Risk factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks and uncertainties, together with all the other information in this prospectus, including our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before purchasing our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, operating results, financial condition, liquidity and prospects could be materially adversely affected. As a result, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, liquidity and prospects.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Capital

We are a clinical development biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history.

We are a newly formed company and have had limited operations to date. We have to complete clinical trials and receive regulatory approval of new drug applications, or NDAs, before commercial sales of our product candidates can commence. The likelihood of success of our business plan must be considered in light of the problems, substantial expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered in connection with building and expanding clinical development pharmaceutical businesses and the regulatory and competitive environment in which we operate. Pharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking, involves a substantial degree of risk and is a capital-intensive business.

Accordingly, you should consider our prospects in light of the costs, uncertainties, delays and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in the later stage of development, especially clinical pharmaceutical companies such as ours. Potential investors should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties that a company with a limited operating history will face. In particular, potential investors should consider that we cannot assure you that we will be able to:

•        successfully complete the clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approval for the marketing of our product candidate, tecarfarin;

•        secure acceptance of our product candidate in the medical community and with third-party payors and consumers;

•        if approved for commercial sale, launch commercial sales of our product candidate, whether alone or in collaboration with others;

•        successfully build an internal sales force meeting our requirements for the marketing and sale of our product candidate, tecarfarin;

•        successfully manufacture our clinical product and establish commercial drug supply;

•        secure market exclusivity and/or adequate intellectual property protection for our product candidate;

•        attract and retain an experienced management, board and scientific advisory team;

•        successfully implement or execute our current business plan, and we cannot assure you that our business plan is sound; and

•        raise sufficient funds in the capital markets to effectuate our business plan.

If we cannot successfully execute any one of the foregoing, our business may not succeed and your investment will be adversely affected.

We have a limited operating history upon which to evaluate our ability to commercialize our product candidate.

We are a development-stage company and our success is dependent upon our ability to obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidate, tecarfarin, and we have not demonstrated an ability to perform the functions necessary for the approval or successful commercialization of any product candidate. We have yet to demonstrate our

ability to overcome the risks frequently encountered in our industry and are still subject to many of the risks common to such enterprises, including our ability to implement our business plan, market acceptance of our proposed business and lead product, under-capitalization, cash shortages, limitations with respect to personnel, financing and other resources, competition from better funded and experienced companies, and uncertainty of our ability to generate revenues. In fact, though individual team members have experience running clinical trials and our Chief Executive Officer has been involved with the development of tecarfarin for five years, as a company we have yet to prove that we can successfully run a clinical trial. There is no assurance that our activities will be successful or will result in any revenues or profit, and the likelihood of our success must be considered in light of the stage of our development. In addition, no assurance can be given that we will be able to consummate our business strategy and plans, or that financial, technological, market, or other limitations may force us to modify, alter, significantly delay, or significantly impede the implementation of such plans. We have insufficient results for investors to use to identify historical trends. Investors should consider our prospects in light of the risk, expenses and difficulties we will encounter as an early stage company. Our revenue and income potential is unproven and our business model is continually evolving. We are subject to the risks inherent to the operation of a new business enterprise, and cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully address these risks.

We have a history of operating losses and expect to continue to incur substantial losses for the foreseeable future. We may never become profitable or, if achieved, be able to sustain profitability.

To date, we have not generated any revenue from operations and we expect to continue to incur significant operating losses in connection with the development and sale of tecarfarin. We may continue to incur operating losses until such time, if ever, as we are able to achieve sufficient levels of revenue from operations. Our ability to achieve profitability will depend on regulatory approval of our product candidate and if approved, the market acceptance of our product offering and our capacity to develop, introduce and sell our product to our targeted markets. There can be no assurance that we will ever generate significant sales or achieve profitability. Accordingly, the extent of future losses and the time required to achieve profitability, if ever, cannot be predicted at this point.

Even if we succeed in developing and commercializing one or more product candidates, we expect to incur substantial losses for the foreseeable future and may never become profitable. We also expect to continue to incur significant operating and capital expenditures and anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we:

•        continue to undertake the pivotal clinical trial for our product candidate;

•        seek regulatory approvals for our product candidate;

•        implement additional internal systems and infrastructure; and

•        hire additional personnel.

We may not be able to generate revenue or achieve profitability in the future. Our failure to achieve or maintain profitability would likely negatively impact the value of our securities and could prevent us from continuing as a going concern.

Even if we can secure such arrangements, we may continue to have obligations and expenses that exceed the revenue generated by these marketed products. In addition, we could incur significant development and other expenses if we were to make alterations to the manufacturing process for tecarfarin, for preparation and submission of a supplemental NDA for such alterations, if required by the FDA, and in connection with the launch of tecarfarin, if approved. Further, as we pursue FDA approval for tecarfarin, we expect that our research and development expenses will continue to increase significantly as we advance our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial.

Our independent registered public accounting firm has expressed substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

As described in Note 1 of our accompanying audited financial statements, our independent registered public accounting firm has issued a going concern opinion on our financial statements, expressing substantial doubt that we can continue as an ongoing business for the next twelve months after issuance of their report based on our current development plans and our operating requirements and us having suffered recurring losses from operations and having

a net capital deficiency. Our financial statements do not include any adjustments that may result from the outcome of this uncertainty. If we cannot raise the necessary capital to continue as a viable entity, we could experience a material adverse effect on our business and our stockholders may lose some or all of their investment in us.

Our cash and the proceeds of this offering will only fund our operations for a limited time, and we will need to raise additional capital to fund our planned pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial and to support our development and commercialization efforts for our product candidate, tecarfarin.

If we do not succeed in raising additional funds on acceptable terms, we will be unable to commence our planned Phase 3 pivotal clinical trial or obtain approval of our product candidate from the FDA and other regulatory authorities. In addition, we could be forced to delay, discontinue or curtail product development, forego sales and marketing efforts, and forego licensing in attractive business opportunities. We estimate that we will require a total of $45 million for the completion of our planned pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial and other expenditures that we will need to incur in order to file our NDA. We intend to use approximately $4.7 million of the proceeds from this offering to fund CMC preparation, research and development and other trial preparation expenses required for the initiation of our planned pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial, therefore, we will require at least $40 million of additional funding to enroll patients and complete our first Phase 3 clinical trial. Additionally, we estimate that we will require $15 million for general and administrative expenses anticipated to be incurred over the next three years.

We will also need to raise additional capital to expand our business to meet our long-term business objectives.

Our current cash at June 30, 2022 will not be sufficient to fund operations for at least the next twelve months. However, we believe that our existing cash and the anticipated net proceeds from this offering will be sufficient in the aggregate to meet our anticipated cash requirements for at least the next twelve months. We will, however, require additional financing as we continue to execute our business strategy, including that we will require additional funds for the initiation of enrollment of patients and completion of the planned pivotal Phase 3 trial, which is the primary use of funds in this financing. Our liquidity may be negatively impacted as a result of a research and development cost increases in addition to general economic and industry factors. We anticipate that, to the extent that we require additional liquidity, it will be funded through the incurrence of other indebtedness, additional equity financings or a combination of these potential sources of liquidity. In addition, we may raise additional funds to finance future cash needs through grant funding and/or corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities or convertible debt, our stockholders will experience dilution. Debt financing, if available, would result in increased fixed payment obligations and may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, it may be necessary to relinquish valuable rights to our products, future revenue streams or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. The covenants under future credit facilities may limit our ability to obtain additional debt financing. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Any failure to raise capital in the future could have a negative impact on our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategies.

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

•        the outcome, timing and cost of our Phase 3 clinical trial to obtain regulatory approval for tecarfarin in the United States;

•        the degree and rate of market adoption of our products, if approved;

•        the emergence of new, competing technologies and products;

•        the costs of R&D activities we undertake to develop new products and indications;

•        the costs of commercialization activities, including sales, marketing and manufacturing;

•        the costs of building an internal sales force meeting our requirements for the marketing and sale of our product candidates, if approved;

•        our ability to collaborate with third parties on the development and commercialization of our product candidates and products;

•        the level of working capital required to support our growth; and

•        our need for additional personnel, information technology or other operating infrastructure to support our growth and operations as a public company.

We do not currently have any arrangements or credit facilities in place as a source of funds, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to raise sufficient additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all. We anticipate that the additional funding we require will be funded through the incurrence of other indebtedness, additional equity financings or a combination of these potential sources of liquidity We may seek additional capital through a combination of private and public equity offerings, debt financings and strategic collaborations. Debt financing, if obtained, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, including issuing shares of our common stock or other securities and incurring additional debt, and could increase our expenses and require that our assets secure such debt. Equity financing, if obtained, could result in dilution to our then existing stockholders and/or require such stockholders to waive certain rights and preferences. If such financing is not available on satisfactory terms, or is not available at all, we may be required to delay, scale back or eliminate the development of business opportunities and our operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. We can provide no assurances that any additional sources of financing will be available to us on favorable terms, if at all. In addition, if we are unable to secure sufficient capital to fund our operations, we might have to enter into strategic collaborations that could require us to share commercial rights to our products or product candidates with third parties in ways that we currently do not intend or on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we choose to pursue additional indications and/or geographies for any of our products or product candidates or otherwise expand more rapidly than we presently anticipate, we may also need to raise additional capital sooner than expected.

Risks Related to Product Development, Regulatory Approval, Manufacturing and Commercialization

Our business is dependent upon the success of our investigational product candidate, tecarfarin, which requires additional clinical testing before we can seek regulatory approval and potentially launch commercial sales. We do not own any other product candidates or have any other products in clinical development.

Our business and future success depends upon our ability to obtain regulatory approval of and then successfully commercialize our product candidate, tecarfarin. Tecarfarin is in late clinical stage development. Our main focus and the investment of a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources is expected to be in the development of our only product candidate, tecarfarin, for which we are currently planning a Phase 3 clinical trial with approximately 492 patients in the United States. We believe that the proceeds from this offering will provide us with the necessary funding to complete the CMC preparation required for our planned pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial but will not provide us with sufficient funds to initiate or complete this pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial. Even though we are pursuing a registration pathway based on specific FDA input and guidance, there are many uncertainties known and unknown that may affect the outcome of the trial. These include adequate patient enrollment, adequate supply of our product candidate, potential changes in the regulatory landscape, the results of the trial being successful, and FDA acceptance of the data to support approval. We also rely on third parties to conduct the appropriate clinical trials, and their failure to perform in accordance with applicable law would have a negative effect on our regulatory submission.

Our future success depends heavily on our ability to successfully manufacture, develop, obtain regulatory approval, and commercialize tecarfarin, which may never occur. We currently generate no revenues from our product candidate, and we may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable drug.

All of our current data for our product candidate are the results of clinical trials conducted by third parties and do not necessarily provide sufficient evidence that our products are viable as potential pharmaceutical products.

Through our acquisition of the asset of Espero, we possess toxicology, pharmacokinetic, and other preclinical data and clinical data on tecarfarin from studies and trials conducted several years ago. As of now, tecarfarin has completed eleven clinical trials and is now in preparations to enter a pivotal Phase 3 trial. There is no guarantee that Phase 1 or Phase 2 results can or will be replicated by the pivotal Phase 3 study. Further, as the clinical trials were conducted by third parties, and were completed prior to our ownership of the technology, we cannot be assured that such trials were conducted in compliance with applicable statutes, rules, regulations and guidelines applicable to such trials. Although the FDA concurred with our recommended endpoints in correspondence that it had with Espero in 2019, and Espero

submitted the protocol we plan to use to FDA in 2019, we have not received FDA input on our Phase 3 protocol. The FDA agreed in principle that “a single registration trial that combines these populations may be acceptable.” However, there can be no assurance that the planned protocol will be accepted by FDA.

