ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

A. Selected Financial Data

The following table sets forth a summary of the consolidated historical financial information of, and for the periods ended on, the dates indicated for Biofrontera AG. We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB. The selected consolidated statement of operations data for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2018, December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018, December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements.

The following selected consolidated financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated are qualified by reference to and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes beginning on page F-1 of this annual report, as well as the sections titled “Operating And Financial Review And Prospects” and “Foreign Currency Exchange Rates” included elsewhere in this annual report.

Our historical results for any prior period do not necessarily indicate our results to be expected for any future period.

You should read the following summary of consolidated financial information in conjunction with the section of this annual report entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes contained elsewhere in this annual report.

B. Capitalization and Indebtedness

Not applicable.

C. Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

D. Risk Factors

We believe the following to be the principal risks and uncertainties facing our company. If any of these risks occur, our business, financial condition and performance could suffer and the trading price and liquidity of our securities could decline. Because any global pharmaceutical business of the kind in which we are engaged is inherently exposed to risks that become apparent only with the benefit of hindsight, risks of which we are not currently aware or which we do not currently consider to be material could also adversely impact our business, financial condition and performance, including our ability to execute our strategy. The order of presentation of the risk factors below does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of their occurrence or the potential magnitude of their consequences. This annual report also contains forward-looking information that involves risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including the risks described below and elsewhere in this annual report.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Requirements

We have a history of operating losses and anticipate that we will continue to incur operating losses in the future and that we may never sustain profitability.

We have incurred losses in each year since inception. Our net loss for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2018, December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 was € 8.9 million, €16.1 million, and €10.6 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2018, we had an accumulated deficit of €145.4 million.

Our ability to become profitable depends on our ability to further commercialize our principal product Ameluz ^® and control costs, including general administrative costs incurred in connection with litigation. Even if we are successful in increasing our product sales, we may never achieve or sustain profitability. We anticipate substantially increasing our sales and marketing expense as we attempt to exploit the recent regulatory approvals we have received to market Ameluz ^® in the U.S. for the photodynamic therapy treatment of actinic keratoses of mild-to-moderate severity on the face and scalp and in the EU for the treatment of field cancerization and basal cell carcinoma. There can be no assurance that our sales and marketing efforts will generate sufficient sales to allow us to become profitable. Moreover, of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if ever.

If we fail to obtain additional financing, we may be unable to complete the development and commercialization of our products and product candidates.

Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect to continue to spend substantial amounts to pursue additional indications for which our products and product candidates may be commercialized, and to continue the clinical development of our product candidates, including further Phase III clinical trials. Going forward, we expect that we will also require significant funds in order to commercialize the drugs AKTIPAK ^® and Xepi ^TM , the rights to which we recently acquired through our purchase of Cutanea Life Sciences, Inc. (“Cutanea”).

We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents and revenue from product sales and future milestone or license payments will be sufficient to enable us to fund our operating expenses and to advance our commercialization strategy in the U.S. for the next 12 months. However, changing circumstances may cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more money than currently expected because of circumstances beyond our control. After the next 12-month period, we may require additional capital for the further development and commercialization of our products. We may need substantial additional funds to fully develop, manufacture, market and sell our other potential products. Our future funding requirements, both near- and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts and on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the commercialization of our products or development of product candidates. We also could be required to license our rights to our products and product candidates to third parties on unfavorable terms. In addition, any equity financing would likely result in dilution to our existing holders of our ordinary shares and ADSs, and any debt financing would likely involve significant cash payment obligations and include restrictive covenants that may restrict our ability to operate our business.

Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and/or results of operations and could cause the price of our ordinary shares or ADSs to decline.

Our existing and any future indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to operate our business.

In May 2017, we entered into a finance contract with the EIB, under which EIB agreed to provide us with loans of up to €20.0 million in the aggregate. Our finance contract with EIB, which we refer to as the EIB credit facility, is unsecured, is guaranteed by certain of our subsidiaries, and is available to be drawn in tranches during a two-year period. Future tranches require the achievement of certain milestones. Each tranche must be repaid five years after drawdown. The EIB credit facility contains undertakings by our company regarding the use of proceeds and limitations on debt, liens, mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, dividends and other restrictive covenants. As of the date of this annual report, we have borrowed €15.0 million under the EIB credit facility. On July 7, 2022, we will be required to repay a principal amount of €10.0 million, plus €3.0 million in deferred interest and an additional amount of performance participation interest determined by reference to the change in our market capitalization between disbursement and maturity of the loan. On February 4, 2024, we will be required to repay another principal amount of €5.0 million, plus € 1.5 million in deferred interest and an additional amount of performance participation interest determined by reference to the change in our market capitalization between disbursement and maturity of the loan. Under the EIB credit facility, we are not permitted to incur additional third-party debt in excess of €1.0 million without the prior consent of the EIB (subject to certain exceptions, such as for ordinary course deferred purchase arrangements and, subject to maximum amounts, various types of leases).

In January 2017, we issued convertible bonds maturing on January 1, 2022 in the aggregate initial principal amount of €5.0 million of which €2.4 million has already been converted into shares. The convertible bonds we issued in January 2017 provide the holders of those bonds with the right to convert them, at any time, in whole but not in part, into our ordinary shares, at a conversion price per share equal to: €4.00 per share from April 1, 2017 until December 31, 2018 and €5.00 per share from January 1, 2018 until maturity. In March 2018 the conversion rate was changed from €5.00 to €4.75 in accordance with section 11 of the bond terms and conditions. If all of the remaining bonds were converted, we would be required to issue up to 546,379 additional ordinary shares, which would result in additional dilution to shareholders.

Our indebtedness could have significant adverse consequences, including:

We may not have sufficient funds and may be unable to arrange for additional financing to pay the amounts due under our existing debt obligations, in particular the minimum €13 million payment due on July 7, 2022 and the minimum € 6.5 million payment due on February 4, 2024. Failure to make payments or comply with other covenants under our existing debt could result in an event of default and acceleration of amounts due. If an event of default occurs and the lender or lenders accelerate the amounts due, we may not be able to make accelerated payments, and such lenders could file suit against us to collect the amounts due under such obligations or pursue other remedies. In addition, the covenants under our existing debt obligations could limit our ability to obtain additional debt financing.

Risks Related to Our Business and Strategy

Certain of our important patents will expire in 2019. Although the process of developing generic topical dermatological products presents specific challenges that may deter potential generic competitors, generic versions of Ameluz ^® could enter the market after expiration of these patents. If this happens, we may need to reduce the price of Ameluz ^® significantly and may lose significant market share.

The patent family that protects aminolevulinic acid hydrochloride, an active ingredient in Ameluz ^® , against copying by competitors will expire on November 12, 2019. This patent family includes U.S. Patent No. 6,559,183, which is listed in the FDA Orange Book and identified as covering aminolevulinic acid hydrochloride, the active ingredient in Ameluz ^® . Patent No. 6,559,183 serves as a significant barrier to entry into the market by generic versions of Ameluz ^® . Although the process of developing generic topical dermatological products presents specific challenges that may deter potential generic competitors, once this patent expires, generic versions of Ameluz ^® may not be prevented from entering the market and competing with Ameluz ^® . This may cause a significant price drop and, therefore, a significant drop in our profits. We may also lose significant market share for Ameluz.

Our acquisition of Cutanea may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize products and product candidates, impact our cash position, increase our expense and present significant distractions to our management.

On March 25, 2019, we announced that we, through our subsidiary Biofrontera Newderm LLC, had acquired Cutanea from Maruho, our major shareholder that holds approximately 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares. Cutanea markets AKTIPAK ^® , a prescription gel for the treatment of acne, and in November 2018 launched Xepi ^TM , a prescription cream for the treatment of impetigo, a frequent bacterial skin infection (Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus pyogenes).

We do not have significant experience implementing acquisition transactions or integrating new business into our existing operations. The process of integrating the personnel and operations of Cutanea is expected to be complex and may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures and pose significant integration or implementation challenges or disrupt our management or business. These transactions could entail numerous operational and financial risks, including exposure to unknown future liabilities, disruption of our business and diversion of our management’s time and attention in order to implement its strategy with respect to the acquired products, incurrence of substantial debt or dilutive issuances of equity securities to pay higher than expected integration costs, write-downs of assets or goodwill or impairment charges, difficulty and cost in combining the operations and personnel of Cutanea, impairment of relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers or customers of Cutanea due to changes in management and ownership and the inability to retain key employees of Cutanea. If any of these risks materialize in connection with our integration of Cutanea, it may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

Strategic transactions, such as our acquisition of Cutanea, further involve numerous business risks, including:

We may never realize the perceived benefits of the Cutanea acquisition or potential future transactions. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in overcoming problems encountered in connection with the Cutanea transaction, and our inability to do so could significantly harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The UK’s pending withdrawal from the EU could result in increased regulatory and legal complexity, which may make it more difficult for us to do business in the EU and the rest of Europe and impose additional challenges in securing regulatory approval of our product candidates in the EU and the rest of Europe.

On June 23, 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU in an advisory referendum, which is generally referred to as Brexit. On March 29, 2017, the UK delivered notice under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty of its intent to leave the EU. The UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU by October 31, 2019. To date there has been no agreement between the EU and the UK on the terms of the exit.

Brexit, the subsequent high-profile failures of the UK to agree on an exit strategy, and the pending withdrawal of the UK, may lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent laws and regulations between the UK and the EU, as the UK determines which EU laws to replicate or replace and this uncertainty may persist for years. We cannot predict whether or not the UK will significantly alter its current laws and regulations in respect of the pharmaceutical industry and, if so, what impact any such alteration would have on us or our business. Moreover, we cannot predict the impact that Brexit will have on (i) the marketing of pharmaceutical products, (ii) the process to obtain regulatory approval in the United Kingdom for product candidates or (iii) the award of exclusivities that are normally part of the EU legal framework.

Brexit may also result in a reduction of funding to the EMA if the UK no longer makes financial contributions to European institutions, such as the EMA. If UK funding is so reduced, it could create delays in the EMA issuing regulatory approvals for our products and product candidates and, accordingly, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and future growth prospects.

