Item 1A. Risk Factors
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
 
Our operating results and financial condition have varied in the past and could vary significantly in the future depending on a number of factors. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before deciding whether to purchase our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and stockholders could lose part or all of their investment.
 
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
 
Our financial performance depends on sales growth and increasing demand for our legacy and acquired product portfolios, and we may not be able to successfully manage the recent, and future, expansion of our operations.
 
Through our acquisitions of Parcus Medical and Arthrosurface in early 2020, we significantly broadened our technology and development platforms and commercialization infrastructure and expanded our addressable market from the global OA pain management market to the substantially larger global joint preservation market. Our future success depends on growth in sales of both our legacy and acquired products. There can be no assurance that such growth can be achieved or, if achieved, sustained. There can be no assurance that, even if substantial growth in product sales and the demand for our products is achieved, we will be able to:
 
 
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Gain acceptance of our broadened portfolio of existing products, as well as future products, by the medical community, hospitals, physicians, other health care providers, third-party payers, and end-users, which acceptance may depend upon the extent to which the medical community and end-users perceive our products as safer, more effective or more cost-competitive than other similar products.
 
 
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Maintain, manage, and develop the necessary manufacturing capabilities and inventory management practices;
 
 
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Develop, implement, and integrate the mix of appropriate sales channels needed to generate increased sales across our expanded product platform and to develop marketing partners and viable commercial strategies for the distribution of our expanded mix of products;
 
 
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Attract, retain, and integrate required key personnel; and
 
 
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Implement the financial, accounting, and management systems needed to manage our expanded business and growing demand for our products.
 
There can be no assurance that our current and future, products will achieve significant market acceptance on a timely basis, or at all. Failure of some or all of our products to achieve significant market acceptance, or our failure to successfully manage future growth, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Substantial competition could materially affect our financial performance.
 
We compete with many companies, including large pharmaceutical companies and large and specialized medical devices companies, across all of our product lines. For our OA Pain Management products, our principal competitors include Sanofi Genzyme, Zimmer Biomet, Inc., Bioventus Inc., and Ferring Pharmaceuticals, as well as other companies that are commercializing or developing competitive products. Our key competitors for our Joint Preservation and Restoration products include Arthrex, Inc., the DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Smith & Nephew PLC., Stryker Corporation, and Zimmer Biomet, Inc., as well as certain smaller organizations that focus on subsets of the larger industry, such as Catalyst OrthoScience, Treace Medical, Paragon 28 and Shoulder Innovations. Many of these companies have substantially greater financial resources, larger research and development staffs, more extensive marketing and manufacturing organizations, and more experience in the regulatory process than us. We also compete with academic institutions, government agencies, and other research organizations that are involved in the research and development and commercialization of products similar to our own. Many of our competitors also compete against us in securing relationships with collaborators for their research and development and commercialization programs.
 
Because a number of companies are developing or have developed products for similar applications as our products and have received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approval, the successful commercialization of a particular product will depend in part upon our ability to complete clinical studies and/or obtain FDA marketing and foreign regulatory approvals prior to our competitors, or, if regulatory approval is not obtained prior to our competitors, to identify markets for our products that may be sufficient to permit meaningful sales of our products. Additionally, legislation and regulation aimed at curbing rising healthcare costs has resulted in a consolidation trend in the healthcare industry to create larger companies, including hospitals, with greater market power. In turn, this has led to greater and more intense competition in the provision of products and services to market participants. Important market makers, like group purchasing organizations and integrated delivery networks, have increased their negotiating leverage, and if these market makers demand significant price concessions or if we are excluded as a supplier by these market makers, our product revenue could be adversely impacted. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete against current or future competitors or that competition will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. 
 
 
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Our business may be adversely affected if consolidation in the healthcare industry leads to demand for price concessions or if we are excluded from being a supplier by a group purchasing organization or similar entity.
 
Because healthcare costs have risen significantly over the past decade, numerous initiatives and reforms have been launched by legislators, regulators, and third-party payers to curb these costs. As a result, there has been a consolidation trend in the healthcare industry to create larger companies, including hospitals, with greater market power. As the healthcare industry consolidates, competition to provide products and services to industry participants has become and may continue to become more intense. This may result in greater pricing pressures and the exclusion of certain suppliers from important markets as group purchasing organizations, independent delivery networks, and large single accounts continue to use their market power to consolidate purchasing decisions. If a group purchasing organization excludes us from being one of their suppliers, our net sales could be adversely impacted. We expect that market demand, government regulation, third-party reimbursement policies, and societal pressures will continue to change the worldwide healthcare industry, which may exert further downward pressure on the prices of our products.
 
A significant portion of our revenues are derived from a small number of customers, the loss of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
 
We have historically derived the majority of our revenues from a small number of customers who resell our products to end-users. Most of these customers are significantly larger companies than us. In 2021, DePuy Synthes Mitek Sports Medicine, part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Companies, or Mitek, accounted for 45% of our revenue. While we have started to diversify our sales channels, including through the implementation of a direct commercial model in the United States for our Joint Preservation and Restoration products, we expect to continue to be dependent on a small number of large customers for a substantial portion of our business. The failure of key customers to purchase our products in the amounts they historically have or in amounts that we expect would seriously harm our business.
 
In addition, if present and future customers terminate their purchasing arrangements with us, significantly reduce or delay their orders, or seek to renegotiate their agreements on terms less favorable to us, our business, financial condition, and results of operations will be adversely affected. If we accept terms less favorable than the terms of the current agreements, such renegotiations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and/or results of operations. Furthermore, in any future negotiations we may be subject to the perceived or actual leverage that these customers may have given their relative size and importance to us. Any termination, change, reduction, or delay in orders could seriously harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The loss of any one of our major customers, the delay of significant orders from such customers or our inability to timely supply product to these customers (including due to production and shipping delays attributable to supply or staffing shortages during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), even if only temporary, could reduce or delay our recognition of revenues, harm our reputation in the industry, and reduce our ability to accurately predict cash flow, and, as a consequence, could seriously harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
We experience quarterly sales volume variation, which makes our future results difficult to predict and makes period-to-period comparisons potentially not meaningful.
 
