UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20172020

OR

o TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number: 000-27163001-39184

SWK HOLDINGS CORPORATION

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

(972) 687-7250
(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

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

Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share
(Title of class) None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes o No x

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yeso Nox

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No o

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes x No o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. x

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the Registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.o

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. o

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes o No x

The aggregate market value of the Registrant’s Common Stock held by non-affiliates is $43,500,855$43,301,195 based on the June 30, 2017,2020, closing price of the Registrant’s Common Stock on such date as reported on the OTCQB MarketplaceThe Nasdaq Stock Market of $11.05.$11.98.

On March 26, 2018,25, 2021, the Registrant had outstanding approximately 13,053,36912,792,533 shares of Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

SWK Holdings Corporation

Form 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 20172020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.

In addition to historical information, this report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. From time to time, we may also provide oral or written forward-looking statements in other materials we release to the public. Such forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but rather are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our business and industry, and our beliefs and assumptions, and include, but are not limited to, statements under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expects,” “intend,” “plan,” “will” and variations of these words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially (both favorable and unfavorably) from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements.

These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in Item 1A, “Risk Factors”Factors,” and elsewhere in this report. Forward-looking statements that were believed to be true at the time made may ultimately prove to be incorrect or false. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Overview

SWK Holdings Corporation (the “Company,” “SWK,” “us” or “we”“Company”) was incorporated in July 1996 in California and reincorporated in Delaware in September 1999. In July 2012, we commenced our corporatea strategy of building a specialty finance and asset management business. In August 2019, we commenced a complementary strategy of building a pharmaceutical development, manufacturing and intellectual property licensing business. Our operations comprise two reportable segments: “Finance Receivables” and “Pharmaceutical Development.” We allocate capital to each segment in order to generate income through the sales of life science products by third parties. We are headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Finance Receivables Segment

Our Finance Receivables segment strategy is to be a leading healthcare capital provider by offering sophisticated, customized financing solutions to a broad range of life science companies, institutions and inventors. Our focusThis segment is primarily focused on monetizing cash flow streams derived from commercial-stage products and related intellectual property through royalty purchases and financings, as well as through the creation of synthetic revenue interests in commercialized products. We arehave been deploying our assets to earn interest, fees, and other income pursuant to this strategy, and we continue to identify and review financing and similar opportunities on an ongoing basis. In addition, through our wholly-owned subsidiary, SWK Advisors LLC, we provide non-discretionary investment advisory services to institutional clients in separately managed accounts to similarly invest in life science finance. SWK Advisors LLC is registered as an investment advisor with the Texas State Securities Board. We intend to fund transactions through our own working capital by partnering with other institutional investors,and our revolving credit facility, as well as by building our asset management business by raising additional third partythird-party capital to be invested alongside our capital.

We fill a niche that we believe is underserved in the sub-$50 million transaction size. Since many of our competitors that provide longer term, non-traditional debt and/or longer term, royalty-related financing options have much greater financial resources than us, they tend not to focus on transaction sizes below $50 million, as it is generally inefficient for them to do so. In addition, we do not believe that a sufficient number of other companies offer similar types of long-term financing options to fill the demand of the sub-$50 million market. As such, we believe we face less competition from such investors in transactions that are less than $50 million.

As of December 31, 2020, and since inception of the strategy, we and our partners have executed transactions with 41 different parties under our specialty finance strategy, funding an aggregate of approximately $584.0 million in various financial products across the life science sector. Our portfolio includes senior and subordinated debt backed by royalties and synthetic royalties paid by companies in the life science sector, and purchased royalties generated by sales of life science products and related intellectual property.

We evaluate and invest in a broad range of healthcare related companies and products with innovative intellectual property, including the biotechnology, medical device, medical diagnostics and related tools, animal health and pharmaceutical industries (together “life science”), and we tailor our financial solutions to the needs of our business partners. Our business partners are primarily engaged in selling products that directly or indirectly cure diseases and/or improve people’sthe wellness of people or animals’ wellness,animals, or they receive royalties paid on the sales of such products. For example, our biotechnology and pharmaceutical business partners manufacture medication that directly treat disease states, whereas our life science tools partners sell a wide variety of research instrumentation to help other companies conduct research into disease states.

Our investment

The objective of our Finance Receivables segment is to maximize our portfolio total return, and thus, increase our net income and book value by generating income from three sources:

In our portfolio we seek to achieve attractive risk-adjusted current yields and opportunities with the potential for equity-like returns with protection that credit provides.

The majority of our finance receivables transactions are structured similarly to factoring transactions whereby we provide capital in exchange for an interest in an existing revenue stream. We do not anticipate providing capital in situations prior to the commercialization of a product. The existing revenue stream can take several forms, but is most commonly either a royalty derived from the sales of a life science product (1) from the marketing efforts of a third party, such as a royalty paid to an inventor on the sales of a medicine, or (2) from the marketing efforts of a partner company, such as a medical device company that directly sells its own products. Our structured debt investments may include warrants or other features, giving us the potential to realize enhanced returns on a portion of our portfolio. Capital that we provide directly to our partners is generally used for growth and general working capital purposes, as well as for acquisitions or recapitalizations in select cases. We generally fund the full amount of transactions up to $20 million through our working capital.

In circumstances where a transaction is greater than $20 million, we seek to syndicate amounts in excess of $20 million to both other investors and our investment advisory clients. We do not expect to earn investment advisory income in transactions where we partner with investors other than our investment advisory clients.

Our investment advisory agreements are currently non-discretionary, and each client determines individually if it wants to participate in a transaction. Though we have partnered with investment advisory clients in the past, we currently do not have any transactions in which we have partnered with investment advisory clients. We expect to continue to offer transaction opportunities to our investment advisory clients, as appropriate for each client’s investment strategy. When a client opts into a transaction, each accountclient receives its pro rata allocation of income produced by a transaction in which it participates, and the client pays us management and incentive fees according to a written investment advisory agreement. Fees paid by clients may differ depending upon the terms negotiated with each client and are paid directly by the client upon receipt of an invoice from us. We may seek to raise discretionary capital from similar investors in the future.

We source our investment opportunities through a combination of our senior management’s proprietary relationships within the industry, outbound business development efforts and inbound inquiry from companies, institutions and inventors interested in learning about our capital financing alternatives. Our investment advisory clients generally do not originate investment opportunities for us.

Pharmaceutical Development Segment

On August 26, 2019, we commenced our Pharmaceutical Development segment with the acquisition of Enteris BioPharma, Inc. (“Enteris”). Enteris is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company offering innovative formulation solutions built around its proprietary oral drug delivery technologies, the Peptelligence® platform. Since its founding in 2013, Enteris has advanced multiple internal and external programs leveraging Peptelligence®, which enables the oral delivery of molecules that are typically injected, including peptides and BCS Class II, III, and IV small molecules, in an enteric-coated tablet formulation. Peptelligence® utilizes a unique multifaceted approach to increase the solubility and absorption of peptides and small molecules, addressing the complex challenges regarding solubility and permeability of therapeutics with low oral bioavailability. Peptelligence® is protected by an extensive patent estate, some of which extends until 2036.

Our Pharmaceutical Development segment strategy is to utilize the Peptelligence® platform to create a wholly-owned portfolio of milestone and royalty income by out-licensing our technology in two ways. First, we intend to out-license our technology to pharmaceutical companies to create novel and important oral therapeutic treatments for a wide variety of indications. Second, we intend to out-license to pharmaceutical companies our internally developed reformulations of approved, off-patent injectable therapeutic treatments where Peptelligence® enables oral delivery, resulting in meaningful improvements for patients and caregivers. We also generate income by providing customers pharmaceutical development services, formulation and manufacturing with the ultimate goal of generating new out-license agreements of the technology.

