Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our condensed consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before investing in our common stock. Many of the risks and uncertainties are, and will be, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and any worsening of the global business and economic environment as a result. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risk and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. The realization of any of these risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations, growth and future prospects, as well as our ability to accomplish our strategic objectives. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business
We are an early-stage company with a history of significant losses, we expect to incur losses in the future and we may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability.
We have incurred annual net losses since our formation in 2010. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we had net losses of $63.0 million and $34.7 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $153.0 million. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through equity and debt financings and from sales of our products, the OMNI® Surgical System, or OMNI, a device that enables canaloplasty followed by trabeculotomy for the reduction of intraocular pressure in adult patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, or POAG, and our TearCare® System, or TearCare, which is indicated for the application of localized heat therapy in adult patients with evaporative dry eye disease, or DED, due to meibomian gland dysfunction, or MGD, when used in conjunction with manual expression of the meibomian glands. The losses and accumulated deficit have primarily been due to the substantial investments we have made to develop our products, costs related to our sales and marketing efforts, general research and development expenses, including costs related to clinical trials and regulatory initiatives to obtain marketing clearance, and infrastructure improvements.
In addition, as a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. Accordingly, we expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future and we cannot assure you that we will ever achieve profitability or that, if we do become profitable, we will sustain profitability. Our failure to achieve and sustain profitability in the future would make it more difficult to finance our business and accomplish our strategic objectives, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, failure of our products to significantly penetrate our target markets would negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our revenue has been primarily generated from the sales of our products and is expected to continue to be so generated for the near future, and we are therefore highly dependent on the success of those products, and particularly on OMNI. We have limited commercial sales experience regarding our products, which makes it difficult to evaluate our current business, predict our future prospects and forecast our financial performance and growth.
We began selling VISCO360 and TRAB360, commercial predicate devices to OMNI, in 2015 and TearCare in 2019 and therefore do not have a long history operating as a commercial company. Currently, we are highly dependent on the success of OMNI and TearCare. To date, our revenue has primarily been derived, and we expect it to continue to be substantially derived in the near future, from sales of our Surgical Glaucoma and Dry Eye products. We are particularly dependent on the success of OMNI, which accounted for 95% of our totalrevenues for the year ended December 31, 2021. Because we devote substantially all of our resources to these products and rely on them as our sole source of revenue, any factors that negatively impact our products, and particularly OMNI, or result in a decrease in sales, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Over the next several years, we expect to continue to devote a substantial amount of resources to expand our commercialization efforts, drive increased adoption of our products and continue to develop new and improved products. Our limited commercialization experience and limited number of products make it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future prospects. These factors also make it difficult for us to forecast our future financial performance and growth, and such forecasts are subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to successfully complete
33
preclinical studies and clinical trials or investigations and obtain FDA pre-market clearance or similar clearance, approval, or certification for our current products and for future planned products or changes to existing products.
Ophthalmologist and optometrist (together, eyecare professionals or ECPs) awareness of, and experience with, our products is currently limited. As a result, our products have limited product and brand recognition within the ophthalmic industry. The novelty of our products, together with our limited commercialization experience, makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future prospects. A number of factors, including some outside of our control, may contribute to fluctuations in our financial results, including:
•
ECP and patient demand for our products;
•
Our ability to obtain and maintain reimbursement coverage for procedures in which our products are used;
•
Changes in reimbursement rates by government or commercial payors;
•
The results of our clinical trials or investigations;
•
Positive or negative media coverage, or public, patient and/or physician perception, of our products or competing products and treatments;
•
Any safety or effectiveness concerns that arise regarding our products for either their currently authorized uses or the uses for which we are developing our products;
•
The effectiveness of our marketing and sales efforts, including our ability to have a sufficient number of qualified sales representatives to sell our products;
•
Unanticipated delays in product development or product launches;
•
Our ability to raise additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all, if needed to support the commercialization of our products;
•
Our ability to achieve and maintain compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements applicable to our products;
•
Our ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights;
•
Our third-party manufacturers’ ability to supply our products in a timely manner, in accordance with our specifications, and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements; and
•
Introduction of new products or alternative treatments that compete with our products.
It is therefore difficult to predict our future financial performance and growth, and such forecasts are inherently limited and subject to a number of uncertainties. If our assumptions regarding the risks and uncertainties we face, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change due to circumstances in our business or our markets, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations and our business could suffer.
Our business is dependent upon the broad adoption of our products by ECPs and patients.
Our future growth and profitability largely depend on our ability to increase ECP and patient awareness of our products and on the willingness of ECPs and patients to adopt our products. ECPs may not adopt our products unless they are able to determine, based on experience, clinical data, medical society recommendations and other analyses, that our products are clinically differentiated from, or otherwise preferable to, available alternatives. Even if we are able to raise awareness among ECPs, they may be slow to change their medical treatment practices and may be hesitant to select our products for a variety of reasons, including:
•
Lack of experience with our products and concerns that we are relatively new to market;
•
Perceived liability risk generally associated with the use of new products and treatment options;
•
Lack, or perceived lack, of sufficient clinical evidence, including long-term data, supporting clinical benefits or the cost-effectiveness of our products over existing treatments;
34
•
The failure of key ophthalmologist and optometrist leaders to provide recommendations regarding our products, or to assure physicians, patients and healthcare payors of the benefits of our products as an attractive alternative to other treatment options;
•
Perceptions that our products are unproven;
•
ECPs' long-standing relationships with companies, distributors and salespeople that sell competing products;
•
Lack of availability of adequate third-party payor coverage or reimbursement, or changes in (or new) third-party payor coverage or reimbursement policies that are materially adverse to the Company's interest;
•
Competitive response and negative selling efforts from providers of alternative treatments;
•
Challenges of integrating TearCare into established ophthalmologic and optometric practices; and
•
Perceptions regarding the time commitment and skill development that may be required to gain familiarity and proficiency with our products.
To effectively market and sell our products, we will need to continue to educate the medical community about the safety, efficacy, necessity and efficiency of our products and about the patient populations that would potentially benefit from the use of our products. We focus our sales, marketing and education efforts primarily on our target ECP providers, ambulatory surgery centers, hospital outpatient departments and potential patient populations. However, we cannot assure you that we will achieve broad education or market acceptance. For example, if first-line ECPs or primary care physicians that serve as the early point of contact for patients are not made aware of our OMNI products, they may not refer patients to ECPs who utilize our products, and those patients may be treated with alternative procedures or treatments. In addition, some physicians may choose to utilize our products on only a subset of their total patient population or may not adopt our products at all. If we are not able to effectively demonstrate that our products are beneficial for a broad range of patients, adoption of our products will be limited and may not occur as rapidly as we anticipate or at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, if we are unable to obtain or maintain favorable third-party reimbursement coverage of procedures in which our OMNI product is used, if we are unable to obtain favorable reimbursement for procedures in which TearCare is used, or if competitive products obtain comparatively favorable third-party reimbursement coverage as compared to our products, adoption of our products by ECPs and patients will suffer. We cannot assure you that our products will achieve broad market acceptance among payors, physicians and patients. Any failure of our products to satisfy demand or to achieve meaningful market acceptance and penetration will harm our future prospects and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Adoption of OMNI and TearCare depends upon appropriate physician training, practice and patient selection.
The success of our products depends in part on the skill of the ECPs utilizing and administering products to treat patients and on their adherence to our stated patient selection criteria and the proper techniques that we provide in training sessions. We train ECPs on the correct use of OMNI. However, ECPs rely on their previous medical training and experience when performing ophthalmic surgical procedures and may deviate from the techniques we provide in training sessions. Furthermore, we cannot guarantee that all such ECPs who use OMNI will have the necessary skills or experience to safely and effectively perform these procedures. Similarly, though we train ECPs to ensure correct use of TearCare, including placement of TearCare SmartLids on patients’ eyelids and expression of the patients' meibomian glands, we cannot guarantee that all such ECPs will have the necessary skills or experience to safely and effectively use these devices.
We do not control which physicians utilize these medical devices in their treatments or how much training they receive, and physicians who have not completed our training sessions may nonetheless attempt to use OMNI as part of an ophthalmic surgical procedure or use TearCare to apply localized heat. In addition, a perception by physicians that OMNI or TearCare are difficult to use may negatively impact adoption by ECPs. If ECPs utilize these devices in a manner that is inconsistent with our labeled indications or with components that are not part of our products, such as viscoelastic fluid that is incompatible with OMNI, or without adhering to or completing our training sessions, the patient outcomes may be negative. This could negatively impact the perception of patient benefits and safety associated with OMNI and TearCare and limit adoption of our devices, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
35
Development of TearCare for expanded indications depends upon positive clinical data, and the safety and efficacy of our products for the intended uses for which we intend to seek clearance, certification or approval are not yet supported by long-term clinical data, which could delay or prevent clearance by the FDA (or other foreign authorities or notified bodies) or limit sales if cleared, certified or approved and our products might therefore prove to be less safe or effective than initially thought.
We received clearance from the FDA for our TearCare product in December 2021 for the application of localized heat therapy in adult patients with evaporative dry eye disease (DED) due to meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), when used in conjunction with manual expression of the meibomian glands, and we intend to continue to develop TearCare for expanded indications in the future.
We are conducting and intend to continue conducting additional clinical trials or investigations to develop our devices for expanded indications. Historical clinical results, including interim results, are not necessarily predictive of future clinical results, and we cannot assure you that the results reported in these studies will be consistent with, or better than, currently available clinical data. Moreover, the outcomes and updates resulting from these studies, including interim results, may be compared to the results of other products and treatments for POAG or MGD, and if the comparisons are not favorable, it may limit the ability to obtain clearance, certification or approval of the devices for the expanded indications for which we intend to seek clearance, certification or approval, as well as adoption of our products for their current authorized uses. In addition, our competitors and other third parties may also conduct clinical trials or investigations of our products without our participation. Unfavorable or inconsistent clinical data from existing or future clinical trials or investigations conducted by us, our competitors or other third parties, the interpretation of our clinical data or findings of new or more frequent adverse events, could subject us to mandatory or voluntary product recalls, suspension or withdrawal of FDA or other clearance, certification or approval, significant legal liability or harm to our business reputation and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our products will be adopted and compete, in part, based on long-term data regarding patient outcomes and the risk of our products relative to other treatment options. The long-term clinical outcomes of the use of OMNI for its cleared uses are not known and, due to the novelty of our products, there is no long-term data regarding patient outcomes beyond our clinical trials or investigations. The results of short-term clinical experience of our products do not necessarily predict long-term clinical outcomes. We believe that ECPs will compare the rates of long-term clinical outcomes for procedures using our products for their authorized uses against alternative procedures and treatment options. If the long-term data does not meet ECPs’ expectations, or if the long-term data indicates that our products are not as safe or effective as other treatment options or as current short-term data would suggest, physicians may recommend alternative treatments for their patients and our products may not become widely adopted, which will negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The safety and efficacy of some of our products is not yet supported by long-term clinical data, which could limit sales, and our products might therefore prove to be less safe or effective than initially thought.
