10-K

psnl-10k_20201231.htm

10-K

psnl-10k_20201231.htm

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO

Commission File Number 001-38943

Personalis, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

1330 O’Brien Drive Menlo Park California 94025

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:(650) 752-1300

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 PSNL The Nasdaq Global Market

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 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, 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.

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 voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, as of June 30, 2020, the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $247,785,767 based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market. Excludes an aggregate of 19,104,531 shares of the registrant’s common stock held as of such date by officers, directors and stockholders that the registrant has concluded are or were affiliates of the registrant. Exclusion of such shares should not be construed to indicate that the holder of any such shares possesses the power, direct or indirect, to direct or cause the direction of the management or policies of the registrant or that such person is controlled by or under common control with the registrant.

The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of February 19, 2021 was 43,694,323.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Part III incorporates information by reference from the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A, not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, in connection with the Registrant’s 2021 annual meeting of stockholders (the “2021 Proxy Statement”).

Personalis, Inc.

Form 10-K

For the Year Ended December 31, 2020

Table of Contents

Page

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 3

PART I

Item 1. Business 4

Item 1A. Risk Factors 21

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 57

Item 2. Properties 57

Item 3. Legal Proceedings 57

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 57

PART II

Item 6. Selected Financial Data 59

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 70

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 71

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 97

Item 9B. Other Information 97

PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 98

Item 11. Executive Compensation 98

Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 98

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 99

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans, and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “hope,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “objective,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” or “would” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the following:

• the evolution of cancer therapies and market adoption of our services;

• our ability to enter into and compete in new markets;

• our ability to scale our infrastructure;

• potential effects of extensive government regulation;

• our ability to hire and retain key personnel;

• our ability to obtain financing in future offerings;

• the volatility of the trading price of our common stock;

• our ability to maintain proper and effective internal controls.

Actual events or results may differ from those expressed in forward-looking statements. As such, you should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, operating results, prospects, strategy, and financial needs. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. While we believe that such information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, such information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or to reflect new information, actual results, revised expectations, or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the “company,” “Personalis,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Personalis, Inc.

PART I

Item 1. Business.

Overview

We are a growing cancer genomics company transforming the development of next-generation therapies by providing more comprehensive molecular data about each patient’s cancer and immune response. We designed our NeXT Platform to adapt to the complex and evolving understanding of cancer, providing our biopharmaceutical customers with information on all of the approximately 20,000 human genes, together with the immune system, in contrast to many cancer panels that cover roughly only 50 to 500 genes. In parallel with the development of our platform technology, we have also pursued business within the population sequencing market, and we have provided whole genome sequencing services under contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the “VA”) Million Veteran Program (the “VA MVP”), which has enabled us to innovate, scale our operational infrastructure, and achieve greater efficiencies in our lab. In September 2020, we announced receipt of a new task order from the VA MVP with an approximate value of up to $31 million. The cumulative value of task orders received from the VA MVP since inception is approximately $175 million, approximately $132.5 million of which we had recognized as revenue as of December 31, 2020.

In August 2020, we launched NeXT Liquid Biopsy, which is a liquid biopsy assay that analyzes all of the approximately 20,000 human genes versus the more narrowly focused liquid biopsy assays that are currently available. By combining technological innovation, operational scale, and regulatory differentiation, our NeXT Platform is designed to help our customers obtain new insights into the mechanisms of response and resistance to therapy as well as new potential therapeutic targets. Our platform enhances the ability of biopharmaceutical companies to unlock the potential of conducting translational research in the clinic rather than with pre-clinical animal models or cancer cell lines. We also announced in January 2020 a diagnostic test, NeXT Dx Test, which is based on our NeXT Platform, that we envision being used initially by both leading clinical cancer centers as well as biopharmaceutical companies. Most recently, in December 2020, we launched two new capabilities that are integrated into our NeXT Platform: our Systemic HLA Epitope Ranking Pan Algorithm (“SHERPA”) machine learning-based tool for the comprehensive identification and characterization of cancer neoantigens, as well as our Neoantigen Presentation Score (“NEOPS”) for predicting cancer immunotherapy response. SHERPA enables the development of new neoantigen-based diagnostic biomarkers, such as our NEOPS, and novel personalized therapies.

We have the capacity to sequence and analyze approximately 200 trillion bases of deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) per week in our facility. We believe our capacity for this is already larger than the sequencing capacities of most cancer genomics companies, and we continue to build automation and other infrastructure to scale further as demand increases and in support of our NeXT Liquid Biopsy. To date, we have sequenced more than 150,000 human samples, of which more than 100,000 were whole human genomes.

Our headquarters – housing our Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”)-certified, College of American Pathologists (“CAP”)-accredited laboratory – is located in Menlo Park, CA. We were incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware in February 2011 under the name Personalis, Inc. Our customers include biopharmaceutical companies (including large pharmaceutical companies), universities, non-profits, and government entities such as the VA MVP.

Personalis: The Genomics Engine for Next-Generation Cancer Therapies

Biopharmaceutical customers use our comprehensive platform across a diverse set of therapeutic approaches to cancer. We generate and analyze data from patients who participated in clinical trials, which we believe will enable these customers to develop more effective therapies. The information we generate is important to our customers developing three major classes of next-generation therapeutics: immunotherapies, targeted therapies, and personalized cancer therapies.

We anticipate that as the clinical utility of our platform is validated, we will have opportunities in connection with diagnostics and the commercialization of cancer therapeutics, which are significantly larger than our initial clinical-trial focused markets. Over time, we expect our biopharmaceutical customers and research collaborators to build evidence of the clinical utility of our platform as a diagnostic for advanced cancer therapies. Separately, we are also acquiring samples and building a database which we expect will hold value for our biopharmaceutical customers and may ultimately allow us to discover new mechanisms of cancer treatment.

Financial Highlights

Our revenues have grown rapidly as our penetration of clinical trials in advanced oncology therapeutics and our relationship with the VA MVP has expanded, consistent with our reputation as a leader in the field. We generated revenues of $37.8 million, $65.2 million, and $78.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. We also incurred net losses of $19.9 million, $25.1 million, and $41.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. We have one reportable segment from the sale of sequencing and data analysis services and substantially all of our revenues to date have been derived from sales in the United States.

As of December 31, 2020, we had $203.3 million of cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, an increase of $75.0 million from December 31, 2019. Our revenues are primarily generated through sales of our services to the VA MVP and biopharmaceutical companies. Unlike diagnostic or therapeutic companies, we have not sought reimbursement through traditional healthcare payors. We raised $144.0 million and $117.5 million in our June 2019 initial public offering and August 2020 follow-on offering, respectively, net of underwriting discounts and commissions.

Subsequent to the fiscal period ended December 31, 2020 covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, on January 29, 2021, we completed a follow-on offering in which we issued and sold 3,950,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $38.00 per share. We received net proceeds of $141.1 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. The underwriters exercised their option to purchase an additional 592,500 shares shortly thereafter, resulting in additional net proceeds to us of $21.2 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. In total, we raised net proceeds of $162.3 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions.

Market Opportunities

We estimate the market opportunity for our current and planned products to be approximately $38 billion as follows:

Of these 2.2 million patients, about 200,000 enroll in pharmaceutical clinical trials according to data from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, ClincalTrials.gov, January 2019, with the assumption that the remaining cancer patients undergo normal clinical care. As part of that standard care, these patients go through therapy selection and eventual monitoring. For therapy selection, we estimate that each of the approximately 2.0 million cancer patients undergoing normal clinical care will have a tissue biopsy sequenced and tested at a cost of approximately $3,000, which is the approved CMS reimbursement rate, which results in an estimated potential market opportunity of $6 billion per year.

Cancer mutations identified in this initial tissue-biopsy based test can then be used for subsequent monitoring using cell free DNA. For monitoring, we estimate that each patient has a liquid biopsy sequenced and tested four times per year at an estimated cost of $2,840 per test, based on publicly-available data on comparable tests. Our NeXT Dx Test addresses this market for tissue biopsy testing while clinical versions of our products in development may address this liquid-biopsy based monitoring opportunity. Our estimates lead us to project approximately a $22.72 billion potential market opportunity per year for monitoring.

Our Products and Services

Broadly speaking, we provide proprietary genomic information to customers. Our genomic sequencing and analytics products are focused on the following customer applications: biopharmaceutical company research, clinical and companion diagnostics, and population sequencing.

NeXT Platform

Our NeXT Platform is a high-accuracy, clinical-grade, next-generation sequencing and analysis platform. We have created an ecosystem of products and capabilities built on the NeXT Platform that synergize to drive value for our customers: ImmunoID Next (comprehensive tumor profiling from tissue), NeXT Liquid Biopsy (comprehensive tumor profiling from plasma), NeXT Dx Test (comprehensive genomic cancer profiling test enabling advanced composite biomarkers for cancer treatment), NeXT SHERPA and NeXT NEOPS (neoantigen prediction capabilities). We are currently investing in the development of additional future product offerings, including NeXT Personal (liquid biopsy offering for personalized tumor tracking for patients), NeXT CDx (diagnostic test), and NeXT Database (comprehensive tumor immune-genomics database).

Our NeXT Platform is designed to provide comprehensive analysis of both a tumor and its immune microenvironment, from a single limited tissue or plasma sample. Our platform covers the DNA sequence of all of the approximately 20,000 human genes. We also report on the entire transcriptome of a tumor, which encompasses ribonucleic acid (“RNA”) expression across the approximately 20,000 human genes, allowing us to more accurately determine which of the many genomic mutations might actually be driving tumor progression. Furthermore, our platform analyzes elements of the immune cells that have infiltrated a tumor both from the adaptive immune system and the innate immune system.

Given the practical challenges in obtaining high-quality tumor samples via biopsy, we have developed our platform to work with a limited tumor tissue sample. Biopharmaceutical companies face significant challenges in attempting to divide samples to ship to multiple service providers to perform different tests. If a biopharmaceutical company is successful in acquiring results from multiple service providers, it is challenging to compare the results across multiple data platforms from multiple service providers. Our sequencing approach, validated with orthogonal technologies, allows us to run multiple analyses on a single sample. Our platform is composed of multiple proprietary technologies, many of which we have developed from the ground up. The breadth of the assays that we have integrated into our platform, our proprietary sample preparation process, and the comprehensiveness of our platform allow us to maximize the utility of often limited tumor tissue samples that our customers have from their clinical trials.

An overview of key features and differentiators of our NeXT Platform follows.

Comprehensive tumor and immune genomics from a single limited sample:

• Analysis of both tumor DNA and RNA expression

• Analysis of both tumor and normal tissue

• Analysis of non-human species such as oncoviruses

Makes single, comprehensive tumor molecular profiling practical for cancer patients:

• Tumor and immune molecular profiling from one limited tumor sample

• Overcomes the need for fragmented tumor testing

• One platform for both research and clinical use

Platform anticipates future cancer biomarkers that will come with evolving science:

Generates comprehensive, harmonized data across patients to enable large-scale database creation and insight:

Our NeXT Platform technology can analyze cell-free DNA (“cfDNA”) obtained from blood plasma, also known as a liquid biopsy. As with a tissue biopsy, we analyze all of the approximately 20,000 human genes in each plasma sample, in contrast to currently marketed liquid biopsy panels. This cfDNA may be obtained by a blood draw concurrently with a tissue sample. Together, the two samples can be used to provide a more comprehensive initial characterization of the tumor. Additionally, we expect to monitor changes in tumor genetics that arise in response to therapy through serial measurements using cfDNA samples collected across multiple time points. In 2020, we launched our first liquid biopsy assay designed to analyze all human genes so as to detect potential neoantigens and tumor escape mechanisms that arise under therapeutic pressure. Although we believe our cfDNA test will offer new insights, we believe it will be most useful for our biopharmaceutical customers alongside our primary tumor biopsy product, given that a tumor biopsy is required to analyze gene expression and elucidate tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes which are critical to understanding cancer’s interaction with the immune system.

NeXT Liquid Biopsy was launched in August 2020 and we have received several initial customer orders in 2020 with initial deliveries expected in 2021. We are currently investing in the development of NeXT Personal, a liquid biopsy offering for personalized tumor tracking for patients.

An overview of key liquid biopsy capabilities follows.

