PDS Biotechnology Corp 10-K

ITEM 1A. Risk Factors The risks described below may not be the only ones relating to our company. Additional risks that we currently believe are immaterial may also impair our business operations. Our business, financial conditions and future prospects and the trading price of our common stock could be harmed as a result of any of these risks. Investors should also refer to the other information contained or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and related notes, and our other filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC. Risk Factors Summary Our business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those risks discussed at length below. These risks include, among others, the following principal risk factors that make an investment in our company speculative or risky. You are encouraged to carefully review our full discussion of the material risk factors relevant to an investment in our business, which follows the brief bulleted list of our principal risk factors set forth below: • We have incurred significant losses since our inception and expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability. • We are dependent on the success of PDS0101, which is still in early-stage clinical development, and if PDS0101 does not receive regulatory approval or is not successfully commercialized, our business may be harmed. • We have a limited operating history and have never generated any product revenue. • We will require additional capital to fund our operations, and if we fail to obtain necessary financing, we may not be able to complete the development and commercialization of our Versamune ® Products. • Raising additional funds by issuing securities may cause dilution to existing stockholders and raising funds through lending and licensing arrangements may restrict our operations or require us to relinquish proprietary rights. • We will need to expand our organization, and may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt operations. • Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, consultants, commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. • If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting in the future, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock. Further, we continue to incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance initiatives. • Our business and operations would suffer, and could be negatively affected, in the event of system failures or cyberattacks. • Periodic reporting requirements under the Exchange Act and compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, including establishing and maintaining acceptable internal control over financial reporting, are costly and may increase substantially and, as a smaller reporting company, we may take advantage of reduced reporting requirements which may make our common stock less attractive to investors. • Clinical trials are very expensive, time-consuming, difficult to design and implement and involve an uncertain outcome, and if they fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the FDA, or similar regulatory authorities, we will be unable to commercialize PDS0101 and other Versamune® based products. • Enrollment and retention of subjects in clinical trials is an expensive and time-consuming process and could be made more difficult or rendered impossible by multiple factors outside our control. • We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively. • Our product candidates are in various stages of development and we will not be able to commercialize our product candidates if our preclinical studies do not produce successful results and/or our clinical trials do not demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates; early results and early understanding of product candidate potential may not be predictive of later success. • We have limited to no manufacturing, sales, marketing or distribution capability and we must rely upon third parties for such. • If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, it may not be successful in commercializing PDS0101, if approved. • If we obtain approval to commercialize PDS0101 outside of the United States, a variety of risks associated with international operations could harm our business. • Recently enacted and future healthcare legislation, regulations, and policy initiatives may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize PDS0101 and affect the prices we may obtain and our profitability. • We rely, and intend to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform some of our research and preclinical studies. If these third parties do not satisfactorily carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or do not meet expected deadlines, our development programs may be delayed or subject to increased costs or we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval, each of which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. • Our stock price is expected to be volatile, and the market price of our common stock may drop in the future. • We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success. • If we are unable to establish or manage strategic collaborations in the future, our revenue and drug development may be limited. • Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of health epidemics, pandemics, or outbreaks of infectious diseases, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, in regions where we or third parties on which we rely have significant manufacturing facilities, concentrations of clinical trial sites or other business operations. The COVID-19 pandemic could materially affect our operations, including at our headquarters in New Jersey, and at our clinical trial sites, as well as the business or operations of our manufacturers, CROs or other third parties with whom we conduct business. • If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our Versamune ® platform, PDS0101, or other Versamune ® Products or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets. • We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, the patents of our licensors or our other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful. • If we fail to comply with federal and state healthcare regulatory laws, including in our relationships with healthcare providers and customers and third-party payors, we could face criminal prosecution and sanctions, substantial civil penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, exclusion from participation in governmental healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, and the curtailment of our operations, any of which could harm our business. • Changes in tax laws and regulations or our operations may impact our effective tax rate and may adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. 36 Index Risks Related to Our Business, Financial Position and Capital Requirements We have a limited operating history and have never generated any product revenue. We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history. Our operations to date have been limited to organizing our company and developing the Versamune ® platform and related immunotherapy product candidates that incorporate the technology of our Versamune ® platform. We have not yet successfully completed a large-scale, pivotal clinical trial, obtained marketing approval, manufactured Versamune ® at commercial scale, or conducted sales and marketing activities that will be necessary to successfully commercialize our Versamune ® products. Consequently, predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing immunotherapies. Our ability to generate revenue and achieve and maintain profitability will depend upon our ability to successfully complete the development of our Versamune ® -based products for the treatment of HPV-related cancers, or PDS0101, and/or complete the development of our PDS0102, PDS0103, or PDS0104 products, or, collectively with PDS0101, the Versamune ® Products, for treatment of non-HPV-related cancers and other infectious diseases and to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals. We have never generated any product revenue and have no immunotherapy candidate in late-stage clinical development or approved for commercial sale. Even if we receive regulatory approval for the sale of the Versamune ® Products, we do not know when we will begin to generate revenue from PDS0101, if at all. Our ability to generate revenue depends on a number of factors, including our ability to: ● set an acceptable price for Versamune ® -based immunotherapy candidates, including the Versamune ® Products, and obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors; ● establish sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution systems; ● add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our clinical, manufacturing and planned future clinical development and commercialization efforts and operations as a public company; ● develop manufacturing capabilities for bulk materials and manufacture commercial quantities of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products at acceptable cost levels; ● achieve broad market acceptance of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products in the medical community and with third-party payors and consumers; ● attract and retain an experienced management and advisory team; ● launch commercial sales of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products, whether alone or in collaboration with others; and ● maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with immunotherapy development and manufacturing, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased development expenses, or when we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability, if at all. Our expenses could increase beyond expectations if we are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, or comparable non-U.S. regulatory authorities, to perform studies or clinical trials in addition to those we currently anticipate. Even if PDS0101 is approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with the commercial launch of and the related commercial-scale manufacturing requirements for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. If we cannot successfully execute on any of the factors listed above, our business may not succeed, and your investment will be adversely affected. 36 Index We have incurred significant losses since our inception and expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability. We have never generated any product revenues and expect to continue to incur substantial and increasing losses as we continue to develop PDS0101 and other Versamune ® based Products. PDS0101 has not been approved for marketing in the United States and may never receive such approval. As a result, we are uncertain when or if we will achieve profitability and, if so, whether we will be able to sustain it. Our ability to generate revenue and achieve profitability is dependent on our ability to complete development, obtain necessary regulatory approvals, and have PDS0101 manufactured and successfully marketed. We cannot assure you that we will be profitable even if we successfully commercialize PDS0101 or other Versamune ® Products. If we successfully obtain regulatory approval to market PDS0101, our revenues will be dependent, in part, upon, the size of the markets in the territories for which regulatory approval is received, the number of competitors in such markets for the approved indication, and the price at which we can offer PDS0101. If the indication approved by regulatory authorities is narrower than we expect, or the treatment population is narrowed by competition, physician choice or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenue from sales of PDS0101, even if approved. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. If we fail to become and remain profitable the market price of our common stock and our ability to raise capital and continue operations will be adversely affected. We expect research and development expenses to increase significantly for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. In addition, even if we obtain regulatory approval, significant sales and marketing expenses will be required to commercialize PDS0101. As a result, we expect to continue to incur significant and increasing operating losses and negative cash flows for the foreseeable future. These losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our financial position and working capital. As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, we had an accumulated deficit of $43.8 and $28.9 million, respectively. We are dependent on the success of PDS0101, which is still in early-stage clinical development, and if PDS0101 does not receive regulatory approval or is not successfully commercialized, our business may be harmed. PDS0101 is only in early clinical development, and as a consequence, it is too early to determine whether the Versamune ® Products will ever be approved for commercial sale or marketable. We expect that a substantial portion of our efforts and expenditures over the next few years will be devoted to PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. Accordingly, our business currently depends heavily on the successful development, regulatory approval and commercialization of PDS0101. PDS0101 may not receive regulatory approval or be successfully commercialized even if regulatory approval is received. The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale, marketing and distribution of PDS0101 is and will remain subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries that each have differing regulations. We are not permitted to market PDS0101 in the United States until it receives approval of a biologics license application, or BLA, from the FDA, or in any foreign countries until it receives the requisite approval from such countries. To date, we have only completed Phase 1/2A clinical trials for certain applications of PDS0101. As a result, we have not submitted a BLA to the FDA or comparable applications to other regulatory authorities and do not expect to be in a position to do so for the foreseeable future. Obtaining approval of a BLA is an extensive, lengthy, expensive and inherently uncertain process, and the FDA may delay, limit or deny approval of PDS0101 for many reasons, including: ● we may not be able to demonstrate that PDS0101 is safe and effective to the satisfaction of the FDA; ● the FDA may not agree that the completed Phase 1/2A clinical trials of PDS0101 satisfy the FDA’s requirements and may require us to conduct additional testing; ● the results of our future clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical or clinical significance required by the FDA for marketing approval; ● the FDA may disagree with the number, design, size, conduct or implementation of one or more of our clinical trials; ● the contract research organizations, or CROs, that we retain to conduct clinical trials may take actions outside of our control that materially and adversely impact our clinical trials; ● the FDA may not find the data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials sufficient to demonstrate that the clinical and other benefits of PDS0101 outweigh the safety risks; ● the FDA may disagree with our interpretation of data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials; ● the