Telomir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 10-K

ITEM 1A. Risk Factors RISK FACTORS Investing in shares of our common stock is very speculative and involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, the section of this Annual Report entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that affect us. If any of the following risks occur, our business, operating results and prospects could be materially harmed. In that event, the price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. Summary Risk Factors Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that you should consider before investing in our company. You should carefully consider all of the risks described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on page 19, before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of these risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would likely be materially adversely affected. 19 Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially, but are not limited to, the following: Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property We depend on rights to Telomir-1 that are or will be licensed to us. We may not be able to adequately protect our product candidates or our proprietary technology in the marketplace. If third parties claim that our intellectual property, products, processes, or anything else used by us infringes upon their intellectual property, our operating profits could be adversely affected. We have been granted a license to the right to develop Telomir-1 in the United States in human and pet application, but we have not been granted a license to the rights to patents covering Telomir-1 in foreign jurisdictions. Risks Related to Our Operations and Financial Condition We are an early development-stage company with no revenues and our financial condition raises substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern . Because we have a limited operating history, you may not be able to accurately evaluate our operations. We will need to raise additional financing for the continuation of our operations. Our operating results may fluctuate, which could have a negative impact on our ability to grow our client base, establish sustainable revenues and succeed overall. We have yet to achieve a profit and will not achieve a profit in the near future, if at all. Certain of our executive officers are not be employed by us on a full-time basis. Conflicts of interest may arise between us and MIRALOGX. Risks Relating to Our Business and Our Industry Our future success will largely depend on the success of Telomir-1 and any future product candidates, which development will require significant capital resources and years of clinical development effort. We are dependent on our current and future product candidates, some of which may not receive regulatory approval or be successfully commercialized. Results of pre-clinical studies and earlier clinical trials are not necessarily predictive indicators of future results. We have limited marketing experience, and we do not anticipate at this time establishing a sales force or distribution and reimbursement capabilities, and we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates if they are approved in the future. We will need to further increase the size and complexity of our organization in the future, and we may experience difficulties in managing our growth and executing our growth strategy. We expect to face intense competition, often from companies with greater resources and experience than we have. We have significant and increasing liquidity needs and may require additional funding. 20 Risks Related to Development and Regulatory Approval of Our Product Candidates Clinical trials for our product candidates are expensive, time-consuming, uncertain, and susceptible to change, delay or termination. The results of clinical trials are open to differing interpretations. Any failure by us to comply with existing regulations could harm our reputation and operating results. The regulatory approval processes with the FDA are lengthy and inherently unpredictable. There is a high rate of failure for drug candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Risks Related to Our Reliance Upon Third Parties We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, third parties to conduct clinical trials for our product candidates. Our existing collaboration arrangements and any that we may enter into in the future may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates. Risks Relating to the Ownership of Our Common Stock Because of the speculative nature of an investment in our company, you may lose your entire investment. Certain of our founding stockholders, plus our existing officers and directors, control a substantial interest in us and thus may influence certain actions requiring stockholder vote. Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property We depend on rights to Telomir-1 that are or will be licensed to us. We do not own the intellectual property rights to Telomir-1 and any loss of our rights to it could prevent us from selling our product. Within our present and future pipeline of treatments, Telomir-1 is in-licensed from another company. We do not currently own any intellectual property rights, including the patent application that underlies this license. Our rights to use Telomir-1 is subject to the negotiation of, continuation of and compliance with the terms of this license. Thus, the non-provisional patent application is not written by us or our attorneys, and we did not have control over the drafting and prosecution. The patent owner and our licensor might not have given the same attention to the drafting and prosecution of these patents and applications as we would have if we had been the owner of the patent application and had control over the drafting. We cannot be certain that drafting of the licensed patent application, or patent prosecution, by the licensor have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or will result in valid and enforceable patents and other intellectual property rights. This absence of control over the drafting, prosecution of patent and applications, along with non-compliance with royalty payments and confidentiality breaches are just some of the ways that may result in the Company’s’ loss of the license and inability to continue operations. Significant additional research and development activity, pre-clinical testing, and/or clinical testing Telomir-1 is required before we will have a chance to achieve a viable product for licensing or commercialization. Our business currently depends entirely on the successful development, regulatory approval, and licensing or commercialization of our product candidate, which may never occur. Enforcement of our licensed patent application or defense of any claims asserting invalidity of these patents is often subject to the control or cooperation of our licensor. Legal action could be initiated against the owners of the intellectual property that we license and an adverse outcome in such legal action could harm our business because it might prevent such companies or institutions from continuing to license intellectual property that we may need to operate our business. In addition, such licensor may resolve such litigation in a way that benefits it but adversely affects our ability to have freedom to operate to develop and commercialize Telomir-1. 21 We may not be able to adequately protect our product candidates or our proprietary technology in the marketplace. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to obtain patents, protect our trade secrets and operate without infringing on the proprietary rights of others. We may rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection (i.e., know-how), trademarks, licenses, and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property of our product candidates. The strengths of patents in the pharmaceutical field involve complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. Where appropriate, we seek patent protection for certain aspects of our products and technology. However, patent protection for naturally occurring compounds is exceedingly difficult to obtain, defend and enforce. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, so our policy is to look to patent technologies with commercial potential in jurisdictions with significant commercial opportunities. However, patent protection may not be available for some of the products or technology we are developing. If we must spend significant time and money protecting, defending, or enforcing our patents, designing around patents held by others or licensing, potentially for large fees, patents or other proprietary rights held by others, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be harmed. We may not develop additional proprietary products that are patentable. The patent positions of pharmaceutical products are complex and uncertain. Although we have sought and expect to continue to seek patent protection for our product candidates, their methods of use, and methods of manufacture, any, or all of them may not be subject to effective patent protection. If any of our products are approved and marketed for an indication for which we do not have an issued patent, our ability to use our patents to prevent a competitor from commercializing a non-branded version of our commercial products for that non-patented indication could be significantly impaired or even eliminated. Publication of information related to our product candidates by us, or others may prevent us from obtaining or enforcing patents relating to these products and product candidates. Furthermore, others may independently develop similar products, may duplicate our products, or may design around our patent rights. In addition, any of our issued patents may be opposed and/or declared invalid or unenforceable. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property, we may face competition from companies who attempt to create a generic product to compete with our product candidates. We may also face competition from companies who develop a substantially similar product to one of our product candidates that is not covered by any of our patents. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting, defending and enforcing intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights, particularly those relating to pharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Currently, we do not own the rights to the intellectual property and technology that will be used to commercially develop our initial product candidate, Telomir-1. MIRALOGX, which is a separate intellectual property development company owned by a trust established by the Company’s founder, holds the patent rights to Telomir-1, which are currently comprised of a pending non-provisional patent application. Pending the issuance of the non-provisional patent application, we will have an exclusive, license from MIRALOGX to develop and commercialize Telomir-1 in the U.S. for human and non-human applications. The term of the license will continue through the date of the expiration of the last-to-expire licensed patent or, if later, the date of the expiration of the last strategic partnership/sublicensing agreement covering the licensed products. The licensed patent rights are expected to extend through 2043. We expect additional patent terms may be awarded, including additional patent terms based on the time for regulatory review of drug products. There are no up-front, execution, or milestone payments required under the license agreement. Further, no payments have been made to date under the agreement. We are also required to pay an 8% royalty on net sales or revenue in exchange for an exclusive, worldwide license to patent rights, and we may bring suit in our own name to enforce our patent rights under the license agreement. In the event we are unable to enforce our rights under the agreement or are unable to detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property, we may lose the benefit of the licensed rights used to commercially develop Telomir-1. MIRALOGX will control the prosecution of the patent applications for Telomir-1. 22 If third parties claim that our intellectual property, products, processes, or anything else used by us infringes upon their intellectual property, our operating profits could be adversely affected. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the U.S., involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical industry. We may, from time to time, be notified of claims that we are infringing upon patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights owned by third parties, and we cannot provide assurances that other companies will not, in the future, pursue such infringement claims against us, our commercial partners or any third-party proprietary technologies we have licensed. If we were found to infringe upon a patent or other intellectual property right, or if we failed to obtain or renew a license under a patent or other intellectual property right from a third party, or if a third party that we were licensing technologies from was found to infringe upon a patent or other intellectual property rights of another third party, we may be required to pay damages, including damages of up to three times the damages found or assessed, if the infringement is found to be willful, suspend the manufacture of certain products or reengineer or rebrand our products, if feasible, or we may be unable to enter certain new product markets. Any such claims could also be expensive and time consuming to defend and divert management’s attention and resources. Our competitive position could suffer as a result. In addition, if we have declined or failed to enter into a valid non-disclosure or assignment agreement for any reason, we may not own the invention or our intellectual property, and our products may not be adequately protected. Thus, we cannot guarantee that our product candidates, or our commercialization thereof, does not and will not infringe any third party’s intellectual property. We have been granted a license to the right to develop Telomir-1 in the United States in human and pet application, but we have not been granted a license to the rights to patents covering Telomir-1 in foreign jurisdictions. We have been granted a license to the right to develop Telomir-1 in the United States but not in countries outside the United States, as MIRALOGX has retained all rights outside the United States and may license such rights to other parties. Accordingly, MIRALOGX potentially could develop a competing product for such jurisdictions outside of the United States. Risks Related to Our Operations and Financial Condition We are an early development-stage company with no revenues. As very early development-stage enterprise that is focused on the development of a pre-clinical pharmaceutical product, we have generated no revenue and have an accumulated deficit of $30.6 million and $14.1 million as of December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively. There can be no assurance that sufficient funds required to pursue our development program will be generated from operations or that funds will be available from external sources, such as debt or equity financings or other potential sources. The lack of additional capital resulting from the inability to generate cash flow from operations, or to raise capital from external sources would force us to substantially curtail or cease operations and would, therefore, have a material adverse effect on business. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that any such required funds, if available, will be available on attractive terms or that they will not have a significant dilutive effect on our existing stockholders. It is for these reasons substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern exists and an explanatory paragraph relating to our ability to continue as a going concern can be found within the report of our independent registered public accounting firm on our audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. We seek to overcome the circumstances that impact our ability to remain a going concern in the future through the growth of revenues with interim cash flow deficiencies being addressed through additional equity and debt financing. We anticipate raising additional funds through public or private financing, strategic relationships, or other arrangements in the near future to support our business operations; however, we may not have commitments from third parties for a sufficient amount of additional capital. We cannot be certain that any such financing will be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could limit our ability to continue operations. Our ability to obtain additional funding will determine our ability to continue as a going concern. Failure to secure additional financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms would have a material adverse effect on our financial performance, results of operations and stock price and require us to curtail or cease operations, sell off our assets, seek protection from our creditors through bankruptcy proceedings, or otherwise. Furthermore, additional equity financing may be dilutive to the holders of our common stock, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants, and strategic relationships, if necessary, to raise additional funds, and may require that we relinquish valuable rights. 23 Because we have a limited operating history, you may not be able to accurately evaluate our operations. We have had limited operations to date. Therefore, we have a limited operating history upon which to evaluate the merits of investing in our company. Our stockholders should be aware of the difficulties normally encountered by new companies and the high rate of failure of such enterprises. The likelihood of success must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications, and delays encountered in connection with the operations that we plan to undertake. These potential problems include, but are not limited to, unanticipated problems relating to the ability to generate sufficient cash flow to operate our business, and additional costs and expenses that may exceed current estimates. We expect to continue to incur significant losses into the foreseeable future. We recognize that if the effectiveness of our business plan is not forthcoming, we will not be able to continue business operations. There is no history upon which to base any assumption as to the likelihood that we will prove successful, and it is doubtful that we will generate any operating revenues or ever achieve profitable operations. If we are unsuccessful in addressing these risks, our business will most likely fail. We will need to raise additional financing for the continuation of our operations. Because we have generated no revenues and currently operate at a loss, we are completely dependent on the continued availability of financing in order to continue our business operations. There can be no assurance that financing sufficient to enable us to continue our operations will be available to us in the future. We will need additional funds to complete further development of our business plan to achieve a sustainable level where ongoing operations can be funded out of revenues. We expect that adequate resources are available to fund our operations and initial clinical development programs midway through the first quarter of 2026. We will require further funding to fully implement our business plan to its fullest potential and achieve our growth plans. There is no assurance that any additional financing will be available or if available, on terms that will be acceptable to us. Our failure to obtain future financing or to produce levels of revenue to meet our financial needs could result in our inability to continue as a going concern and the failure of our business. Our operating results may fluctuate, which could have a negative impact on our ability to grow our client base, establish sustainable revenues and succeed overall. Our results of operations may fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control including but not limited to: ● general economic conditions in the geographies and industries where we sell our services and conduct operations; legislative policies where we sell our services and conduct operations; ● the budgetary constraints of our customers; ● success of our strategic growth initiatives; ● costs associated with the launching or integration of new or acquired businesses; timing of new product introductions by us, our suppliers and our competitors; product and service mix, availability, utilization and pricing; ● the mix, by state and country, of our revenues, personnel, and assets; movements in interest rates or tax rates; ● changes in, and application of, accounting rules; changes in the regulations applicable to us; and litigation matters. As a result of these factors, we may not succeed in our business, and we could go out of business. 24 We have yet to achieve a profit and will not achieve a profit in the near future, if at all. We have not yet produced any revenues or profit and will not in the near future, if at all. We cannot be certain that we will be able to realize sufficient revenue to achieve profitability. Further, many of our competitors have a significantly larger industry presence and revenue stream but have yet to achieve profitability. Our ability to continue as a going concern in the future is dependent upon raising capital from financing transactions, increasing revenue and keeping operating expenses below our revenue levels in order to achieve positive cash flows, none of which can be assured. Certain of our executive officers are not employed by us on a full-time basis. Erez Aminov, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our board of directors, is not employed by our company on a full-time basis. As intended to be provided in his employment agreement with our company, he works on a part-time and as-needed basis. Because he does not work full time for our company, instances may occur where he may not be immediately available to provide solutions to problems or address concerns that arise in the course of us conducting our business and thus adversely affect our business. In addition, he can become subject to conflicts of interest because he devotes part of his working time to other business endeavors and may have responsibilities to other entities. Although Mr. Aminov is aware of his duties and accountability to our company and to applicable laws and policies relating to corporate opportunity and conflicts of interest, such conflicts of interest may include deciding how much time to devote to our affairs, as well as what business opportunities should be presented to us. Michelle Yanez, our Chief Financial Officer, is not employed by our company on a full-time basis. As intended to be provided in her employment agreement with our company, she works on a part-time and as-needed basis. Because she does not work full time for our company, instances may occur where she may not be immediately available to provide solutions to problems or address concerns that arise in the course of us conducting our business and thus adversely affect our business. In addition, she can become subject to conflicts of interest because she devotes part of her working time to other business endeavors and may have responsibilities to other entities. Although Mrs. Yanez is aware of her duties and accountability to our company and to applicable laws and policies relating to corporate opportunity and conflicts of interest, such conflicts of interest may include deciding how much time to devote to our affairs, as well as what business opportunities should be presented to us. Conflicts of interest may arise between us and MIRALOGX. MIRALOGX has a non-provisional patent application to the rights to Telomir-1. MIRALOGX is a separate intellectual property development company owned by the Bay Shore Trust, which is an irrevocable trust established by our founder, Jonnie R. Williams, Sr., and in which Brian McNulty is the trustee. The Bay Shore Trust is also our largest stockholder. We have an exclusive license from MIRALOGX to develop and commercialize Telomir-1 in the U.S. for human and non-human applications. Although the interests of MIRALOGX are 100% owned by the Bay Shore Trust, and Mr. Williams is not an officer or director of MIRALOGX and Mr. Williams does not have voting or dispositive power over the shares of our company held by Bay Shore Trust, our relationship with the Bay Shore Trust, Mr. Williams may create, or may create the appearance of, conflicts of interest when we are faced with decisions that could have different implications for MIRALOGX than the decisions have for us. Furthermore, in light of the license agreement that we have with MIRALOGX, if a dispute were to arise between MIRALOGX and us relating to our past or future relationship with MIRALOGX or with respect to intellectual property matters, these potential conflicts of interest may make it more difficult for us to favorably resolve such disputes. 