We experience quarterly fluctuations in our product sales as a result of multiple factors, many of which are outside of our control including our arrangement with Mitek which performs the vast majority of the downstream sales and marketing activities to customers and end-users. Therefore, we are subject to fluctuations in Mitek’s sales patterns and corresponding ordering patterns. These quarterly fluctuations create uncertainty as to the volume of sales that we may achieve in a given period. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis might not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. Our operating results could be disproportionately affected by a reduction in revenue because a proportionately smaller amount of our expenses varies with our revenue. As a result, our quarterly operating results are difficult to predict, even in the near term.
 
We rely on a small number of suppliers for certain key raw materials and a small number of suppliers for a number of other materials required for the manufacturing and delivery of our products, and disruption could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Although we believe that alternative sources for many of these and other components and raw materials that we use in our manufacturing processes are available, we cannot be certain that the supply of key raw materials will continue to be available at current levels or will be sufficient to meet our future needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted, and may continue to impact, our supply chain as the companies that produce our products, product components or otherwise support our manufacturing processes, the distribution centers where we manage our inventory, or the operations of our logistics and other service providers, including third parties that sterilize and store our products, are, or may be, disrupted, temporarily closed or experience worker shortages for a sustained period of time. For example, for the manufacture of bone preserving joint technologies, we engage a single third-party organization as a contract manufacturer. Any supply interruption could harm our ability to manufacture our products until a new source of supply is identified and qualified. We may not be able to find sufficient alternative suppliers in a reasonable time-period, or on commercially reasonable terms, if at all, and our ability to produce and supply our products could be impaired.
 
 
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Our manufacturing processes involve inherent risks, and disruption could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
The operation of biomedical manufacturing plants involves many risks, including the risks of breakdown, failure, substandard performance of equipment, the inability of production runs to pass internal quality standards, the need to comply with the requirements of directives of government agencies, including the FDA, and the occurrence of natural and other disasters. Such occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations during the period of such operational difficulties and beyond.
 
We could become subject to product liability claims, which, if successful, could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
The testing, marketing, and sale of human health care products entail an inherent risk of allegations of product liability, and there can be no assurance that substantial product liability claims will not be asserted against us. Although we have not received any material product liability claims to date and we believe that we have adequate insurance coverage to cover such product liability claims should they arise, there can be no assurance that material claims will not arise in the future or that our insurance will be adequate to cover all situations. Moreover, there can be no assurance that such insurance, or additional insurance, if required, will be available in the future or, if available, will be available on commercially reasonable terms. Any product liability claim, if successful, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
We are increasingly dependent on sophisticated information technology and if we fail to effectively maintain or protect our information systems or data, including from data breaches, our business could be adversely affected.
 
We are increasingly dependent on sophisticated information technology for our products and infrastructure. As a result of technology initiatives, recently enacted regulations, changes in our system platforms and integration of new business acquisitions, we have been consolidating and integrating the number of systems we operate and have upgraded and expanded our information systems capabilities. We also have outsourced elements of our operations to third parties, and, as a result, we manage a number of third-party suppliers who may or could have access to our confidential intellectual property or business information.
 
Our information systems, and those of third-party suppliers with whom we contract, require an ongoing commitment of significant resources to maintain, protect and enhance existing systems and develop new systems to keep pace with continuing changes in information technology, evolving systems and regulatory standards and the increasing need to protect patient and customer information. In addition, given their size and complexity, these systems could be vulnerable to service interruptions or to security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party suppliers and/or business partners, or from cyber-attacks by malicious third parties attempting to gain unauthorized access to our products, systems or Confidential Information. Any such compromise to our information security could result in an interruption in our operations, the unauthorized publication of our confidential business or proprietary information, the unauthorized release of customer, vendor, or employee data, the violation of privacy, including under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in the European Union, or other laws and exposure to litigation, any of which could harm our business and operating results.
 
We may face circumstances in the future that will result in impairment charges, including, but not limited to, goodwill impairment and in-process research and development charges.
 
As of December 31, 2021, we had long-lived assets in the amount of $137.8 million. If the fair value of any of our long-lived assets, including those that we acquired in the acquisitions of Arthrosurface and Parcus Medical, decrease as a result of an economic slowdown, a downturn in the markets where we sell products and services, a downturn in our financial performance or future outlook, or other reasons, we may be required to record an impairment charge on such assets. We are required to test intangible assets with indefinite life periods for potential impairment annually and on an interim basis if there are indicators of a potential impairment. We also are required to evaluate amortizable intangible assets and fixed assets for impairment if there are indicators of a possible impairment. Impairment charges could have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial position, as well as on the market price of our common stock.
 
Our business is dependent upon hiring and retaining qualified management and technical personnel.
 
We are highly dependent on the members of our management and technical staff, the loss of one or more of whom could have a material adverse effect on us. We have experienced a number of management changes in recent years, and there can be no assurances that any future management changes will not adversely affect our business. We believe that our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to attract and retain technical and highly skilled executive, managerial, professional, and technical personnel. We face significant competition for such personnel from competitive companies, research and academic institutions, government entities, and other organizations. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in hiring or retaining the personnel we require. The failure to hire and retain such personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
 
 
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We may require additional capital in the future. We cannot give any assurance that such capital will be available at all or on terms acceptable to us, and if it is available, additional capital raised by us could dilute your ownership interest or the value of your shares.
 