Liquid biopsy approaches look at cfDNA in plasma samples derived from the blood. cfDNA is DNA that is released into circulation by cells, including tumor cells, as a result of cell death. This cfDNA can be obtained by a blood draw and can be used to monitor changes in tumor genetics.

We believe tumor biopsy and liquid biopsy approaches to tumor molecular profiling will provide complementary information for each patient. Tumor biopsies provide tumor immune microenvironment and tumor gene expression information that current liquid biopsy panels do not provide. Liquid biopsies can be useful for providing additional DNA mutation information, especially for monitoring therapy response across different time points when tumor biopsies are not feasible. Unlike typical liquid biopsy panel approaches focused on roughly only 50 to 500 driver genes, our NeXT Liquid Biopsy is designed to sequence all of the approximately 20,000 genes in the human genome. Our broader liquid biopsy approach will help biopharmaceutical customers identify biological changes across multiple time points for each patient in their trials that they would otherwise miss with the current, narrowly focused liquid biopsy panels. We also believe broader coverage will enable better neoantigen prediction, broader biomarker coverage, and higher potential to identify new drug targets.

Figure 1: ImmunoID NeXT tumor biopsy and NeXT liquid biopsy yields complementary data.

We believe that combining tumor biopsies with cfDNA can provide a more complete picture of the spectrum of mutations found in a cancer patient. As an example of this, we compared the mutations found in eight late-stage colorectal tumor biopsy samples with those found in the plasma taken at the same time. We found a range of overlap between tumor biopsy-identified sequence variations and the sequences generated using cfDNA. These observations show that, while there was significant overlap between the tumor and liquid biopsy results, there were also mutations unique to tumor biopsy and vice versa (see examples of this in Figure 2). This observation underscores the concept that tissue and liquid biopsies may be complementary, and when combined, may provide a more complete picture of the patient’s disease.

Figure 2. Overlap of sequence variations detected in matched tumor and blood plasma.

Numbers indicate variants detected in the tumor only, plasma only, or in both.

We anticipate that our liquid biopsy approach will have many applications, including monitoring of tumor response to therapy over many time points, detecting new genetic variants from evolution of the tumor under therapeutic pressure, detecting acquired mechanisms of resistance, and identifying neoantigens.

Our NeXT Dx Test is a comprehensive genomic cancer profiling test enabling advanced composite biomarkers for cancer treatment and provides a path from translational research to CDx on our NeXT Platform. The NeXT Dx Test helps oncologists identify potential therapies and clinical trial options for cancer patients. NeXT Dx Test is one of the first cancer diagnostic platforms to profile approximately 20,000 genes in both the tumor exome and transcriptome, providing a comprehensive genomic testing solution that goes beyond many existing cancer diagnostic panels that focus on only a few hundred genes. The NeXT Dx Test includes advanced analytics to provide a diagnostic report on genetic alterations in medically-important cancer genes, as well as emerging immunotherapy composite biomarkers of medical importance. Additionally, immunotherapy-related biomarkers such as microsatellite instability (“MSI”) status and tumor mutational burden (“TMB”) are included in the clinical report.

The NeXT Dx Test is a laboratory-developed test performed at our CAP-accredited and CLIA’88-certified laboratory that is optimized for formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor samples. The test utilizes ImmunoID NeXT, our clinical-grade, next-generation sequencing and analysis platform, to report base substitutions, insertions/deletions, gene fusions, and copy number alterations in cancer driver genes of clinical significance. Additionally, MSI status is reported based on five canonical loci (BAT25, BAT26, NR-21, NR-24, and NR-27), and TMB status is reported by leveraging the exome-wide analysis of non-synonymous somatic mutations. Based on the tumor’s molecular profile, the report delivers relevant therapy recommendations and appropriate clinical trial matches. Each case is reviewed by a team of board-certified molecular geneticists and genetic counselors. Test results are electronically delivered to the ordering clinician.

In December 2020, we announced the launch of our Systematic HLA Epitope Ranking Pan Algorithm (“SHERPA”), our proprietary, machine learning-based tool for the comprehensive identification and characterization of cancer neoantigens. Integrated into our NeXT Platform, SHERPA enables the development of new neoantigen-based diagnostic biomarkers and novel personalized therapies. Trained on a proprietary immunopeptidomics dataset derived from engineered cell lines, SHERPA improves neoantigen presentation prediction compared to other in silico methods. With this advancement, SHERPA can enable more predictive biomarkers for cancer therapy as well as facilitate the development of neoantigen-targeting, personalized cancer therapies.

While most conventional in silico methods generally only assess the potential MHC-binding affinity and stability of identified peptides, SHERPA goes a step further by incorporating features relating to the antigen processing machinery and RNA abundance to generate a presentation rank for each detected peptide. We believe this will aid in determining the relative likelihood of a given neoantigen being presented and undergoing immunosurveillance. A large drug development customer of ours has leveraged SHERPA to characterize immune response to precision genetic therapeutics in patients with rare diseases, demonstrating the applicability of this machine learning tool in disease areas beyond cancer.

Our proprietary Neoantigen Presentation Score (“NEOPS”), also launched in December 2020, is one example of a SHERPA-derived composite biomarker that has shown promise in predicting immunotherapy response incancer patients. NEOPS combines analysis from our state-of-the-art tumor neoantigen prediction tool, SHERPA, with mechanisms of immune evasion to better predict response to cancer therapy. NEOPS combines the tumor genomic and immune-related analytics of our NeXT Platform to create a composite biomarker that can bemore effective in predicting immunotherapy response than other, simpler biomarkers.

NeXT makes comprehensive tumor molecular profiling practical for cancer patients at scale

To deliver a comprehensive immune-genomic assessment of a tumor, we invested substantial resources to engineer NeXT to provide data and analysis that would otherwise be unavailable or require many individual technologies, which collectively present significant costs and logistical impracticalities. With NeXT, we built a proprietary platform that is comprehensive, cost-effective, and scalable and enables a short turnaround time, making it practical to profile cancer patients at scale. This has required innovation on a number of fronts.

Revenues in connection with our NeXT Platform were minimal prior to our current fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. In the current year ended December 31, 2020, revenues from our NeXT Platform accounted for approximately one-third of total revenues, excluding revenues from the VA MVP (discussed further below).

ACE Platform

The ACE Platform is the predecessor to our NeXT Platform. To address the limitations of typical NGS-based assay, we developed our patented Accuracy and Content Enhanced (“ACE”) technology for next-generation sequencing. ACE improves nucleic acid preparation processes and combines it with patented assay and sequencing methods to achieve superior, high-fidelity, clinical-grade sequencing quality that ensures high sensitivity for mutations that can inform clinical and therapeutic applications such as neoantigen prediction, biomarker identification, and novel drug target selection. Our ACE Platform powers multiple products and services to our customers including: ACE Extended Cancer Panel for DNA, ACE Extended Cancer Panel for RNA, ACE Cancer Research Exome, and ACE Cancer Research Transcriptome.

Our ACE technology provides coverage of difficult-to-sequence gene regions across all of the approximately 20,000 human genes, filling in key gaps left by other NGS approaches. ACE technology provides superior and uniform coverage of difficult genomic regions, such as high GC content areas, and fills gaps and inconsistencies in sequencing to achieve an optimal output. ACE is able to deliver more comprehensive coverage not by simply generating more data, but by generating higher quality data. We and others have shown in two publications that our ACE technology achieves superior gene sequencing coverage and finishing.

The substantial majority of our revenues since inception, excluding revenues from the VA MVP (discussed below) and our growing revenues from our NeXT Platform described above, were derived from ACE Extended Cancer Panel and Cancer Research services.

Whole Genome Sequencing

Since 2012, we have been contracted to provide DNA sequencing and data analysis services to the VA MVP. The VA MVP began collecting samples in 2011 and is a landmark research effort aimed at better understanding how genetic variations affect health. Up to two million veterans are expected to enroll in the VA MVP study. With more than 825,000 enrollees to date, the VA MVP exceeds the enrollment numbers of any single VA study or research program in the past, and is in fact one of the largest population sequencing efforts in history. In September 2017, we entered into a one-year contract with three one-year renewal option periods with the VA for the VA MVP, and received orders under this contract in September 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. To date, we have been contracted to deliver approximately 147,000 genome sequence data sets to the VA MVP, and we expect revenue from the contracts awarded to date to continue into 2021. This relationship with the VA MVP has enabled us to scale our operational infrastructure and achieve greater efficiencies in our lab. It has also supported our development of industry-leading, large-scale cancer genomic testing. The substantial experience that we have and expect to continue to develop in whole genome sequencing also optimally positions us for what we anticipate to be the longer-term strategic direction of the cancer genomics industry, which may include whole genome sequencing of tumors.

The VA MVP program has accounted for a substantial amount of our revenues in recent years, 71% of our total revenues in 2020, 67% in 2019, and 49% in 2018.

Personalis is Valuable to Biopharmaceutical Companies

We believe that our platform is valuable to our customers because:

Our Strategy

Our mission is to transform the development of next-generation cancer therapies by providing more comprehensive molecular data about each patient’s tumor. To achieve this mission, our strategy is to:

• Continue to drive the adoption and expansion of our liquid biopsy offerings.

Our Proprietary Software and Robust Operational Infrastructure

We have invested significant resources to develop an operational infrastructure that allows us to easily customize our services for each of our customers and scale rapidly to meet their potential research and commercial demands. Our NeXT Platform is complemented by our enterprise-grade software and bespoke information management systems that we tailor to meet our customers’ unique needs and integrate with their workflows. Moreover, our infrastructure provides customers with visibility and control over processes, ensures consistency across all components used for the duration of each clinical trial, is traceable for compliance purposes, and allows us to scale while maintaining rapid turnaround times.

We designed our proprietary informatics system, the Symphony Enterprise Informatics System (“Symphony”), as a flexible and scalable enterprise-grade system used to manage the unique complexities and challenges of our genomics laboratory. Symphony integrates laboratory information management systems (“LIMS”) and bioinformatics systems to connect laboratory operations with downstream data analysis. Symphony orchestrates all operational activities from our laboratory starting with sample receipt to the reporting of results of the genomic profiling and data delivery. We also use machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to generate substantial performance advantages for our algorithms, such as neoantigen binding prediction.

We have the capacity to sequence and analyze approximately 200 trillion bases of DNA per week in our facility. We believe this capacity is already larger than the sequencing capacities of most cancer genomics companies, and we continue to build automation and other infrastructure to scale further as demand increases and in support of our NeXT Liquid Biopsy. To date, we have sequenced more than 150,000 human samples, of which more than 100,000 were whole human genomes.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for sequencers and other equipment and raw materials that we use in our laboratory operations. For example, we rely on Illumina, Inc. (“Illumina”) as the sole supplier of sequencers and various associated reagents, and as the sole provider of maintenance and repair services for these sequencers. We have in place certain agreements and purchase arrangements with Illumina to satisfy the needs of our laboratory operations.

We believe our platform is well positioned to scale rapidly and substantially as the field of personalized cancer therapies matures. We believe that our platform could be essential to the composition and manufacture of any personalized cancer therapy developed using our platform. Furthermore, we expect that patients would be tested at multiple time points during the course of treatment: first to design a therapy according to an initial genomic profile generated from a tissue and/or liquid biopsy, and then as follow-up testing via liquid biopsy to detect any changes that would require therapy modifications after initial therapeutic interventions. If a therapy that uses our NeXT Platform achieves regulatory approval, we believe that our commercial opportunity may increase substantially.

We leverage our proprietary software, laboratory automation and protocols, and other operational and technological know-how to power our NeXT Platform.

Our Industry

Over the past decade, the biopharmaceutical community has achieved major advances in the treatment of cancer, including approval of therapies capable of targeting specific genetic drivers of cancer and novel immunotherapies that empower the immune system to attack cancer cells. Despite these advances, the substantial majority of currently available cancer therapies have significant limitations, including efficacy only in certain subsets of patients, limited long-term survival rates, and significant toxicities. Moreover, the current research and development paradigm in oncology is beset by significant inefficiencies and substantial costs, with the average cost per patient in clinical trials reaching approximately $60,000 (Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, Biopharmaceutical Industry-Sponsored Clinical Trials: Impact on State Economies, March 2015). While tumor molecular profiling technologies have enhanced research and development efforts, most current tumor biopsy and liquid biopsy tests analyze a relatively narrow set of roughly only 50 to 500 tumor genes, missing key genes and immune mechanisms underlying cancer therapy. With the lack of a comprehensive profiling solution, biopharmaceutical companies often attempt to use a disparate array of tests to compensate, resulting in a fragmented view of the tumor biology, insufficient tumor sample, logistical complexities, and increased costs. The resulting data heterogeneity makes it difficult to mine for new biological insights across cohorts of patients in clinical trials. These piecemeal approaches to tumor molecular profiling often result in solutions that are difficult to use at scale, especially in a clinical or therapeutic setting where simplicity, cost, turnaround time, and validation are important.