Peptelligence® is the subject of several active external development programs, including an oral formulation of Cara Therapeutics, Inc.'s (“Cara”) KORSUVA™, a potent peripheral kappa opioid receptor agonist for pruritus, currently in Phase II clinical development.

Our internal product pipeline consists of Ovarest®, an oral leuprolide tablet being evaluated for its potential to treat endometriosis, and Tobrate™, an oral tobramycin tablet being evaluated for the treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTI).

Tax Attributes

We view our ability to carry forward our net operating losses, or NOLs, as an important and substantial asset. On January 26, 2006, inIn order to preserve stockholder value by protecting our ability to carry forward our NOLs, we entered into a rights agreement that provided for a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right for each outstanding share of our common stock. The purchase rights may become exercisable after the acquisition or attempted acquisition of 4.9 percent or more of our outstanding common stock without the prior approval of our board of directors. Our current rights agreement (the “Rights Agreement”) was entered into as of April 8, 2016 and has an expiration date ofbeen extended to expire on April 8, 2019.2022. Under the Rights Agreement, Carlson Capital, L.P. and its affiliates (collectively, “Carlson”), are designated as Exempt Persons (as defined in the Rights Agreement) unless they own more than 76 percent of the outstanding shares of our common stock in the aggregate. We have also designated other shareholders as Exempt Persons because the Board determined that such ownership would not jeopardize or endanger the availability to us of the NOLs, although potential stockholders should not assume a similar determination would be made with respect to future acquisitions of beneficial ownership of our common stock.

At this time, under current law, we do not anticipate that our life sciencecurrent business strategystrategies will generate sufficient income to permit us to utilize all of our NOLs prior to their respective expiration dates. As such, it is possible that we might pursue additional strategies that we believe might result in our ability to utilize more of our NOLs.

Competition

Our markets are very competitive. We

In our Finance Receivables segment, we face competition in the pursuit of outside investors, investment management clients and opportunities to deploy our capital in attractive healthcare related companies. Our primary competitors provide financing to prospective companies and include non-bank financial institutions, federal or state chartered banks, venture debt funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, pharmaceutical royalty and other investment funds, business development companies and investment banks. Many of these entities have greater financial and managerial resources than we have. Some of these competitors may also have a lower cost of capital and access to funding sources that are not available to us, which may create a competitive disadvantage for us. As a result, we tend not to compete on price, but instead focus on our industry experience, flexible financing options and speed to evaluate and complete a transaction. In addition, since many of our competitors that provide non-traditional debt and/or longer term, royalty-related financing options have much greater financial resources than us, they tend not to focus on transaction sizes below $50 million as it is generally inefficient for them to do so. As such, we believe we face less competition from such investors in transactions that are less than $50 million.

In our Pharmaceutical Development segment, we face competition in introducing products that improve efficacy, safety, patients’ and clinicians’ ease of use and cost-effectiveness. The success of new product offerings will depend on many factors, including our ability to properly anticipate and satisfy customer needs, obtain regulatory approvals on a timely basis, develop and manufacture products in an economic and timely manner, obtain or maintain advantageous positions with respect to intellectual property, and differentiate products from competitors. A failure by us to successfully commercialize existing or planned products could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

For additional information concerning the competitive risks we face, see “ItemItem 1A., Risk Factors—Risks Related to our Business and Structure—We operate in a highly competitive market for investment opportunities.”Factors.

Employees

As of December 31, 20172020, we had four34 full-time employees.  None of our employees are represented by a labor union, and we consider our employee relations to be good.

Additional Information

We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act’’), with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Readers may read and copy any document that the Company files at the SEC’s Public Reference Room located at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549, U.S.A. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 for further information on the Public Reference Room. Our SEC filings are also available to the public from the SEC’s internet site at http://www.sec.gov.

Our internet site is http://www.swkhold.com. We will make available free of charge through our website in the “Investor Relations –- SEC Filings” section our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed on behalf of directors and executive officers and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Also, posted on our website in the “Investor Relations —- Corporate Governance” section are charters for our Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Governance Committee as well as our Code of Ethics and Insider Trading Policy governing our directors, officers and employees. Information on or accessible through our website is not a part of, and is not incorporated into, this report.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

An investment in our common stock involves significant risks. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties and the risk factors set forth in the documents and reports filed with the SEC and the risks described below before you make an investment decision regarding our common stock. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also affect our business operations.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS AND STRUCTURE

Risks Related to Pharmaceutical Development Segment

Enteris’ product candidates are in early stages of development and Enteris and any licensees may not be successful in efforts to develop products for many years, if ever.

Enteris’ success depends on its and any of its licensees’ ability to commercialize their products that will generate revenues sufficient to sustain and grow Enteris’ operations. Most of our product candidates are in early stages of development and have not been out-licensed. The development of these products is expected to take several more years. Similarly, neither Enteris nor any potential licensee may ever develop and commercialize any other peptide or small molecule product that helps us achieve profitability and growth. Even if Enteris and/or a licensee is successful in developing such a product, it is likely that development of any product will take several years. Enteris’ ability to achieve growth is dependent on a number of factors, including Enteris’ and its licensees’ ability to complete development efforts and obtain regulatory approval for additional product candidates.

Enteris’ partners may not be successful in their efforts to gain regulatory approval for any of their product candidates and, if approved, the approval may not be on a timely basis.

Even if any of Enteris’ licensees are successful in their development efforts, they may not be able to obtain the necessary regulatory approval for their product candidates. The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) must approve the commercial manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical products in the United States. Similar regulatory approvals are required for the sale of pharmaceutical products outside of the United States. None of Enteris’ partners’ products have been approved for sale in the United States, and they may never receive the approvals necessary for commercialization. Additional human testing must be conducted on our partners’ product candidates before they can be approved for commercial sale and such testing requires the investment of significant resources. Any delay in receiving, or failure to receive, these approvals would adversely affect Enteris’ ability to generate product revenues.

Current and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for Enteris’ partners to obtain marketing approval of and the commercialization of their product candidates. This could affect the timing as well as the amount of royalty income Enteris may earn as a result.

In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval for Enteris’ partners’ product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our partners’ ability to profitably sell their product candidates. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. We do not know whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our partners’ product candidates, if any, may be. In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s approval process may significantly delay or prevent marketing approval, as well as subject our partners to more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.

Enteris’ technology or products could give rise to product liability claims.

While Enteris does not have a commercial product, Enteris’ business exposes us to the risk of product liability claims from human testing and the manufacturing of pharmaceutical tablets currently used in clinical trials. The administration of drugs to humans, whether in clinical trials or commercially, can result in product liability claims, even if Enteris’ or Enteris’ partners’ products are not actually at fault for causing an injury. Furthermore, Enteris’ products may cause, or may appear to cause, adverse side effects or potentially dangerous drug interactions that we may not learn about or understand fully until the drug is actually manufactured and sold. Product liability claims can be expensive to defend and may result in large judgments against us. Even if a product liability claim is not successful, the adverse publicity, time and expense involved in defending such a claim may interfere with our business. We may not have sufficient resources to defend against or satisfy these claims. While we currently maintain product liability insurance coverage, the amount of coverage may not be sufficient to protect us against losses or may be unavailable in the future on acceptable terms, if at all.

Because Enteris is a biopharmaceutical company, its operations are subject to extensive government regulation.