As a result of Brexit, other European countries may seek to conduct referenda with respect to their continuing membership with the EU. Given these possibilities and others we may not anticipate, as well as the absence of comparable precedent, it is unclear what financial, regulatory and legal implications the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU would have and how such withdrawal would affect us, and the full extent to which our business could be adversely affected.

In addition, following the Brexit vote, the EU decided to move the headquarters of the EMA from the UK to the Netherlands. The EMA is currently in a temporary location and its relocation process is not expected to be completed until the end of 2019. It is expected that a significant percentage of the current employees of the EMA will decide not to make the move to the Netherlands. This raises the possibility that new drug approvals in the EU could be delayed as a result.

Insurance coverage and medical expense reimbursement may be limited or unavailable in certain market segments for our products or product candidates, which could make it difficult for us to sell our products.

Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations or, in some jurisdictions such as Germany, statutory health insurance, decide which products they will cover and the amount of reimbursement. Reimbursement by a third-party payor may depend upon a number of factors, including the government or third-party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

Obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval for 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. We may not be able to provide data sufficient to gain acceptance with respect to coverage and reimbursement or a particular reimbursement amount. If reimbursement of our future products or extended indications for existing products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.

The pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control in some of the countries in which we have received and/or seek to receive approval to commercialize certain of our products. We are approved to market certain of our products in the EU and the U.S., and we intend to seek approval to market our product candidates in selected other jurisdictions. If we obtain approval in one or more foreign jurisdictions for our product candidates, we will be subject to rules and regulations in those jurisdictions. In some countries, particularly those in the EU, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after obtaining marketing approval for a product candidate. In addition, market acceptance and sales of our product candidates will depend significantly on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from government or other third-party payors for our product candidates and may be affected by existing and future health care reform measures. Without adequate levels of reimbursement by government health care programs and private health insurers, the market for our products will be limited. While we continue to support efforts to improve reimbursement levels to physicians and plan to work to improve coverage for our products, if our efforts are not successful, a broader adoption of our products and sales of our products could be negatively impacted.

Healthcare legislative changes may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

In the U.S. and certain other countries, 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, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 revised the payment methodology for many products under Medicare in the U.S., which has resulted in lower rates of reimbursement. In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively, the Affordable Care Act, was enacted. On January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that the administration intended to seek prompt repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and, pending repeal, directed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other executive departments and agencies to take all steps necessary to limit any fiscal or regulatory burdens of the Affordable Care Act. There is no guarantee whether the Affordable Care Act will remain in effect or be repealed/replaced. There is significant uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act in particular and healthcare laws generally in the United States. This expansion of the government’s role in the U.S. healthcare industry may further lower rates of reimbursement for pharmaceutical products. We are unable to predict the likelihood of changes to the Affordable Care Act or other healthcare laws which may negatively impact our profitability.

The Affordable Care Act is a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and the health insurance industry, impose new taxes and fees on the healthcare industry and impose additional health policy reforms. This law revises the definition of “average manufacturer price” for reporting purposes, which could increase the amount of Medicaid drug rebates to states once the provision is effective. Further, the law imposes a significant annual fee on companies that manufacture or import branded prescription drug products. Substantial new provisions affecting compliance have also been enacted, which may require us to modify our business practices with healthcare practitioners.

Some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act have yet to be fully implemented, while certain provisions have been subject to judicial and Congressional challenges. In January 2017, Congress voted to adopt a budget resolution for fiscal year 2017, that while not a law, is widely viewed as the first step toward the passage of legislation that would repeal certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. While Congress has not passed repeal legislation to date, the 2017 Tax Reform Act includes a provision repealing the individual mandate, effective January 1, 2019. On December 14, 2018, a U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of Texas ruled that the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act is an essential and inseverable feature of the Affordable Care Act, and therefore because the mandate was repealed, the remaining provisions of the Affordable Care Act are invalid as well. The Trump administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) have both stated that the ruling will have no immediate effect, and on December 30, 2018, the same judge issued an order staying the judgment pending appeal. On January 22, 2018, President Trump signed a continuing resolution on appropriations for fiscal year 2018 that delayed the implementation of certain Affordable Care Act-mandated fees, including the so-called “Cadillac” tax on certain high cost employer-sponsored insurance plans, the annual fee imposed on certain health insurance providers based on market share, and the medical device excise tax on non-exempt medical devices. Further, on January 20, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies with authorities and responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision of the Affordable Care Act that would impose a fiscal burden on states or a cost, fee, tax, penalty or regulatory burden on individuals, healthcare providers, health insurers, or manufacturers of pharmaceuticals or medical devices. Congress also could consider subsequent legislation to replace elements of the Affordable Care Act that are repealed. On October 13, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order terminating the cost-sharing subsidies that reimburse insurers under the Affordable Care Act. Several state Attorneys General filed suit to stop the administration from terminating the subsidies, but their request for a restraining order was denied by a federal judge in California on October 25, 2017. In addition, CMS has recently proposed regulations that would give states greater flexibility in setting benchmarks for insurers in the individual and small group marketplaces, which may have the effect of relaxing the essential health benefits required under the Affordable Care Act for plans sold through such marketplaces. Congress will likely consider other legislation to replace elements of the Affordable Care Act. Thus, the full impact of the Affordable Care Act, any law replacing elements of it, or the political uncertainty surrounding its repeal or replacement on our business remains unclear. Such developments may materially adversely affect the prices we are able to receive for our products or otherwise materially adversely affect our ability to profitably commercialize our products in the United States.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the U.S. since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. On August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, created measures for spending reductions by Congress. A Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, tasked with recommending a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2012 through 2021, was unable to reach required goals, thereby triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers up to 2 % per fiscal year. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, or the ATRA, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals, imaging centers and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from 3 to 5 years. Recently there has been increased government scrutiny regarding the manner in which manufacturers set prices for and market commercial products. If we become the subject of any government investigation with respect to our drug pricing, marketing, or other business practices, we could incur significant expense and could be distracted from operation of our business and execution of our strategy. Any such investigation could also result in reduced market acceptance and demand for our products, could harm our reputation and our ability to market our products in the future, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the U.S. 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. Additionally, third party payors, including governmental payors, managed care organizations and private health insurers, are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical products and services and examining their cost effectiveness. The continuing efforts of governments, 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:

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

We are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations in the EU and European Economic Area, or EEA, related to privacy, data protection and data security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

We are subject to diverse laws and regulations relating to data privacy and security in the EU and eventually in the EEA, including Regulation 2016/679, known as the GDPR. The GDPR applies extraterritorially and implements stringent operational requirements for controllers and processors of personal data. New global privacy rules are being enacted and existing ones are being updated and strengthened. We are likely to be required to expend capital and other resources to ensure ongoing compliance with these laws and regulations.

Complying with these numerous, complex and often changing regulations is expensive and difficult. Failure by us, any partners, our service providers, or our employees or contractors to comply with the GDPR could result in regulatory investigations, enforcement notices and/or fines of up to the higher of €20 million or up to 4% of our total worldwide annual revenue. In addition to the foregoing, a breach of privacy laws or data security laws, particularly those resulting in a significant security incident or breach involving the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized use or disclosure of sensitive or confidential patient or consumer information, could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation and financial condition.

As a data controller, we are accountable for any third-party service providers we engage to process personal data on our behalf, including our clinical research organizations, or CROs. We attempt to mitigate the associated risks by performing security assessments and due diligence of our vendors and requiring all such third-party providers with data access to sign agreements, and obligating them to only process data according to our instructions and to take sufficient security measures to protect such data. There is no assurance that these contractual measures and our own privacy and security-related safeguards will protect us from the risks associated with the third-party processing, storage and transmission of such information. Any violation of data or security laws by our third-party processors could have a material adverse effect on our business and result in the fines and penalties outlined above.

Where we transfer personal data out of the EU and EEA, we do so in compliance with the relevant data export requirements from time to time. There is currently ongoing litigation challenging the commonly used transfer mechanism, the EU Commission approved model clauses. In addition, the U.S. Privacy Shield (a mechanism for complying with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S.) is currently under review by the European Commission. As such, it is uncertain whether the Privacy Shield framework and/or model clauses will be invalidated in the near future. These changes may require us to find alternative bases for the compliant transfer of personal data outside the EEA and we are monitoring developments in this area.

We are also subject to evolving European privacy laws on cookies and on e-marketing. The EU is in the process of replacing the e-Privacy Directive (2002/58/EC) with a new set of rules taking the form of a regulation, which will be directly implemented in the laws of each European member state. The draft e-Privacy Regulation imposes strict opt-in marketing rules with limited exceptions for business-to-business communications, alters rules on third-party cookies, web beacons and similar technology and significantly increases fining powers to the greater of €20 million or 4% of total worldwide annual revenue. While the e-Privacy Regulation was originally intended to be adopted on May 25, 2018 (alongside the GDPR), it is still going through the European legislative process and commentators now expect it to be adopted during the second half of 2020 or during 2021 following a transition period.

We process personal data in relation to participants in our clinical trials in the EEA., including the health and medical information of these participants. The GDPR is directly applicable in each EU Member State, however, it provides that EU Member States may introduce further conditions, including limitations which could limit our ability to collect, use and share personal data (including health and medical information), or could cause our compliance costs to increase, ultimately having an adverse impact on our business. The GDPR imposes onerous accountability obligations requiring data controllers and processors to maintain a record of their data processing and implement policies as part of its mandated privacy governance framework. It also requires data controllers to be transparent and disclose to data subjects (in a concise, intelligible and easily accessible form) how their personal information is to be used, imposes limitations on retention of personal data; defines for the first time pseudonymized ( i.e. , key-coded) data; introduces mandatory data breach notification requirements; and sets higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained valid consent for certain data processing activities. In addition to the foregoing, a breach of the GDPR could result in regulatory investigations, reputational damage, orders to cease/change our use of data, enforcement notices, as well potential civil claims including class action type litigation where individuals suffer harm.

To date, we have engaged in only limited sales of our products, primarily in Germany and Spain and, more recently, in the U.S.