The products that we market in the United States are regulated as medical devices by the FDA. OMNI and TearCare have received premarket clearance under Section 510(k) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or the FDCA. In the 510(k) clearance process, before a device may be marketed the FDA must determine that a proposed device is “substantially equivalent” to a legally-marketed “predicate” device, which includes a device that has been previously cleared through the 510(k) process, a device that was legally marketed prior to May 28, 1976 (preamendments device), a device that was originally on the U.S. market pursuant to an approved PMA application and later down-classified, or a 510(k)-exempt device. This process is typically shorter and generally requires the submission of less supporting documentation than the FDA’s PMA process and does not always require long-term clinical studies.
In the European Union, or EU, manufacturers of medical devices are required by the Medical Devices Regulation to collect post-marketing clinical data in relation to their CE marked medical devices. Post-market surveillance includes the conduct of post-market clinical follow-up studies permitting manufacturers to gather information concerning quality, safety or performance of medical devices after they have been placed on the market in the EU. All information collected as part of the post-market surveillance process must be reviewed, investigated and analyzed on a regular basis in order to determine whether trending conclusions can be made concerning the safety or performance of the medical device and decisions must be taken in relation to the continued marketing of medical devices currently on the market. We expect to incur ongoing costs to comply with these post-market clinical obligations in EU markets for so long as we continue to market and sell products in those markets, as well as in the European Economic Area, or EEA, markets (also including Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland).
36
We are conducting and intend to continue conducting additional clinical trials, including clinical trials to develop TearCare for expanded indications. In addition, our competitors and other third parties may also conduct clinical trials of our products without our participation. If future patient studies or clinical testing do not support our belief that our products are advantageous for their intended uses, market acceptance of our products could fail to increase or could decrease and our business could be harmed. Moreover, if future results and experience by us, our competitors or other third parties, indicate that our products cause unexpected or serious complications or other unforeseen negative effects, we could be subject to mandatory or voluntary product recalls, suspension or withdrawal of FDA or other governmental clearance or approval or certifications, significant legal liability or harm to our business reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We believe that ECPs will compare the rates of long-term clinical outcomes for procedures using our products for their authorized uses against alternative procedures and treatment options. If we choose to, or are required to, conduct additional studies, equivocal or unfavorable results from such studies or experience could lead to a reduction in the rate of coverage and reimbursement by both public and private third-party payors for procedures that are performed with our products, slow market adoption of our products by ECPs, significantly reduce our ability to achieve expected revenues and prevent us from being profitable.
We have limited experience in training on, and marketing and selling, our products and we may provide inadequate training, fail to increase our sales and marketing capabilities or fail to develop broad brand awareness in a cost-effective manner.
We have limited experience marketing and selling our products. In the United States, we currently rely on our direct sales force and any failure to maintain and grow our sales force could harm our business. In Europe, we currently rely on a combination of direct sales personnel and independent distributors to sell our products, and we intend to grow our international sales through a combination of direct and distributor sales. If we are unable to identify and retain productive direct sales representatives and distributors in the international territories and jurisdictions that we have targeted for commercial expansion, we may not be able to achieve projected revenue goals and our business could suffer. Our sales representatives are trained and possess product specific sales expertise, which we believe is critical in driving the awareness and adoption of our products. The members of our U.S. sales force are at-will employees. The loss of these personnel to competitors, or otherwise, could materially harm our business. If we are unable to retain our direct sales force personnel or replace them with individuals of equivalent expertise and qualifications, or if we are unable to successfully instill such expertise in replacement personnel, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.
In order to generate future growth, we plan to continue to significantly expand and leverage our commercial infrastructure to increase our customer base and increase adoption by existing customers to drive our growth. Identifying and recruiting qualified sales and marketing professionals and training them on our products, on applicable federal and state laws and regulations and on our internal policies and procedures requires significant time, expense and attention. It can take several months or more before a sales representative or distributor representative is fully trained and productive. Our direct sales force may subject us to higher fixed costs than those of companies with competing products or treatments that rely more heavily on independent third parties, placing us at a competitive disadvantage. Our business may be harmed if our efforts to expand and train our sales force and distribution chain do not generate a corresponding increase in product sales and revenue, and our higher fixed costs may slow our ability to reduce costs in the face of a sudden decline in demand for our products. Any failure to hire, develop and retain effective sales personnel, to identify and train distributors and independent sales representatives in targeted international territories, to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time or timely reduce fixed costs, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our products will depend, to a significant extent, on our ability to expand our sales and marketing and educational efforts. We plan to dedicate significant resources to our sales and marketing initiatives, and educational programs through leading medical publications and at large industry and scientific meetings, both directly and through key opinion leaders. Our business may be harmed if these efforts and expenditures do not generate a corresponding increase in revenue. In addition, we believe that developing and maintaining broad awareness of our brand in a cost-effective manner is critical to achieving broad acceptance of our products and reaching new ECPs and patients. Brand promotion activities may not impact ECP or patient awareness or increase revenue, and even if they do, any increase in revenue may not offset the costs and expenses we incur in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote, maintain and protect our brand, we may fail to attract or retain the market
37
acceptance necessary to realize a sufficient return on our brand building efforts, or to achieve the level of brand awareness that is an important factor for the broad adoption of our products.
Our products are designed to be used in a limited number of procedures, and there is a limited total addressable market for our products. The sizes of the potential and actual markets for our current products have not been established with precision and may be smaller than we estimate.
We currently market our OMNI device for use in the U.S. and select European geographies for canaloplasty followed by trabeculotomy to reduce intraocular pressure in adult patients with POAG. POAG is the most prevalent form of glaucoma and affects approximately 4.1 million people in the United States and over 60 million people worldwide. We currently market TearCare in the United States for the application of localized heat therapy in adult patients with evaporative DED due to MGD, when used in conjunction with manual expression of the meibomian glands. There are an estimated 739 million people globally and 38 million people in the U.S. who suffer from DED. DED is the most common reason for a patient visit to an eye doctor, yet of the estimated 38 million people with DED in the U.S., only approximately 17 million have been diagnosed with DED. Studies have shown that evaporative DED resulting from MGD is associated with approximately 86% of all DED cases.
The total addressable markets for our products are subject to change and may be limited by FDA restrictions or more narrowly defined indications, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Further, our estimates of the total addressable markets for our products are based on a number of internal and third-party estimates, including, without limitation, the number of patients with POAG and MGD, and the assumed prices at which we can sell our products in markets that have not yet been fully established. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the annual total addressable market for our current products may prove to be incorrect. If the actual number of patients who would benefit from our products or the price at which we can sell our products is smaller than we have estimated, it may impair our sales growth and negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our operations and financial results have been, and will continue to be, adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and the rest of the world.
In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was identified in Wuhan, China. Since then, SARS-CoV-2, and the resulting disease, COVID-19, has spread worldwide. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous state and local jurisdictions have imposed, modified, removed and reimposed, and others in the future may impose, “shelter-in-place” orders, quarantines, executive orders and similar government orders and restrictions for their residents. Such orders or restrictions have resulted in work stoppages, slowdowns and delays, travel restrictions and cancellation of events. Disruptions to our business from COVID-19 include the inability of our component suppliers and manufacturers to produce our products, components, or accessories on a timely basis, or at all; disruptions in our logistics and distribution providers to deliver our products to customers on a timely basis, or at all; potential disruption in our employee base as a result of COVID-19 regulations and requirements (including vaccination mandates); inventory shortages or obsolescence; diversion of or limitations on employee resources that would otherwise be focused on the operations of our business; delays in growing or reductions in our sales organization, including through delays in hiring, lay-offs, furloughs or other losses of sales representatives; limitations on the ability of our sales representatives and distributors to reach potential customers and reduced opportunities for market education; business adjustments or disruptions of certain third parties, including suppliers and customers; and additional government requirements or other incremental mitigation efforts that may further impact our or our suppliers’ capacity to manufacture our products. For example, as a result of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen customer delays or cancellations of elective procedures using our products from time to time, which has resulted at various periods in decreased revenues as against our forecast. Our sales representatives have been curtailed in their ability to conduct in-person meetings and demonstrations, and our market education and training efforts have been limited. We also have and may continue to experience delays in initiating or completing any clinical trials or investigations that we intend to conduct or are conducting, and we do not know whether our clinical trials or investigations will begin on time, need to be redesigned, enroll patients on time, or be completed on schedule, or at all.
We experienced a significant decrease in revenues for both of our products in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to the first quarter of 2020. As elective eyecare procedures in many facilities that utilize OMNI and TearCare were
38
temporarily suspended by governmental authorities, many patients avoided visiting ECPs, and, even in areas that allowed elective procedures, ECPs and healthcare facilities in general severely cut back on the scheduling and performance of such procedures. The decrease in demand due to COVID-19 most significantly impacted our revenues in the latter part of the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter of 2020. Beginning in June 2020, we began to see an increase in the number of procedures using our products. In the first quarter of 2021, our customers experienced a significant number of procedure cancellations which we believe was largely driven by patients postponing procedures until their COVID-19 vaccinations were completed as opposed to any restrictions imposed on elective procedures. Our normal business operations were again disrupted by the Delta variant in the third quarter of 2021 and the Omicron variant in the fourth quarter of 2021 and into early 2022.
Though demand for our products grew during the latter half of the second quarter as well as in the second half of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the procedure cancellations that we have observed at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021 and into the first quarter of 2022 illustrate the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our business. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business in the future will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity and spread of COVID-19, any new variants of the virus, the nature, extent and effectiveness of containment and treatment measures, the extent and duration of the effect on the economy and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of an infectious disease, including COVID-19, could materially affect our business. Such economic recession could have a material adverse effect on our long-term business as hospitals and surgical centers curtail and reduce capital and overall spending. Unfavorable economic conditions brought on or exacerbated by the pandemic have resulted in significant job losses and reductions in disposable income, which we believe has negatively impacted our revenues. If patients are unable to obtain or maintain health insurance policies or experience decreases in their income, this may significantly impact their ability to pay for the procedures utilizing our products, which could further negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot predict the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the degree to which our business, financial condition and results of operations may continue to be affected, particularly given the lengthy duration of the pandemic. To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.
We may not be able to incrementally secure or maintain adequate levels of third-party coverage and reimbursement for procedures in which OMNI is used, and third parties may rescind or modify their coverage or delay payments related to OMNI. We may not be able to incrementally secure any, or adequate levels of, third-party coverage and reimbursement for procedures in which TearCare is used, and even if third parties provide coverage they may rescind or modify their coverage or delay payments related to TearCare.
We derive revenue from sales of OMNI to physicians, ambulatory surgery centers and hospital outpatient departments, which typically bill all or a portion of the costs and fees associated with our products to various third-party payors, including Medicare, Medicaid, private commercial insurance companies, health maintenance organizations and other healthcare-related organizations, and then bill patients for any applicable deductibles or co-payments. As a result, access to adequate coverage and reimbursement for procedures in which OMNI is used by third-party payors is essential to its acceptance and adoption by patients and ECPs.
