any product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize our potential drugs.

If one of our product candidates is approved by the FDA or by a foreign regulatory authority, we will be required to comply with extensive regulations for product manufacturing, labeling, packaging, adverse event reporting, storage, distribution, advertising, promotion and record keeping. Regulatory approvals may also be subject to significant limitations on the indicated uses or marketing of the products or to whom and how we may distribute our products. Even if U.S. regulatory approval is obtained, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on a drug’s indicated uses or marketing or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies. For example, the label ultimately approved for our products, if any, may include restrictions on use, including restrictions based on level of obesity and duration of treatment. If so, we may be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize our products. The FDA could also require a registry to track the patients utilizing the drug or implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, that could restrict access to the drug, reduce our revenues and/or increase our costs. Potentially costly post-marketing clinical studies may be required as a condition of approval to further substantiate safety or efficacy, or to investigate specific issues of interest to the regulatory authority.

Manufacturers of pharmaceutical 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, or cGMP, regulations, which include requirements relating to quality control and quality assurance as well as the corresponding maintenance of records and documentation. Further, regulatory agencies must approve these manufacturing facilities before they can be used to manufacture our future approved products, if any, and these facilities are subject to ongoing regulatory inspections. In addition, regulatory agencies subject a pharmaceutical product, its manufacturer and the manufacturer’s facilities to continual review and inspections. The subsequent discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, may result in restrictions on the marketing of that product, up to and including, withdrawal of the product from the market. If the manufacturing facilities of our suppliers fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, it could result in regulatory action and additional costs to us. Failure to comply with applicable FDA and other regulatory requirements may, either before or after product approval, if any, subject our company to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions, including:

In addition, the law or regulatory policies governing pharmaceutical products may change. New statutory requirements may be enacted or additional regulations may be enacted that could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. Contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs, and their vendors or suppliers may also face changes in regulatory requirements from governmental agencies in the U.S. and other countries. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature, extent or effects of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the U.S. or elsewhere. If we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we might not be permitted to market any future approved products and our business could suffer.

We could be forced to pay substantial damage awards if product liability claims that may be brought against us are successful.

The use of any of our product candidates in clinical trials, and the sale of any approved products, may expose us to liability claims and financial losses resulting from the use or sale of our products. We have obtained limited product liability insurance coverage for our clinical trials of $2.0 million per occurrence and in the aggregate, subject to a deductible of $50,000 per occurrence. There can be no assurance that our existing insurance coverage will extend to any other products in the future. Any product liability insurance coverage may not be sufficient to satisfy all liabilities resulting from product liability claims. A successful claim may prevent us from obtaining adequate product liability insurance in the future on commercially desirable terms, if at all. Even if a claim is not successful, defending such a claim would be time consuming and expensive, may damage that product’s and our reputations in the marketplace, and would likely divert management’s attention, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our company.

Risks Related to our Intellectual Property

Our business depends on protecting our intellectual property.

If we do not obtain protection for our intellectual property rights, our competitors might be able to take advantage of our research and development efforts to develop competing products. Our success, competitive position and future revenues, if any, depend in part on our ability and the abilities of our licensors to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products, methods, processes and other technologies, to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing on our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. We anticipate filing additional patent applications both in the U.S. and in other countries, as appropriate. However, the patent process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in protecting our products by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:

In addition, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and patent offices in other jurisdictions have often required that patent applications concerning pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions be limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges. Thus, even if we or our licensors are able to obtain patents, the patents might be substantially narrower than anticipated.

Because the time period from filing a patent application to the issuance, if ever, of the patent is often more than three years and because any regulatory approval and marketing for a pharmaceutical product often occurs several years after the related patent application is filed, the resulting market exclusivity afforded by any patent on our drug candidates and technologies will likely be substantially less than 20 years. In the United States, the European Union and some other jurisdictions, patent term extensions are available for certain delays in either patent office proceedings or marketing and regulatory approval processes. However, due to the specific requirements for obtaining these extensions, there is no assurance that our patents will be granted extensions even if we encounter significant delays in patent office proceedings or marketing and regulatory approval.

Patent and other intellectual property protection is crucial to the success of our business and prospects, and there is a substantial risk that such protections will prove inadequate. Our business and prospects will be harmed if these protections prove insufficient.

We rely on trade secret protections through confidentiality agreements with our employees, customers and other parties, and the breach of these agreements could adversely affect our business and prospects.

We rely on trade secrets, which we seek to protect, in part, through confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with our employees, collaborators, suppliers, and other parties. There can be no assurance that these agreements will not be breached, that we would have adequate remedies for any such breach or that our trade secrets will not otherwise become known to or independently developed by our competitors. We might be involved from time to time in litigation to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of our proprietary rights. Any such litigation could result in substantial cost and divert management’s attention from our operations.

If we infringe the rights of third parties we might have to forego developing and/or selling any approved products, pay damages, or defend against litigation.

If our product candidates, methods, processes and other technologies infringe the proprietary rights of other parties, we could incur substantial costs and we might have to:

Any of these events could substantially harm our earnings, financial condition and operations.

