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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021
OR
For the transition period from _____to _____
Commission File Number: 001-39799
Certara, Inc.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
100 Overlook Center, Suite 101Princeton, New Jersey 08540
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (609) 716-7900
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Name of each exchange
Title of each class Trading Symbol on which registered
Common stock, par value $0.01 per share CERT The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes ☐No☒
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.
Yes ☐No☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s outstanding voting common stock held by non-affiliates on June 30, 2021, determined using the per share closing price on that date on The Nasdaq Global Select Market, was $2.1 billion. There is no non-voting common equity of the registrant outstanding. Shares held by each executive officer and director and by each other person or entity deemed to be an affiliate have been excluded in such calculation. The determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
As of February 25, 2022, the registrant had 159,657,724 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the proxy statement for the registrant’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held May 17, 2022, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the 2021 fiscal year, are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K..
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Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 6
Item 1A. Risk Factors 19
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 49
Item 2. Properties 49
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 49
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 49
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 51
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 74
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 84
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 121
Item 9B. Other Information 121
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 122
Item 11. Executive Compensation 122
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 122
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 123
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Certara, Inc.
Unless otherwise indicated, references to the “Company,” “Certara,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Certara, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which are subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections. All statements (other than statements of historical facts) in this Annual Report regarding the prospects of the industry and our prospects, plans, financial position and business strategy may constitute forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “should,” “expect,” “might,” “intend,” “will,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “believe,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “suggest,” “project” or “target” or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot provide any assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct. Such statements reflect the current views of our management with respect to our operations, results of operations and future financial performance. The following factors are among those that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements:
● our ability to compete within our market;
● our ability to retain key personnel or recruit additional qualified personnel;
● consolidation within the biopharmaceutical industry;
● reduction in the use of our products by academic institutions;
● pricing pressures due to increased customer utilization of our products;
● our ability to sustain recent growth rates;
● the accuracy of our addressable market estimates;
● the length and unpredictability of our software and service sales cycles;
● our ability to successfully operate a global business;
● risks related to litigation against us;
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● the loss of more than one of our major customers;
● our future capital needs;
● any breach of our security measures or unauthorized access to customer data;
● our ability to comply with applicable privacy and data security laws;
● any impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets;
● the other factors discussed under “Risk Factors.”
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations of future performance, taking into account the information currently available to us. These statements are only predictions based upon our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report, that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Other sections of this Annual Report may include additional factors that could adversely impact our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time and it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make in this Annual Report. Before investing in our common stock, investors should be aware that the occurrence of the events described under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. For a more detailed discussion of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ, please refer to the “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report, as such risk factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Our periodic filings are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this Annual Report to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
Channels for Disclosure of Information
Investors and others should note that we may announce material information to the public through filings with the SEC, our Investors Relations website (https://ir.certara.com), press releases, public conference calls and public webcasts. We use these channels to communicate with the public about the Company, our products, our services and other matters. We encourage our investors, the media and others to review the information disclosed through such channels as such information could be deemed to be material information. The information on such channels, including on our website, is not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any other filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, except as expressly set forth by specific reference in such a filing. Please note that this list of disclosure channels may be updated from time to time.
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PART I
Item 1. Business.
Our Company
We accelerate medicines to patients using biosimulation software, technology, and services to transform traditional drug discovery and development.
Biosimulation is a powerful technology used to conduct virtual trials using virtual patients to better understand how drugs behave in different individuals. Biopharmaceutical companies use our proprietary biosimulation software throughout drug discovery and development to inform critical decisions that not only save significant time and money but also advance drug safety and efficacy, improving millions of lives each year.
As a global leader in biosimulation based on 2021 revenue, we provide an integrated, end-to-end platform used by more than 2,000 biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions across 62 countries, including 38 of the top 40 biopharmaceutical companies by R&D spend in 2020. Since 2014, customers who use our biosimulation software and technology-driven services have received 90% of all new drug approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). Moreover, 17 global regulatory authorities license our biosimulation software to independently analyze, verify, and review regulatory submissions, including the FDA, Health Canada, Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (“PMDA”), and China’s National Medical Products Administration (“NMPA”). Demand for our offerings continues to expand rapidly.
While traditional drug development has led to meaningful therapies, such as vaccines and chemotherapy, many patients still wait for life-saving medicines, which can take more than 10 years and $2 billion to bring to market. Change is necessary to continue delivering remarkable gains in human health at an accelerated pace. We believe that biosimulation enables this change.
We build our biosimulation technology on first principles of biology, chemistry, and pharmacology with proprietary mathematical algorithms that model how medicines and diseases behave in the body. For over two decades, we have honed and validated our biosimulation technology with an abundance of data from scientific literature, lab research, and preclinical and clinical studies. In turn, our customers use biosimulation to conduct virtual trials to answer critical questions, such as: What will be the human response to a drug based on preclinical data? How will other drugs interfere with this new drug? What is a safe and efficacious dose for children, the elderly, or patients with pre-existing conditions? Virtual trials may be used to optimize dosing on populations that are otherwise difficult to study for ethical or logistical reasons, such as infants, pregnant women, the elderly, and cancer patients.
The benefits of biosimulation are significant. One of our customers, a top ten global biopharmaceutical company by R&D spend, estimated that they saved more than half a billion dollars over three years using biosimulation to inform key decisions. Biosimulation can reduce the size of and cost of human trials, the most expensive and time-consuming part of drug development, and in some cases, eliminate certain human trials completely. An analysis published on Applied Clinical Trials Online, to which we contributed, estimated that $1 billion was saved in clinical trial costs using biosimulation for a cancer drug due to consistently shorter completion times in the later phase clinical trials.
We develop and apply our biosimulation technology throughout drug discovery and development with what we believe to be the largest and best team of scientists with deep expertise in biosimulation. Our scientists are recognized key opinion leaders who are at the forefront of the science and technology underpinning the rapidly emerging biosimulation field. We have collaborated on more than 5,000 customer projects in the past decade in therapeutic areas ranging from cancer and hematology to diabetes and hundreds of rare diseases. Over the past 2 years, we have worked on 35 programs on vaccines and therapeutics to combat COVID-19.
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Biosimulation results need to be incorporated into regulatory documents for compelling submissions. Accordingly, we provide regulatory science solutions and integrate them with biosimulation, so that our customers can navigate the complex and evolving regulatory landscape and maximize their chances of approval. Our differentiated regulatory services are powered by submissions management software and natural language processing for scalability and speed, allowing us to deliver more than 250 regulatory submissions over the past four years. Our team of regulatory professionals has extensive experience applying industry guidelines and global regulatory requirements. In addition, in October 2021, we completed the acquisition of Pinnacle 21, LLC (“Pinnacle”), which develops advanced software for standards-based data management for regulatory submission. Pinnacle enhances our software offerings in data management and the regulatory drug approval process, accelerating the speed and efficiency of developing and bringing drugs to market. Pinnacle’s products are used by the FDA and Japan’s PMDA to review the quality of submissions.
The final hurdle to delivering medicines to patients is market access, defined as strategies, processes, and activities to ensure that therapies are available to patients at the right price. We believe that biosimulation and market access will continue to be increasingly intertwined as healthcare systems and countries move toward outcomes-based pricing. We provide technology-driven market access solutions, which help our customers understand the real-world impact of therapies and dosing regimens earlier in the process and effectively communicate this to payors and health authorities. Our solutions are underpinned by software as a service (“SaaS”)-based value communication.
We have a proven track record of steady growth, driven by higher adoption of biosimulation, expansion of our technology portfolio, strategic acquisitions, and cross-selling of biosimulation, regulatory science, and market access solutions across our end-to-end platform:
We believe that biosimulation continues to grow in adoption, driven by increasing global regulatory support and advancements in technology. We believe we are well-positioned to capture the significant market opportunity ahead of us. Our growth strategy is to build out the depth and breadth of our scalable, end-to-end biopharmaceutical platform to advance all stages of the continuum, from discovery and development to regulatory submission and market access. We continue to innovate and introduce new functionality and uses of biosimulation and technology-driven solutions. We increasingly integrate the science and data we obtain across this end-to-end platform to inform critical decisions. We further reduce the cost and time of human trials to materially accelerate the speed of development and availability of therapies to patients worldwide. As exciting, new research areas arise, we attract and hire specialized talent and acquire businesses to expand our offerings to address these market opportunities.
With continued innovation in and adoption of our biosimulation software, technology and services, we believe more biopharmaceutical companies worldwide will leverage more of our end-to-end platform to reduce cost, accelerate speed to market, and ensure safety and efficacy of medicines for all patients.
Our Markets
We believe our addressable market within the biopharmaceutical industry is large and rapidly expanding. The current total addressable market (“TAM”) for our solutions represents an estimated $13 billion today and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of approximately 12% to 16% annually over the next five years. Our TAM estimate includes the biosimulation market estimated at $2.8 billion, which is estimated to grow at 16% CAGR over such period according to Grand View Research; the regulatory science market estimated at $8.8 billion, which is estimated to grow at 12% CAGR over such period according to Grand View Research; and the market access market estimated at $1.5 billion, which is estimated to grow at 12% CAGR over such period according to SpendEdge. With increasing adoption of technology across all stages of drug discovery and development, we believe our end-to-end platform and growth strategies position us to further penetrate the rapidly growing technology-driven biopharmaceutical R&D market of the future.
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Traditional drug discovery and development is costly and prone to failure. The biopharmaceutical industry was estimated to have spent a total of approximately $212 billion in 2021 on R&D. The probability of success of compounds entering Phase I trials is only 7%. With only 53% of Phase III drugs reaching the market, late-stage failures are common and especially painful as sponsors have already incurred significant cost and time. At the same time, scientific advances are driving increased complexity as the R&D pipeline shifts from small molecules to biologics and cell and gene therapies.
With greater investment dollars being spent and increasing competition in the race to develop novel medicines, the speed and efficiency with which drugs are developed and brought to market have never been more critical. As a result, the demand for and willingness to adopt innovative approaches to discovery, development, and commercialization are rapidly increasing. Continued development and innovation in software and technology such as biosimulation, virtual trials, and real-world evidence tools are helping biopharmaceutical companies increase efficiency and decrease costs. This is further supported by regulatory agencies that have increasingly issued guidance that supports adoption of many of these innovations. For example, the FDA recently announced their Project Optimus initiative to reform the dose selection and optimization paradigm in oncology drug development to maximize both efficacy and safety. Biosimulation's use cases in dose finding and optimization are well-suited to help biopharmaceutical companies navigate this evolving regulatory landscape.
As technology and analytics become increasingly powerful and the application of new solutions is validated, we anticipate this will drive further demand for these innovations. We believe we are still in the early stages of a long-term trend that will continue to advance traditional drug discovery and development into a technology-driven era of advanced modeling and analytics.
In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that the demand for innovative technology solutions in drug discovery and development will continue to be strong. Sponsors and regulators have adopted a number of technology-driven solutions and procedures, which we believe they will continue to use and benefit from in the post-COVID environment.