We also derive revenue from sales of TearCare to ECPs and eye care clinics, which also bill all or a portion of the costs and fees associated with treatments and products to patients or, on a limited basis, to third-party payors. We believe that access to adequate coverage and reimbursement for procedures in which TearCare is used by third-party payors is important to the broad acceptance and adoption of TearCare. Currently, however, no payors have formal policies establishing coverage for the procedures in which TearCare is used. We are pursuing a comprehensive long-term market development and patient access plan for TearCare and focusing our efforts on partnering with key strategic accounts to pursue prior authorization approvals and reimbursement claims for procedures in which TearCare is used, but there is no guarantee that we will be successful. If patients are not willing to pay for procedures in which TearCare is used, or if third-party payors continue to refuse to provide coverage and reimbursement or provide insufficient levels of coverage and reimbursement, it could have a negative impact on ECPs’ adoption of TearCare and sales of TearCare.
39
Coverage and reimbursement by governmental and third-party payors may depend upon a number of factors, including the determination that the product or service and its use or administration for a particular patient is:
•
A covered benefit;
•
Safe, effective reasonable and medically necessary;
•
Appropriate for the specific patient;
•
Supported by clinical data;
•
Supported by guidelines established by the relevant professional societies;
•
Cost-effective; and
•
Neither experimental nor investigational.
Third-party payors, whether foreign or domestic, or governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs. In addition, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for procedures using our products exists among third-party payors. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for procedures using our products can differ significantly from payor to payor. Obtaining and maintaining coverage and reimbursement can be a time-consuming process that could require us to provide supporting scientific, clinical and cost-effectiveness data for the use of our products. We may not be able to provide data sufficient to satisfy governmental and third-party payors that procedures using our products should be covered and reimbursed.
In the United States, the American Medical Association, or AMA, generally assigns specific billing codes for procedures under a coding system known as Current Procedure Terminology, or CPT, which surgeons use to bill third-party payors and receive reimbursement. Once a permanent (Category I) CPT code is established for a service, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, establishes payment levels under Medicare, while other payors may establish rates and coverage rules independently. Canaloplasty followed by trabeculotomy procedures using OMNI are typically billed using the Category I CPT code 66174, which describes canaloplasty. Coding for ophthalmic surgical procedures is complex, and changes to the codes used to report services performed with our products may result in significant changes in reimbursement, which could negatively impact our revenue.
The AMA maintains a subset of temporary (Category III) CPT codes used for new and emerging technologies. For example, TearCare was assigned a Category III CPT code effective beginning January 1, 2020. Coverage for Category III CPT codes is often limited. Medicare does not generally establish national payment rates for Category III CPT codes on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, or MPFS. As a result, individual Medicare contractors and private payors may establish their own payment rates for services described by Category III CPT codes, as has been the case with TearCare, which payment rates are subject to change, may be variable across Medicare contractors, may be materially below the final reimbursement rates that we are currently targeting, or may determine not to reimburse services described by Category III CPT codes.
Payors also continually review new and existing technologies for possible coverage and can deny or reverse coverage for new or existing products and procedures. There can be no assurance that third-party payor policies provide coverage, or will continue to provide coverage, for procedures in which OMNI is used. If coverage policies change such that Medicare no longer covers procedures in which our products are used, there would be a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, Medicare Administrative Contractors could issue local coverage determinations that could restrict the patients eligible for treatment with our products or that are otherwise unfavorable to our business. If we are not successful in reversing any proposed non-coverage policies, or if third-party payors that currently cover or reimburse procedures in which our products are used reverse or limit their coverage in the future, or if other third-party payors issue similar policies, this could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Further, we believe that future coverage and reimbursement may be subject to increased restrictions, such as additional prior authorization requirements, both in the United States and in international markets. Third-party coverage and reimbursement for procedures using our products or any of our products in development for which we may receive regulatory clearance, certification or approval may not be available or adequate in either the United States or international markets. Further, other devices or treatments that compete with our products may be more widely covered or subject to different co-pay policies and requirements, which could impact demand for our products. If hospital, surgical center, ECP
40
and/or patient demand for our products is adversely affected by third-party reimbursement policies and decisions, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The market for our products is highly competitive. Our competitors may have longer operating histories, more established products and greater resources than we do, and may be able to develop or market treatments that are safer, more effective or gain greater acceptance in the marketplace than our products.
The medical device industry is highly competitive, subject to rapid change and significantly affected by the introduction of new products and technologies and the other activities of industry participants. We compete, or plan to compete, with medical device and pharmaceutical companies that develop and commercialize products for eye conditions, including Glaukos, Ivantis, AbbVie/Allergan, Novartis, Alcon, Johnson & Johnson, and New World Medical. These companies, or other entrants into the market, may have or develop competing technologies, other products that are in or that enter clinical trials, new devices or additional indications for existing devices that could demonstrate better safety, effectiveness, clinical results, lower costs or greater ECP and market acceptance than our products.
We compete, or may compete in the future, against other companies which have longer, more established operating histories and significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, sales, distribution and other resources, which may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration or improved operating results. These companies may enjoy several competitive advantages, including:
•
Established treatment patterns pursuant to which prescription medications, traditional glaucoma surgery or more conventional MIGS devices are generally first-line therapies for the treatment of POAG and eye drops or warm-compresses are first-line therapies for the treatment of MGD;
•
Established relationships with ECPs who are familiar with their products and procedures for the treatment of POAG or MGD;
•
Established relationships with key stakeholders, including hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgery centers, optometrists and ophthalmologists, general practitioners and administrators;
•
Greater financial and human capital resources;
•
Significantly greater name recognition;
•
Additional lines of products, and the ability to offer rebates or bundle products to offer greater discounts or incentives to gain a competitive advantage; and
•
Established sales, marketing and worldwide distribution networks.
One of the major hurdles to adoption of our products will be overcoming established treatment patterns, which will require educating ECPs and supportive clinical data. However, because of the size of the market opportunity for devices used in procedures to address POAG and MGD, we believe current and potential future competitors will dedicate significant resources to aggressively promote their products or develop new products or treatments, such as Glaukos’ iStent infinite and iPRIME Viscodelivery System. Further, new treatment options may be developed that could compete more effectively with our products due to the prevalence of POAG and MGD, and the research and technological progress that exist within the market. Also, even if competitor products do not have indications for use or clinical data that are comparable to ours, ECPs can still choose these competitor products for a variety of reasons, including those set forth above. For instance, competitors may seek to bundle their products in a manner that is attractive to ECPs, which may result in decreased use or adoption of our products by ECPs, notwithstanding that our products may offer superior efficacy.
We rely on third parties to manufacture and supply OMNI and TearCare, and we may encounter delays or incur additional costs when we add new manufacturers and suppliers for our products.
Our business strategy depends on our ability to manufacture our current and future products in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis to meet customer demand, while adhering to product quality standards, complying with regulatory quality system requirements and managing manufacturing costs. We do not have any internal manufacturing capabilities or infrastructure. OMNI is currently being produced and assembled by Peter’s Technology (Suzhou) CO LTD., or Peter’s, a subsidiary of Peter’s Co., Ltd., a Taiwan-based manufacturer, and we also maintain OMNI product inventory manufactured by Second Source Medical, LLC (“Second Source”), our previous OMNI manufacturer, which will be used to fulfill customer orders until such inventory has been depleted. We intend to fully transition OMNI production to Peter’s and an
41
additional high-volume contract manufacturer with domestic U.S. production facilities in 2022. The Peter’s Supply Agreement governs the assembly and supply of OMNI by Peter's, pursuant to which Peter’s purchases components from our approved suppliers for assembly and we make purchases on a purchase order basis. We would likely encounter delays or incur additional costs in connection with the transition to a new contract manufacturer with domestic U.S. and Chinese production facilities for OMNI production. For the production of TearCare, we currently have supply arrangements with separate Chinese and U.S. medical device manufacturers for the production of TearCare’s SmartLids, TearCare’s SmartHubs, and TearCare's Clearance Assistant. These companies manufacture, assemble, inspect, test, package and ship OMNI and TearCare and related accessories.
While our existing manufacturers have generally met our demand requirements on a timely basis in the past, their ability and willingness to continue to do so going forward may be limited for several reasons, including if any of our manufacturers’ facilities suffer damage or a force majeure event, our relative importance as a customer to each manufacturer or their inability to provide assembly services to manufacture our products, which may be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. An interruption in our commercial operations could occur if we encounter delays or difficulties in securing these manufactured products if we cannot obtain an acceptable substitute.
The process of identifying alternative manufacturing facilities for any other reason could be time-consuming and expensive, may result in interruptions in our operations and product delivery, and could affect the performance specifications of our products. If we are required to change any of our contract manufacturers, we will be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities, procedures and operations that comply with our quality and applicable regulatory requirements, which could further impede our ability to manufacture our products in a timely manner. We cannot assure you that we will be able to identify and engage alternative contract manufacturers on similar terms or without delay. Furthermore, our contract manufacturers could require us to move to a different production facility. The occurrence of any of these events could harm our ability to meet the demand for our products in a timely and cost-effective manner, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are also subject to numerous other risks relating to our reliance on third parties, including:
•
Inability to renew or extend contracts and arrangements with such third parties or renew any such contracts or arrangements on terms that are favorable to us;
•
Interruption of supply resulting from modifications to, or discontinuation of, a third-party’s operations;
•
Delays in shipments resulting from uncorrected defects, reliability issues or a third-party’s failure to manufacture and supply components, accessories, materials, and assembly that consistently meet our agreed specifications and quality requirements;
•
Inability to obtain adequate supply or services in a timely manner or on commercially reasonable terms;
•
Difficulty identifying and qualifying, and obtaining new regulatory approvals, for alternative suppliers for our products and product components in a timely manner;
•
Inability to design or modify production processes to enable us to produce future products efficiently or implement changes in current products in response to design or regulatory requirements;
•
Inability to comply with applicable provisions of the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, or QSR, or other applicable laws or regulations enforced by the FDA, state and foreign regulatory authorities;
•
Inability to ensure the quality of products and components manufactured by third parties;
•
Failure to timely increase production capacity or volumes to meet demand;
•
Production delays related to the evaluation and testing of products and components from alternative third parties and corresponding regulatory qualifications;
•
An outbreak of disease or similar public health threat, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as it may impact our supply chain;
•
Long lead time for the production of certain components of our products;
•
Price fluctuations due to a lack of long-term supply arrangements with certain of our suppliers;
42
•
Risk of delays or interruption stemming from trade wars; and
•
General delays in delivery by our suppliers.
These risks are likely to be exacerbated by our limited experience with our current products and manufacturing processes. As demand for our products increases, we will have to invest additional resources to manage the manufacturing process. If we fail to secure increased production capacity efficiently, we may not be able to fill customer orders on a timely basis, our sales may not increase in line with our expectations and our operating margins could fluctuate or decline. In addition, although some future products may share product features, components, sub-assemblies and materials with our existing products, the manufacture of these products may require modification of the current production processes or unique production processes, the identification of new suppliers for specific components, sub-assemblies and materials or the development of new manufacturing technologies. It may not be possible for our current third-party manufacturers to produce these products at a cost or in quantities sufficient to make these products commercially viable or to maintain current operating margins, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend on a limited number of single source suppliers.