We may need to raise capital in the future depending on numerous factors, including:
 
 
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Market acceptance of our existing and future products;
 
 
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The success and sales of our products under various distributor agreements and other appropriate commercial strategies, including the ability of our partners to achieve third party reimbursement for our products;
 
 
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The successful commercialization of products in development through appropriate commercial models and marketing channels;
 
 
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Progress in our product development efforts;
 
 
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The magnitude and scope of such product development efforts;
 
 
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Any potential acquisitions of products, technologies, or businesses;
 
 
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Progress with preclinical studies, clinical trials, and product approvals and clearances by the FDA and other agencies;
 
 
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Requirement to conduct additional preclinical studies and clinical trials for future products;
 
 
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The cost and timing of our efforts to manage our manufacturing capabilities and related costs;
 
 
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The cost of filing, prosecuting, defending, and enforcing patent claims and other intellectual property rights and the cost of defending any other legal proceeding;
 
 
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Competing technological and market developments;
 
 
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The development of strategic alliances for the marketing of certain of our products;
 
 
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The terms of such strategic alliances, including provisions (and our ability to satisfy such provisions) that provide upfront and/or milestone payments to us;
 
 
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The cost of maintaining adequate inventory levels to meet current and future product demand; and
 
 
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Further expanding our business in international markets.
 
To the extent funds generated from our operations, together with our existing capital resources, are insufficient to meet future requirements, we will be required to obtain additional funds through equity or debt financings, through strategic alliances with corporate partners and others, or through other sources. The terms of any future equity financings may be dilutive to our investors and the terms of any debt financings may contain restrictive covenants, which limit our ability to pursue certain courses of action. Our ability to obtain financing is dependent on the status of our future business prospects as well as conditions prevailing in the relevant capital markets at the time, we seek financing. No assurance can be given that any additional financing will be made available to us or will be available on acceptable terms should such a need arise.
 
If we succeed in raising additional funds through the issuance of equity or convertible securities, then the issuance could result in substantial dilution to existing stockholders. Furthermore, the holders of these new securities or debt may have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of the holders of common stock. In addition, any preferred equity issuance or debt financing that we may obtain in the future could have restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions.
 
Risks Related to Our Commercialization Activities
 
Our license agreements with Mitek provide substantial control of Monovisc and Orthovisc in the United States to Mitek, and Mitek ’ s actions could have a material impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
 
Our license and distribution agreements with Mitek related to Monovisc and Orthovisc provide Mitek with, among other things, the exclusive right to market and sell Monovisc and Orthovisc in the United States, unilateral decision-making authority over the sale, price, and promotion of Monovisc and Orthovisc in the United States, substantial control over the future development of Monovisc and Orthovisc related to the treatment of pain associated with osteoarthritis, a license to manufacture and have manufactured such products in the event that we are unable to supply Mitek with Monovisc or Orthovisc in accordance with the terms of the relevant agreement, and certain rights of first refusal with respect to future products we develop for the treatment of pain associated with osteoarthritis. In exchange, Mitek pays us a transfer price calculated with reference to historical end-user prices in the market and a fixed royalty rate per product on their net product sales. As Mitek accounts for a large percentage of our yearly revenue and has unilateral decision-making authority over in-market activities, including end-user pricing and discounts, reimbursement strategy, and overall promotion strategy, actions taken by Mitek could impact our ability to predict and generate revenue and have a material impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
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We may not succeed in our integration and buildout of our direct sales channel in the United States, and our failure to do so could negatively impact our business and financial results.
 
Beginning in 2019, and with our expanded commercial infrastructure, as a result of the Parcus Medical and Arthrosurface acquisitions, we have sold our Joint Preservation and Restoration family of products directly to customers, including hospitals and ASCs, through our direct Anika sales team and large network of independent third-party distributors. This approach was a departure from our historical distribution model in the United States, and we cannot be certain that we will be successful in implementing and executing on this commercial approach or that, even if we are able to implement it, the approach will be successful at scale. We may not be able to attract or retain the sophisticated personnel required for our approach, to identify or negotiate favorable or acceptable terms with distribution agents, to achieve in-market pricing at the levels we have targeted, to develop and tailor our product portfolio to be specifically desired by clinicians who practice in ASCs, or to timely execute on our strategies for market penetration generally. Our failure to successfully implement and execute on this commercial approach could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
We are dependent upon marketing and distribution partners and the failure to maintain strategic alliances on acceptable terms will have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Our success is dependent, in part, upon the efforts of our marketing, distribution, and logistics partners, including our sales agent partners in the United States, and the terms and conditions of our relationships with such partners. We cannot assure you that our commercial partners, including Mitek, will not seek to renegotiate their current agreements on terms less favorable to us or terminate such agreements. A failure to maintain relationships with our commercial partners on terms satisfactory to us, or at all, could result in a material adverse effect on our operating results.
 
We continue to seek to establish long-term partnerships in regions and countries not covered by existing agreements, and we may need to obtain the assistance of additional marketing partners to bring new and existing products to market and to replace certain marketing partners. There can be no assurance that we will be able to identify or engage appropriate distribution or collaboration partners or effectively transition to any such new partnerships. The failure to establish strategic partnerships for the marketing and distribution of our products on acceptable terms and within our planned timeframes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Sales of our products are largely dependent upon third party reimbursement and our performance may be harmed by health care cost containment initiatives or decisions of individual third-party payers.
 
In the United States and other foreign markets, health care providers, such as hospitals and physicians, that purchase health care products, such as our products, generally rely on third-party payers, including Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance and managed care plans, to reimburse all or part of the cost of the health care product. Reimbursement by third party payers, both in the United States and internationally, may depend on a number of factors, including the individual payer’s determination that the use of our products is clinically useful and cost-effective, medically necessary, and not experimental or investigational. Since reimbursement approval is required from each payer individually, seeking such approvals can be a time consuming and costly process, which could require us or our marketing partners to provide supporting scientific, clinical, and cost-effectiveness data for the use of our products to each payer separately. Significant uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved health care products, and any failure or delay in obtaining reimbursement approvals can negatively impact sales of our new products. In addition, we cannot be certain that payers who currently provide reimbursement for our products will continue to provide such reimbursement in the future, and such payer decisions could negatively impact the sales of our current or future products.
 