We have engaged in only limited sales of our products to date. In Germany, the majority of our sales have been generated in the private dermatology offices sector. Historically, our sales partners in European countries outside of Germany have experienced difficulty in selling Ameluz ^® because that process involves selling both drug combined with a procedure, an area in which our sales partners generally have little experience. We launched the commercialization of Ameluz ^® and BF-RhodoLED ^® for actinic keratosis in the U.S. in October 2016 and have a limited history of marketing our products there. Our products may never gain significant acceptance in the European or U.S. marketplace and, therefore, may never generate substantial revenue or profits for us. We must establish a larger market for our products and build that market through marketing campaigns to increase awareness of, and confidence by doctors in, our products. If we are unable to expand our current customer base and obtain market acceptance of our products, our operations could be disrupted and our business may be materially adversely affected. Even if we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability.

Competing products and technologies based on traditional treatment methods may make our products or potential products noncompetitive or obsolete.

Well-known pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies are marketing well-established therapies for the treatment of actinic keratosis and basal cell carcinoma. Doctors may prefer to use familiar therapies, rather than trying our products.

Our industry is subject to rapid, unpredictable and significant technological change and intense competition. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring, or licensing on an exclusive basis products that are safer, more effective or more desirable than ours. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we have. In addition, several of these companies have significantly greater experience than we do in developing products, conducting preclinical and clinical testing, obtaining regulatory approvals to market products for health care, and marketing healthcare products.

Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries.

We cannot guarantee that new drugs or future developments in drug technologies will not have a material adverse effect on our business. Increased competition could result in price reductions, lower levels of government or other third-party reimbursements, failure to achieve market acceptance and loss of market share, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, we cannot give any assurance that developments by our competitors or future competitors will not render our technologies obsolete or less advantageous.

We face significant competition from other pharmaceutical and medical device companies and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively. We also must compete with existing treatments, such as simple curettage and cryotherapy, which do not involve the use of a drug but have gained significant market acceptance.

The pharmaceutical and medical device industry is characterized by intense competition and rapid innovation. Our competitors may be able to develop other products that are able to achieve similar or better results for the treatment of actinic keratosis. We expect that our future competitors will include mostly established pharmaceutical companies, such as Sun Pharma and Galderma. Most of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, such as larger research and development staffs and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations and well-established sales forces. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries.

Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing products that are more effective or less costly than our products and product candidates. For example, Metvix ^® has also been approved in the EU for use in daylight photodynamic therapy for which it is sold by Galderma under the brand name Luxerm ^® in Germany and Luxera ^® in other European countries. This gave that drug a competitive advantage compared to Ameluz ^® , as Ameluz ^® was not approved to be used in daylight photodynamic therapy to treat actinic keratosis until March 2018, when we obtained such approval. Over a period of ten months in 2017, the market share of Ameluz ^® as a percentage of photodynamic therapy drugs for treatment of actinic keratosis dispensed by German public pharmacies fell from over 70% to approximately 50%, a decline which we believe resulted primarily from the introduction to the German market of Luxerm ^® in 2016. We believe that daylight photodynamic therapy products will play an increasingly important role in Europe in the future and will begin to be prescribed as an alternative to less effective, self-applied, topical prescription product creams (which have historically been market leaders in the EU in treating actinic keratosis). We applied to extend our indication for Ameluz ^® to daylight photodynamic therapy in the EU to better compete with Metvix ^® and Luxerm ^® , and in March 2018, the European Commission granted approval for label extension for the treatment of mild to moderate actinic keratosis on the face and scalp using Ameluz ^® in combination with daylight photodynamic therapy. Although in recent months we were able to regain market share lost to Luxerm ^® in 2017, there can be no assurance however that we will be able to successfully commercialize our products in this indication.

In addition, our products compete with other therapies, such as simple curettage and, particularly in the U.S., cryotherapy, which do not involve the use of a drug but have gained significant market acceptance.

If we are not able to compete effectively with the competitors and competing therapies discussed above, we may lose significant market share in the relevant markets, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenue, results of operations and financial condition.

If we are unable to establish effective marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our products, we may be unable to generate revenues.

In order to commercialize our products, we must further build our marketing, sales and distribution capabilities, in particular in the U.S. The establishment, development and training of our sales force and related compliance plans to market our products are expensive and time consuming and can potentially delay the commercial success of our products. In the event we are not successful in developing our marketing and sales infrastructure, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our products, which would limit our ability to generate product revenues.

We depend on a single unaffiliated contract manufacturer to manufacture Ameluz ^® and two unaffiliated contractors to produce 5-aminolevulinic acid, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Ameluz ^® , for us. If we fail to maintain our relationship with these suppliers or if these suppliers are unable to continue to produce product for us, our business could be materially harmed.

We depend on a single unaffiliated contract manufacturer located in Switzerland to manufacture Ameluz ^® and two unaffiliated contractors to produce 5-aminolevulinic acid, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Ameluz ^® , for us. The initial terms of our contracts with these suppliers begin to expire in June 2020, and the contracts renew automatically for one- or two-year periods, as applicable, until they are terminated. For more information on the terms of our contracts with these suppliers, see “Business—Commercial Partners and Agreements”. If we fail to maintain our relationship with these parties, we may be unable to obtain an alternative manufacturer of Ameluz ^® or suppliers of 5-aminolevulinic acid that could deliver the quantity of the product at the quality and cost levels that we require. Even if acceptable alternative suppliers could be found, we may experience delays in transitioning the manufacturing from our existing suppliers to our new suppliers (in particular with respect to our manufacturer of Ameluz ^® ). Problems of this kind could cause us to experience order cancellations and loss of market share. The failure of the suppliers to supply Ameluz ^® or 5-aminolevulinic acid that satisfies our quality, quantity and cost requirements in a timely manner could impair our ability to deliver Ameluz ^® and could increase our costs, particularly if we are unable to obtain Ameluz ^® or 5-aminolevulinic acid from alternative sources on a timely basis or on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, our suppliers are regulated by the FDA and must comply with applicable laws and regulations, including home-country laws. If the suppliers fail to comply, this could harm our business.

If we fail to manufacture Ameluz ^® or BF-RhodoLED ^® or other marketed products and product candidates in sufficient quantities and at acceptable quality and cost levels, or to fully comply with current good manufacturing practice, or cGMP, or other applicable manufacturing regulations, we may face a bar to, or delays in, the commercialization of our products, breach obligations to our licensing partners or be unable to meet market demand, and lose potential revenues.

The manufacture of our products requires significant expertise and capital investment. Currently, all commercial supply for Ameluz ^® is manufactured by a single unaffiliated contract manufacturer. We would need to spend substantial time and expense to replace that manufacturer if it failed to deliver products in the quality and quantities we demand or failed to meet any regulatory or cGMP requirements. We take precautions to help safeguard the manufacturing facilities, including acquiring insurance, and performing on site audits. However, vandalism, terrorism or a natural or other disaster, such as a fire or flood, could damage or destroy manufacturing equipment or our inventory of raw material or finished goods, cause substantial delays in our operations, result in the loss of key information, and cause us to incur additional expenses. Our insurance may not cover our losses in any particular case. In addition, regardless of the level of insurance coverage, damage to our facilities may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

We must comply with federal, state and foreign regulations, including FDA regulations governing cGMP enforced by the FDA through its facilities inspection program and by similar regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions where we do business. These requirements include, among other things, quality control, quality assurance and the maintenance of records and documentation. For our medical device products, we are required to comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, or QSR, which covers the methods and documentation of the design, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, sterilization, storage and shipping of our medical device products.

Our contract facilities have been inspected by the FDA for cGMP compliance. If we do not successfully maintain cGMP compliance for these facilities, commercialization of our products could be prohibited or significantly delayed. Even after cGMP compliance has been achieved, the FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities at any time may implement new standards, or change their interpretation and enforcement of existing standards for manufacture, packaging, testing of or other activities related to our products. For our commercialized medical device product, the FDA audits compliance with the QSR through periodic announced and unannounced inspections of manufacturing and other facilities. The FDA may conduct inspections or audits at any time. Similar audit rights exist in Europe and other foreign jurisdictions. Any failure to comply with applicable cGMP, QSR and other regulations may result in fines and civil penalties, suspension of production, product seizure or recall, imposition of a consent decree, or withdrawal of product approval, and would limit the availability of our product. Any manufacturing defect or error discovered after products have been produced and distributed also could result in significant consequences, including adverse health consequences, injury or death to patients, costly recall procedures, re-stocking costs, warning letters, Form 483 reports, civil monetary penalties, product liability, damage to our reputation and potential for product liability claims. If we are required to find a new manufacturer or supplier, the process would likely require prior FDA and/or equivalent foreign regulatory authority approval, and would be very time consuming. An inability to continue manufacturing adequate supplies of our products at any contract facilities could result in a disruption in the supply of our products. Delay or disruption in our ability to meet demand may result in the loss of potential revenue. We have licensed the commercial rights in specified foreign territories to market and sell our products. Under those licenses, we have obligations to manufacture commercial product for our commercial partners. If we are unable to fill the orders placed with us by our commercial partners in a timely manner, we may potentially lose revenue and be in breach of our licensing obligations under agreements with them.

In addition, we are subject to regulations in various jurisdictions, including the Federal Drug Supply Chain Security Act in the U.S., the Falsified Medicines Directive in the EU and many other such regulations in other countries that require us to develop electronic systems to serialize, track, trace and authenticate units of our products through the supply chain and distribution system. Compliance with these regulations may result in increased expenses for us or impose greater administrative burdens on our organization, and failure to meet these requirements could result in fines or other penalties.

Failure to comply with all applicable regulatory requirements may subject us to operating restrictions and criminal prosecution, monetary penalties and other disciplinary actions, including, sanctions, warning letters, product seizures, recalls, fines, injunctions, suspension, shutdown of production, revocation of approvals or the inability to obtain future approvals, or exclusion from future participation in government healthcare programs. Any of these events could disrupt our business and have a material adverse effect on our revenue, profitability and financial condition.

Because of a lack of comprehensive public data regarding the market for actinic keratosis treatments in the U.S., the U.S. market size for Ameluz ^® for the treatment of actinic keratosis may be smaller than we have estimated.