25 Risks Relating to Our Business and Our Industry Our future success will largely depend on the success of Telomir-1 and any future product candidates, which development will require significant capital resources and years of clinical development effort. We currently have no drug products on the market, and all of our drug development projects are in a pre-clinical stage of development. Our business depends almost entirely on the successful pre-clinical and clinical development, FDA regulatory approval, and commercialization of our product candidates, principally Telomir-1. Our stockholders need to be aware that substantial additional investments including pre-clinical and clinical development and FDA regulatory submission and approval efforts will be required before we are permitted to undertake clinical studies and market and commercialize our product candidates, if ever. It may be several years before we can commence clinical trials, if ever. Any clinical trial will be subject to extensive and rigorous review and regulation by numerous government authorities in the United States and other jurisdictions where we intend, if approved, to market our product candidates. Before obtaining regulatory approvals for any of our product candidates, we must demonstrate through pre-clinical testing and clinical trials that the product candidate is safe and effective for its specific application. This process can take many years and may include post- marketing studies and surveillance, which would require the expenditure of substantial resources. Of the large number of drugs in development for approval in the United States (and the rest of the world), only a small percentage will successfully complete the FDA regulatory approval financing to fund our planned research, development, and clinical programs, we cannot assure you that any of our product candidates will be successfully developed or commercialized. We may be unable to formulate or scale up any or all of our product candidates. There is no guarantee that any of the product candidates will be or are able to be manufactured or produced in a manner to meet the FDA’s criteria for product stability, content uniformity and all other criteria necessary for product approval in the United States and other markets. Any of our product candidates may fail to achieve their specified endpoints in clinical trials. Furthermore, product candidates may not be approved even if they achieve their specified endpoints in clinical trials. The FDA may disagree with our trial design and our interpretation of data from clinical trials or may change the requirements for approval even after it has reviewed and commented on the design for our clinical trials. The FDA may also approve a drug for fewer or more limited indications than we request or may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-approval clinical trials (i.e., Phase IV trials). In addition, the FDA may not approve the labeling claims that we believe are necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of our product candidates. If we are unable to expand our pipeline and obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates within the timelines we anticipate, we will not be able to execute our business strategy effectively and our ability to substantially grow our revenues will be limited, which would have a material adverse impact on our long-term business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects. We are dependent on our current and future product candidates, some of which may not receive regulatory approval or be successfully commercialized. Our ability to progress our plan will depend on our ability to clinically develop, gain regulatory approval for and ultimately commercialize our product candidates. Our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates will depend on, among other things, our ability to: ● complete pre-clinical and other nonclinical studies and clinical trials in a manner that allows us to progress our studies; ● receive IND acceptance and regulatory approvals from the FDA; ● produce, through a validated process, in manufacturing facilities inspected and approved by regulatory authorities, including the FDA, sufficiently large quantities of product candidates to permit successful commercialization; ● obtain reimbursement from payers such as government health care programs and insurance companies and achieve commercially attractive levels of pricing; ● secure acceptance of our product candidates from physicians, health care payers, patients, and the medical community; ● create positive publicity surrounding our product candidates; ● manage our spending as costs and expenses increase due to clinical trials and commercialization; and ● obtain and enforce sufficient intellectual property for our product candidates. 26 Our failure or delay with respect to any of the factors above could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Results of pre-clinical studies and earlier clinical trials are not necessarily predictive indicators of future results. Any positive results from future pre-clinical testing of our product candidates and potential future clinical trials may not necessarily be predictive of the results from Phase I, Phase II or Phase III clinical trials. In addition, our interpretation of results derived from clinical data or our conclusions based on our pre-clinical data may prove inaccurate. Frequently, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials after achieving positive results in pre-clinical testing and early phase clinical trials, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. These setbacks may be caused by the fact that pre-clinical and clinical data can be susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. Furthermore, certain product candidates may perform satisfactorily in pre-clinical studies and clinical trials but nonetheless fail to obtain FDA approval or appropriate approvals by the appropriate regulatory authorities in other countries. If we fail to produce positive results in our clinical trials for our product candidates, the development timeline and regulatory approval and commercialization prospects for them and as a result our business and financial prospects, would be materially adversely affected. We have limited marketing experience, and we do not anticipate at this time establishing a sales force or distribution and reimbursement capabilities, and we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates if they are approved in the future. Our ability to generate revenues ultimately depends on our ability to sell our approved products and secure adequate third-party reimbursement. We currently have limited experience in marketing and selling our products. We currently do not have any products approved for sale in the United States or in any other country. The commercial success of our product candidates will not happen for the foreseeable future and will depend on a number of factors beyond our control, including the willingness of physicians to prescribe our products to patients, payers’ willingness and ability to pay for the drugs, the level of pricing achieved, patients’ response to our drugs and the ability of our marketing partners to generate sales. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to establish or maintain the personnel, systems, arrangements and capabilities necessary to successfully commercialize Telomir-1 or any product candidate approved by the FDA in the future. If we fail to establish or maintain successful marketing, sales and reimbursement capabilities or fail to enter into successful marketing arrangements with third parties, our product revenues may suffer. We will need to further increase the size and complexity of our organization in the future, and we may experience difficulties in managing our growth and executing our growth strategy. Our management and personnel, systems, and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support our business plan and future growth. As a result, we may need to further expand certain areas of our organization. Our need to effectively manage our operations, growth and various projects requires that we: ● continue to improve our operational, financial, management and regulatory compliance controls and reporting systems and procedures; ● attract and retain enough talented employees; ● manage our clinical trials effectively; ● manage our external manufacturing operations with contract research organizations effectively and in a cost-effective manner; ● manage our development efforts effectively while carrying out our contractual obligations to contractors and other third parties; and 27 In addition, we may utilize the services of part-time outside consultants and contractors to perform several tasks for us, including tasks related to compliance programs, clinical trial management, regulatory affairs, formulation development and other drug development functions. Our growth strategy may entail expanding our use of consultants and contractors to implement these and other tasks going forward. If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our use of consultants and contractors, we may be unable to successfully implement the tasks necessary to effectively execute on our planned research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization activities and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development and commercialization goals. We expect to face intense competition, often from companies with greater resources and experience than we have. The development and commercialization of drugs and medicines is highly competitive. We compete with a variety of multinational pharmaceutical companies and specialized biotechnology companies, as well as products and processes being developed by universities and other research institutions. Many of our competitors have developed, are developing, or will develop drugs and processes which may be competitive with our drug candidates. Competitive products include those that have already been approved by medicines regulators and accepted by the medical community and any new products that may enter the market. For some of our drug development programs / areas of interest, other treatment options or products are currently available, under development, and may become commercially available in the future. If any of our product candidates are approved for the diseases and conditions we are currently pursuing, they may compete with a range of medicines or therapeutic treatments that are either in development, will be developed in the future or currently marketed. Established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size and experiences, financial resources, and institutional networks. Many of our competitors may have significantly greater financial, technical, and human resources than we do. Due to these factors, our competitors may have an advantage in marketing their approved drugs and may obtain regulatory approval of their drug candidates before we are able to, which may limit our ability to develop or commercialize our drug candidates. Our competitors may also develop drugs or medicines that are safer, more effective, more widely used and less expensive than ours. These advantages could materially impact our ability to develop and, if approved, commercialize our product candidates successfully. Furthermore, some of these competitors may make acquisitions or establish collaborative relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase their ability to rapidly gain market share. Business interruptions could delay us in the process of developing our product candidates and could disrupt our product sales. Our research and development activities are conducted through outside contractors and manufacturers. Loss of our contracted manufacturing facilities, stored inventory or laboratory facilities through fire, theft or other causes, or loss of our raw material, could have an adverse effect on our ability to continue product development activities and to conduct our business. Failure to supply our partners with commercial product may lead to adverse consequences, including the right of partners to take over responsibility for product supply. We currently do not have insurance coverage to compensate us for such business interruptions. Our contract manufacturers and suppliers provide that in their separate operations; however, such coverage may prove insufficient to fully compensate us for the damage to our business resulting from any significant property or casualty loss to those facilities. We have significant and increasing liquidity needs and may require additional funding. Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. For the year ended December 31, 2024, we reported a net operating cash outflow of $5.1 million and a net cash inflow from financing activities of $6.3 million. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we reported a net operating cash outflow of $3.9 million and a net cash inflow from financing activities of $3.9 million. Research and development, and general and administrative expenses, and cash used for operations will continue to be significant and may increase substantially in the future in connection with new research and development initiatives and continued product commercialization efforts. We may need to raise additional capital to fund our operations, continue to conduct clinical trials to support potential regulatory approval of marketing applications and to fund commercialization of our products. 