Our core markets today include:
● Increasing probability of success and return on R&D, amongst others.
● Generating clear, accurate applications and submissions; and
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● Developing comprehensive global regulatory strategies, amongst others.
We believe that our end-to-end platform is well-positioned to continue benefiting from market trends. In addition to continued growth in our core markets, we expect to capture a broader share of overall biopharmaceutical R&D spend as we continue to innovate and add new solutions to our end-to-end platform.
Our Competitive Strengths
We compete by offering a broad and deep combination of industry-standard biosimulation software and technology-driven services across all stages of the continuum, from discovery and development to regulatory approval and market access. We have cultivated the following competitive strengths for more than two decades:
Our Proprietary, Scalable Biosimulation Software
Our proprietary, scalable biosimulation software, built on first principles integrates biosimulation models, scientific knowledge, and data, which we believe would require years of effort, immense resources, and scarce expertise to duplicate. Our versatile biosimulation software is deployed to public and private cloud networks, on-premises, and data centers. Scientists can run multiple simulation projects on a cloud compute platform or internal clusters. We protect our proprietary technology through intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trade secrets, know-how, and trademarks.
Our Integrated End-to-End Platform
We have developed a differentiated, integrated end-to-end platform of software and technology-driven services, powered by proprietary technology and unique talent, spanning discovery through market access. Our customers, facing declining R&D productivity and an increasingly complex regulatory and market access environment, seek trusted partners to accelerate their R&D programs and achieve regulatory and commercial success. Our integrated set of solutions uniquely positions us to be their first-choice partner. More than ninety percent of our top 50 customers by revenue use both our biosimulation solutions and regulatory and market access offerings.
Our Innovation Framework
We are at the forefront of innovation in biosimulation. Beyond our sustained R&D investment ($28.1 million or 10% of revenues in 2021), our innovation framework advances both incremental and breakthrough innovations in biosimulation to transform traditional drug discovery and development.
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Our Trusted, Long-Term Customer and Regulatory Partnerships
We work continuously and closely with our customers to provide software and technology-driven services from drug discovery and development to regulatory science and market access, applying biosimulation throughout the continuum to maximize R&D productivity and increase the probability of success. We have substantial repeat business and long-term partnerships. Our top 30 customers by revenue in 2021 have been with us for more than ten years on average. We are often favored by our customers for follow-on projects throughout a drug’s lifecycle, leveraging our early engagements in preclinical or Phase I to provide continuous support in later phases such as dose optimization for a Phase III study or a new drug application regulatory filing.
The Deep Expertise of Our People and Our Culture of Innovation
We are led by a diverse, global, and talented team of scientists, software engineers, and subject matter experts who not only advance our technology but also seek to understand and tackle our customers’ greatest challenges. Over the last decade, we have worked on more than 5,000 customer projects, leading to extensive experience, which our customers
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highly value. As of December 31, 2021, 352 of our employees held PhD, PharmD, or MD degrees. Our team of software engineers and technologists excels at applying computer science, engineering, and scientific and mathematical principles in designing and developing complex software with consistent execution. World-leading experts in biosimulation, drug discovery and development, software development, regulatory science, and market access work and thrive at Certara.
Our global executive management team brings together extensive experience in science, technology, and business. Sharing core values of dedication, quality, and respect, the executive management team is focused on fostering our passion for science and growing our culture of innovation, excellence, collaboration, and customer-centricity as well as delivering exceptional performance.
Our Growth Strategy
Our growth strategy is to build upon our scalable, end-to-end platform. We continue to innovate in biosimulation, engage with regulatory agencies, and land and expand our customer partnerships. We remain focused on reducing the cost, time, and probability of failure of clinical trials for our customers, so that they can materially accelerate the availability of future therapies that are needed by patients worldwide. As exciting, new research areas arise, such as cell and gene therapy, we attract and hire specialized talent and acquire businesses to expand our offerings accordingly.
Advance Our Technology
The science, technology, and data behind biosimulation continue to advance rapidly, and our top investment priority is to develop additional functionality and uses for biosimulation to improve patient outcomes. We release new software, additional features, and upgrades on a frequent and regular basis. In 2021, we introduced 10 new software applications and upgrades, including Secondary Intelligence, D360 Scientific Informatics, Simcyp Immuno-oncology Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (“QSP”) and Pinnacle 21 Enterprise.
We are investing in three major areas to elevate our technology:
Grow Within Our Existing Customer Base
As we continue to expand our portfolio of offerings, we integrate our solutions and sell more across our end-to-end platform. Our scientists and regulatory and market access experts, business developers, marketing professionals, and business leaders work together to ensure a high-quality customer experience and nurture long-term partnerships. As a result, our customer relationships grow steadily over time, driven by higher adoption of biosimulation with additional user licenses and more modules.
We also cross-sell our software and technology-driven services throughout our end-to-end platform. Many of our customers who use biosimulation also rely on us for regulatory strategy, writing, and submissions support, including the
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majority of our top 50 customers. The number of customers with annual customer value of $100,000 or more in revenue increased from 261 in 2020 to 299 in 2021, a 15% increase. The success of our land and expand approach is further demonstrated by our high re-occurring revenue streams with an aggregate renewal rate of 92% for our software customers from 2020 to 2021 and net revenue repeat rate (defined as the level of technology-driven services revenue generated from our existing customers from period to period, accounting for expansion and churn) of 108% for our technology-driven
Expand Our Customer Base Globally
We are growing our footprint globally to match that of the biopharmaceutical industry. There are nearly 5,100 biopharmaceutical companies worldwide with active R&D pipelines, up from nearly 2,400 in 2011, according to Informa’s Pharma R&D Annual Review 2021. Informa also estimates that the R&D pipeline encompassed more than 18,000 drug programs in 2021. As drug discovery and development in Asia Pacific grows, we are investing heavily to expand our presence in the region to work with these customers where they are, just as we already have in North America, Europe and Japan. We continue to build our sales and marketing capabilities and capacity to expand our global reach.
Scale Through Acquisitions
Biosimulation is an exciting technology with many promising, future developments, and we believe there are numerous opportunities to pursue strategic acquisitions to accelerate our development roadmap. We have a proven record of successfully acquiring and integrating software and services companies. To date, we have acquired 15 companies of which 10 included software or technology such as Simcyp, the core of our mechanistic biosimulation platform, Xenologiq, which jumpstarted our biosimulation initiative using QSP, and Pinnacle 21, which enhances our software offerings in data management and the regulatory drug approval process. As we build out the depth and breadth of our biosimulation platform, we continually seek and assess a range of highly focused opportunities in our immediately addressable market and in related adjacent markets, whether through acquisitions, licenses, or partnerships.
Inspire Our People
Our more than 1,100 employees are the key to our success. The diversity and depth of expertise, experience, and backgrounds in our vibrant community bring richness of ideas, problem-solving capabilities, and mutual respect. We are dedicated to attracting, retaining, and growing leading scientists and experts who are passionate about developing medicines that matter. We strive to encourage intellectual curiosity and offer a myriad of professional development opportunities. We continue to invest in our people to help them thrive and solidify our position as an employer of choice in our industry.
The Certara End-to-End Platform
We provide both software and technology-driven services to enable customers to realize the full benefits of biosimulation in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory submission, and market access. Our software is primarily subscription-based with licenses ranging from one to three years.
Certara End-to-end Platform
Software
Our software, utilized by more than 20,000 licensed users in biosimulation and 40,000 more in regulatory, compliance and market access, addresses seven main applications: 1) mechanistic biosimulation; 2) empirical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic biosimulation; 3) data standardization and compliance software; 4) scientific informatics 5) clinical outcomes databases for biosimulation; 6) authoring and management of regulatory submissions; and 7) market access communication. We deploy our software to customers on public and private cloud networks, on-premises, and in data centers.
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Our Simcyp Platform has generated results that inform more than 250 label claims for nearly 90 drugs. Had customers attempted to acquire the same information through conventional human trials, we believe they would have faced millions of dollars in additional costs and significant launch delays, given that clinical trials are estimated to take 1 to 2.5 years on average and cost many millions of dollars, according to Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
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Technology-Driven Services
Our technology-driven, biosimulation services help customers who do not have staff capability or availability to gain the benefits of biosimulation. We also provide related, technology-driven services to guide our customers’ new drugs through the regulatory submission process and into the market. Our technology-driven services include integrated drug development services include mechanistic biosimulation, empirical biosimulation, drug development and regulatory writing and medical communications, regulatory operations, and market access. Regulatory agencies promote and endorse the use of biosimulation in drug development as “model informed drug discovery and development,” which integrates our software and technology-driven services to inform key decisions during drug discovery, development, approval, and subsequent market access.
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Sales and Marketing
Our sales and marketing functions pursue a coordinated approach with a global commercial team of business development, product management, and marketing experts. Our global commercial team collaborates with our scientists, subject matter experts, and technologists to engage with customers and prospects to understand their needs and offer tailored solutions with our biosimulation software and technology-driven services. Our scientists and experts have authored thousands of scientific publications, posters, and articles to share biosimulation knowledge and methods to advance adoption. We also partner with software distributors in global regions to expand our reach.
Competition
The market for our biosimulation products and related services for the biopharmaceutical industry is competitive and highly fragmented. In biosimulation software market, we primarily compete with companies smaller than ourselves, such as Simulations Plus and NONMEM, a division of ICON. Other competitors include Schrodinger, open-sourced solutions such as R and PK-Sim, and internally-developed software in biopharmaceutical companies. We generally compete in the biosimulation software market on the basis of the quality and capabilities of our products, our scientific and technical expertise, our ability to innovate and develop solutions attractive to customers, our customer and regulatory agency partnerships, and price, amongst other factors.
Our technology-driven services generally compete with companies significantly smaller than ourselves, such as Metrum Research Group and Simulations Plus. We also face competition in this space from in-house teams at biopharmaceutical companies and academic and government institutions. In some standard biosimulation services and in regulatory science and market access, we compete with contract research organizations. We generally compete in the technology-driven services markets on the basis of our reputation and experience, our expertise and the qualifications of our team, our ability to offer services attractive to customers, and price, amongst other factors.
We believe that our competitive position is strong, and that we are able to effectively win new projects with our integrated, end-to-end platform.
Intellectual Property
We safeguard and enhance our innovative technology platforms, systems, processes, and databases with a full array of intellectual property rights, including copyrights, trade secrets and know-how, patents, and tradenames/trademarks.