Our platforms help biopharmaceutical companies seeking to develop more efficacious therapies by comprehensively interrogating a patient’s tumor and immune cells in detail, both to discover tumor vulnerabilities and elucidate potential therapeutic alternatives. To meet the demands of our customers, we built our NeXT Platform to be cost-effective and scalable with rapid turnaround times for tissue sample data and analytics. The NeXT Platform represents the next step of our ACE Platform, allowing customers to move up the value chain by gaining more information from a single sample. We believe that our platforms have the potential to enable a research, development, and treatment paradigm that is dynamic and adaptive to the evolving genomic and immune system landscape of patients’ tumors over time. We believe our technology will drive this evolving paradigm, which will ultimately enable our customers to develop safer and more efficacious therapeutics (see Figure 3). As the clinical utility of our platforms increases, we expect to grow our diagnostic capabilities, including the ability to guide therapy based on a patient’s changing tumor and immune system, and supporting the commercialization of therapeutics developed by our biopharmaceutical customers.

Figure 3. Personalis NeXT Platform addresses the increasingly complex understanding of cancer.

Despite the large sums invested in research and despite new treatments, cancer remains a major challenge for modern medicine and a source of high unmet medical need. According to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2020, as of January 1, 2019, there were more than 16.9 million people in the United States who were suffering from cancer or who had previously suffered from cancer. Cancer prevalence is increasing globally as well. The World Health Organization (the “WHO”) predicted in its September 2018 estimates on the global prevalence of cancer that there would be 18.1 million new cancer cases and nearly 10 million cancer deaths globally in 2018. According to the WHO, the total economic impact of healthcare expenditure and loss of productivity resulting from cancer worldwide was approximately $1.2 trillion in 2010.

Improving Cancer Treatment is Increasingly About Leveraging Molecular Data

Despite the rapid evolution of cancer therapies, the current research and development paradigm in oncology is beset by significant inefficiencies and costs. Cancer therapeutics have one of the lowest clinical trial success rates of all major diseases. According to a study of 7,455 drug development programs during 2006 to 2015, the overall likelihood of FDA approval from Phase I clinical trial for oncology developmental candidates was 5.1% (BIO Industry Analysis, Clinical Development Success Rates 2006-2015, June 2016). The majority of currently available cancer therapeutics have serious limitations, including efficacy only in certain subsets of patients, limited long-term survival rates, and significant toxicities. The mechanisms underlying the success or failure of clinical trials are often poorly understood. To develop more efficacious cancer treatments, the biopharmaceutical community is faced with multiple key questions for a given therapeutic approach:

• Why do some patients respond to treatment and others do not?

• What are the underlying mechanisms of treatment resistance?

• What therapeutic combinations can improve outcomes?

• Are there ways to increase patient response through personalized therapeutics?

• Are there ways to reduce toxicity?

There is a growing recognition that there is a tremendous amount of untapped molecular data that can be derived from analyzing tumors from large numbers of cancer patients, whether in cancer clinical trials or post-commercialization, that can help answer some of these seminal questions and accelerate therapeutic development. The threefold increase in probability of FDA approval from Phase I clinical trial for therapies with biomarkers across all diseases and therapeutic types provides an indication of the benefits of leveraging molecular data.

Current Tumor Molecular Profiling Solutions Have Not Kept Pace with New Cancer Therapies

Biopharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to tumor molecular profiling across large cohorts of patients to generate the data needed to answer these questions. Unfortunately, current tumor molecular profiling methods have not kept pace with new therapy development and overlook crucial elements of our evolving understanding of cancer biology.

Current Tumor Molecular Profiling Falls Short for New Cancer Immunotherapies

Most current tumor molecular profiling panels were designed with a focus on targeted therapies, which, along with chemotherapy, have been used for cancer treatment for the past several decades. Targeted therapies treat cancers based on the specific genomic alterations driving their growth. Some targeted therapies have been developed to target specific molecules that are overexpressed or mutated in cancer cells. Because targeted therapies focus on cancer driver genes, the vast majority of tumor molecular profiling panels today, whether tissue or liquid biopsy based, typically sequence the DNA of between 50 to 500 genes, just a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 human genes.

Recently, however, transformational new approaches to cancer therapy that have been developed to harness the patient’s own immune system have changed the treatment paradigm and our understanding of cancer biology. These new immunotherapies have dramatically improved the treatment of certain tumors that have previously been difficult to treat. Among these new immunotherapies, checkpoint inhibitors of the CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 genes are particularly effective. These therapies help “take the brakes off” the immune system and elicit a stronger immune response against the tumor. Patients can also be treated by adoptive cell therapy, in which the patient’s immune system is supplemented with cytotoxic cells that have been programmed to attack cells expressing specific antigens on their tumors. There are also new opportunities for personalized cancer therapies where a new therapeutic vaccine or cell therapy is developed for each patient. Despite early success, the majority of patients today still do not respond to immunotherapy, underscoring the importance of gathering data that can help biopharmaceutical companies understand factors governing response and resistance to therapy.

With these new immunotherapies and our rapidly evolving understanding of cancer biology, we believe the data needed to inform therapeutic development goes far beyond the typical 50 to 500 genes on current tumor molecular profiling panels. The paradigm has shifted from the need to understand mechanisms behind a single gene target to a dynamic, systems biology view involving complex interactions between thousands of genes in the tumor and the immune system in the pathogenesis of cancer and cancer drug response.

Information about all of the approximately 20,000 human genes allows deeper insight into the biology of cancer, identifying novel or patient-specific therapeutic targets, including neoantigens, and predictive biomarkers of response to therapy. Understanding the immune cell signatures in the tumor microenvironment and immune repertoire changes is critical for understanding drug response. In addition to DNA, comprehensive RNA expression information from the tumor is needed to analyze complex pathways that may be activated in the tumor. It is important to identify the increasingly complex mechanisms of tumor response and resistance to cancer therapy, such as neoantigen burden, tumor antigens, deficient antigen presentation, oncogenic pathways, immune evasion pathways, HLA mutations, T-cell clonality, immune infiltration, and others. Table 1 describes some of the biological gaps in current panels. Most of these elements go beyond the capabilities of today’s tumor molecular profiling panels.

Table 1. Most current tumor tissue and liquid biopsy profiling panels miss critical tumor and immune biology.

Fragmented Tumor Molecular Profiling Approaches Result in a Fragmented View of Biology and Limited Insights

With the lack of a comprehensive profiling solution, biopharmaceutical companies often turn to fragmented, piecemeal approaches to tumor molecular profiling as a stopgap measure. Those fragmented tumor molecular profiling approaches lead to major problems for therapeutic development. Limitations in available tumor samples, including liquid biopsies, force scientists to pick and choose which profiling platforms to include and which to omit, resulting in a fragmented picture of the biology. Fragmented profiling solutions also result in inconsistent profiling from patient to patient, and clinical trial to clinical trial. This results in data heterogeneity that makes it difficult to mine for new biological insights across cohorts of patients in trials. Finally, these piecemeal approaches to tumor molecular profiling result in solutions that often are difficult to use at scale in a clinical or therapeutic setting where logistical simplicity, cost, turnaround time, and validation are important.

Current Tumor Molecular Profiling Panels Can Become Antiquated with Evolving Science

With the explosion of immunotherapy and advances in our understanding of cancer, new insights into the underlying mechanisms of response and resistance have emerged. New putative genetic or immune biomarkers of response are regularly identified for different therapies in the context of different cancers. For instance, new biomarkers have been identified including tumor mutational burden, neoantigens, HLA type, B2M mutations, TGFß, JAK1/JAK2 mutations, expression signatures, cytotoxicity signatures, and T-cell clonality, among others. A recent Nature Medicine review identified 18 different categories of biomarkers correlating with immunotherapy response spanning tumor, immune cells, and the tumor microenvironment. Due to the limited coverage of most cancer panels, they may miss new biomarkers. We believe this problem will continue as research uncovers new insights into cancer.

Sequencing Quality and Coverage

Next generation sequencing (“NGS”) is the technological basis for many tumor molecular profiling platforms today. NGS rapidly sequences nucleic acids and then uses a computationally intensive process to reconstruct gene sequences from millions of short sequence segments. These segments are processed in parallel, an approach that greatly increases the speed that the sequence data can be generated. However, because the segments come from random locations in the genome, reassembling the original sequence is both a technically and computationally challenging process. A key objective is to ensure that every portion of the genes being sequenced is covered by at least one sequence segment. The average number of sequence segments representing a gene is referred to as the sequence depth. The deeper the coverage, the greater fraction of the gene is likely to be covered and the higher confidence that low-frequency variants can be found.

However, even when sequenced to high depth, typical NGS approaches can leave uneven, poor coverage in genes with mutations linked to cancer and cancer therapy. Many of these regions cannot be fully covered by simply sequencing to higher depth because their sequencing coverage deficits are due to inherent limitations of the NGS platform. Regions of high guanine-cytosine (“GC”) content or repetitive sequence regions are two such examples of regions that are difficult to cover with standard NGS assays. This can leave gaps in coverage of therapeutically important genes. This is particularly problematic in cancer, where there can be significant heterogeneity in the tumor samples that can make it even harder to see mutations in regions of poor coverage.

To address the limitations of typical NGS-based assay, we have developed our patented ACE technology for next-generation sequencing. ACE improves nucleic acid preparation processes and combines it with patented assay and sequencing methods to achieve superior, high-fidelity, clinical-grade sequencing quality that ensures high sensitivity for mutations that can inform clinical and therapeutic applications such as neoantigen prediction, biomarker identification, and novel drug target selection.

Our NeXT Platform uses our ACE technology to provide coverage of difficult-to-sequence gene regions across all of the approximately 20,000 human genes, filling in key gaps left by other NGS approaches. ACE technology provides superior and uniform coverage of difficult genomic regions, such as high GC content areas, and fills gaps and inconsistencies in sequencing to achieve an optimal output. ACE is able to deliver more comprehensive coverage not by simply generating more data, but by generating higher quality data. We and others have shown in two publications that our ACE technology achieves superior gene sequencing coverage and finishing.

Commercialization Strategy

We commercialize our products in the United States and Europe through our targeted sales organization. We have also recently begun efforts to commercialize our products in China. In June 2020, we announced a partnership with a clinical genomics and life sciences company headquartered in China and our formation of a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai. In 2020, we derived substantially all of our revenues from our customers in the United States. Our sales representatives have extensive experience in enterprise/consultative selling in the genomics space. We augment this team with Ph.D.-level Field Application Specialists that provide deep understanding and expertise in the areas of oncology and genomics applications, ensuring top-quality pre- and post-sales customer support. Our commercial efforts are focused on demonstrating the value proposition of the NeXT Platform to biopharmaceutical customers with the goal of both increasing utilization of the product at existing accounts and to drive adoption in new targeted accounts. Our entire commercial organization promotes our ability to support biopharmaceutical customers across several application areas including biomarker discovery, new target discovery, therapy development, and treatment monitoring.

We anticipate that patients in clinical trials for cancer therapies will increasingly be tested pre-treatment and periodically afterwards to understand response to treatment in deep molecular detail, as their tumors evolve under therapeutic pressure. Although the majority of our revenues come from single time point testing, we believe our revenues from multiple time point testing will continue to grow. We also derive revenues from analysis of multiple customer samples from the same patient and time point to assess genetic

differences between the primary tumor and metastases. Given the value of comprehensive genomic information from multiple time points or samples, we anticipate that our revenue, and the available market, will continue to grow.

As the clinical utility of advanced biomarkers is further established, we expect there to be a patient-centered diagnostic opportunity whereby some patients would be guided to personalized therapies. We believe that our platform’s ability to support biomarkers for a broad range of therapeutics positions us to be a leader in therapy selection for patients.