In addition, third party payers are increasingly attempting to contain the costs of health care products and services by limiting both coverage and the level of reimbursement for new therapeutic products and by refusing, in some cases, to provide coverage for uses of approved products for disease indications for which the FDA, or the applicable foreign regulatory agency, has granted marketing approval. Also, the U.S. Congress, certain state legislatures, and certain foreign governments and regulatory agencies have considered reforms, including, among other items, any material changes to the Affordable Care Act or the potential repeal of reference drug pricing in the United States, which may affect current reimbursement practices and create additional uncertainty about the pricing of our products, including the potential implementation of controls on health care spending through limitations on the growth of Medicare and Medicaid spending. There can be no assurance that third party reimbursement coverage will be available or adequate for any products or services developed by us. Outside the United States, the success of our products is also dependent in part upon the availability of reimbursement and health care payment systems. Domestic and international reimbursement laws and regulations may change from time to time. Lack of adequate coverage and reimbursement provided by governments and other third-party payers for our products and services, including continuing coverage for Monovisc and Orthovisc in the United States, and any change of classification by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for reimbursement of Orthovisc and Monovisc, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
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Risks Related to Our Product Development and Regulatory Compliance
 
We are facing a longer than expected pathway to commercialize our Cingal product in the United States, and we may face other unforeseen difficulties in achieving regulatory approval for Cingal, which could affect our business and financial results.
 
In the second quarter of 2018, we received and analyzed the results of our second Phase III clinical trial for Cingal and found that the data did not meet the primary study endpoint of demonstrating a statistically significant difference in pain reduction between Cingal and the approved steroid component of Cingal at the six-month time point. After discussions, the FDA indicated that an additional Phase III clinical trial would be necessary to support U.S. marketing approval for Cingal. In 2019, we began the design of a pilot study to enable us to evaluate our full-scale Phase III clinical trial design, including patient and site selection criteria, and increase the probability of success for the Phase III trial. In September 2020 the first patient was enrolled in the pilot study. We completed enrollment in the pilot study in November 2021 and we are currently evaluating the clinical results of the study and expect to complete the review of our analysis in the middle of 2022. We cannot guarantee that the results from the pilot study will be successful. If the pilot study is successful, we expect to commence an additional Phase III trial in 2022, but we cannot guarantee the success of any additional Phase III trial. Because the results of the pilot study or any additional Phase III trial, or other unforeseen future developments, could have a substantial negative impact on the timeline for and the cost associated with a potential Cingal regulatory approval, our overall business condition, financial results, and competitive position could be affected.
 
Failure to obtain, or any delay in obtaining, FDA or other U.S. and foreign governmental approvals for our products may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
 
Several of our current products under development, and certain future products we may develop, will require clinical trials to determine their safety and efficacy for marketing approval by regulatory bodies, including the FDA. Product development and approval within the FDA and international regulatory frameworks takes a number of years and involves the expenditure of substantial resources. There can be no assurance that the FDA or other regulatory authorities will accept submissions related to our new products or the expansion of the indications of our current products, and, even if submissions are accepted, there can be no guarantee that the FDA or other regulatory authorities will grant approval for our new products, on a timely basis, if at all. In addition to regulations enforced by the FDA, we are subject to other existing and future federal, state, local, and foreign regulations applicable to product approval, which may vary significantly across jurisdictions. Additional approval of existing products may be required when changes to such products may affect the safety and effectiveness, including for new indications for use, labeling changes, process or manufacturing changes, the use of a different facility to manufacture, process or package the device, and changes in performance or design specifications. Failure to obtain regulatory approvals of our products, including any changes to existing products, could have an adverse material impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Even if ultimately granted, FDA and international regulatory approvals may be subject to significant, unanticipated delays throughout the regulatory approval process. Internally, we make assumptions regarding product approval timelines, both in the United States and internationally, in our business planning, and any delay in approval could materially affect our competitive position in the relevant product market and our projections related to future business results.
 
We cannot be certain that product approvals, both in the United States and internationally, will not include significant limitations on the product indications, and other claims sought for use, under which the products may be marketed. The relevant approval or clearance may also include other significant conditions of approval such as post-market testing, tracking, or surveillance requirements. Any of these factors could significantly impact our competitive position in relation to such products and could have a negative impact on the sales of such products. 
 
Once obtained, we cannot guarantee that FDA or international product approvals will not be withdrawn or that relevant agencies will not require other corrective action, and any withdrawal or corrective action could materially affect our business and financial results.
 
Once obtained, marketing approval can be withdrawn by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory agencies for a number of reasons, including the failure to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements or the occurrence of unforeseen problems following initial approval. Regulatory authorities could also limit or prevent the manufacture or distribution of our products. Any regulatory limitations on the use of our products or any withdrawal or suspension of approval or rescission of approval by the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory agency could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Our operations and products are subject to extensive regulation, compliance with which is costly and time consuming, and our failure to comply may result in substantial penalties, including recalls of our products.
 
The FDA and foreign regulatory bodies impose extensive regulations applicable to our operations and products, including regulations governing product and sterilization standards, packing requirements, labeling requirements, quality system and manufacturing requirements, import restrictions, tariff regulations, duties, and tax requirements. We cannot assure you that we will be able to achieve and maintain compliance required for FDA, CE marking, or other foreign regulatory approvals for any or all of our operations and products or that we will be able to produce our products in a timely and profitable manner while complying with applicable requirements.
 
 
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Failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements could result in substantial penalties, including warning letters, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, seizure of products, total or partial suspension of production, refusal to grant pre-market clearance or pre-market approval for devices or drugs, withdrawal of approvals, and criminal prosecution. Additionally, regulatory authorities have the power to require the recall of our products. It also might be necessary for us, in applicable circumstances, to initiate a voluntary recall per regulatory requirements of one or several of our products. The imposition of any of the foregoing penalties, whether voluntarily or involuntary, could have a material negative impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Any changes in FDA or international regulations related to product approval or approval renewal, including those currently under consideration by FDA or those that apply retroactively, could adversely affect our competitive position and materially affect our business and financial results.
 