All of our proprietary software products are copyright protected, and further reinforced by contractual provisions in our software license agreements prohibiting our users from reverse engineering, deriving, or otherwise using the source code and underlying algorithms for anything other than the permitted and intended use. Embedded within some of our biosimulation tools, including the Simcyp Simulator, are several decades’ worth of proprietary data that have been compiled and collated from both public and private sources. These data, in tandem with our proprietary source code and algorithms, create powerful modeling tools that cannot be readily duplicated. Continual ongoing development of source code and algorithms as well as new version release of modelling tools also ensures that our proprietary software products are difficult to copy. Our processes and systems are further protected by trade secrets and know-how, which we secure by requiring and strictly enforcing confidentiality obligations with our employees, contractors, customers, and other third parties, and invention assignment agreements with our employees, as well as through administrative and technical safeguards. However, trade secrets and confidential know-how are difficult to protect. Agreements may not always provide
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meaningful protection. These agreements may also be breached, and we may not have an adequate remedy for any such breach. In addition, our trade secrets and/or confidential know-how may become known or be independently developed by a third party, or misused by any collaborator to whom we disclose such information. Despite any measures taken to protect our intellectual property, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain or use information that we regard as proprietary. Although we take steps to protect our proprietary information, third parties may independently develop the same or similar proprietary information or may otherwise gain access to our proprietary information. As a result, we may be unable to meaningfully protect our trade secrets and proprietary information. We license and use the intellectual property of third parties, primarily in our software development, although no one such license is considered to be material to the business as a whole.
We also maintain a portfolio of issued and pending patents in several of jurisdictions in which we do business. As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio consisted of 26 issued patents and 7 pending patent applications related to our software and technology. We do not currently consider any of our issued patents to be material to our business. Several of our most recently filed patent applications relate to our liquid biopsy project, and describe a method of gleaning information from a simple blood test that can be used to predict and optimize how that individual patient will absorb and metabolize a drug, thereby allowing a clinician to determine the optimal dosing of a drug on an individual basis. We believe these patent applications, if issued, will accelerate our leadership in individualized precision dosing. We cannot predict whether the patent applications we are currently pursuing will issue as patents in any particular jurisdiction or whether the claims of any issued patents will provide sufficient proprietary protection from competitors.
We also have applied for and/or obtained and maintain registration in the United States and other countries for numerous trademarks, including Certara, Simcyp, Phoenix, Pinnacle 21, Virtual Twin, WinNonlin, and BaseCase. We pursue trademark registrations to the extent we believe doing so would be beneficial to our competitive position.
We are not presently a party to any legal proceedings relating to intellectual property that, in the opinion of our management, would individually or taken together have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
Human Capital
We are led by a diverse, global, and talented team of scientists, software developers, and subject matter experts who seek to understand our customers’ challenges and are dedicated to tackling these challenges. As of December 31, 2021, we employed a total of 1,114 individuals, including 1,054 full-time employees and 60 part-time employees, of which 352 held Ph.Ds. in their respective disciplines, including clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics. As of December 31, 2021, we employed 336 scientists, 241 regulatory experts, 78 market access specialists, and 134 software developers and technologists. Most of the senior management team and the members of our board of directors hold either PhDs and/or other advanced degrees. We are very proud to say that some of the world-leading experts in biosimulation, drug discovery and development, software development, regulatory science, and market access work and thrive at Certara. We offer employees a myriad of professional development opportunities and encourage a performance-driven environment. In 2021, we focused on creating a robust culture in a remote work environment to encourage retention and engagement, and instituted a number of health and wellness initiatives, such as a global fitness challenge. We also enhanced our diversity and inclusion programs, including instituting company-wide unconscious bias training and expanding our recruiting efforts to reach a more diverse talent pool, in keeping with our CEO’s pledge to act on supporting a more inclusive workplace. None of our employees are represented by a labor union, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. We believe that our relations with our employees are positive.
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Government Regulation
Regulation of Biopharmaceutical Products
The development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, promotion, distribution and post-approval monitoring and reporting of biopharmaceutical products are subject to regulation by numerous governmental authorities at both the national and local levels, including the FDA in the United States, as well as those of other countries, such as the EMA in the European Union and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the United Kingdom. Although our biosimulation software products and platforms are not approved by the FDA or other government agencies, our customers’ products are subject to these regulations, which may be applicable to us to the extent that the services and deliverables we provide to our customers are used in their marketing applications. Consequently, we must comply with relevant laws and regulations relating to certain aspects of the drug and biologic development and approval process. For example, our customers may require that documents or records we produce that may be used in the approval process be compliant with part 11 of Title 21 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, which relates to the creation, modification, maintenance, storage, retrieval, or transmittal of electronic records submitted to the FDA. Further, certain portions of our business, such as the biosimulation work we conduct in connection with designing clinical trials, must comply with current Good Laboratory Practices (“GLP”) and Good Clinical Practices (“GCP”) requirements as established by the International Council on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, as adopted by the FDA and similar regulatory authorities in other countries, which helps ensure the quality and integrity of the data we produce. To help ensure compliance with GLP and GCP, we have established a robust quality management system that includes standard operating procedures, working practice documents and processes, and quality assurance personnel to audit deliverables intended to be used in our customers’ drug and biologic approval applications.
Privacy and Security Laws
The collection, processing, use, disclosure, disposal and protection of information about individuals, in particular healthcare data, is highly regulated both in the United States and other jurisdictions, including but not limited to, under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”); U.S. state privacy, security and breach notification and healthcare information laws; the European Union’s General Data Protection Directive (“GDPR”; and other European privacy laws as well as privacy laws being adopted in other regions around the world. Although most of the clinical data we receive from our customers is de-identified, in certain parts of our business, such as our real-world data and analytics program, we hold confidential personal health and other information relating to persons who have been, are and may in the future be involved in clinical trials. The possession, retention, use and disclosure of such information is highly regulated, including under the laws and regulations described above. These data privacy and security regulations govern the use, handling and disclosure of information about individuals and, in the case of HIPAA, require the use of standard contracts, privacy and security standards and other administrative simplification provisions. In relation to HIPAA, we do not consider our service offerings to generally cause us to be subject as a covered entity; however, in certain circumstances we are subject to HIPAA as a business associate and may enter into business associate agreements with our customers who are covered entities under HIPAA. These business associate agreements define our obligations to safeguard the personal health information of patients provided by our customers. We have adopted identity protection practices and have implemented procedures to satisfy data protection requirements and safeguards regarding the creation, receipt, maintenance and transmission of protected health information.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) and many state attorneys general are interpreting existing federal and state consumer protection laws to impose evolving standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of information about individuals, including health-related information. Courts may also adopt the standards for fair information practices promulgated by the FTC, which concern consumer notice, choice, security and access. Consumer protection laws require us to publish statements that describe how we handle information about individuals and choices individuals may have about the way we handle their information. Certain states have also adopted robust data privacy and security laws and regulations. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which took effect in 2020, imposes obligations and restrictions on businesses regarding their collection, use, and sharing of personal information and provides new and enhanced data privacy rights to California residents, such as affording them the right to access and delete their personal information and to opt out of certain sharing of personal information. Protected health information that is
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subject to HIPAA is excluded from the CCPA, however, information we hold about individuals which is not subject to HIPAA would be subject to the CCPA It is unclear how HIPAA and the other exceptions may be applied under the CCPA.
The collection, use, storage, disclosure, transfer, or other processing of any personal data regarding individuals in the European Union, including personal health data, is subject to the GDPR, which became effective on May 25, 2018. The GDPR is wide-ranging in scope and imposes numerous requirements on companies that process personal data, including requirements relating to processing health and other sensitive data, obtaining consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, providing information to individuals regarding data processing activities, implementing safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data, providing notification of data breaches, and taking certain measures when engaging third-party processors. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data to countries outside the European Union, including the United States, and permits data protection authorities to impose large penalties for violations of the GDPR, including potential fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual global revenues, whichever is greater. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies, and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations of the GDPR.
Recent legal developments in Europe have created complexity and uncertainty regarding transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to the United States, e.g. on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) invalidated the Privacy Shield under which personal data could be transferred from the EEA to U.S. entities who had self-certified under the Privacy Shield scheme. While the CJEU upheld the adequacy of the standard contractual clauses (a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism, and potential alternative to the Privacy Shield), it made clear that reliance on them alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances; this has created uncertainty. We have previously relied on our own Privacy Shield certification and our relevant customers’/ clients’/ partners’/ providers’/ third parties’ Privacy Shield certification(s) for the purposes of transferring personal data from the EEA to the United States in compliance with the GDPR’s data export conditions. We also currently rely on the standard contractual clauses to transfer personal data outside the EEA, including to the United States, among other data transfer mechanisms pursuant to the GDPR, but excluding Privacy Shield.
In response to the data privacy laws and regulations discussed above and those in other countries in which we do business, we have implemented several technological safeguards, processes, contractual third-parties provisions, and employee trainings to help ensure that we handle information about our employees, customers, and in a compliant manner. We maintain a global privacy policy and related procedures, and train our workforce to understand and comply with applicable privacy laws.
Bribery, Anti-Corruption and Other Laws
We are subject to compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and similar anti-bribery laws, such as the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 (“Bribery Act”), which generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. In addition, in the United States, we may also be subject to certain state and federal fraud and abuse laws, including the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act, that are intended to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the health care industry. Our employees, distributors, and agents are required to comply with these laws, and we have implemented policies, procedures, and training, to minimize the risk of violating these laws.
Our Corporate Information
Certara, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on June 27, 2017. Our principal business office is located at 100 Overlook Center, Suite 101, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, and the telephone number of our principal business office is (609) 716-7900. Our internet address is www.certara.com. Our internet website and the information contained therein or connected to or linked from our internet web site are not incorporated information and do not constitute a part of this Annual Report or any amendment thereto.
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Available Information
Our Investor Relations website is located at https://ir.certara.com. We have used, and intend to continue to use, our Investor Relations website and our corporate website located at www.certara.com as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. The following filings are available through our Investor Relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC: Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and our Proxy Statement for our annual meeting of stockholders, as applicable (as well as any amendments to those reports). These documents are also available for download free of charge through a link on our Investor Relations website. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information about reporting issuers, like us, that file electronically with the SEC. Our internet website and the information contained therein or connected to or linked from our internet web site are not incorporated information and do not constitute a part of this Annual Report.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors together with other information in this filing, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this filing, before deciding whether to invest in shares of our common stock. The occurrence of any of the events described below could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. In such an event, the trading price of our common stock may decline and you may lose all or part of your investment.
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, discussed in more detail in the following section. These risks include, among others, the following key risks:
● We compete in a competitive and highly fragmented market.
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● Our recent growth rates may not be sustainable or indicative of future growth.
● We are subject to risks associated with the operation of a global business.
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Risks Related to Our Industry
Deceleration in, or resistance to, the acceptance of model-informed biopharmaceutical discovery and development by regulatory authorities or academic institutions could damage our reputation or reduce the demand for our products and services.