We rely on a limited number of third-party manufacturers, many of which are single source suppliers, for a portion of the components, accessories, materials and assembly that we utilize in our products. These items are critical and, for certain items, there are relatively few or no readily available alternative sources of supply. These single source suppliers may be unwilling or unable to supply these items reliably and at the levels we anticipate or that are required by the market. Additionally, although we require our suppliers and providers to supply us with components and services that meet our specifications and other applicable legal and regulatory requirements in our agreements and contracts, and appropriate inspections, testing or other acceptance activities are performed to ensure the components meet our requirements, there is a risk that these third parties will not always act consistent with our best interests, and may not always supply components or provide services that meet our requirements or in a timely manner.
While our suppliers have generally met our demand requirements on a timely basis in the past, we cannot guarantee that suppliers will in the future be able to meet our demand, either because of acts of nature, global pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of our agreements with those suppliers or our relative importance to them as a customer, and our suppliers may decide in the future to discontinue or reduce the level of business they conduct with us. We may also fail to obtain additional suppliers for any of the components used in our products. If we are unable to meet our demand requirements on a timely basis, we may not have a sufficient number of our products available for delivery to support ECPs that utilize our products as part of their treatment. For instance, if our supply of OMNI products from Peter's were to be interrupted or suspended for any significant period, we may be unable to meet customer demand for our products until such time that another supplier (or suppliers) can ramp production to meet this shortfall, or Peter's can resume its product supply in accordance with our purchasing requirements. Any shortfall in the supply of products may result in lower adoption and usage rates of our products and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The failure of third parties to meet their contractual, regulatory, and other obligations could adversely affect our business.
We rely on suppliers, vendors, outsourcing partners, consultants, alliance partners and other third parties to help research, develop, manufacture, commercialize and distribute our products and manage certain parts of ourbusiness. Using these third parties poses a number of risks, such as: (i) they may not perform to our standards or legal requirements; (ii) they may not produce reliable results; (iii) they may not perform in a timely manner; (iv) they may not maintain confidentiality of our proprietary information; (v) disputes may arise with respect to ownership of rights to technology developed with our partners; and (vi) disagreements could cause delays in, or termination of, the research, development or commercialization of our products or result in litigation or arbitration. Moreover, some third parties are located in markets subject to political and social risk, corruption risk, infrastructure problems and natural disasters, in addition to country-specific privacy and data security risk given current legal and regulatory environments. Failure of third parties to meet their contractual, regulatory, and other obligations may materially adversely affect our business.
The failure of OMNI or TearCare to meet patient expectations or the occurrence of adverse events from use of OMNI or TearCare could limit their adoption and impair our financial performance.
43
Our future success depends in part upon patients having an experience with our products that meets their expectations in order to increase ECPs’ demand for our products as a result of positive feedback, social media and word-of-mouth. Patients may be dissatisfied if their expectations of the procedures performed by ECPs using our products, among other things, are not met. Despite what we believe to be the strong safety profile of our products for their intended uses, patients may experience adverse events following canaloplasty or trabeculotomy with OMNI, including, but not limited to, hyphema, mild anterior chamber inflammation and spikes in intraocular pressure. Similarly, patients may experience adverse events following application of localized heat with TearCare, including discomfort, pain or erythema of the eyelids.
If experiences with OMNI or TearCare do not meet the expectations of patients, or if patients experience adverse events, it could discourage the patient and treating physician from referring our products to others. Dissatisfied patients may express negative opinions through social media or other public forums. Any failure to meet patient expectations and any resulting negative publicity could harm our reputation and future sales and therefore adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our results of operations could be materially harmed if we are unable to accurately forecast customer demand for our products and manage our inventory.
We seek to maintain sufficient levels of inventory in order to protect ourselves from supply interruptions, but keep limited components, sub-assemblies, materials and finished products on hand. To ensure adequate inventory supply and manage our operations with our third-party suppliers, we forecast anticipated materials requirements and demand for our products in order to predict inventory needs and then place orders with our suppliers based on these predictions. Our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products could be negatively affected by many factors, including our limited historical commercial experience, rapid growth, failure to accurately manage our expansion strategy, product introductions by competitors, an increase or decrease in customer demand for our products, our failure to accurately forecast customer acceptance and adoption of new products, unanticipated changes in general market conditions or regulatory matters and weakening of economic conditions or consumer confidence in future economic conditions.
Inventory levels in excess of customer demand may result in a portion of our inventory becoming obsolete or expiring, as well as inventory write-downs or write-offs, which would negatively impact our gross margins and impair the strength of our brand. Conversely, if we underestimate customer demand for our products or our own requirements for components, sub-assemblies and materials, our third-party suppliers may not be able to deliver components, sub-assemblies and materials to meet our requirements, which could result in inadequate inventory levels or interruptions, delays or cancellations of deliveries to our customers, any of which would damage our reputation, customer relationships and business. In addition, several components, sub-assemblies and materials incorporated into our products require lengthy order lead times, and additional supplies or materials or additional manufacturing capacity may not be available when required on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, and our third-party suppliers may not be able to allocate sufficient capacity in order to meet our increased requirements, any of which could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet customer demand for our products and our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our quarterly and annual results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
Our quarterly and annual results of operations, including our revenue, may vary significantly in the future, and period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter or period should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance or of the results for the year in which such quarter or period occurs. Our quarterly and annual financial results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside our control and, as a result, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Fluctuations in quarterly and annual results may decrease the value of our common stock or result in volatility of our common stock. Because our quarterly results may fluctuate, period-to-period comparisons may not be the best indication of the underlying results of our business and should only be relied upon as one factor in determining how our business is performing. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including, but not limited to:
•
The level of demand for our products which may vary significantly;
•
Results of clinical trials or investigations involving the use of our products;
•
Regulatory decisions or announcements, including product recalls;
•
Data and results relating to our products that are presented in journal publications;
44
•
Expenditures that we may incur to acquire, develop or commercialize additional products and technologies;
•
Sales and marketing efforts and expenses;
•
Pricing pressures;
•
The rate at which we grow our sales force and the speed at which newly hired salespeople become effective;
•
Changes in the productivity of our sales force;
•
Our ability to expand the geographic reach of our sales force;
•
The degree of competition in our industry and any change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or future partners;
•
Changes in coverage and reimbursement policies with respect to the procedures in which our products and our competitors' products are used, and potential future products that compete with our products;
•
Positive or negative coverage in the media or clinical publications of our products or products of our competitors or our industry;
•
The timing of customer orders or medical procedures using our products and the number of available selling days in any quarterly period, which can be impacted by holidays, the mix of products sold and the geographic mix of where products are sold;
•
The timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research, development, licenses, regulatory approval, commercialization activities, acquisitions and other strategic transactions, or other significant events relating to our products, which may change from time to time;
•
The costs of enforcing and defending our intellectual property rights, whether through litigation or otherwise;
•
The cost of manufacturing our products, which may vary depending on the quantity of production and the terms of our agreements with third-party suppliers; and
•
Future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies.
Our long-term growth depends on our ability to enhance our products, expand our indications and develop and commercialize additional products in a timely manner. If we fail to identify, acquire and develop other products, we may be unable to grow our business.
The markets for our products are highly competitive, dynamic, and marked by rapid and substantial technological development and product innovation. New entrants or existing competitors could attempt to develop products that compete directly with ours. Demand for our products and future related products could be diminished by equivalent or superior products and technologies offered by competitors. If we are unable to innovate successfully, our products could become obsolete and our revenue would decline as our customers purchase our competitors’ products. Developing and improving products is expensive and time-consuming and could divert management’s attention away from our existing products. The success of any new product offering or product enhancements to our solutions will depend on several factors, including our ability to:
•
Maintaining strong relationships with ECPs;
•
Assemble sufficient resources to acquire or discover additional products;
•
Properly identify and anticipate physician and patient needs;
•
Develop and introduce new products and product enhancements in a timely manner;
•
Avoid infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties;
•
Demonstrate, if required, the safety and efficacy of new products with data from preclinical studies and clinical trials or investigations;
45
•
Obtain the necessary regulatory clearances, certifications or approvals for expanded indications, new products or product modifications;
•
Comply with the requirements of FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities regarding the marketing of new devices or modified products;
•
Produce new products in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost;
•
Provide adequate training to potential users of our products;
•
Receive adequate coding, coverage and reimbursement for procedures performed with our products; and
•
Develop an effective and dedicated sales and marketing team.
If we are unable to develop or improve products, applications or features due to constraints, such as insufficient cash resources, high employee turnover, inability to hire personnel with sufficient technical skills or a lack of other research and development resources, we may not be able to maintain our competitive position compared to other companies. Furthermore, many of our competitors devote a considerably greater amount of funds to their research and development programs than we do, and those that do not may be acquired by larger companies that could allocate greater resources to research and development programs. Our failure or inability to devote adequate research and development resources or compete effectively with the research and development programs of our competitors could harm our business.
In addition, we may choose to focus our efforts and resources on potential products or indications that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful, or to license or purchase marketed products that does not meet our financial expectations. As a result, we may fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities, be required to forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other potential products or other diseases that may later prove to have greater commercial potential, or relinquish valuable rights to such potential products through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes in public health insurance coverage and government reimbursement rates for our products could affect the adoption of our products and our future revenue.
The federal government is considering ways to change, and has changed, the manner in which healthcare services are paid for in the U.S. Individual states may also enact legislation that impacts Medicaid payments to hospitals, surgical centers and physicians. In addition, CMS establishes Medicare payment levels for hospitals, surgical centers and physicians on an annual basis, which can increase or decrease payment to such entities, including for procedures involving our products. Internationally, medical reimbursement systems vary significantly from country to country, with some countries limiting medical centers’ spending through fixed budgets, regardless of levels of patient treatment, and other countries requiring application for, and approval of, government or third-party reimbursement. Even if we succeed in bringing our products to market in additional foreign countries, uncertainties regarding future healthcare policy, legislation and regulation, as well as private market practices, could affect our ability to sell our products in commercially acceptable quantities at acceptable prices.
Cost-containment efforts of our customers, purchasing groups and governmental organizations could have a material adverse effect on our sales and results of operations. Consolidation in the healthcare industry or group purchasing organizations could lead to demands for price concessions, which may affect our ability to sell our products at prices necessary to support our current business strategies.
In an effort to reduce costs, many clinics and hospitals in the United States, including some of our customers, are members of Group Purchasing Organizations, or GPOs, and Integrated Delivery Networks, or IDNs. GPOs and IDNs negotiate pricing arrangements with medical device companies and distributors and then offer these negotiated prices to affiliated hospitals and other members. GPOs and IDNs typically award contracts on a category-by-category basis through a competitive bidding process. Bids are generally solicited from multiple providers with the intention of driving down pricing or reducing the number of vendors. Due to the highly competitive nature of the GPO and IDN contracting processes, we may not be able to obtain new, or maintain existing, contract positions with major GPOs and IDNs. Furthermore, the increasing leverage of organized buying groups may reduce market prices for our products, thereby reducing our revenue and margins.
46
While having a contract with a GPO or IDN for a given product category can facilitate sales to members of that GPO or IDN, such contract positions can offer no assurance that any level of sales will be achieved, as sales are typically made pursuant to individual purchase orders. Even when a provider is the sole contracted supplier of a GPO or IDN for a certain product category, members of the GPO or IDN are generally free to purchase from other suppliers. Furthermore, GPO and IDN contracts typically are terminable without cause by the GPO or IDN upon 60 to 90 days’ notice. Accordingly, the members of such groups may choose to purchase alternative products due to the price or quality offered by other companies, which could result in a decline in our sales volumes and revenue.