Our Customers

Our cancer genomic services are sold primarily to pharmaceutical companies, biopharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, universities, non-profits, and government entities, while services for population sequencing initiatives are sold primarily to the VA MVP, which is a government entity. Our customers include a majority of the top ten oncology-focused pharmaceutical companies, as measured by annual revenues. As of the end of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, 45 customers have placed orders for our NeXT Platform products.

In 2020, VA MVP accounted for 71% of our revenues. No other customer accounted for 10% or more of our revenues. In 2019, we had two customers account for 10% or more of our revenues: VA MVP at 67% and Pfizer Inc. at 13%. In 2018, we had three customers account for 10% or more of our revenues: VA MVP at 49%, Merck & Co., Inc. at 12%, and Pfizer Inc. at 10%.

Our Competition

Our principal competition comes from commercial and academic organizations using established and new laboratory tests to produce information that is similar to the information that we generate for our customers. These companies offer services that implement various technological approaches including next-generation sequencing and microarray analyses. Some of our present or potential competitors include Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, C2i Genomics, Inc., Caris Life Sciences, Inc., Covance Inc., which was acquired by Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings in February 2015, Foundation Medicine, Inc., which was acquired by Roche Holdings, Inc. in July 2018, Freenome, Inc., Genosity, Inc., Guardant Health, Inc., Inivata Limited, Invitae Corporation, Mount Sinai Genomics, Inc. which does business under the name Sema4, Natera, Inc., NanoString Technologies, Inc., NeoGenomics, Inc., Personal Genome Diagnostics, Inc., Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., and Tempus, Inc.

Additionally, several companies develop next-generation sequencing platforms that can be used for genomic profiling for biopharmaceutical research and development applications. These include Illumina, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., and other organizations that specialize in the development of next-generation sequencing instrumentation that can be sold directly to biopharmaceutical companies, clinical laboratories, and research centers. Separate from their instrumentation product lines, both Illumina and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., for example, currently market next-generation sequencing clinical oncology kits that are sold to customers who have bought and operate their respective sequencing instruments.

We believe that we compete favorably because of the integrity and comprehensiveness of the data generated by our NeXT Platform. Maximizing insights into both the tumor- and immune-related components of the tumor microenvironment is essential in identifying and understanding the reasons why certain cancer patients respond more favorably to oncology therapies than others. It is via access to such a comprehensive dataset for each patient that our customers can begin to discover new, clinically relevant biomarkers for the immunotherapy era, and ultimately improve cancer patient outcomes with the development of more efficacious therapeutics.

Intellectual Property

Protection of our intellectual property is fundamental to the long-term success of our business. Specifically, our success is dependent on our ability to obtain and maintain proprietary protection for our technology and the know-how related to our business, defend and enforce our intellectual property rights, and operate our business without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating valid and enforceable intellectual property rights of others. We seek to protect our investments made into the development of our technology by relying on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, know-how, confidentiality agreements and procedures, non-disclosure agreements with third parties, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements, and other contractual rights.

Our patent strategy is focused on seeking coverage for our core technology, our ACE assay, and specific follow-on applications and implementations for enhancing sequencing coverage of certain genomic regions and analyzing cell-free nucleic acids. In addition, we file for patent protection on our ongoing research and development, particularly other novel assay technologies which may be applicable in cancer cases and other diseases.

Notwithstanding these efforts, we cannot be sure that patents will be granted with respect to any patent applications we have filed or may license or file in the future, and we cannot be sure that any patents we have or may be licensed or granted to us in the future, will not be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented, or that such patents will be commercially useful in protecting our technology. Moreover, we rely, in part, on trade secrets to protect aspects of our business that are not amenable to, or that we do not consider appropriate for, patent protection. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect. While we take steps to protect and preserve our trade secrets, including by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors, and contractors, conducting an annual training for our employees to increase awareness of cybersecurity threats, and maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems, such measures can be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors. For more information regarding the risks related to our intellectual property, please see “Risk Factors—Intellectual Property Risks.”

Our patent portfolio is comprised of patents and patent applications owned by the company. These patents and patent applications generally fall into five broad categories:

As of December 31, 2020, we own thirteen issued U.S. and foreign patents in China and the United Kingdom and several pending U.S. and foreign patent applications. Issued U.S. patents in our portfolio of company-owned patents are expected to expire between 2033 and 2038, excluding any additional term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions. If patents are issued on our pending patent applications, the resulting patents are projected to expire on dates ranging from 2033 to 2040.

Government Regulations

Federal and State Laboratory Licensing Requirements

Under the CLIA, a laboratory is any facility that performs laboratory testing on specimens derived from humans for the purpose of providing information for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of disease, or the impairment of or assessment of health. CLIA requires that a laboratory hold a certificate applicable to the type of laboratory examinations it performs and that it complies with, among other things, standards covering operations, personnel, facilities administration, quality systems and proficiency testing, which are intended to ensure, among other things, that clinical laboratory testing services are accurate, reliable and timely.

To renew our CLIA certificate, we are subject to survey and inspection every two years to assess compliance with program standards. Because we are a CAP accredited laboratory, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) does not perform this survey and inspection and relies on our CAP survey and inspection. We also may be subject to additional unannounced inspections. Laboratories performing high complexity testing are required to meet more stringent requirements than laboratories performing less complex tests. In addition, a laboratory that is certified as “high complexity” under CLIA may develop, manufacture, validate, and use proprietary tests referred to as laboratory developed tests (“LDTs”). CLIA requires analytical validation including accuracy, precision, specificity, sensitivity, and establishment of a reference range for any LDT used in clinical testing. The regulatory and compliance standards applicable to the testing we perform may change over time, and any such changes could have a material effect on our business.

CLIA provides that a state may adopt laboratory regulations that are more stringent than those under federal law, and a number of states have implemented their own more stringent laboratory regulatory requirements. State laws may require that nonresident laboratories, or out-of-state laboratories, maintain an in-state laboratory license to perform tests on samples from patients who reside in that state. As a condition of state licensure, these state laws may require that laboratory personnel meet certain qualifications, specify certain quality control procedures or facility requirements, or prescribe record maintenance requirements. Because our laboratory is located in the state of California, we are required to and do maintain a California state laboratory license. We also maintain licenses to conduct testing in other states where nonresident laboratories are required to obtain state laboratory licenses. We maintain a current license with the New York State Department of Health for our laboratory. Other states may currently have or adopt similar licensure requirements in the future, which may require us to modify, delay, or stop its operations in those states.

Regulatory framework for medical devices in the United States

Pursuant to its authority under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the “FDC Act”), the FDA has jurisdiction over medical devices, which are defined to include, among other things, in vitro diagnostic devices (“IVDs”). The FDA regulates, among other things, the research, design, development, pre-clinical and clinical testing, manufacturing, safety, effectiveness, packaging, labeling, storage, recordkeeping, pre-market clearance or approval, adverse event reporting, marketing, promotion, sales, distribution, and import and export of medical devices. Unless an exemption applies, each new or significantly modified medical device we seek to commercially distribute in the United States will require either a premarket notification to the FDA requesting permission for commercial distribution under Section 510(k) of the FDC Act, also referred to as a 510(k) clearance, or approval from the FDA of a PMA. Both the 510(k) clearance and PMA processes can be resource intensive, expensive, and lengthy, and require payment of significant user fees.

Although the FDA regulates medical devices, including IVDs, the FDA has historically exercised its enforcement discretion and not enforced applicable provisions of the FDC Act and FDA regulations with respect to LDTs, which are a subset of IVDs that are intended for clinical use and developed, validated, and offered within a single laboratory for use only in that laboratory. We market our diagnostic test based on the NeXT Platform as an LDT. As a result, we believe our diagnostic services are not currently subject to the FDA’s enforcement of its medical device regulations and the applicable FDC Act provisions.

Federal and State Fraud and Abuse Laws

We are subject to federal fraud and abuse laws such as the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (the “AKS”), the federal prohibition against physician self-referral (the “Stark Law”), and the federal false claims law, or the False Claims Act (the “FCA”). We are also subject to similar state and foreign fraud and abuse laws.

The AKS prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting, or receiving remuneration, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, in return for or to induce such person to refer an individual, or to purchase, lease, order, arrange for, or recommend purchasing, leasing, or ordering, any good, facility, item, or service that is reimbursable, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program.

The Stark Law and similar state laws, including California’s Physician Ownership and Referral Act, generally prohibit, among other things, clinical laboratories and other entities from billing a patient or any governmental or commercial payer for any diagnostic services when the physician ordering the service, or any member of such physician’s immediate family, has a direct or indirect investment interest in or compensation arrangement with us, unless the arrangement meets an exception to the prohibition.

Other federal fraud and abuse laws to which we are subject include, but are not limited to, the federal civil and criminal false claims laws including the FCA, which imposes liability on any person or entity that, among other things, knowingly presents, or causes to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment to the federal government, and the federal Civil Monetary Penalties Law, which prohibits, among other things, the offering or transfer of remuneration to a Medicare or state healthcare program beneficiary if the person knows or should know it is likely to influence the beneficiary’s selection of a particular provider, practitioner, or supplier of services reimbursable by Medicare or a state healthcare program, unless an exception applies. Under the FCA, private citizens can bring claims on behalf of the government through qui tam actions. We must also operate within the bounds of the fraud and abuse laws of the states in which we do business which may apply to items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payers, including private insurers.

Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, disgorgement, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting, or oversight obligations if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with the law and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we do business is found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government-funded healthcare programs.

HIPAA and HITECH

Under the administrative simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued regulations that establish uniform standards governing the conduct of certain electronic healthcare transactions and requirements for protecting the privacy and security of protected health information (“PHI”), used or disclosed by covered entities and business associates. Covered entities and business associates are subject to HIPAA and HITECH. Our subcontractors that create, receive, maintain, transmit, or otherwise process PHI on behalf of us are HIPAA “business associates” and must also comply with HIPAA as a business associate.

HIPAA and HITECH include privacy and security rules, breach notification requirements, and electronic transaction standards.

The Privacy Rule covers the use and disclosure of PHI by covered entities and business associates. The Privacy Rule generally prohibits the use or disclosure of PHI, except as permitted under the Rule. The Privacy Rule also sets forth individual patient rights, such as the right to access or amend certain records containing his or her PHI, or to request restrictions on the use or disclosure of his or her PHI.

The Security Rule requires covered entities and business associates to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronically transmitted or stored PHI by implementing administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. Under HITECH’s Breach Notification Rule, a covered entity must notify individuals, the Secretary of the HHS, and in some circumstances, the media of breaches of unsecured PHI.

In addition, we may be subject to state health information privacy and data breach notification laws, which may govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of health-related and other personal information. California, for example, has enacted the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, which sets forth standards in addition to HIPAA and HITECH with which all California health care providers like us must abide. State laws may be more stringent, broader in scope, or offer greater individual rights with respect to PHI than HIPAA, and state laws may differ from each other, which may complicate compliance efforts.

Entities that are found to be in violation of HIPAA as the result of a failure to secure PHI, a complaint about our privacy practices or an audit by HHS, may be subject to significant civil and criminal fines and penalties and additional reporting and oversight obligations if such entities are required to enter into a resolution agreement and corrective action plan with HHS to settle allegations of HIPAA non-compliance.

U.S. Healthcare Reform

In the United States, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes at the federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of healthcare. For example, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (collectively, the “ACA”), became law. This law substantially changed the way health care is financed by both commercial payers and government payers, and significantly impacted our industry. The ACA contained a number of provisions expected to impact the clinical laboratory industry, such as changes governing enrollment in state and federal health care programs, reimbursement changes, and fraud and abuse.

Some of the provisions of the ACA have yet to be implemented, and there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA, as well as recent efforts by the former Trump administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of the ACA. Since January 2017, former President Trump signed two executive orders and other directives designed to delay the implementation of certain provisions of the ACA. Concurrently, Congress considered legislation that would repeal, or repeal and replace, all or part of the ACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, it has enacted laws that modify certain provisions of the ACA such as removing penalties, starting January 1, 2019, for not complying with the ACA’s individual mandate to carry health insurance and delaying the implementation of certain ACA-mandated fees. On December 14, 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the “individual mandate” was repealed by Congress as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. While the Texas U.S. District Court Judge, as well as the Trump administration and CMS, stated that the ruling will have no immediate effect pending appeal of the decision, it is unclear how this decision, subsequent appeals, and other efforts to repeal and replace the ACA will impact the ACA.