FDA may not accept data generated at our clinical trial sites; 37 Index ● if our BLA is reviewed by an advisory committee, the FDA may have difficulties scheduling an advisory committee meeting in a timely manner or the advisory committee may recommend against approval of our application or may recommend that the FDA require, as a condition of approval, additional preclinical studies or clinical trials, limitations on approved labeling or distribution and use restrictions; ● the FDA may require development of a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS, as a condition of approval; ● the FDA may identify deficiencies in our manufacturing processes or facilities; or ● the FDA may change its approval policies or adopt new regulations. We will require additional capital to fund our operations, and if we fail to obtain necessary financing, we may not be able to complete the development and commercialization of our Versamune ® Products. We expect to spend substantial amounts to complete the development of, seek regulatory approvals for and commercialize PDS0101. Even with our current cash reserves, we will require substantial additional capital to complete the development and potential commercialization of PDS0101 and the development of other Versamune ® Products. If we are unable to raise capital or find appropriate partnering or licensing collaborations, when needed or on acceptable terms, if at all, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate one or more of our development programs or any future commercialization efforts. In addition, attempting to secure additional financing may divert the time and attention of our management from day-to-day activities and harm our development efforts. Based upon our current operating plan, we believe that our cash reserves will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months from the date of this report. Our estimate as to what we will be able to accomplish is based on assumptions that may prove to be inaccurate, and we could exhaust our available capital resources sooner than is currently expected. Because the length of time and activities associated with successful development of PDS0101 is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for development and any approved marketing and commercialization activities. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to: ● the initiation, progress, timing, costs and results of our planned clinical trials; ● the outcome, timing and cost of meeting regulatory requirements established by the FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities; ● the cost of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing our patent claims and other intellectual property rights; ● the cost of defending potential intellectual property disputes, including any patent infringement actions brought by third parties against us now or in the future; ● the effect of competing technological and market developments; ● the cost of establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities in regions where we choose to commercialize PDS0101 on our own; and ● the initiation, progress, timing and results of the commercialization of PDS0101, if approved, for commercial sale. Additional funding may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of PDS0101 or potentially discontinue operations. In July 2019, we entered into a common stock purchase agreement, or the Aspire Purchase Agreement, with Aspire Capital, which provides that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions and limitations set forth therein, at our discretion, Aspire Capital is committed to purchase up to an aggregate of $20.0 million of shares of our common stock, or the Purchased Shares, over the 30-month term of the Aspire Purchase Agreement. We may sell an aggregate of 1,034,979 shares of our common stock (which represented 19.99% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock on the date of the Aspire Purchase Agreement) without stockholder approval. We may sell additional shares of our common stock above the 19.99% limit provided that (i) we obtain stockholder approval or (ii) stockholder approval has not been obtained at any time the 1,034,979 share limitation is reached and at all times thereafter the average price paid for all shares issued under the Aspire Purchase Agreement, is equal to or greater than $5.76, which was the consolidated closing bid price of our common stock on July 26, 2019. On July 29, 2019, we issued 100,654 shares of our common stock to Aspire Capital, as consideration for entering into the Aspire Purchase Agreement, which we refer to as the Commitment Shares. As of December 31, 2020, no Purchase Shares have been sold to Aspire Capital under the Aspire Purchase Agreement. Further, our use of the Aspire Purchase Agreement is subject to certain additional limitations set forth elsewhere in this report. As such, our ability to use the Aspire Purchase Agreement to raise additional capital is uncertain. 38 Index Raising additional funds by issuing securities may cause dilution to existing stockholders and raising funds through lending and licensing arrangements may restrict our operations or require us to relinquish proprietary rights. We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, including through the Aspire Purchase Agreement (assuming all conditions for the issuance of the Purchased Shares under the Aspire Purchase Agreement are satisfied), debt financings, strategic alliances and license and development agreements in connection with any collaborations. In February 2020, we completed an underwritten public offering, in which we sold 10,000,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $1.30 per share. The shares sold included 769,230 shares issued upon the exercise by the underwriter of its option to purchase additional shares at the public offering price. We received gross proceeds of approximately $13 million and net proceeds of approximately $11.9 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. In July 2020, we filed a shelf registration statement, or the 2020 Shelf Registration Statement, with the SEC, for the issuance of common stock, preferred stock, warrants, rights, debt securities and units, which we refer to collectively as the Shelf Securities, up to an aggregate amount of $100 million. The 2020 Shelf Registration Statement was declared effective on July 31, 2020. On August 13, 2020, we sold 6,900,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $2.75 per share pursuant to the 2020 Shelf Registration Statement, which includes 900,000 shares issued upon the exercise by the underwriter of its option to purchase additional shares at the public offering price, minus underwriting discounts and commissions. We received gross proceeds of approximately $19.0 million and net proceeds of approximately $17.1 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses. Approximately $81,000,000 of Shelf Securities remain available for future sale under the 2020 Shelf Registration Statement. To the extent that we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our existing stockholders’ ownership may experience substantial dilution, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a common stockholder. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures, declaring dividends, creating liens, redeeming our stock or making investments. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or Versamune ® Products or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, or through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties on acceptable terms, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our PDS0101 development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market other Versamune ® Products that we would otherwise develop and market. Our future success depends on our ability to retain executive officers and attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel. We are highly dependent on our executive officers and the other principal members of the executive and scientific teams, particularly our President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Frank K. Bedu-Addo, our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lauren Wood, our Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Seth Van Voorhees and our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Gregory L. Conn. The employment of our executive officers are at-will and our executive officers may terminate their employment at any time, subject to applicable notice requirements. The loss of the services of any of our senior executive officers could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives. We do not maintain “key person” insurance for any executive officer or employee. Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, and operational personnel is also critical to our success. We may not be able to attract and retain these personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. we also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. Our industry has experienced an increasing rate of turnover of management and scientific personnel in recent years. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in devising our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be employed by third parties and have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to advance our strategic objectives. If any of these advisors or consultants can no longer dedicate a sufficient amount of time to the company, our business may be harmed 39 Index If we fail to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for PDS0101, our ability to generate revenue could be limited. The availability and extent of reimbursement by governmental and private payors is essential for most patients to be able to afford expensive treatments. Sales of any of PDS0101 that receive marketing approval will depend substantially, both in the United States and internationally, on the extent to which the costs of PDS0101 will be paid by health maintenance, managed care, pharmacy benefit and similar healthcare management organizations, or reimbursed by government health administration authorities, private health coverage insurers and other third-party payors. If reimbursement is not available, or is available only on a limited basis, we may not be able to successfully commercialize PDS0101. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be high enough to allow us to establish or maintain adequate pricing that will allow it to realize a sufficient return on our investment. Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe, Canada and other countries may cause us to price PDS0101 on less favorable terms than we currently anticipate. In many countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of PDS0101 to other available therapies. In general, the prices of products under such systems are substantially lower than in the United States. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for products, but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for PDS0101. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our products may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits. Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors, in the United States and internationally, to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and level of reimbursement for newly approved products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for PDS0101. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of PDS0101 due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products into the healthcare market. We are unable to predict the future course of federal or state healthcare legislation in the United States directed at broadening the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. The ACA and any further changes in the law or regulatory framework that reduce our revenue or increase our costs could also have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We will need to expand our organization, and may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt operations. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize PDS0101 and compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth. As of December 31, 2020, we had 15 employees and 5 consultants. We expect to hire additional employees for our managerial, clinical, scientific and engineering, operational, manufacturing, sales and marketing teams. We may have operational difficulties in connection with identifying, hiring and integrating new personnel. Future growth would impose significant additional responsibilities on our management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain, motivate and integrate additional employees, consultants and contractors. Also, our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of our attention away from our day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, give rise to operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Our expected growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of PDS0101. If we are unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate and/or grow revenues could be reduced, and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Many of the other pharmaceutical companies that we compete against for qualified personnel and consultants have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles and a longer history in the industry than us. They also may provide more diverse opportunities and better chances for career advancement. Some of these characteristics may be more appealing to high-quality candidates and consultants than what it has to offer. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel and consultants, the rate and success at which we can select and develop PDS0101 and our business will be limited. 