Healthcare costs have risen significantly over the past decade, which has resulted in or led to numerous cost reform initiatives by legislators, regulators and third-party payors. Cost reform has triggered a consolidation trend in the healthcare industry to aggregate purchasing power, which may create more requests for pricing concessions in the future. Additionally, GPOs, IDNs and large single accounts may continue to use their market power to consolidate purchasing decisions for hospitals. We expect that market demand, government regulation, third-party coverage and reimbursement policies and societal pressures will continue to change the healthcare industry worldwide, resulting in further business consolidations and alliances among our customers, which may exert further downward pressure on the prices of our products. Such downward pressure on the prices of our products may affect our results of operations and our ability to support our current business strategies.
We may not be able to achieve or maintain satisfactory pricing and margins for our products.
Medical device companies have a history of price competition, and we can give no assurance that we will be able to achieve satisfactory prices for our products or maintain prices at the levels we have historically achieved.Any decline in the amount that payors reimburse our customers for procedures that use OMNI or in the amount that customers are willing to pay or that payors reimburse for procedures that use TearCare in the future, could make it difficult for customers to continue using, or to adopt, our products and could create additional pricing pressure for us. If we are forced to lower the price we charge for our products or add more components to our products, our gross margins will decrease, which will adversely affect our ability to invest in and grow our business. If we are unable to maintain our prices, or if our costs increase and we are unable to offset such increase with an increase in our prices, our margins could erode. We are, and will continue to be, subject to significant pricing pressure, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be unable to manage the anticipated growth of our business.
In order to grow, we need to expand our commercial team, and general and administrative infrastructure. In addition to the need to scale our organization, future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on management, including the need to identify, recruit, train and integrate additional employees. Rapid expansion in personnel could mean that less experienced people market and sell our products, which could result in inefficiencies and unanticipated costs, reduced quality and disruptions to our operations. In addition, rapid and significant growth may strain our administrative and operational infrastructure. Our ability to manage our business and growth will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures. For example, we currently rely on a combination of direct sales personnel and independent distributors to sell our products in Europe, and we intend to grow our international sales through a combination of direct and distributor sales. 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.
As demand for our current products or any of our future products increases, we will need to continue to expand customer service, billing and systems processes and enhance our internal quality assurance program. We cannot assure you that any increases in scale, related improvements and quality assurance will be successfully implemented or that appropriate personnel will be available to facilitate the growth of our business. Failure to implement necessary procedures, transition to new processes or hire the necessary personnel could result in higher costs of processing data or inability to meet increased demand.
Performance issues, service interruptions or price increases by our shipping carriers and distributors could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and harm our reputation and the relationship between us and the ECPs we work with.
Expedited, reliable shipping is essential to our operations. We rely heavily on providers of transport services for reliable and secure point-to-point transport of our products to our customers and for tracking of these shipments. Should a carrier encounter delivery performance issues such as loss, damage or destruction of any systems, it would be costly to
47
replace such systems in a timely manner and such occurrences may damage our reputation and lead to decreased demand for our solutions and increased cost and expense to our business. In addition, any significant increase in shipping rates could adversely affect our operating margins and results of operations. Similarly, strikes, severe weather, natural disasters or other service interruptions affecting delivery services we use would adversely affect our ability to process orders for our products on a timely basis. These factors could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and harm our reputation and the relationship between us and the ECPs we work with.
Our products may become obsolete in the future.
The medical device industry is characterized by rapid and significant change. There can be no assurance that other companies will not succeed in developing or marketing devices or products that are more effective than our products or that would render our products obsolete or noncompetitive. Additionally, new surgical procedures, medications and other therapies could be developed that replace or reduce the importance of our products. Accordingly, our success will depend in part on our ability to respond quickly to medical and other changes through the development and introduction of new products. Product development involves a high degree of risk, and there can be no assurance that our new product development efforts will result in any commercially successful products.
We bear the risk of potential warranty claims on our products.
We provide limited warranties regarding our products, including warranties pertaining to freedom from defects and conformance to specifications. We are generally obligated under our sales contracts to repair, replace or credit or refund the purchase price of defective products. As a result, we bear the risk of potential warranty claims on our products. In the event that we attempt to recover some or all of the expenses associated with a warranty claim against us from our suppliers or vendors, we may not be successful in claiming recovery under any warranty or indemnity provided to us by such suppliers or vendors and any recovery from such vendor or supplier may not be adequate. In addition, warranty claims brought by our customers related to third-party components may arise after our ability to bring corresponding warranty claims against such suppliers expires, which could result in costs to us.
We may enter into collaborations, in-licensing arrangements, joint ventures, strategic alliances or partnerships with third parties that may not result in the development of commercially viable products or product improvements or the generation of significant future revenues.
We may enter into collaborations, in-licensing arrangements, joint ventures, strategic alliances, partnerships or other arrangements to develop new products or product improvements and to pursue new markets. Proposing, negotiating and implementing collaborations, in-licensing arrangements, joint ventures, strategic alliances or partnerships may be a lengthy and complex process. Other companies, including those with substantially greater financial, marketing, sales, technology or other business resources, may compete with us for these opportunities or arrangements. We may not identify, secure, or complete any such transactions or arrangements in a timely manner, on a cost-effective basis, on acceptable terms or at all. We have limited institutional knowledge and experience with respect to these business development activities, and we may also not realize the anticipated benefits of any such transaction or arrangement. In particular, these collaborations may not result in the development of products that achieve commercial success or viable product improvements or result in significant revenues and could be terminated prior to developing any products.
Additionally, we may not be in a position to exercise sole decision-making authority regarding the transaction or arrangement, which could create the potential risk of creating impasses on decisions, and our future collaborators may have economic or business interests or goals that are, or that may become, inconsistent with our business interests or goals. It is possible that conflicts may arise with our collaborators, such as conflicts concerning the achievement of performance milestones, or the interpretation of significant terms under any agreement, such as those related to financial obligations or the ownership or control of intellectual property developed during the collaboration. If any conflicts arise with any future collaborators, they may act in their self-interest, which may be adverse to our best interest, and they may breach their obligations to us. In addition, we may have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that any future collaborators devote to our or their future products.
Disputes between us and any collaborators we may have in the future may result in litigation or arbitration which would increase our expenses and divert the attention of our management. These arrangements may consume management time and resources to establish and maintain. Further, these transactions and arrangements will be contractual in nature and will generally be terminable under the terms of the applicable agreements and, in such event, we may not continue to have rights to the products relating to such transaction or arrangement or may need to purchase such rights at a premium. Any
48
termination of collaborations we enter into in the future, or any delay in entering into collaborations related to our products, could delay the development and commercialization of our products and reduce their competitiveness if they reach the market, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we enter into in-bound intellectual property license agreements, we may not be able to fully protect the licensed intellectual property rights or maintain those licenses. Future licensors could retain the right to prosecute and defend the intellectual property rights licensed to us, in which case we would depend on the ability of our licensors to obtain, maintain and enforce intellectual property protection for the licensed intellectual property. These licensors may determine not to pursue litigation against other companies or may pursue such litigation less aggressively than we would. Further, entering into such license agreements could impose various diligence, commercialization, royalty or other obligations on us. Future licensors may allege that we have breached our license agreement with them, and accordingly seek to terminate our license and/or seek damages arising out of the alleged breach, which could adversely affect our competitive business position and harm our business prospects.
Our insurance policies are expensive and protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.
We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter. Although we carry product liability insurance, we can give no assurance that such coverage will be available or adequate to satisfy any claims. Product liability insurance is expensive, subject to significant deductibles and exclusions, and may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. If we are unable to obtain or maintain insurance at an acceptable cost or on acceptable terms with adequate coverage or otherwise protect against potential product liability claims, we could be exposed to significant liabilities. A product liability claim, recall or other claim with respect to uninsured liabilities or for amounts in excess of insured liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Defending a suit, regardless of its merit or eventual outcome, could be costly, could divert management’s attention from our business and might result in adverse publicity, which could result in reduced acceptance of our products in the market, product recalls or market withdrawals.
Operating as a public company has also made it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain and maintain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified people to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers. We do not know, however, if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage. Any significant uninsured liability may require us to pay substantial amounts, which would negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend on our senior management team and the loss of one or more key employees or an inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees will negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends largely on the continued services of key members of our executive management team and others in key management positions. For example, the services of Paul Badawi, our Chief Executive Officer and David Badawi, our Chief Technology Officer, are essential to driving adoption of our products, executing on our corporate strategy and ensuring the continued operations and integrity of financial reporting within our company. In addition, the services of our sales professionals are critical to driving the growth in sales of our products. Any of our employees may terminate their employment with us at any time. We currently maintain a key person life insurance policy on Mr. Badawi. If we lose one or more key employees, we may experience difficulties in competing effectively, developing our technologies and implementing our business strategy, which in turn would negatively affect our business.
In addition, our research and development programs, clinical and quality operations and sales efforts depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled engineers and sales professionals, as well as experienced regulatory, quality and clinical professionals. We may not be able to attract or retain qualified professionals in the future due to the competition for qualified personnel. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we do. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, their former employers may attempt to assert that these employees or we have breached legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources and, potentially, damages.
In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the stock awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived benefits of our stock awards decline, either because of unfavorable
49
fluctuations or declines in our stock price or for other reasons, it may harm our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. Many of our employees have become or will soon become vested in a substantial amount of our common stock or a number of common stock options. Our employees may be more likely to leave us if the market price of our common stock approaches or falls below the exercise price of their vested and unvested option shares. Substantial declines in the market price of our common stock will also reduce the effectiveness of any restricted stock unit or other equity incentive awards in attracting and retaining employees, especially within the current highly competitive labor market. Our future success also depends on our ability to continue to attract and retain additional executive officers and other key employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, it will negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The use, misuse or off-label use of our products may result in injuries that lead to product liability suits, which could be expensive, divert management’s attention and harm our reputation and business. We may not be able to maintain adequate product liability insurance.
Our products are cleared or authorized by the FDA and certified in the EU to be marketed for certain specific intended uses. If physicians elect to use our products in manners outside of the intended uses that have been cleared, authorized, or certified, then such off-label use of our products may result in outcomes and adverse events that are sight threatening, necessitate medical or surgical intervention to preclude permanent impairment of vision, or result in a permanent impairment of vision, potentially leading to product liability claims. However, we cannot prevent a physician from using our products for off-label applications or using components or products that are not our products when performing procedures with our products. There may be increased risk of injury to patients if physicians attempt to use our devices off-label. In addition, we cannot guarantee that physicians are trained by us or their peers prior to utilizing our products. Complications resulting from the use of our products off-label or use by physicians who have not been trained appropriately, or at all, may not effectively treat the applicable conditions and may expose us to product liability claims or litigation by our customers or their patients and may harm our reputation.