We anticipate there will continue to be proposals by legislators at both the federal and state levels, regulators and commercial payers to reduce costs while expanding individual healthcare benefits. Certain of these changes could impose additional limitations on the prices we will be able to charge for our tests, the coverage of or the amounts of reimbursement available for our tests from payers, including commercial payers and government payers.

Material Agreements

VA MVP Agreement

On September 28, 2017, we entered into a contract with the VA for the VA MVP to provide them with a combination of whole genome sequencing services (the “VA MVP Agreement”). The performance period for the services includes a base period of one year (September 2017 through August 2018), with three one-year renewal option periods that may be exercised upon discretion of the VA MVP (September 2018 through August 2019; September 2019 through August 2020; and September 2020 through August 2021). Each task order issued against the VA MVP Agreement has a separate period of performance and is subject to the terms and conditions of the VA MVP Agreement. Funds are obligated by the VA MVP under each task order based on actual needs. To date, the VA MVP has exercised all of its three one-year renewal options, meaning that the VA MVP Agreement expires at the end of August 2021 and there are no remaining renewal options. Our current task order extends through August 2021. In order for us to provide additional services to the VA MVP after August 2021, we would need to receive an additional task order before the VA MVP Agreement expires in September 2021, or enter into a new services agreement with the VA MVP.

All materials and samples utilized during the course of the VA MVP Agreement and all data first produced or delivered under the VA MVP Agreement are the sole property of the VA MVP. Under the VA MVP Agreement, we are subject to confidentiality and security obligations, as well as various obligations upon events of default.

The VA MVP may terminate the VA MVP Agreement, or any part thereof, at its sole convenience. Subject to the terms of the VA MVP Agreement, we shall be paid a percentage of the contract price reflecting the percentage of the work performed prior to the notice of termination, plus reasonable charges that we can demonstrate have resulted from the termination.

The VA MVP may terminate the VA MVP Agreement, or any part thereof, for cause in the event of any default by us, or if we fail to comply with any contract terms and conditions, or fail to provide the VA MVP, upon request, with adequate assurances of future performance. In the event of termination for cause, the VA MVP shall not be liable to us for any amount for supplies or services not accepted, and we shall be liable to the VA MVP for any and all rights and remedies provided by law. If it is determined that the VA MVP improperly terminated this contract for default, such termination shall be deemed a termination for convenience.

Agreements with Illumina

On March 1, 2019, we received a quotation for supply of genetic analysis products (the “Quote”) from Illumina. The Quote provided information as to the cost of five NovaSeqTM6000 Sequencing System instruments. The term of the Quote extended through March 31, 2019. On March 20, 2019, we submitted a purchase order to Illumina for five NovaSeqTM6000 Sequencing System instruments, four of which we have received and one of which will be received on or before the due date of March 23, 2023.

On November 1, 2017, we entered into a master services subcontract agreement (the “Subcontract Agreement”) with Illumina. Under the terms of the Subcontract Agreement, we engaged Illumina as our subcontractor to perform certain genotyping services (the “Services”)on our behalf pursuant to written purchase orders in fulfillment of our VA MVP Agreement. The price for Illumina’s Services set forth in the Subcontract Agreement is effective through December 31, 2021, or later if the VA MVP Agreement is extended.

The Subcontract Agreement extends through the last day of the VA MVP Agreement, currently August 2021 but as may be extended, unless it is otherwise terminated early pursuant to its terms. All or part of the Subcontract Agreement may be terminated at our convenience in the event that the VA MVP terminates the VA MVP Agreement or terminates the part of the VA MVP Agreement that affects the Services provided by Illumina. Each party may terminate the Subcontract Agreement for default in the event that the other party materially fails to perform any of the provisions of the Subcontract Agreement, materially fails to make progress so as to endanger performance of the Subcontract Agreement in accordance with its terms, or becomes financially or legally incapable of completing the work and does not provide a plan of correction or recovery within the provided period of time to cure such failure. The Subcontract Agreement may be renewed for subsequent one-year terms as agreed by the parties subject to a four-year limit.

On March 26, 2019, we entered into a pricing agreement with Illumina, which provides pricing terms for the NovaSeqTM 5000/6000 S4 Reagent Kit (each, a “Kit”). The pricing agreement had a purchase commitment of $1.7 million by June 30, 2019 to purchase these Kits, which we fulfilled in the ordinary course of business. The term of the pricing agreement extends through December 31, 2022.

From time to time, we receive quotations for supply of genetic analysis products from Illumina that provide for pricing terms on Illumina products outside of those discussed above.

Human Capital Management within Our Company

We recognize that our employees are both our most valuable asset and our most important investment. The success of our organization is reliant upon each individual’s significant contribution to our corporate culture and goals. Following is a list of our core company values:

• Integrity

• Respect

• Teamwork and collaboration

• Commitment to scientific excellence

• Dedication to discovery and innovation

• Passion

We understand that our future depends upon the attraction, retention, and engagement of a talented, diverse, and committed team that can thrive and innovate in a supportive and safe environment. Our efforts to ensure this occurs across the enterprise include offering competitive total rewards programs, ongoing training and development, commitment to the safety and health of our employees, and support for our employees during the unprecedented global circumstances that began in 2020.

Many of our insights and adaptations during 2020 related to the hiring and support of our employees are expected to be continued through 2021. These include additional outreach and enhanced communication by our leadership and employees at multiple levels and support for more flexible work plans.

At a foundational level, employees receive training related to workplace safety and emergency preparedness, awareness and expectations of inclusion and diversity, required data protection, and other regulatory matters. Our Diversity Committee identifies learnings employees can benefit from including insights from employees with different backgrounds and opportunities to actively contribute at work and in our communities to support diversity and inclusiveness. As an example, we have made visible the contributions of various groups to the science that informs our work at Personalis.

We believe engagement and retention is especially critical at Personalis given the complex and highly technical nature of our work. Successfully onboarding new employees involves a significant commitment from managers and fellow employees. Retaining newly hired team members is also critical given the relatively small number of applicants who meet our requirements and the competitive market for such talent. Our approach involves ongoing internal and external reviews and benchmarking of the competitiveness of our offerings, including in the following areas: cash and equity compensation, benefits, workplace flexibility, and career growth and development opportunities. As a company with significant growth plans, we expect to continue not only with our current efforts, but to broaden them with input from employees and managers, as well as comparisons with others in our industries and other sectors.

As of December 31, 2020, we had 235 employees, 234 of whom were full-time employees. Of these full-time employees, 96 were in research and development, 60 in laboratory operations, 44 in commercial operations, and 34 in general and administrative functions. At this time, 227 of our full-time employees are in the United States (including 208 who are based out of our corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California), six of our full-time employees are in Europe, and one of our full-time employees is in China. As of December 31, 2020, more than 95 of our employees had completed a Ph.D. or other advanced science or medical degree.

None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by collective bargaining agreements, and we have not experienced any work stoppages. We consider our relations with our employees to be good.

Environment

We believe we are in compliance with the regulations established by the state of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Requirements and California Environmental Protection Agency applicable to our operations in Menlo Park, California. This includes, but is not limited to, having an Injury and Illness Prevention Program, a Hazard Communication Program, an Emergency Action Plan, a Chemical Hygiene Plan and an Exposure Control Plan, which are captured in written standard operating procedures (“SOPs”). We provide training to our employees on these SOPs. We are committed to evaluate our compliance to such regulations on a recurring basis.

Available Information

Our website is located at https://www.personalis.com. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, including their exhibits, proxy and information statements, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a), 14, and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available through the “Investors” portion of our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Information on our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any of our other securities filings unless specifically incorporated herein or therein by reference. In addition, our filings with the SEC may be accessed through the SEC’s Interactive Data Electronic Applications system at http://www.sec.gov. All statements made in any of our securities filings, including all forward-looking statements or information, are made as of the date of the document in which the statement is included, and we do not assume or undertake any obligation to update any of those statements or documents unless we are required to do so by law.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Summary of Risk Factors

The following is a summary of the principal risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations. You should read this summary together with the more detailed description of risk factors below under the heading “Risk Factors”.

Operational, Strategic and Business Risks

Regulatory, Legal and Cybersecurity Risks

Intellectual Property Risks

Financial and Market Risks and Risks Related to Owning Our Common Stock

Risk Factors.

Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties including those described below. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks or others not specified below materialize, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

Operational, Strategic and Business Risks

We have a history of losses, and as our costs increase, we expect to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and may not be able to generate sufficient revenues to achieve or sustain profitability.

We have incurred net losses since our inception. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018 we had net losses of $41.3 million, $25.1 million, and $19.9 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $181.9 million. To date, we have not generated sufficient revenues to achieve profitability, and we may never achieve or sustain profitability. In addition, we expect to continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect our accumulated deficit to continue to increase as we focus on scaling our business and operations. Our efforts to sustain and grow our business may be more costly than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenues sufficiently to offset our higher operating expenses. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital. Our failure to achieve and sustain profitability in the future would negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows, and could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

If we are unable to increase sales of our current services or successfully develop and commercialize other services or products, or if we are unable to execute our sales and marketing strategy for our services or unable to gain sufficient acceptance in the market, we may fail to generate sufficient revenues to achieve profitability and sustain our business.

We currently derive substantially all of our revenues from sales of our services. We began offering our services through our Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”)-certified, College of American Pathologists (“CAP”)-accredited, and state-licensed laboratory in 2013. We are in varying stages of research and development for other services and products that we may offer. If we are unable to increase sales of our existing services or successfully develop and commercialize other services and products, we will not generate sufficient revenues to become profitable.

In addition, as a growing genomics company, we have engaged in targeted sales and marketing activities for our services. Although we have had revenues from sales of our services since 2013, our services may never gain significant acceptance in the marketplace and therefore may never generate substantial revenues or permit us to become profitable. We will need to further establish and grow the market for our services through the expansion of our current relationships and development of new relationships with biopharmaceutical customers. Gaining acceptance in medical communities can be supported by, among other things, publications in leading peer-reviewed journals of results from studies using our services. The process of publication in leading medical journals is subject to a peer review process and peer reviewers may not consider the results of our studies sufficiently novel or worthy of publication. Failure to have our studies published in peer-reviewed journals would limit the adoption of our services.

Our ability to successfully market our services that we have developed, and may develop in the future, will depend on numerous factors, including:

• the recruitment, hiring, and retention of our commercial team personnel;

• our ability to continue to fund sales and marketing activities;

• whether our services are considered superior to those of our competitors;

• our success enforcing and defending intellectual property rights and claims.

Failure to achieve broad market acceptance of our services would materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our operations and employees face risks related to health crises, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results. The COVID-19 pandemic could materially affect our operations, including at our headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is currently subject to restrictive orders, and the business or operations of our customers or other third parties with whom we conduct business.

Our business could be adversely impacted by the effects of a health crisis, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that could cause significant disruption in the operations of our customers and third-party suppliers upon whom we rely. Our laboratory facilities (other than the facilities being developed for our use in Shanghai, China), executive team, and most of our employees are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the event of a health crisis that becomes widespread in or around the San Francisco Bay Area, we may proactively, or be ordered by government officials to, take precautionary measures such as suspending our lab operations, implementing alternative work arrangements for our employees, and limiting our employees’ travel activities.