28 The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to: ● the timing of FDA approval, if any, and approvals in international markets of our product candidates, if at all; ● the timing and amount of revenue from sales of our products, or revenue from grants or other sources; ● The rate of progress and cost of our clinical trials and other product development programs; ● costs of establishing or outsourcing sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities; ● costs and timing of completion of expanded in-house manufacturing facilities as well as any outsourced commercial manufacturing supply arrangements for our product candidates; ● costs of filing, prosecuting, defending, and enforcing any patent claims and other intellectual property rights associated with our product candidates; ● the effect of competing technological and market developments; ● personnel, facilities, and equipment requirements; and ● the terms and timing of any additional collaborative, licensing, co-promotion, or other arrangements that we may establish. While we expect to fund our future capital requirements from several sources including existing cash balances, future cash flows from operations and the proceeds from equity offerings, we cannot assure you that any of these funding sources will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all. Further, even if we can raise funds from all of the above sources, the amounts raised may not be sufficient to meet our future capital requirements. Operating results may vary significantly in future periods. Our expenses and operating results have fluctuated in the past and our revenues, expenses, and operating results are likely to fluctuate significantly in the future. Our financial results are unpredictable and may fluctuate, for among other reasons, due to: ● commercial sales of our products; ● our achievement of product development objectives and milestones; ● clinical trial enrollment and expenses; ● research and development expenses; and ● the timing and nature of contract manufacturing and contract research payments. A high portion of our costs are predetermined on an annual basis, due in part to our significant research and development costs. Thus, small declines in revenue could disproportionately affect financial results in a quarter. Because of these factors, our financial results in one or more future quarters may fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts or our stockholders, which could cause our share price to decline. 29 We depend upon our key personnel and our ability to attract and retain employees. Our future growth and success depend on our ability to recruit, retain, manage, and motivate our employees. The inability to hire or retain experienced management personnel could adversely affect our ability to execute our business plan and harm our operating results. Due to the specialized scientific and managerial nature of our business, we rely heavily on our ability to attract and retain qualified scientific, technical, and managerial personnel. The competition for qualified personnel in the pharmaceutical field is intense. Due to this intense competition, we may be unable to continue to attract and retain the qualified personnel necessary for the development of our business or to recruit suitable replacement personnel. Our proprietary information, or that of our customers, suppliers, and business partners, may be lost or we may suffer security breaches. In the ordinary course of our business, we will collect and store sensitive data, including valuable and commercially sensitive intellectual property, clinical trial data, our proprietary business information and that of our customers, suppliers and business partners, and personally identifiable information of our customers, clinical trial subjects and employees, and patients, on our networks, and with our third-party cloud service providers. The secure processing, maintenance and transmission of this information is critical to our operations. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure, and that of our third parties, may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to employee error, malfeasance, or other disruptions. Any breach could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed, publicly disclosed, lost, or stolen. Any such access, disclosure or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, regulatory penalties, disrupt our operations, damage our reputation, and cause a loss of confidence in our products and our ability to conduct clinical trials, which could adversely affect our business and reputation and lead to delays in gaining regulatory approvals for Telomir-1 or other product candidates. Failure of our information technology systems, including cybersecurity attacks or other data security incidents, could significantly disrupt the operation of our business. Our business is increasingly dependent on critical, complex, and interdependent information technology (“IT”) systems, including internet-based systems, some of which are managed or hosted by third parties, to support business processes as well as internal and external communications. The size and complexity of our IT systems make us potentially vulnerable to IT system breakdowns, malicious intrusion, and computer viruses, which may result in the impairment of our ability to operate our business effectively. We are continuously evaluating and, where appropriate, enhancing our IT systems to address our planned growth, including to support our planned manufacturing operations. There are inherent costs and risks associated with implementing the enhancements to our IT systems, including potential delays in access to, or errors in, critical business and financial information, substantial capital expenditures, additional administrative time and operating expenses, retention of sufficiently skilled personnel to implement and operate the enhanced systems, demands on management time, and costs of delays or difficulties in transitioning to the enhanced systems, any of which could harm our business and results of operations. In addition, the implementation of enhancements to our IT systems may not result in productivity improvements to a level that outweighs the costs of implementation, or at all. In addition, our systems and the systems of our third-party providers and collaborators are potentially vulnerable to data security breaches which may expose sensitive data to unauthorized persons or to the public. Such data security breaches could lead to the loss of confidential information, trade secrets or other intellectual property, could lead to the public exposure of personal information (including personally identifiable information or individually identifiable health information) of our employees, clinical trial patients, customers, business partners, and others, could lead to potential identity theft, or could lead to reputational harm. Data security breaches could also result in loss of clinical trial data or damage to the integrity of that data. In addition, the increased use of social media by our employees and contractors could result in inadvertent disclosure of sensitive data or personal information, including but not limited to, confidential information, trade secrets and other intellectual property. Any such disruption or security breach, as well as any action by us or our employees or contractors that might be inconsistent with the rapidly evolving data privacy and security laws and regulations applicable within the United States and elsewhere where we conduct business, could result in enforcement actions by U.S. states, the U.S. federal government or foreign governments, liability or sanctions under data privacy laws, including healthcare laws such as HIPAA, that protect certain types of sensitive information, regulatory penalties, other legal proceedings such as but not limited to private litigation, the incurrence of significant remediation costs, disruptions to our development programs, business operations and collaborations, diversion of management efforts and damage to our reputation, which could harm our business and operations. Because of the rapidly moving nature of technology and the increasing sophistication of cybersecurity threats, our measures to prevent, respond to and minimize such risks may be unsuccessful. 30 Security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions could compromise sensitive information related to our business, prevent us from accessing critical information or expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business and our reputation. In the ordinary course of our business, we, our vendors, and our third-party cloud service providers may collect and store sensitive data, including legally protected patient health information, credit card information, personally identifiable information about our employees and patients, intellectual property, and proprietary business information. We manage and maintain our applications and data utilizing cloud-based and on-site systems. These applications and data encompass a wide variety of business-critical information including research and development information, commercial information and business and financial information. The secure processing, storage, maintenance, and transmission of this critical information is vital to our operations and business strategy, and we devote significant resources to protecting such information. Although we take measures to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or disclosure, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers, or viruses, breaches, or interruptions due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions, or lapses in compliance with privacy and security mandates. Any such virus, breach or interruption could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed by unauthorized parties, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. We have measures in place that are designed to prevent, and if necessary to detect and respond to such security incidents, breaches of privacy, and security mandates. However, in the future, any such access, disclosure or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, such as HIPAA in the United States and the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, or GDPR, government enforcement actions and regulatory penalties. Unauthorized access, loss or dissemination could also disrupt our operations, including our ability to process samples, provide test results, share and monitor safety data, bill payers or patients, provide customer support services, conduct research and development activities, process and prepare company financial information, manage various general and administrative aspects of our business and may damage our reputation, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Geopolitical events and global economic conditions, such as the Israel-Hamas war may impact the third parties that we engage to supply materials or manufacture any products for our preclinical tests and clinical trials, which increases the risk of potential delay of development efforts, as applicable. If the third parties that we engage to supply any materials or manufacture any products for our preclinical tests and clinical trials should cease to continue to do so for any reason, including due to the effects of global economic conditions, including the Hamas-Israel war, we likely would experience delays in advancing these tests and trials while we identify and qualify replacement suppliers or manufacturers, as applicable, and we may be unable to obtain replacement supplies on terms that are favorable to us. In addition, if we are not able to obtain adequate supplies of our product, or the substances used to manufacture them, it will be more difficult for us to develop our product and compete effectively. Our current and anticipated dependence upon third-party suppliers may adversely affect our ability to develop our product, and product candidates and could delay our clinical trials and development programs as well as affect our marketing and commercialization efforts. In addition, such dependence may increase our costs and expenses, and may otherwise harm our operations and financial condition 31 Risks Related to Development and Regulatory Approval of Our Product Candidates Clinical trials for our product candidates are expensive, time-consuming, uncertain, and susceptible to change, delay or termination. The results of clinical trials are open to differing interpretations. Clinical trials are expensive, time consuming and difficult to design and implement. Regulatory agencies may analyze or interpret the results differently than us. Even if the results of our clinical trials are favorable, the clinical trials for a number of our product candidates are expected to continue for several years and may take significantly longer to complete. In addition, we, the FDA, or other regulatory authorities, including state and local authorities, or an Institutional Review Board, or IRB, with respect to a trial at its institution, may suspend, delay or terminate our clinical trials at any time, require us to conduct additional clinical trials, require a particular clinical trial to continue for a longer duration than originally planned, require a change to our development plans such that we conduct clinical trials for a product candidate in a different order, e.g., in a step-wise fashion rather than running two trials of the same product candidate in parallel. The suspension, delay or termination could be for various reasons, including: ● lack of effectiveness of any product candidate during clinical trials; ● discovery of serious or unexpected toxicities or side effects experienced by trial participants or other safety issues, such as drug interactions, including those which cause confounding changes to the levels of other concomitant medications; ● slower than expected rates of subject recruitment and enrollment rates in clinical trials; ● difficulty in retaining subjects who have initiated a clinical trial but may withdraw at any time due to adverse side effects from the therapy, insufficient efficacy, fatigue with the clinical trial process or for any other reason; ● delays or inability in manufacturing or obtaining sufficient quantities of materials for use in clinical trials due to regulatory and manufacturing constraints; ● inadequacy of or changes in our manufacturing process or product formulation; ● delays in obtaining regulatory authorization to commence a trial, including “clinical holds” or delays requiring suspension or termination of a trial by a regulatory agency, such as the FDA, before or after a trial is commenced; ● changes in applicable regulatory policies and regulation, including changes to requirements imposed on the extent, nature, or timing of studies; ● delays or failure in reaching agreement on acceptable terms in clinical trial contracts or protocols with prospective clinical trial sites; ● uncertainty regarding proper dosing; ● delay or failure to supply product for use in clinical trials which conforms to regulatory specification; ● unfavorable results from ongoing pre-clinical studies and clinical trials; ● failure of our contract research organizations, or CROs, or other third-party contractors to comply with all contractual requirements or to perform their services in a timely or acceptable manner; ● failure by us, our employees, our CROs or their employees to comply with all applicable FDA or other regulatory requirements relating to the conduct of clinical trials or the handling, storage, security, and recordkeeping; ● scheduling conflicts with participating clinicians and clinical institutions; 32 ● failure to design appropriate clinical trial protocols; ● insufficient data to support regulatory approval; ● inability or unwillingness of medical investigators to follow our clinical protocols; or ● difficulty in maintaining contact with patients during or after treatment, which may result in incomplete data. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any failure by us to comply with existing regulations could harm our reputation and operating results. We are subject to extensive regulation by U.S. federal and state governments in each of the markets where we have product candidates progressing through the approval process. We must also adhere to all regulatory requirements including FDA’s Good Laboratory Practice, Good Clinical Practice, and current Good Manufacturing Practices requirements (“cGMP”) pharmacovigilance requirements, advertising, and promotion restrictions, reporting and recordkeeping requirements. If we or our suppliers fail to comply with applicable regulations, including FDA pre-or post-approval cGMP requirements, then FDA could sanction us. Even if a drug is FDA-approved, regulatory authorities may impose significant restrictions on a product’s indicated uses or marketing or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-marketing trials. Telomir-1, and any of our product candidates that may be approved in the U.S. in the future, will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, import, export, advertising, promotion, sampling, recordkeeping and submission of safety and other post-market information, including both federal and state requirements in the U.S. In addition, manufacturers and manufacturers’ facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to GMP. As such, we, and our contract manufacturers (in the event contract manufacturers are appointed in the future) are subject to continual review and periodic inspections to assess compliance with GMP. Accordingly, we and others with whom we work must continue to spend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, quality control and quality assurance. We will also be required to report certain adverse reactions and production problems, if any, to the FDA, and to comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotion for our products. Promotional communications with respect to prescription drugs are subject to a variety of legal and regulatory restrictions and must be consistent with the information in the product’s approved label. If a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, or disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of the product, it may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency or enforcement authority may: ● issue untitled or warning letters; ● seek to enjoin our activities; ● impose civil or criminal penalties; ● suspend regulatory approval; ● suspend any of our ongoing clinical trials; ● refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications submitted by us; ● impose restrictions on our operations, including by requiring us to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement or closing our contract manufacturers’ facilities, if any; or ● seize or detain products or require a product recall. In addition, any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. Any failure to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements may significantly and adversely affect our ability to commercialize and generate revenue from our product candidates. If regulatory sanctions are applied or if regulatory approval is withdrawn, the value of our business and our operating results may be adversely affected. 33 Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses, divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business and damage our reputation. We expend significant resources on compliance efforts and such expenses are unpredictable and might adversely affect our results. Changing laws, regulations and standards might also create uncertainty, higher expenses and increase insurance costs. As a result, we intend to invest all reasonably necessary resources to comply with evolving standards, and this investment might result in increased management and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. The regulatory approval processes with the FDA are lengthy and inherently unpredictable. We are not permitted to market our drug candidates as medicines in the United States or other countries until we receive approval of a New Drug Application (“NDA”) from the FDA or in any foreign countries until we receive the approval from the regulatory authorities of such countries. Prior to submitting an NDA to the FDA for approval of our drug candidates we will need to have completed our pre-clinical studies and clinical trials and demonstrate that our products meet all applicable standards of identity, strength, quality, and purity throughout their expiration date. Successfully completing any clinical program and obtaining approval of an NDA is a complex, lengthy, expensive, and uncertain process, and the FDA (or other country medicines regulatory body) may delay, limit, or deny approval of product candidates for many reasons, including, among others, because: ● an inability to demonstrate that our product candidates are safe and effective in treating patients to the satisfaction of the FDA; ● results of clinical trials that may not meet the level of statistical or clinical significance required by the FDA; ● disagreements with the FDA with respect to the number, design, size, conduct or implementation of clinical trials; ● requirements by the FDA to conduct additional clinical trials; ● disapproval by the FDA of certain formulations, labeling or specifications of product candidates; ● findings by the FDA that the data from pre-clinical studies and clinical trials are insufficient; ● findings by the FDA that our API or finished products do not meet all applicable standards of identity, strength, quality, and purity; ● the FDA may disagree with the interpretation of data from pre-clinical studies and clinical trials; and ● the FDA may change their approval policies or adopt new regulations. Any of these factors, many of which are beyond our control, could increase development time and / or costs or jeopardize our ability to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates. 34 There is a high rate of failure for drug candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Generally, there is a high rate of failure for drug candidates proceeding through clinical trials. We may suffer significant setbacks in our clinical trials similar to the experience of a number of other companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, even after receiving promising results in earlier trials. Further, even if we view the results of a clinical trial to be positive, FDA may disagree with our interpretation of the data. In the event that we obtain negative results from clinical trials for product candidates or other problems related to potential chemistry, manufacturing and control issues or other hurdles occur and our product candidates are not approved, we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue or obtain financing to continue our operations, our ability to execute on our current business plan may be materially impaired, our reputation in the industry and in the investment community might be significantly damaged and the price of our common stock could decrease significantly. In addition, our inability to properly design, commence and complete clinical trials may negatively impact the timing and results of our clinical trials and ability to seek approvals for our drug candidates. If we are found in violation of federal or state “fraud and abuse” laws, we may be required to pay a penalty and/or be suspended from participation in federal or state health care programs, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In the United States, we are subject to various federal and state health care “fraud and abuse” laws, including anti-kickback laws, false claims laws and other laws intended to reduce fraud and abuse in federal and state health care programs, which could affect us particularly upon successful commercialization of our products in the U.S. The Medicare and Medicaid Patient Protection Act of 1987, or federal Anti-Kickback Statute, makes it illegal for any person, including a prescription drug manufacturer (or a party acting on its behalf), to knowingly and willfully solicit, receive, offer or pay any remuneration that is intended to induce the referral of business, including the purchase, order or prescription of a particular drug for which payment may be made under a federal health care program, such as Medicare or Medicaid. Under federal law, some arrangements, known as safe harbors, are deemed not to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Although we seek to structure our business arrangements in compliance with all applicable requirements, it is often difficult to determine precisely how the law will be applied in specific circumstances. Accordingly, it is possible that our practices may be challenged under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Federal False Claims Act. Violations of fraud and abuse laws may be punishable by criminal and/or civil sanctions, including fines and/or exclusion or suspension from federal and state health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and debarment from contracting with the U.S. government. In addition, private individuals have the ability to bring actions on behalf of the government under the federal False Claims Act as well as under the false claims laws of several states. Many states have adopted laws similar to the federal anti-kickback statute, some of which apply to the referral of patients for health care services reimbursed by any source, not just governmental payers. There are ambiguities as to what is required to comply with these state requirements and if we fail to comply with an applicable state law requirement, we could be subject to penalties. Neither the government nor the courts have provided definitive guidance on the application of fraud and abuse laws to our business. Law enforcement authorities are increasingly focused on enforcing these laws, and it is possible that some of our practices may be challenged under these laws. While we believe we have structured our business arrangements to comply with these laws, it is possible that the government could allege violations of, or convict us of violating, these laws. If we are found in violation of one of these laws, we could be required to pay a penalty and could be suspended or excluded from participation in federal or state health care programs, and our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. Serious adverse events or other safety risks could require us to abandon development and preclude, delay or limit approval of our product candidates, limit the scope of any approved label or market acceptance, or cause the recall or loss of marketing approval of products that are already marketed. If any of our product candidates prior to or after any approval for commercial sale, cause serious or unexpected side effects, or are associated with other safety risks such as misuse, abuse or diversion, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including: ● regulatory authorities may interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials; ● regulatory authorities may deny regulatory approval of our product candidates; 35 ● regulatory authorities may require certain labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications or limitations on the indications for use, and/or impose restrictions on distribution in the form of a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”) in connection with approval or post-approval; ● regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval, require more onerous labeling statements, impose a more restrictive REMS, or require us to recall any product that is approved; ● we may be required to change the way the product is administered or conduct additional clinical trials; ● our relationships with our collaboration partners may suffer; ● we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; or ● our reputation may suffer. The reputational risk is heightened with respect to those of our product candidates that are being developed for pediatric indications. We may voluntarily suspend or terminate our clinical trials if at any time we believe that they present an unacceptable risk to participants or if preliminary data demonstrate that our product candidates are unlikely to receive regulatory approval or unlikely to be successfully commercialized. Following receipt of approval for commercial sale of a product we may voluntarily withdraw or recall that product from the market if at any time we believe that its use, or a person’s exposure to it, may cause adverse health consequences or death. To date we have not withdrawn, recalled, or taken any other action, voluntary or mandatory, to remove an approved product from the market. In addition, regulatory agencies, IRBs, or data safety monitoring boards may at any time recommend the temporary or permanent discontinuation of our clinical trials or request that we cease using investigators in the clinical trials if they believe that the clinical trials are not being conducted in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, or that they present an unacceptable safety risk to participants. Although we have never been asked by a regulatory agency, IRB, or data safety monitoring board to discontinue a clinical trial temporarily or permanently, if we elect or are forced to suspend or terminate a clinical trial of any of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for that product will be harmed and our ability to generate product revenue from that product may be delayed or eliminated. Furthermore, any of these events may result in labeling statements such as warnings or contraindications. In addition, such events or labeling could prevent us or our partners from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product and could substantially increase the costs of commercializing our product candidates and impair our ability to generate revenue from the commercialization of these products either by us or by our collaboration partners. Risks Related to Our Reliance Upon Third Parties We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, third parties to conduct clinical trials for our product candidates. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain marketing approval for or commercialize our product candidates, and our business could be substantially harmed. We are dependent on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and preclinical and nonclinical studies. Specifically, we rely on, and intend to continue to rely on, medical institutions, clinical investigators, contract research organizations, or CROs, and consultants to conduct nonclinical studies and clinical trials, in each case in accordance with our study protocols and applicable regulatory requirements. These CROs, investigators and other third parties play a significant role in the conduct and timing of these studies or trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data. Though we expect to carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, investigators and other third parties, 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 a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. Further, while we have and will have agreements governing the activities of our third-party contractors, we have limited influence over their actual performance. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol and legal, regulatory and scientific standards and requirements, and our reliance on our CROs and other third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. In addition, we and our CROs are required to comply with GLP and GCP requirements, as applicable, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities related to the conduct of nonclinical studies and clinical trials, respectively. Regulatory authorities enforce GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or any of our CROs or trial sites fail to comply with applicable GLP or GCP or other requirements, the collected nonclinical data or 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 nonclinical studies or clinical trials before approving our marketing applications, if ever. Furthermore, our clinical trials must be conducted with materials manufactured in accordance with cGMP regulations. Failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. 36 There is a risk that our CROs, investigators or other third parties will be unable to devote adequate time and resources to such trials or studies 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, or otherwise perform in a substandard manner, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated. In addition, many of the third parties with whom we contract may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other development activities that could harm our competitive position. In addition, principal investigators for our clinical trials are expected to serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and may receive cash or equity compensation in connection with such services. 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 study, 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 by the FDA of any NDA we submit. Any such delay or rejection could prevent us from receiving regulatory approval for, or commercializing, Telomir-1 and any future product candidates. Our CROs have the right to terminate their agreements with us in the event of an uncured material breach and under other specified circumstances. If any of our relationships with these third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative third parties on commercially reasonable terms, in a timely manner or at all. Switching or adding CROs, investigators and other third parties involves additional cost and requires our management’s 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 work to carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, investigators and other third parties, 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 a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. We currently rely on a third party for the manufacture of Telomir-1 for clinical development and expect to continue to rely on third parties for the foreseeable future. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that supplies of our product may not be manufactured in accordance with specifications or that we will not have sufficient quantities of Telomir-1 or such quantities at an acceptable cost, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or potential commercialization efforts. We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities and have no plans to develop our own clinical or commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities. We rely on a third party and expect to continue to rely on third parties for the manufacture of Telomir-1 and related raw materials for clinical development, as well as for commercial manufacture if Telomir-1 receives marketing approval. There is a risk that supplies of our product for use in pre-clinical or clinical testing will not be manufactured in accordance with our specifications, which could render our trial data useless or lead to the creation of compounds which are novel and for which we do not have intellectual property protection. Based on the terms of our contracts with our manufacturers, we may have no recourse against them in the case of such errors. Further, the facilities used by third-party manufacturers to manufacture Telomir-1 must be approved by the FDA and any comparable foreign regulatory authority pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit an NDA to the FDA or make any comparable submission to a foreign regulatory authority. We do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, third-party manufacturers for compliance with cGMP requirements for manufacture of products. If these third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority, they will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities. 37 In addition, we have no control over the ability of third-party manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of Telomir-1 or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market Telomir-1, if approved. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations also could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of Telomir-1 or other future products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our products and our financial position. Our or a third party’s failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements on commercially reasonable terms, in a timely manner and in compliance with cGMP or other regulatory requirements could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including: ● an inability to initiate or complete clinical trials of Telomir-1 or any future product candidates in a timely manner; ● delay in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving marketing approvals, for Telomir-1 or any future product candidates; ● subjecting third-party manufacturing facilities or our potential future manufacturing facilities to additional inspections by regulatory authorities; ● requirements to cease development or to recall batches of Telomir-1 or any future product candidates; and ● in the event of approval to market and commercialize Telomir-1 or any future product candidates, an inability to meet commercial demands for Telomir-1 or any future product candidates. In addition, we do not have any long-term commitments or supply agreements with any third-party manufacturers. We may be unable to establish any long-term supply agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms, which increases the risk of failing to timely obtain sufficient quantities of Telomir-1 or such quantities at an acceptable cost. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including: ● failure of third-party manufacturers to comply with regulatory requirements and maintain quality assurance; ● breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party; ● failure to manufacture our product candidates according to our specifications; ● failure to obtain adequate raw materials and other materials required for manufacturing; ● failure to manufacture our product according to our schedule or at all; ● failure to successfully scale up manufacturing capacity, if required; ● misappropriation of our proprietary information, including any potential trade secrets and know-how; and ● termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us. 38 Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval or jeopardize our ability to commence or continue commercialization of Telomir-1 or any future product candidates, and any related remedial measures may be costly or time consuming to implement. We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply or a second source for all required raw materials used in the manufacture of our product candidates. If our existing or future third-party manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers and we may be unable to replace them on a timely basis or at all. Without additional suppliers of required raw materials, we may also be unable to meet the commercial needs of a commercial launch of any future product candidates. In addition, our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture of Telomir-1 and any future product candidates may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis. We expect to rely on third parties to conduct our pre-clinical trials and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials or failing to comply with regulatory requirements or our pre-clinical protocols. We currently rely on Contract Research Organizations (“CROs”) to conduct our pre-clinical trials, as we currently do not plan to independently conduct pre-clinical trials of any of our product candidates. Our agreements with these CROs, and other third parties might terminate for a variety of reasons, including a failure to perform by the third parties to such agreements. If we were ever to need to enter into alternative arrangements or if we were to need to change a CRO for an ongoing pre-clinical trial, we might experience delays in our pre-clinical development activities. Our existing collaboration arrangements and any that we may enter into in the future may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates. We have existing, and will likely continue to seek additional collaboration arrangements with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies for the manufacturing, testing, development or commercialization of our product candidates. We may, with respect to our product candidates, enter into new arrangements on a selective basis depending on the merits of retaining commercialization rights for ourselves as compared to entering into selective collaboration arrangements with leading pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies for each product candidate, both in the U.S. and internationally. To the extent that we decide to enter into collaboration agreements, we will face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators and the terms of any collaboration or other arrangements that we may establish may not be favorable to us. Any existing or future collaboration entered into may not allow us to achieve our goals for such collaboration on a timely basis or at all. Our collaboration arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborators generally have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations. Disagreements between parties to a collaboration arrangement regarding development, intellectual property, regulatory or commercialization matters can lead to delays in the development process or commercialization of the applicable product candidate and, in some cases, termination of the collaboration arrangement. These disagreements can be difficult to resolve if neither of the parties has final decision-making authority. Any such termination or expiration could harm our business reputation and may adversely affect us financially. 