Because of a lack of comprehensive public data regarding the market for actinic keratosis treatments in the U.S., some of our estimates and judgments are based on various sources which we have not independently verified and which potentially include outdated information, or information that may not be precise or correct, potentially rendering the U.S. market size for treatment of actinic keratosis with Ameluz ^® smaller than we have estimated, which may reduce our potential and ability to increase sales of Ameluz ^® and revenue in the U.S. Although we have not independently verified the data obtained from these sources, we believe that such data provide the best available information relating to the present market for actinic keratosis treatments in the U.S., and we often use such data for our business and planning purposes.

If we face allegations of noncompliance with the law and encounter sanctions, our reputation, revenues and liquidity may suffer, and our products could be subject to restrictions or withdrawal from the market.

Any government investigation of alleged violations of the law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. Any failure to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements may significantly and adversely affect our ability to commercialize and generate revenues from our products. If regulatory sanctions are applied or if regulatory approval is withdrawn, the value of our company and our operating results will be adversely affected. Additionally, if we are unable to generate revenues from our product sales, our potential for achieving profitability will be diminished and the capital necessary to fund our operations will be increased.

Even if we obtain regulatory approvals for our products and product candidates, they may not gain market acceptance among hospitals, physicians, health care payors, patients and others in the medical community.

In May 2016, we received approval from the FDA to market in the U.S. Ameluz ^® in combination with photodynamic therapy using our BF-RhodoLED ^® lamp for lesion-directed and field-directed treatment of actinic keratoses of mild-to-moderate severity on the face and scalp. We launched the commercialization of Ameluz ^® and BF-RhodoLED ^® for actinic keratosis in the U.S. in October 2016. Even after obtaining regulatory approval for our products or extending their indications, our products may not gain market acceptance among hospitals, physicians, health care payors, patients and others in the medical community. Market acceptance of any of our products and product candidates for which we receive approval depends on a number of factors, including:

If our products and product candidates are approved, but fail to achieve market acceptance among physicians, patients, payors, or others in the medical community, we will not be able to generate significant revenues, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

With respect to our already approved products, we may be subject to healthcare laws, regulation and enforcement. Our failure to comply with those laws could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We may be subject to additional healthcare regulation and enforcement by the U.S. federal government and by authorities in the U.S., the EU and other jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. In certain jurisdictions outside of the U.S. where we currently commercialize certain of our products, we are already subject to such regulation and enforcement. Such U.S. laws include, without limitation, state and federal anti-kickback, federal false claims, privacy, security, financial disclosure laws, anti-trust, Physician Payment Sunshine Act reporting and fair trade regulation and advertising laws and regulations. Many states and other jurisdictions have similar laws and regulations, some of which are broader in scope. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including, but not limited to, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, the exclusion from participation in federal, state or other healthcare programs and imprisonment, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.

A recall of our drug or medical device products, or the discovery of serious safety issues with our drug or medical device products, could have a significant negative impact on us.

The FDA, the EMA and other relevant regulatory agencies have the authority to require or request the recall of commercialized products in the event of material deficiencies or defects in design or manufacture or in the event that a product poses an unacceptable risk to health. Manufacturers may, under their own initiative, recall a product. A government-mandated or voluntary recall by us or one of our distributors could occur as a result of an unacceptable risk to health, component failures, manufacturing errors, design or labeling defects or other deficiencies and issues. Recalls of our products would divert managerial and financial resources and have an adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition and operating results, which could impair our ability to produce our products in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Further, under the FDA’s medical device reporting, or MDR, regulations, we are required to report to the FDA any event which reasonably suggests that our product may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or in which our product malfunctioned and, if the malfunction of the same or similar device marketed by us were to recur, would likely cause or contribute to death or serious injury. The FDA also requires reporting of serious, life-threatening, unexpected and other adverse drug experiences and the submission of periodic safety reports and other information. Product malfunctions or other adverse event reports may result in a voluntary or involuntary product recall and other adverse actions, which could divert managerial and financial resources, impair our ability to manufacture our products in a cost-effective and timely manner and have an adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition and operating results. Similar reporting requirements exist in Europe and other jurisdictions.

Any adverse event involving our products could result in future voluntary corrective actions, such as recalls or customer notifications, or regulatory agency action, which could include inspection, mandatory recall or other enforcement action. Any corrective action, whether voluntary or involuntary, will require the dedication of our time and capital, distract management from operating our business and may harm our reputation and financial results as well as threaten our marketing authority for such products.

Our medical device product, the BF-RhodoLED ^® lamp, is subject to extensive governmental regulation, and failure to comply with applicable requirements could cause our business to suffer.

The medical device industry is regulated extensively by governmental authorities, principally the FDA and corresponding state and European and other foreign governmental agencies. The regulations are very complex and are subject to rapid change and varying interpretations. Regulatory restrictions or changes could limit our ability to carry on or expand our operations or result in higher than anticipated costs or lower than anticipated sales. The FDA and other U.S. or European or other foreign governmental agencies regulate numerous elements of our business, including:

Before we can market or sell a new regulated product or a significant modification to an existing product in the U.S., we must obtain either marketing clearance under Section 510(k) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, or approval of a Pre-Market Approval, or PMA, application from the FDA, unless an exemption from premarket clearance and approval applies. In the 510(k) clearance process, the FDA must determine that a proposed device is “substantially equivalent” to a device legally on the market, known as a “predicate” device, with respect to intended use, technology and safety and effectiveness, in order to clear the proposed device for marketing. Clinical data are sometimes required to support a finding of substantial equivalence. The PMA pathway requires an applicant to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of the device based on extensive clinical data. The PMA process is typically required for devices that are deemed to pose the greatest risk, such as life-sustaining, life-supporting or certain implantable devices or products that do not have an adequate predicate product. The PMA process can be lengthy, expensive, and carries uncertainty of approval. Products that are approved through a PMA application generally need FDA approval before they can be modified. Similarly, some modifications made to products cleared through a 510(k) premarket notification submission may require a new 510(k) submission, including possibly with clinical data. Before we can offer our device products to any of the 31 nations within the EU and the European Free Trade Association, we must first satisfy the requirements for CE Mark clearance, a conformity mark that signifies a product has met all criteria of the relevant EU directives, especially in the areas of safety and performance. The process of obtaining regulatory clearances or approvals to market a medical device can be costly and time-consuming, and we may not be able to obtain these clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all for our products or proposed products. We obtained CE Mark clearance for our BF-RhodoLED ^® lamp in November 2012 and FDA approval for it, to be used in connection with Ameluz ^® gel, in May 2016.

The FDA can delay, limit or deny clearance or approval of a device for many reasons, including:

In addition, the FDA and other regulatory authorities may change their respective clearance and approval policies, adopt additional regulations or revise existing regulations, or take other actions which may prevent or delay approval or clearance of our products under development or impact our ability to modify our currently cleared or approved products on a timely basis.

Any delay in, or failure to receive or maintain, clearance or approval for our products under development could prevent us from generating revenue from these products or achieving profitability. Additionally, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities have broad enforcement powers. Regulatory enforcement or inquiries, or other increased scrutiny of us, could dissuade some customers from using our products and adversely affect our reputation and the perceived safety and efficacy of our products.

Failure to comply with applicable regulations could jeopardize our ability to sell our products and result in enforcement actions such as fines, civil penalties, injunctions, warning letters, Form 483 reports, recalls of products, delays in the introduction of products into the market, refusal of the FDA or other regulators to grant future clearances or approvals, and the suspension or withdrawal of existing approvals by the FDA or other regulators. Any of these sanctions could result in higher than anticipated costs or lower than anticipated sales and have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and operating results.

Furthermore, we may evaluate international expansion opportunities in the future for our medical device products. As we expand our operations outside of the U.S. and Europe, we are, and will become, subject to various additional regulatory and legal requirements under the applicable laws and regulations of the international markets we enter. These additional regulatory requirements may involve significant costs and expenditures and, if we are not able comply with any such requirements, our international expansion and business could be significantly harmed.

Modifications to our medical device products, such as our BF-RhodoLED ^® lamp in Europe, may require reclassifications, new CE marking processes or may require us to cease marketing or recall the modified products until new CE marking is obtained.

A modification to our medical devices such as our BF-RhodoLED ^® lamp, which is approved for sale in Europe, could lead to a reclassification of the medical device and could result in further requirements (including additional clinical trials) to maintain the product’s CE marking. If we fail to comply with such further requirements we may be required to cease marketing or to recall the modified product until we obtain clearance or approval, and we may be subject to significant regulatory fines or penalties.

We are highly dependent on our key personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may be unable to successfully implement our business strategy.

Our ability to compete in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel with specialized scientific and technical skills. We are highly dependent on our management, scientific, medical and operations personnel, including Prof. Hermann Lübbert, Ph.D., chairman of our management board and chief executive officer; Thomas Schaffer, member of our management board and chief financial officer and Christoph Dünwald, member of our management board and chief commercial officer. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or other key employees and our inability to find suitable replacements could potentially harm our business, prospects, financial condition or results of operations.

Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management, scientific and development teams may terminate their employment with us on short notice. Although we have employment agreements with our key employees, these employees could leave our employment at any time, with certain notice periods. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the lives of these individuals or the lives of any of our other employees. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled junior, mid-level and senior managers as well as junior, mid-level and senior scientific and medical personnel and sales representatives.

Many of the other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that we compete against for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles and a longer history in the industry than we do. They may also 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 can offer. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, our ability to advance the development of our product candidates, obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our product candidates will be limited.