Our research, development and production activities, as well as those of our collaborators and licensees, are subject to significant regulation by federal, state, local and foreign governmental authorities. The regulatory approval process for a pharmaceutical product requires substantial resources and may take many years. Our partners’ inability to obtain approvals or delays in obtaining approvals would adversely affect our ability to manufacture products, and to receive revenue from milestone payments, product sales or royalties. Enteris’ present and future business is, and will continue to be, subject to various other laws, rules and/or regulations applicable to us as a result of our domestic and international business.

The FDA and other regulatory agencies may inspect the Enteris production facility at any time to ensure compliance with current good manufacturing practice guidelines. These guidelines require that Enteris conduct its production operations in strict compliance with established rules for manufacturing and quality controls. Any of these agencies can suspend production operations and product sales if they find significant or repeated deviations from these guidelines. A suspension would likely cause Enteris to incur additional costs or delays in product development and manufacturing.

Enteris’ success depends upon its ability to protect its intellectual property rights.

Enteris has filed applications for U.S. patents relating to proprietary peptide manufacturing technology and oral formulations that Enteris has invented in the course of its research. Enteris’ most important U.S. manufacturing and delivery patents expire from 2021 to 2036 and Enteris has applications pending that could extend that protection. To date, twenty-five U.S. patents have issued and other applications are pending. Enteris has also made patent application filings in selected foreign countries and ninety-two foreign patents have issued with other applications pending. Enteris faces the risk that any of its pending applications will not be issued as patents. In addition, Enteris’ patents may be found to be invalid or unenforceable. Enteris’ business also is subject to the risk that its issued patents will not provide Enteris with significant competitive advantages if, for example, a competitor were to independently develop or obtain similar or superior technologies. To the extent Enteris is unable to protect its patents and patent applications, our investment in those technologies may not yield the benefits that we expect.

If Enteris encounters issues with its suppliers or if licensees of its technology encounter issues with their contract manufacturers, Enteris may need to qualify alternative manufacturers or suppliers, which could impair Enteris’ and its licensees’ ability to sufficiently and timely manufacture and supply pharmaceutical products.

Enteris relies on third parties to supply the raw materials needed to manufacture its existing products, and expects to rely on third parties to supply raw materials for potential future products, including suppliers that are located in Asia. Enteris is undertaking efforts to validate alternate suppliers, but may be unsuccessful in these efforts. Current licensees of Enteris’ technology generally rely, and future licensees are expected to rely, on third party suppliers and contract manufacturers to manufacture drug products that utilize Enteris’ technology as well.

Any business interruptions resulting from geopolitical actions, including war and terrorism, adverse public health developments such as COVID-19, or natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires, and Enteris’ or its licensees’ inability to identify and validate alternate suppliers and contract manufacturers, could affect supply chains. Any reliance on suppliers may involve several risks, including a potential inability to obtain critical materials and reduced control over production costs, delivery schedules, reliability and quality.

Any unanticipated disruption caused by problems at suppliers could delay shipment of any of Enteris’ or its licensees’ drug candidates or drug products, which could increase Enteris’ or its licensees’ cost of goods sold or result in lost or decreased sales, royalties or milestone payments to Enteris.

Enteris’ production facilities have been impacted by COVID-19, and any future impacts might adversely affect its operations and financial condition.

Enteris experienced a reduction in its productivity as well as delays in receiving some of its needed supplies as a direct result of COVID-19 and the impact it had on key vendors. Enteris could experience similar delays in the future due to the impact of governmental restrictions and other impacts of COVID-19 on its vendors. Any such events may result in business disruption and reduced revenues, any of which could materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are continuously monitoring our own operations and intend to take appropriate actions to mitigate the risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, but there can be no assurances that we will be successful in doing so. To the extent we are able to obtain information about and maintain communications with our customers, suppliers, vendors and other business partners, we will seek to minimize disruptions to our Pharmaceutical Development segment’s supply chain.

Risks Related to Finance Receivables Segment

We may suffer losses on our principal invested in credit and royalty transactions.

Most of the assets of our assetsFinance Receivables segment are, and are expected to continue to be, royalty streams or debt backed by royalty streams or revenue interests paid by small- and middle-market businesses, which are highly speculative and involve a high degree of risk of credit loss. In addition, we may own royalties or invest in debt backed by royalties or revenue interests that are derived by products that are early in their commercial launch, face intense competition or are subject to other risks, which similarly involve a high degree of risk of principal loss. These risks are likely to increase during volatile economic periods.

We operate in a highly competitive market for investment opportunities.

A large number of entities compete with us to advance capital to the companies we target.our Finance Receivables segment targets. We compete with non-bank financial institutions, federal or state chartered banks, venture debt funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, pharmaceutical royalty and other investment funds, business development companies, and investment banks. Additionally, because competition for investment opportunities generally has increased among alternative investment vehicles, particularly those seeking yield investments, such as hedge funds, those entities have begun to invest in areas they have not traditionally invested in, including investments in royalties and debt backed by royalties, which may overlap with our business strategy. As a result of these new entrants, competition for investment opportunities in our target markets has intensified, which is a trend we expect to continue.

Many of our Finance Receivables segment’s existing and potential competitors are substantially larger and have considerably greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do. For example, some competitors may have a lower cost of funds and access to funding sources that are not available to us. In addition, some of our competitors may have higher risk tolerances or different risk assessments, which could allow them to consider a wider variety of investments and establish more or fuller relationships with potential business partners than us. Furthermore, many of our competitors are not subject to the maintenance of an exception or exemption from regulation as an investment company, which may allow them more flexibility in advancing capital to companies we may also target such as advancing debt capital that is not repaid by royalty streams or revenue interests. We cannot assure you that the competitive pressures we face will not have a materiallymaterial adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Also, as a result of existing and increasing competition and our competitors’ ability to provide a total financing package solution, inclusive of both debt and equity capital, we may not be able to take advantage of attractive business opportunities from time to time, and we can offer no assurance that we will be able to identify and make investments that are consistent with our business objectives.

We do not seek to compete primarily based on the cost of the capital that we provide, and we believe that some of our competitors provide capital at rates that are comparable to or lower than the rates we offer. We may lose business opportunities if we do not match our competitors’ pricing, terms and structure. If we match our competitors’ pricing, terms and structure, we may experience decreased net interest and royalty income and increased risk of credit loss.

Our financial condition and results of operations will depend on our ability to manage our future growth effectively.

Our ability to achieve our business objectives depends on our ability to grow, which depends, in turn, on our ability to continue to identify, analyze and invest in royalties and/or debt backed by royalties or revenue interests that meet our investment criteria. Accomplishing this result on a cost-effective basis is largely a function of our structuring of transactions and our access to financing on acceptable terms. As we continue to grow, we will need to continue to hire, train, supervise and manage new employees. Failure to manage our future growth effectively could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to use NOL carryforwards to offset future taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes may be limited, and our future cash tax liability may increase.

As of December 31, 2017, we had NOL carryforwards for U.S. federal income tax purposes of $376.0 million. The U.S. federal NOL carryforwards, if not offset against future income, will expire by 2032, with the majority of such NOLs expiring by 2021. We may recognize additional NOLs in the future. In order to utilize the NOLs, the Company must generate taxable income that can offset such carryforwards.

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has not audited our tax returns for any of the years during the carryforward period. We cannot assure you that we would prevail if the IRS were to challenge the availability of the NOLs. If the IRS were successful in challenging our NOLs, all or some portion of the NOLs would not be available to offset any future consolidated income which would negatively impact our results of operations and cash flows.

Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” may be subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOL carryforward amounts to offset future taxable income. In general, an ownership change occurs if the aggregate stock ownership of certain stockholders (generally 5 percent stockholders, applying certain look-through and aggregation rules) increases by more than 50 percent over such stockholders’ lowest percentage ownership during the testing period (generally three years). New issuances of our common stock, which is within our control, and purchases of our common stock in amounts greater than specified levels, which are beyond our control, could create an additional limitation on our ability to utilize our NOL carryforward amounts for tax purposes in the future. Limitations imposed on our ability to utilize NOL carryforward amounts could cause U.S. federal and state income taxes to be paid earlier than would be paid if such limitations were not in effect and could cause such NOL carryforward amounts to expire unused, in each case reducing or eliminating the expected benefit to us. Additionally, various states have similar limitations on the use of state NOLs following an ownership change.

Accordingly, the extent to which we undergo an ownership change limiting the availability of our NOLs depends in part on actions taken by our large shareholders. Furthermore, our largest shareholders are investment funds affiliated with Carlson. Most investors in these funds are third parties, unaffiliated with either us or Carlson. Subscription or redemption activity by such investors is generally outside of our or Carlson’s control; however, resulting changes in the ownership of these funds may contribute to, or result in, a determination that an “ownership change” has occurred. As a result, even though we have a stockholder rights plan that is intended to protect the NOLs, whether or not an ownership change occurs is not entirely within our control.

If an ownership change occurs, the amount of the taxable income for any post-change year that may be offset by a pre-change loss is subject to an annual limitation that is cumulative to the extent it is not all utilized in a year. This limitation is derived by multiplying the fair market value of the Company stock as of the ownership change by the applicable federal long-term tax-exempt rate, which was 1.97 percent for February 2018. To the extent that a company has a net unrealized built-in gain at the time of an ownership change, which is realized or deemed recognized during the five-year period following the ownership change, there is an increase in the annual limitation for each of the first five-years that is cumulative to the extent it is not all utilized in a year.

If an ownership change should occur in the future, our ability to use NOLs to offset future taxable income will be subject to an annual limitation and will depend on the amount of taxable income we generate in future periods. There is no assurance that we will be able to fully utilize our NOLs and we could be required to record an additional valuation allowance related to the amount of the NOLs that may not be realized, which could impact our results of operations.

U.S. federal income tax reform could adversely affect us.

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”) that significantly reforms the Code. The TCJA, among other things, includes changes to U.S. federal tax rates, imposes significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and allows for the expensing of capital expenditures. The TCJA reduces the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, among other things.

We do not expect tax reform to have a material impact to our projection of future cash tax obligations given our expectation that our life science business strategy will not generate sufficient income to permit us to utilize all of our NOLs prior to their respective expiration dates. The Company will continue to assess the need for a valuation allowance on the deferred tax assets by evaluating both positive and negative evidence that may exist at each reporting date. Any adjustments to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance is recorded in the statement of operations in the period it is determined an adjustment is required. We continue to examine the impact this tax reform legislation may have on our business. The impact of this tax reform on holders of our common stock is uncertain and could be adverse.

The TCJA could also require us to write down our NOLs further, which would reduce our net income. We cannot determine at this time the amount of any such further write down, or the full effects of the TCJA on our business and financial results.

We are dependent upon our key management personnel for our future success.

We depend on the diligence, skill and network of business contacts of our senior management and their access to the investment professionals and the information and deal flow generated by these investment professionals in the course of their investment and portfolio management activities. Our senior management team evaluates, negotiates, structures, closes, monitors and services our investments. Our success depends to a significant extent on the continued service of this senior management team, in particular, Winston L. Black, Chief Executive Officer. His departure could have a materially adverse effect on our ability to achieve our business objectives. In addition, we have very few employees, so the loss of any employee could be disruptive to our business.

If we are unable to obtain additional debt or equity financing on commercially reasonable terms our business could be materially adversely affected.

As of December 31, 2017 we had $30.6 million of cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet. We have limited capital to execute our business strategy and will need to obtain additional debt or equity financing to fund future growth and obtain funds which may be made available for investments. If we are unable to enter into new debt or equity financing arrangements on commercially reasonable terms, our liquidity may be reduced significantly, and as a result, our ability to implement and grow our business strategy could be materially impacted.

Our use of leverage may limit our operational flexibility and increase our overall risk, which may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Although the use of leverage may create an opportunity for increased returns for us, it also results in additional risks and can magnify the effect of any losses and thus could negatively impact our business and results of operations and have important adverse consequences to our investments. We expect that any future credit facility, if raised, would contain covenants that could restrict our operating flexibility, including covenants that, among others, could limit our ability to: (i) make distributions in certain circumstances, (ii) incur additional debt, and (iii) engage in certain transactions, which collectively may prevent us from entering into transactions which we may otherwise determine are beneficial to us, and which could negatively impact our business and results of operations. In addition, we expect we would need to secure such a credit facility through the pledging of substantially all of our assets, and if we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to meet principal and interest payments on such indebtedness, we would be subject to risk that the lender seizes our assets through an acceleration of the credit facility that could require liquidation of pledged collateral at inopportune times or at prices that are not favorable to us and cause significant losses. If the lender seizes and liquidates pledged collateral, such collateral will likely be sold at distressed price levels. We will fail to realize the full value of such assets in a distressed sale.

Our investments in debt backed by royalty streams and revenue interests paid by our prospective partner companies and the products underlying the royalty streams and revenue interests in which we invest may be risky, and we could lose all or part of our investment.

Most of our finance receivables assets are expected to be royalty streams or debt backed by royalty streams or revenue interests paid by our partner companies. Some of our partner companies to which we advance debt, whether it be backed by royalties, revenue interests or be general obligations of the issuer, have relatively short or no operating histories. These companies are and will be subject to all of the business risk and uncertainties associated with any new business enterprise, including the risk that these companies may not reach their operating objectives and the value of our investment in them may decline substantially or fall to zero.

In addition, the small and middle-market companies to which we are targeting to advance debt are subject to a number of other significant risks, including:

Similarly, the products underlying royalty streams or revenue interests in which we invest may have relatively short or no sales history, may be established products that face intense competition from newer, more innovative or better marketed products, or may be subject to additional risks. If these products do not achieve commercial success or attain lower sales than we estimate, we may lose value on our investments.

In addition, under circumstances where a partner company does not achieve commercial success or achieves lower sales than we anticipate, and the partner company requires additional capital that other stakeholders are not willing or are otherwise unable to provide, we may determine it is in our best interest to advance additional capital to such partner company in order to preserve the partner company’s collateral value and protect our investment. Any additional capital that we decided to advance would be subject to additional risk. We could lose all of any additional investment.

Fluctuations in the price of the common stock of our publicly traded holdings and the price at which we sell such holdings may affect the price of our common stock.

From time to time, we may hold equity interests in companies that are publicly traded. Fluctuations in the market prices of the common stock of publicly traded holdings may affect the price of our common stock. Historically, the market prices of our publicly traded holdings have been highly volatile and subject to fluctuations unrelated or disproportionate to operating performance.

In addition, we may be unable to sell our holdings of public equities at then-quoted market prices. The trading volume and public float in the common stock of a publicly traded partner company may be small relative to our holdings. As a result, any significant open-market divestiture by us of our holdings in such a partner company, if possible at all, would likely have a material adverse effect on the market price of its common stock and on our proceeds from such a divestiture. Also, registration and other requirements under applicable securities laws and contractual restrictions also may adversely affect our ability to dispose of our partner company holdings on a timely basis.