39 We depend on a limited number of suppliers for materials and components required to manufacture our product candidates. The loss of these suppliers, or their failure to supply us on a timely basis, could cause delays in our current and future capacity and adversely affect our business. We depend on a limited number of suppliers for the materials and components required to manufacture our product candidates. As a result, we may not be able to obtain sufficient quantities of critical materials and components in the future. A delay or interruption by our suppliers may also harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, the lead time needed to establish a relationship with a new supplier can be lengthy, and we may experience delays in meeting demand in the event we must switch to a new supplier. The time and effort to qualify for and, in some cases, obtain regulatory approval for a new supplier could result in additional costs, diversion of resources or reduced manufacturing yields, any of which would negatively impact our operating results. Our dependence on single-source suppliers exposes us to numerous risks, including the following: our suppliers may cease or reduce production or deliveries, raise prices or renegotiate terms; our suppliers may become insolvent or cease trading; we may be unable to locate a suitable replacement supplier on acceptable terms or on a timely basis, or at all; and delays caused by supply issues may harm our reputation, frustrate our customers and cause them to turn to our competitors for future needs. Risks Relating to the Ownership of Our Common Stock Future sales of our common stock, or the perception that future sales may occur, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline, even if our business is doing well. Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after our IPO, or the perception that these sales may occur, could materially and adversely affect the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. Those shares of common stock sold in our IPO will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market, except for any shares sold to our affiliates. After the date of the IPO, when 1,000,000 shares of common stock became publicly tradable, approximately 23,891,902 additional shares of common stock were subject to “lock-up” agreements entered into in connection with the IPO, are or will become eligible to be sold in the public market by existing stockholders by February 9, 2025 as a result of Rule 144 of the Securities Act, subject to volume and other limitations imposed under the federal securities laws. Furthermore, additional shares of our common stock may be publicly tradable as a result of exercises of stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs) under the 2023 Omnibus Incentive Plan. Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after the completion of the IPO, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and could materially impair our ability to raise capital through offerings of our common stock. Because of the speculative nature of an investment in our company, you may lose your entire investment. An investment in our securities carries a high degree of risk and should be considered as a speculative investment. We have a very limited operating history, are in the pre-clinical stage of development of our product candidate, have never generated revenues, have not paid dividends, and are unlikely to pay dividends in the immediate or near future. The likelihood of our being able to achieve our goals and run our business must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered in connection with the establishment of early-stage biotechnology companies. An investment in our securities may result in the loss of the entirety of such investment. Only stockholders and potential stockholders who are experienced in high-risk investments and who can afford to lose their entire investment should consider an investment in our securities. Certain of our founding stockholders, plus our existing officers and directors, control a substantial interest in us and thus may influence certain actions requiring stockholder vote. Our founding stockholders, which include five trusts for the benefit of the family of our founder Johnnie R. Williams, Sr., as well as MIRALOGX, collectively own in excess of 70% of our issued and outstanding common stock. Brian McNulty acts as the trustee for such trusts. Our officers and directors also own shares of our common stock. Therefore, these entities and individuals could influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Sales of a significant number of shares of our common stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales could occur, could depress the market price of our common stock. Sales of a significant number of shares of our common stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales could occur as a result of our utilization of a universal shelf registration statement or otherwise could depress the market price of our common stock and impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. Notably, a large number of shares of our common stock held by founding stockholders of our company have been registered for public resale and could be sold on the public market, depressing our stock price. Moreover, we cannot in general predict the effect that future sales of our common stock or the market perception that we are permitted to sell a significant number of our securities would have on the market price of our common stock. 40 The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain executive management and qualified board members. As a reporting issuer, we are subject to the reporting requirements of applicable securities legislation of the jurisdiction in which it is a reporting issuer, the listing requirements of Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increase demand on its systems and resources. Applicable securities laws will require us to, among other things, file certain annual and quarterly reports with respect to its business and results of operations. In addition, applicable securities laws require us to, among other things, maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve its disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight are required. Specifically, due to the increasing complexity of its transactions, it is anticipated that we will improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting primarily through the continued development and implementation of formal policies, improved processes and documentation procedures, as well as the continued sourcing of additional finance resources. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business and results of operations. To comply with these requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants, which will increase costs and expenses. In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to continue to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, which could adversely affect our business and financial results. As a public company subject to these rules and regulations, we may find it more expensive for it to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and it may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on its Audit Committee and Compensation Committee, and qualified executive officers. As a result of disclosure of information in filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition will become more visible, which may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and results of operations could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in its favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and harm its business and results of operations. 41 We are an “emerging growth company” and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make shares of our common stock less attractive to investors. We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to have our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company until the fifth anniversary of the fiscal year end date following the completion of our initial public offering, however, our status would change more quickly if we have more than US$1.235 billion in annual revenue, if the market value of our shares of common stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds US$700 million as of June 30 of any year, or we issue more than US$1.0 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period before the end of that period. Investors could find our shares less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find shares less attractive as a result of any choice to reduce future disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our shares and our share price may be more volatile. For as long as we are an “emerging growth company”, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. We could be an “emerging growth company” until the fifth anniversary of the fiscal year end date following our initial public offering, which became effective on February 9, 2024. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation. If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner or assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting when required, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our securities could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources. We are a “smaller reporting company” and, even if we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still be subject to reduced reporting requirements. Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of any fiscal year for so long as either: (i) the market value of our shares of common stock held by non-affiliates does not equal or exceed $250 million as of the prior June 30 th ; or (ii) our annual revenues did not equal or exceed $100 million during such completed fiscal year. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make the comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible. If we fail to maintain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rules, our shares may be delisted from Nasdaq, which would result in a limited trading market for our shares and make obtaining future debt or equity financing more difficult for the Company. Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “TELO”. However, there is no assurance that we will be able to continue to maintain our compliance with the Nasdaq continued listing requirements. If we fail to do so, our securities may be de-listed and cease trading on Nasdaq. As a result, selling our securities could be more difficult because smaller quantities of shares or warrants would likely be bought and sold, transactions could be delayed, and security analysts’ coverage of us may be reduced. In addition, in the event our securities are delisted, broker-dealers would face certain regulatory requirements which may discourage them from effecting transactions in the securities and further limit the liquidity of the securities. These factors could result in lower prices and larger spreads in the bid and ask prices for the securities. Such delisting from Nasdaq and continued or further declines in the share price of the securities could also greatly impair our ability to raise additional necessary capital through equity or debt financing and could significantly increase the ownership dilution to shareholders caused by our issuing equity in financing or other transactions. 