Previous clinical trials using tecarfarin have had different trial designs, doses, parameters and endpoints than the planned Phase 3 clinical trial that is expected to serve as a basis for approval of tecarfarin. We plan to use a fixed dose in future clinical trials that we believe provides good coverage given the dose ranges tested clinically; however, it is possible that the dose selected will not be the optimal dose and so drug effects may be limited or not be demonstrated sufficiently in clinical testing.

As all of our clinical trials to date were conducted by third parties, we cannot be assured that such clinical trials were in compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations.

We did not acquire tecarfarin until April of 2022, and do not have first-hand knowledge of how the Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials were completed. As such, we cannot be assured that such clinical trials were conducted in full compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations. While we are not aware of any issues in relation to such trials and the performance thereof, we cannot be assured that we may learn in the future that there was a failure to abide by such laws, rules and regulations, which could potentially expose us to issues with regards to our Phase 3 clinical trials or otherwise create risks unknown to us with regards to our technology.

Our efforts to develop our product candidate may not generate data sufficient to support an application for regulatory approval.

Despite the global burden of cardiovascular disease, investment in cardiovascular drug development has stagnated over the past two decades, with relative underinvestment compared with other therapeutic areas. The reasons for this trend are multifactorial, but of primary concern is the high cost of conducting cardiovascular outcome trials in the current regulatory environment that demands a direct assessment of risks and benefits, using clinically meaningful cardiovascular endpoints. In addition, clinical trials are difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and are uncertain as to outcome. Success in early phases of pre-clinical and clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. For example, in the Phase 2/3 EMBRACE-AC trial of tecarfarin conducted by ARYx Therapeutics, Inc., a predecessor company to Espero, tecarfarin did not reach statistical significance on its primary endpoint, superiority to warfarin as measured by time in TTR. There is no guarantee that later trials, including ACTOR AF, will reach statistical significance on their endpoints, or demonstrate superiority to warfarin or any other therapy. A failure of one or more of clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. Our product candidate may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining regulatory approval or prevent or limit commercial use with respect to one or all intended indications. In addition, we may experience other numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, the clinical trial process that could delay or prevent our ability to continue development. Development stage risks include the following:

•        although we have FDA minutes documenting Espero’s correspondence with the FDA regarding tecarfarin, the FDA minutes are from 2019, are not binding on FDA, and our expectations regarding such plans may be out of date and not be in line with current market dynamics and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities or institutional review boards, or IRBs, may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trial and refuse to let them proceed;

•        we may not be able to provide acceptable evidence of the safety and efficacy of our product candidates or an acceptable benefit/risk profile for our product candidate;

•        we may not be able to successfully manufacture drug supplies for our clinical trial;

•        the results of our clinical trial may not be satisfactory or may not meet the level of statistical or clinical significance required by the FDA, European Medicines Agency, or EMA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities to demonstrate effectiveness;

•        we may not be able to determine the optimal dosing of our product candidates; and

•        patients in our clinical trial may suffer adverse effects that are deemed related to our product candidates, leading us or regulatory authorities to stop clinical trial temporarily or permanently.

If unacceptable safety concerns or other adverse events arise in the development of a product candidate, our clinical trials could be suspended or terminated or the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease clinical trials or deny approval of such product candidate for any or all targeted indications. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled subjects to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of a product candidate could result in patient deaths. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

Even if we successfully complete our clinical trials, we may not receive regulatory approval for tecarfarin, and we may not be able to commercialize our product candidate and our ability to generate revenue will be limited.

The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, approval, sale, marketing, advertising and promotion, pricing, export, import and distribution of drug products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries, which regulations differ from country to country. We are not permitted to market our product candidate in the United States until we receive approval of an NDA from the FDA and in non-U.S. markets until we receive the requisite approval from comparable regulatory agencies in such countries. Of the large number of drugs in development, only a small number are submitted for approval to the FDA through an NDA and even fewer are eventually approved for commercialization. In 2020 and 2021, the FDA approved only three new molecular entities to treat cardiovascular/vascular diseases. We may not succeed at gaining regulatory approval, which would materially harm our business.

Receipt of necessary regulatory approval is subject to a number of risks, including the following:

•        the data collected from pre-clinical and clinical trials may not be sufficient to support the submission of an NDA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;

•        the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and

•        the relevant laws, approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.

We cannot guarantee that regulators will agree with our assessment of the results of our clinical trials or that such trials will be considered by regulators to have shown safety or efficacy of our product candidates. For example, while we currently intend to conduct future clinical trials of tecarfarin with a primary endpoint of reduction of major cardiac adverse events (MACE), we cannot assure you that the FDA will consider it to be a clinically meaningful endpoint. The FDA, EMA and other regulators have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional clinical trials, or pre-clinical or other trials. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from pre-clinical and clinical testing could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval of a product candidate. Failure to obtain regulatory marketing approval for our product candidates in any indication will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.

The process of obtaining regulatory approvals is expensive, often takes many years, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon, among other things, the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved, the jurisdiction in which regulatory approval is sought and the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. Changes in regulatory review for a submitted product application may cause delays in approval or rejection of an application. Regulatory approval obtained in one jurisdiction does not necessarily mean that a product candidate will receive regulatory approval in all jurisdictions in which we may seek approval, but the failure to obtain approval in one jurisdiction may negatively impact our ability to seek or gain approval in a different jurisdiction. Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or fail to receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of tecarfarin or any future product candidates will be harmed.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval, we will still face ongoing regulatory requirements and tecarfarin may face future development and regulatory difficulties.

Even if we receive regulatory approval of tecarfarin or any future product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations, such as post market surveillance and current good manufacturing practice (“GMP”) requirements, and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense. We may also be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with product candidates. In addition, third parties on whom we rely must comply with regulatory requirements, and any non-compliance on their part may negatively impact our business, assuming we obtain regulatory authorization at all.

Any regulatory approvals that we receive for product candidates will require surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate. The FDA may also require a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”) program in order to approve product candidates, which could entail requirements for a medication guide, physician communication plans or additional elements to ensure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. The FDA could also require a boxed warning, sometimes referred to as a Black Box Warning on the product label to identify a particular safety risk, which could affect commercial efforts to promote and sell the product. In addition, if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves product candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion, import, export and recordkeeping for product candidates will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration, as well as continued compliance with current GMPs and current good clinical practices (“GCPs”) for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. We are also subject to certain user fees imposed by the regulatory agencies. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with product candidates, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:

•        import alerts or automatic detentions;

•        restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of product candidates, withdrawal of the product from the market, or product recalls;

•        fines, warning letters or holds on clinical trials;

•        refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or suspension or revocation of approvals;

•        labeling changes;

•        product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of product candidates;

•        injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties; and

•        inability to obtain government contracts.

The FDA’s and other regulatory authorities’ policies may change, such as those required by the 21st Century Cures Act, and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of tecarfarin or any future product candidates. In addition, it is unclear what changes, if any, the new presidential administration may bring. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

Clinical trials are very expensive, time-consuming and difficult to design and implement.

As part of the regulatory process, we must conduct clinical trials for each product candidate to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the FDA and other regulatory authorities. As we advance tecarfarin or any future product candidates we expect that our expenses will increase. The number and design of the clinical trials that will be required varies depending upon product candidate, the condition being evaluated, current medical strategies and the trial results themselves. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately estimate the cost of the clinical trials. Clinical trials

are very expensive and difficult to design and implement, in part because they are subject to rigorous regulatory requirements. The clinical trial process is also time consuming. We estimate that clinical trials of product candidates including tecarfarin, will take at least several years to complete. Furthermore, failure can occur at any stage of the trials, and we could encounter problems that cause us to abandon or repeat clinical trials. The commencement and completion of clinical trials may be delayed or prevented by several factors, including:

•        unforeseen safety issues;

•        failure to determine appropriate dosing;

•        greater than anticipated cost of our clinical trials;

•        failure to demonstrate effectiveness during clinical trials;

•        slower than expected rates of subject recruitment or difficulty obtaining investigators, particularly during COVID-19;

•        subject drop-out or discontinuation;

•        import delays of clinical trial materials;

•        inability to monitor subjects adequately during or after treatment;

•        third party contractors, including, without limitation, CROs and manufacturers, failing to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner

•        reaching agreements with prospective CROs, and trial sites, both of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;

•        insufficient or inadequate supply or quality of product candidates or other necessary materials to conduct our trials;

•        potential additional safety monitoring, or other conditions required by FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials, or other studies requested by regulatory agencies;

•        problems engaging Institutional Review Boards (“IRBs”), to oversee trials or in obtaining and maintaining IRB approval of studies;

•        imposition of clinical hold or suspension of our clinical trials by regulatory authorities; and

•        inability or unwillingness of medical investigators to follow our clinical protocols.

In addition, we or the FDA may suspend or terminate our clinical trials at any time if it appears that we are exposing participants to unacceptable health risks or if the FDA finds deficiencies in our Investigational New Drug, or IND, submissions or the conduct of these trials. Therefore, we cannot predict with any certainty when, if ever, future clinical trials will commence or be completed.

Delays in the enrollment of patients in any or all of our clinical trials could increase our development costs and delay completion of our clinical trials and associated regulatory submissions.

We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. COVID-19 will likely make this even more challenging. Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical trials, if the pace of enrollment is slower than we expect, the development costs for our product candidates may increase, and the completion of our trials may be delayed or our trials could become too expensive to complete.

Even if approved, tecarfarin may not have labeling that allows us to successfully commercialize it.

The commercial success of tecarfarin and any of our future product candidates will depend in significant measure upon our ability to obtain approval from the FDA and other regulatory authorities of labeling describing a product candidate’s expected features or benefits. Regulatory authorities may approve tecarfarin for fewer or more limited indications than we request or may approve tecarfarin with labeling that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that indication. Failure to achieve approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities of product labeling containing certain types of information on features or benefits of our products will prevent or substantially limit our advertising and promotion of such features in order to differentiate our product candidates or any future product candidates from those products already existing in the market. This may make it difficult or impossible to achieve commercial success.

If our product candidate is approved, our success depends on our commercialization efforts, which may not be achieved. If we are unable to commercialize our product candidate, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business could be materially harmed.

We will invest a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources into the development and commercialization of tecarfarin. Product revenues from our product candidate, tecarfarin, which will not be realized until after regulatory approval, if ever, will depend on the successful development, regulatory approval and eventual commercialization of these product candidates. The success of our product candidate will depend on several factors, including the following:

•        receipt of marketing approvals for our product candidate from the FDA and similar regulatory authorities outside the United States;

•        obtaining product indications, other labeling information and product attributes that are acceptable and attractive to the medical community, third-party payors and patients;

•        our ability to manufacture product commercially at acceptable costs;

•        establishing and maintaining commercial manufacturing arrangements with third parties;

•        successfully commercializing our product candidate, if approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;

•        a continued acceptable safety profile of the product candidate following approval; and

•        obtaining, maintaining, enforcing and defending intellectual property rights and claims and available product exclusivities.