Our employees 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 misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with FDA or EMA regulations, provide accurate information to the FDA or EMA, comply with manufacturing standards we have established, comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices in the U.S. and Europe as well as in other jurisdictions where we conduct our business. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions, inability to obtain product approval and serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and any precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

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

As of December 31, 2018, we had 157 employees. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, and as we continue operating as a public company, we expect to need additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial and other personnel. Future growth would impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including:

Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our products will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth, and our management may also have to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from day-to-day activities in order to devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. To date, we have used the services of outside vendors to perform tasks including clinical trial management, statistics and analysis and regulatory affairs. Our growth strategy may also entail expanding our group of contractors or consultants to implement these tasks going forward. Because we rely on numerous consultants, effectively outsourcing many key functions of our business, we will need to be able to effectively manage these consultants to ensure that they successfully carry out their contractual obligations and meet expected deadlines. However, if we are unable to effectively manage our outsourced activities or if the quality or accuracy of the services provided by consultants is compromised for any reason, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates or otherwise advance our business. There can be no assurance that we will be able to manage our existing consultants or find other competent outside contractors and consultants on economically reasonable terms, or at all. If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our groups of consultants and contractors, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize our products and product candidates that we develop and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development and commercialization goals.

We may encounter difficulties growing our sales force.

Our initial estimate of the size of the required sales force may be materially different from the size of the sales force actually required to effectively commercialize our products and product candidates. As such, we may be required to hire substantially more sales representatives to adequately support the commercialization of our products and product candidates or we may incur excess costs as a result of hiring more sales representatives than necessary. With respect to certain geographical markets, we may enter into collaborations with other entities to utilize their local marketing and distribution capabilities, but we may be unable to enter into such agreements on favorable terms, if at all. If our future collaborators do not commit sufficient resources to commercialize our products or future products, if any, and we are unable to develop the necessary marketing capabilities on our own, we will be unable to generate sufficient product revenue to sustain our business. We may be competing with companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations.

Certain of our employees and patents are subject to foreign laws.

A majority of our employees work in Germany and are subject to German employment law. Ideas, developments, discoveries and inventions made by such employees and consultants are subject to the provisions of the German Act on Employees’ Inventions, which regulates the ownership of, and compensation for, inventions made by employees. We face the risk that disputes can occur between us and our employees or former employees pertaining to alleged non-adherence to the provisions of this act that may be costly to defend and take up our management’s time and efforts whether we prevail or fail in any such dispute. There is a risk that the compensation we provided to employees who assign patents to us may be deemed to be insufficient and we may be required under German law to increase the compensation due to such employees for the use of the patents. In those cases where employees have not assigned their interests to us, we may need to pay compensation for the use of those patents. If we are required to pay additional compensation or face other disputes under the German Act on Employees’ Inventions, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

We believe that our success depends, in part, upon our ability to protect our intellectual property throughout the world. However, the laws of some foreign countries, including Germany, may not be as comprehensive as those of the U.S. and may not be sufficient to protect our proprietary rights. In addition, we generally do not pursue patent protection in all jurisdictions because of cost and confidentiality concerns. Accordingly, our international competitors could obtain foreign patent protection for, and market overseas, products and technologies for which we are seeking patent protection in the U.S.

A variety of risks associated with commercializing our products and product candidates internationally could materially adversely affect our business.

We, or our licensing partners, may seek regulatory approval for our products or product candidates outside of the U.S. and EU and, accordingly, we expect that we will be subject to additional risks for our products and product candidates related to operating in foreign countries if we obtain the necessary approvals, including:

These and other risks associated with our or our licensing partners’ international operations may materially adversely affect our ability to attain or maintain profitable operations.

Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures, cyber-attacks or a deficiency in our cyber-security.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our current and future CROs, and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusion, 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. While we have not experienced any such material system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future 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 were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the further development and commercialization of our products and product candidates could be delayed.

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

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our products and face an even greater risk if we commercialize our products on a larger scale. For example, we may be sued if our products allegedly cause injury or are found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical 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. In Europe, medical products and medical devices may, under certain circumstances, be subject to no-fault liability. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our products and product candidates. Even a successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

We currently maintain product liability insurance. If such insurance is not sufficient, or if we are not able to obtain such insurance at an acceptable cost in the future, potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of our products and the products we develop. A successful claim could materially harm our business, financial condition or results of operations. Additionally, we cannot guarantee that continued product liability insurance coverage will be available in the future at acceptable costs.

Actions of activist shareholders could be disruptive and potentially costly and the possibility that activist shareholders may seek changes that conflict with our strategic direction could cause uncertainty about the strategic direction of our business.

A group of shareholders (the “reporting persons”) associated with Wilhelm Konrad Thomas Zours, one of our major shareholders, and certain of his affiliates has filed a Schedule 13D relating to our company. In this filing, the reporting persons state that they desire to change the composition of the management board and supervisory board of our company. In March and April of 2018, two of the reporting persons—Deutsche Balaton AG, Heidelberg and Deltus 30th AG, later renamed to Deutsche Balaton Biotech AG, Heidelberg (“DB Biotech”)—separately announced public offers to purchase our ordinary shares. Although the offer of Deutsche Balaton AG was not allowed to proceed under German law, DB Biotech’s offer was able to proceed and, on August 9, 2018, DB Biotech announced that it had acquired 1,286,401 shares of our company through this offer. For more information, see “Item 4.A—History and Development of the Company.” In addition, certain of the reporting persons have previously proposed a number of resolutions at our shareholder meetings and have filed legal actions against us relating to actions taken at our shareholder meetings. For more information, see “Item 8.A—Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Legal Proceedings” for more information.

Activist investors may attempt to effect changes in our company’s strategic direction and how our company is governed, or to acquire control over our company. Some investors seek to increase short-term shareholder value by advocating corporate actions such as financial restructuring, increased borrowing, special dividends, share repurchases, or even sales of assets or the entire company. While our company welcomes varying opinions from all shareholders, activist campaigns that contest or conflict with our strategic direction could have an adverse effect on our company’s results of operations and financial condition as responding to proxy contests and other actions by activist shareholders can disrupt our operations, be costly and time-consuming, and divert the attention of our company’s management board and supervisory board from the pursuit of business strategies. Also, we may be required to incur significant legal fees and other expenses related to any securities litigation or activist shareholder matters. In addition, perceived uncertainties as to our future direction as a result of changes to the composition of our management board or supervisory board may lead to the perception of a change in the direction of the business, instability or lack of continuity which may be exploited by our competitors, may cause concern to our current or potential customers, may result in the loss of potential business opportunities and may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel and business partners. These types of actions could cause significant fluctuations in our share and ADS price based on temporary or speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.

Our international operations may pose currency risks, which may adversely affect our operating results and net income.

Our operating results may be affected by volatility in currency exchange rates and our ability to effectively manage our currency transaction risks. In general, we conduct our business, earn revenues and incur costs in the local currency of the countries in which we operate. In 2018, 29% of our revenue was generated and approximately 45% of our costs were incurred in euros (47% and 71%, , for 2017 and 2016, respectively). As we execute our strategy to expand in the U.S. and internationally, our exposure to currency risks will increase. We do not manage our foreign currency exposure in a manner that would eliminate the effects of changes in foreign exchange rates. Therefore, changes in exchange rates between these foreign currencies, the dollar and the euro will affect our revenues, cost of goods sold, and operating margins, and could result in exchange losses in any given reporting period. Based on certain assumptions relating to our operations (which assumptions may prove incorrect) and our internal models, we believe that, with respect to the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, an average 10% appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the euro would have resulted in an increase of approximately €2.6 million in our net income for such period, whereas we believe that an average 10% depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the euro would have resulted in a decrease of approximately €2.1 million in our net income during such period.

We incur currency transaction risks whenever we enter into either a purchase or a sale transaction using a different currency from the currency in which we report revenues. In such cases we may suffer an exchange loss because we do not currently engage in currency swaps or other currency hedging strategies to address this risk.

Given the volatility of exchange rates, we can give no assurance that we will be able to effectively manage our currency transaction risks or that any volatility in currency exchange rates will not have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

Failure to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or other applicable anti-corruption legislation could result in fines, criminal penalties and an adverse effect on our business.

We operate in a number of countries throughout the world. We are committed to doing business in accordance with applicable anti-corruption laws. We are subject, however, to the risk that our officers, directors, employees, agents and collaborators may take action determined to be in violation of such anti-corruption laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and the European Union Anti-Corruption Act, as well as trade sanctions administered by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Any such violation could result in substantial fines, sanctions, civil and/or criminal penalties or curtailment of operations in certain jurisdictions, and might adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, actual or alleged violations could damage our reputation and ability to do business.

Global economic, political and social conditions have adversely impacted our sales and operations and may continue to do so.

The uncertain direction and relative strength of the global economy, difficulties in the financial services sector and credit markets, continuing geopolitical uncertainties and other macroeconomic factors all affect spending behavior of potential end-users of our products. The prospects for economic growth in Europe, the U.S. and other countries remain uncertain and may cause end-users to further delay or reduce purchases of drugs or therapies that are not fully reimbursed by governmental or other third-party payors. In particular, a substantial portion of our sales are made to customers in countries in Europe, which has recently experienced significant economic disruptions. If global economic conditions remain volatile for a prolonged period or if European economies experience further disruptions, our results of operations could be adversely affected. The global financial crisis affecting the banking system and financial markets has resulted in a tightening of credit markets, lower levels of liquidity in many financial markets and extreme volatility in fixed income, credit, currency and equity markets.

Our products may become obsolete prior to the end of their anticipated useful lives, and we may be required to dispose of existing inventory or write off the value or accelerate the depreciation of those assets, each which would materially and adversely impact our results of operations.

We focus on continual product innovation and product improvement. While we believe this provides a competitive edge, it also results in the risk that our products will become obsolete prior to the end of their anticipated useful lives. If we introduce new products or next generation products prior to the end of the useful life of a prior generation, we may be required to dispose of existing inventory, or write off the value of these assets, each of which would materially and adversely impact our results of operations.

Our business involves environmental risks and we may incur significant costs complying with environmental laws and regulations.

We are subject to federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations which govern the use, manufacture, storage handling and disposal of hazardous materials and specific waste products. We believe that we are in compliance in all material respects with currently applicable environmental laws and regulations. However, we cannot guarantee that we will not incur significant costs to comply with environmental laws and regulations in the future. We also cannot guarantee that current or future environmental laws or regulations will not materially adversely affect our operations, business or financial condition. In addition, although we believe our safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials comply with federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of such an accident, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and this liability could exceed our resources.