Our operations have been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While the state and county reopening and health orders applicable to us allow for continued operation of so-called Essential Businesses, which includes certain critical healthcare operations and services, we have substantially closed our office facilities and limited access to our laboratory facilities to protect our employees and to comply with the provisions described within the orders. We provided temporary increased pay to certain laboratory personnel in the second quarter for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such increased pay was not provided in the third or fourth quarters, but we may decide to resume increased pay in the future. The previous shelter-in-place order and current reopening and health orders have negatively impacted productivity, disrupted our business, and slowed research and development activities due to us limiting access to our laboratory space that would otherwise be used by our research and development group, and, to the extent such orders remain in place, they may continue to cause such effects on our operations. The reopening and health orders may disrupt the ability of our suppliers to fulfill our purchase orders in a timely manner or at all. Additionally, we are aware of increased demand in the market for certain consumables used in COVID-19 test kits. We use such consumables in our operations, and we may face difficulties in acquiring such consumables if our suppliers prioritize orders related to COVID-19. Several of our customers, including the VA MVP, were delayed in sending us samples in the second and third quarters due to the inability to collect or ship samples during the COVID-19 pandemic, and these and additional customers may be disrupted from collecting samples or sending purchase orders and samples to us in the future. Many of our customers, potential customers and potential partners have also put in place policies restricting visitors from other companies, and therefore our sales team and members of management have been unable to meet such parties in person, which may result in reduced acquisition of new customers, fewer orders from existing customers, and fewer potential partnering opportunities. If our laboratory employees were to contract COVID-19, we may significantly curtail our laboratory operations or pause operations altogether until the imminent health risk to our employees subsided. Such disruptions in our operations, and our customers’ and suppliers’ operations, may continue to adversely affect revenues and operating results.

The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to rapidly evolve and to present serious health risks. While authorities in some areas have lifted or relaxed certain of the restrictions described above, in some cases they have subsequently re-imposed various restrictions after observing an increased rate of COVID-19 cases; for example, in December 2020, state and local authorities in California reinstated shelter-in-place orders in light of the increasing rate of COVID-19 cases and shortage of intensive care unit beds across the state. Furthermore, there is no guarantee when or if all such restrictions will be eliminated, such that we and our customers, manufacturers and suppliers will be able to safely resume operations consistent with our pre-COVID-19 operations. Vaccines against COVID-19 have been approved by the FDA and other regulatory authorities, but there is uncertainty as to when these vaccines will be widely available to our employees and the population at large and how quickly and to what extent the vaccines will impact the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the extent of the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results is uncertain, a continued and prolonged public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic could have a material negative impact on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

If we cannot compete successfully with our competitors, we may be unable to increase or sustain our revenues or achieve and sustain profitability.

Our principal competition comes from commercial and academic organizations using established and new laboratory tests to produce information that is similar to the information that we generate for our customers. These commercial and academic organizations may not utilize our services or may not believe them to be superior to those tests that they currently use or others that are developed. Further, it may be difficult to convince our customers to use our comprehensive test rather than simpler panels provided by our competitors. For example, the information that we provide may be more challenging or require additional resources for our customers to interpret than the information provided by our competitors’ less comprehensive assays.

Some of our present or potential competitors, including Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, C2i Genomics, Inc., Caris Life Sciences, Inc., Covance Inc., which was acquired by Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings in February 2015, Foundation Medicine, Inc., which was acquired by Roche Holdings, Inc. in July 2018, Freenome, Inc., Genosity, Inc., Guardant Health, Inc., Inivata

Limited, Invitae Corporation, Mount Sinai Genomics, Inc. which does business under the name Sema4, Natera, Inc., NanoString Technologies, Inc., NeoGenomics, Inc., Personal Genome Diagnostics, Inc., Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., and Tempus, Inc., may have more widespread brand recognition or substantially greater financial or technical resources, development or production capacities, or marketing capabilities than we do. They may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products and services than we do or sell their products and services at prices designed to win more significant levels of market share. In addition, our present or potential competitors may be acquired by, receive investments from, or enter into other commercial relationships with larger, more well-established and well-financed companies. For example, in September 2020, Illumina, Inc. (“Illumina”) announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire GRAIL, Inc. (“GRAIL”), a company focused on early cancer detection and potentially other forms of cancer analysis using next-generation sequencing technology, which we view as a potential competitor. Others may develop lower-priced, less complex products and services that pharmaceutical companies could view as functionally equivalent to our current or planned future services which could force us to lower the price of our services and impact our operating margins and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability. In addition, companies or governments that control access to genetic testing and related services through umbrella contracts or regional preferences could promote our competitors or prevent us from performing certain services. In addition, technological innovations that result in the creation of enhanced products or diagnostic tools that are more sensitive or specific than ours may enable other clinical laboratories, hospitals, physicians, or medical providers to provide specialized products or services similar to ours in a more patient-friendly, efficient, or cost-effective manner than is currently possible. If we cannot compete successfully against current or future competitors, we may be unable to ensure or increase market acceptance and sales of our current or planned future services, which could prevent us from increasing or sustaining our revenues or achieving or sustaining profitability.

We expect that biopharmaceutical companies will increasingly focus attention and resources on the targeted and personalized cancer diagnostic sector as the potential and prevalence of molecularly targeted oncology therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) along with companion diagnostics increases. For example, the FDA has approved several such targeted oncology therapies that use companion diagnostics, including the anaplastic lymphoma kinase FISH test from Abbott Laboratories, Inc. for use with Xalkori® from Pfizer Inc., the BRAF kinase V600 mutation test from Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. for use with Zelboraf® from Daiichi-Sankyo/Genentech/Roche, and the BRAF kinase V600 mutation test from bioMerieux for use with Tafinlar® from GlaxoSmithKline. Since companion diagnostic tests are part of FDA labeling, non-FDA cleared tests, such as the ones we currently offer as part of our services, would be considered an off-label use and this may limit our access to this market segment. Our customers and potential customers may request, or in some cases have requested, that we consider developing and seeking FDA approval for companion diagnostic tests to accompany those customers’ therapeutic product candidates, and it may be necessary for us to do so in order to successfully compete for the business of these customers. If we do not successfully develop FDA-approved companion diagnostics, we may be at a competitive disadvantage and may be unable to increase market acceptance and sales of our other product offerings, which would prevent us from increasing or sustaining our revenues or achieving or sustaining profitability. If we were to develop one or more FDA-approved companion diagnostics, we would incur increased research and development expenses, and such activities may also divert our resources or the attention of our management and may create competing internal priorities for us.

Additionally, projects related to cancer diagnostics and particularly genomics have received increased government funding, both in the United States of America (the “U.S.”) and internationally. As more information regarding cancer genomics becomes available to the public, we anticipate that more products and services aimed at identifying treatment options will be developed and that these products and services may compete with our services. In addition, competitors may develop their own versions of our current or planned future services in countries where we did not apply for or receive patents and compete with us in those countries, including encouraging the use of their products or services by biopharmaceutical companies in other countries.

We have substantial customer concentration, with a limited number of customers accounting for a substantial portion of our revenues and accounts receivable.

Like other genomic profiling companies that sell to the pharmaceutical industry, we have substantial customer concentration. We currently derive a significant portion of our revenues from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the “VA”) Million Veteran Program (the “VA MVP”), which accounted for 71%, 67%, and 49% of our revenues for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. Our top five customers, including the VA MVP, accounted for 87%, 90, and 82% of our revenues for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. There are inherent risks whenever a large percentage of revenues are concentrated with a limited number of customers. Our predictions regarding the future level of demand for our services that will be generated by these customers may be wrong. In addition, revenues from our larger customers have historically fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate based on the commencement and completion of clinical trials or other projects, the timing of which may be affected by market conditions or other factors, some of which may be outside of ourcontrol. Further, while we have long-term contractual arrangements with certain of our customers, these customers are not required to purchase a minimum number of analyses. Some of our customers have in the past suspended or terminated clinical trials or projects, received less funding than expected, experienced declining or delayed sales, or otherwise decided to reduce or eliminate their use of our services, and these and other customers may also do so in the future. As a result, we could be pressured to reduce the prices we charge for our services, which would have an adverse effect on our margins and financial position, and which would likely negatively affect our revenues and results of operations. In particular, if the VA MVP terminates our services for convenience, which it is permitted to do, such termination would have a material adverse effect on our revenues, cash position, and results of operations. Similarly, if the VA MVP was eliminated, awarded its contract to one of our competitors, further reduced the size of our contract or failed to renew our contract in the future, then our revenues, cash position, and results of operations would be materially adversely impacted. Further, if any of our other significant customers were to cease using or stop payment for our services, it would have a material adverse effect on our accounts receivable, increasing our credit

risk. The failure of these customers to pay their balances, or any customer to pay future outstanding balances, would result in an operating expense and reduce our cash flows.

We currently derive a substantial portion of our revenues from DNA sequencing and data analysis services that we provide to our largest customer, the VA MVP. If the VA MVP’s demand for and/or funding for our DNA sequencing and data analysis services is substantially reduced or if the VA MVP conducts a competitive bid process for the next contract and we do not win, our business, financial condition, operating results, and cash flows would be materially harmed.

We derive a substantial portion of our current and expected future revenues from sales of our DNA sequencing and data analysis services to the VA MVP. In September 2017, we entered into a one-year contract with three one-year option renewal periods with the VA for the VA MVP, pursuant to which we received contracted orders from the VA MVP in September 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. This contract expired in August 2021 and does not include a renewal option. Our current task order under this contract extends through August 2021. In order for us to provide additional services to the VA MVP after August 2021, we would need to receive an additional task order before the current contract expires in September 2021, or enter into a new services agreement with the VA MVP.

The VA MVP may initiate a competitive bidding process for its next DNA sequencing and data analysis services contract. We may not win any potential new contract in such bidding process, the value of such contract or the VA MVP contracted orders thereunder may be lower than our current contract and historical contracted orders from the VA MVP, and/or the scope or nature of the services required under such new contract may change such that we are unable to serve the VA MVP in the future.

The VA MVP’s contracted orders for DNA sequencing and data analysis services have fluctuated in value over time and are subject to the availability of funding, enrollment of veterans in the VA MVP study, and the VA MVP’s continued demand for our services among other factors. For example, the VA MVP contracted order received in September 2020 has a value of up to approximately $31 million, whereas the VA MVP contracted order received in September 2019 had a value of up to approximately $38.1 million. We have no certainty that funding will be made available for our services, or that the VA MVP will award any future contracts, contract renewals or contracted orders to us. If the priorities of the VA, the VA MVP, or the U.S. government change, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for example, funding for our services may be limited or not available, and our business, financial condition, and operating results and cash flows would be materially harmed. Similarly, if we do not win future VA MVP contracts and renewals (whether due to being outbid by a competitor or the VA MVP’s decision to terminate for convenience or failure to renew for whatever reason), our business, financial condition, and operating results and cash flows would be materially harmed. The success of our business and our future operating results are significantly dependent on the VA MVP’s receipt of funding for use of our services and the terms of our sales to the VA MVP, including the price per sample, the number of samples and the timing of the VA MVP’s deliveries of samples. Furthermore, we only recognize revenue under our VA MVP contract upon the receipt and processing of samples, and the timing and number of VA MVP samples we receive has been and could in the future be negatively affected by factors beyond our control, which has resulted, and may result in the future, in delaying our ability to process and recognize revenue for such samples. For example, the revenue we recognized during the contract year that began in September 2019 significantly exceeded the value of the VA MVP contracted order we received in September 2019 because wecontinued to receive after such date, and subsequently processed, samples under VA MVP contracted orders that remained unfulfilled as of September 2019 due to the time required for the VA to select optimal samples from its collection for research and then provide us those samples. Therefore, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results relating to VA MVP contracted orders may not be meaningful and, even if we win a potential new VA MVP contract and order with a value comparable to that of the September 2019 contracted order, the revenue we recognize under such potential new contract and order may be less than the revenue we recognized during the 2019-2020 contract year, and may also be less than the revenue we expect to recognize during the 2020-2021 contract year because we expect during the current contract year to finish processing most or all of the samples under VA MVP contracted orders that remained unfulfilled as of September 2020, in addition to samples received under the September 2020 contracted order. The timing and number of VA MVP samples may also have been or be negatively affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in March 2020, the VA MVP announced that it was suspending sample collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we believe the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a contributing factor to the reduction in value of the September 2020 VA MVP contracted order compared to the September 2019 contracted order, as the VA MVP delayed new enrollment and also may have needed to divert resources to respond to the pandemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic may also negatively impact the value of any potential new VA MVP contract or order.

If we cannot maintain our current customer relationships, or fail to acquire new customers, our revenue prospects will be reduced. Many of our customers are biopharmaceutical companies engaged in clinical trials of new drug candidates, which trials are expensive, can take many years to complete, and have inherently uncertain outcomes.