If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our product candidate, which would materially harm our business. In addition, even if we obtain regulatory approvals for tecarfarin, the timing or scope of any approval may prohibit or reduce our ability to commercialize tecarfarin successfully. For example, if the approval process takes too long, we may miss market opportunities and give other companies the ability to develop competing products or establish market dominance. Also, any regulatory approval we ultimately obtain may be limited or subject to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render tecarfarin not commercially viable. For example, regulatory authorities may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials or, outside the U.S., they may not accept or approve the price we intend to charge for tecarfarin. Further, the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may place conditions on approvals, such as risk management plans and Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, or REMS, to assure the safe use of the drug. If the FDA concludes a REMS is needed, the sponsor of the NDA must submit a proposed REMS; the FDA will not approve the NDA without an approved REMS, if required. A REMS could include medication guides, physician communication plans, and/or elements to assure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. The FDA may also require a REMS for an approved product when new safety information emerges. Any of these limitations on approval or marketing could restrict the commercial promotion, distribution, prescription or dispensing of tecarfarin. Moreover, product approvals may be withdrawn for non-compliance with regulatory standards or if problems occur following the initial marketing of the product. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial success of tecarfarin.

Our potential future product candidate, tecarfarin, may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

The commercial success of any potential future product candidates, including tecarfarin, for which we may obtain marketing approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities will depend upon their acceptance by the medical community and third-party payors as clinically useful, cost-effective and safe. The degree of market acceptance of any drug depends on a number of factors, such as:

•        effectively competing with other therapies;

•        the prevalence and severity of any side effects;

•        success of patients in well-controlled clinical trials compared to real-world success of patients post FDA approval;

•        our ability to educate and increase physician awareness of the benefits of our products relative to competing drugs;

•        the willingness of physicians and healthcare organizations to change their current treatment practices, especially with respect to warfarin, a drug that is dominant in the market and with which physicians and healthcare organizations have 60 years of familiarity;

•        the willingness of hospitals and hospital systems to include our product candidates as treatment options;

•        efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments;

•        the price we charge for our product candidates;

•        interpretations of the results of our clinical trials;

•        the status of our products on the formularies of third-party payers;

•        convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;

•        the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;

•        the willingness of the target patient population to pay for our products, including co-pays under their health coverage plans;

•        the accuracy of the international normalized ratio, or INR, testing and whether such testing can be conducted at home or in a medical facility such as a doctor’s office. A prothrombin time, or PT, is a test used to help detect and diagnose a bleeding disorder or excessive clotting disorder; the INR is calculated from a PT result and is used to monitor how well an anticoagulant medication such as tecarfarin is working to prevent thrombosis;

•        the strength of marketing and distribution support; and

•        the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement.

The failure to attain market acceptance among the medical community, patients and third-party payors may have an adverse impact on our operations and profitability.

We have never submitted an NDA to the FDA or comparable applications to other regulatory authorities and we may not be successful in achieving approval of our product candidates.

We have never submitted an NDA to the FDA or comparable applications to other regulatory authorities and expect to rely on consultants and third-party contract research organizations, or CROs, with expertise in this area to assist us in this process. Securing FDA approval requires the submission of pre-clinical, clinical and/or pharmacokinetic data, information about product manufacturing processes and inspection of facilities and supporting information to the FDA

for each therapeutic indication to establish a product candidate’s safety and efficacy for each indication. Regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions impose similar requirements. If we are unable to successfully complete the approval process with the FDA or comparable applications of other regulatory authorities, our business will not be successful.

Orphan Drug Designation does not translate to approval and, even if we obtain FDA approval, we may not enjoy marketing exclusivity or other expected benefits.

Although we have been granted orphan drug designation for tecarfarin, this does not mean FDA will approve the NDA. Even if we obtain FDA approval, we may not be able to obtain or maintain orphan drug exclusivity for tecarfarin. We may not be the first to obtain marketing approval of tecarfarin designation for the orphan-designated indication due to the uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products. In addition, exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be limited if we seek approval for an indication broader than the orphan-designated indication or may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if we are unable to assure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition. Further, even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different drugs with different active moieties may be approved for the same condition, or the competitive product is otherwise outside the scope of exclusivity. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve the same drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care or the manufacturer of the product with orphan exclusivity is unable to maintain sufficient product quantity. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug nor gives the drug any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process, nor does it prevent competitors from obtaining approval of the same product candidate for indications other than those in which orphan drug designation have been granted.

After approval of tecarfarin, tecarfarin will remain subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional risk and expense.

Drug products remain subject to the jurisdiction of the FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authorities after they have been approved. Even if we obtain regulatory approval of tecarfarin, the FDA and other regulatory authorities may impose significant restrictions on its indicated uses or marketing or the conditions of approval, or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly and time-consuming post-approval trials, including Phase 4 clinical trials, and post-market surveillance to monitor safety and efficacy. Our product candidate, if approved, as well as our marketed products are subject to ongoing regulatory requirements governing the manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, safety surveillance, advertising, promotion, sampling, recordkeeping and reporting of adverse events and other post-market information. These requirements include registration with the FDA and continued compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practices requirements, or cGMPs, and current Good Clinical Practices requirements, or GCPs, for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval.

After approval, our products could be subject to labeling and other restrictions and we may be required to withdraw from the market or be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements.

The product labeling, advertising and promotion of our products and our product candidates, if approved, are subject to regulatory requirements and continuing regulatory review. Government authorities, including the FDA and the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, or OIG, strictly regulate the promotional claims and activities that may be made about prescription products. A drug product may not be promoted for uses that are inconsistent with the product’s approved labeling. If we receive marketing approval for tecarfarin, physicians may nevertheless legally prescribe our products to their patients in a manner that is inconsistent with the approved labeling. However, if we are found to have promoted such off-label uses, we may become subject to significant liability and government fines. The federal government has extracted very large settlements and levied very large civil and criminal fines against companies for alleged improper promotion, has enjoined companies from engaging in off-label promotion, and made companies agree to onerous multi-year corporate integrity agreements. The FDA has also requested that companies enter into consent decrees of permanent injunctions under which specified promotional conduct is changed or curtailed. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our product candidates and generate revenue. Adverse regulatory action, whether pre- or post-approval, can also potentially lead to product liability claims and increase our product liability exposure.

We are subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state obligations and regulations applicable to our marketing practices. If we are unable to comply, or have not complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.

Our marketing and sales operations are subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the federal and state anti-kickback statutes and false claims laws. With respect to sales and marketing activities by us or any future partner, advertising and promotional materials must comply with FDA rules in addition to other applicable federal, state and local laws in the United States and similar legal requirements in other countries. We also are subject, directly or indirectly through our customers and partners, to various fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the U.S. Federal Healthcare Program Anti-Kickback Statute, U.S. False Claims Act, and similar state laws, which impact, among other things, most of our interactions with customers, including our proposed sales, marketing, and scientific/educational grant programs. We are also subject to complex laws and regulation regarding reporting and payment obligations as a result of our participation in the U.S. Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, the Federal Supply Schedule of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and other government drug programs. All of these activities are also potentially subject to U.S. federal and state consumer protection and unfair competition laws. Similar requirements exist in many of these areas in other countries. If investigated, we could be forced to incur substantial expense responding to the investigation and defending our actions. If unsuccessful in our defense, we could be found to be in violation and subject to substantial fines and penalties,

We currently do not have an agreement with a third-party manufacturer for the production of tecarfarin and intend to rely upon third parties to produce our product candidate.

We currently do not have an agreement with any third-party manufacturers for the production of tecarfarin and there can be no assurance that we will be able to enter into an agreement on acceptable terms. If an agreement is not entered into, we may experience longer manufacturing lead times for any purchase orders we place with a manufacturer under purchase orders. We intend to rely on third-party manufacturers to produce tecarfarin for our clinical studies who are expected to purchase materials from third-party vendors and transport the materials necessary to produce tecarfarin, such as the required reagents and containers. If a third-party manufacturer was to experience any prolonged disruption for our manufacturing, or face enforcement scrutiny by regulatory authorities, we could be forced to seek additional third-party manufacturing contracts, thereby increasing our development costs and negatively impacting our timelines and any commercialization costs. If we change manufacturers at any point during the development process or after approval of a product candidate, we will be required to demonstrate comparability between the product manufactured by the old manufacturer and the product manufactured by the new manufacturer. If we are unable to do so, we may need to conduct additional clinical trials with product manufactured by the new manufacturer, thereby delaying our NDA submission or approval.

If the manufacturer upon which we rely fails to comply with stringent regulations, we may face delays in the development and commercialization of, or be unable to meet demand for, our product candidates and may lose potential revenues.

Any problems or delays our contract manufacturers experience in preparing for commercial-scale manufacturing of a product candidate or component may result in a delay in product development timelines and FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authority approval of the product candidate or may impair our ability to manufacture commercial quantities or such quantities at an acceptable cost and quality, which could result in the delay, prevention, or impairment of clinical development and commercialization of our product candidates and may materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, stock price and prospects.

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 cGMP requirements relating to quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents. Although we do not have day-to-day control over our contract manufacturers’ compliance with these requirements, we are responsible for ensuring compliance with such requirements. Our failure, or the failure of our contract manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, revocation of licenses, seizures or recalls of product candidates, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which would significantly and adversely affect supplies of our product candidates and our business. If a contract manufacturer’s facilities do not pass a pre-approval inspection or do not have a cGMP compliance status acceptable to the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority, our product candidate will not be approved.

In addition, application holders must obtain FDA approval for product and manufacturing changes, depending on the nature of the change. Moreover, in the United States, the distribution of product samples to physicians must comply with the requirements of the U.S. Prescription Drug Marketing Act. In addition, our marketed products will have to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act of 2013, which requires drug companies to enable electronic tracking of their products though the U.S. supply chain.

Any deviations from regulatory requirements may also require remedial measures that may be costly and/or time-consuming for us or a third-party to implement and that may include the temporary or permanent suspension of a clinical trial or the temporary or permanent closure of a facility. Any such remedial measures imposed upon us or third parties with whom we contract could materially harm our business. Any delays in obtaining products or product candidates that comply with the applicable regulatory requirements may result in delays to product approvals, and commercialization. It may also require that we conduct additional trials.

We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing competing products more successfully than we do, or, perhaps obtaining approval before our product and, potentially delaying our approval.

The development and commercialization of new drugs is highly competitive. We face competition with respect to developing our current product candidates, and we will face competition with respect to any products that we may seek to develop or commercialize in the future, from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. We are seeking to develop tecarfarin as a marketable VKA, once-daily OAC designed to treat and prevent thrombosis for ESRD patients with AFib. If we succeed in developing tecarfarin, we shall face substantial competition. Traditionally, the drug of choice for CKD/ESRD patients has been warfarin. The reasoning for such therapy is that warfarin undergoes extensive hepatic metabolism into inactive compounds, theoretically posing less risk to the renally impaired patient. Randomized trials to date of apixaban versus warfarin for AFib excluded patients with severe and end-stage kidney disease, calculated creatinine clearance <25 mL per minute. The FDA cautiously extended apixaban use to patients with ESRD on hemodialysis based on limited pharmacokinetic data by 8 subjects. Additionally, the lower limit for creatinine clearance has been adjusted for rivaroxaban for stroke prevention in AFib, thereby permitting use in the ESRD population. The remaining two DOACs, dabigatran and edoxaban, are approved for use with dosage adjustment in moderate-severe CKD for stroke prevention. However, the net benefit of anticoagulation with apixaban or warfarin in the ESRD population is controversial.

In 2019, RENal Hemodialysis Patients Allocated Apixaban Versus Warfarin in Atrial Fibrillation (RENAL-AF) Randomized Clinical Trial was terminated early by the sponsor.