Risks Related to the Clinical Development and Regulatory Approval of Our Products

Our business depends substantially on the success of our principal product Ameluz ^® . If we are unable to successfully commercialize Ameluz ^® , to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals or reimbursement for Ameluz ^® for existing and additional indications and/or in additional countries, or if we experience significant delays in realizing any of those commercialization or product development objectives, our business may be materially harmed.

We have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in the development of Ameluz ^® , which has received marketing approval in the U.S. for lesion- and field-directed treatment of actinic keratosis and in the EU for actinic keratosis, field cancerization and basal cell carcinoma. Although we have received these approvals, there remains a significant risk that we will fail to generate sufficient revenue or otherwise successfully commercialize these products in the EU or the U.S. The success of our products will depend on several factors, including:

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 products, which would materially harm our business and we may not be able to earn sufficient revenue and cash flows to continue our operations.

Our ability to generate future revenues depends heavily on our success in:

Clinical drug development is expensive and involves uncertain outcomes, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results. If one or more future Phase III clinical trials for Ameluz ^® were unsuccessful, or significantly delayed, we could be required to abandon development, we may suffer reputational harm and our business will be materially harmed.

If the results of our clinical trials for our current products or product candidates or clinical trials for any future product candidates do not achieve their primary efficacy endpoints or raise unexpected safety issues, the prospects for approval of our product candidates or the extension of indications for our products will be materially adversely affected. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses and many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have failed to achieve similar results in later clinical trials, or have ultimately failed to obtain regulatory approval of their product candidates. Many products that initially showed promise in clinical trials or earlier stage testing have later been found to cause undesirable or unexpected adverse effects that have prevented their further development and regulatory approval. Our ongoing trial for basal cell carcinoma may not produce the results that we expect or that are required to achieve FDA approval.

In addition, we may experience numerous unforeseen events that could cause our clinical trials to be delayed, suspended or terminated, or which could delay or prevent our ability to receive regulatory approval or commercialize our product candidates, including that:

If we experience delays in the completion of, or termination of, any clinical trial of our products and product candidates, the commercial prospects of our products and product candidates will be materially harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues from any of these products and product candidates, if any, will cease or be delayed. We may have to repeat or redesign clinical trials, which could delay the regulatory approval process. In addition, any termination of, or delays in completing, our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our product development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to a delay in the commencement or completion of or early termination of, clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our products and product candidates.

We will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements in every market where we engage in business and we may face future development, manufacturing and regulatory difficulties.

Our drug product Ameluz ^® and any other drug products we develop will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping, submission of safety and other post-market approval information, importation and exportation. In addition, approved products, manufacturers and manufacturers’ facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA and EMA requirements and the requirements of other similar regulatory authorities, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP requirements.

Accordingly, we will be required to expend time, money and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production and quality control. We will also be required to report certain adverse reactions and production problems, if any, to the FDA and EMA and other similar regulatory authorities and to comply with certain requirements concerning advertising and promotion for our potential products.

If a regulatory authority discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated or unacceptable severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, or disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of a product, it may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. If our products or potential products fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory authority may, among other actions:

Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties

We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

We have engaged third party CROs in connection with our Phase III clinical trials for our products and product candidates and will continue to engage such CROs in the future. We will rely heavily on these parties for proper execution of our clinical trials, and we will control only certain aspects of their activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements, and scientific standards, and our reliance on our CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. We and our CROs will be required to comply with current Good Clinical Practices, or cGCP requirements, which are a collection of regulations enforced by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for products and product candidates in clinical development in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of patients and assume the integrity of clinical data. These requirements are also intended to protect the health, safety and welfare of study subjects through requirements such as informed consent. The FDA enforces good clinical practices through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. In Phase I, the initial introduction of the drug into human subjects, the drug is typically tested to assess the pharmacological actions and side effects associated with increasing doses. Phase II usually involves clinical trials in a limited patient population to determine the effectiveness of the drug for a particular indication or indications, dosage tolerance and optimum dosage and to identify common adverse effects and safety risks. If a drug demonstrates evidence of effectiveness and an acceptable safety profile in Phase II, Phase III clinical trials are undertaken to obtain additional information about clinical efficacy and safety in a larger number of patients. Throughout this process, regulatory authorities enforce these cGCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or any of these CROs fail to comply with applicable cGCP regulations or record-keeping requirements at any point during the clinical trial process, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications or, in some instances, require us to suspend operations. We cannot assure you that, upon inspection, such regulatory authorities will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with the cGCP regulations. In addition, for drugs, our clinical trials must be conducted with products produced under cGMP regulations and will require a large number of test subjects. For our devices, clinical trials must use product manufactured in compliance with design controls under the QSR. Our failure or any failure by our CROs to comply with these regulations or to recruit a sufficient number of patients may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. Moreover, we may be implicated if any of our CROs violate federal, state, local or foreign fraud and abuse or false claims laws and regulations, or healthcare privacy and security laws.

The CROs will not be employed directly by us and, except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such CROs, we cannot control whether they devote sufficient time and resources to our ongoing preclinical, clinical and nonclinical programs. These CROs may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical studies or other product development activities, which could affect their performance on our behalf. If the CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they 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 protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to complete development of, obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product or product candidates. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our products and product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed.

Switching or adding CROs involves substantial cost and requires extensive management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays may occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Although we plan to carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on third parties for the supply of raw materials and manufacture of our principal product.

We rely on third parties for the timely supply of raw materials and for the manufacture of Ameluz ^® . Although we actively manage these third-party relationships to provide continuity and quality, some events which are beyond our control could result in the complete or partial failure of these goods and services. Any such failure could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operations.

We currently license the commercialization rights for some of our products outside of the U.S., Germany, Spain and the UK, which exposes us to additional risks of conducting business in international markets.

Markets outside the U.S. and Germany are an important component of existing commercialization strategy for our existing marketed products as well as part of our growth strategy for Ameluz ^® . We have entered into commercial supply agreements for Ameluz ^® and BF-RhodoLED ^® lamps pursuant to which we exclusively supply and our partners exclusively purchase the products from us in their respective territories, as described in greater detail under “Business — Commercial Partners and Agreements.” Our agreements require us to timely supply products that meet the agreed quality standards and require our customers to purchase products from us, in some cases in specified minimum quantities. If we fail to maintain these agreements and agreements with other partners or to enter into new distribution arrangements with selling parties, or if these parties are not successful, our revenue-generating growth potential will be adversely affected. Moreover, international business relationships subject us to additional risks that may materially adversely affect our ability to attain or sustain profitable operations, including:

These and other risks may materially adversely affect our ability to attain or sustain revenue from international markets.

We may form or seek strategic alliances in the future and we may not realize the benefits of such alliances.

We may form or seek strategic alliances, create joint ventures or collaborations or enter into licensing arrangements with third parties that we believe will complement or augment our development and commercialization efforts with respect to our products and any future products that we may develop. Any of these relationships may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing holders of our ordinary shares or ADSs or disrupt our management and business. In addition, we face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic partners and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Moreover, we may not be successful in our efforts to establish a strategic partnership or other alternative arrangements for our product candidates because they may be deemed to be at too early of a stage of development for collaborative effort and third parties may not view our product candidates as having the requisite potential to demonstrate safety and efficacy. If we license products or businesses, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture and vice versa. We cannot be certain that, following a strategic transaction or license, we will achieve the revenue or specific net income that justifies such transaction. Any delays in entering into new strategic partnership agreements related to our products or product candidates could delay the development and commercialization of our products or product candidates in certain geographies or for certain indications, which would harm our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If our efforts to protect the proprietary nature of the intellectual property related to our technologies are not adequate, we may not be able to compete effectively in our market.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our technologies and products. Any disclosure to or misappropriation by third parties of our confidential proprietary information could enable competitors to quickly duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, thus eroding our competitive position in our market.

In addition, the patent applications that we own or that we may license may fail to result in issued patents in the U.S., the EU or in other countries or jurisdictions. Even if the patents do successfully issue, third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope thereof, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from designing around our claims. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the issued patents and patent applications we hold with respect to our products is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop, and threaten our ability to commercialize, our products. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials, the period of time during which we could market our products under patent protection would be reduced. Since patent applications in the U.S. and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain that we were the first to file any patent application related to our product candidates. Furthermore, for applications in which all claims are entitled to a priority date before March 16, 2013, an interference proceeding can be provoked by a third party or instituted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, to determine who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by the patent claims of our applications. For applications containing a claim not entitled to priority before March 16, 2013, there is greater level of uncertainty in the patent law with the passage of the America Invents Act (2012) which brings into effect significant changes to the U.S. patent laws that are yet untried and untested, and which introduces new procedures for challenging pending patent applications and issued patents. A primary change under this reform is creating a “first to file” system in the U.S. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we seek to rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our product discovery and development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. Although we require all of our employees to assign their inventions to us to the extent permitted by law, and require all of our employees, consultants, advisors and any third parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information or technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, we cannot be certain that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Furthermore, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the U.S. or the EU. As a result, we may encounter significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property both in the U.S., in the EU and in other countries. If we are unable to prevent unauthorized material disclosure of our intellectual property to third parties, we may not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Third party claims of intellectual property infringement may affect our ability to sell our products and may also prevent or delay our product discovery and development efforts.

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as administrative proceedings for challenging patents, including interference and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO, or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. Recently, following U.S. patent reform, new procedures including inter partes review and post grant review have been implemented. This reform includes changes in law and procedures that are untried and untested and will bring uncertainty to the possibility of challenge to our patents in the future. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing our product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our products may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others.

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

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

In March 2018, DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“DUSA”) brought a lawsuit against Biofrontera AG and its subsidiaries before the District Court of Massachusetts due to alleged infringement of its patents No. 9,723,991 and No. 8,216,289 by sales of BF-RhodoLED ^® in the United States. In July 2018, DUSA amended its complaint to add claims of trade secret misappropriation, tortious interference with contractual relations, and deceptive and unfair trade practices. Although we believe that these claims lack merit and intend to defend against them vigorously, we cannot guarantee that we will be successful. The court largely denied a motion by DUSA for a preliminary injunction, but did order Biofrontera not to use any documents, or documents derived from documents, that originated at DUSA. In addition, Biofrontera submitted petitions for inter partes review to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) seeking to have the patents declared invalid. The PTAB issued decisions on February 26, 2019, finding a reasonable likelihood of success on invalidity arguments for some claims, but nonetheless denying institution of the review petitions because the PTAB disagreed on the remainder of claims. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant expenses in defending these claims, and we expect to have to divert significant employee resources, including management resources, to defend the claims.