Our customers other than the VA MVP are primarily biopharmaceutical companies that use our services to support clinical trials. Our future success is substantially dependent on our ability to maintain our customer relationships and to establish new ones. Many factors have the potential to impact our customer relations, including the type of support our customers and potential customers require and our ability to deliver it, our customers’ satisfaction with our services, and other factors that may be beyond our control. Furthermore, our customers may decide to decrease or discontinue their use of our services due to changes in research and product development plans (including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic), failures in their clinical trials, financial constraints, or utilization of internal testing resources or tests performed by other parties, or other circumstances outside of our control.

We engage in conversations with customers regarding potential commercial opportunities on an ongoing basis in the event that one of these customers’ drug candidates is approved. There is no assurance that any of these conversations will result in a commercial agreement, or if an agreement is reached, that the resulting relationship will be successful or that clinical studies conducted as part of the engagement will produce successful outcomes. Speculation in the industry about our existing or potential relationships with biopharmaceutical companies could be a catalyst for adverse speculation about us, our services, and our technology, which can adversely affect our reputation and our business. In addition, the termination of these relationships could result in a temporary or permanent loss of revenue.

Our customers’ clinical trials are expensive, can take many years to complete, and their outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through pre-clinical studies and early clinical trials. Many of the biopharmaceutical companies that are our customers do not have products approved for commercial sale and are not profitable. These customers must continue to raise capital in order to continue their development programs and to potentially continue as our customers. If our customers’ clinical trials fail or they are unable to raise sufficient capital to continue investing in their clinical programs, our revenues from these customers may decrease or cease entirely, and our business may be harmed. Furthermore, even if these customers have a drug approved for commercial sale, they may not choose to use our services as a companion diagnostic with their drug, thereby limiting our potential revenues.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers, or in some cases, a sole supplier, for some of our laboratory instruments and materials, and we may not be able to find replacements or immediately transition to alternative suppliers should we need to do so.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for sequencers and other equipment and materials that we use in our laboratory operations. For example, we rely on Illumina as the sole supplier of sequencers and various associated reagents, and as the sole provider of maintenance and repair services for these sequencers. Our master subcontractor agreement with Illumina is set to expire in August 2021, and our various pricing agreements with Illumina are set to expire on various dates up to December 2022. In September 2020, Illumina announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire GRAIL, a company focused on early cancer detection and potentially other forms of cancer analysis using next-generation sequencing technology. Any disruption in Illumina’s operations, or our inability to negotiate an extension to our agreements with Illumina on acceptable terms, or at all, or any competitive pressure resulting from Illumina’s anticipated acquisition of GRAIL, could negatively impact our supply chain and laboratory operations and our ability to conduct our business and generate revenue. Our suppliers could cease supplying these materials, reagents, and equipment at any time, or fail to provide us with sufficient quantities of materials or materials that meet our specifications. Our laboratory operations could be interrupted if we encounter delays or difficulties in securing equipment, materials, reagents, or sequencers, or if we cannot obtain an acceptable substitute. Any such interruption could significantly affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and reputation.

We believe that there are only a few manufacturers other than Illumina that are currently capable of supplying and servicing the equipment necessary for our laboratory operations, including sequencers and various associated reagents. The use of equipment or materials provided by these replacement suppliers would require us to alter our laboratory operations. Transitioning to a new supplier would be time-consuming and expensive, would likely result in interruptions in our laboratory operations, could affect the performance specifications of our laboratory operations, or could require that we revalidate our tests. We cannot assure you that, if we were forced to replace Illumina or another supplier on which we rely, we would be able to secure alternative equipment, reagents, and other materials, and bring such equipment, reagents, and materials on line and revalidate them without experiencing interruptions in our workflow. If we encounter delays or difficulties in securing, reconfiguring, or revalidating the equipment and reagents we require for our services, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and reputation could be adversely affected.

In addition, the Device Master File that we have filed with the FDA, which is focused on the technology, quality management, and validation of our platform, specifically on its use for the development of personalized immunotherapies, is predicated on our use of specified equipment and processes, including Illumina sequencers and related equipment. The detailed information in the Device Master File is not shared with our customers, but with our permission they can reference our FDA file number in their Investigational New Drug filings with the FDA. If we were required to transition to a new supplier of sequencers or certain other equipment or processes in our laboratory, our Device Master File would need to be replaced or updated, and until such time as that occurred, customers for which we deliver services after the transition would not be able to reference our Device Master File, which would cause us to lose a competitive advantage.

We will need to invest in our infrastructure in advance of increased demand for our services, and our failure to accurately forecast demand would have a negative impact on our business and our ability to achieve and sustain profitability.

In order to execute our business model, we need to invest in scaling our infrastructure, including hiring additional personnel and expanding laboratory capacity. We will also need to purchase additional equipment, some of which can take several months or more to procure, setup, and validate, and increase our software and computing capacity to meet increased demand. There is no assurance that any of these increases in scale, expansion of personnel, equipment, software, and computing capacities, or process enhancements will be successfully implemented, or that we will have adequate space in our laboratory facilities to accommodate suchrequired expansion. We expect that much of this growth will be in advance of increased demand for our services. Our current and projected future expense levels are to a large extent fixed and are largely based on our current investment plans and our estimates of future test volume. As a result, if revenues do not meet our expectations we may not be able to promptly adjust or reduce our spending to levels commensurate with our revenues. If we fail to generate demand commensurate with our infrastructure growth or if we fail to scale our infrastructure sufficiently in advance of demand to successfully meet such demand, our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

As we commercialize additional services or products, we may need to incorporate new equipment, implement new technology systems and laboratory processes, or hire new personnel with different qualifications. Failure to manage this growth or transition could result in turnaround time delays, higher costs, declining service and/or product quality, deteriorating customer service, and slower responses to competitive challenges. A failure in any one of these areas could make it difficult for us to meet market expectations for our services, and could damage our reputation and the prospects for our business.

If our facilities become damaged or inoperable, or we are required to vacate the facilities, our ability to sell and provide our services and pursue our research and development efforts may be jeopardized.

We currently derive our revenues from our genomic analysis conducted in our laboratories. We do not have any clinical reference or research and development laboratory facilities other than our facilities in Menlo Park, California, and the facilities being developed for our use in Shanghai, China. Our facilities and equipment could be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including fires, earthquakes, flooding, and power outages, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to sell or perform our services for some period of time. Additionally, as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have limited access to our office and laboratory facilities in Menlo Park to protect the health and safety of our employees and to comply with applicable state and local orders. Northern California has recently experienced serious fires and the San Francisco Bay Area is considered to lie in an area with earthquake risk. The inability to sell or to perform our sequencing and analysis services, disruptions in our operations, or the backlog of samples that could develop if our facilities are inoperable for even a short period of time, may result in the loss of customers or harm to our reputation or relationships with scientific or clinical collaborators, and we may be unable to regain those customers or repair our reputation or such relationships in the future. The limited access to our laboratory facilities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted, and may in the future result, in a loss in productivity, including delays to research and development programs. Furthermore, our facilities and the equipment we use to perform our services and our research and development work could be costly and time-consuming to repair or replace.

Additionally, a key component of our research and development process involves using biological samples as the basis for the development of our services. In some cases, these samples are difficult to obtain. If the parts of our laboratory facilities where we store these biological samples were damaged or compromised, our ability to pursue our research and development projects, as well as our reputation, could be jeopardized. We carry insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business, but this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all.

Further, if our laboratory facilities became inoperable, we would likely not be able to license or transfer our technology to other facilities with the qualifications, including state licensure and CLIA certification, that would be necessary to cover the scope of our current and our planned future services. Even if we were to find facilities with such qualifications to perform our services, they may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms.

Our success depends on our ability to provide reliable, high-quality genomic data and analyses and to rapidly evolve to meet our customers’ needs.

Errors, including if our tests fail to accurately detect gene variants, or mistakes, including if we fail to or incompletely or incorrectly identify the significance of gene variants, could have a significant adverse impact on our business. We classify variants in accordance with guidelines that are subject to change and subject to ourinterpretation. There have also been and could in the future be flaws in the databases, third-party tools or algorithms we use, or in the software that handles automated parts of our classification protocol. If we receive poor quality or degraded samples, our tests may be unable to accurately detect gene variants or we may fail to or incompletely or incorrectly identify the significance of gene variants, which could have a significant adverse impact on our business.

Inaccurate results or misunderstandings of, or inappropriate reliance on, the information we provide to our customers could lead to, or be associated with, side effects or adverse events in patients who use our tests, including treatment-related death, and could lead to termination of our services or claims against us. A product liability or professional liability claim could result in substantial damages and be costly and time-consuming for us to defend.

Although we maintain liability insurance, including for errors and omissions and professional liability, we cannot assure you that our insurance would be sufficient to protect us from the financial impact of defending against these types of claims, or any judgments, fines, or settlement costs arising out of any such claims. Any liability claim, including an errors and omissions liability claim, brought against us, with or without merit, could increase our insurance rates or prevent us from securing insurance coverage in the future. Additionally, any liability lawsuit could cause injury to our reputation or cause us to suspend sales of our tests or cause a suspension of our license to operate. The occurrence of any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business, reputation, and results of operations.

If we cannot develop services and products to keep pace with rapid advances in technology, medicine, and science, or if we experience delays in developing such services and products, our operating results and competitive position could be harmed.

In recent years, there have been numerous advances in technologies relating to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Several new cancer drugs have been approved, and a number of new drugs are in pre-clinical and clinical development. There have also been advances in methods used to identify patients likely to benefit from these drugs based on analysis of biomarkers. We must continuously develop new services and products, enhance any existing services, and avoid delays in such developments and enhancements to keep pace with evolving technologies on a timely and cost-effective basis. Our current services and our planned future services and products could become obsolete unless we continually innovate and expand them to demonstrate benefit in the diagnosis, monitoring, or prognosis of patients with cancer. New cancer therapies typically have only a few years of clinical data associated with them, and much of that data may not be disclosed by the pharmaceutical company that conducted the clinical trials. This could limit our ability to develop services and products based on, for example, biomarker analysis related to the appearance or development of resistance to those therapies. If we cannot adequately demonstrate the clinical utility of our services and our planned future services and products to new treatments, sales of our services could decline, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We are researching and developing improvements to our tests and test features on a continuous basis, but we may not be able to make these improvements on a timely basis, and even if we do, we may not realize the benefits of these efforts in our financial results.

To remain competitive, we must continually research and develop improvements to our tests or test features. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to develop and commercialize the improvements to our tests or test features on a timely basis. Our competitors may develop and commercialize competing or alternative tests and improvements faster than we are able to do so. In addition, we must expend significant time and funds in order to conduct research and development, further develop and scale our laboratory processes, and further develop and scale our infrastructure. We may never realize a return on investment on this effort and expense, especially if our improvements fail to perform as expected. If we are not able to realize the benefits of our efforts to improve our tests or test features, it could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Personalized cancer therapies represent new therapeutic approaches that could result in heightened regulatory scrutiny, delays in clinical development, or delays in or inability to achieve regulatory approval, commercialization, or payor coverage, any of which could adversely affect our business.

We currently work with certain companies developing personalized cancer therapies, and our future success will in part depend on our personalized cancer customers obtaining regulatory approval for and commercializing their product candidates. Because personalized cancer therapies represent a new approach to immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, developing and commercializing personalized cancer therapies is subject to a number of challenges.

Actual or perceived safety issues, including adoption of new therapeutics or novel approaches to treatment, may adversely influence the willingness of subjects to participate in clinical studies, or if approved by applicable regulatory authorities, of physicians to subscribe to the novel treatment mechanics. The FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities may ask for specific post-market requirements, and additional information regarding benefits or risks of our services may emerge at any time prior to or after regulatory approval.