There has been a steady increase in the recognition by regulatory and academic institutions of the role that modeling and simulation can play in the biopharmaceutical development and approval process, as demonstrated by new regulations and guidance documents describing and encouraging the use of modeling and simulation in the biopharmaceutical discovery, development, testing and approval process, which has directly led to an increase in the demand for our services. Changes in government or regulatory policy, or a reversal in the trend toward increasing the acceptance of and reliance upon in silico data (trials, studies, or experiments conducted via computer or computer simulation) in the drug approval process, could decrease the demand for our products and services or lead regulatory authorities to cease use of, or to recommend against the use of, our products and services. This, in turn, could have a material adverse impact on our revenue and future growth.
Our software products are licensed by the FDA, Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (“PMDA”) and 15 other regulatory authorities, who use them in assessing new drug applications. These licenses, which accounted for 0.1 % of our annual revenue in 2021, are typically renewed on an annual basis, and there is no obligation for these regulatory authorities to renew these licenses at the same or any level. Although we do not believe that reduction or elimination of the use of any of our software products that are currently licensed by regulatory authorities would have a direct impact on the use of those products by our industry customers, it could diminish our reputation and negatively impact our ability to effectively market and sell our software products, particularly if such move were part of a wider reversal of government or regulatory acceptance of in silico data.
We also work closely with the global academic community on research, publications, and training of the next generation of biopharmaceutical scientists. Our software products are used in many academic institutions, often free of charge, where students, including PhD candidates, are first exposed to the types of tools and models that we offer. Upon graduating, these students often become employed by biopharmaceutical companies, where they continue to use our products and advocate for their continued use. If academic institutions decide to use competitive products, or develop their own biosimulation products, or reduce the exposure to biosimulation tools in general, familiarity with our products by the future generations of pharmacometricians and clinical pharmacologists will be diminished, which could ultimately result in a reduction in demand for our products.
We compete in a competitive and highly fragmented market.
The market for our biosimulation products and related services for the biopharmaceutical industry is competitive and highly fragmented. In biosimulation software, we compete with other scientific software providers, technology companies, in-house development by biopharmaceutical companies, and certain open source solutions. In the technology-driven services market, we compete with specialized companies, in-house teams at biopharmaceutical companies, academic and government institutions. In some standard biosimulation services, and in regulatory, and market access, we also compete with contract research organizations. Some of our competitors and potential competitors have longer operating histories in certain segments of our industry than we do and could have greater financial, technical, marketing, research and development and other resources. Some of our competitors offer products and services directed at more specific markets than those we target, enabling these competitors to focus a greater proportion of their efforts and resources on those specific markets. Some competing products are developed and made available at lower cost by government organizations and academic institutions, and these entities may be able to devote substantial resources to product development. Some clinical research organizations or technology companies may decide to enter into or expand their offerings in the biosimulation area, whether through acquisition or internal development. We also face competition from open source software initiatives, in which developers provide software and intellectual property free of charge, such as R and PK-Sim software. In addition, some of our customers spend significant internal resources in order to develop their own solutions. There can be no assurance that our current or potential competitors will not develop products, services or technologies that are comparable, or superior to, or will render obsolete, the products, services and technologies we offer. There can be no assurance that our
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competitors will not adapt more quickly than we do to technological advances and customer demands, thereby increasing such competitors’ market share relative to ours. Any material decrease in demand for our technologies or services may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes or delays in government regulation relating to the biopharmaceutical industry could decrease the need for some of the services we provide.
Governmental agencies throughout the world strictly regulate the biopharmaceutical development process. Our business involves helping biopharmaceutical companies strategically and tactically navigate the regulatory approval process. New or amended regulations are expected to result in higher regulatory standards and potentially additional revenues for companies that service these industries. However, some changes in regulations, such as a relaxation in regulatory requirements or the introduction of streamlined or expedited approval procedures, or an increase in regulatory requirements that we have difficulty satisfying or that make our regulatory strategy services less competitive, could eliminate or substantially reduce the demand for our regulatory services. Regulatory developments that could potentially increase demand for our services could also be postponed or not fully implemented. For example, we provide a technology-driven service for automated redaction of these large, complex documents. The EMA issued proposed rules that would require our customers to publish suitably redacted clinical reports submitted as part of a regulatory application. The EMA has since delayed implementation of this requirement, reducing demand for our document redaction technology and services. Any material decrease or delay in demand for our technologies or services may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, or changes to governmental regulation that may be required as a result of judicial decisions, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our business may be harmed.
Reduction in research and development spending by our customers for a variety of reasons, as well as delays in the drug discovery and development process, may reduce demand for our products and services and negatively impact our results of operations and financial condition.
We provide biosimulation software platforms and services to the biopharmaceutical industry, both private and public companies as well as government and academic institutions. Because our products and services depend on our customers’ research and development expenditures, our revenues may be materially negatively affected by any economic, competitive, regulatory, demand, or other market impact that decreases our customers’ profitability or causes them to decrease or delay research and development spend. In such an event, our revenues may be reduced through increased downward pricing pressure, reduction in the scope of projects, delays or cancellations of ongoing projects, or our customers’ shifting away from using third parties for their modeling and simulation work. Our customers’ expenses could continue to increase as a result of the higher costs of developing more complex drugs and biologics and complying with more onerous government regulations. Furthermore, our customers finance their research and development spending from both private and public sources, including the capital markets. As a result, our revenues and financial performance may be adversely impacted if our customers are unable to obtain sufficient capital on acceptable terms to finance their research and development spending. Government and university-based funding of scientific research can vary for a number of reasons, including general economic conditions, political priorities, changes in the number of students and other demographic changes.
Our customers’ profitability could decline as a result of efforts by government and third-party payors to reduce the cost of healthcare. Governments worldwide have increased efforts to expand healthcare coverage while at the same time curtailing and better controlling the increasing costs of healthcare. If cost-containment efforts or other measures substantially change existing insurance models and limit our customers’ profitability, our customers may decrease research and development spending, which could decrease the demand for our services and materially adversely affect our growth prospects. In addition, industry trends, economic factors, regulatory developments, patent protection and political and other events and circumstances that affect the biopharmaceutical industry, such as volatility or declines in securities markets limiting capital and liquidity, decreased government funding of scientific research, or other circumstances that decrease our customers’ research and development spending also affect us.
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Delays in the biopharmaceutical development cycle, particularly related to clinical trials being delayed or canceled, such as those caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, could also impact the demand or timing for our products and services.
Furthermore, our financial success depends upon the creditworthiness and ultimate collection of amounts due from our customers. If we are not able to collect amounts due from our customers in a timely fashion due to funding or liquidity challenges or for any other reason, we may be required to write-off significant accounts receivable and recognize bad debt expenses, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results. All of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Consolidation within the biopharmaceutical industry may reduce the pool of potential customers for our products and services or reduce the number of licenses for our software products.
A significant portion of our customer base consists of biopharmaceutical companies, and our revenue is dependent upon expenditures by these customers. Consolidation through mergers or contraction through business failures within the biopharmaceutical industry may reduce the number of potential customers, particularly larger customers, for our products and services. Consolidation of major biopharmaceutical companies could result in consolidation of software licenses used by those companies, reduction of the number of individual user licenses, or increased pressure to negotiate price discounts or other terms for service that are less favorable to us, which may have a material adverse effect on our revenue and financial condition. Personnel redundancies and layoffs by merged companies to achieve deal synergies would result in a commensurate reduction in total users of our software, reducing the license fees we charge based on number of users.
As customers increase their utilization of our products and services, we may be subject to additional pricing pressures.
One of our strategic goals is to increase the breadth and utilization of products and services we provide to our existing customers, such as increasing the number of user licenses for our software products, selling licenses for new software products and expanding the number and scope of services we provide to individual customers. As the total annual expenditure from a particular customer increases, we may experience pricing pressure, often from the customer’s procurement department, in the form of requests for discounts or rebates, price freezes and less favorable payment terms. This could have an adverse impact on our profitability.
Risks Related to Our Business
Our continued revenue growth depends on our ability to successfully enter new markets, increase our customer base and expand our relationship and the products and services we provide to our existing customers.
Our products and services are used primarily by modeling and simulation specialists in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and government research or regulatory organizations. We have relationships with many large companies in the biopharmaceutical sector, and part of our growth strategy entails deriving more revenues from these existing customers by expanding their use of our existing and new products and services. Our ability to increase revenues with existing customers may be limited without significant investment in marketing our existing products and services or developing new products, which could be time-consuming and costly and may not be successful. We are also focused on increasing the number of emerging or smaller biotechnology customers that we serve. These small companies are increasingly responsible for much of the discovery and development of new molecules and treatments, and their share of the total industry research and development discovery and development dollars is rapidly growing. Attracting these smaller customers may require us to expend additional resources on targeted marketing, as they may not be as familiar with our company or products. And although these small biotechnology companies tend to use third parties such as Certara for many of their development activities, these smaller companies also tend to be less financially secure. If their products are not successful or they have difficulty raising sufficient investment capital, they may not be able to timely or fully pay for our services, or they may terminate or decrease the scope of projects for which they use our products and services, which could adversely impact our revenues.
Our strategy also includes expanding into new markets, new geographies, and new areas within our existing markets, either organically or by acquiring other companies in these markets. If our strategies are not executed successfully, our products and services may not achieve market acceptance or penetration in targeted new departments within our existing customers
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or new customers. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to identify new biosimulation or regulatory and market access technologies of interest to our customers, or develop or acquire them in a timely fashion. Even if we are able to identify and develop new technologies and biosimulation tools of interest, we may not be able to negotiate license agreements on acceptable terms, or at all. Some of our products, such as our QSP models, require significant time and investment to develop to a point where they can achieve market acceptance, and we may not be able to develop them at a rate that matches market demand. We may also face more significant pricing pressure as we expand geographically and our customer profile evolves. For example, smaller biotechnology companies, or companies based in countries that have less developed economies, may not be able to afford our products and services at our customary rates. If we are unable to develop or acquire new services and products and/or create demand for those newly developed services and products, accelerate the development of products where there is a market demand, or maintain or increase our historic pricing levels, our future business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely affected.
Our business may be subject to risks arising from natural disasters and epidemic diseases, including the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic.
We may be subject to risks related to natural disasters and public health crises, such as the ongoing global COVID 19 pandemic.
The COVID 19 pandemic, and the numerous variants that have emerged in the last year, such as the Delta and Omicron variants, have also had a significant and sustained negative impact on the global economy and a negative impact on many of our customers. Some of our customers have experienced or may in the future be adversely impacted by supply chain interruptions, disruptions or delays to pipeline development and clinical trials, costs associated with the COVID 19 pandemic and interruptions or delays in regulatory approvals due to the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the operations of certain regulatory authorities. These and other adverse impacts on our customers and economic conditions related to the COVID 19 pandemic may cause our customers to delay or cancel projects or significantly scale back their operations or research and development spending and limit the use of third parties, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We have undertaken several actions to mitigate and/or limit the spread of COVID 19 amongst our employees, including restricting employee travel, closing our offices in compliance with local guidelines and, when reopening offices, implementing a number of safety measures, such as requiring U. S. employees to be fully vaccinated before returning to the office, increasing sanitation, use of personal protective equipment, and limiting the number of employees at each location. However, even if we follow what we believe to be best practices, we may not be able to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV 2 between employees. Any incidents of actual or perceived transmission may expose us to liability claims, adversely impact employee productivity and morale, and result in negative publicity and reputational harm.