We are currently involved in lawsuits to defend or enforce our patents and may become involved in similar suits in the future, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe upon our patents. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that one or more of our patents is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings, including our litigation against DUSA as described above, could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable, or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim or counterclaim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties or redesign our infringing products, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure.

Interference or derivation proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications. An unfavorable outcome in our litigation against DUSA or other patent related litigation could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. We may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our trade secrets or confidential information, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the U.S. or the EU.

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery that could be required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, there could 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 substantial adverse effect on the price of our ordinary shares and ADSs.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedures, document submission requests, fee payments 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 patent agencies in other jurisdictions 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. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.

We have received confidential and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. We may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed confidential information of these third parties or our employees’ former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial cost and be a distraction to our management and employees.

As part of its suit against us, DUSA has asserted claims of trade secret misappropriation, tortious interference with contractual relations, and deceptive and unfair trade practices. See “—Third party claims of intellectual property infringement may affect our ability to sell our products and may also prevent or delay our product discovery and development efforts” for more information.

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

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on all of our products and product candidates throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but where enforcement is not as strong as that in the U.S. and the EU. These products may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued patents and our patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing.

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

Our trade secrets are difficult to protect.

Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information and may not adequately protect our intellectual property.

Our success depends upon the skills, knowledge and experience of our scientific and technical personnel, our consultants and advisors as well as our partners, licensors and contractors. Because we operate in a highly competitive technical field of drug development, we rely in part on trade secrets to protect our proprietary technology and processes. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We enter into confidentiality agreements with our corporate partners, employees, consultants, sponsored researchers and other advisors. These agreements typically require that the receiving party keep confidential and not disclose to third parties all confidential information developed by the receiving party or made known to the receiving party by us during the course of the receiving party’s relationship with us. Our agreements also provide that any inventions made based solely upon our technology are our exclusive property, and we enter into assignment agreements that are recorded in patent, trademark and copyright offices around the world to perfect our rights.

These confidentiality and assignment agreements may be breached and may not effectively assign intellectual property rights to us. Our trade secrets also could be independently discovered by competitors, in which case, we would not be able to prevent use of such trade secrets by our competitors. The enforcement of a claim alleging that a party illegally obtained and was using our trade secrets could be difficult, expensive and time consuming and the outcome would be unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the U.S. or the EU may be less willing to protect trade secrets. There exists a risk that we may not be able to detect when misappropriation of our trade secrets has occurred or where a third party is using our trade secrets without our knowledge. The failure to obtain or maintain meaningful trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive position.

Generic manufacturers may launch products at risk of patent infringement.

If other manufacturers launch products to compete with our products or product candidates in spite of our patent position, these manufacturers would likely erode our market and negatively impact our sales revenues, liquidity and results of operations.

Risks Related to the Ownership of our ADSs

An active trading market for our ADSs may not be sustained.

Our ADS are listed and began trading on The NASDAQ Capital Market on February 14, 2018. An active trading market for our ADSs may not be sustained. If an active market for our ADSs does not continue, it may be difficult for the holders to sell our ADSs without depressing the market price for our ADSs or to sell our ADSs at or above the prices at which they acquired our ADSs or to sell our ADSs at the time they would like to sell. Any inactive trading market for our ADSs may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund our operations by selling our ADSs and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our ADSs as consideration.

There has been varying trading volume for our ordinary shares.

Each ADS represents two ordinary shares of our company. Even though our ordinary shares have been listed on the Stock Exchange in Düsseldorf since 2006 and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2012, there has been limited liquidity in such markets for our ordinary shares from time to time, which could make it more difficult for holders to sell our ordinary shares. We do not intend to directly list our ordinary shares on a U.S. trading market and, therefore, do not expect that a trading market will develop for our ordinary shares.

In addition, the stock market generally has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of listed companies. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our ordinary shares or ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance. The market price and liquidity of the market for our ordinary shares or ADSs that will prevail in the market may be higher or lower than the price you pay and may be significantly affected by numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control.

We are an emerging growth company, and the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our ADSs less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this annual report and exemptions from the requirements of holding nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company until the earliest of the end of the 2023 fiscal year (i.e., the fiscal year corresponding with the fifth anniversary of our initial public offering), the date on which we qualify as a “large accelerated filer” under U.S. securities laws, the end of the fiscal year in which our annual revenue is $1,070,000,000 or more, or the date on which we issue more than $1,000,000,000 in non-convertible debt during any prior three-year period. Our investors may find our ADSs less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our ADSs less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our ADSs and our ADS price may be more volatile.

Under the JOBS Act, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We currently prepare our financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB, which do not have separate provisions for publicly traded and private companies. However, in the event we convert to generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S., or U.S. GAAP, while we are still an emerging growth company, we may be able to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.

Raising additional capital may cause additional dilution of the percentage ownership of the holders of our ADSs or ordinary shares, restrict our operations, require us to relinquish rights to our technologies, products or product candidates and could cause our ADS or ordinary share price to fall.

We expect that significant additional capital may be needed in the future to continue our planned operations, including conducting clinical trials, commercialization efforts, expanded research and development activities and costs associated with operating a public company in the U.S. and Germany. To raise capital, we may sell ordinary shares, ADSs, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell ordinary shares, ADSs, convertible securities or other equity securities, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Such sales may also result in material dilution to our existing holders of ordinary shares or ADSs, and new investors could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to the holders of our ordinary shares or ADSs. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, products or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms unfavorable to us.

We have created three sets of “contingent capital” ( bedingtes Kapital ) which, under German corporate law, means ordinary shares that we have been approved to issue, in the future, upon the exercise or conversion of specified outstanding options, warrants, convertible bonds or other convertible securities, totaling up to 6,278,739 ordinary shares, of which we expect to use 346,900 ordinary shares to cover issuances of ordinary shares pursuant to our 2010 employee stock option plan and 1,814,984 ordinary shares to cover issuances of ordinary shares pursuant to our 2015 employee stock option plan. 4,116,855 ordinary shares from contingent capital may be used by our company for the issuance of shares to holders of convertible bonds if the repayment price is covered by issuing shares. Our management board, with the approval of our supervisory board, can increase our capital by these amounts and issue new ordinary shares in a corresponding amount without additional shareholder approval and can, to a limited extent, exclude subscription rights of our shareholders in connection therewith. If beneficiaries exercise their options or additional ordinary shares are issued under any of our authorized capital or our contingent capital, you may experience additional dilution, which could cause our ordinary share or ADS price to fall.

Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and ordinary share price.

As widely reported, global credit and financial markets have experienced extreme disruptions in the past several years, including severely diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, increases in unemployment rates and uncertainty about economic stability. There can be no assurance that further deterioration in credit and financial markets and confidence in economic conditions will not occur. Our general business strategy may be adversely affected by any such economic downturn, volatile business environment or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. If the current equity and credit markets deteriorate, or do not improve, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy, financial performance and ADS price and could require us to delay or abandon clinical development or commercialization plans. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our current service providers, manufacturers and other partners may not survive these difficult economic times, which could directly affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget.

At December 31, 2018, we had approximately €19.5 million of cash and cash equivalents. While we are not aware of any downgrades, material losses, or other significant deterioration in the fair value of our cash equivalents since December 31, 2018, no assurance can be given that further deterioration of the global credit and financial markets would not negatively impact our current portfolio of cash and cash equivalents or our ability to meet our financing objectives. Furthermore, our ordinary share and ADS price may decline due in part to the volatility of the stock market and the general economic downturn.

We could be subject to securities class action litigation.

In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because pharmaceutical companies have experienced significant share price volatility in recent years. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.

If securities or industry analysts cease publishing research, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our ordinary share and ADS price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our ordinary share and ADSs will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our ordinary shares or ADSs or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our share and ADS price may decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our ordinary shares and ADSs could decrease, which might cause our share and ADS price and trading volume to decline.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from a number of rules under the U.S. securities laws and are permitted to file less information with the SEC than U.S. companies. This may limit the information available to holders of ADSs.

We are a “foreign private issuer,” as defined in the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and, consequently, we are not subject to all of the disclosure requirements applicable to companies organized within the U.S. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act. In addition, members of our supervisory board and management board and our principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. Moreover, we are not required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. public companies. Accordingly, there may be less publicly available information concerning our company than there is for U.S. public companies.

As a foreign private issuer, we will file an annual report on Form 20-F within four months of the close of each year ended December 31 and furnish reports on Form 6-K relating to certain material events promptly after we publicly announce these events. However, we are not required to issue quarterly financial information because of the above exemptions for foreign private issuers, and holders of our ADSs will not be afforded the same protections or information generally available to investors holding shares in public companies organized in the U.S.

As we are a “foreign private issuer” that follows, and intends to continue to follow, certain home country corporate governance practices, holders of our ADSs may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all The NASDAQ Capital Market corporate governance requirements.

As a foreign private issuer, we have the option to follow certain German corporate governance practices rather than those of The NASDAQ Capital Market, except to the extent that such laws would be contrary to U.S. securities laws, and provided that we disclose the requirements we are not following and describe the home country practices we follow instead. We intend to rely on this “foreign private issuer exemption” with respect to The NASDAQ Capital Market’s shareholder approval requirements in respect of equity issuances and equity-based compensation plans, the requirement to have independent oversight on our director nominations process and the quorum requirement for meetings of our shareholders. In addition, we intend to rely on the “foreign private issuer exemption” in the future with respect to The NASDAQ Capital Market requirement to have a formal charter for the compensation committee. We may in the future elect to follow home country practices in Germany with regard to other matters. As a result, holders of our ADSs may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all The NASDAQ Capital Market corporate governance requirements. See “Management — Differences between Our Corporate Governance Practices and the Rules of The NASDAQ Capital Market.”