In the EEA (and Northern Ireland) the new European Union (“EU”) In Vitro Diagnostic Device Regulation (the “IVDR”) entered into force on May 25, 2017, replacing the In-Vitro Diagnostic Directive (the “IVDD”) (and national legislation that implemented the IVDD in member states) as the primary legislation governing in-vitro diagnostic devices (“IVD”). Most requirements under the IVDR will not apply until the end of a transition period which is expected to occur on May 26, 2022. The IVDR broadens the scope of the regulation of IVDs and, amongst other things, tightens the requirements for clinical evidence and conformity assessment, increases transparency requirements, and introduces a requirement for a unique device identifier for every IVD. Under the IVDR there are four classes of IVDs, referred to as classes A, B, C, and D. IVDs are placed into a class based on their perceived risk to the patient and wider public. The main requirements of the IVDR apply regardless of the class which the relevant device falls into, and class A devices (including instruments and specimen receptacles) are the only devices that can be self-certified as meeting the requirements of the IVDR. The IVDR explicitly includes software used for diagnostic purposes in its scope. The IVDR requires pre-registration and post-market data collection to ensure that the device meets the relevant requirements. It is also notable that diagnostic and therapeutic services offered to customers in the EEA (and Northern Ireland) (whether directly or via intermediaries) by providers that are based outside the EEA will be covered by the IVDR. The IVDR will not apply to Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). These additional regulatory requirements are likely to increase the cost and time required in order to obtain regulatory approval for products in the EEA where such approval was already necessary, and in certain cases will introduce a new requirement to obtain regulatory approval where one did not

exist under the IVDD arrangements. Further, the IVDR may result in devices being classified in a higher risk category than would have been the case under the existing IVDD arrangements.

Physicians, hospitals, and third-party payors often are slow to adopt new products, technologies, and treatment practices that require additional upfront costs and training. Physicians may not be willing to undergo training to adopt personalized cancer therapies, may decide that such therapies are too complex to adopt without appropriate training or not cost-efficient, and may choose not to administer these therapies. Based on these and other factors, hospitals and payors may decide that the benefits of personalized cancer therapies do not or will not outweigh their costs.

The loss of key members of our executive management team could adversely affect our business.

Our success in implementing our business strategy depends largely on the skills, experience, and performance of key members of our executive management team and others in key management positions, including John West, our Chief Executive Officer, Richard Chen, our Chief Scientific Officer, and Aaron Tachibana, our Chief Financial Officer. The collective efforts of each of these persons and others working with them as a team are critical to us as we continue to develop our technologies, services, products, and research and development programs. As a result of the difficulty in locating qualified new management, the loss or incapacity of existing members of our executive management team could adversely affect our operations. If we were to loseone or more of these key employees, or if one or more of these key employees were to become unable to perform his or her duties due to contracting COVID-19, we could experience difficulties in finding qualified successors, competing effectively, developing our technologies, and implementing our business strategy. Each member of our executive management team has an employment agreement; however, the existence of an employment agreement does not guarantee retention of members of our executive management team, and we may not be able to retain those individuals. We do not maintain “key person” life insurance on any of our employees.

In addition, we rely on collaborators, consultants, and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our collaborators, consultants, and advisors are generally employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under agreements with other entities that may limit their availability to us.

The loss or extended illness of a key employee, the failure of a key employee to perform in his or her current position, or our inability to attract and retain skilled employees could result in our inability to continue to grow our business or to implement our business strategy.

We rely on highly skilled personnel in a broad array of disciplines and if we are unable to hire, retain, or motivate these individuals, or maintain our corporate culture, we may not be able to maintain the quality of our services or grow effectively.

Our performance, including our research and development programs and laboratory operations, largely depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, and retain highly skilled personnel for all areas of our organization. Competition in our industry for qualified employees is intense, and we may not be able to attract or retain qualified personnel in the future, including bioinformatic scientists, bioinformatic engineers, software engineers, statisticians, variant curators, clinical laboratory scientists, and genetic counselors, due to the competition for qualified personnel among life science businesses, technology companies, as well as universities and public and private research institutions, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of our U.S. employees are at-will, which means that either we or the employee may terminate their employment at any time. In addition, our compensation arrangements, such as our equity award programs, may not always be successful in attracting new employees and retaining and motivating our existing employees for reasons that may include movements in our stock price. If we are not able to attract and retain the necessary personnel to accomplish our business objectives, we may experience constraints that could adversely affect our ability to scale our business and support our research and development efforts and our laboratory operations. We believe that our corporate culture fosters innovation, creativity, and teamwork. However, as our organization grows, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture. This could negatively impact our ability to retain and attract employees and our future success.

We may not be able to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.

Our expected future growth could create a strain on our organizational, administrative, and operational infrastructure, including facilities, laboratory operations, quality control, customer service, marketing and sales, and management. We may not be able to maintain the quality of or expected turnaround times for our tests, or satisfy customer demand as our test volume grows. Our ability to manage our growth properly will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial, and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures. As a result of our growth, our operating costs may escalate even faster than planned, and some of our internal systems may need to be enhanced or replaced. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, it may be difficult for us to execute our business strategy and our business could be harmed.

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

As part of our business strategy, we may pursue acquisitions of complementary businesses or assets, as well as technology licensing arrangements. We may also pursue strategic alliances that leverage our core technology and industry experience to expand our offerings or distribution, or make investments in other companies. As an organization, we have limited experience with respect to acquisitions as well as the formation of strategic alliances and joint ventures. We may not identify or complete these transactions in a timely manner, on a cost-effective basis, or at all, and we may not realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, technology license, strategic alliance, joint venture or investment, and their consideration may be distracting to our management or prevent us from pursuing other opportunities. In addition, we may not be able to find suitable partners or acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete such transactions on favorable terms, if at all. Any future such transactions by us also could result in significant write-offs, the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities, exposure to additional liability, exposure to additional revenue concentration, additional regulatory obligations and exposure to additional potential liability, any of which could harm our operating results and future prospects. If we make any acquisitions in the future, we may not be able to integrate these acquisitions successfully into our existing business, and we could assume unknown or contingent liabilities. Integration of an acquired company or business also may require management resources that otherwise would be available for ongoing development of our existing business.

To finance any acquisitions or investments, we may choose to raise additional funds. The various ways we could raise additional funds carry potential risks. See “Financial and Market Risks and Risks Related to Owning Our Common Stock—Our inability to raise additional capital on acceptable terms in the future may limit our ability to continue to operate our business and further expand our operations.” If the price of our common stock is low or volatile, we may not be able to acquire other companies using stock as consideration. Alternatively, it may be necessary for us to raise additional funds for these activities through public or private financings. Additional funds may not be available on terms that are favorable to us, or at all.

Ethical, legal, and social concerns related to the use of genetic information could reduce demand for our tests.

Genetic testing has raised ethical, legal, and social concerns regarding privacy and the appropriate uses of the resulting information. Governmental authorities have, through the Genetic Information Nondisclosure Act, and could further, for social or other purposes, limit or regulate the use of genetic information or genetic testing or prohibit testing for genetic predisposition to certain conditions, particularly for those that have no known cure. Ethical and social concerns may also influence governmental authorities to deny or delay the issuance of patents for technology relevant to our business. Similarly, these concerns may lead patients to refuse to use, or clinicians to be reluctant to order, genetic tests even if permissible. These and other ethical, legal, and social concerns may limit market acceptance of our tests or reduce the potential markets for our tests, either of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

Any collaboration arrangements that we have entered into or may enter into in the future may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our services and products.

Any current or future collaborations, including any strategic alliances or any collaborations to develop companion diagnostic tests, that we have entered or may enter into may not be successful. The success of our collaboration arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborations are subject to numerous risks, which include that:

If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of that program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

Our planned expansion into China entails substantial risks.

In June 2020, we announced a partnership with a clinical genomics and life sciences company headquartered in China as a means to expand business operations into China in the near term. Our first wholly owned subsidiary was formed in Shanghai in October 2020. Our expansion and investment plans are subject to substantial risks which may include, but are not limited to: the inability to protect our intellectual property rights under Chinese law, which may not offer as high a level of protection as U.S. law; unexpectedly long negotiationperiods with Chinese suppliers and customers; quality issues related to supplies sourced from local vendors; unexpectedly high labor costs due to a tight labor supply; foreign investment restrictions; and difficulty in repatriating funds and selling or transferring assets. Our investments in China also expose us to additional foreign currency exchange risk. In addition, as tensions have escalated between the U.S. and China, we believe there is an enhanced risk that our planned investments in China may be subject to unforeseen risks or restrictions, which may include expropriation of the investments by the Chinese government. These and other risks may result in our not realizing a return on, or losing some, or all, of our planned investments in China, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and financial performance.

Personal privacy, cyber security, and data protection are becoming increasingly significant issues in China. For example, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China adopted the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Administration of Human Genetic Resources, which went into effect on July 1, 2019. The regulations establish a framework for the collection, preservation, utilization, and supply abroad of human genetic resources of China. The regulations also establish a framework for the use of data and other information generated from use of human genetic resources of China. The regulations also provide that foreign organizations, individuals and entities established or controlled by them are prohibited to collect or preserve China’s human genetic resources or transport them abroad. Due to the lack of detailed interpretations and implementations, it is not clear whether the agency in China responsible for enforcing the regulations will grant the necessary approvals for use by us and our partners of our NeXT Platform or our other current or future products in research or clinical projects involving China’s human genetic resources or information generated therefrom. The Chinese government separately has various regulations relating to the collection, use, storage, disclosure, and security of data, among other things. We cannot assure you that we will be able to comply with all of these regulatory requirements. Any failure to comply with relevant regulations and policies could result in significant cost and liability to us and could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Any additional new regulations or the amendment or modification of previously implemented regulations, or the failure to receive any necessary approvals for use of our products in connection with such projects, could require us and our partners to change our business plans and incur additional costs, and could limit our ability to generate revenues in China.

Expansion into international markets would subject us to increased regulatory oversight and regulatory, economic, social, health and political uncertainties, which could cause a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, and results of operations.

We may in the future expand our business and operations into international jurisdictions in which we have limited operating experience, including with respect to seeking regulatory approvals and marketing and selling products and services. For example, in June 2020, we announced our intention to expand into China. As we expand internationally, our operations in these jurisdictions may be adversely affected by general economic conditions and economic and fiscal policy, including changes in exchange rates and controls, interest rates and taxation policies, increased government regulation, social instability, local or regional health crises, and political, economic or diplomatic developments in the future. Certain jurisdictions have, from time to time, experienced instances of civil unrest and hostilities, both internally and with neighboring countries. Rioting, military activity, terrorist attacks, or armed hostilities could cause our operations in such jurisdictions to be adversely affected or suspended. We generally do not have insurance for losses and

interruptions caused by terrorist attacks, military conflicts and wars. In addition, anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws may conflict with some local customs and practices in foreign jurisdictions. Our international operations may subject us to heightened scrutiny under the FCPA, the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”) Bribery Act and similar anti-bribery laws, and could subject us to liability under such laws despite our best efforts to comply with such laws. As a result of our policy to comply with the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act and similar anti-bribery laws, we may be at a competitive disadvantage to competitors that are not subject to, or do not comply with, such laws. Further, notwithstanding our compliance programs, there can be no assurances that our policies will prevent our employees or agents from violating these laws or protect us from any such violations. Additionally, we cannot predict the nature, scope or impact of any future regulatory requirements that may apply to our international operations or how foreign governments willinterpret existing or new laws. Alleged, perceived, or actual violations of any such existing or future laws by us or due to the acts of others, may result in criminal or civil sanctions, including contract cancellations or debarment, and damage to our reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Regulatory, Legal and Cybersecurity Risks

Our tests may be subject to regulatory action if regulatory agencies determine that our tests do not appropriately comply with statutory and regulatory requirements enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and/or CLIA requirements for quality laboratory testing.

The laws and regulations governing the marketing of clinical laboratory tests are extremely complex and in many instances there are no significant regulatory or judicial interpretations of these laws and regulations. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the “FDC Act”) defines a medical device to include any instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent or other similar or related article, including a component, part, or accessory, intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease, in man or other animals. Some of our tests may be considered by the FDA to be in vitro diagnostic products that are subject to regulation as medical devices. Among other things, pursuant to the FDC Act and its implementing regulations, the FDA regulates the research, testing, manufacturing, safety, labeling, storage, recordkeeping, premarket clearance or approval, marketing and promotion, and sales and distribution of medical devices in the U.S. to ensure that medical products distributed domestically are safe and effective for their intended uses. In addition, the FDA regulates the import and export of medical devices.

PSNL US Equity

PSNL · 10-K · period ended 2020-12-31

Item 1. Business.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

PSNL US Equity☆

PSNL · 10-K · period ended 2020-12-31

Item 1. Business.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

PSNL US Equity