Travel restrictions and the cancellation of industry conferences have significantly limited face-to-face interactions with existing and potential customers, which have traditionally been an effective avenue for developing new business. If our scientists and consultants are not able to effectively communicate and interact with our existing and potential customers remotely, a prolonged period of limited direct contact with customers could translate into reduced bookings and negatively impact our revenue generation.
In addition to the current COVID 19 pandemic, our business could be negatively impacted by other natural disasters, such as new disease epidemics, significant weather events, the outbreak of war or acts of terrorism, such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, or other “acts of God,” each of which may be exacerbated by the effects of global climate change. We are a global company with offices in many countries. Disruptions in the infrastructure, either on a local or global scale, caused by these types of events could adversely affect our ability to serve our customers.
Although we have disaster recovery plans, carry business interruption insurance policies and typically have provisions in our contracts that protect us in certain force majeure type events, our coverage might not be adequate to compensate us for all losses that may occur.
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Delays or defects in the release of new or enhanced software or other biosimulation tools may result in increased cost to us, delayed market acceptance of our products, diminished demand for our products, delayed or lost revenue, and liability.
Market acceptance of our products depends upon the continuous, effective and reliable operation of our software and other biosimulation tools and models. New or enhanced products or services can require long development and testing periods, which may result in delays in scheduled introduction. Our software solutions and biosimulation tools and models are inherently complex and may contain defects or errors. The risk of errors is particularly significant when a new product is first introduced or when new versions or enhancements of existing software solutions are released. Although we extensively test and conduct quality control on each new or enhanced biosimulation product before it is released to the market, there can be no assurance that significant errors will not be found in existing or future releases. As a result, in the months following the introduction of certain releases, we may need to devote significant resources to correct these errors. There can be no assurance, however, that all of these errors can be corrected. Many of our customers also require that new versions of our software be internally validated before implementing it, which can result in implementation delays or the decision to skip smaller updates altogether. Any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance problems with our products could hurt our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. Any delays in the release schedule for new or enhanced products or services may delay market acceptance of these products or services and may result in delays in new customer orders for these new or enhanced products or services or the loss of customer orders, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
To the extent that defects or errors cause our software or other biosimulation tools to malfunction and our customers’ use of our products is interrupted, or the data derived from the use of our products is incorrect or incomplete, our customers may delay or withhold payment to us, cancel their agreements with us or elect not to renew, make service credit claims, warranty claims or other claims against us, and we could lose future sales. The occurrence of any of these events could result in diminishing demand for our software, a reduction of our revenues, an increase in collection cycles for accounts receivable, require us to increase our warranty provisions or incur the expense of litigation or substantial liability.
If our existing customers do not renew their software licenses, do not buy additional solutions from us or renew at lower prices, our business and operating results will suffer.
We expect to continue to derive a significant portion of our software revenues from the renewal of existing license agreements. As a result, maintaining the renewal rate of our existing customers and selling additional software solutions to them is critical to our future operating results. Factors that may affect the renewal rate for our customers and our ability to sell additional solutions to them include:
● the price, performance and functionality of our software solutions;
● the availability, price, performance and functionality of competing products;
● the effectiveness of our professional services;
● the business environment of our customers.
We deliver our software through either (i) a product license that permits our customers to install the software solution directly onto their own in-house hardware and use it for a specified term, or (ii) a subscription that allows our customers to access the cloud-based software solution for a specified term. Our customers have no obligation to renew their product licenses or subscriptions for our software solutions after the license term expires, which are typically between one and three years, and some of our contracts may be terminated or reduced in scope either immediately or upon notice. In addition, our customers may negotiate terms less advantageous to us upon renewal, which may reduce our revenues from these customers.
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Our customers depend on our support organization to resolve technical issues relating to our solutions, as our software requires expert usage to fully exploit its capabilities. Any failure to offer high-quality technical support, or a market perception that we do not offer high-quality support, could adversely affect our renewal rates and our ability to sell our additional solutions to existing or to sell to prospective customers. Factors that are not within our control may also contribute to a reduction in our software revenues. For instance, our customers may reduce the number of their employees who are engaged in research and who would have use of our software, which would result in a corresponding reduction in the number of user licenses needed for some of our solutions and thus a lower aggregate renewal fee. The loss, reduction in scope or delay of a large contract, or the loss or delay of multiple contracts, could materially adversely affect our business.
Our future operating results also depend, in part, on our ability to sell new software solutions and licenses to our existing customers. The willingness of existing customers to license our software will depend on our ability to scale and adapt our existing software solutions to meet the performance and other requirements of our customers, which we may not do successfully. If our customers fail to renew their agreements, renew their agreements upon less favorable terms or at lower fee levels or fail to purchase new software solutions and licenses from us, our revenues may decline and our future revenues may be constrained. Furthermore, our sales process is dependent on the reputation of our solutions and business and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any dissatisfaction from existing customers may adversely impact our ability to sell our solutions to new customers.
Our customers may delay or terminate contracts, or reduce the scope of work, for reasons beyond our control, or we may underprice or overrun cost estimates with our fixed-fee contracts, potentially resulting in financial losses.
Many of our technology-driven service contracts may be terminated by the customer at its discretion immediately or after a short notice period without penalty. Customers terminate, delay or reduce the scope of these types of contracts for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:
● lack of available funding or financing;
● mergers or acquisitions involving the customer;
● a change in customer priorities;
● Covid-19 impact on client trial operations;
● delay or termination of a specific product candidate development program; and
As a result, contract terminations, delays and reductions in scope occur regularly in the normal course of our business. However, the delay, loss or reduction in scope of a large contract or multiple smaller contracts could result in under-utilization of our personnel, a decline in revenue and profitability and adjustments to our bookings, any or all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and/or cash flows.
Many of our contracts with customers also provide for services on a fixed-price or fee-for-service with a cap basis. Accordingly, we bear the financial risk if we initially underprice our contracts or otherwise overrun our cost estimates. In these situations, we attempt to revise the scope of activity from the contract specifications and negotiate contract modifications shifting the additional cost to the customer, but are not always successful. If we fail to adequately price our contracts or if we experience significant cost overruns (including direct and indirect costs such as pass-through costs), or if we are delayed in, or fail to, execute contract modifications with customers increasing the scope of activity, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected. From time to time, we have had to commit unanticipated resources to complete fixed-fee projects, resulting in lower margins and profitability on those projects. We might experience similar situations in the future, which could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and cash flows.
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We depend on key personnel and may not be able to retain these employees or recruit additional qualified personnel, which could harm our business.
Our success depends to a significant extent on the continued services of our senior management and other key contributors throughout our business. As of December 31, 2021, 352 of our employees held PhDs, PharmDs, or MDs. It is challenging to attract and retain critical and qualified employees because of the specialized scientific nature of our business and significant competition for qualified personnel in the biopharmaceutical industry. Many of our scientists also play a significant role in marketing and selling our products and services to new and existing customers. If any of our senior scientists or members of senior management team, such as our CEO, CFO or division presidents, do not continue in their present positions, our operations could be disrupted. Compensation for our employees makes up our most significant fixed cost. Unexpected revenue shortfalls in the future and rapid wage inflation may make it difficult for us to retain all of our employees. The loss of any key employee, or our inability to continue to recruit, retain and motivate key personnel, replace departed personnel in a timely fashion, or train our scientists to develop new business, may adversely impact our ability to compete effectively and grow our business and negatively affect our ability to meet our short and long-term financial and operational objectives.
We have government customers and have received government grants, which subject us to risks including early termination, audits, investigations, sanctions, or penalties.
We derive limited revenue from contracts with U. S. government, including the FDA and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention within the Department of Health and Human Services. We have also accepted limited grant funds from governmental entities, whereby we are reimbursed for certain expenses incurred, subject to our compliance with the specific requirements of the applicable grant, including rigorous documentation requirements. We may enter into further contracts with the U.S. or foreign governments in the future, or accept additional grant funds. These subject us to statutes and regulations applicable to companies doing business with the government. These types of contracts customarily contain provisions that give the government substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts and which are unfavorable to contractors, including provisions that allow the government to unilaterally terminate or modify our federal government contracts, in whole or in part, at the government’s convenience or in the government’s best interest, including if funds become unavailable to the applicable government agency. Under general principles of government contracting law, if the government terminates a contract for convenience, the terminated company may generally recover only its incurred or committed costs and settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination. If the government terminates a contract for default, the defaulting company may be liable for any extra costs incurred by the government in procuring undelivered items from another source. Further, the laws and regulations governing the procurement of goods and services by the U.S. government provide procedures by which other bidders and interested parties may challenge the award of a government contract at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) or in federal court. If we are awarded a government contract, such challenges or protests could be filed even if there are not any valid legal grounds on which to base the protest. If any such protests are filed, the government agency may decide to suspend our performance under the contract while such protests are being considered by the GAO or the applicable federal court, thus potentially delaying delivery of payment.
In addition, government contracts and grants normally contain additional requirements that may increase our costs of doing business, reduce our profits, and expose us to liability for failure to comply with these terms and conditions. These requirements include, for example:
● public disclosures of certain contract, grant, and company information; and
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Government contracts and grants are also generally subject to greater scrutiny by the government, which can unilaterally initiate reviews, audits and investigations regarding our compliance with government contract and grant requirements. In addition, if we fail to comply with government contract laws, regulations and contract or grant requirements, our contracts and grants may be subject to termination or suspension, and we may be subject to financial and/or other liability under our contracts or under the Federal Civil False Claims Act. The False Claims Act’s “whistleblower” provisions allow private individuals, including present and former employees, to sue on behalf of the U.S. government. The False Claims Act statute provides for treble damages and other penalties and, if our operations are found to be in violation of the False Claims Act, we could face other adverse action, including suspension or prohibition from doing business with the United States government. Any penalties, damages, fines, suspension, or damages could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.
Our recent growth rates may not be sustainable or indicative of future growth.
We have experienced significant growth in recent years. Revenue increased from $243.5 million for 2020 to $286.1 million for 2021. Our historical rate of growth may not be sustainable or indicative of our future rate of growth. We believe that our continued growth in revenue, as well as our ability to improve or maintain margins and profitability, will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to address the challenges, risks and difficulties described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section and the extent to which our various product offerings grow and contribute to our results of operations. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully manage any such challenges or risks to our future growth. In addition, our customer base may not continue to grow or may decline due to a variety of possible risks, including increased competition, changes in the regulatory landscape and the maturation of our business. Any of these factors could cause our revenue growth to decline and may adversely affect our margins and profitability. Failure to continue our revenue growth or improve margins would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should not rely on our historical rate of revenue growth as an indication of our future performance.