AXADIA is an investigator-driven, prospective, parallel-group, single country, multi-center phase IIIb trial to assess the safety of apixaban versus the VKA phenprocoumon in patients with non-valvular AFib and ESRD on hemodialysis treatment. The trial will be conducted in about 25-30 sites in Germany with an estimated completion date of July 2023.

Strategies for the Management of Atrial Fibrillation in patients Receiving Dialysis (SAFE-D) is a pilot trial in Toronto, Canada to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled trial comparing anticoagulation strategies in patients with AFib receiving dialysis (either hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis). The trial’s estimated completion date is December 31, 2022.

Many of these named products are marketed by some of the largest and most successful pharmaceutical companies. The companies that market these products have substantially more resources than we do and substantially more experience developing and marketing pharmaceuticals. We may not be able to successfully compete with these existing products. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of competing drugs and potentially competing drugs. Our competitors are or may be attempting to develop therapeutics for our target indications.

Factors affecting competition in these markets include the financial, research and development, testing, and marketing strengths of individual competitors, trends in industry consolidation, consumers’ product options, product quality, price and technology, reputation, customer service capabilities and access to market partners and customers. Eliquis is manufactured and distributed by Bristol Myers Squibb, amiodarone is manufactured and distributed by several companies including Sanofi, Baxter, and Pfizer, Pradaxa is manufactured and distributed by Boehringer Ingelheim, Xarelto is manufactured and distributed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Savaysa is manufactured and distributed by Daiichi

Sankyo. Each of these organizations has a long operating history, extensive resources, strong brand recognition and large customer bases. As a result, we expect they will be able to devote greater resources than we can to the manufacture, promotion and sale of their products; receive greater resources and support than we will from market partners and independent distributors; initiate and withstand substantial price competition; and take advantage more readily than we could of acquisition and other strategic market opportunities. In addition, these or other organizations could succeed in developing new products that perform better or more cost-effectively than our products and product candidates in their respective markets. Moreover, changes in health trends, diet or other factors could substantially reduce the commercial attractiveness or viability of the markets for anti-anginal, anticoagulant, anti-arrhythmic and anti-platelet products.

The high level of competition in these markets could result in pricing pressure, reduced margins, the inability of our product candidates to achieve market acceptance and other impediments to commercial success. As a result, there can be no assurance that we will be able to complete the development of competitive products and commercialize them on a competitive basis.

Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These companies compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

If serious adverse effects are identified with respect to any of our product candidates or any of our approved products, we may need to modify or abandon our development of that product candidate, discontinue sale of an approved product, or change our labeling to reflect new safety risks.

It is impossible to guarantee when, or if, any of our product candidates will prove safe enough to receive regulatory approval. It is impossible to guarantee that safety issues that may arise during development will not significantly decrease the commercial potential of our product candidates. In addition, there can be no assurance that our clinical trials will identify all relevant safety issues. Known or previously unidentified adverse effects can adversely affect regulatory approvals or marketing of approved products. In such an event, we might need to abandon marketing efforts or development of that product or product candidate or enter into a partnership to continue development.

Serious adverse events have occurred in the clinical trials of our product candidate. For example, major hemorrhages occurred in 1.6% of the blinded tecarfarin patients randomized in the EMBRACE-AC trial. We expect that additional patients will experience serious adverse events in our future clinical trials and during marketing if our products are approved. Design features of ACTOR AF, such as using a smaller number of patients and using MACE clinical outcomes as an endpoint, may produce results that show an imbalance in adverse events between treatment groups, when no such imbalance truly exists, or may not permit an assessment of the risk of rare events (due to the overall reduced size of the safety database), either of which could lead the FDA to require additional studies to demonstrate the safety of tecarfarin.

If a regulatory agency discovers adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency it may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. Among other legal and administrative actions, a regulatory agency may:

•        mandate modifications to product labelling or promotional materials or require us to provide corrective information to healthcare practitioners;

•        withdraw any regulatory approvals;

•        place any ongoing clinical trials on clinical hold;

•        refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us, our partners or our potential future partners;

•        impose restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing, licensing or packaging requirements; or

•        seize or detain products or require a product recall.

In addition, the occurrence of any of the foregoing, even if promptly remedied, could (1) negatively impact the perception of us or the relevant product among the medical community, patients or third-party payors and (2) result in product liability litigation that could result in the company paying substantial amounts of money in settlements or verdicts.

Recently enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize tecarfarin and affect the prices we may obtain.

In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval for tecarfarin, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell tecarfarin. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. We do not know whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of tecarfarin, if any, may be. In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s approval process may significantly delay or prevent marketing approval, as well as subject us to more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.

In the United States, under the Medicare Modernization Act, or MMA, Medicare Part D provides coverage to the elderly and disabled for outpatient prescription drugs by approving and subsidizing prescription drug plans offered by private insurers. The MMA also authorizes 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. The Part D plans use their formulary leverage to negotiate rebates and other price concessions from drug manufacturers. Also under the MMA, Medicare Part B provides coverage to the elderly and disabled for physician-administered drugs on the basis of the drug’s average sales price, a price that is calculated according to regulatory requirements and that the manufacturer reports to Medicare quarterly.

Both Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency that administers the Medicare program, from time to time consider legislation, regulations, or other initiatives to reduce drug costs under Medicare Parts B and D. For example, under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, drug manufacturers are required to provide a 50% discount on prescriptions for branded drugs filled while the beneficiary is in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, also known as the “donut hole.” The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 increased the manufacturer’s subsidy under the program from 50% to 70% of the negotiated price, beginning in 2019. There have been legislative proposals to repeal the “non-interference” provision of the MMA to allow CMS to leverage the Medicare market share to negotiate larger Part D rebates. Further cost reduction efforts could decrease the coverage and price that we receive for tecarfarin and could seriously harm our business. Private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement rates, and any reduction in reimbursement under the Medicare program may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act is intended to broaden access to health Insurance and reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending. Further, the Affordable Care Act imposes a significant annual fee on companies that manufacture or import branded prescription drug products. It also increased the amount of the rebates drug manufacturers must pay to state Medicaid programs, required that Medicaid rebates be paid on managed Medicaid utilization, and increased the additional rebate on “line extensions” (such as extended-release formulations) of solid oral dosage forms of branded products. The law also contains substantial provisions affecting fraud and abuse compliance and transparency, which may require us to modify our business practices with healthcare practitioners, and incur substantial costs to ensure compliance.

Many members of the Republican Party have consistently opposed the Affordable Care Act since it was signed. Efforts to repeal the Act have been attempted numerous times and some portions of the Act have been amended in 2017 and 2018. It is unclear whether further amendments or repeal will be effectuated and what the effect on the healthcare sector will be. In addition to potential changes to the Affordable Care Act, there are indications that the Medicaid and Medicare programs may be restructured, which could lead to revisions in coverage and reimbursement of prescription drugs. While we are unable to predict what legislation, if any, may potentially be enacted, to the extent that future changes affect how our product candidates could be paid for and/or reimbursed by the government and private payers, our business could be adversely affected.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. For example, the Budget Control Act of 2011 included, among other things, provisions that have led to 2% across-the-board reductions in Medicare payment amounts. Several states have adopted or are considering adopting laws that require pharmaceutical companies to provide notice prior to raising prices and to justify price increases. We expect that additional healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, and in turn could significantly reduce the projected value of certain development projects and reduce our profitability.

If we market any of our products in a manner that violates healthcare fraud and abuse laws, or if we violate government price reporting laws, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties.

The FDA and other government authorities enforce laws and regulations that require that the promotion of pharmaceutical products be consistent with the approved prescribing information. While physicians may prescribe an approved product for a so-called “off-label” use under the practice of medicine, it is unlawful for a pharmaceutical company to promote its products in a manner that is inconsistent with its approved label and any company which engages in such conduct may be subject to significant liability. Similarly, industry codes in the European Union and other foreign jurisdictions prohibit companies from engaging in off-label promotion and regulatory agencies in various countries enforce violations of the code with civil penalties. While we intend to ensure that our promotional materials are consistent with our label, regulatory agencies may disagree with our assessment and may issue untitled letters, warning letters or may institute other civil or criminal enforcement proceedings. In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal healthcare fraud and abuse laws have been applied in recent years to restrict certain marketing practices in the pharmaceutical industry. These laws include the U.S. Federal Healthcare Program Anti-Kickback Statute, U.S. False Claims Act and similar state laws. Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the safe harbors, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of these laws.

The U.S. Federal Healthcare Program Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce, or in return for, purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any healthcare item or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid or other federally financed healthcare programs. This statute has been interpreted broadly to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other. Although there are several statutory exemptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution, the exemptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration intended to induce prescribing, purchasing or recommending may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exemption or safe harbor. Our practices may not, in all cases, meet all of the criteria for safe harbor protection from anti-kickback liability. Moreover, recent health care reform legislation has strengthened these laws. For example, the Affordable Care Act, among other things, amends the intent requirement of the U.S. Federal Healthcare Program Anti-Kickback Statute and criminal health care fraud statutes; a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of this statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the Affordable Care Act provides that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the U.S. Federal Healthcare Program Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the U.S. False Claims Act. Federal false claims laws, including the U.S. False Claims Act, impose criminal and civil penalties, including through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, against individuals or entities for knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent or making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government.

Over the past few years, pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under these laws for a variety of alleged promotional and marketing activities, such as: allegedly providing free trips, free goods, sham consulting fees and grants and other monetary benefits to prescribers; reporting to pricing services inflated average wholesale prices that were then used by federal programs to set reimbursement rates; engaging in off-label promotion that caused claims to be submitted to Medicare or Medicaid for non-covered, off-label uses; using a charity as an illegal conduit to cover the copays of Medicare patients; and submitting inflated best price information to the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to reduce liability for Medicaid rebates.

Other restrictions under applicable U.S. federal and state healthcare laws and regulations may include the following:

•        the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, knowingly and wilfully executing or attempting to execute a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or making false statements relating to healthcare matters;

•        HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health, or HITECH, Act and its implementing regulations, also imposes obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, on certain types of people and entities with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;

•        the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act requires applicable manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biologics, and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, with specific exceptions, to report payments and other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals, as well as certain ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family, which includes annual data collection and reporting obligations; and

•        analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers.

Some state laws require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government and may require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures to federal and state agencies. State and foreign laws also govern the privacy and security of health information in some circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts. Tracking and reporting may be burdensome and require a significant expenditure to comply with applicable requirements.

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

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

•        government and health administration authorities;

•        private health maintenance organizations and health insurers; and

•        other healthcare payers.

Patients generally expect that products such as ours are covered and reimbursed by third-party payors for all or part of the costs and fees associated with their use. If such products are not covered and reimbursed then patients may be responsible for the entire cost of the product, which can be substantial. Therefore, health care providers generally do not prescribe products that are not covered and reimbursed by third-party payors in order to avoid subjecting their patients to such financial liability. The existence of adequate coverage and reimbursement for the products by government and private insurance plans is central to the acceptance of tecarfarin and any future products we provide.

During the past several years, third-party payors have undertaken cost-containment initiatives including different payment methods, monitoring health care expenditures, and anti-fraud initiatives. For some governmental programs, such as Medicaid, coverage and reimbursement differ from state to state, and some state Medicaid programs may not pay an adequate amount for tecarfarin or any of our other products or may make no payment at all. Furthermore, the health care industry in the United States has experienced a trend toward cost containment as government and private insurers seek to control health care costs by imposing lower payment rates and negotiating reduced contract rates with service providers. Therefore, we cannot be certain that our services will be reimbursed at a level that is sufficient to meet our costs.

Obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval of a product from a government or other third-party payor is a time-consuming and costly process that could require us to provide to the payor supporting scientific, clinical and cost-effectiveness data for the use of our products. Even if we obtain coverage for a given product, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate for us to achieve or sustain profitability or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Patients are unlikely to use tecarfarin or any future product candidates unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of tecarfarin or any future product candidates.

We intend to seek approval to market tecarfarin and future product candidates in both the United States and in selected foreign jurisdictions. If we obtain approval in one or more foreign jurisdictions for tecarfarin or any future product candidates, we will be subject to rules and regulations in those jurisdictions. In some foreign countries, particularly those in the European Union, the pricing of drugs is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after obtaining marketing approval of a product candidate. In addition, market acceptance and sales of product candidates will depend significantly on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors for product candidates and may be affected by existing and future health care reform measures.

Third-party payors, whether domestic or foreign, or governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs. In both the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes to the health care system that could impact our ability to sell our products profitably. In particular, in the Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, among other things, revised the methodology by which rebates owed by manufacturers to the state and federal government for covered outpatient drugs, including product candidates, under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program are calculated, increased the minimum Medicaid rebates owed by most manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, extended the Medicaid Drug Rebate program to utilization of prescriptions of individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations, subjected manufacturers to new annual fees and taxes for certain branded prescription drugs, and provided incentives to programs that increase the federal government’s comparative effectiveness research.

There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the foreign, federal and state levels directed at broadening the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. We cannot predict the initiatives that may be adopted in the future, particularly in light of the new presidential administration in the United States, and any proposed changes to healthcare laws that could potentially affect our clinical development or regulatory strategy. The continuing efforts of the government, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other payors of healthcare services to contain or reduce costs of healthcare and/or impose price controls may adversely affect:

•        the demand for tecarfarin, or future product candidates, if we obtain regulatory approval;

•        our ability to set a price that we believe is fair for our products;

•        our ability to generate revenue and achieve or maintain profitability;

•        the level of taxes that we are required to pay; and

•        the availability of capital.

Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors, which may adversely affect our future profitability.

We will rely on third parties and consultants to conduct all of our clinical trials. If these third parties or consultants do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements, or meet expected deadlines, we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for any future product candidates.

We will rely on medical institutions, clinical investigators, contract laboratories, collaborative partners and other third parties, such as CROs, to conduct clinical trials on our product candidates. The third parties with whom we may contract for execution of any of our future clinical trials may play a significant role in the conduct of these trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data. These third parties would not be our employees, and except for contractual duties and obligations, we would have limited ability to control the amount or timing of resources that they devote to

any of our future programs. Although we may rely on these third parties to conduct our clinical trials, we would remain responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical trials and clinical trials is conducted in accordance with applicable legal requirements, the investigational plan and the protocol. Moreover, whether we conduct trials ourselves or hire third parties to do so, the FDA and other similar regulatory authorities require us to comply with GCPs when we conduct, monitor, record and report the results of clinical trials to ensure that the data and results are scientifically credible and accurate, and that the trial subjects are adequately informed of the potential risks of participating in clinical trials.

In addition, the execution of clinical trials, and the subsequent compilation and analysis of the data produced, requires coordination among various parties. In order for these functions to be carried out effectively and efficiently, it is imperative that these parties communicate and coordinate with one another. Moreover, these third parties may also have relationships with other commercial entities, some of which may compete with us. If the third parties or consultants conducting our clinical trials do not perform their contractual duties or obligations, experience work stoppages, do not meet expected deadlines, terminate their agreements with us or need to be replaced, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical trial protocols or GCPs, or for any other reason, we may need to conduct additional clinical trials or enter into new arrangements with alternative third parties, which could be difficult, costly or impossible, and our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated or may need to be repeated. If any of the foregoing were to occur, we may not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, regulatory approval for and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize any future product candidates being tested in such trials.

We currently have limited distribution, marketing, support and sales capabilities and plan to rely on third-party distribution partners for the distribution, marketing, support and sales of our products which could delay or limit our ability to generate revenue.

We plan to utilize third-party service providers for the distribution and marketing and sales of our product candidates, if approved. Upon launch, we intend to promote utilizing third party collaborations in addition to building our own commercial infrastructure in anticipation of the approval of tecarfarin. Reliance on third-party service providers may prevent our direct control of key aspects of those critical functions including regulatory compliance, import and export operations, supply chain security, warehousing and inventory management, distribution, contract administration, invoicing, sales deductions administration, accounts receivable management and call center management. Any future distribution partners may hold significant control over important aspects of the commercialization of our products, including market identification, regulatory compliance, marketing methods, pricing, composition of sales force and promotional activities.

We may not be able to control the amount and timing of resources that any future third-party distribution partners may devote to our products, or prevent any third-party from pursuing the development of alternative technologies or products that compete with our products, except to the extent our contractual arrangements protect us against such activities. Also, we may not be able to prevent any other third-party from withdrawing its support of our products.

If third-party service providers fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations, fail to meet expected deadlines, encounter natural or other disasters at their facilities or otherwise fail to perform their services to us in a satisfactory or predicted manner, or at all, our ability to deliver product to meet commercial demand could be significantly impaired. In addition, we may use third parties to perform various other services for us relating to sample accountability and regulatory monitoring, including adverse event reporting, safety database management and other product maintenance services. If the quality or accuracy of the data maintained by these service providers is insufficient, our ability to continue to market our products could be jeopardized or we could be subject to regulatory sanctions, and any indemnity we may receive from such third-party service providers could be limited by such provider’s ability to pay and otherwise might not be sufficient to cover all losses we may experience.

Our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners and vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other illegal activity by our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners and vendors. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct that fails to: (i) comply with the laws of the FDA and other similar foreign regulatory bodies; (ii) provide true, complete and accurate information to the FDA and other similar foreign regulatory bodies; (iii) comply with manufacturing standards we have established; (iv) comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws in

the United States and similar foreign fraudulent misconduct laws; or (v) report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. Any such misconduct or noncompliance could negatively affect the FDA’s review of our regulatory submission, including delaying approval or disallowance of certain information to support the submission, and/or delay a federal or state healthcare programs or a commercial insurer’s determination regarding the availability of future reimbursement for product candidates. If we obtain FDA approval of any product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the United States, our potential exposure under such laws will increase significantly, and our costs associated with compliance with such laws are also likely to increase. These laws may impact, among other things, our current activities with principal investigators and research patients, as well as proposed and future sales, marketing and education programs. In particular, the promotion, sales and marketing of healthcare items and services, as well as certain business arrangements in the healthcare industry, are subject to extensive laws designed to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, structuring and commission(s), certain customer incentive programs and other business arrangements generally. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of patient recruitment for clinical trials.

It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent inappropriate conduct may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements will comply with applicable healthcare laws may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental and enforcement authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law interpreting applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, disgorgement, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. In addition, the approval and commercialization of any product candidates outside the United States will also likely subject us to foreign equivalents of the healthcare laws mentioned above, among other foreign laws.

We intend to establish a sales force to market our product candidates. If we are not successful in doing so, our ability to generate sales and profits will be limited.

Although certain of our employees have commercialization experience, as a company we do not have an internal sales force and we currently have only limited commercial capabilities. We intend to establish an internal specialty cardiorenal sales force for the promotion and sale of tecarfarin, if approved. Establishing a pharmaceutical sales force is a difficult undertaking. Experienced and competent sales representatives and sales managers must be recruited, hired, trained, assigned appropriate territories, managed and compensated in such a way that they can achieve success in selling products to a sophisticated audience of healthcare professionals who frequently have little or no time to spend with sales personnel. In addition, our prospective sales force must compete against the sales forces of some of the largest and most successful pharmaceutical companies in the world, who will be promoting competing products. If we fail to hire and field a high-quality sales force, we may be unable to generate expected revenues and profits.

In addition, there are significant expenses and risks involved with establishing our own sales and marketing capabilities, including our ability to hire, retain and appropriately incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel, and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities could delay any product launch, which would adversely impact the commercialization of our product candidates. For example, if we recruit any sales representatives or establish marketing capabilities prior to commercial launch and the commercial launch is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.

In addition to our own internal sales force, we may choose to collaborate with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. If we are unable to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. To the extent we commercialize our product candidates by entering into agreements with third-party collaborators, we may have limited or no control over the sales, marketing and distribution activities of these third parties, in which case our future revenues would depend heavily on the success of the efforts of these third parties. If we are not successful in commercializing tecarfarin or any future product candidates, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, our future product revenue will suffer and we could incur significant additional losses.

We plan to rely on collaborations and license arrangements with third parties to commercialize, market and promote our marketed products which may limit our ability to generate revenue and adversely affect our profitability.

We plan to rely on collaboration and other agreements with third parties with third parties with respect to our product candidates and future marketed products. Our current or any future collaborations or license arrangements may not be successful. With respect to the product candidates we have licensed, including our rights to tecarfarin in China, we depend upon collaborations with third parties to develop these product candidates in the licensed territories and we will depend substantially upon third parties to commercialize these product candidates. If we are unable to maintain current collaborations or enter into additional collaborations with established pharmaceutical or pharmaceutical service companies to provide the services we need, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our products.

Our future growth depends, in part, on our ability to penetrate foreign markets, where we would be subject to additional regulatory burdens and other risks and uncertainties.

Although our focus as this time is primarily on the U.S. market, our future profitability will depend, in part, on our ability to commercialize tecarfarin in foreign markets for which we intend to rely on collaborations with third parties. If we commercialize tecarfarin in foreign markets, we would be subject to additional risks and uncertainties, including:

•        our customers’ ability to obtain reimbursement in foreign markets;

•        our inability to directly control commercial activities because we are relying on third parties;

•        the burden of complying with complex and changing foreign regulatory, tax, accounting and legal requirements;

•        different medical practices and customs in foreign countries affecting acceptance in the marketplace;

•        import, export and foreign licensing requirements;

•        different packaging and labeling requirements;

•        longer accounts receivable collection times;

•        longer lead times for shipping;

•        language barriers for technical training;

•        differing and/or reduced protection of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries;

•        foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; and

•        the interpretation of contractual provisions governed by foreign laws in the event of a contract dispute.

Foreign sales of tecarfarin could also be adversely affected by the imposition of governmental controls, political and economic instability, trade restrictions and changes in tariffs, any of which may adversely affect our results of operations.

The ongoing COVID-19 global health crisis may impact our planned operations, including our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial

In January 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic for the novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19. Since then, the COVID-19 coronavirus has spread to multiple countries, including throughout the United States. We may experience disruptions as a result of the pandemic if the pandemic continues or increases in severity, including:

•        unwillingness of potential study participants to enroll in our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial and/or visit healthcare facilities;

•        postponement of enrollment in our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial

•        postponement of the initiation of our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial;

•        diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as our clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of our clinical trial;

•        interruption of key clinical trial activities, such as clinical site visits by study participants and clinical trial site monitoring, due to limitations on travel imposed or recommended by federal or state governments, employers and others;

•        limitations in employee resources that would otherwise be focused on the conduct of our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial, including because of sickness of employees or their families or the desire of employees to avoid contact with large groups of people;

•        delays in receiving approval from local regulatory authorities to initiate our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial;

•        delays in clinical sites receiving the supplies and materials needed to conduct our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial;

•        interruption in global shipping that may affect the manufacture and transport of clinical trial materials, such as investigational drug product used in our clinical trial;

•        changes in local regulations as part of a response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak which may require us to change the ways in which our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial is conducted, which may result in unexpected costs, or to discontinue the clinical trial altogether;

•        delays in necessary interactions with local regulators, ethics committees and other important agencies and contractors due to limitations in employee resources or forced furlough of government employees; and

•        delay in the timing of interactions with the FDA due to absenteeism by federal employees or by the diversion of their efforts and attention to approval of other therapeutics or other activities related to COVID-19.