FDA and foreign regulations depend heavily on administrative interpretation, and we cannot assure you that future interpretations made by the FDA or other regulatory bodies, with possible retroactive effect, will not adversely affect us. Additionally, any changes, whether in interpretation or substance, in existing regulations or policies, or any future adoption of new regulations or policies by relevant regulatory bodies, could prevent or delay approval of our products. In the event our future, or current, products, including HA generally, are classified, or re-classified, as human drugs, combination products, or biologics by the FDA or an applicable international regulatory body, the applicable review process-related to such products is typically substantially longer and substantially more expensive than the review process to which they are currently subject as medical devices. In 2018, FDA publicly indicated its intent to consider HA products for certain indications for regulation as a drug and has indicated that industry should submit new products or indication expansions to its Office of Combination Products to designate the appropriate FDA office for review. There exists uncertainty with respect to the final interpretation, implementation, and consequences of this development, and this or any other potential regulatory changes in approach or interpretation similar in substance to those mentioned in this paragraph and affecting our products could materially impact our competitive position, business, and financial results.
 
Additionally, the implementation of the new European Medical Device Regulation, or EU MDR, which was fully put into effect in 2021, is expected to change several aspects of the existing regulatory framework in Europe. Specifically, the EU MDR will require changes in the clinical evidence required for medical devices, post-market clinical follow-up evidence, annual reporting of safety information for Class III products, and bi-annual reporting for Class II products, Unique Device Identification, or UDI, for all products, submission of core data elements to a European UDI database prior to placement of a device on the market, reclassification of medical devices, and multiple other labeling changes. Approvals for certain of our currently marketed products could be curtailed or withdrawn as a result of the implementation of EU MDR, and acquiring approvals for new products could be more challenging and costly. We are currently reviewing our products that we are currently selling in European markets as to the impact of EU MDR. There may be products that we may not continue to market in Europe as expected demand may not be worth the cost of this regulatory compliance. Compliance with this and any other requirements could be time consuming and costly, and our failure to comply may subject us to significant liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. 
 
We may rely on third parties to support certain aspects of our clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval or commercialize our products, and our business could be substantially harmed.
 
We have hired experienced clinical development and regulatory staff, and we have also retained the services of knowledgeable external service providers, including consultants and clinical research organizations, to develop and supervise our clinical trials and regulatory processes. Despite our internal investment in staffing, we will remain dependent upon these third-party contract research organizations and consultants to carry out portions of our clinical and preclinical research studies and regulatory filing assistance for the foreseeable future. As a result, we have had and will have less control over the conduct of the clinical trials, the timing and completion of the trials, the required reporting of adverse events, and the management of data developed through the trials than would be the case if we were relying entirely on our own staff. Outside parties may have staffing difficulties, may undergo changes in priorities or may become financially distressed, adversely affecting their willingness or ability to conduct our trials. Failure by these third parties to comply with regulatory requirements or to meet timing expectations may require us to repeat clinical or preclinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process, or require substantial unexpected expenditures.
 
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We are subject to various healthcare laws and regulations, and any failure to comply with applicable laws could subject us to significant liability and harm our business.
 
The sales, marketing and pricing of products and relationships that medical products companies have with healthcare providers are under increased scrutiny around the world. Our industry is subject to various laws and regulations pertaining to healthcare fraud and abuse, including the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark law, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and similar laws and regulations in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, we are subject to various laws concerning anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters (including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act), sales to countries or persons subject to economic sanctions and other matters affecting our international operations. Violations of these laws are punishable by criminal and/or civil sanctions, including, in some instances, fines, imprisonment and, within the United States, exclusion from participation in government healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Administration health programs. These laws are administered by, among others, the DOJ, the OIG-HHS, the SEC, the OFAC, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and state attorneys general. Any failure to comply with these laws could subject us to significant liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
We are subject to environmental regulations and any failure to comply with applicable laws could subject us to significant liabilities and harm our business.
 
We are subject to a variety of local, state, federal, and foreign government regulations relating to the storage, discharge, handling, emission, generation, manufacture, and disposal of toxic or other hazardous substances used in the manufacture of our products. Any failure by us to control the use, disposal, removal, or storage of hazardous chemicals or toxic substances could subject us to significant liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Risks Related to Our Growth Initiatives
 
We may have difficulty managing our growth.
 
As a result of our activities, we have experienced substantial growth in the number of our employees, the scope of our product portfolio and pipeline, the size of our operating and financial systems, and the geographic area of our operations. This growth has resulted in increased responsibilities for our management. To manage our growth effectively, we must continue to expand our management team, attract, motivate and retain employees, and improve our operating and financial systems. There can be no assurance that our current management systems will be adequate or that we will be able to manage our recent or future growth successfully. Any failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. 
 
We may not generate the expected benefits of our acquisitions, and the ongoing integration of those acquisitions could disrupt our ongoing business, distract our management and increase our expenses.
 
Through our acquisitions of Parcus Medical and Arthrosurface, we expanded our product portfolio and pipeline, diversified our business, expanded our commercial infrastructure, entered new markets, and increased the scope of our operations and the number of our employees. The continued successful integration of these other companies into our operations is critical to our future financial performance. This will require that we continue to integrate more closely the companies’ product offerings and research and development capabilities, retain key employees, assimilate diverse corporate cultures, further integrate management and financial information systems, consolidate the acquired operations and manage geographically dispersed operations, among other things, each of which could pose significant challenges. The difficulty of combining the acquired companies with our company may be increased by the need to integrate personnel, and changes effected in the combination may cause key employees to leave. To succeed in the market for joint preservation and restoration, we must also invest additional resources, primarily in the areas of sales and marketing, to extend name recognition and increase market share.
 