We regularly evaluate potential acquisitions of other companies or technologies, which could divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders, and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results.
We have acquired multiple businesses and technologies in the past and we regularly evaluate opportunities to acquire or invest in businesses, solutions or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our solutions, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated.
If we acquire additional businesses, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations and technologies successfully, effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition or preserve the operational synergies between our business units that we underwrite at the time of the acquisition. We cannot assure that following any acquisition we would achieve the expected synergies to justify the transaction, due to a number of factors, including:
● unanticipated costs or liabilities associated with the acquisition;
● incurrence of acquisition-related costs;
● diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;
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● the potential loss of key employees;
● use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business; and
Furthermore, acquired businesses may change or increase the risks to which we are exposed. For example, in October 2021 we acquired Pinnacle, whose software is used by the FDA and PMDA to validate compliance with the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards. As a result, this acquisition increased our exposure to risks related to changes in the FDA’s or the PMDA’s regulatory standards and risks related to government customers.
In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our operating results, business and financial position may suffer.
Our estimated addressable market is subject to inherent challenges and uncertainties. If we have overestimated the size of our addressable market or the various markets in which we operate, our future growth opportunities may be limited.
Our TAM is based on publicly available third-party market research and internal estimates regarding the size of our markets, and is subject to significant uncertainty and is based on assumptions that may not prove to be accurate. We base the TAM for our business off our current core markets, biosimulation, regulatory science, and market access. These estimates may change or prove to be inaccurate. While we believe the information on which we base our TAM is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise. In addition, our expectations, assumptions and estimates of future opportunities are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described herein. If third-party or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our future growth opportunities may be affected. If our TAM, or the size of any of the various markets in which we operate, proves to be inaccurate, our future growth opportunities may be limited and there could be a material adverse effect on our prospects, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to risks associated with the operation of a global business.
We derive a significant portion of our total revenue from our operations in international markets. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, 29% and 26%, respectively, of our revenues were transacted in foreign currencies, the majority of which included the British pound sterling, the euro and Japanese yen. Our global business may be affected by local economic conditions, including inflation, recession and currency exchange rate fluctuations. Changes in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies could result in material foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and, as a result, our net earnings could be materially adversely affected. In addition, political and economic changes, including international conflicts and terrorist acts, throughout the world may interfere with our or our customers’ activities in particular locations and result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. Although we do not believe the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine poses any immediate material impact to our business, if the conflict intensifies or expands beyond Ukraine, it could have an adverse impact on our business, particularly our operations in Poland and our ability to use consultants in that that region of the world. We could also experience a delay or cancellation of work orders to the extent they rely on clinical trials being conducted in Ukraine. Potential trade restrictions, exchange controls, adverse tax consequences and legal restrictions may affect our revenue from customers located outside the United States and the repatriation of funds into the United States. Also, we could be subject to unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, the difficulties of compliance with a wide variety of foreign laws and regulations, potentially negative consequences from changes in or interpretations of U.S. and foreign tax laws, import and export licensing requirements and longer accounts receivable cycles in certain foreign countries. Foreign currency exchange rate hedges, transactions, re-measurements, or translations could also materially impact our financial results. These risks, individually or in the aggregate, could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial.
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We are subject to the FCPA and the Bribery Act and similar anti-corruption laws and regulations in other countries. Violations of these laws and regulations could harm our reputation and business, or materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and/or cash flows.
We operate in numerous countries around the world and are subject to the FCPA, the Bribery Act and similar anti-bribery laws in the countries in which we operate. Our business involves sales to government and state-owned agencies and brings us and others acting on our behalf, into contact with government officials around the world. The FCPA and the Bribery Act prohibit us and our officers, directors, employees and third parties acting on our behalf, including agents, from corruptly offering, promising, authorizing or providing anything of value to a “foreign official” for the purposes of influencing official decisions or obtaining or retaining business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment. The FCPA further requires us to make and keep books, records and accounts that accurately reflect transactions and dispositions of assets and to maintain a system of adequate internal accounting controls. The Bribery Act also prohibits “commercial” bribery and accepting bribes.
Although our officers, directors, employees, distributors, and agents are required to comply with these laws, we cannot be sure that our internal policies and procedures will always protect us from liability for violations of these laws committed by persons associated with us, including our employees or third parties acting on our behalf. Violations of anti-corruption laws, or even allegations of such violations, could disrupt our business and result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and/or cash flows. For example, violations may result in criminal or civil penalties, disgorgement of profits, related stockholder lawsuits, debarment from government contracting and other remedial measures.
Our failure to comply with trade compliance and economic sanctions laws and regulations of the United States and applicable international jurisdictions could materially adversely affect our reputation and results of operations.
We must operate our business in compliance with applicable economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations, such as those administered and enforced by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the United Nations Security Council and other relevant sanctions authorities. Our global operations expose us to the risk of violating, or being accused of violating, economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations may expose us to reputational harm as well as significant penalties, including criminal fines, imprisonment, civil fines, disgorgement of profits, injunctions and debarment from government contracts, as well as other remedial measures. Investigations of alleged violations can be expensive and disruptive. Despite our compliance efforts and activities we cannot assure compliance by our employees or
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representatives for which we may be held responsible, and any such violation could materially adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Current and future litigation against us, which may arise in the ordinary course of our business, could be costly and time consuming to defend.
We are subject to claims that arise in the ordinary course of business, such as claims in connection with commercial disputes, employment claims made by our current or former employees, or claims brought by third-parties for failure to adequately protect their personal data. Third parties may in the future assert intellectual property rights to technologies that are important to our business and demand back royalties or that we license their technology. Litigation may result in substantial costs and may divert management’s attention and resources, which may seriously harm our business, overall financial condition and operating results. Insurance may not cover such claims, may not be sufficient for one or more of such claims and may not continue to be available on terms acceptable to us. A claim brought against us that is uninsured or underinsured could result in unanticipated costs, negatively affecting our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to avoid material impact on our financial position resulting from claims or liabilities against us, and we may not be able to obtain insurance coverage on attractive terms, or at all, in the future.
We maintain insurance coverage for protection against many risks of liability, including directors and officers liability, professional errors and omissions, breach of fiduciary duty, and cybersecurity risks. The extent of our insurance coverage is under continuous review and is modified as we deem it necessary. Despite this insurance, it is possible that claims or liabilities against us may have not be fully insured, or our insurance carriers may contest coverage, which could have a material adverse impact on our financial position or results of operations. In addition, we may not be able to obtain any insurance coverage, or adequate insurance coverage on attractive terms, or at all, when our existing insurance coverage expires and the cost of obtaining such insurance coverage may materially increase.
If we fail to perform our services in accordance with contractual requirements, regulatory standards and ethical considerations, we could be liable for significant costs or penalties and our reputation could be harmed.
The services we provide to biopharmaceutical companies and other customers are complex and subject to contractual requirements, regulatory standards and ethical considerations. For example, some of our services must adhere to regulatory requirements of the FDA governing our activities relating to preclinical studies and clinical trials, including GLP and GCP. Additionally, we are subject to compliance with FDA’s regulations set forth in part 11 of title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which relates to the creation, modification, maintenance, storage, retrieval, or transmittal of electronic records submitted to the FDA. FDA may also issue or finalize guidance documents that may have implications for our customers and our products, platforms, and services. We may be subject to inspection by regulatory authorities in connection with our customers’ marketing applications and other regulatory submissions. If we fail to perform our services in accordance with regulatory requirements, regulatory authorities may take action against us or our customers for failure to comply with applicable regulations governing the development and testing of therapeutic products. Regulatory authorities may also disqualify certain data or analyses from consideration in connection with applications for regulatory approvals, which would result in our customers not being able to rely on our services in connection with their regulatory submissions and may subject our customers to additional or repeat clinical trials and delays in the development and regulatory approval process. Mistakes in providing services to our customers, such as dosing models, could affect medical decisions for patients in clinical trials and create liability for personal injury. Such actions may include sanctions, such as warning or untitled letters, injunctions or failure of such regulatory authorities to grant marketing approval of products, delay, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, loss of accreditation, product seizures or recalls, operational restrictions, civil or criminal penalties or prosecutions, damages or fines. Customers may also bring claims against us for breach of our contractual obligations or errors in the outcomes of our products or services, may terminate their contracts with us and/or may choose not to award further work to us. Any such action could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We derive a significant percentage of our revenues from a concentrated group of customers and the loss of more than one of our major customers could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and/or financial condition.
Our ten largest customers accounted for 29% and 28% of revenues for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The loss of any of our major customers could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. We may not be able to maintain our customer relationships, and our customers may delay payment under, or fail to renew, their agreements with us, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition. Any reduction in the amount of revenues that we derive from these customers, without an offsetting increase in new sales to other customers, could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. A significant change in the liquidity or financial position of our customers could also have a material adverse effect on the collectability of our accounts receivable, our liquidity, and our future operating results.
We may need additional funding. If we are unable to raise additional capital on terms acceptable to us or at all or generate cash flows necessary to maintain or expand our operations, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We expect to devote substantial financial resources to our ongoing and planned activities, including the continued investment in our biosimulation software platform.
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents of $185.8 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operations and capital expenditure requirements for an extended period. However, we have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and our operating plans may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us. As a result, we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we currently expect.
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
● the growth of our revenue;
● the growth of our employee base;
● the timing and launch of new products;
● the continued expansion of sales and marketing activities; and
In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. If we are unable to raise additional capital on terms acceptable to us or at all or generate cash flows necessary to maintain or expand our operations and invest in our computational platform, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations, and financial condition.
Our bookings might not accurately predict our future revenue, and we might not realize all or any part of the anticipated revenue reflected in our backlog.
Our bookings represent anticipated revenue for work not yet completed or performed under a signed contract or purchase order where there is sufficient or reasonable certainty about the customer’s ability and intent to fund and commence the software or services. Bookings vary from period to period depending on numerous factors, including sales performance and the overall health of the biopharmaceutical industry, among others. Once work begins, we recognize direct revenue
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over the life of the contract based on our performance of services under the contract. Contracts may be terminated or delayed by our customers for reasons beyond our control. To the extent projects are delayed, the anticipated timing of our direct revenue could be materially affected.
In the event a customer terminates a contract, we are generally entitled to be paid for services rendered through the termination date and for services provided in winding down the project. However, we are generally not entitled to receive the full amount of direct revenue reflected in our bookings in the event of a contract termination. A number of factors may affect bookings and the direct revenue generated from our bookings, including:
● the size, complexity and duration of solutions;
● changes in the scope of work during the course of a project; and
● the cancellation or delay of a solution.