Risks Related to Our Securities

Our failure to meet the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq could result in a delisting of our common stock and warrants.

Our common stock and warrants are currently listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. If we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq, such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum closing bid price requirement, Nasdaq may take steps to delist our common stock and warrants. Such a delisting would likely have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and warrants and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock and warrants when you wish to do so. In addition, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:

In the event of a delisting, we would take actions to restore our compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common stock, prevent our common stock from dropping below the Nasdaq minimum bid price requirement or prevent future non-compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements.

If our common stock were delisted and determined to be a “penny stock,” a broker-dealer may find it more difficult to trade our common stock and an investor may find it more difficult to acquire or dispose of our common stock in the secondary market.

If our common stock were removed from listing with Nasdaq, it may be subject to the so-called “penny stock” rules. The SEC has adopted regulations that define a “penny stock” to be any equity security that has a market price per share of less than $5.00, subject to certain exceptions, such as any securities listed on a national securities exchange. For any transaction involving a “penny stock,” unless exempt, the rules impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers, subject to certain exceptions. If our common stock were delisted and determined to be a “penny stock,” a broker-dealer may find it more difficult to trade our common stock and an investor may find it more difficult to acquire or dispose of our common stock on the secondary market.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or detect fraud. Consequently, shareholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting and this may decrease the trading price of our common stock.

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX, and Nasdaq rules and regulations. SOX requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filing for that year, as required by Section 404 of SOX.. We previously had identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting related to ineffective separation of duties due to our limited finance staff, our reliance on consultants to assist with the financial reporting function and a lack of documented policies and procedures, which weaknesses were reported in fiscal 2016 and 2017. While we remediated these material weaknesses as of September 30, 2018, such that management has determined that our internal controls over financial reporting were effective as of that date, we cannot assure that, in the future, a material weakness or significant deficiency will not exist or otherwise be discovered. If that were to happen, it could harm our operating results and cause shareholders to lose confidence in our reported financial information. Any such loss of confidence would have a negative effect on the trading price of our securities.

The price of our securities may become volatile, which could lead to losses by shareholders and costly securities litigation.

The trading price of our securities is likely to be highly volatile and could fluctuate in response to factors such as:

The stock market is subject to significant price and volume fluctuations. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been initiated against such a company. Any such litigation initiated against us, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and diversion of our management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business and financial condition.

You may experience dilution of your ownership interests because of the future issuance of additional shares of our common stock or securities convertible into common stock.

In the future, to finance our operations, including possible acquisitions or strategic transactions, we may issue equity securities, resulting in the dilution of the ownership interests of our present stockholders. We are currently authorized to issue an aggregate of 200,000,000 shares of common stock and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock. As of December 1, 2018, there were 17,798,791 shares of common stock outstanding, 15,193,192 shares underlying warrants with a weighted average exercise price of $2.21 per share (including 721,569 shares underlying pre-funded warrants with an exercise price of $0.01), and 1,601,039 shares underlying options with a weighted average exercise price of $4.35 per share. We may also issue additional shares of our common stock or other securities that are convertible into or exercisable for common stock in connection with hiring or retaining employees, or for other business purposes. The future issuance of any such additional shares of common stock or common stock equivalents may create downward pressure on the trading price of our common stock.

The common stock is controlled by insiders.

As of December 1, 2018, our executive officers and directors beneficially owned approximately 58.5% of our outstanding shares of common stock. Such concentrated control of our company may adversely affect the price of our common stock. If you acquire common stock, you may have no effective voice in the management of our company. Sales by our directors and executive officers or their affiliates, along with any other market transactions, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have paid no dividends on our common stock to date and we do not anticipate that any dividends will be paid to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. While our future dividend policy will be based on the operating results and capital needs of the business, it is currently anticipated that any earnings will be retained to finance our future expansion and for the implementation of our business plan. The lack of a dividend can further affect the market value of our stock, and could significantly affect the value of any investment in our company.

Our Certificate of Incorporation allows for our Board of Directors to create new series of preferred stock without further approval by our stockholders, which could adversely affect the rights of the holders of the common stock.

Our Board of Directors has the authority to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock and to fix and determine the relative rights and preferences of any such preferred stock without further stockholder approval. As a result, our Board of Directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that would grant preferential rights to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive dividend payments before dividends are distributed to the holders of common stock and the right to the redemption of the preferred shares, together with a premium, prior to the redemption of the common stock. In addition, our Board of Directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that has greater voting power than the common stock or that is convertible into our common stock, which could decrease the relative voting power of the common stock or result in dilution to our existing stockholders.

There is not an active liquid trading market for our common stock.

While our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq National Market, there has not been a regular active trading market in our common stock, and we cannot give any assurance that an active trading market will develop. If an active market for our common stock were to develop, there is a significant risk that the stock price could fluctuate dramatically in the future in response to any of the following factors, some of which are beyond our control:

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception such sales may occur, could cause the market price of shares of our common stock to fall.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market of such sales or that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our shares of our common stock. As of December 1, 2018, we had 17,798,791 shares of common stock outstanding. This includes registered shares of common stock as well as 4,903,645 shares of our common stock which are available for resale under Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act.