The integration of the two acquired companies into our operations has taken longer than originally anticipated and has required more effort and expense than was originally planned. This has resulted, and may continue to result, in the loss of valuable employees, additional and unforeseen expenses, the disruption of our ongoing business, processes and systems, or inconsistencies in standards, controls, procedures, practices, policies and compensation arrangements, any of which could adversely affect our ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions. There may be increased risk due to the ongoing integration of financial reporting and internal control systems. Any diversion of the attention of management created by the integration process, any disruptions or other difficulties encountered in the integration process, and unforeseen liabilities or unanticipated problems with the acquired businesses could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. While we are working diligently to complete integration activities, employee disruptions, production and communication challenges and management diversion created by the COVID-19 pandemic present particular challenges to our continued integration of Arthrosurface and Parcus Medical and have made it more challenging than anticipated to effectively and timely complete our integration goals. We recorded an impairment to goodwill in 2020 and a reduction in the fair value of contingent consideration in connection with the acquisitions that was driven in part by an increase in the significant effect that COVID-19 has had and is expected to continue to have an impact on near-term cash flows of our new subsidiaries.
 
There can be no assurance that these acquisitions will provide the benefits we expect or that we will be able to integrate and develop the operations of Parcus Medical and Arthrosurface successfully. Any failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
 
 
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We expect to continue to actively explore inorganic growth as a part of our future growth strategy, which exposes us to a variety of risks that could adversely affect our business operations.
 
Our business and future growth strategy includes as an important component the acquisition of businesses, technologies, services, assets or products that we believe are a strategic fit with or otherwise provide value to our business. We may fund these acquisitions by utilizing our cash, incurring debt, issuing additional shares of our common stock, or by other means. Completed transactions may expose us to a number of risks and expenses, including unanticipated liabilities, amortization expenses related to intangible assets with definite lives, or risks associated with entering new markets with which we have limited experience or where commercial alliances with experienced partners or existing sales channels are not available. Whether or not completed, transactions may result in diversion of management resources otherwise available for ongoing development of our business and significant expenditures.
 
Customer and employee uncertainty about the effects of any acquisitions could harm us.
 
Customers of any companies we acquire may, in response to the consummation of the acquisitions, delay or defer purchasing decisions, which could adversely affect the success of our acquired businesses. Similarly, employees of acquired companies may experience uncertainty about their future roles, which may adversely affect our ability to attract and retain key management, sales, marketing, and technical personnel following an acquisition. 
 
As our international sales and operations grow, we could become increasingly subject to additional economic, political, and other risks that could harm our business.
 
Since we manufacture our products for sale worldwide, our business is subject to risks associated with doing business internationally. During 2021, 2020, and 2019, 23%, 21%, and 21%, respectively, of our product sales were to international customers. We continue to be subject to a variety of risks, which could cause fluctuations in the results of our international and domestic operations. These risks include:
 
 
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The impact of recessions and other economic conditions in economies, including impact of COVID-19 pandemic, outside the United States;
 
 
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Instability of foreign economic, political, and labor conditions;
 
 
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Unfavorable labor regulations applicable to our European operations, such as severance and the unenforceability of non-competition agreements in the European Union;
 
 
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The impact of strikes, work stoppages, work slowdowns, grievances, complaints, claims of unfair labor practices, or other collective bargaining disputes;
 
 
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Difficulties in complying with restrictions imposed by regulatory or market requirements, tariffs, or other trade barriers or by U.S. export laws;
 
 
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Imposition of government controls limiting the volume of international sales;
 
 
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Longer accounts receivable payment cycles;
 
 
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Potentially adverse tax consequences, including, if required or applicable, difficulties transferring funds generated in non-U.S. jurisdictions to the United States in a tax efficient manner;
 
 
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Difficulties in protecting intellectual property, especially in international jurisdictions;
 
 
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Difficulties in managing international operations; and
 
 
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Burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws, including MDR and GDPR among others.
 
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to anticipate and address these and any new risks. We cannot guarantee that these or other factors will not adversely affect our business or operating results.
 
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
 
We may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, which could have a material impact on our business and future financial results.
 
Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may not be successful. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures, and contractual provisions to protect our proprietary rights. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to obtain and enforce patents and trademarks, to protect trade secrets, to obtain licenses to technology owned by third parties when necessary, and to conduct our business without infringing on the valid proprietary rights of others. The patent positions of pharmaceutical, medical product, and biotechnology firms, including ours, can be uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. There can be no assurance that any patent applications will result in the issuance of patents or, if any patents are issued, that they will provide significant proprietary protection or commercial advantage or will not be circumvented by others. Filing and prosecution of patent applications, litigation to establish the validity and scope of patents, assertion of patent infringement claims against others, and the defense of patent infringement claims by others can be expensive and time consuming. There can be no assurance that, in the event that any claims with respect to any of our patents, if issued, are challenged by one or more third parties, any court or patent authority ruling on such challenge will determine that such patent claims are valid and enforceable. An adverse outcome in such litigation or patent review process could cause us to lose exclusivity covered by the disputed rights. If a third party is found to have rights covering products or processes used by us, we could be forced to cease using the technologies or marketing the products covered by such rights, we could be subject to significant liabilities to such third party, and we could be required to license technologies from such third party in order to continue production of the products. Furthermore, even if our patents are determined to be valid, enforceable, and broad in scope, there can be no assurance that competitors will not be able to design around such patents and compete with us using the resulting alternative technology. We have a policy of seeking patent protection for patentable aspects of our proprietary technology. We intend to seek patent protection with respect to products and processes developed in the course of our activities when we believe such protection is in our best interest and when the cost of seeking such protection is appropriate. However, no assurance can be given that any patent application will be filed, that any filed applications will result in issued patents, or that any issued patents will provide us with a competitive advantage or will not be successfully challenged by third parties. The protections afforded by patents will depend upon their scope and validity, and others may be able to design around our patents. 
 