In addition, if our products are defectively designed, manufactured or labeled, contain defective components or are misused, we may become subject to costly litigation initiated by hospitals, surgical centers, ECPs or patients. Product liability claims are especially prevalent in the medical device industry and could harm our reputation, divert management’s attention from our core business, attract negative publicity, be expensive to defend and may result in sizable damage awards against us. Although we maintain product liability insurance, we may not have sufficient insurance coverage for future product liability claims. We are not able to obtain insurance in amounts or scope sufficient to provide us with adequate coverage against all potential liabilities. Any product liability claims brought against us, with or without merit, could increase our product liability insurance rates or prevent us from securing continuing coverage, harm our reputation, significantly increase our expenses, and reduce product sales. Product liability claims could cause us to incur significant legal fees and deductibles and claims in excess of our insurance coverage would be paid out of cash reserves, harming our financial condition and operating results.
We may need additional funding to finance our planned operations, and may not be able to raise capital on acceptable terms, if at all, which could force us to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs and commercialization efforts.
Since inception, we have incurred significant net losses and expect to continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. Since our inception, our operations have been financed primarily by net proceeds from the sale of our convertible preferred stock in private placements, indebtedness and, to a lesser extent, product revenue from sales of our products. As of December 31, 2021, we had $260.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and an accumulated deficit of $153.0 million. Based on our current planned operations, we expect that our cash and cash equivalents and additional borrowings available under our credit facility will enable us to fund our operations for at least the next twelve months. We have based these estimates on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could utilize our available capital resources sooner than we expect.
We expect to continue to invest in clinical trials or investigations that are designed to provide clinical evidence of the safety and efficacy of our products, the growth of our sales and marketing organization, and research and development of product improvements and future products. Moreover, we expect to incur additional expenses associated with operating as a public company, including legal, accounting, insurance, exchange listing and SEC compliance, investor relations and other expenses. Because of these and other factors, we expect to continue to incur net losses and negative cash flows from operations for the foreseeable future. Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:
50
•
The degree and rate of market acceptance of our products and procedures;
•
Whether we acquire third-party companies, products or technologies;
•
The impact on our business from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, or any other pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease;
•
Repayment of debt;
•
The scope and timing of investment in our sales force and expansion of our commercial organization;
•
The scope, rate of progress and cost of our current or future clinical trials or investigations and registries;
•
The cost of our research and development activities;
•
The cost and timing of additional regulatory clearances, certifications or approvals;
•
The costs associated with any product recall that may occur;
•
The costs of attaining, defending, protecting and enforcing our intellectual property rights;
•
The terms and timing of any other collaborative, licensing and other arrangements that we may establish;
•
The emergence of competing technologies or other adverse market developments;
•
Our ability, and our competitors' ability, to obtain and maintain favorable reimbursement for our products; and
•
The rate at which we expand internationally.
We may seek to raise additional capital through equity offerings or debt financings and such additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, any additional equity or debt financing that we raise may contain terms that are not favorable to us or our stockholders. For example, if we raise funds by issuing equity or equity-linked securities, the issuance of such securities could result in dilution to our stockholders. Any equity securities issued may also provide for rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. In addition, the issuance of additional equity securities by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline, and the price per share at which we sell additional shares of our common stock, or securities convertible into or exercisable or exchangeable for shares of our common stock, in future transactions may be higher or lower than the price per share paid by investors in the IPO.
In addition, the terms of debt securities issued or borrowings could impose significant restrictions on our operations including restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt or issue additional equity, limitations on our ability to pay dividends, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights, and other operating restrictions that could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business. In the event that we enter into collaborations or licensing arrangements to raise capital, we may be required to accept unfavorable terms, such as relinquishment or licensing of certain technologies or products that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves, or reserve for future potential arrangements when we might otherwise be able to achieve more favorable terms. In addition, we may be forced to work with a partner on one or more of our products or market development programs, which could lower the economic value of those programs to us.
If we are unable to obtain adequate financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, we may terminate or delay the development of one or more of our products, delay clinical trials or investigations necessary to market our products, or delay establishment of sales and marketing capabilities or other activities necessary to commercialize our products. If this were to occur, our ability to grow and support our business and to respond to market challenges could be significantly limited, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have a significant amount of debt, which may affect our ability to operate our business and secure additional financing in the future.
In November 2020, we entered into credit and security agreements with MidCap Financial Services, which provide for a term loan facility and revolving line of credit, or the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility. The 2020 MidCap Credit Facility consists of a term loan of up to $35.0 million, or the 2020 Term Loan, which has a stated floating interest rate equal to
51
reserve-adjusted LIBOR plus 7.00%, and a revolving line of credit of $5 million, or the 2020 Revolver, with a stated floating interest rate equal to reserve-adjusted LIBOR plus 4.50%, a 0.5% unused line fee and a 0.5% collateral management fee. We further amended the 2020 MidCap Facility in October 2021 and November 2021 for purposes of relaxing certain financial reporting obligations and other operating covenants. As of December 31, 2021 we had an aggregate of approximately $35.0 million in principal borrowings outstanding under the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility, excluding debt discounts. We must make interest payments under the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility, which has diverted and will continue to divert resources from other activities. We incurred an aggregate interest expense of $4.4 million and $2.4 million in the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Our obligations under the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility are collateralized by a security interest in substantially all of our assets, and we are subject to customary financial and operating covenants limiting our ability to, among other things, relocate or dispose of assets, undergo a change in control, merge or consolidate, enter into certain transactions with affiliates, make acquisitions, incur debt, pay dividends, grant liens, store certain amounts of inventory or equipment with third parties and make investments, in each case subject to certain exceptions. We are also subject to minimum trailing revenue targets that are evaluated on a monthly basis. The covenants related to the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility, as well as any future financing agreements into which we may enter, may restrict our ability to finance our operations and engage in, expand or otherwise pursue our business activities and strategies.
While we have not previously breached and are not currently in breach of these or any other covenants contained in the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility, there can be no guarantee that we will not breach these covenants in the future. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and future breaches of any of these covenants could result in a default under the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility. If not waived, future defaults could cause all of the outstanding indebtedness under the 2020 MidCap Credit Facility to become immediately due and payable and terminate commitments to extend further credit and foreclose on the collateral granted to it to collateralize such indebtedness. If we do not have or are unable to generate sufficient cash available to repay our debt obligations when they become due and payable, either upon maturity or in the event of a default, our assets could be foreclosed upon and we may not be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all, which may negatively impact our ability to operate and continue our business as a going concern.
In order to service this indebtedness and any additional indebtedness we may incur in the future, we need to generate cash from our operating activities. Our ability to generate cash is subject, in part, to our ability to successfully execute our business strategy, as well as general economic, financial, competitive, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. We cannot assure you that our business will be able to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future borrowings or other financings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to service our indebtedness and fund our other liquidity needs. To the extent we are required to use cash from operations or the proceeds of any future financing to service our indebtedness instead of funding working capital, capital expenditures or other general corporate purposes, we will be less able to plan for, or react to, changes in our business, industry and in the economy generally. This may place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less indebtedness or greater financial resources to service their debt.
Uncertainty relating to the LIBOR calculation process and potential phasing out of LIBOR may adversely affect the market value of our current or future debt obligations.
The London Inter-bank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, and certain other interest “benchmarks” may be subject to regulatory guidance and/or reform that could cause interest rates under our current or future debt agreements to perform differently than in the past or cause other unanticipated consequences. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, has announced that it intends to stop encouraging or requiring banks to submit LIBOR rates after 2021, and it is unclear if LIBOR will cease to exist or if new methods of calculating LIBOR will evolve. If a published LIBOR rate is unavailable after 2021, the interest rates on instruments which are indexed to LIBOR will be determined using alternative methods, which may result in interest obligations which are more than or do not otherwise correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on such debt if LIBOR was available in its current form. Any new proposals or consequences could have a material adverse effect on our financing costs, including our interest rates on borrowings under our 2020 Term Loan and 2020 Revolver, and as a result, our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
We may acquire other companies or technologies, which could fail to result in a commercial product or net sales, divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our business and adversely affect our results of operations.
52
Although we currently have no agreements or commitments to complete any such transactions and are not involved in negotiations to do so, we may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, applications or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our portfolio, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. However, we cannot assure you that we would be able to successfully complete any acquisition we choose to pursue, or that we would be able to successfully integrate any acquired business, product or technology in a cost-effective and non-disruptive manner. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various costs and expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated. We may not be able to identify desirable acquisition targets or be successful in entering into an agreement with any particular target or obtain the expected benefits of any acquisition or investment.
To date, the growth of our operations has been largely organic, and we have limited experience in acquiring other businesses or technologies. Furthermore, the anticipated benefit of any strategic alliance, joint venture or acquisition may not materialize, or such strategic alliance, joint venture or acquisition may be prohibited. In November 2020, we amended and restated our credit facilities and entered into the 2020 Term Loan and 2020 Revolver and then further amended the 2020 Term Loan and 2020 Revolver in October 2021 and November 2021. The 2020 Term Loan and the 2020 Revolver restrict our ability to pursue certain mergers, acquisitions, amalgamations or consolidations that we may believe to be in our best interest.
We may not be able to successfully integrate any acquired personnel, operations and technologies, or effectively manage the combined business following an acquisition. Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities, the use of our available cash, or the incurrence of debt, which could harm our operating results. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be negatively affected. Additional risks we may face in connection with acquisitions include:
•
Diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to addressing acquisition integration challenges;
•
Coordination of research and development and sales and marketing functions;
•
Integration of product and service offerings;
•
Retention of key employees from the acquired company;
•
Changes in relationships with strategic partners as a result of product acquisitions or strategic positioning resulting from the acquisition;
•
Cultural challenges associated with integrating employees from the acquired company into our organization;
•
Integration of the acquired company’s accounting, management information, human resources and other administrative systems;
•
The need to implement or improve controls, procedures, and policies at a business that prior to the acquisition may have lacked sufficiently effective controls, procedures and policies;
•
Financial reporting, revenue recognition or other financial or control deficiencies of the acquired company that we don’t adequately address and that cause our reported results to be incorrect;
•
Liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including intellectual property infringement claims, misappropriation or other violation, violations of laws, commercial disputes, tax liabilities and other known and unknown liabilities;
•
Unanticipated write-offs or charges; and
•
Litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, customers, former stockholders or other third parties.
Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments, cause us to incur unanticipated liabilities, and harm our business generally.
53
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, gross receipts, value added or similar taxes and may successfully impose additional obligations on us.
One or more jurisdictions may seek to impose additional tax collection obligations on us, including for past sales. A successful assertion by a state, country, or other jurisdiction that we should have been or should be collecting additional sales, use, or other taxes on our services could, among other things, result in substantial tax liabilities for past sales, create significant administrative burdens for us, discourage users from purchasing our products, or otherwise harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards, disallowed interest expense carryforwards and research and development carryforwards may be limited.