Our bookings for the year ended December 31, 2021 were $341.7 million compared to bookings of $288.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. Although an increase in bookings will generally result in an increase in future revenue to be recognized over time (depending on future contract modifications, contract cancellations and other adjustments), an increase in bookings at a particular point in time does not necessarily correspond to an increase in revenues during a particular period. The timing and extent to which bookings will result in direct revenue depends on many factors, including the timing of commencement of work, the rate at which we perform services, scope changes, cancellations, delays, receipt of regulatory approvals and the nature, duration, size, complexity and phase of the studies. In addition, delayed projects remain in bookings until they are canceled. As a result of these factors, our bookings are not necessarily a reliable indicator of future direct revenue and we might not realize all or any part of the revenue from the authorizations in bookings as of any point in time.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Data Privacy
We rely upon third-party providers of cloud-based infrastructure to host our software solutions. Any disruption in the operations of these third-party providers, limitations on capacity or interference with our use could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We outsource substantially all of the infrastructure relating to our hosted software solutions to third-party hosting services. Customers of our hosted software solutions need to be able to access our software platform at any time, without interruption or degradation of performance, and we provide them with service-level commitments with respect to uptime. Our hosted software solutions depend on protecting the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted by third-party hosting services by maintaining its configuration, architecture, features and interconnection specifications, as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers, which is transmitted by third-party internet service providers. Any limitation on the capacity of our third-party hosting services could impede our ability to onboard new customers or expand the usage of our existing customers, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, any incident affecting our third-party hosting services’ infrastructure that may be caused by cyber-attacks, natural disasters, fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake, power loss, telecommunications failures, terrorist or other attacks and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect our cloud-based solutions. Work-from-home and other measures introduced to mitigate the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic have impacted our third-party vendors by increasing operational challenges and risks, including vulnerabilities to cybersecurity and information technology infrastructure threats. A prolonged service disruption affecting our cloud-based solutions for any of the foregoing reasons would negatively impact our ability to serve our customers and could damage our reputation with current and potential customers, expose us to liability, cause us to lose customers or otherwise harm our business. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the third-party hosting services we use.
In the event that our service agreements with our third-party hosting services are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, elimination of services or features that we utilize, interruption of internet service provider connectivity or damage to such facilities, we could experience interruptions in access to our platform as well as significant delays and additional expense
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in arranging or creating new facilities and services and/or re-architecting our hosted software solutions for deployment on a different cloud infrastructure service provider, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are not able to reliably meet our data storage and management requirements, or if we experience any failure or interruption in the delivery of our services over the internet, customer satisfaction and our reputation could be harmed and customer contracts may be terminated.
As part of our current business model, the portion of our software that is delivered over the internet as SaaS is increasing, and we store and manage significant data for our customers, resulting in substantial information technology infrastructure and ongoing technological challenges, which we expect to continue to increase over time. If we do not reliably meet these data storage and management requirements, or if we experience any failure or interruption in the delivery of our services over the internet, customer satisfaction and our reputation could be harmed, leading to reduced revenues and increased expenses. Our hosting services are subject to service-level agreements and, in the event that we fail to meet guaranteed service or performance levels, we could be subject to customer credits or termination of these customer contracts. If the cost of meeting these data storage and management requirements increases, our results of operations could be harmed.
Our software solutions utilize third-party open source software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open source licenses could adversely affect our business, subject us to litigation and create potential liability.
Some of our software solutions utilize software covered by open source licenses, and we expect to continue to incorporate open source software in our solutions in the future. Open source software is typically freely accessible, usable and modifiable, and is used by our development team in an effort to reduce development costs and speed up the development process. Use of open source software also in some respects entails greater risks than use of third party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code, including with respect to security vulnerabilities.
Although we have processes intended to fully comply with all license requirements in our software, certain open source software licenses require, among other things, that a licensor that distributes the open source software as a component of the licensor’s proprietary software, to provide or offer to provide to the customer-licensee part or all of the source code to the licensor’s proprietary software. If the owner of the copyright of the relevant open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the sale of our solutions that contain the open source software and required to comply with onerous conditions or restrictions on these solutions, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of these solutions. Litigation or other enforcement actions initiated by a copyright owner could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions. Moreover, we could effectively be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, re-engineer all or a portion of our solutions or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our solutions, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our solutions. Disclosing our proprietary source code could allow our competitors to create similar products with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of sales. Any of these events could create liability for us and damage our reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition and the market price of our shares.
If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our solutions may be perceived as not being secure, customers may reduce the use of or stop using our solutions and we may incur significant liabilities.
The evolution of technology systems introduces ever more complex security risks that are difficult to predict and defend against. An increasing number of companies, including those with significant online operations, have recently disclosed breaches of their security, some of which involved sophisticated tactics and techniques allegedly attributable to criminal enterprises or nation-state actors. While we believe that we have taken appropriate measures to prevent unintended access to the data we hold (including implementing security and privacy controls, training our workforce and implementing new technology) and we continue to improve and enhance our systems in this regard, our efforts may not always be successful.
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In addition, we do not know whether our current practices will be deemed sufficient under applicable laws or whether new regulatory requirements might make our current practices insufficient.
Our solutions involve the collection, analysis and retention of our customers’ proprietary information related to their drug development efforts, including clinical data. Unauthorized access to this information or data, whether by third-party action or employee error, and whether deliberate or unintentional, could result in the loss of information, litigation, indemnity obligations, damage to our reputation and other liability. Our increased reliance on remote access to our information systems due to the COVID 19 pandemic has increased our exposure to potential cybersecurity breaches and the risk of loss or exposure of such information and data. Additionally, we rely on third-parties and their security procedures for the secure storage, processing, maintenance, and transmission of information that is critical to our operations and such third-parties may also suffer cybersecurity incidents. Depending on their nature and scope, this could potentially result in the misappropriation, destruction, corruption or unavailability of critical data and confidential or proprietary information (our own or that of third parties, including information about our customers and employees) and the disruption of business operations.
If there is a cybersecurity incident and we know or suspect that certain personal information has been accessed, or used inappropriately, we may need to inform the affected individuals and may be subject to significant fines and penalties. Further, under certain regulatory schemes, such as the CCPA, individuals may bring private claims and we may be liable for statutory damages. Further, if the technical and operational solutions we have adopted to maintain data security fail, our existing and potential customers may lose confidence in our ability to maintain the confidentiality of their intellectual property, we may be subject to breach of contract claims by our customers and we may suffer reputational and other harm as a result. Our insurance may not be adequate to cover losses associated with such events, and in any case, such insurance may not cover all of the types of costs, expenses and losses we could incur to respond to and remediate a security breach. Defending against investigations, claims or litigation based on any security breach or incident, regardless of their merit, will be costly and may cause reputation harm. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, denial of coverage as to any specific claim, or any change or cessation in our insurance policies and coverages, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to numerous privacy and data security laws and related contractual requirements and our failure to comply with those obligations could cause us significant harm.
In the normal course of our business, we collect, process, use and disclose information about individuals, including protected health information and other patient data, as well as information relating to health professionals and our employees. The collection, processing, use, disclosure, disposal and protection of such information is highly regulated both in the U. S. and other jurisdictions, including but not limited to, under HIPAA, as amended by HITECH; United States state privacy, security and breach notification and healthcare information laws; the European Union’s GDPR; and other European privacy laws as well as privacy laws being adopted in other regions around the world. These laws and regulations are complex and their interpretation is rapidly evolving, making implementation and enforcement, and thus compliance requirements, ambiguous, uncertain and potentially inconsistent. In addition, our collection, processing, use, disclosure, and protection of information is subject to related contractual requirements. Compliance with such laws and related contractual requirements may require changes to our collection, use, transfer, disclosure, or other processing of information about individuals, and may thereby increase compliance costs. Failure to comply with such laws and/or related contractual obligations could result in regulatory enforcement or claims against us for breach of contract, or may lead third parties to terminate their contracts with us and/or choose not to work with us in the future. Should this occur, there could be a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
These regulations often govern the use, handling and disclosure of information about individuals, including medical information and require the use of standard contracts, privacy and security standards and other administrative simplification provisions. In relation to HIPAA, we do not consider our service offerings to generally cause us to be subject
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as a covered entity; however, in certain circumstances, we are subject to HIPAA as a business associate and may enter into business associate agreements.
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) and many state attorneys general are interpreting existing federal and state consumer protection laws to impose evolving standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of information about individuals, including health-related information. Courts may also adopt the standards for fair information practices promulgated by the FTC, which concern consumer notice, choice, security and access. Consumer protection laws require us to publish statements that describe how we handle information about individuals and choices individuals may have about the way we handle their information. If such information that we publish is considered untrue, we may be subject to government claims of unfair or deceptive trade practices, which could lead to significant liabilities and consequences. Furthermore, according to the FTC violating consumers’ privacy rights or failing to take appropriate steps to keep information about consumers secure may constitute unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act.
In addition, certain states have adopted robust privacy and security laws and regulations. Such laws and regulations will be subject to interpretation by various courts and other governmental authorities, thus creating potentially complex compliance issues for us and our future customers and strategic partners. For example, the CCPA, which took effect in 2020, imposes obligations and restrictions on businesses regarding their collection, use, and sharing of personal information and provides new and enhanced data privacy rights to California residents, such as affording them the right to access and delete their personal information and to opt out of certain sharing of personal information. Protected health information that is subject to HIPAA is excluded from the CCPA, however, information we hold about individuals which is not subject to HIPAA would be subject to the CCPA. It is unclear how HIPAA and the other exceptions may be applied under the CCPA. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. Many similar privacy laws have been proposed at the federal level and in other states.
The GDPR became enforceable on May 25, 2018. The GDPR regulates our processing of personal data, and imposes stringent requirements. The GDPR includes sanctions for violations up to the greater of €20 million or 4.0% of worldwide gross annual revenue and applies to services providers such as us. In addition, following the transitional period following Brexit, we must comply with the GDPR and also the UK GDPR, with each regime having the ability to fine up to the greater of €20 million (£17 million) or 4% of global turnover. The relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains unclear, for example how data transfers between EU member states and the United Kingdom are treated and the role of the Information Commissioner’s Office following the end of the transitional period. These changes will lead to additional costs and increase our overall risk exposure.
Recent legal developments in Europe have created complexity and uncertainty regarding transfers of personal data from the EEA to the United States, e.g. on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework (“Privacy Shield”) under which personal data could be transferred from the EEA to U.S. entities who had self-certified under the Privacy Shield scheme. While the CJEU upheld the adequacy of the standard contractual clauses (a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism, and potential alternative to the Privacy Shield), it made clear that reliance on them alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances; this has created uncertainty. In June 2021, the European Commission published revised standard contractual clauses, and shortly thereafter the European Data Protection Board promulgated guidance on implementation of the new clauses. Even with the additional clarity provided by these developments, the validity of the standard contractual clauses as a transfer mechanism remains uncertain. The concerns raised by the CJEU relating to the perceived risks of transferring personal data to the United States, and the ability of the standard contractual clauses to address those risks, persist under the new standard contractual clauses framework. We have previously relied on our own Privacy Shield certification and our relevant customers’ and third parties’ Privacy Shield certification(s) for the purposes of transferring personal data from the EEA to the United States in compliance with the GDPR’s data export conditions. We also currently rely on the standard contractual clauses to transfer personal data outside the EEA, including to the United States. If all or some jurisdictions within the European Union or the United Kingdom determine that the new standard contractual clauses also cannot be used to transfer personal data to the United States, we could be left with no reasonable option for the lawful cross-border transfer of personal data. If left with no reasonable option for the lawful cross-border transfer of personal data, and if we nonetheless continue to transfer personal data from the European Union
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to the United States, that could lead to governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business or cause us to need to establish systems to maintain certain data in the European Union, which may involve substantial expense and cause us to divert resources from other aspects of our operations, all of which may adversely affect our business.