Our business and the business of the suppliers of our clinical product candidate is expected to be materially and adversely affected by the pandemic. While we are currently not experiencing material delays, such events could result in the delay or complete or partial closure of clinical trial sites or one or more manufacturing facilities which could impact our supply of our clinical product candidate. In addition, it could impact economies and financial markets, resulting in an economic downturn that could impact our ability to raise capital or slow down potential partnering relationships.

The effects of the governmental orders may negatively impact productivity, disrupt our business and delay our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial program and timelines, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length and severity of the restrictions and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course.

In addition, the COVID-19 outbreak could disrupt our operations due to absenteeism by infected or ill members of management or other employees, or absenteeism by members of management and other employees who elect not to come to work due to the illness affecting others in our office, or due to quarantines. The COVID-19 illness could also impact members of our Board of Directors resulting in absenteeism from meetings of the directors or committees of directors, and making it more difficult to convene the quorums of the full Board of Directors or its committees needed to conduct meetings for the management of our affairs.

The global outbreak of the virus continues to rapidly evolve. The extent to which the virus may continue to impact our business and clinical trials will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the ultimate geographic spread of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, travel restrictions and social distancing in the United States, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the disease. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, operations, or the global economy as a whole. While the spread of COVID-19 may eventually be contained or mitigated, there is no guarantee that a future outbreak of this or any other widespread epidemics will not occur, or that the global economy will recover, either of which could seriously harm our business.

While we are currently not experiencing any delays, we may in the future experience delays. These delays may result in the need for trials to be redesigned and may impact whether they will be completed on schedule, if at all. Clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, delays in obtaining regulatory approval to commence a clinical trial, in securing clinical trial agreements with prospective sites with acceptable terms, in obtaining institutional review board approval to conduct a clinical trial at a prospective site, in recruiting patients to participate in a clinical trial or in obtaining sufficient supplies of clinical trial materials. Manufacturing considerations for clinical development candidates may include an expected several month lead time following a decision to commence any clinical trial(s) and capacity considerations of our third-party contract manufacturers to provide clinical supply of our product candidates could cause delays in clinical trials. Furthermore, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many manufacturers have been prioritizing the manufacture of COVD-19 related products, increasing the manufacturing lead times for non-COVID-19 related products. Many factors affect patient enrollment, including the size of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial, competing clinical trials and new drugs approved for the conditions we are investigating. Clinical investigators will need to decide whether to offer their patients enrollment in clinical trials of our product candidates versus treating these patients with commercially available drugs that have established safety and efficacy profiles. Any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our product development and timeliness and approval process and delay our ability to generate revenue.

Compliance with governmental regulations regarding the treatment of animals used in research could increase our operating costs, which would adversely affect the commercialization of our products.

The Animal Welfare Act, or AWA, is the federal law that covers the treatment of certain animals used in research. Currently, the AWA imposes a wide variety of specific regulations that govern the humane handling, care, treatment and transportation of certain animals by producers and users of research animals, most notably relating to personnel, facilities, sanitation, cage size, and feeding, watering and shipping conditions. Third parties with whom we contract are subject to registration, inspections and reporting requirements under the AWA. Furthermore, some states have their own regulations, including general anti-cruelty legislation, which establish certain standards in handling animals. Comparable rules, regulations, and or obligations exist in many foreign jurisdictions. If we or our contractors fail to comply with regulations concerning the treatment of animals used in research, we may be subject to fines and penalties and adverse publicity, and our operations could be adversely affected.

General Company-Related Risks

If we fail to attract and keep senior management and key scientific personnel, we may be unable to successfully develop tecarfarin or any future product candidates, conduct our clinical trials and commercialize our product candidates or any future products we develop.

Our management team has expertise in many different aspects of fundraising, drug development and commercialization. We believe that our future success is highly dependent upon the contributions of our senior management, particularly Quang Pham, our Chief Executive Officer. We do not have an insurance policy on the life of our Chief Executive Officer and we do not have “key person” life insurance policies for any of our other officers or advisors. The loss of services of any of these individuals could delay or prevent the successful development of our product pipeline, completion of our planned clinical trials or the commercialization of tecarfarin or any other future products we develop, which could adversely affect our operating results.

We will need to hire additional personnel, including experienced marketing and sales representatives, as we expand our clinical development and commercial activities. We could experience difficulties attracting and retaining qualified employees in the future. For example, competition for qualified personnel in the pharmaceuticals field is intense due to

the limited number of individuals who possess the skills and experience required by our industry. Other pharmaceutical companies with which we compete for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles, and a longer history in the industry than we do. They also may provide more diverse opportunities and better chances for career advancement. Some of these characteristics may be more appealing to high-quality candidates than what we have to offer. We may not be able to attract and retain quality personnel on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that they have been improperly solicited or that they have divulged proprietary or other confidential information or that their former employers own their research output. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can develop and commercialize product candidates could be limited.

We will need to increase the size of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.

As of October 5, 2022, we had one employee who works full time. We will need to continue to expand our managerial, operational, finance and other resources to manage our operations, commercialize tecarfarin or any other product candidates, if approved, and continue our development activities. Our management and personnel systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Our need to effectively execute our growth strategy requires that we:

•        manage any of our future clinical trials effectively;

•        identify, recruit, retain, incentivize and integrate additional employees;

•        manage our internal development efforts effectively while carrying out our contractual obligations to third parties; and

•        continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures.

Due to our limited financial resources and our limited experience in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. The physical expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our development and strategic objectives or disrupt our operations.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of any future products we develop.

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

•        decreased demand for our product candidates or products we develop, including tecarfarin;

•        termination of clinical trial sites or entire trial programs;

•        injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;

•        withdrawal of clinical trial participants or cancellation of clinical trials;

•        significant costs to defend the related litigation;

•        a diversion of management’s time and our resources;

•        substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

•        regulatory investigations, product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;

•        loss of revenue;

•        the inability to commercialize any products we develop; and

•        a decline in our share price.

Our inability to obtain and maintain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost and scope of coverage to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of tecarfarin or any future products that we develop. We currently carry product liability insurance covering our marketed products and our clinical trials. Although we maintain such insurance, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions and deductibles, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We will have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts. Moreover, 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. If and when we obtain approval for marketing tecarfarin, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of tecarfarin, however, we may be unable to obtain this liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms.

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

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems, and those of third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the internet, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization, or persons with access to systems inside our organization. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions, including by computer hackers, foreign governments, and cyber-terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our current or future product development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or any future ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. To the extent that any disruption or security breach was to result in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur material legal claims and liability, damage to our reputation, and the further development of our product candidates could be delayed.

Any failure to maintain the security of information relating to our patients, customers, employees and suppliers, whether as a result of cybersecurity attacks or otherwise, could expose us to litigation, government enforcement actions and costly response measures, and could disrupt our operations and harm our reputation.

In connection with the pre-clinical and clinical development, sales and marketing of our products and services, we may from time to time transmit confidential information. We also have access to, collect or maintain private or confidential information regarding our clinical trials and the patients enrolled therein, employees, and suppliers, as well as our business. Cyberattacks are rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly sophisticated. It is possible that computer hackers and others might compromise our security measures, or security measures of those parties that we do business with now or in the future, and obtain the personal information of patients in our clinical trials, vendors, employees and suppliers or our business information. A security breach of any kind, including physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses and attacks by hackers, employees or others, could expose us to risks of data loss, litigation, government enforcement actions, regulatory penalties and costly response measures, and could seriously disrupt our operations. Any resulting negative publicity could significantly harm our reputation, which could cause us to lose market share and have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We may acquire other businesses or form joint ventures or make investments in other companies or technologies that could harm our operating results, dilute our stockholders’ ownership, increase our debt or cause us to incur significant expense.

As part of our business strategy, we may pursue acquisitions of businesses and assets. We also may pursue strategic alliances and joint ventures that leverage our technology and industry experience to expand our offerings or other capabilities. Though certain company personnel have business development and corporate transaction experience, including with licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic partnering, as a company we have no experience with acquiring other companies and limited experience with forming strategic alliances and joint ventures. We may not be able to find suitable partners or acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete such transactions on favorable terms, if at all. If we make any acquisitions, we may not be able to integrate these acquisitions successfully into our existing business, and we could assume unknown or contingent liabilities. Any future acquisitions also could result in significant write-offs or the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Integration of an acquired company also may disrupt ongoing operations and require management resources that would otherwise focus on developing our existing business. We may experience losses related to investments in other companies, which could have a material negative effect on our results of operations. We may not identify or complete these transactions in a timely manner, on a cost-effective basis, or at all, and we may not realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, technology license, strategic alliance or joint venture.

To finance any acquisitions or joint ventures, we may choose to issue shares of our common stock as consideration, which would dilute the ownership of our stockholders. If the price of our common stock is low or volatile, we may not be able to acquire other companies or fund a joint venture project using our stock as consideration. Alternatively, it may be necessary for us to raise additional funds for acquisitions through public or private financings. Additional funds may not be available on terms that are favorable to us, or at all.

Declining general economic or business conditions may have a negative impact on our business.

Continuing concerns over U.S. health care reform legislation and energy costs, geopolitical issues, the availability and cost of credit and government stimulus programs in the United States and other countries have contributed to increased volatility and diminished expectations for the global economy. These factors, combined with low business and consumer confidence, could precipitate an economic slowdown and recession. Additionally, political changes in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world have created a level of uncertainty in the markets. If the economic climate does not improve or deteriorate, our business, as well as the financial condition of our suppliers and our third-party payors, could be adversely affected, resulting in a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient exclusivity and/or patent protection for our product candidates, or if the scope of the exclusivity or patent protection is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products similar or identical to ours, and our ability to commercialize our product candidates successfully may be adversely affected.

Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain exclusivity for our proprietary product candidates through market and data exclusivity granted by regulatory agencies in the United States and other countries with respect to our proprietary product candidates as well as through patent protection. If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property, competitors may be able to erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which could harm our business and ability to achieve profitability. To protect our proprietary position, we file patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our novel product candidates that are important to our business. The patent application and approval process are expensive and time-consuming. We may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner.

The patent position of pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in pharmaceutical patents has emerged to date in the United States or in many foreign jurisdictions. In addition, the determination of patent rights with respect to pharmaceutical compounds commonly involves complex legal and factual questions, which has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain.

Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, currently, the first to file a patent application is generally entitled to the patent. However, prior to March 16, 2013, in the United States, the first to invent was entitled to the patent. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions.

Moreover, because the issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, our patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. For example, we may be subject to a third-party preissuance submission of prior art to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, or become involved in post-grant review procedures, oppositions, derivations, reexaminations, inter partes review or interference proceedings, in the United States or elsewhere, challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. In addition, given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized.

Our future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our product candidates, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive products. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the United States. For example, European patent law restricts the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body more than United States law does.