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We also rely upon trade secrets and proprietary know-how for certain non-patented aspects of our technology. To protect such information, we require all employees, consultants, and licensees to enter into confidentiality agreements limiting the disclosure and use of such information. There can be no assurance that these agreements provide meaningful protection or that they will not be breached, that we would have adequate remedies for any such breach, or that our trade secrets, proprietary know-how, and our technological advances will not otherwise become known to others. In addition, there can be no assurance that, despite precautions taken by us, others have not and will not obtain access to our proprietary technology. Further, there can be no assurance that third parties will not independently develop substantially equivalent or better technology.
 
There can be no assurance that we will not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others, which could have a significant impact on our business and financial results.
 
Other entities have filed patent applications for, or have been issued patents concerning, various products or processes in the segments in which we do business. There can be no assurance that the products or processes developed by us will not infringe on the patent rights of others in the future. The cost of defending infringement suits is typically large, and there is no guarantee that any future defense would be successful. In addition, infringement could lead to substantial damages payouts or our inability to produce or market certain of our current or future products. As a result, any such infringement may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
 
Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic
 
Our operations are located in areas impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and those operations have been, and may continue to be, adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The coronavirus has impacted the social and economic framework globally. Our administrative, research and development, and manufacturing operations are principally performed at our U.S. facilities in Massachusetts and Florida. Though our Italian operations represent a relatively small percentage of our consolidated business, we conduct commercial activity, product development, sales, logistics, inventory management and supply chain activities, and other services in our office in Padova, Italy. Our business operations in the United States and Italy are subject to potential business interruptions arising from protective measures that have been taken by Italian, U.S., Massachusetts and Florida regulators and other government agencies. Business disruptions elsewhere in the world could also negatively affect the sources and availability of components and materials that are essential to the operation of our business in both the United States and Italy. Our commercial day-to-day operations have been significantly impacted by the worldwide cancellation or delay of elective procedures in hospitals and ASCs, and timelines associated with certain clinical studies and research and development programs have been delayed.
 
Stay-at-home orders, business closures, travel restrictions, supply chain disruptions, employee illness or quarantines, our or our suppliers’ ability to hire employees and other extended periods of interruption to our business have resulted in disruptions to our operations, caused us to cease or delay operations, and prevented our customers from receiving shipments or processing payments. All of these impacts could continue as COVID-19 continues to impact our business. To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we have transitioned a significant portion of our employee population to a remote work environment, but employees who are unable to work remotely continue to work at our facilities. There can be no assurances that the safety measures we have implemented will be sufficient to protect our employees in our workplace or that they may not otherwise be exposed to COVID-19 outside of our workplace. If a number of our essential employees become sick or otherwise unable to continue working during the current or any future epidemic, our operations may be harmed. Also, the remote work environment may exacerbate various cybersecurity risks to our business, including an increased demand for information technology resources, an increased risk of phishing and other cybersecurity attacks, and an increased risk of unauthorized dissemination of sensitive personal information or proprietary or confidential information. Extended periods of interruption to our corporate, development or manufacturing facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused or could cause us to lose revenue and market share, which has depressed and could continue to depress our financial performance and may be difficult to recapture. Travel restrictions within, to or from the United States United, Kingdom and Italy have negatively impacted the ability of our employees to do their jobs effectively and efficiently, including impacting our employees’ abilities to meet with clinicians and present and train them on our products. If travel continues to be restricted or inadvisable, these negative impacts could continue. In addition, employee disruptions and remote working environments related to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted, and are continuing to impact, the efficiency and pace with which we work and develop our product candidates and our manufacturing capabilities.
 
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic uncertainties has increased challenges associated with hiring highly skilled and experienced employees and may continue to create challenges and/or adversely impact employee retention due to the additional financial, family, and health burdens that many employees may be experiencing. Our industry’s highly competitive market for skilled workers and leaders may negatively affect our ability to retain qualified employees. Losing members of our senior management and other highly skilled personnel could prevent us from achieving our business objectives or divert management’s attention to seeking qualified replacements and ensuring seamless transitions.
 
 
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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of elective surgeries being performed, and has slowed the pace of new product approvals by current and potential customers, which has decreased the usage of, and revenue from, certain of our products.
A significant portion of the demand for our products results from the usage of our products in elective surgeries. Elective surgeries have been curtailed a number of times during COVID-19 since 2020, including variant surges in 2021 in many parts of the globe due to restrictions on surgeries put in place by governments or healthcare providers, staffing shortages, and positive COVID-19 diagnoses or quarantines. While many restrictions have eased with COVID-19 vaccines now becoming available, the elective surgery market faced additional pandemic-related challenges in the second half of 2021 due to regional surges in COVID-19 Delta variant cases and staffing shortages. In December 2021, the COVID-19 Omicron variant prompted additional government restrictions on elective procedures, led to additional COVID-19 diagnoses, and created additional surgical staffing challenges.
 
Although the rate of elective procedures has started to increase in some locations, the systemic limits on elective surgery capacity negatively impacted our revenue and operating results. In addition, primarily as a result of the impacts of COVID-19 including stay-at-home orders and other attempts to limit in-person meetings, hospitals and ASCs have at times delayed having meetings of their committees to review and approve the introduction of new products into their facilities. As we are focused on growing our business by introducing new products to existing and new hospital and ASC customers, the inability to have our products timely reviewed and approved by these customers has also negatively impacted our revenue and operating results. It is uncertain whether elective surgeries will continue to be negatively impacted or halted again in the future by a resurgence of COVID-19 or when our customers or potential customers will start reviewing and approving new products again on a more regular cadence. There remains uncertainty in light of ongoing infection rates in many areas of the United States and in various international jurisdictions. Procedure volumes have not yet returned to pre-COVID-19 levels and there is no guarantee that the recent positive trends will continue. As a result, elective procedures may yet again decline, and the ability to get our products timely reviewed and approved by customers may continue to be challenged, especially in geographies with substantial COVID-19 infection rates or policies that cause staffing shortages. Globally, the pace of recovery will be phased and regionally determined based on local orders and the overall impact of COVID-19. A continuation of the decreased level of elective procedures due to COVID-19, or the continued slower pace of new product approvals, will result in a loss of sales and profits and other material adverse effects on our business and operating results.
 