Currently, we have a limited number of assets, which subjects our aggregate returns, and the value of our common stock, to a greater risk of significant loss if any of our debt securities declines in value or if any of our royalty investments substantially underperforms our expectations.

A consequence of our currently limited number of assets is that the aggregate returns we realize may be significantly adversely affected if one or more of our significant partner company investments perform poorly or if we need to write down the value of any one significant investment.

We generally do not control our partner companies.

We generally only hold royalties, debt backed by royalties, and revenue interests that are issued by our partner companies. As such, we do not, and do not expect to, control any of our partner companies, even though we may have board representation or board observation rights, and the debt agreements may contain certain restrictive covenants that limit the business and operations of our partner companies. As a result, we are subject to the risk that a partner company may make business decisions with which we disagree, and the management of such company may take risks or otherwise act in ways that do not serve our interests.

Health crises, such as COVID-19, may have a material adverse impact on our partner companies.

COVID-19 has impacted, and may continue to impact the ability of our borrowers or the marketers of products upon which we derive our royalty income to raise capital in order to fund their operations during the pandemic. Disruptions to our partner companies may impair their ability to fulfill their obligations to us and could result in increased risk of delinquencies, defaults, declining collateral values associated with our existing loans, and impairments or losses on our loans. Any such impairment could increase our credit risk and adversely affect the assets and results of operations of our Finance Receivables segment.

Economic recessions or downturns could impair the ability of our partner companies to repay loans, which, in turn, could increase our non-performing assets, decrease the value of our assets, reduce our volume of new loans and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

General economic conditions may affect our activities and the operation and value of our portfolio companies. Economic slowdowns or recessions may result in a decrease of institutional equity investment, which would limit our lending opportunities. Furthermore, many of our portfolio companies are susceptible to economic or industry centric slowdowns or recessions and may be unable to repay our debt investments during these periods. Therefore, our non-performing assets are likely to increase, and the value of our portfolio is likely to decrease during these periods. Adverse economic conditions may also decrease the value of collateral securing some of our debt investments and the value of our equity investments. Economic slowdowns or recessions could lead to financial losses in our portfolio and a material decrease in revenues, net income and assets. Unfavorable economic conditions could also increase our funding costs, limit our access to the capital markets or result in a decision by lenders not to extend credit to us.

A portfolio company’s failure to satisfy financial or operating covenants imposed by us or other lenders could lead to defaults and, potentially, termination of its loans and foreclosure on its secured assets, which could trigger cross-defaults under other agreements and jeopardize the portfolio company’s ability to meet its obligations under the loans that we hold. We may incur expenses to the extent necessary to recover our investment upon default or to negotiate new terms with a defaulting portfolio company. These events could harm our financial condition and operating results.

A period of market disruption may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, unfavorable economic conditions, including rising interest rates, may also increase our funding costs, limit our access to capital markets or negatively impact our ability to obtain financing, particularly from the debt markets.

If we make investments in unsecured debt backed by royalties or revenue interests, those investments might not generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt obligations.

We may make investments in unsecured debt backed by royalties or revenue interests. Unsecured investments may be subordinated to other obligations of the obligor. Unsecured investments often reflect a greater possibility that adverse changes in the financial condition of the obligor or general economic conditions (including, for example, a substantial period of rising interest rates or declining earnings) or both may impair the ability of the obligor to make payment of principal and interest. If we make an unsecured investment in a partner company, that partner company may be highly leveraged, and its relatively high debt-to-equity ratio may increase the risk that its operations might not generate sufficient cash to service its debt obligations. In such cases we would not have any collateral to help secure repayment of the obligations owed to us.

We may have limited access to information about privately-held royalty streams and companies in which we invest.

We invest primarily in privately-held royalties and debt backed by royalties or revenue interests issued by private companies. Generally, little public information exists about these royalty streams and private companies, and we are required to rely on the ability of our senior management to obtain adequate information to evaluate the potential returns from investing in these assets. If we are unable to uncover all material information about these assets, we may not make a fully informed investment decision, and we may lose money on our investment.

Prepayments of our debt investments by our partner companies could adversely impact our results of operations and reduce our return on equity.

We are subject to the risk that the debt we advance to our partner companies may be repaid prior to maturity. When this occurs, we will generally reinvest these proceeds in temporary investments, pending their future investment in new royalties or debt repaid by royalties or revenue interests issued by partner companies. These temporary investments will typically have substantially lower yields than the debt that was prepaid and we could experience significant delays in reinvesting these amounts. Any future asset may also have lower yields than the debt that was repaid. As a result, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected if one or more of our partner companies elect to prepay amounts owed to us. Additionally, prepayments could negatively impact our return on equity, which could result in a decline in the market price of our common stock.

We may not be able to complete transactions without co-investments from third parties.

We may co-invest with third parties through our registered investment advisory business or otherwise. In certain circumstances, we may not be able to fund transactions without the participationsparticipation of such third parties. In the event that we are unable to find suitable third parties to co-invest with us or if such third party fails to close, our results of operations may be materially adversely impacted.

Our quarterly and annual operating results are subject to fluctuation as a result of the nature of our business, and if we fail to achieve our investment objective, the market price of our common stock may decline.

We could experience fluctuations in our quarterly and annual operating results due to a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to, the interest rate payable on the debt assets that we acquire, the default rate on such assets, the level of our expenses, variations in and the timing of the recognition of realized and unrealized gains or losses, changes in our portfolio composition, the degree to which we encounter competition in our markets, market volatility in our publicly traded securities and the securities of our partner companies, and general economic conditions. As a result of these factors, results for any period should not be relied upon as being indicative of performance in future periods. In addition, any of these factors could negatively impact our ability to achieve our business objectives, which may cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

Our investments in royalty-related transactions depend on third parties to market royalty-generating products.

Royalties generally, and the royalty-related income we expect to receive in the future, will directly or indirectly depend upon the marketing efforts of third parties, particularly large pharmaceutical companies that license the right to manufacture and sell products from technology innovators in exchange for royalty payments from the licensees to the licensors, with whom we may transact. These licensees may be motivated to maximize income by allocating resources to other products, and in the future, may decide to focus less attention on the products that pay royalties in which we have an economic interest. In addition, there can be no assurance that any of the licensees has adequate resources and motivation to continue to produce, market and sell such products in which we have a royalty-related interest. Moreover, the license agreement creating the right to receive royalties may not have specific sales targets, and the licensee typically has exclusive or substantial discretion in determining its marketing plans and efforts. As a result, the licensee may not be restricted from abandoning a licensed product or from developing or selling a competitive product. In addition, in the event that a license expires or is terminated, we would be dependent upon the licensor of the license to find another marketing partner. There can be no assurance that another licensee could be found on favorable terms, or at all, or that the licensor will be able to assume marketing, sales and distribution responsibility for its own account. These factors may materially adversely affect any of our future royalty-related assets.

Aside from any limited audit rights relating to the activities of the licensees that we may have in certain circumstances, we do not have the rights or ability to manage the operations of the licensees. Poor management of operations by the licensees could adversely affect the sales of products in which we have a royalty interest, and the payment of royalty-related income to us. In addition, we have limited information on the licensees’ operations. While we may be able to receive certain information relating to sales of the product in which we have a royalty-related interest through the exercise of the audit rights and review of royalty reports, we may not have the right to review or receive certain information relating to the marketed products, including the results of any studies conducted by the licensees or others or complaints from doctors or users of such products, that the licensees may have and that may impact sales levels. The market performance of such products, therefore, may be diminished by any number of factors relating to the licensees that are beyond our control.