42 If our shares were to be delisted from Nasdaq, they may become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules. Delisting from Nasdaq may cause the securities of the Company to become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules. The SEC generally defines a penny stock as an equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share or an exercise price of less than $5.00 per share, and that is not listed on a national securities exchange, such as Nasdaq subject to certain exemptions. Therefore, if shares of our common stock were to be delisted from Nasdaq, the securities of the Company could become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules. These rules require, among other things, that any broker engaging in a purchase or sale of our securities provide its customers with: (i) a risk disclosure document, (ii) disclosure of market quotations, if any, (iii) disclosure of the compensation of the broker and its salespersons in the transaction, and (iv) monthly account statements showing the market values of our securities held in the customer’s accounts. A broker would be required to provide the bid and offer quotations and compensation information before effecting the transaction. This information must be contained in the customer’s confirmation. Generally, brokers are less willing to affect transactions in penny stocks due to these additional delivery requirements. These requirements may make it more difficult for shareholders to purchase or sell the shares of our common stock. Since the broker, not us, prepares this information, we would not be able to assure that such information is accurate, complete or current. Some provisions of Florida law and our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may have anti-takeover effects that could discourage an acquisition of us by others, even if an acquisition would be beneficial to our shareholders and may prevent attempts by our shareholders to replace or remove our current management. Our status as a Florida corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Florida Business Corporation Act, which we sometimes refer to as the FBCA, may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control even if a change in control would be beneficial to our shareholders. The control share acquisition statute, Section 607.0902 of the FBCA, generally provides that in the event a person acquires voting shares of the company in excess of 20% of the voting power of all of our issued and outstanding shares, such acquired shares will not have any voting rights unless such rights are restored by the holders of a majority of the votes of each class or series entitled to vote separately, excluding shares held by the person acquiring the control shares or any of our officers or employees who are also directors of the company. Certain acquisitions of shares are exempt from these rules, such as shares acquired pursuant to the laws of intestate succession or pursuant to a gift or testamentary transfer, pursuant to a merger or share exchange effected in compliance with the FBCA if we are a party to the agreement, or pursuant to an acquisition of our shares if the acquisition has been approved by our board of directors before the acquisition. The control share acquisition statute generally applies to any “issuing public corporation,” which means a Florida corporation which has: ● One hundred or more shareholders; ● Its principal place of business, its principal office, or substantial assets within Florida; and ● Either (i) more than 10% of its shareholders are resident in Florida; (ii) more than 10% of its shares are owned by residents of Florida; or (iii) one thousand shareholders are resident in Florida. 43 The affiliated transaction (or so-called “business combination”) statute, Section 607.0901 of the FBCA, provides that we may not engage in certain mergers, consolidations, sales of assets, issuances of stock, reclassifications, recapitalizations, and other affiliated transactions with any “interested shareholder” for a period of three years following the time that such shareholder became an interested shareholder, unless: ● Prior to the time that such shareholder became an interested shareholder, our board of directors approved either the affiliated transaction or the transaction which resulted in the shareholder becoming an interested shareholder; or ● Upon consummation of the transaction that resulted in the shareholder becoming an interested shareholder, the interested shareholder owned at least 85% of our voting shares outstanding at the time the transaction commenced; or ● At or subsequent to the time that such shareholder became an interested shareholder, the affiliated transaction is approved by our board of directors and authorized at an annual or special meeting of shareholders, and not by written consent, by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the outstanding voting shares which are not owned by the interested shareholder. An “interested shareholder” is generally defined as any person who is the beneficial owner of more than 15% of our outstanding voting shares. The voting requirements set forth above do not apply to a particular affiliated transaction if one or more conditions are met, including, but not limited to, the following: if the affiliated transaction has been approved by a majority of our disinterested directors; if we have not had more than 300 shareholders of record at any time during the three years preceding the date the affiliated transaction is announced; if the interested shareholder has been the beneficial owner of at least 80% of our outstanding voting shares for at least three years preceding the date the affiliated transaction is announced; or if the consideration to be paid to the holders of each class or series of voting shares in the affiliated transaction meets certain requirements of the statute with respect to form and amount, among other things. Both the control share acquisition statute and the affiliated transactions statute may have the effect of discouraging or preventing certain change of control or takeover transactions involving us. In addition, our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us or increase the cost of acquiring us, even if doing so would benefit our shareholders, including transactions in which shareholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions include: ● nothing in our amended and restated articles of incorporation precludes future issuances without shareholder approval of the authorized but unissued shares of our common stock; ● advance notice procedures apply for shareholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of shareholders; ● a special meeting of shareholders can only be called by our chairman of the board of directors, our chief executive officer, our president (in the absence of a chief executive officer), a majority of our board of directors or the holders of 10% or more of all of our votes entitled to be cast on any issue proposed to be considered at the special meeting of shareholders; ● no provision in our amended and restated articles of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws provides for cumulative voting, which limits the ability of minority shareholders to elect director candidates; directors will only be able to be removed for cause; ● our amended and restated articles of incorporation authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued, without the approval of the holders of our capital stock; and ● certain litigation against us can only be brought in Florida. 44 These provisions could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other shareholders to elect directors of your choosing and cause us to take corporate actions other than those you desire. See “Description of Capital Stock.” Our amended and restated bylaws designates the state courts located within the state of Florida as the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our shareholders and the federal district courts as the exclusive forum for Securities Act claims, which could limit our shareholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us. Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees to us or our shareholders, (iii) any action arising pursuant to any provision of the FBCA, our amended and restated articles of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws, or (iv) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine shall be a state court located within the state of Florida (or, if a state court located within the state of Florida does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the Middle District of Florida); provided that, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act, or to any claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Our amended and restated bylaws also provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the U.S. federal district courts shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any claims arising under the Securities Act. Under the Securities Act, federal and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act, and our stockholders cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such a forum selection provision as written in connection with claims arising under the Securities Act. By becoming a shareholder in our company, you will be deemed to have notice of and have consented to the provisions of our amended and restated bylaws related to choice of forum. The choice of forum provisions in our amended and restated bylaws may limit our shareholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us. Additionally, the enforceability of choice of forum provisions in other companies’ governing documents has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that, in connection with any applicable action brought against us, a court could find the choice of forum provisions contained in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in such action. If so, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Securities or industry analysts may not regularly publish reports on us, which could cause the price of our securities or trading volumes to decline. The trading market for our securities could be influenced by research and reports that industry and/or securities analysts may publish us, our business, the market or our competitors. We do not have any control over these analysts and cannot be assured that such analysts will cover us or provide favorable coverage. If any of the analysts who may cover our business change their recommendation regarding our securities adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our securities would likely decline. If any analysts who may cover our business were to cease coverage or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the price of our securities or trading volumes to decline. We will likely conduct further offerings of our equity securities in the future, in which case your proportionate interest may become diluted. We will likely be required to conduct equity offerings in the future to finance our current projects or to finance subsequent projects that we decide to undertake. If our common stock shares are issued in return for additional funds, the price per share could be lower than that paid by our current shareholders. We anticipate continuing to rely on equity sales of our common stock shares in order to fund our business operations. If we issue additional common stock shares or securities convertible into shares of our common stock, your percentage interest in us could become diluted. 45 We may issue shares of preferred stock in the future, which could make it difficult for another company to acquire us or could otherwise adversely affect holders of our common stock, which could depress the price of our common stock. Our certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue one or more series of preferred stock. Our board of directors will have the authority to determine the preferences, limitations and relative rights of the shares of preferred stock and to fix the number of shares constituting any series and the designation of such series, without any further vote or action by our shareholders. Our preferred stock could be issued with voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to the rights of our common stock. The potential issuance of preferred stock may delay or prevent a change in control of us, discouraging bids for our common stock at a premium to the market price, and materially adversely affect the market price and the voting and other rights of the holders of our common stock. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends or distributions on our capital stock. We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends or distributions on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to support operations and to finance expansion and therefore we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. The declaration, payment and amount of any future dividends will be made at the discretion of the board of directors, and will depend upon, among other things, the results of our operations, cash flows and financial condition, operating and capital requirements, and other factors as the board of directors considers relevant. There is no assurance that future dividends will be paid, and, if dividends are paid, there is no assurance with respect to the amount of any such dividend.