Even if our patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. Our competitors may also seek approval to market their own products similar to or otherwise competitive with our products. Alternatively, our competitors may seek to market generic versions of any approved products by submitting ANDAs to the FDA in which they claim that patents owned or licensed by us are invalid, unenforceable or not infringed. In these circumstances, we may need to defend or assert our patents, or both, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement. In any of these types of proceedings, a court or other agency with jurisdiction may find our patents invalid or unenforceable, or that our competitors are competing in a non-infringing manner. Thus, even if we have valid and enforceable patents, these patents still may not provide protection against competing products or processes sufficient to achieve our business objectives.

Depending upon the timing, duration and conditions of FDA marketing approval of our product candidates, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Hatch-Waxman Act. The Hatch-Waxman Act permits a patent term extension of up to five years for a patent covering an approved product as compensation for effective patent term lost during product development and the FDA regulatory review process. However, we may not receive an extension if we fail to apply within applicable deadlines, fail to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise fail to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the length of the extension could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, the period during which we can enforce our patent rights for that product will be shortened compared to expectations and our competitors may obtain approval to market competing products sooner. As a result, our revenue from applicable products could be reduced, possibly materially. Further, if this occurs, our competitors may take advantage of our investment in development and trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case.

To date, we have not engaged intellectual property counsel to conduct a freedom to operate analysis.

While we have engaged intellectual property counsel to assist in protecting our patent ownership rights, to date, we have not had such counsel conduct a freedom to operate analysis regarding our intellectual property. As a result, we cannot be certain that there are no competing claims to our intellectual property or that we will not be exposed to third party legal claims, liabilities and/or litigation actions when we seek to develop, make and market products using our technology.

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

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

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

If we are sued for infringing intellectual property rights of third parties, such litigation could be costly and time consuming and could prevent or delay us from developing or commercializing our product candidates.

Our commercial success depends, in part, on our ability to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates without infringing the intellectual property and other proprietary rights of third parties. If any third-party patents or patent applications are found to cover our product candidates or their methods of use, we may not be free to manufacture or market our product candidates as planned without obtaining a license, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.

There is a substantial amount of intellectual property litigation in the pharmaceutical industry, and we may become party to, or threatened with, litigation or other adversarial proceedings regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our product candidates, including interference and other administrative proceedings before the USPTO. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing or future intellectual property rights. The outcome of intellectual property litigation is subject to uncertainties that cannot be adequately quantified in advance. The pharmaceutical industry has produced a significant number of patents, and it may not always be clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of products or methods of use. The coverage of patents is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform. If we were sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our product candidates, products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claims are invalid or unenforceable, and we may not be able to do this. In the United States, proving invalidity (except in proceedings before the USPTO) requires a showing of clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Even if we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and the time and attention of our management and scientific personnel could be diverted in pursuing these proceedings, which could significantly harm our business and operating results. In addition, we may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion.

If we are found to infringe a third-party’s intellectual property rights, we could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing, manufacturing or commercializing the infringing product candidate or product. Alternatively, we may be required to obtain a license from such third-party in order to use the infringing technology and continue developing,

manufacturing or marketing the infringing product candidate. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorney’’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could materially harm our business. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business.

Changes to the patent law in the United States and other jurisdictions could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.

As is the case with other pharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the pharmaceutical industry involves both technological and legal complexity and is therefore costly, time consuming and inherently uncertain. Recent patent reform legislation in the United States and other countries, including the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, signed into law in September 2011, could increase those uncertainties and costs. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted, redefine prior art and provide more efficient and cost-effective avenues for competitors to challenge the validity of patents. In addition, the Leahy-Smith Act has transformed the U.S. patent system into a “first to file” system. The first-to-file provisions, however, only became effective in March 2013. Accordingly, it is not yet clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business. However, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could make it more difficult to obtain patent protection for our inventions and increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the enforcement or defense of our or our collaboration partner’’ issued patents, all of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations. Additionally, there have been recent proposals for additional changes to the patent laws of the United States and other countries that, if adopted, could impact our ability to enforce our proprietary technology. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. courts, the USPTO and the relevant law-making bodies in other countries, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submissions, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for noncompliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the USPTO and foreign patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of the patent. The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. While an inadvertent lapse can, in many cases, be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Noncompliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. If we fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our product candidates, our competitive position would be adversely affected.

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

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. The requirements for patentability may differ in certain countries, particularly in developing countries. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we may obtain patent protection, but where patent enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued or licensed patents or where any future patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing with us.

Moreover, our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights may be adversely affected by unforeseen changes in foreign intellectual property laws. Additionally, laws of some countries outside of the United States and Europe do not afford intellectual property protection to the same extent as the laws of the United States and Europe. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in certain foreign jurisdictions. This could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or the misappropriation of our other intellectual property rights. For example, many foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in certain countries outside the United States and Europe. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, if our ability to enforce our patents to stop infringing activities is inadequate. These products may compete with our products, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and resources from other aspects of our business. Furthermore, while we intend to protect our intellectual property rights in major markets for our products, we cannot ensure that we will be able to initiate or maintain similar efforts in all jurisdictions in which we may wish to market our products. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate.

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our products for an adequate amount of time.

Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. With respect to tecarfarin, we have two issued U.S. patents directed to tecarfarin. The expiration dates of the patents are 2024 for both a composition of matter patent and a method of treatment patent. We expect to seek extensions of patent terms in the United States and, if available, in other countries where we are prosecuting patents. In the United States, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 permits a patent term extension of up to five years beyond the normal expiration of the patent, which is limited to the approved indication (or any additional indications approved during the period of extension). However, the applicable authorities, including the FDA and the USPTO in the United States, and any equivalent regulatory authority in other countries, may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to our patents, or may grant more limited extensions than we request. If this occurs, our competitors may be able to take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case.

We may be subject to claims by third parties asserting that our employees or we have misappropriated their intellectual property, or claiming ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.

We anticipate that many of the people that we expect to hire as employees, including our one current employee, were previously employed at other pharmaceutical companies. Some of these employees may have executed proprietary rights, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements, or similar agreements, in connection with such previous employment. Although we try to ensure that our employees do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these employees have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such third-party. Litigation may be necessary to defend against such claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel or sustain damages. Such intellectual property rights could be awarded to a third-party, and we could be required to obtain a license from such third-party to commercialize our technology or products. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

In addition, while we typically require our employees, consultants and contractors who may be involved in the development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who in fact develops intellectual property that we regard as our own, which may result in claims by or against us related to the ownership of such intellectual property. If we fail in prosecuting or defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights. Even if we are successful in prosecuting or defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to our senior management and scientific personnel.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

An active public trading market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market or active private market for trading shares of our common stock. We will list our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market, in connection with this offering; however, an active trading market may not develop following the completion of this offering or, if developed, may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. The lack of an active market may also reduce the price of shares of common stock. An inactive market may impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares and our ability to use our capital stock to acquire other companies or technologies. We cannot predict the prices at which our common stock will trade. The initial public offering price of our common stock may not bear any relationship to the market price at which our common stock will trade after this offering.

We cannot be assured that we will be able to maintain our listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

We anticipate that our securities will be listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market, a national securities exchange, upon consummation of this offering. We cannot be assured that we will continue to comply with the rules, regulations or requirements governing the listing of our common stock on Nasdaq or that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future. If Nasdaq should determine after initial listing that we fail to meet Nasdaq requirements, we may be subject to a delisting action by Nasdaq. Nonetheless, this offering is contingent upon our obtaining Nasdaq listing and, in the event such listing is not approved, this offering will be terminated.

Even if we are successful in completing this offering, if Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange at some future date, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:

•        a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;

•        reduced liquidity with respect to our securities;

•        a determination that our common stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our ordinary shares;

•        a limited amount of news and analyst coverage for our company; and

•        a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.

Our stock price may be extremely volatile, and your investment in our common stock could suffer a decline in value.

You should consider an investment in our common stock risky and invest only if you can withstand a significant loss and wide fluctuations in the market value of your investment. Investors who purchase our common stock may not be able to sell their shares at or above the purchase price. Security market prices for securities of pharmaceutical companies have been highly volatile. In addition, the volatility of pharmaceutical company stocks often does not correlate to the operating performance of the companies represented by such stocks. Some of the factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate include:

•        adverse results or delays in our clinical trials;

•        the timing or delay of achievement of our clinical, regulatory, partnering and other milestones, such as the commencement of clinical development, the completion of a clinical trial, the receipt of regulatory approval or the establishment or termination of a commercial partnership for one or more of our product candidates;

•        announcement of FDA approval or non-approval of our product candidates or delays in the FDA review process;

•        actions taken by regulatory agencies with respect to our product candidates, our clinical trials or our sales and marketing activities;

•        the commercial success of any product approved by the FDA or its foreign counterparts;

•        regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;

•        changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems;

•        any intellectual property infringement lawsuit involving us;

•        announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors;

•        market conditions for the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries in general;

•        changes in financial estimates or recommendations by securities analysts;

•        sales of large blocks of our common stock;

•        sales of our common stock by our executive officers, directors and significant stockholders;

•        direct sales of our common stock through financing arrangements;

•        restatements of our financial results and/or material weaknesses in our internal controls;

•        the loss of any of our key scientific or management personnel; and

•        announcements regarding the ongoing exploration of the strategic options available to us.

The stock markets in general, and the markets for biotechnology stocks in particular, have experienced extreme volatility and price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market and industry factors may seriously harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, class action litigation has often been instituted against companies whose securities have experienced periods of volatility in market price. Any such litigation brought against us could result in substantial costs, which would hurt our financial condition and results of operations, divert management’s attention and resources, and possibly delay our clinical trials or commercialization efforts.

If financial or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they issue inaccurate or unfavorable commentary or downgrade our common stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. As a new public company, we may be slow to attract research coverage, and the analysts who publish information about our common stock will have had relatively little experience with our company, which could affect their ability to accurately forecast our results and make it more likely that we fail to meet their estimates. In the event we obtain industry or financial analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us issue an inaccurate or unfavorable opinion regarding our stock price, our stock price would likely decline. In addition, the stock prices of many companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have declined significantly after those companies have failed to meet, or often times failed to exceed, the financial guidance publicly announced by the companies or the expectations of analysts. If our financial results fail to meet, or significantly exceed, our announced guidance or the expectations of analysts or public investors, analysts could downgrade our common stock or publish unfavorable research about us. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

After this offering, our officers, directors, and principal stockholders will continue to exercise significant control over our Company, and may be able to control our management and operations, acting in their best interests and not necessarily those of other stockholders.

When this offering is completed, our executive officers, directors and principal stockholders who beneficially own more than 5% or more of our outstanding common stock before this offering will in the aggregate, beneficially own shares representing approximately 72.08% of our outstanding capital stock immediately after this offering. When this offering is completed, Quang Pham, our Chief Executive Officer, will beneficially own 55.77% of our outstanding capital stock immediately after this offering. As a result, Quang Pham alone and together with these other stockholders, acting together, may be able to significantly influence any matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including

the election of directors, the approval of mergers or other business combination transactions. The interests of this group of stockholders may not always coincide with our interests or the interests of other stockholders. The significant concentration of stock ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock due to the perception that conflicts of interest may exist or arise. Therefore, you should not invest in reliance on your ability to have any control over our company.

As a “controlled company” under the rules of the Nasdaq Capital Market, we may choose to exempt our company from certain corporate governance requirements that could have an adverse effect on our public stockholders.

Upon the completion of this offering, we will be a “controlled company” as defined under the Nasdaq Stock Market Rules, because Quang Pham, our Chief Executive Officer and principal stockholder, will beneficially own 54.32% of our common shares and will be able to exercise 54.32% of the total voting power of our issued and outstanding shares, assuming the full exercise of the over-allotment option by the underwriter.