Economic recessions or downturns could impair the abilityCurrently, our Finance Receivables segment has a limited number of assets, which subjects our partner companies to repay loans, which, in turn, could increase our non-performing assets, decrease the value of our assets, reduce our volume of new loans and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Many of our partner companies may be susceptible to economic slowdowns or recessions in both the U.S. and foreign countries and may be unable to repay our loans during such periods. Adverse economic conditions also may decrease the value of collateral securing some of our loansaggregate returns, and the value of our equity investments. Economic slowdownscommon stock, to a greater risk of significant loss if any of our debt securities declines in value or recessions could lead to financial lossesif any of our royalty investments substantially underperforms our expectations.

Our Finance Receivables segment’s total investment in companies may be significant, individually or in the aggregate. A consequence of our currently limited number of assets in our Finance Receivables segment is that the aggregate returns we realize may be significantly adversely affected if one or more of our significant partner company investments perform poorly or if we need to write down the value of any one significant investment, which may be more severe than if we had made smaller investments in more companies. Our financial results could be materially adversely affected if these portfolio companies or any of our other significant portfolio companies encounter financial difficulty and a decrease in revenues, net income and assets. Unfavorable economic conditions also could increase our funding costs, limit our accessfail to the capital markets or result in a decision by lenders not to extend credit to us.

A partner company’s failure to satisfy financial or operating covenants imposed by us or other lenders could lead to defaults and, potentially, termination of the partner company’s loans and foreclosure on its secured assets, which could trigger cross-defaults under other agreements and jeopardize the partner company’s ability to meet itsrepay their obligations under the debt securities that we hold. We may incur expenses to the extent necessary to seek recovery upon default or to negotiate new terms with a defaulting partner company. In addition, if a partner company goes bankrupt, even though we may have structured our investmentperform as senior debt or secured debt, depending on the facts and circumstances, including the extent to which we actually provided significant “managerial assistance,” if any, to that partner company, a bankruptcy court might re-characterize our debt holding and subordinate all or a portion of our claim to that of other creditors. In addition, the proceeds from asset sales received in bankruptcy court proceedings or otherwise in a distressed asset sale may not fully repay our debt claims. In the event that such proceeds include equity securities of the company acquiring the company to which we had previously loaned money, our ultimate recovery would be subject to equity market risk and operational risk of such acquiring company. These events could materially adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.expected.

These companies may face intense competition, including competition from companies with greater financial resources, more extensive research and development, manufacturing, marketing and service capabilities and greater numbers of qualified and experienced managerial and technical personnel. They may need additional financing which they are unable to secure and which we are unable or unwilling to provide, or they may be subject to adverse developments unrelated to the technologies they acquire.

If we fail to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting, it could result in a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”). If we identify material weaknesses or other deficiencies in our internal controls, or if material weaknesses or other deficiencies exist that we fail to identify, our risk will be increased that a material misstatement to our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Any such potential material misstatement, if not prevented or detected, could require us to restate previously released financial statements and could otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our allowance for credit losses may prove inadequate.

The quality of our financingfinance receivables depends on the credit-worthiness of our partner companies and their ability to fulfill their obligations to us. We maintain an allowance for credit losses on specific financingfinance receivables to provide for credit defaults and non-performance. The amount of our allowance reflects management’s judgment of losses inherent in the portfolio. However, the economic environment is dynamic, and our portfolio credit quality could decline in the future.

Our allowance for credit losses may not keep pace with changes in the credit-worthiness of our partner companies or in collateral values. If the credit quality of our partner companies declines, if the risk profile of a market, industry, or group of partner companies changes significantly, or if the markets for financingfinance receivables or other collateral deteriorates significantly, our allowance for credit losses may prove inadequate, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

If the models that we use in our business are poorly designed, our business or results of operations may be adversely affected.

We rely on quantitative models to measure risks and to estimate certain financial values. Models may be used in such processes as determining the pricing of various products, grading loans and extending credit, measuring interest rate and other market risks, predicting losses, assessing capital adequacy, and calculating regulatory capital levels, as well as to estimate the value of financial instruments and balance sheet items. Poorly designed or implemented models present the risk that our business decisions based on information incorporating models will be adversely affected due to the inadequacy of that information.

We and our subsidiaries are party to various financing arrangements, commercial contracts and other arrangements that under certain circumstances give, or in some cases may give, the counterparty the ability to exercise rights and remedies under such arrangements which, if exercised, may have material adverse consequences.

We and our subsidiaries are party to various financing arrangements, commercial contracts and other arrangements, such as securitization transactions, derivatives transactions, funding facilities, and agreements for the purchase or sale of assets, that give, or in some cases may give, the counterparty the ability to exercise rights and remedies upon the occurrence of certain events. Such events may include a material adverse effect or material adverse change (or similar event), a breach of representations or warranties, a failure to disclose material information, a breach of covenants, certain insolvency events, a default under certain specified other obligations, or a failure to comply with certain financial covenants. The counterparty could have the ability, depending on the arrangement, to, among other things, require early repayment of amounts owed by us or our subsidiaries and in some cases payment of penalty amounts, or require the repurchase of assets previously sold to the counterparty. Additionally, a default under financing arrangements or derivatives transactions that exceed a certain size threshold in the aggregate may also cause a cross-default under instruments governing our other financing arrangements or derivatives transactions. If the ability of any counterparty to exercise such rights and remedies is triggered and we are unsuccessful in avoiding or minimizing the adverse consequences discussed above, such consequences could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

The interest rates of many of our term loans to partner companies are priced using a spread over LIBOR.

LIBOR, the London interbank offered rate, is the basic rate of interest used in lending between banks on the London interbank market and is widely used as a reference for setting the interest rate on loans globally. We typically use LIBOR as a reference rate in term loans we extend to partner companies such that the interest due to us pursuant to a term loan extended to a partner company is calculated using LIBOR. Most of our term loan agreements with partner companies contain a stated minimum value for LIBOR.

As of December 31, 2020, 87 percent of the term loans with our partner companies utilized LIBOR, including a stated minimum of LIBOR, as a reference rate.

On July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), which regulates LIBOR, announced that it intends to phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. ItFurther on March 5, 2021, the FCA issued an announcement confirming that all 35 LIBOR benchmark settings currently published by the Intercontinental Exchange Benchmark Administration, the authorized administrator for LIBOR (“ICE”), will either cease to be provided or will no longer be representative after certain specified dates, with the one-month, three-month and six-month USD LIBOR settings will no longer be representative immediately after June 30, 2023; the majority of other LIBOR benchmark settings will cease immediately after December 31, 2021. The Company generally utilizes the three-month USD LIBOR rate as the reference rate in credit agreements with partner companies. While the FCA may require ICE to publish “synthetic” LIBOR rates after the specified cessation dates for each respective reference rate, it is unclear if at that timeafter June 30, 2023 whether or not the three-month USD LIBOR rate will cease to exist or if new methods of calculating LIBOR will be established such that it continues to exist after 2021.June 30, 2023. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large USU.S. financial institutions, is considering replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with a new index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements, backed by Treasury securities, known as the Secured Overnight Funding Rate (“SOFR”). SOFR is observed and backward looking, which stands in contrast with LIBOR under the current methodology, which is an estimated forward-looking rate and relies, to some degree, on the expert judgment of submitting panel members. Given that SOFR is a secured rate backed by government securities, it will be a rate that does not take into account bank credit risk (as is the case with LIBOR). SOFR is therefore likely to be lower than LIBOR and is less likely to correlate with the funding costs of financial institutions. In conjunction with the FCA’s March 5, 2021 announcement, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc., a trade organization of participants in the market for over-the-counter derivatives (“ISDA”), announced a fallback protocol whereby LIBOR-priced derivatives contracts utilizing its standard derivatives contracts would replace LIBOR with SOFR plus an applicable margin for the specified LIBOR rate; ISDA’s fallback margin for the three month LIBOR is 0.26161 percent. Whether or not SOFR attains market traction as a LIBOR replacement tool remains in question. As such, the future of LIBOR at this time is uncertain.