The COVID-19 pandemic could adversely impact our development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trials, which could significantly impair our long-term business plans and operating results.
 
Our preclinical activities and clinical trials for our product candidates are planned in geographies that are currently affected by COVID-19. The timely initiation and completion of our preclinical and development activities and clinical trials depend upon the availability of facility access, preclinical and clinical trial sites, researchers and investigators, regulatory agency personnel, and materials, all of which may be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing of our clinical trials depends on our ability to recruit patients to participate as well as the completion of required follow-up periods. The COVID-19 global pandemic has had and may continue to have a sustained impact on our ability to recruit, enroll and follow-up with patients either due to continued or renewed restrictions on travel or shelter-in-place orders or policies, or due to changes in patient willingness to participate in trials or travel to study sites during the pandemic. Additionally, COVID-19 related study site policies, including performing elective procedures, may create delays or setbacks in our ability to continue to enroll or to treat patients. The timeline for recruiting patients, conducting trials and obtaining regulatory approval of our product candidates may be delayed, which could result in increased costs, delays in advancing our product candidates, delays in testing the effectiveness of our product candidates or termination of the clinical trials altogether. Factors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic that could delay or otherwise adversely affect the completion of our preclinical activities and the planned activities related to our clinical trials, as well as our business generally, include: 
 
 
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the potential diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of preclinical activities and clinical trials to focus on pandemic concerns, including the availability of necessary materials and the attention of physicians serving as our clinical trial investigators, hospitals serving as our clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of our prospective clinical trials;
 
 
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limitations on travel that could interrupt key preclinical and clinical activities, such as clinical trial site initiations and monitoring, domestic and international travel by employees, contractors or patients to clinical trial sites, including any government-imposed travel restrictions or quarantines that will impact the ability or willingness of patients, employees or contractors to travel to our research, manufacturing and clinical trial sites or secure visas or entry permissions, any of which could delay or adversely impact the conduct or progress of our prospective clinical trials;
 
 
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interruption or delays in the operations of the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory agencies, which may impact review, inspection, clearance and approval timelines;
 
 
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interruption in global shipping affecting the transport of clinical trial materials, such as patient samples, product candidates and supplies, to be used in our prospective clinical trials;
 
 
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limitations on our business operations by government authorities that could impact our ability to conduct our preclinical or clinical activities; and
 
 
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business disruptions caused by potential workplace, laboratory and office closures and an increased reliance on employees working from home, disruptions to or delays in ongoing laboratory experiments and operations, staffing shortages, travel limitations, cyber security and data accessibility, or communication or mass transit disruptions, any of which could adversely impact our business operations or delay necessary interactions with local regulators, ethics committees, manufacturing sites, research or clinical trial sites, and other important agencies and contractors.
 
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Our global supply chain may be materially adversely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
We rely upon the facilities of our global suppliers to support our business. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant governmental measures in many countries being implemented to control the spread of COVID-19, including restrictions on manufacturing and the movement of employees. As a result of COVID-19 and the measures designed to contain its spread, certain of our suppliers have not had the materials, capacity, or capability to supply our needed materials and other supplies that we require to manufacture our products according to our schedule and specifications. It is uncertain whether and to what extent these supply chain challenges will continue as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. Further, logistics issues, including our ability and our supply chain’s ability to quickly ramp up production, and transportation demands may cause delays. If our suppliers’ operations are curtailed, we may need to seek alternate sources of supply, which may be more expensive or require approval from regulatory agencies which could cause further delays. Alternate sources may not be available or may result in delays in shipments to us from our supply chain and subsequently to our customers, each of which would affect our results of operations. If the duration of the production and supply chain disruptions continue for an extended period of time, the impact on our supply chain could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows.
 
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
 
Our stock price may be highly volatile, and we cannot assure you that market making in our common stock will continue.
 
The market price of shares of our common stock may be highly volatile. Factors such as announcements of new commercial products or technological innovations by us or our competitors, disclosure of results of clinical testing or regulatory proceedings, government regulation and approvals, developments in patent or other proprietary rights, public concern as to the safety of products developed by us, and general market conditions may have a significant effect on the market price of our common stock. We withdrew and have not since provided financial guidance to investors as a result our own uncertainty with respect to projections during the COVID-19 pandemic. This action, as well as general investor uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, could create volatility and unpredictability in our stock price. The trading price of our common stock could also be subject to wide fluctuations in response to quarter-to-quarter variations in our operating results, material announcements by us or our competitors, governmental regulatory action, conditions in the health care industry generally or in the medical products industry specifically, or other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, the stock market has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations, which have particularly affected the market prices of many medical products companies and which often have been unrelated to the operating performance of such companies. Our operating results in future quarters may be below the expectations of equity research analysts and investors. In such an event, the price of our common stock would likely decline, perhaps substantially. 
 
Our charter documents contain anti-takeover provisions that may prevent or delay an acquisition of our company.
 
Our charter documents continue to contain anti-takeover provisions that could prevent or delay an acquisition of our company. The provisions include, among others, a classified board of directors, advance notice to the board of stockholder proposals, limitations on the ability of stockholders to remove directors and to call stockholder meetings, and a provision that allows vacancies on the Board of Directors to be filled by vote of a majority of the remaining directors. We are also subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporate Law which, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested stockholder” for a period of three years following the date that such stockholder becomes an interested stockholder. Those provisions could have the effect of discouraging a third party from pursuing a non-negotiated takeover of our company at a price considered attractive by many stockholders and could have the effect of preventing or delaying a potential acquirer from acquiring control of our company.
 
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
 
The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. No person is under any obligation to publish research or reports on us, and any person publishing research or reports on us may discontinue doing so at any time without notice. If adequate research coverage is not maintained on our company or if any of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business or provide relatively more favorable recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analysts who cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
 
 
 
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