As of December 31, 2021, we had U.S. federal and state net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, of $28.7 million and $6.5 million, respectively, and U.S. federal and state research and development credit carryforwards of $1.2 million and $0.9 million, respectively. In general, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change by value in its equity ownership over a rolling three-year period, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses, or NOLs, and its research and development credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income. Our existing NOLs and research and development credit carryforwards could be subject to limitation under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code if we have undergone, or undergo in the future, any ownership changes for purposes of these provisions. If our NOLs and research and development credit carryforwards are subject to these limitations, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs and research and development credit carryforwards, even if we attain profitability. In addition, our ability to deduct net interest expense may be limited if we have insufficient taxable income for the year during which the interest is incurred, and any carryovers of such disallowed interest would be subject to the limitation rules similar to those applicable to NOLs and other attributes.
In addition, the tax benefit of NOLs, temporary differences and credit carryforwards are required to be recorded as an asset to the extent that we assess that realization is more likely than not. We believe that recognition of the deferred tax asset arising from these future tax benefits is not likely to be realized and, accordingly, have provided a valuation allowance of $38.8 million and $24.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
The impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the CARES Act on our financial results is not entirely clear and could differ materially from the financial statements provided herein.
On December 22, 2017, the United States enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the TCJA, that significantly reformed the Code. The TCJA, among other things, contained significant changes to corporate taxation, including reduction of the corporate tax rate from a top marginal rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%; limitation of the tax deduction for interest expense; limitation (as modified by the CARES Act as discussed below) of the deduction for NOLs and elimination of NOL carrybacks, in each case, for losses arising in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 (though any such tax losses may be carried forward indefinitely); and modifying or repealing many business deductions and credits.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act), aimed at helping American workers and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act, among other things, temporarily removes the current-law taxable income limitation established under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and permits NOL carryovers and carrybacks to offset 100% of taxable income for taxable years beginning before 2021. In addition, the CARES Act allows NOLs incurred in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to be carried back to each of the five preceding taxable years. The NOL provisions of the CARES Act are not expected to result in a cash benefit to the Company nor did they impact our NOL balance upon enactment.
The financial statements contained herein reflect the effects of the TCJA and the CARES Act based on current guidance. However, there remain uncertainties and ambiguities in the application of certain provisions of the TCJA and the CARES Act, and, as a result, we made certain judgments and assumptions in the interpretation thereof. The U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service may issue further guidance on how the provisions of the TCJA and the CARES Act will be applied or otherwise administered that differs from our current interpretation. In addition, the TCJA and the CARES Act could be subject to potential amendments and technical corrections, any of which could materially lessen or increase certain adverse impacts of the legislation on us.
54
The planned international expansion of our business will expose us to market, legal, regulatory, political, operational, financial and economic risks associated with doing business outside of the United States.
We intend to increase our international presence, including securing additional regulatory approvals in targeted countries outside the United States. This strategy may include establishing and maintaining physician outreach and education capabilities outside of the United States and expanding our relationships with international payors. Doing business internationally involves a number of risks, including:
•
Difficulties in staffing and managing our international operations;
•
Multiple, conflicting and changing laws and regulations such as tax laws, privacy laws, export and import restrictions, employment laws, regulatory requirements and other governmental approvals, permits and licenses;
•
Reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
•
Obtaining regulatory clearance, certification or approval where required for our products in various countries;
•
Requirements to maintain data and the processing of that data on servers located within such countries;
•
Complexities associated with managing multiple payor reimbursement regimes, government payors or patient self-pay systems;
•
Limits on our ability to penetrate international markets if we are required to manufacture our products locally;
•
Financial risks, such as longer payment cycles, difficulty collecting accounts receivable, foreign tax laws and complexities of foreign value-added tax systems, the effect of local and regional financial pressures on demand and payment for our products and exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations;
•
Restrictions on the site-of-service for use of our products and the economics related thereto for physicians, providers and payors;
•
Changes in foreign currency exchange rates and costs associated with hedging against such changes;
•
Natural disasters, political and economic instability, including wars, such as the current military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, terrorism, political unrest, outbreak of disease, boycotts, curtailment of trade and other market restrictions; and
•
Regulatory and compliance risks that relate to maintaining accurate information and control over activities subject to regulation under the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, or FCPA, U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 and comparable laws and regulations in other countries.
Any of these factors could significantly harm our future international expansion and operations and, consequently, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We could be adversely affected by violations of the FCPA and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws and any investigation, and the outcome of any investigation, by government agencies of possible violations by us of the FCPA could have a material adverse effect on our business.
The FCPA and similar worldwide anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws prohibit companies and their intermediaries from corruptly providing any payments or other benefits to government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. The U.S. Departments of Justice, Commerce, State and Treasury and other federal agencies and authorities have a broad range of civil and criminal penalties they may seek to impose against corporations and individuals for violations of economic sanctions laws, export control laws, the FCPA, and other federal statutes and regulations, including those established by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. In addition, the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, or the Bribery Act, prohibits both domestic and international bribery, as well as bribery across both private and public sectors. An organization that fails to prevent bribery by anyone associated with the organization can be charged under the Bribery Act unless the organization can establish the defense of having implemented adequate procedures to prevent bribery. Under these laws and regulations, as well as other anti-corruption laws, anti-money laundering laws, export control laws, customs laws, sanctions laws and other laws governing our operations, various government agencies may require export licenses, may seek to impose modifications to business practices, including cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries or
55
with sanctioned persons or entities and modifications to compliance programs, which may increase compliance costs, and may subject us to fines, penalties and other sanctions.
We have commenced commercial sales of OMNI in certain European countries through a combination of direct sales personnel and independent distributors, and we are also in the process of conducting an EU-based clinical investigation. Further, a portion of our business with respect to our manufacturing is conducted outside of the United States. We expect our international activities to increase in the future. Though we maintain policies, internal controls and other measures reasonably designed to promote compliance with applicable anticorruption and anti-bribery laws and regulations, and certain safeguards designed to ensure compliance with U.S. trade control laws, our employees or agents may nevertheless engage in improper conduct for which we might be held responsible. Any violations of these anti-corruption or trade controls laws, or even allegations of such violations, can lead to an investigation and/or enforcement action, which could disrupt our operations, involve significant management distraction, and lead to significant costs and expenses, including legal fees. If we, or our employees or agents acting on our behalf, are found to have engaged in practices that violate these laws and regulations, we could be subject to criminal and civil enforcement action, suffer severe fines and penalties, profit disgorgement, injunctions on future conduct, securities litigation, bans on transacting government business, delisting from securities exchanges and other consequences that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our reputation, our net sales or our stock price could be adversely affected if we become the subject of any negative publicity related to actual or potential violations of anti-corruption, anti-bribery or trade control laws and regulations.
Changes in government trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs and export restrictions, could have a negative impact on our manufacturing process, which may materially and adversely affect our sales and results of operations.
Certain public officials, including members of the current U.S. Congress, have made public statements indicating the possibility of significant changes in U.S. trade policy and have taken certain actions that may impact U.S. trade policy, including imposing new or increased tariffs on certain goods imported into the United States during the Trump administration. For example, the United States and China have imposed a number of tariffs and other restrictions on items imported or exported between the United States and China, and have proposed to impose a number of additional tariffs. We cannot predict what actions may ultimately be taken with respect to tariffs or trade relations between the United States and China or other countries, what products may be subject to such actions, or what actions may be taken by the other countries in retaliation.
Since certain of our critical product and product component manufacturers are located outside the United States, such changes, if adopted, could have a negative impact on our business and make our products more expensive and less competitive in domestic markets. Furthermore, changes in U.S. trade policy could trigger retaliatory actions by affected countries, which could impose restrictions on our ability to do business in or with affected countries or prohibit, reduce or discourage purchases of our products by foreign customers. Changes in, and responses to, U.S. trade policy could reduce the competitiveness of our products and cause our sales to decline, which could materially and adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union may have a negative effect on global economic conditions, financial markets and our business.
Following a national referendum and enactment of legislation by the government of the United Kingdom, or UK, the UK formally withdrew from the EU. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, or TCA, came into effect on January 1, 2021. The TCA does not specifically refer to medical devices. However, as a result of Brexit, the EU Medical Devices Regulation will not be implemented in the UK, and previous legislation that mirrored the EU Medical Devices Regulation in UK law has been revoked. The regulatory regime for medical devices in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) will continue to be based on the requirements derived from current EU legislation, and the UK may choose to retain regulatory flexibility or align with the (EU) Medical Devices Regulation going forward. CE marks will continue to be recognized in the UK, and certificates issued by EU-recognized notified bodies will be valid in the UK, until June 30, 2023. For medical devices placed on the market in Great Britain after this period, a UK Conformity Assessed, or UKCA, marking will be mandatory. In contrast, UKCA marking and certificates issued by UK notified bodies will not be recognized on the EU market. The TCA does provide for cooperation and exchange of information in the area of product safety and compliance, including market surveillance, enforcement activities and measures, standardization related activities, exchanges of officials, and coordinated product recalls (or other similar actions). These developments, or the perception that any related developments could occur, have had and may continue to have an adverse effect on global economic conditions and financial markets, and may significantly reduce global market liquidity, restrict the ability of key market
56
participants to operate in certain financial markets or restrict our access to capital. Any of these factors could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and reduce the price of our common stock.
The withdrawal has also given rise to calls for the governments of other EU member states to consider withdrawal. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, have had and may continue to have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global market liquidity and restrict the ability of key market participants to operate in certain financial markets. Any of these factors could depress economic activity and restrict our access to capital, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and reduce the price of our common stock. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions could compromise sensitive information related to our business or our customer’s patients, or prevent us from accessing critical information and expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business and our reputation.
In the ordinary course of our business, we may become exposed to, or collect and store, sensitive data, including procedure-based information and legally-protected health information, credit card, and other financial information, insurance information, and other potentially personally identifiable information. We also store sensitive intellectual property and other proprietary business information. We are taking measures to implement policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable data security and privacy-related laws and regulations and protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or disclosure. However, our information technology, or IT, and infrastructure, and that of our third-party billing and collections provider and other technology partners and providers, may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks by hackers or viruses or breaches due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions. We rely extensively on IT systems, networks and services, including internet sites, data hosting and processing facilities and tools, physical security systems and other hardware, software and technical applications and platforms, some of which are managed, hosted, provided and/or used by third parties or their vendors, to assist in conducting our business. A significant breakdown, invasion, corruption, destruction or interruption of critical information technology systems or infrastructure, by our workforce, others with authorized access to our systems or unauthorized persons could negatively impact operations. The ever-increasing use and evolution of technology, including cloud-based computing, creates opportunities for the unintentional dissemination or intentional destruction of confidential information stored in our or our third-party providers’ systems, portable media or storage devices. For example, companies have experienced an increase in phishing and social engineering attacks from third parties in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. We could also experience a business interruption, theft of confidential information or reputational damage from industrial espionage attacks, malware or other cyber-attacks, which may compromise our system infrastructure or lead to data leakage, either internally or at our third-party providers. Although the aggregate impact on our operations and financial condition has not been material to date, we have been the target of events of this nature and expect them to continue as cybersecurity threats have been rapidly evolving in sophistication and becoming more prevalent in the industry. We are investing in protections and monitoring practices of our data and IT to reduce these risks and continue to monitor our systems on an ongoing basis for any current or potential threats. There can be no assurance, however, that our efforts will prevent breakdowns or breaches to our or our third-party providers’ databases or systems, and such breakdowns or breaches could adversely affect our business, financial condition and reputation. We also intend to mitigate the risks related to these risks by purchasing cybersecurity insurance. However, such insurance, if purchased, will not necessarily cover all costs and impacts related to these risks.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
Our success will depend on our, and any of our future licensors’, ability to obtain, maintain and protect our intellectual property rights.