Despite the widely-publicized pending cessation of LIBOR as a global reference rate benchmark, many financial institutions continue to leverage LIBOR in financing contracts, including SWK. If LIBOR ceases to exist, we may need to renegotiate the credit agreements with our partner companies that utilize LIBOR as a factor in determining the interest rate to replace LIBOR with the new standard that is established.

Uncertainty relating Our term loans typically contain provisions to facilitate the transition to such new standard. If affected credit agreements with our partner companies are unable to be renegotiated, our investments may bear interest at a lower rate, subject to any contractual minimum LIBOR calculation process may adversely affectfloors, which would decrease investment income and potentially the value of our portfolio of the LIBOR-indexed, floating-rate debt securities.

In the recent past, concerns have been publicized that some of the member banks surveyed by the British Bankers’ Association (“BBA”) in connection with the calculation of LIBOR across a range of maturities and currencies may have been under-reporting or otherwise manipulating the inter-bank lending rate applicable to them in order to profit on their derivatives positions or to avoid an appearance of capital insufficiency or adverse reputational or other consequences that may have resulted from reporting inter-bank lending rates higher than those they actually submitted. A number of BBA member banks have entered into settlements with their regulators and law enforcement agencies with respect to alleged manipulation of LIBOR, and investigations by regulators and governmental authorities in various jurisdictions are ongoing.

Actions by the BBA, regulators or law enforcement agencies may result in changes to the manner in which LIBOR is determined. Uncertainty as to the nature of such potential changes may adversely affect the market for LIBOR-based securities, including our portfolio of LIBOR-indexed, floating-rate debt securities.investments. In addition, any further changes or reforms to the determination or supervision of LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR, which could have an adverse impact on the market value for LIBOR-based securities or the value of any LIBOR-linked loans and other financial obligations or extensions of credit held by or due to us and could have a material adverse effect on our portfoliobusiness, financial condition and results of LIBOR-indexed, floating-rate debt securities.

Alloperations. Due to the uncertainty of the replacement for LIBOR, the potential effect of any such event on our LIBOR-based portfolio positions contain a LIBOR floor, generally one to onecost of capital and a half percent, which will insulate these positions from downward pressure on LIBOR.investment income cannot yet be determined.

The recentA rise in LIBOR rates could have an adverse impact on the ability of our partner companies to service their debt obligations to us.

Many of our debt transactions contain LIBOR-based floating interest rates with minimum LIBOR floors. The minimum LIBOR floor insulates partner companies from an increase in LIBOR until the reference LIBOR rate reaches the minimum floor threshold, typically one to one and a halftwo percent. If LIBOR increases above the floor rate, the net effect will be an increase in the interest cost to the borrower. Most of our borrower partners do not hedge their LIBOR rate exposure, and as a result of an increase of LIBOR above the minimum floor threshold, they will experience an increase in the effective interest rate of their debt obligations to us. If LIBOR increases materially, the increased cost of debt service will similarly increase materially. If our partner companies are not adequately capitalized or are unable to generate sufficient income from operations, the increased debt burden caused by increased LIBOR rates could materially and adversely affect the operations of a partner company, which in turn, would impair our ability to timely collect principal and interest payments owed to us.

Fluctuations in the price of the common stock of our publicly traded holdings and the price at which we sell such holdings may affect the price of our common stock.

Our Finance Receivables segment generally holds equity interests in companies that are publicly traded. Fluctuations in the market prices of the common stock of publicly traded holdings may affect the price of our common stock. Historically, the market prices of our publicly traded holdings have been highly volatile and subject to fluctuations unrelated or disproportionate to operating performance.

In addition, we may be unable to sell our holdings of public equities at then-quoted market prices. The trading volume and public float in the common stock of a publicly traded partner company may be small relative to our holdings. As a result, any significant open-market divestiture by us of our holdings in such a partner company, if possible at all, would likely have a material adverse effect on the market price of its common stock and on our proceeds from such a divestiture. Also, registration and other requirements under applicable securities laws and contractual restrictions also may adversely affect our ability to dispose of our partner company holdings on a timely basis.

Our financial condition and results of operations will depend on our ability to manage future growth of our Finance Receivables segment effectively.

Our ability to achieve our business objectives depends on our ability to grow, which depends, in turn, on our Finance Receivables segment’s ability to continue to identify, analyze and invest in royalties and/or debt backed by royalties or revenue interests that meet our investment criteria. Accomplishing this result on a cost-effective basis is largely a function of our structuring of transactions and our access to financing on acceptable terms. As we continue to grow, we will need to continue to hire, train, supervise and manage new employees. Failure to manage our future growth effectively could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Business and Structure

Our ability to use NOL carryforwards to offset future taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes may be limited, and our future cash tax liability may increase.

As of December 31, 2020, we had NOL carryforwards for U.S. federal income tax purposes of $289.4 million. The U.S. federal NOL carryforwards, if not offset against future income, will expire by 2037, with approximately half of such NOLs expiring by December 31, 2021. We may recognize additional NOLs in the future. In order to utilize the NOLs, the Company must generate taxable income that can offset such carryforwards.

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has not audited our tax returns for any of the years during the carryforward period. We cannot assure you that we would prevail if the IRS were to challenge the availability of the NOLs. If the IRS were successful in challenging our NOLs, all or some portion of the NOLs would not be available to offset any future consolidated income which would negatively impact our results of operations and cash flows.

Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” may be subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOL carryforward amounts to offset future taxable income. In general, an ownership change occurs if the aggregate stock ownership of certain stockholders (generally 5 percent stockholders, applying certain look-through and aggregation rules) increases by more than 50 percent over such stockholders’ lowest percentage ownership during the testing period (generally three years). New issuances of our common stock, which is within our control, and purchases of our common stock in amounts greater than specified levels, which are beyond our control, could create an additional limitation on our ability to utilize our NOL carryforward amounts for tax purposes in the future. Limitations imposed on our ability to utilize NOL carryforward amounts could cause U.S. federal and state income taxes to be paid earlier than would be paid if such limitations were not in effect and could cause such NOL carryforward amounts to expire unused, in each case reducing or eliminating the expected benefit to us. Additionally, various states have similar limitations on the use of state NOLs following an ownership change.

Accordingly, the extent to which we undergo an ownership change limiting the availability of our NOLs depends in part on actions taken by our large shareholders. Furthermore, our largest shareholders are investment funds affiliated with Carlson. Most investors in these funds are third parties, unaffiliated with either us or Carlson. Subscription or redemption activity by such investors is generally outside of our or Carlson’s control; however, resulting changes in the ownership of these funds may contribute to, or result in, a determination that an “ownership change” has occurred. As a result, even though we have a stockholder rights plan that is intended to protect the NOLs, whether or not an ownership change occurs is not entirely within our control.