We may lose our foreign private issuer status in the future, which would then require us to comply with the Exchange Act’s domestic reporting regime and cause us to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses.

We are currently a foreign private issuer and, therefore, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. We would lose our foreign private issuer status if, for example, more than 50% of our assets are located in the U.S. and we continue to fail to meet additional requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status. As of December 31, 2018, a portion of our assets were located in the United States, although this may change as we expand our operations in the U.S.

A foreign private issuer must determine its status on the last business day of its most recently completed second fiscal quarter. If a foreign private issuer no longer satisfies these requirements, it will become subject to U.S. domestic reporting requirements on the first day of its fiscal year immediately succeeding such determination. If we lost this status, we would be required to comply with the Exchange Act reporting and other requirements applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, which are more detailed and extensive than the requirements for foreign private issuers. We may also be required to make changes in our corporate governance practices in accordance with various SEC and The NASDAQ Capital Market rules. The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws if we are required to comply with the reporting requirements applicable to a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly higher than the cost we would incur as a foreign private issuer. As a result, we expect that a loss of foreign private issuer status would increase our legal and financial compliance costs and would make some activities highly time consuming and costly. We also expect that if we were required to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, it would make it more difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members to our management board and supervisory board.

Your rights as a shareholder in a German corporation may differ from your rights as a shareholder in a U.S. corporation.

We are organized as a stock corporation ( Aktiengesellschaft or AG ) under the laws of Germany, and our U.S. investors are holders of ADSs of a German stock corporation. The rights of shareholders of a German stock corporation under German law differ in important respects from those of shareholders of a U.S. corporation. These differences include, in particular:

For more information, we have provided summaries of relevant German corporation law and of our articles of association under “Management”).

We may qualify as a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” for U.S. federal income tax purposes which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. Holders of our ADSs.

In general, we will be treated as a PFIC for any taxable year in which either (1) at least 75% of our gross income (looking through certain corporate subsidiaries) is passive income (this is known as the “income test”) or (2) at least 50% of the average value of our assets (looking through certain corporate subsidiaries) is attributable to assets that produce, or are held for the production of, passive income (this is known as the “asset test”). In the event we are treated as a PFIC, U.S. Holders of our ADSs could be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences. These consequences include the following: (i) if our ADSs are “marketable stock” for purposes of the PFIC rules and a U.S. Holder makes a mark-to-market election with respect to its ADSs, the U.S. Holder will be required to include annually in its U.S. federal taxable income an amount reflecting any year-end increase in the value of its ADSs; (ii) if a U.S. Holder does not make a mark-to-market election, it may incur significant additional U.S. federal income taxes on income resulting from distributions on, or any gain from the disposition of, our ADSs, as such income generally would be allocated over the U.S. Holder’s holding period for its ADSs and subject to tax at the highest U.S. federal income taxation rate in effect for such years, with an interest charge then imposed on the resulting taxes in respect of such income; and (iii) dividends paid by us would not be eligible for reduced individual rates of U.S. federal income tax. In addition, U.S. Holders that own an interest in a PFIC are required to file additional U.S. federal tax information returns. A U.S. Holder may in certain circumstances mitigate adverse tax consequences of the PFIC rules by filing an election to treat the PFIC as a qualified electing fund, or a “QEF”. However, in the event that we are or become a PFIC, we do not intend to comply with the reporting requirements necessary to permit U.S. Holders to elect to treat us as a QEF.

We expect to be treated as a publicly traded corporation for purposes of the PFIC rules with respect to the current taxable year. In such case, the value of our assets for purposes of the asset test will generally be determined by reference to the market price of our ordinary shares. Fluctuations in the market price of our ordinary shares may cause us to become a PFIC for the current taxable year or later taxable years. In addition, the composition of our income and assets will be affected by how, and how quickly, we use our liquid assets and the cash raised in our initial public offering of ADSs that we completed in February 2018. If we were unable to deploy significant amounts of cash for active purposes, our risk of being classified as a PFIC would substantially increase. Because there are uncertainties in the application of the relevant rules and PFIC status is a factual determination made annually after the close of each taxable year, there can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC for the current taxable year or any future taxable year. We urge U.S. Holders to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules.

As a holder of ADSs, you may not have the same voting rights as the holders of our ordinary shares and may not receive voting materials in time to be able to exercise your right to vote.

Holders of our ADSs will not be able to exercise voting rights attaching to the ordinary shares evidenced by our ADSs on an individual basis. Under the terms of the deposit agreement, holders of the ADSs may instruct the depositary or its nominee to exercise the voting rights attaching to the ordinary shares represented by the ADSs. Pursuant to the deposit agreement and in light of the fact that pursuant to German law and our articles of association, one whole ordinary share represents one vote, voting instructions can be given only in respect of a number of ADSs representing a whole number of ordinary shares. You may not receive voting materials in time to instruct the depositary to vote, and it is possible that you, or persons who hold their ADSs through brokers, dealers or other third parties, will not have the opportunity to exercise a right to vote.

The value of the ADSs may not track the price of our ordinary shares.

Our ordinary shares currently trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the Symbol B8F; International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) DE0006046113; German securities code (WKN) 604611. Active trading volume and pricing for our ordinary shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange will usually, but not necessarily, act as predictors of similar characteristics in respect of the ADSs. In addition, the terms and conditions of our agreement with our depositary may result in less liquidity or lower market value of the ADS than for our ordinary shares. Since the holders of the ADSs may surrender the ADSs to take delivery of and trade our ordinary shares (a characteristic that allows investors in ADSs to take advantage of price differentials between different markets), an illiquid market for our ordinary shares may result in an illiquid market for the ADSs. Therefore, the trading price of our ordinary shares may not be correlated with the price of the ADSs.

Your right as a holder of ADSs to participate in any future rights offerings may be limited, which may cause dilution to your holdings.

We may, from time to time, distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire our securities. However, we cannot make any such rights available to the ADS holders in the U.S. unless we register such rights and the securities to which such rights relate under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 or an exemption from the registration requirements is available. In addition, the deposit agreement provides that the depositary bank will not make rights available to you unless the distribution to ADS holders of both the rights and any related securities are either registered under the Securities Act or exempted from registration under the Securities Act. We are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to any such rights or securities or to endeavor to cause such a registration statement to be declared effective. Moreover, we may not be able to establish an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution in your holdings.

As a holder of ADSs, you may not receive distributions on our ordinary shares represented by the ADSs or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to holders of ADSs.

Under the terms of the deposit agreement, the depositary has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on our ordinary shares or other deposited securities after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of our ordinary shares your ADSs represent. However, in accordance with the limitations set forth in the deposit agreement, it may be unlawful or impractical to make a distribution available to holders of ADSs. We have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of the ADSs, ordinary shares, rights or anything else to holders of the ADSs. This means that, as a holder of ADSs, you may not receive the distributions we make on our ordinary shares or any value from them if it is unlawful or impractical to make them available to you. These restrictions may have a material adverse effect on the value of your ADSs.

Exchange rate fluctuations may reduce the amount of U.S. dollars you receive in respect of any dividends or other distributions we may pay in the future in connection with your ADSs.

Under German law, the determination of whether we have been sufficiently profitable to pay dividends is made on the basis of our unconsolidated annual financial statements prepared under the German Commercial Code in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in Germany. Exchange rate fluctuations may affect the amount in U.S. dollars that our shareholders receive upon the payment of cash dividends or other distributions we declare and pay in euros, if any. Such fluctuations could adversely affect the value of our ADSs and, in turn, the U.S. dollar proceeds that holders receive from the sale of our ADSs.

You may be subject to limitations on the transfer of your ADSs.

Your ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems doing so expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may close its books from time to time for a number of reasons, including in connection with corporate events such as a rights offering, during which time the depositary needs to maintain an exact number of ADS holders on its books for a specified period. The depositary may also close its books in emergencies, and on weekends and public holidays. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of our ADSs generally when our share register or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary thinks that it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason in accordance with the terms of the deposit agreement. As a result, you may be unable to transfer your ADSs when you wish.

U.S. investors may have difficulty enforcing civil liabilities against our company or members of our supervisory and management boards and the experts named in this annual report.

Certain members of our supervisory and management boards are non-residents of the U.S., and all or a substantial portion of the assets of such persons are located outside the U.S. As a result, it may not be possible, or may be very difficult, to serve process on such persons or us in the U.S. or to enforce judgments obtained in U.S. courts against them or us based on civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the U.S. In addition, awards of punitive damages in actions brought in the U.S. or elsewhere may be unenforceable in Germany. An award for monetary damages under the U.S. securities laws would be considered punitive if it does not seek to compensate the claimant for loss or damage suffered and is intended to punish the defendant. The enforceability of any judgment in Germany will depend on the particular facts of the case as well as the laws and treaties in effect at the time. Litigation in Germany is also subject to rules of procedure that differ from the U.S. rules, including with respect to the taking and admissibility of evidence, the conduct of the proceedings and the allocation of costs. Proceedings in Germany would have to be conducted in the German language, and all documents submitted to the court would, in principle, have to be translated into German. For these reasons, it may be difficult for a U.S. investor to bring an original action in a German court predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us, certain members of our supervisory and management boards and the experts named in this annual report. The U.S. and Germany do not currently have a treaty providing for recognition and enforcement of judgments (other than arbitration awards) in civil and commercial matters, though recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Germany is possible in accordance with applicable German laws.

As a result of being a public company in the U.S., we are subject to additional regulatory compliance requirements, including Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and if we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud.

As a public company listed on The NASDAQ Capital Market, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at the end of each fiscal year.

The process of process of designing, implementing and testing our internal control over financial reporting required to comply with Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is time-consuming, costly and complicated. If we fail to maintain internal control over financial reporting adequate to meet the demands that will be placed upon us as a public company listed in the U.S., our business and reputation may be harmed, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, and the price of our ADSs may decline.

In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting beginning with our annual report following the date on which we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” which may be as late as the end of the 2023 fiscal year.