40 Index Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, consultants, commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. We are exposed to the risk that our employees and contractors, including principal investigators, consultants, commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in fraudulent or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or other unauthorized activities that violate the laws and regulations of the FDA and other similar regulatory bodies, including those laws that require the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such regulatory bodies, manufacturing standards, federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse and health regulatory laws and other similar foreign fraudulent misconduct laws, or laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data. Misconduct by these parties may also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter third-party misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business and financial results, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. Our business and operations would suffer, and could be negatively affected, in the event of system failures or cyberattacks Our computer systems and those of our service providers, including our CROs, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our or their operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs. For example, the loss of preclinical or clinical trial data from completed, ongoing or planned trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of or damage to data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of personal, confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the further development of PDS0101 could be delayed. A cyberattack or similar incident could occur and result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption, damage to our reputation or financial loss. Our industry has become increasingly dependent on digital technologies to conduct certain development and financial activities. Our technologies, systems, networks, or other proprietary information, and those of our vendors, suppliers and other business partners, may become the target of cyberattacks or information security breaches that could result in the unauthorized release, gathering, monitoring, misuse, loss or destruction of proprietary and other information, or could otherwise lead to the disruption of our business operations. Cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated and certain cyber incidents, such as surveillance, may remain undetected for an extended period and could lead to disruptions in critical systems or the unauthorized release of confidential or otherwise protected information. These events could lead to financial loss from remedial actions, loss of business, disruption of operations, damage to our reputation or potential liability. Our systems and insurance coverage for protecting against cybersecurity risks may not be sufficient. Further, as cyberattacks continue to evolve, we may be required to expend significant additional resources to continue to modify or enhance our protective measures or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to cyberattacks. Our failure to comply with international data protection laws and regulations could lead to government enforcement actions and significant penalties against us, and adversely impact our operating results. EU member states and other foreign jurisdictions, including Switzerland, have adopted data protection laws and regulations which impose significant compliance obligations. Moreover, the collection and use of personal health data in the EU, which was formerly governed by the provisions of the EU Data Protection Directive, was replaced with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, in May 2018. The GDPR, which is wide-ranging in scope, imposes several requirements relating to the consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, the information provided to the individuals, the security and confidentiality of the personal data, data breach notification and the use of third party processors in connection with the processing of personal data. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data out of the EU to the U.S., provides an enforcement authority and imposes large penalties for noncompliance, including the potential for fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global revenues of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater. The GDPR requirements apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between us and our subsidiaries, including employee information. The recent implementation of the GDPR has increased our responsibility and liability in relation to personal data that we process, including in clinical trials, and we may in the future be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the GDPR, which could divert management’s attention and increase our cost of doing business. In addition, new regulation or legislative actions regarding data privacy and security (together with applicable industry standards) may increase our costs of doing business. In this regard, we expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards relating to privacy and data protection in the United States, the EU and other jurisdictions, and we cannot determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. 41 Index Our failure to comply with state and/or national data protection laws and regulations could lead to government enforcement actions and significant penalties against us, and adversely impact our operating results. There are numerous other laws and legislative and regulatory initiatives at the federal and state levels addressing privacy and security concerns, and some state privacy laws apply more broadly than the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, and associated regulations. For example, California recently enacted legislation - the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA - which went into effect January 1, 2020. The CCPA, among other things, creates new data privacy obligations for covered companies and provides new privacy rights to California residents, including the right to opt out of certain disclosures of their information. The CCPA also creates a private right of action with statutory damages for certain data breaches, thereby potentially increasing risks associated with a data breach. The CCPA was recently amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, expanding certain consumer rights such as the right to know. It remains unclear what, if any, additional modifications will be made to these laws by the California legislature or how these laws will be interpreted and enforced. The potential effects of the CCPA and CPRA and implementing regulations are significant and may cause us to incur substantial costs and expenses to comply. If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting in the future, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock. Further, we continue to incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance initiatives. As a public company, we continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq, impose various requirements on public companies, including requiring establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting and changes in corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations have increased our legal and financial compliance costs and have made some activities more time-consuming and costly. Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting once that firm begins its Section 404 reviews or becomes aware of either during the conduct of an audit, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the Nasdaq Capital Market, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets. Periodic reporting requirements under the Exchange Act and compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, including establishing and maintaining acceptable internal control over financial reporting, are costly and may increase substantially and, as a smaller reporting company, we may take advantage of reduced reporting requirements which may make our common stock less attractive to investors. We are subject to the periodic reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to reasonably assure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC. We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations have increased our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. 42 Index In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In particular, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will require us to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on, and our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We are a “smaller reporting company,” meaning that our outstanding common stock held by nonaffiliates had a value of less than $75 million at the end of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter. Thus, as a smaller reporting company, we could take advantage of certain reduced governance and disclosure requirements, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. As a result, investors and others may be less comfortable with the effectiveness of our internal controls and the risk that material weaknesses or other deficiencies in internal controls go undetected may increase. In addition, as a smaller reporting company, we take advantage of our ability to provide certain other less comprehensive disclosures in our SEC filings, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements in annual reports and simplified executive compensation disclosures. Consequently, it may be more challenging for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects, as the information we provide to stockholders may be different from what one might receive from other public companies. Risks Related to Clinical Development, Regulatory Approval and Commercialization Clinical trials are very expensive, time-consuming, difficult to design and implement and involve an uncertain outcome, and if they fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the FDA, or similar regulatory authorities, we will be unable to commercialize PDS0101 and other Versamune ® based products. PDS0101 is still in early-stage clinical development and will require extensive additional clinical testing before we are prepared to submit a BLA for regulatory approval for any indication or for any other treatment regime. We cannot predict with any certainty if or when it might submit a BLA for regulatory approval for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® based products or whether any such BLAs will be approved by the FDA. Human clinical trials are very expensive and difficult to design and implement, in part because they are subject to rigorous regulatory requirements. For instance, the FDA may not agree with our proposed endpoints for any clinical trial we propose, which may delay the commencement of our clinical trials. The clinical trial process is also time-consuming. We estimate that the clinical trials we need to conduct to be in a position to submit BLAs for PDS0101 will take several years to complete. Furthermore, failure can occur at any stage of the trials, and we could encounter problems that cause us to abandon or repeat clinical trials. In later stages of clinical trials, PDS0101 may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials, and the results of early clinical trials of PDS0101 therefore may not be predictive of the results of our planned Phase 1 and 2 trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to multiple interpretations and analyses. Many companies that have believed their immunotherapies performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. Success in preclinical testing and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials, which involve many more subjects and different cancers than we have studied in Phase 1/2A clinical trials to date, and the results of later clinical trials may not replicate the results of prior clinical trials and preclinical testing. We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize PDS0101 and other Versamune® based products, including that: ● regulators or institutional review boards may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site; ● we may have delays in reaching or fail to reach agreement on acceptable clinical trial contracts with prospective trial sites, or they may be unwilling to conduct studies based on out protocols; ● clinical trials of PDS0101 may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs; ● the number of subjects required for clinical trials of PDS0101 and other Versamune® based products may be larger than we anticipate; enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, or participants may drop out of these clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate; ● Our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all; 43 Index ● regulators or institutional review boards may require that we or our investigators suspend or terminate clinical research for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks; ● the cost of clinical trials of PDS0101 and other Versamune® based products may be greater than we anticipate; and ● the supply or quality of PDS0101 or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of PDS0101 and other Versamune® based products may be insufficient or inadequate. If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of PDS0101 beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of PDS0101 or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may: ● be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for PDS0101; ● not obtain marketing approval at all; ● obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired; ● obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings, including boxed warnings; ● be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements; or ● have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval. Product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or in receiving marketing approvals. We do not know whether any clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize PDS0101, could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, and could impair our ability to successfully commercialize PDS0101, any of which may harm our business and results of operations. Enrollment and retention of subjects in clinical trials is an expensive and time-consuming process and could be made more difficult or rendered impossible by multiple factors outside our control. We may encounter delays in enrolling, or be unable to enroll, a sufficient number of participants to complete any of our clinical trials. Once enrolled, we may be unable to retain a sufficient number of participants to complete any of our trials. Late-stage clinical trials of PDS0101 may require the enrollment and retention of large numbers of subjects. Subject enrollment and retention in clinical trials depends on many factors, including the size of the subject population, the nature of the trial protocol, the existing body of safety and efficacy data with respect to the study drug, the number and nature of competing treatments and ongoing clinical trials of competing drugs for the same indication, the proximity of subjects to clinical sites and the eligibility criteria for the study. Moreover the current pandemic is negatively impacting enrollment in many oncology clinical trials. Furthermore, any negative results we may report in clinical trials of PDS0101 may make it difficult or impossible to recruit and retain participants in other clinical trials of PDS0101. Delays or failures in planned subject enrollment or retention may result in increased costs, program delays or both, which could have a harmful effect on our ability to develop PDS0101, or could render further development impractical. In addition, we expect to rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure proper and timely conduct of our future clinical trials and, while we intend to enter into agreements governing their services, we will be limited in our ability to compel their actual performance in compliance with applicable regulations. Enforcement actions brought against these third parties may cause further delays and expenses related to our clinical development programs. 