Our commercial success will depend in part on our, and any of our future licensors’, success in obtaining and maintaining issued patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights in the United States and elsewhere and protecting our proprietary technology. If we, or any of our future licensors, do not adequately protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology, competitors may be able to use our technologies or the goodwill we have acquired in the marketplace and erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which could harm our business and ability to achieve profitability.
We rely on a combination of contractual provisions, confidentiality procedures and patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property laws to protect the proprietary aspects of our products, brands, technologies and data. These legal measures afford only limited protection, and competitors or others may gain access to or use our intellectual
57
property and proprietary information. Our success will depend, in part, on preserving our trade secrets, maintaining the security of our data and know-how and obtaining and maintaining other intellectual property rights. We may not be able to obtain or maintain intellectual property or other proprietary rights necessary to our business or in a form that provides us with a competitive advantage.
In addition, despite our efforts to enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, suppliers, clients and other vendors who have access to information that we regard as proprietary, our trade secrets, data, know-how and other proprietary information and technology could be subject to unauthorized access, use, misappropriation, or disclosure to unauthorized parties, and could otherwise become known or be independently discovered by third parties. Our intellectual property, including trademarks, could be challenged, invalidated, infringed, misappropriated, violated and circumvented by third parties, and our trademarks could also be diluted, declared generic or found to be infringing on other marks. If any of the foregoing occurs, we could be forced to re-brand our products, resulting in loss of brand recognition and requiring us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands and causing us to suffer other competitive harm. Third parties may also adopt trademarks similar to ours, which could harm our brand identity and lead to market confusion.
Failure to obtain and maintain intellectual property rights necessary to our business and failure to protect, monitor and control the use of our intellectual property rights could negatively impact our ability to compete and cause us to incur significant expenses. The intellectual property laws and other statutory and contractual arrangements in the United States and other jurisdictions we depend upon may not provide sufficient protection in the future to prevent the infringement, use, violation or misappropriation of our patents, trademarks, data, technology and other intellectual property and services, and may not provide an adequate remedy if our intellectual property rights are infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated.
Our business relies, in part, on our ability to obtain, maintain, expand, enforce, and defend the scope of our intellectual property portfolio or other proprietary rights, including making any payments required in connection with the licensing, filing, defense and enforcement of any patents or other intellectual property rights. The process of applying for and obtaining a patent is expensive, time consuming and complex, and we may not be able to prepare, file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications and patents at a reasonable cost, in a timely manner, or in all jurisdictions where protection may be commercially advantageous, or we may not be able to protect our proprietary rights at all. It is also possible that we may fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection on them. Although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, suppliers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. Furthermore, publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in any of our patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. Moreover, depending on the terms of any future in-licenses to which we may become a party, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology in-licensed from third parties. Therefore, these patents and patent applications may not be prosecuted, maintained, and/or enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may be able to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Additionally, if there are material defects in the form, preparation or prosecution of our patents or patent applications, such patents or applications may be invalid and unenforceable. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business.
The patent positions of medical device companies may involve complex legal and factual questions and have been the subject of much litigation in recent years, and therefore, the scope, validity and enforceability of any patent claims that we have or may obtain cannot be predicted with certainty. We cannot offer any assurances about which of our patent applications will issue, the breadth of any resulting patent or whether any of the issued patents will be found to be infringed, invalid or unenforceable or will be threatened or challenged by third parties. The coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. We cannot offer any assurances that the breadth of our granted patents will be sufficient to stop a competitor from developing and commercializing a product in a non-infringing manner that would be competitive with one or more of our products, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Furthermore, any successful challenge to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us after patent issuance could deprive us of rights necessary for our commercial success.
58
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a utility patent is generally 20 years. Further, if we encounter delays in any future regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product under patent protection could be reduced, and, given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of planned or future products, patents protecting such products might expire before or shortly after such products are commercialized. As a result, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
Though an issued patent is presumed valid and enforceable, its issuance is not conclusive as to its validity or its enforceability and it may not provide us with adequate proprietary protection or competitive advantages against competitors with similar products. Patents, if issued, may be challenged, deemed unenforceable, invalidated, narrowed or circumvented. Proceedings challenging our patents or patent applications could result in either loss of the patent, or denial of the patent application or loss or reduction in the scope of one or more of the claims of the patent or patent application. Any successful challenge to our patents and patent applications could deprive us of exclusive rights necessary for our commercial success. In addition, defending such challenges in such proceedings may be costly. Thus, any patents that we may own may not provide the anticipated level of, or any, protection against competitors. Furthermore, an adverse decision may result in a third party receiving a patent right sought by us, which in turn could affect our ability to commercialize our products. Competitors could purchase our products and attempt to replicate or reverse engineer some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts, willfully infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate our intellectual property rights, design around our patents, or develop and obtain patent protection for more effective technologies, designs or methods. We may be unable to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical knowledge or trade secrets by consultants, suppliers, vendors, former employees and current employees. Further, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and we may encounter significant problems in protecting our proprietary rights in these countries.
In addition, proceedings to enforce or defend our patents could put our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable or interpreted narrowly. Such proceedings could also provoke third parties to assert claims against us, including that some or all of the claims in one or more of our patents are invalid or otherwise unenforceable. If any of our patents covering our products are invalidated, found unenforceable or interpreted narrowly, or if a court found that valid, enforceable patents held by third parties covered one or more of our products, our competitive position could be harmed or we could be required to incur significant expenses to enforce or defend our rights.
Some of our patents and patent applications may in the future be co-owned with third parties. If we are unable to obtain an exclusive license to any such third-party co-owners’ interest in such patents or patent applications, such co-owners may be able to license their rights to other third parties, including our competitors, and our competitors could market competing products and technology. In addition, we may need the cooperation of any such co-owners of our patents in order to enforce such patents against third parties, and such cooperation may not be provided to us.
The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain, and we cannot ensure that:
•
Any of our patents, or any of our pending patent applications, if issued, will include claims having a scope sufficient to protect our products;
•
Any of our pending patent applications will issue as patents;
•
We will be able to successfully commercialize our products on a substantial scale, if approved, before our relevant patents we may have expire;
•
We were the first to make the inventions covered by each of our patents and pending patent applications;
•
We were the first to file patent applications for these inventions;
•
Others will not develop similar or alternative technologies that do not infringe our patents;
•
Any of our challenged patents will be found to ultimately be valid and enforceable;
•
Any patents issued to us will provide a basis for an exclusive market for our commercially viable products, will provide us with any competitive advantages or will not be challenged by third parties;
•
We will develop additional proprietary technologies or products that are separately patentable; or
•
Our commercial activities or products will not infringe upon the patents of others.
59
Even if we are able to obtain patent protection, such patent protection may be of insufficient scope to achieve our business objectives. Issued patents may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated or circumvented. Decisions by courts and governmental patent agencies may introduce uncertainty in the enforceability or scope of patents owned by or that are in the future licensed to us. Furthermore, the issuance of a patent does not give us the right to practice the patented invention. Third parties may have blocking patents that could prevent us from marketing our own products and practicing our own technology. Alternatively, third parties may seek approval to market their own products similar to or otherwise competitive with our products. In these circumstances, we may need to defend and/or assert our patents, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement. In any of these types of proceedings, a court or agency with jurisdiction may find our patents invalid, unenforceable or not infringed; competitors may then be able to market products and use manufacturing and analytical processes that are substantially similar to ours. Even if we have valid and enforceable patents, these patents still may not provide protection against competing products or processes sufficient to achieve our business objectives.
In addition, the U.S. federal government retains certain rights in inventions produced with its financial assistance under the Bayh-Dole Act. The federal government retains a “nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license” for its own benefit. The Bayh-Dole Act also provides federal agencies with “march-in rights.” March-in rights allow the government, in specified circumstances, to require the patent owner or successors in title to the patent to grant a “nonexclusive, partially exclusive, or exclusive license” to a “responsible applicant or applicants.” If the patent owner refuses to do so, the government may grant the license to itself. We cannot be sure that if we acquired intellectual property in the future it will be free from government rights or regulations pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act. If, in the future, we own, co-own or license in technology which is critical to our business that is developed in whole or in part with federal funds subject to the Bayh-Dole Act, our ability to enforce or otherwise exploit patents covering such technology may be adversely affected. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. In addition, periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other government fees on issued patents often must be paid to the USPTO and foreign patent agencies over the lifetime of the patent and/or applications and any patent rights we may obtain in the future. While an unintentional lapse of a patent or patent application can in many cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. If we fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our products, we may not be able to stop a competitor from marketing products that are the same as or similar to our products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be unsuccessful in licensing or acquiring intellectual property from third parties that may be required to develop and commercialize our current and/or future products.
A third party may hold intellectual property rights, including patent rights that are important or necessary to the development and commercialization of our current and/or future products. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our current and/or future products, in which case we would be required to acquire or obtain a license to such intellectual property from these third parties, and we may be unable to do so on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment or at all. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights, we may not be able to develop, manufacture or market a product or future product, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
60
Changes in patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our existing and future products, and could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our patents or our future patents.
Our ability to obtain patents and the breadth of any patents obtained is uncertain in part because, to date, some legal principles remain unresolved, and there has not been a consistent policy regarding the breadth or interpretation of claims allowed in patents in the United States and other countries. Furthermore, changes in either patent laws or interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our patent protection.
Patent reform legislation may pass in the future that could lead to additional uncertainties and increased costs surrounding the prosecution, enforcement and defense of our patents and applications. Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have made, and will likely continue to make, changes in how the patent laws of the United States are interpreted. The United States Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on actions by the United States Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we own or that we might obtain or license in the future. An inability to obtain, enforce, and defend patents covering our proprietary technologies would materially and adversely affect our business prospects and financial condition.
Similarly, foreign courts have made, and will likely continue to make, changes in how the patent laws in their respective jurisdictions are interpreted. Changes in patent laws and regulations in other countries or jurisdictions, changes in the governmental bodies that enforce them, or changes in how the relevant governmental authority enforces patent laws or regulations may weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we own or may obtain in the future. Further, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the United States. As a result, we may encounter significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property both in the United States and abroad. For example, if the issuance in a given country of a patent covering an invention is not followed by the issuance in other countries of patents covering the same invention, or if any judicial interpretation of the validity, enforceability or scope of the claims or the written description or enablement in a patent issued in one country is not similar to the interpretation given to the corresponding patent issued in other countries, our ability to protect our intellectual property in those countries may be limited. Changes in either patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may materially diminish the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our patent protection. We cannot predict future changes in the interpretation of patent laws or changes to patent laws that might be enacted into law by U.S. and foreign legislative bodies. Those changes may materially affect our patents or patent applications and our ability to obtain additional patent protection in the future. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may become a party to intellectual property litigation or administrative proceedings that could be costly, time-consuming, unsuccessful, and could interfere with our ability to sell and market our products.