We believe we maintain adequate processes and systems to ensure our and our customers’ compliance with the requirements of the GDPR, but it is possible that we could fail to comply or that we could incur liability due to the acts or omissions of our customers. Further, these recent developments will require us to review and amend the legal mechanisms by which we make and/or receive personal data transfers to/ in the United States. In the event we are not able to secure indemnification or the indemnification and any insurance coverage is inadequate to cover our losses, we could suffer significant financial, operational, reputational and other harm and our business, results of operations, financial condition and/or cash flows could be materially adversely affected. Furthermore, as supervisory authorities issue further guidance on personal data export mechanisms, including circumstances where the standard contractual clauses cannot be used, and/or start taking enforcement action, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines, and/or if we are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could adversely affect our financial results.
The United States, the European Union, and other jurisdictions where we operate continue to issue new, and enhance existing, privacy and data security protection regulations related to the collection, use, disclosure, disposal and protection of information about individuals, including medical information. Privacy and data security laws are rapidly evolving both in the United States and internationally, and the future interpretation of those laws is somewhat uncertain. For example, we do not know how E.U. regulators will interpret or enforce many aspects of the GDPR and some regulators may do so in an inconsistent manner. In the United States, privacy and data security is an area of emphasis for some but not all state regulators, and new legislation has been and likely will continue to be introduced at the state and/or federal level. Additional legislation or regulation might, among other things, require us to implement new security measures and processes or bring within the legislation or regulation de-identified health or other information about individuals, each of which may require substantial expenditures or limit our ability to offer some of our services.
We may be unable to adequately enforce or defend our ownership and use of our intellectual property and other proprietary rights.
Our success is dependent upon our intellectual property and other proprietary rights. We rely upon a combination of trademark, trade secret, copyright, patent and unfair competition laws, as well as contractual provisions, to protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights. In addition, we attempt to protect our intellectual property and proprietary information by enforcing cyber and physical security measures and requiring our employees and certain of our consultants to enter into confidentiality, non-competition and assignment-of-inventions agreements. The steps we take to protect these rights may not be adequate to prevent misappropriation of our technology by third parties or may not be adequate under the laws of some foreign countries, which may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Our attempts to protect our intellectual property may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation, and agreement terms that address non-competition are difficult to enforce in many jurisdictions and may not be enforceable in any particular case. In addition, there remains the possibility that others will “reverse engineer” our software products in order to introduce competing products, or that others will develop competing technology independently. If we resort to legal proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the intellectual property or other proprietary rights of others, the proceedings could be burdensome and expensive, even if we were to prevail. The failure to adequately protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
Our commercial success depends upon our ability to develop, market and sell our products and services, allowing our customers to use our proprietary technologies without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual
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property and proprietary rights of third parties. There is considerable patent and other intellectual property litigation in the software, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. We may become party to, or be threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our technology and product candidates.
The legal threshold for initiating litigation or contested proceedings is low, so that even lawsuits or proceedings with a low probability of success might be initiated and require significant resources to defend. Litigation and contested proceedings can also be expensive and time-consuming, and our adversaries in these proceedings may have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to prosecuting these legal actions than we can. The risks of being involved in such litigation and proceedings may increase with the greater visibility associated with being a public company. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future, regardless of merit. We may not be aware of all such intellectual property rights potentially relating to our technology, or we may incorrectly conclude that third-party intellectual property is invalid or that our activities do not infringe such intellectual property. Thus, we do not know with certainty that our technology does not and will not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate any third party’s intellectual property.
Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize the product candidates that we may identify. 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), pay royalties, redesign our infringing products, be forced to indemnify our customers or collaborators or obtain one or more licenses from third parties, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure.
We may choose to take a license or, if we are found to infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could also be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our technology. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors and other third parties access to the same technologies licensed to us and could require us to make substantial licensing and royalty payments. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing and commercializing the infringing technology or product. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing any product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could materially harm our business. In addition, we may be forced to redesign a product. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we fail to comply with certain healthcare laws, including fraud and abuse laws, we could face substantial penalties and our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects could be adversely affected.
Even though we do not order healthcare services or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third party payors, as a result of contractual, statutory or regulatory requirements, we may be subject to healthcare fraud and abuse laws of both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of available statutory and regulatory exceptions, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. If we or our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could materially adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
Our indebtedness could materially adversely affect our financial condition and our ability to operate our business, react to changes in the economy or industry or pay our debts and meet our obligations under our debt and could divert our cash flow from operations to debt payments.
As of December 31, 2021, we had $300.5 million in total borrowings under our credit agreement, originally dated July 15, 2017 (“Credit Agreement”) and third modification on June 17, 2021. As of December 31, 2021, we had a $100.0 million
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revolving credit facility under our Credit Agreement under which we had $99.8 million of availability after giving effect to outstanding letters of credit. In addition, subject to restrictions governing our Credit Agreement, we may incur additional debt.
Our debt could have important consequences to you, including the following:
● our ability to borrow additional funds or to refinance debt may be limited.
Furthermore, all of our debt under our Credit Agreement bears interest at variable rates. If these rates were to increase significantly, whether because of an increase in market interest rates or a decrease in our creditworthiness, our ability to borrow additional funds may be reduced and the risks related to our debt would intensify.
Servicing our debt requires a significant amount of cash. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we used operating cash of $17.9 million and $48.7 million, respectively, to service our debt. Our ability to generate sufficient cash depends on numerous factors beyond our control, and we may be unable to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt obligations.
Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operating activities to service our debt obligations. Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our debt and to fund planned capital expenditures depends on our ability to generate cash in the future. To some extent, this is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control.
If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt and meet our other commitments, we may need to refinance all or a portion of our debt, sell material assets or operations, delay capital expenditures or raise additional debt or equity capital. We may not be able to effect any of these actions on a timely basis, on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and these actions may not be sufficient to meet our capital requirements. In addition, the terms of our existing or future debt agreements may restrict us from pursuing any of these alternatives.
Restrictive covenants governing our Credit Agreement may restrict our ability to pursue our business strategies, and failure to comply with any of these restrictions could result in acceleration of our debt.
The operating and financial restrictions and covenants governing our Credit Agreement may materially adversely affect our ability to finance future operations or capital needs or to engage in other business activities. Such agreements limit our ability, among other things, to:
● incur additional indebtedness and guarantee indebtedness;
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● make certain acquisitions, investments, loans and advances;
● transfer or sell certain assets;
● create liens on certain assets;
● make certain payments in respect of certain junior debt obligations;
● create negative pledges;
● enter into certain transactions with our affiliates; and
● designate our subsidiaries as unrestricted subsidiaries.
In addition, the restrictive covenants in our Credit Agreement require us to maintain a specified first lien leverage ratio when a certain percentage of our revolving credit facility commitments are borrowed and outstanding as of the end of each fiscal quarter. In certain circumstances, our ability to meet this financial covenant may be affected by events beyond our control.
A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default under our Credit Agreement. Upon the occurrence of an event of default under our Credit Agreement, the lenders could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under our Credit Agreement to be immediately due and payable and terminate any commitments to extend further credit. If we were unable to repay those amounts, the lenders under our Credit Agreement could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. We have pledged substantially all of our assets as collateral to secure our Credit Agreement. In the event of an acceleration of our debt upon a default, we may not have or be able to obtain sufficient funds to make any accelerated payments.
Furthermore, the terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could have further additional restrictive covenants. We may not be able to maintain compliance with these covenants in the future, and in the event that we are not able to maintain compliance, we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders or amend the covenants.
We and our subsidiaries may still be able to incur substantially more debt. This could further exacerbate the risks associated with our leverage.
We and our subsidiaries may be able to incur substantial additional debt in the future. Although the agreements governing our Credit Agreement contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional debt, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and the debt incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. Additionally, we may successfully obtain waivers of these restrictions. If we incur additional debt above the levels currently in effect, the risks associated with our leverage, including those described above, would increase. Our Credit Agreement includes a revolving credit facility in an aggregate principal amount of $100.0 million, with a sub-commitment for issuance of letters of credit. Under the revolving credit facility we had $99.8 million of availability as of December 31, 2021, after giving effect to outstanding letters of credit.
Risks Related to our Financial Statements and Results
Impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets may adversely impact future results of operations.
We have intangible assets, including goodwill and other finite-lived and indefinite-lived intangibles, on our balance sheet due to our acquisitions of businesses. The initial identification and valuation of these intangible assets and the
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determination of the estimated useful lives at the time of acquisition involve use of management judgments and estimates. These estimates are based on, among other factors, input from accredited valuation consultants, reviews of projected future income cash flows and statutory regulations. The use of alternative estimates and assumptions might have increased or decreased the estimated fair value of our goodwill and other intangible assets that could potentially result in a different impact to our results of operations. If the future growth and operating results of our business are not as strong as anticipated and/or our market capitalization declines, this could impact the assumptions used in calculating the fair value of goodwill or other indefinite-lived intangibles. To the extent goodwill or other indefinite-lived intangibles are impaired, their carrying value will be written down to its implied fair value and a charge will be made to our income from continuing operations. Such an impairment charge could materially and adversely affect our operating results. As of December 31, 2021, and 2020, the carrying amount of goodwill and other intangibles was $1.2 billion and $915.0 million, respectively, on our consolidated balance sheets.
Our ability to use our NOLs and R&D tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
As of December 31, 2021, we had federal and state NOLs of approximately $2.4 million and $2.6 million, respectively, which are available to reduce future taxable income and expire between 2024 and 2040 and 2029 and 2039, respectively. We had federal R&D tax credit carryforwards of approximately $1.5 million, which expire between 2025 and 2041, and state R&D tax credit carryforwards of approximately $0.4 million with indefinite carryover period, which are available to offset future income taxes. We also had foreign tax credits of approximately $15.1 million, which will start to expire in 2025. These carryforwards that may be utilized in a future period may be subject to limitations based upon changes in the ownership of our stock in a future period. Additionally, we carried forward foreign NOLs of approximately $24.5 million which will start to expire in 2022, foreign research and development credits of $0.4 million which will start to expire in 2029, and Canadian investment tax credits of approximately $3.8 million which will expire if unused in years 2030 through 2039. Our carryforwards are subject to review and possible adjustment by the appropriate taxing authorities.