As long as Quang Pham individually, owns at least 50% of the voting power of our company, we are a “controlled company” as defined under Nasdaq Listing Rules. For so long as we are a controlled company under that definition, we are permitted to elect to rely, and may rely, on certain exemptions from corporate governance rules, including:

•        an exemption from the rule that a majority of our board of directors must be independent directors;

•        an exemption from the rule that the compensation of our CEO must be determined or recommended solely by independent directors; and

•        an exemption from the rule that our director nominees must be selected or recommended solely by independent directors.

As a result, you may not have the same protection afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to these corporate governance requirements.

Although we do not intend to rely on the “controlled company” exemption under the Nasdaq listing rules, we could elect to rely on this exemption in the future. If we elect to rely on the “controlled company” exemption, a majority of the members of our board of directors might not be independent directors and our nominating and corporate governance and compensation committees might not consist entirely of independent directors.

Future sales of common stock by our officers and directors and principal stockholders or others of our common stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, could depress the market price of our common stock.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock after this offering, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and may make it more difficult to sell common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate. Based on the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock as of October 5, 2022, upon completion of this offering, the issuance of common stock pursuant to the Amendment to Asset Purchase Agreement to HESP LLC, conversion of our outstanding convertible notes into common stock, the issuance subsequent to June 30, 2022 of 313,875 shares of common stock to consultants and directors for the provision of services, and the issuance of 50,000 shares of common stock to be issued to an executive officer upon consummation of this offering, we will have an aggregate of 11,251,215 shares of common stock outstanding, assuming no exercise of our outstanding stock options or warrants, and assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional shares.

All of the shares of common stock sold in this offering and the shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders in the resale offering will be freely tradable without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, except for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act.

A substantial majority our outstanding shares of common stock are currently restricted from resale as a result of market standoff and “lock-up” agreements, as more fully described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.” These shares will become available to be sold 181 days after the date of this prospectus. Shares held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and various vesting agreements. In addition, the underwriters may, in their sole discretion, release all or some portion of the shares subject to market standoff or lock-up agreements prior to the expiration of the lock-up period. See the section entitled “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” for more

information. Sales of a substantial number of such shares upon expiration of the market standoff and lock-up agreements, or the perception that such sales may occur, or early release of these agreements, could cause our market price to fall or make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate.

We intend to register the offer and sale of an aggregate of approximately 2,000,000 shares of common stock that have been issued or reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans on a Form S-8 registration statement. Once we register the offer and sale of these shares, they can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to the market standoff or lock-up agreements or unless they are held by “affiliates,” as that term is defined in Rule 144 of the Securities Act. If the holders of these shares choose to sell a large number of shares, they could adversely affect the market price for our common stock.

We may also issue shares of our common stock or securities convertible into shares of our common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investment or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.

The offering price of the shares and the other terms of the initial public offering have been determined through negotiations between the Company and the underwriter.

The initial public offering price of our common stock and other terms of the initial public offering have been determined through negotiations between the Company and the underwriter. This determined price may not reflect the price at which investors in the market will be willing to buy and sell our shares following this offering. You may be unable to sell your shares of common stock at or above the initial offering price. The market price of shares of our common stock following this offering could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to many risk factors listed in this section, and others beyond our control.

The offering price of the primary offering and resale offering could differ.

The offering price of shares of our common stock in the initial public offering has been determined by negotiations between the Company and the underwriter. The selling stockholders may sell the resale shares at prevailing market prices or privately negotiated prices after close of the initial public offering and listing of our common stock on Nasdaq. Therefore, the offering prices of the initial public offering and resale offering could differ. As a result, the purchasers in the resale offering could pay more or less than the offering price in the primary offering.

The resale by the selling stockholders in our resale offering may cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

The resale of shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders in the resale offering, as well as the issuance of common stock in the initial public offering, could result in resales of our common stock by our current stockholders concerned about the potential dilution of their holdings. In addition, the resale by other unregistered stockholders after expiration of the lock-up period could have the effect of depressing the market price for our common stock.

Our initial public offering price is substantially higher than the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our outstanding common stock, and new investors will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

Our initial public offering price is substantially higher than the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock based on the expected total value of our total assets, less our goodwill and other intangible assets, less our total liabilities immediately following this offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution of $4.25 per share in the price you pay for our common stock as compared to the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2022, after giving effect to the issuance of shares of our common stock in this offering at the assumed initial public offering price of $5.00 per share. Furthermore, if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares, if outstanding options are exercised, if we issue awards to our employees under our equity incentive plans, or if we otherwise issue additional shares of our common stock, you could experience further dilution. For a further description of the dilution that you will experience immediately after this offering, see the section entitled “Dilution.”

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents, which will be effective upon completion of this offering, and under Delaware law, could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our common stock.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, as they will be in effect upon the closing of this offering, may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will include provisions that:

•        authorize our board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, shares of undesignated preferred stock with terms, rights, and preferences determined by our board of directors that may be senior to our common stock;

•        require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;

•        specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our board of directors, the chairperson of our board of directors, or our Chief Executive Officer;

•        establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our board of directors;

•        prohibit cumulative voting in the election of directors;

•        establish that our board of directors will be divided into three classes — Class I, Class II, and Class III — with each class serving staggered three-year terms;

•        provide that, so long as our board of directors is classified, directors may only be removed for cause;

•        provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum; and

•        require the approval of our board of directors or the holders of two-thirds of our outstanding shares of voting stock to amend our bylaws and certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation.

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder. Any of the foregoing provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, and they could deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you would receive a premium for your shares of our common stock in an acquisition.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, to be in effect upon the completion of this offering, will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware or the federal district court for the District of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for certain disputes between us and our stockholders, which could result in increased costs for our stockholders to bring a claim and could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, both of which will be in effect upon consummation of this offering, will provide that, unless the Company consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, in the event that the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware or other state courts of the State of Delaware) is the exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by, any director, officer, employee or agent of the Company to the Company or our stockholders; (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us or any director, officer of employee that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the law of the State of Delaware; provided that, if and only if the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware dismisses any

such action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, or the Company consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, such action may be brought in another state or federal court sitting in the State of Delaware. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will also provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to claims brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act. Nothing in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws will preclude stockholders that assert claims under the Exchange Act from bringing such claims in state or federal court, subject to applicable law.

We believe these provisions may benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities laws by chancellors and judges, as applicable, particularly experienced in resolving corporate disputes, efficient administration of cases on a more expedited schedule relative to other forums and protection against the burdens of multi-forum litigation. However, this choice of forum provision could result in increased costs for our stockholders to bring a claim and could may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Furthermore, the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions, and there can be no assurance that such provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision that will be contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Our management has broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering, and our use of the net proceeds may not enhance our operating results or the price of our common stock.

We intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering to fund ongoing development, primarily CMC preparation, research and development, and other trial preparation expenses needed in order to initiate the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial of our product candidate and for working capital and general corporate purposes. We may use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire complementary businesses or products. While we do not have agreements or commitments for any specific acquisitions at this time, we continually evaluate potential acquisition candidates to enhance our product offerings. Accordingly, our management will have considerable discretion over the specific use of the net proceeds that we receive in this offering and might not be able to obtain a significant return, if any, on investment of these net proceeds. You will not have the opportunity as part of your investment decision to assess whether the net proceeds are being used appropriately. Investors in this offering will need to rely upon the judgment of our management with respect to the use of proceeds. Until the net proceeds are used, they may be placed in investments that do not produce significant income, may be held in demand deposit accounts, or in investments intended to be highly liquid that may nevertheless lose value. If we do not use the net proceeds that we receive in this offering effectively, our business and prospects could be harmed, and the market price of our common stock could decline.

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

Our amended and restated bylaws that will be in effect upon consummation of this offering, provide that we will indemnify our directors and executive officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.

In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the DGCL, our amended and restated bylaws and the indemnification agreements that we have entered into with each of our current executive officers and intend to enter into with our directors and certain other officers, among other things provide that:

•        We will indemnify our directors and executive officers for serving us in those capacities, or for serving as a director, officer, employee or agent of other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that we may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to our best interest and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful.

•        We may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law.

•        We will be required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification.

•        The rights conferred in our bylaws will not be exclusive. We may not retroactively amend our bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents.

As a result, claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

We do not intend to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not anticipate paying any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Consequently, your only opportunity to achieve a return on your investment in our company will be if the market price of our common stock appreciates and you sell your shares at a profit. There is no guarantee that the price of our common stock that will prevail in the market after this offering will ever exceed the price that you pay. For additional information about our dividend policy, see the section entitled “Dividend policy” elsewhere in this prospectus.

Certain members of our management team have limited experience managing a public company.

Some of the members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our transition to being a public company subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

As a public company, we will incur legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. We will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and will be required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or Dodd-Frank. The listing requirements of the Nasdaq Stock Market, and the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, require that we satisfy certain corporate governance requirements. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements. Moreover, the reporting requirements, rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. Any changes we make to comply with these obligations may not be sufficient to allow us to satisfy our obligations as a public company on a timely basis, or at all. These reporting requirements, rules and regulations, coupled with the increase in potential litigation exposure associated with being a public company, could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or board committees or to serve as executive officers, or to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ insurance, on acceptable terms.

After this offering, we will be subject to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, and the related rules of the SEC, which generally require our management and independent registered public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain effective internal controls, we will need additional financial personnel, systems and resources. Beginning with the second annual report on Form 10-K that we will be required to file with the SEC, Section 404 requires an annual management assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and

possible remediation. To comply with the requirements of being a reporting company under the Exchange Act, we will need to upgrade our systems including information technology; implement additional financial and management controls, reporting systems, and procedures; and hire additional accounting and finance staff.

To date, we have never conducted a review of our internal controls for the purpose of providing the reports required by these rules. During the course of our review and testing, we may identify additional deficiencies and be unable to remediate them before we must provide the required reports. Furthermore, if we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. We or our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, which could harm our operating results, cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and cause the trading price of our stock to fall. In addition, as a public company we will be required to file accurate and timely quarterly and annual reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. Any failure to report our financial results on an accurate and timely basis could result in sanctions, lawsuits, delisting of our shares from Nasdaq or other adverse consequences that would materially harm our business and reputation.

For so long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (i) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (ii) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (iii) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700.0 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

We are an emerging growth company and we cannot be certain if (i) the reduced disclosure requirements or (ii) extended transition periods for complying with new or revised accounting standards applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors. In addition, as a smaller reporting company we will also have reduced disclosure requirements.

We qualify as an emerging growth company. Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards issued subsequent to the enactment of the JOBS Act until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company, or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.

In addition, for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies including, but not limited to, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

We are also a “smaller reporting company” as defined in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and have elected to take advantage of certain of the scaled disclosures available to smaller reporting companies. To the extent that we continue to qualify as a “smaller reporting company” as such term is defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act, after we cease to qualify as an emerging growth company, certain of the exemptions available to us as an “emerging growth company” may continue to be available to us as a “smaller reporting company,” including exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements pursuant to SOX and reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements. We will continue to be a “smaller reporting company” until we have $250 million or more in public float (based on our Common Stock) measured as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter or, in the event we have no public float (based on our Common Stock) or a public float (based on our Common Stock) that is less than $700 million, annual revenues of $100 million or more during the most recently completed fiscal year.