44 Index The successful development of immunotherapies is highly uncertain. Successful development of immunotherapies is highly uncertain and is dependent on numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control. Immunotherapies that appear promising in the early phases of development may fail to reach, or be delayed in reaching, the market for several reasons including: preclinical study results that may show the immunotherapy to be less effective than desired (e.g., the study failed to meet its primary objectives) or to have harmful or problematic side effects; clinical study results that may show the immunotherapy to be less effective than expected (e.g., the study failed to meet its primary endpoint) or to have unacceptable side effects; failure to receive the necessary regulatory approvals or a delay in receiving such approvals. Among other things, such delays may be caused by slow enrollment in clinical studies, length of time to achieve study endpoints, delays in receiving the necessary products or supplies for the conduct of clinical or pre-clinical trials, additional time requirements for data analysis, or Biologics License Application preparation, discussions with the FDA, an FDA request for additional preclinical or clinical data, FDA delays in inspecting manufacturing establishments, failure to receive FDA approval for manufacturing processes or facilities, or unexpected safety or manufacturing issues; manufacturing costs, formulation issues, pricing or reimbursement issues, or other factors that make the immunotherapy uneconomical; and the proprietary rights of others and their competing products and technologies that may prevent the immunotherapy from being commercialized. Success in preclinical and early clinical studies does not ensure that large-scale clinical studies will be successful. Clinical results are frequently susceptible to varying interpretations that may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approvals. The length of time necessary to complete clinical studies and to submit an application for marketing approval for a final decision by a regulatory authority varies significantly from one immunotherapy to the next and may be difficult to predict. Even if our product candidates are approved, they may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses and populations for which they may be marketed. They may also be subject to other conditions of approval, may contain significant safety warnings, including boxed warnings, contraindications, and precautions, may not be approved with label statements necessary or desirable for successful commercialization, or may contain requirements for costly post-market testing and surveillance, or other requirements, including the submission of a REMS, to monitor the safety or efficacy of the products. If we do not receive FDA approval for, and successfully commercialize our product candidates, we will not be able to generate revenue from these product candidates in the United States in the foreseeable future, or at all. Any significant delays in obtaining approval for and commercializing our product candidates will have a material adverse impact on our business and financial condition. We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively. The biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries are characterized by rapid technological developments and a high degree of competition. As a result, PDS0101 could become obsolete before we recoup any portion of our related research and development and commercialization expenses. Competition in the biopharmaceutical industry is based significantly on scientific and technological factors. These factors include the availability of patent and other protection for technology and products, the ability to commercialize technological developments and the ability to obtain governmental approval for testing, manufacturing and marketing. We compete with specialized biopharmaceutical firms in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, as well as a growing number of large pharmaceutical companies that are applying biotechnology to their operations. Many biopharmaceutical companies have focused their development efforts in the human therapeutics area, including cancer. Many major pharmaceutical companies have developed or acquired internal biotechnology capabilities or made commercial arrangements with other biopharmaceutical companies. These companies, as well as academic institutions and governmental agencies and private research organizations, also compete with us in recruiting and retaining highly qualified scientific personnel and consultants. Our ability to compete successfully with other companies in the pharmaceutical field will also depend to a considerable degree on the continuing availability of capital to us. We are aware of certain investigational new drugs under development or approved products by competitors that are used for the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of certain diseases we have targeted for drug development. Various companies are developing biopharmaceutical products that have the potential to directly compete with PDS0101 even though their approach to may be different. We believe our top clinical-stage competitors pursuing cancer vaccines and/or immunotherapies include Etubics, Vaccibody, Admedus, Cel-Sci, Neo-ImmuneTech, Kite Pharma, Immune Design, Dynavax, Bavarian Nordic, Seattle Genetics, Selecta Biosciences Hookipa Pharm, ZIOPHARM Oncology, Heat Biologics, Genocea Biosciences, OncoSec Medical, Harpoon Therapeutics, and Gritstone Oncology. Many of these companies have substantially greater financial, marketing, and human resources than we do (including, in some cases, substantially greater experience in clinical testing, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceutical products). We also experience competition in the development of our immunotherapies from universities and other research institutions and competes with others in acquiring technology from such universities and institutions. . Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing, on an exclusive basis, drugs that are more effective or less costly than PDS0101. 45 Index We will face competition from other drugs currently approved or that will be approved in the future for the treatment of the other cancers and infectious diseases we are currently targeting. Therefore, our ability to compete successfully will depend largely on our ability to: ● develop and commercialize immunotherapies that are superior to other alternatives in the market; ● demonstrate through our clinical trials that PDS0101 is differentiated from existing and future therapies; ● attract qualified scientific, immunotherapy development and commercial personnel; ● obtain additional patent or other proprietary protection for PDS0101; ● obtain required regulatory approvals; ● obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement from, and negotiate competitive pricing with, third-party payors; and ● successfully develop and commercialize, independently or with collaborators, new applications for PDS0101 or immunotherapies. The availability of our competitors’ immunotherapies and other treatments could limit the demand, and the price we are able to charge, for PDS0101. The inability to compete with existing or subsequently introduced immunotherapies and other treatments would have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. Established pharmaceutical companies may invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel compounds or to license novel compounds that could make PDS0101 less competitive. In addition, any new immunotherapy that competes with an approved treatment must demonstrate compelling advantages in efficacy, convenience, tolerability and safety in order to overcome price competition and to be commercially successful. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection, discovering, developing, receiving the FDA’s approval for or commercializing medicines before we do, which would have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations. PDS0101 may cause adverse effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent its regulatory approval or limit the scope of any approved label or market acceptance. Adverse events caused by PDS0101 could cause reviewing entities, clinical trial sites or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in the denial of regulatory approval. If clinical trials for PDS0101 report an unacceptable frequency or severity of adverse events, our ability to obtain regulatory approval for PDS0101 may be negatively impacted. Furthermore, if PDS0101 is approved and then causes serious or unexpected side effects, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including: ● regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of PDS0101 or impose restrictions on its distribution or other risk management measures; ● regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications; ● we may be required to change the way PDS0101 is administered or to conduct additional clinical trials; ● we could be sued and held liable for injuries sustained by patients; ● we could elect to discontinue the sale of PDS0101; and ● our reputation may suffer. Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of PDS0101 and could substantially increase the costs of commercialization. 46 Index If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, PDS0101, and our ability to generate revenue will be impaired. PDS0101 and the activities associated with its development and commercialization, including its design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Failure to obtain marketing approval for PDS0101 will prevent us from commercializing PDS0101. We have not received approval to market a PDS0101 from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. We have only limited experience in filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain marketing approvals and expect to rely on CROs to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the safety and efficacy of PDS0101. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. PDS0101 may not be effective, may be only moderately effective or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude it from obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use. The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the United States and elsewhere, is expensive, may take many years and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors. We cannot assure you that we will ever obtain any marketing approvals in any jurisdiction. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. The FDA and comparable authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data is insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical or other studies, and clinical trials. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical testing and clinical trials could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of PDS0101. Additionally, any marketing approval we ultimately obtain may be limited or subject to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render the approved product not commercially viable. We rely, and intend to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform some of our research and preclinical studies. If these third parties do not satisfactorily carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or do not meet expected deadlines, our development programs may be delayed or subject to increased costs or we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval, each of which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. There is no guarantee that any such CROs, clinical trial investigators or other third parties on which we rely will devote adequate time and resources to our development activities or perform as contractually required. If any of these third parties fail to meet expected deadlines, adhere to our clinical protocols or meet regulatory requirements, otherwise perform in a substandard manner, or terminate their engagements with us, the timelines for our development programs may be extended or delayed or our development activities may be suspended or terminated. If our clinical trial site terminates for any reason, we may experience the loss of follow-up information on subjects enrolled in such clinical trial unless we are able to transfer those subjects to another qualified clinical trial site, which may be difficult or impossible. In addition, certain of our scientific advisors or consultants who receive compensation from us are clinical trial investigators for our clinical trial. Although we believe our existing relationships are within the FDA’s guidelines, if these relationships and any related compensation result in perceived or actual conflicts of interest, or the FDA concludes that the financial relationship may have affected the interpretation of the trial, the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site may be questioned and the utility of the clinical trial itself may be jeopardized, which could result in the delay or rejection of any marketing application we submit by the FDA. Any such delay or rejection could prevent us from commercializing PDS0101 or any other product candidates. Even if we obtain FDA approval in the United States, we may never obtain approval for or commercialize PDS0101 in any other jurisdiction, which would limit our ability to realize each product’s full market potential. In order to market PDS0101 in a particular jurisdiction, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements on a country-by-country basis regarding safety and efficacy. Approval by the FDA in the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions. In addition, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not guarantee regulatory approval in any other country. Approval processes vary among countries and can involve additional testing and validation and additional administrative review periods. Seeking foreign regulatory approval could result in difficulties and costs for us and require additional preclinical studies or clinical trials that could be costly and time consuming. Regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country and could delay or prevent the introduction of PDS0101 in those countries. PDS0101 is not approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including in international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in international markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced. 47 Index Our product candidates are in various stages of development and we will not be able to commercialize our product candidates if our preclinical studies do not produce successful results and/or our clinical trials do not demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates; early results and early understanding of product candidate potential may not be predictive of later success. Our product candidates are susceptible to the risks of failure inherent at any stage of product development, including the occurrence of unexpected or unacceptable adverse events or the failure to demonstrate efficacy in clinical trials. Clinical development is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. The results of preclinical studies, preliminary study results, and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials. Our product candidates may not perform as we expect, may ultimately have a different or no impact than expected, may have a different mechanism of action than we initially understand or that we expect in humans, and may not ultimately prove to be safe and effective. Preliminary and final results from preclinical studies and early stage trials, and trials in compounds that we believe are similar to ours, may not be representative of results that are found in larger, controlled, blinded, and longer-term studies. Product candidates may fail at any stage of preclinical or clinical development. Product candidates may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits even if they have progressed through preclinical studies or initial clinical trials. Preclinical studies and clinical trials may also reveal unfavorable product candidate characteristics, including safety concerns. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials, notwithstanding promising results in earlier preclinical studies or clinical trials or promising mechanisms of action. In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different clinical trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial procedures set forth in protocols, differences in the size and type of the patient populations, changes in and adherence to the clinical trial protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. Moreover, should there be an issue with the design of a clinical trial, our results may be impacted. We may not discover such a flaw until the clinical trial is at an advanced stage. We may also experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates. There may be emerging new data or regulatory questions or disagreements regarding interpretations of data and results at any stage. For example FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our study design, including endpoints, or our interpretation of data from preclinical studies and clinical trials or find that a product candidate’s benefits do not outweigh its safety risks. Even if we obtain regulatory approval, we will still face extensive ongoing regulatory requirements and PDS0101 may face future development and regulatory difficulties. Marketing of PDS0101, if approved, along with the manufacturing processes, post- approval clinical data, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, recordkeeping, export, import, advertising and promotional activities for PDS0101, among other things, will be subject to extensive and ongoing requirements of and review by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety, efficacy and other post-marketing information and reports, establishment registration and drug listing requirements, continued compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practice, or cGMP, requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and recordkeeping and current Good Clinical Practice, or cGCP requirements for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. Even if marketing approval of PDS0101 is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which PDS0101 may be marketed or to the conditions of approval. If PDS0101 receives marketing approval, an accompanying label may limit the approved use of PDS0101, which could limit sales. The FDA may also impose requirements for costly post-marketing studies or clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety and/or efficacy of PDS0101. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure drugs are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use and if we promote or otherwise market PDS0101 for indications other than those for which it is approved, we may be subject to certain enforcement actions. Violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act relating to the promotion of prescription biopharmaceutical products may lead to FDA enforcement actions and investigations alleging violations of federal and state health care fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws. 48 Index In addition, later discovery of previously unknown adverse events or other problems with PDS0101, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may yield various results, including: ● restrictions on manufacturing PDS0101; ● restrictions on the labeling or marketing of PDS0101; ● restrictions on PDS0101 distribution or use; ● requirements to conduct post-marketing studies or clinical trials; ● warning letters; ● withdrawal of PDS0101 from the market; ● refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit; ● recalls of PDS0101; ● fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenues; ● suspension or withdrawal of marketing approvals; ● refusal to permit the import or export of PDS0101; ● seizures of PDS0101; or ● injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties. The FDA’s policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of PDS0101. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approvals or licenses that we may have obtained. Even if PDS0101 receives licensure, it may fail to achieve market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors or others in the medical community necessary for commercial success. If PDS0101 receives marketing approval, it may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. If PDS0101 does not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant revenues and become profitable. The degree of market acceptance, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to: ● the efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments; ● effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts; ● the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments; ● our ability to offer PDS0101 for sale at competitive prices; ● the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments; ● the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies; ● the willingness of the medical community to offer customers PDS0101 in addition to or in the place of other immunotherapies; ● the strength of marketing and distribution support; ● the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement; ● the prevalence and severity of any side effects; and ● any restrictions on the use of PDS0101 together with other medications. 49 Index Because we expect sales of PDS0101, if approved, to generate substantially all of our revenues for the foreseeable future, the failure of PDS0101 to achieve market acceptance would harm our business and could require us to seek additional financing sooner than we otherwise plan. We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success. Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we are initially developing our lead product candidate, PDS0101 and the other Versamune ® Products. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to timely capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. If we fail to comply with federal and state healthcare regulatory laws, including in our relationships with healthcare providers and customers and third-party payors, we could face criminal prosecution and sanctions, substantial civil penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, exclusion from participation in governmental healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, and the curtailment of our operations, any of which could harm our business. Although we do not provide healthcare services or submit claims for third-party reimbursement, we are subject to healthcare fraud and abuse regulation and enforcement by federal and state governments, which could significantly impact our business, particularly if and when we commercialize any product candidates and if and when payment becomes available from payors for our products. Additionally, our future arrangements with third-party payors and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we market, sell and distribute our medicines for which we obtain marketing approval. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to: The Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), which prohibits, among other things, persons and entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering, or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, in exchange for or to induce either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, lease, order or recommendation of, any good, facility, item or service for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act, among other things, amended the intent requirements of the federal AKS. A person or entity can now be found guilty of violating the AKS without actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the Affordable Care Act provides that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal AKS constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA. The False Claims Act’s civil provisions, which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payors that are false or fraudulent; knowingly making using, or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement to get a false or fraudulent claim paid or approved by the government; or knowingly making, using, or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government. Intent to deceive is not required to establish liability under the civil False Claims Act. The False Claims Act’s criminal provisions, which imposes criminal fines or imprisonment against individuals or entities who make or present a claim to the government knowing such claim to be false, fictitious or fraudulent. The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, as amended, prohibits, among other actions, executing or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud or to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a healthcare benefit program, regardless of whether the payor is public or private, knowingly and willfully embezzling or stealing from a health care benefit program, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a health care offense, and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing, or covering up by any trick or device a material fact or making any materially false statements in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items, or services relating to healthcare matters. HIPAA, as amended by the HITECH Act, and its respective implementing regulations, now makes HIPAA’s privacy and security standards directly applicable to business associates independent contractors or agents of covered entities that receive or obtain protected health information in connection with providing a service on behalf of a covered entity. 50 Index Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, or the FTCA, 15 USC § 45(a), given that even for entities that are not deemed “covered entities” or “business associates” under HIPAA, according to the United States Federal Trade Commission, or the FTC, failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure constitutes unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of its laws. The FTC expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business, and the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. Medical data is considered sensitive data that merits stronger safeguards. The FTC’s guidance for appropriately securing consumers’ personal information is similar to what is required by the HIPAA Security Rule. The federal ”Sunshine” and “Open Payments” requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively, the Affordable Care Act, which require certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics, and medical supplies to report annually to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians, other healthcare providers, and teaching hospitals, and ownership and investment interests held by physicians and other healthcare providers and their immediate family members. Failure to submit timely, accurately, and completely the required information may result in civil monetary penalties of up to an aggregate of $150,000 per year and up to an aggregate of $1 million per year for “knowing failures.” In 2022 the Sunshine Act will be extended to payments and transfers of value to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other mid-level practitioners (with reporting requirements going into effect in 2022 for payments made in 2021). In addition, Section 6004 of the ACA requires annual reporting of information about drug samples that manufacturers and authorized distributors provide to healthcare providers. State law equivalents of each of the above federal laws and state laws otherwise addressing the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws that may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by any third-party payor, including commercial insurers, and in some cases that may apply regardless of payor, i.e., even if reimbursement is not available; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines (the PhRMA Code) and the relevant compliance program guidance promulgated by the federal government (HHS-OIG), or otherwise prohibit, restrict or impose tracking and disclosure requirements related to payments, gifts, or others remuneration that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources, or marketing practices to such persons and entities or drug pricing information; data privacy and security laws and regulations in foreign jurisdictions that may be more stringent than those in the United States (such as the European Union, which adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, which became effective in May 2018) and state laws governing the privacy and security of information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, and may apply more broadly than HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts – for example, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which went into effect January 1, 2020. The CCPA, among other things, creates new data privacy obligations for covered companies and provides new privacy rights to California residents, including the right to opt out of certain disclosures of their information. The CCPA, among other things, creates new data privacy obligations for covered companies and provides new privacy rights to California residents, including the right to opt out of certain disclosures of their information. The CCPA was recently amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, expanding certain consumer rights such as the right to know. It remains unclear what, if any, additional modifications will be made to these laws by the California legislature or how these laws will be interpreted and enforced. The potential effects of the CCPA and CPRA are significant and may cause us to incur substantial costs and expenses to comply. In our business, healthcare providers, physicians and third-party payors will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of our product candidates, if approved for marketing. Moreover, while we do not plan to submit claims and our customers will make the ultimate decision on how to submit claims, from time to time, we may provide reimbursement guidance to our customers. Current or future arrangements with physicians and other healthcare providers and customers, and third-party payors, may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we market, sell and distribute our medicines for which we obtain marketing approval. If a government authority were to conclude that we provided improper advice to our customers or encouraged the submission of false claims for reimbursement or failed to comply with government price reporting requirements, or engaged in off-label promotion of products, we could face action by government authorities. Any violations of these laws, or any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition. 51 Index We have entered into consulting and employment arrangements with individuals, physicians and other healthcare providers.. While we have worked to structure our arrangements to comply with applicable laws, because of the complex and far-reaching nature of these laws, regulatory agencies may view these transactions as prohibited arrangements that must be restructured, or discontinued, or for which we could be subject to other significant penalties. We could be adversely affected if regulatory agencies interpret our financial relationships with providers who serve as clinical investigators in our clinical trials, or influence the ordering of and use our products to be in violation of applicable laws. The scope and enforcement of each of these laws is uncertain and subject to rapid change in the current environment of healthcare reform, especially in light of the lack of applicable precedent and regulations. Federal and state enforcement bodies have recently increased their scrutiny of interactions between healthcare companies and healthcare providers, which has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry. Responding to investigations can be time- and resource-consuming and can divert management’s attention from the business. Additionally, as a result of these investigations, healthcare providers and entities may have to agree to additional onerous compliance and reporting requirements as part of a consent decree or corporate integrity agreement. Any such investigation or settlement could increase our costs or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business. Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit the commercialization of PDS0101. We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of PDS0101 in human clinical trials and will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop after approval. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in: ● decreased demand for PDS0101 or other immunotherapies that we may develop; ● injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention; ● withdrawal of clinical trial participants; ● significant costs to defend any related litigation; ● substantial monetary awards to trial subjects or patients; ● loss of revenue; and ● the inability to commercialize any products we may develop. Although we maintain product liability insurance coverage in the amount of up to $5 million per claim and $5 million in the aggregate, it may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that it may incur. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage as we continue clinical trials and if we successfully commercialize any products. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise. If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, it may not be successful in commercializing PDS0101, if approved. We do not have any infrastructure for the sales, marketing or distribution of PDS0101, and the cost of establishing and maintaining such an organization may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. In order to market PDS0101, we must build our sales, distribution, marketing, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. To achieve commercial success for PDS0101, we will need either our own, or a third party’s, sales and marketing organization. There are significant expenses and risks involved with creating teams for, or contracting for, sales, marketing and distribution capabilities. Any failure or delay in the development of our sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, either internally or in collaboration with third parties, could delay the launch of PDS0101, which would adversely affect commercialization. We may be competing with many companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations. Without an internal team or the support of a third-party to perform marketing and sales functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies. 52 Index If we obtain approval to commercialize PDS0101 outside of the United States, a variety of risks associated with international operations could harm our business. If PDS0101 is approved for commercialization, we may enter into agreements with third parties to market them in certain jurisdictions outside the United States. We expect that we will be subject to additional risks related to international operations or entering into international business relationships, including: ● different regulatory requirements for drug approvals and rules governing drug commercialization in foreign countries; ● reduced protection for intellectual property rights; ● unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers and regulatory requirements; ● economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular foreign economies and markets; ● compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad; ● foreign reimbursement, pricing and insurance regimes; ● foreign taxes; ● foreign currency fluctuations, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced revenues, and other obligations incident to doing business in another country; ● workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States; ● potential noncompliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and similar anti-bribery and anticorruption laws in other jurisdictions; ● shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad; and ● business interruptions resulting from geopolitical actions, including war and terrorism, or natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires. We have no prior experience in these areas. In addition, there are complex regulatory, tax, labor and other legal requirements imposed by both the European Union and many of the individual countries in Europe with which we will need to comply. Recently enacted and future healthcare legislation, regulations, and policy initiatives may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize PDS0101 and affect the prices we may obtain and our profitability. In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could, among other things, prevent or delay marketing approval of PDS0101, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell PDS0101. For example, in March 2010, Affordable Care Act was enacted to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for health care and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms. Although the full effect of the Affordable Care Act may not yet be fully understood, the law has continued the downward pressure on pharmaceutical pricing, especially under the Medicare program, and increased the industry’s regulatory burdens and operating costs. As another example, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act imposes obligations on manufacturers of prescription biopharmaceuticals in finished dosage forms for commercial distribution. We have not yet adopted the significant measures that will be required to comply with this law. We are not sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the current regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on our business, if any, may be. We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for immunotherapies, which could result in reduced demand for PDS0101 or additional pricing pressures. 53 Index Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties We have limited to no manufacturing, sales, marketing or distribution capability and we must rely upon third parties for such. We currently have agreements with various third-party manufacturing facilities for production of PDS0101 for research and development and testing purposes. We depend on third-party manufacturers to supply our preclinical and clinical materials and will be reliant on a third-party manufacturer to produce PDS0101 on a commercial scale, should that product receive regulatory approval. Third-party manufacturers must be able to meet our deadlines and adhere to quality standards and specifications. Our predominant reliance on third parties for the manufacture of PDS0101 creates a dependency that could severely disrupt our research and development, clinical testing, and sales and marketing efforts if the source of such supply proves to be unreliable or unavailable. There is no assurance that any third-party manufacturers will be able to meet commercialized scale production requirements in a timely manner or in accordance with applicable standards or cGMP. We intend to rely on third parties to conduct, supervise and monitor our clinical trials, and if those third parties perform in an unsatisfactory manner, it may harm our business. We intend to rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials, and we expect to have limited influence over their actual performance. We intend to rely upon CROs to monitor and manage data for our clinical programs, as well as the execution of future nonclinical studies. We expect to control only certain aspects of our CROs’ activities. Nevertheless, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory and scientific standards and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. We and our CROs will be required to comply with the Good Laboratory Practices and GCPs, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and are also required by the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area and comparable foreign regulatory authorities in the form of International Conference on Harmonization guidelines for PDS0101. The Regulatory authorities enforce GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites. If we or our CROs fail to comply with GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. Accordingly, if our CROs fail to comply with these regulations or fail to recruit a sufficient number of subjects, we may be required to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. Our CROs will not be our employees, and we will not control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our future clinical and nonclinical programs. These CROs may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials, or other drug development activities which could harm our competitive position. We face the risk of potential unauthorized disclosure or misappropriation of our intellectual property by CROs, which may reduce our trade secret protection and allow our potential competitors to access and exploit our proprietary technology. If our CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations, fail to meet expected deadlines, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for any other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize PDS0101. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for PDS0101 would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed. If our relationship with these CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding additional CROs involves substantial cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we intend to carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. If we are unable to establish or manage strategic collaborations in the future, our revenue and drug development may be limited. Our strategy may include potential reliance upon strategic collaborations for marketing and commercialization of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. We also rely on strategic collaborations for research, development, marketing and commercialization for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. We have also been heavily reliant upon third party outsourcing for our clinical trials execution and production of drug supplies for use in clinical trials. 54 Index Establishing strategic collaborations is difficult and time-consuming. Our discussions with potential collaborators may not lead to the establishment of collaborations on favorable terms, if at all. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States, the potential market for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge and industry and market conditions generally. The collaborator may also consider alternative immunotherapies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. Our current collaborations, as well as any future new collaborations, may never result in the successful development or commercialization of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products or the generation of sales revenue. To the extent that we have entered or will enter into co-promotion or other collaborative arrangements, PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products revenues are likely to be lower than if we directly marketed and sold any products that we develop. Management of our relationships with our collaborators will require: ● significant time and effort from our management team; ● financial funding to support said collaboration; ● coordination of our research and development programs with the research and development priorities of our collaborators; and ● effective allocation of our resources to multiple projects. If we continue to enter into research and development collaborations, our success will in part depend on the performance of our collaborators. We will not directly control the amount or timing of resources devoted by our collaborators to activities related to PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. Our collaborators may not commit sufficient resources to our research and development programs or the commercialization, marketing or distribution of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. If any collaborator fails to commit sufficient resources, our preclinical or clinical development programs related to this collaboration could be delayed or terminated. Also, our collaborators may pursue existing or other development-stage products or alternative technologies in preference to those being developed in collaboration with us. If we fail to make required milestone or royalty payments to our collaborators or to observe other obligations in our agreements with them, our collaborators may have the right to terminate those agreements. Additionally, our collaborators may seek to renegotiate agreements we has entered into, or may disagree with us about the terms and implementation of these agreements. If collaborators disagree with us about the terms or implementation of our agreements, we may face legal claims that may involve considerable expense and could negatively affect our financial results. Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of health epidemics, pandemics, or outbreaks of infectious diseases, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, in regions where we or third parties on which we rely have significant manufacturing facilities, concentrations of clinical trial sites or other business operations. The COVID-19 pandemic could materially affect our operations, including at our headquarters in New Jersey, and at our clinical trial sites, as well as the business or operations of our manufacturers, CROs or other third parties with whom we conduct business. Our business could be adversely affected by health epidemics in regions where we have concentrations of clinical trial sites or other business operations and could cause significant disruption in the operations of third-party manufacturers and CROs upon whom we rely. 55 Index For example, in December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, was identified in Wuhan, China. This virus continues to spread globally and in March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the global economy, disrupted global supply chains and created significant volatility and disruption of financial markets. The COVID-19 pandemic began to have a material adverse impact on our results of operations in the quarter ended March 31, 2020, and we expect it to continue to adversely affect our business. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, “shelter in place” orders and other public health guidance measures have been implemented across much of the United States, Europe and Asia, including in the locations of our offices, clinical trial sites, key vendors and partners. Our clinical development program timelines have been and continue to be negatively affected by COVID-19, as evidenced by the delay in the initiation of our planned Phase 2 study of PDS0101 in combination with KEYTRUDA ® in first-line treatment of recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer and initiation of the Phase 2 clinical study at The MD Anderson Cancer Center in combination with CRT. Even though both of these studies have since been initiated despite the pandemic challenges, the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted the pace of enrollment in clinical trials and we may be affected by similar delays as patients may avoid or may not be able to travel to healthcare facilities and physicians’ offices unless due to a health emergency and clinical trial staff can no longer get to the clinic. Such facilities and offices have been and may continue to be required to focus limited resources on non-clinical trial matters, including treatment of COVID-19 patients, thereby decreasing availability, in whole or in part, for clinical trial services. Further, due to “shelter in place” orders and other public health guidance measures, we have implemented a work-from-home policy for all staff members excluding those necessary to maintain minimum basic operations. Our increased reliance on personnel working from home may negatively impact productivity, or disrupt, delay or otherwise adversely impact our business. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and may continue to affect the operations of the FDA and other health authorities, which could result in delays of reviews and approvals. For example, during the course of the pandemic the FDA has at points delayed both domestic and foreign inspections. The agency announced in July 2020 that it will continue to conduct only “mission-critical” inspections or domestic facility inspections which will be prioritized through a risk-based approach. Additionally, the FDA plans to use other approaches to inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, including records or other informational requests. We expect the impact of COVID-19 on the FDA’s operations will continue to evolve. As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, or similar pandemics, and related “shelter in place” orders and other public health guidance measures, we have and may in the future experience disruptions that materially and adversely impact our clinical trials, business, financial condition and results of operations. Potential disruptions include but are not limited to: ● delays or difficulties in enrolling patients in our clinical trials; ● delays or difficulties in initiating or expanding clinical trials, including delays or difficulties with clinical site initiation and recruiting clinical site investigators and clinical site staff; ● increased rates of patients withdrawing from our clinical trials following enrollment as a result of contracting COVID-19 or other health conditions or being forced to quarantine; ● diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as our clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of our clinical trials; ● interruption of key clinical trial activities, such as clinical trial site data monitoring, due to limitations on travel imposed or recommended by federal or state governments, employers and others or interruption of clinical trial subject visits and study procedures, which may impact the integrity of subject data and clinical study endpoints; ● interruption or delays in the operations of the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which may impact review and approval timelines; ● delays or disruptions in preclinical experiments and investigational new drug application-enabling studies due to restrictions of on-site staff and unforeseen circumstances at contract research organizations and vendors; ● interruption of, or delays in receiving, supplies of our product candidates from our contract manufacturing organizations due to staffing shortages, production slowdowns or stoppages and disruptions in delivery systems; ● limitations on our ability to recruit and hire key personnel due to our inability to meet with candidates because of travel restrictions and “shelter in place” orders; ● limitations on employee resources that would otherwise be focused on the conduct of our preclinical studies and clinical trials, including because of sickness of employees or their families or the desire of employees to avoid contact with large groups of people; and ● interruption or delays to our sourced discovery and clinical activities. Further, on March 25, 2020, the FDA issued Guidance on Conduct of Clinical Trials of Medical Products during the COVID-19 pandemic for Industry, Investigators, and Institutional Review Boards to assist sponsors in assuring the safety of trial participants, maintaining compliance with good clinical practices, and minimizing risks to trial integrity during the COVID-19 pandemic, or the COVID-19 Guidelines. The policy is intended to remain in effect only for the duration of the public health emergency related to COVID-19 declared by the Department of Health and Human Services on January 31, 2020. We have implemented several procedures in accordance with the COVID-19 Guidelines to address patient safety and clinical trial conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, including remote monitoring of patients through telemedical visits, remote monitoring of sites by our clinical trial monitors, remote data entry, and follow-up visits at sites other than the site where the patient was initially treated. Our implementation of the COVID-19 Guidelines and potential disruptions to patient follow up, site monitoring or the timely completion of our trials may have a negative effect on our ability to complete trials and associated regulatory filings. 56 Index While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to assess or predict, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global financial markets has reduced and may continue to reduce our ability to access capital, which could negatively impact our short-term and long-term liquidity. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, financing or clinical trial activities or on healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole. However, these effects have had and may continue to have a material impact on our liquidity, capital resources, operations and business and those of the third parties on which we rely and a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock. In addition, the trading prices for our common stock and other biopharmaceutical companies have been highly volatile as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely. Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our Versamune ® platform, PDS0101, or other Versamune ® Products or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets. We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to Versamune ® . Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries. We seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to PDS0101. The patent prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. The patent applications that we own or license may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover PDS0101 or its applications in the United States or in other countries. There is no assurance that all potentially relevant prior art relating, which can invalidate a patent or prevent a patent from issuing from a pending patent application is known to us. Even if patents do successfully issue, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability or scope, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated, or held unenforceable. Any successful challenge to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful commercialization of PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products that we may develop. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could exclusively market PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products under patent protection could be reduced. The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions and has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. For example, European patent law restricts the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body more than U.S. law does. Publications of discoveries in 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 know with certainty whether we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect PDS0101 or other Versamune ® Products, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and immunotherapies. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. Recent patent reform legislation in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents. On September 16, 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or Leahy-Smith Act was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to United States patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The U.S. Patent Office recently developed new regulations and procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act, and in particular, the first to file provisions, only became effective on March 16, 2013. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business. However, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition. 57 Index Moreover, we may be subject to a third-party pre-issuance submission of prior art to the U.S. Patent Office, or become involved in derivation, reexamination, inter parties review, post-grant review or interference proceedings challenging its patent rights or the patent rights of others. In other countries, we may be subject to or become involved in opposition proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such submission or proceeding could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or immunotherapies and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize PDS0101 without infringing third- party patent rights. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to our inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Such challenges may result in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and immunotherapies, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and immunotherapies. Moreover, patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States and other countries, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after it is filed. Various extensions may be available; however, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Without patent protection for PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products, we may be open to competition from generic versions of PDS0101 or other similar products using our technology. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new immunotherapy candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing immunotherapies similar or identical to ours. We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, the patents of our licensors or our other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful. Competitors may infringe or otherwise violate our patents, the patents of our licensors or our other intellectual property rights. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file legal claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours or our licensors is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that such patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing. The initiation of a claim against a third-party may also cause the third-party to bring counter claims against us, such as claims asserting that our patents are invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, non- enablement or lack of statutory subject matter. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant material information from the USPTO, or made a materially misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may also raise similar validity claims before the USPTO in post-grant proceedings such as inter partes review, or post-grant review, or oppositions or similar proceedings outside the United States, in parallel with litigation or even outside the context of litigation. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. We cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. For the patents and patent applications that we have licensed, we may have limited or no right to participate in the defense of any licensed patents against challenge by a third-party. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of any future patent protection on PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. Such a loss of patent protection could harm our business. We may also face claims that our products infringe patents that our competitors hold. Claims for alleged infringement and any resulting lawsuit, if successful, could subject us to significant liability for damages and invalidations of our proprietary rights. Any such lawsuit, regardless of our success, would likely be time consuming and expensive to resolve and would divert management time and attention. Any potential intellectual property litigation could also force us to do one or more of the following: (a) stop selling our products; (b) obtain a license(s), from the owner of any asserted intellectual property, to sell or use the relevant technology, which license may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all; or (c) redesign our products to avoid using the relevant technology. We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States. Our business could be harmed if in litigation the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Any litigation or other proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights may fail, and even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. 58 Index Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Changes in patent law in the United States and other jurisdictions could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect the Versamune ® platform, PDS0101 and other Versamune ® Products. As is the case with other biotechnology companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biotechnology industry involves both technological and legal complexity, and is therefore costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. Patent reform legislation in the United States and in other jurisdictions could increase those uncertainties and costs. The United States has enacted and implemented wide-ranging patent reform legislation. 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 U.S. 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 have licensed or that we might obtain in the future. We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world, which could impair our business. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents covering PDS0101 throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own immunotherapies and, further, may export otherwise infringing immunotherapies to territories where we may obtain patent protection, but where patent enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These immunotherapies may compete with PDS0101 in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued or licensed patents and any future patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing. Our reliance on third parties requires us to share our trade secrets, which increases the possibility that a competitor will discover them or that our trade secrets will be misappropriated or disclosed. We seek to protect our proprietary technology in part by entering into confidentiality agreements with third parties and, if applicable, material transfer agreements, consulting agreements or other similar agreements with our advisors, employees, third-party contractors and consultants prior to beginning research or disclosing proprietary information. These agreements typically limit the rights of the third parties to use or disclose our confidential information, including our trade secrets. Despite the contractual provisions employed when working with third parties, the need to share trade secrets and other confidential information increases the risk that such trade secrets become known by our competitors, are inadvertently incorporated into the technology of others, or are disclosed or used in violation of these agreements. Given that our proprietary position is based, in part, on our know-how and trade secrets, a competitor’s discovery of our trade secrets or other unauthorized use or disclosure would impair our competitive position and may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, these agreements typically restrict the ability of our advisors, employees, third-party contractors and consultants to publish data potentially relating to our trade secrets, although our agreements may contain certain limited publication rights. Despite our efforts to protect our trade secrets, our competitors may discover our trade secrets, either through breach of our agreements with third parties, independent development or publication of information by any of our third-party collaborators. A competitor’s discovery of our trade secrets would impair our competitive position and have an adverse impact on our business. 59 Index General Market Risk Factors Our stock price is expected to be volatile, and the market price of our common stock may drop in the future. The market price of our common stock may be subject to significant fluctuations in the future. Market prices for securities of early-stage pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other life sciences companies have historically been particularly volatile. Some of the factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate include: ● the ability of us and our partners to develop product candidates and conduct clinical trials that demonstrate such product candidates are safe and effective; ● the ability of us or our partners to obtain regulatory approvals for product candidates, and delays or failures to obtain such approvals; ● failure of any of our product candidates to demonstrate safety and efficacy, receive regulatory approval and achieve commercial success; ● failure by us to maintain our existing third-party license, manufacturing and supply agreements; ● impact of COVID-19 on business operations and clinical trials; ● failure by us or our licensors to prosecute, maintain, or enforce our intellectual property rights; ● changes in laws or regulations applicable to our product candidates; ● any inability to obtain adequate supply of product candidates or the inability to do so at acceptable prices; ● adverse regulatory authority decisions; ● introduction of new or competing products by our competitors; ● failure to meet or exceed financial and development projections we may provide to the public; ● the perception of the pharmaceutical industry by the public, legislatures, regulators and the investment community; ● announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments by us or our competitors; ● disputes or other developments relating to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters, and our ability to obtain intellectual property protection for our technologies; ● additions or departures of key personnel; ● significant lawsuits, including intellectual property or stockholder litigation; ● if securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about us, or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinions regarding our business and stock; ● if large short positions are taken in our stock and or negative reports are provided, whether they are based in fact or otherwise; ● changes in the market valuations of similar companies; ● general market or macroeconomic conditions; ● sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders in the future; ● trading volume of our common stock; ● adverse publicity relating to our markets generally, including with respect to other products and potential products in such markets; ● changes in the structure of health care payment systems; and ● period-to-period fluctuations in our financial results. 60 Index Moreover, the stock markets in general have experienced substantial volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of individual companies. These broad market fluctuations may also adversely affect the trading price of our common stock. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, stockholders have often instituted class action securities litigation against those companies. Such litigation, if instituted, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management attention and resources, which could significantly harm our profitability and reputation. We are required to meet the Nasdaq Capital Market’s continued listing requirements and other Nasdaq rules, and if we fail to meet such rules and requirements, we may be subject to delisting. Delisting could negatively affect the price of our common stock, which could make it more difficult for us to sell securities in a future financing or for you to sell our common stock. We are required to meet the continued listing requirements of the Nasdaq Capital Market and other Nasdaq rules, including those regarding director independence and independent committee requirements, minimum stockholders’ equity, minimum share price and certain other corporate governance requirements. In particular, we are required to maintain a minimum bid price for our listed common stock of $1.00 per share. If we do not meet these continued listing requirements, our common stock could be delisted. Delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market would cause us to pursue eligibility for trading of these securities on other markets or exchanges, including the OTC BB or QB markets, or on the OTC “pink sheets.” In such case, our stockholders’ ability to trade, or obtain quotations of the market value of our common stock would be severely limited because of lower trading volumes and transaction delays. These factors could contribute to lower prices and larger spreads in the bid and ask prices of our securities. There can be no assurance that our securities, if delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market in the future, would be listed on a national securities exchange, a national quotation service, the OTC markets or the pink sheets. Delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market, or even the issuance of a notice of potential delisting, would also result in negative publicity, make it more difficult for us to raise additional capital, cause us to lose eligibility to register the sale or resale of our shares on Form S-3 and the automatic exemption from registration under state securities laws for exchange-listed securities, adversely affect the market liquidity of our securities, decrease securities analysts’ coverage of us or diminish investor, supplier and employee confidence. We do not anticipate that we will pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently expect to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our company will be the sole source of our stockholders’ gain, if any, for the foreseeable future. Future sales of shares by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline. If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after certain legal restrictions on resale lapse, the trading price of our common stock could decline. As of December 31, 2020, we had 22,261,619 shares of common stock outstanding. Approximately 18,335,053 of such shares are freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market. Approximately 3,926,566 of such shares of common stock are held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates and will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and various vesting agreements. Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval. As of March 18, 2021, our executive officers, directors, and 5% stockholders and their affiliates beneficially owned an aggregate of approximately 23% of the outstanding shares of our common stock as of December 31, 2020. Accordingly, these executive officers, directors and their affiliates, acting as a group, may have substantial influence over the outcome of corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or any other significant corporate transactions. These stockholders may also delay or prevent a change of control of our company, even if such a change of control would benefit our other stockholders. This concentration of ownership could delay or prevent any acquisition of our company on terms that other stockholders may desire, and may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. 61 Index Because the Merger resulted in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code for Edge, pre-merger U.S. net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes will be subject to limitations. As of December 31, 2018, prior to completion of the Merger, Edge had federal and state net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, of $128.6 million and $27.1 million, respectively, due to prior period losses. If a corporation undergoes an “ownership change” within the meaning of Section 382 of the Code, the corporation’s U.S. net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes arising from before the ownership change are subject to limitations on use after the ownership change. In general, an ownership change occurs if there is a cumulative change in the corporation’s equity ownership by certain stockholders that exceeds fifty percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state and foreign tax laws. We believe that Edge may have already undergone one or more ownership changes prior to the Merger. However, the Merger also resulted in an ownership change for Edge and, accordingly, Edge’s U.S. net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes available to us are subject to limitations on their use. Changes in tax laws and regulations or our operations may impact our effective tax rate and may adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Changes in tax laws in any jurisdiction in which we operate, or adverse outcomes from any tax audits that we may be subject to in any such jurisdictions, could result in an unfavorable change in our effective tax rate, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results. On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act. The changes included in the Tax Act are broad and complex. The impact of these changes on how our earnings are taxed include, among other items, (i) reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%; (ii) repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax and changing how existing credits can be utilized; (iii) temporarily providing for elective immediate expensing for certain depreciable property; (iv) creating a new limitation on the deductibility of interest expense; and (v) changing rules related to uses and limitations of net operating losses created in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. It is possible that the Tax Act will be subject to further changes either in a technical corrections bill or entirely new legislation. The overall impact of the Tax Act also depends on the future interpretations and regulations that may be issued by U.S. tax authorities. We expect there will be further guidance provided by these authorities potentially having a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations. The impact of broad proposals or of regulatory issuances on our business can vary substantially depending upon the specific changes or further guidance made and how the changes or guidance are implemented by the authorities. On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, was enacted and signed into law, and GAAP requires recognition of the tax effects of new legislation during the reporting period that includes the enactment date. The CARES Act, among other things, includes changes to the tax provisions that benefits business entities and makes certain technical corrections to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including, permitting net operating losses, or NOLs, 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 to generate a refund of previously paid income taxes. The CARES Act provides other reliefs and stimulus measures. We have evaluated the impact of the CARES Act, and do not expect that any provision of the CARES Act would result in a material cash benefit to us or have a material impact on our financial statements or internal controls over financial reporting. Anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law could make an acquisition more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current or future management. Because we are incorporated in Delaware, our company is governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL, which prohibits stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our voting stock from merging or combining with us. Although we believe these provisions collectively will provide for an opportunity to receive higher bids by requiring potential acquirors to negotiate with our board of directors, they would apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some stockholders. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove then current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of the board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of management. 62 Index Our eighth amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees. Our eighth amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, provides that, unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for: (a) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (b) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders; (c) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the DGCL, our eighth amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, or our second amended and restated bylaws; or (d) any action asserting a claim against us governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This choice of forum provision does not preclude or contract the scope of exclusive federal or concurrent jurisdiction for any actions brought under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. Accordingly, our exclusive forum provision will not relieve us of our duties to comply with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder, and our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with these laws, rules and regulations. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of its’ choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our eighth amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. ITEM 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments None.