On March 3, 2021, our Board determined J. Carlo Cannell and Cannell Capital LLC (together, “Cannell”) to be an “Exempt Person” (and not deemed to be an “Acquiring Person”) under the Rights Agreement. This determination was a result of a determination by the our Board that Cannell’s current beneficial ownership of our common stock, as disclosed on Schedule 13G filed by Cannell with the SEC on February 16, 2021, would not jeopardize or endanger the availability to us or our NOLs. However, no assurance can be given that the IRS would agree with such determination. Our Board’s determination was and is specific to the manner of ownership of our common stock disclosed on the Schedule 13G, and is contingent on Cannell, and any of its Affiliates and Associates (as defined in the Rights Agreement), not changing its manner of ownership or acquiring aggregate beneficial ownership of any shares of our common stock in addition to those disclosed on the Schedule 13G.

If an ownership change occurs, the amount of the taxable income for any post-change year that may be offset by a pre-change loss is subject to an annual limitation that is cumulative to the extent it is not all utilized in a year. This limitation is derived by multiplying the fair market value of the Company stock as of the ownership change by the applicable federal long-term tax-exempt rate, which was 1.10 percent for February 2021. To the extent that a company has a net unrealized built-in gain at the time of an ownership change, which is realized or deemed recognized during the five-year period following the ownership change, there is an increase in the annual limitation for each of the first five-years that is cumulative to the extent it is not all utilized in a year.

If an ownership change should occur in the future, our ability to use NOLs to offset future taxable income will be subject to an annual limitation and will depend on the amount of taxable income we generate in future periods. There is no assurance that we will be able to fully utilize our NOLs and we could be required to record an additional valuation allowance related to the amount of the NOLs that may not be realized, which could impact our results of operations.

We are dependent upon our key management personnel for our future success.

We depend on the diligence, skill and network of business contacts of our senior management and their access to the investment professionals and the information and deal flow generated by these investment professionals in the course of their investment and portfolio management activities. Our senior management team evaluates, negotiates, structures, closes, monitors and services our investments. Our success depends to a significant extent on the continued service of this senior management team, in particular, Winston L. Black, Chief Executive Officer. His departure could have a material adverse effect on our ability to achieve our business objectives. In addition, we have very few employees, so the loss of any employee could be disruptive to our business. We are taking precautions to protect the safety and well-being of our employees, including enhancing our standard operating procedures at Enteris to provide for additional cleaning and hygiene measures, as well as, social distancing. However, no assurance can be given that the steps being taken will be adequate or deemed to be appropriate, nor can we predict the level of disruption which will occur to our employees’ ability to service the finance receivables portfolio or Enteris’ customers.

If we are unable to obtain additional debt or equity financing on commercially reasonable terms our business could be materially adversely affected.

As of December 31, 2020, we had $3.0 million of cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet plus $8.2 million available to be borrowed under our credit facility. As of March 25, 2021, the Company drew an additional $9.0 million under the Loan Agreement (as defined in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements, Note 6 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements), and $10.3 million was available for borrowing. Our current credit facility matures on June 30, 2021. We have limited capital to execute our business strategy and have obtained debt financing to fund future growth and obtain funds which may be made available for investments. If we are unable to enter into new debt or equity financing arrangements on commercially reasonable terms, our liquidity may be reduced significantly, and as a result, our ability to implement and grow our business strategy could be materially impacted.

Our use of leverage may limit our operational flexibility and increase our overall risk, which may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Although the use of leverage may create an opportunity for increased returns for us, it also results in additional risks and can magnify the effect of any losses and thus could negatively impact our business and results of operations and have important adverse consequences to our investments. Our current credit facility contains, and any future credit facility, if raised, would likely contain covenants that could restrict our operating flexibility, including covenants that, among others, could limit our ability to: (i) make distributions in certain circumstances, (ii) incur additional debt, and (iii) engage in certain transactions, which collectively may prevent us from entering into transactions which we may otherwise determine are beneficial to us, and which could negatively impact our business and results of operations. In addition, we expect we would need to secure such a credit facility through the pledging of substantially all of our assets, and if we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to meet principal and interest payments on such indebtedness, we would be subject to risk that the lender seizes our assets through an acceleration of the credit facility that could require liquidation of pledged collateral at inopportune times or at prices that are not favorable to us and cause significant losses. If the lender seizes and liquidates pledged collateral, such collateral will likely be sold at distressed price levels. We will fail to realize the full value of such assets in a distressed sale.

If we fail to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting, it could result in a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”). If we identify material weaknesses or other deficiencies in our internal controls, or if material weaknesses or other deficiencies exist that we fail to identify, our risk will be increased that a material misstatement to our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Any such potential material misstatement, if not prevented or detected, could require us to restate previously released financial statements and could otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

The liquidity, market price and volume of our stock are volatile.

Our common stock is now listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”). The liquidity of our common stock may be adversely affected, and purchasers of our common stock may have difficulty selling our common stock, if our common stock does not continue to trade on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange. Nasdaq maintains certain minimum continued listing standards. If we are not able to continue to satisfy the continued listing standards, or qualify for an exemption to such standards, then we could be subject non-compliance status or de-listing.

The trading price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to quarter-to-quarter variations in our operating results, announcements of our drilling results and other events or factors. In addition, the U.S. stock markets have from time to time experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market price for many companies and which often have been unrelated to the operating performance of these companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our securities.

Funds affiliated with Carlson can control or exert significant influence over our management and policies through their ownership of a large amount of our common stock.

As of December 31, 2020, funds affiliated with Carlson owned in the aggregate 71.1 percent of our combined issued and outstanding common stock and unvested restricted stock. Due to the large percentage of ownership by funds affiliated with Carlson, including Double Black Diamond Offshore Ltd. (“Double Black”), they have the ability to control or exert significant influence over our management and policies, such as the election of our directors, the appointment of new management and the approval of any other action requiring the approval of our stockholders, including any amendments to our certificate of incorporation, a sale of all or substantially all of our assets or a merger or other significant transaction. The investment objectives of Carlson and its affiliates may from time to time be different than or conflict with those of our other stockholders.

In addition, pursuant to the terms of a Stockholders’ Agreement entered into on August 18, 2014, funds affiliated with Carlson have the right to approve specific transactions, including the incurrence of indebtedness over specified amounts, the sale of assets over specified amounts, declaration of dividends, loans, capital contributions to or investments in any third party over specified amounts, changes in the size of the board of directors, changes in our chief executive officer and repurchases of common stock.

If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline.

The price of our common stock could decline if there are substantial sales of our common stock, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, employees, and significant stockholders including funds associated with Carlson. Carlson owns an aggregate of 71.1 percent (9,093,766, common shares). Pursuant to a Stockholders’ Agreement entered into on August 18, 2014 and a Registration Rights Agreement entered into on September 6, 2013, we filed a Registration Statement on Form S-3 with the SEC on February 3, 2020, which became effective on February 19, 2020, to register all of the common stock owned by funds affiliated with Carlson for sale freely in the public market from time to time.

The market price of our common stock could decline as a result of the sale of a substantial number of our shares of common stock in the public market or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares.

We have adopted provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and a stockholder rights plan that could delay or prevent an acquisition of the Company.

The board of directors has the authority to issue up to 5 million shares of preferred stock. Without any further vote or action on the part of the stockholders, the board of directors has the authority to determine the price, rights, preferences, privileges, and restrictions of the preferred stock. This preferred stock, if issued, might have preference over and harm the rights of the holders of common stock. Although the ability to issue this preferred stock provides us with flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, it can also be used to make it more difficult for a third party to acquire a majority of our outstanding voting stock. We currently have no plans to issue preferred stock.

Additionally, we have a stockholder rights plan, as amended, that is intended to protect our ability to utilize our NOL carryforwards and which would also make it difficult for a third party to acquire a significant number of shares of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions that may deter an unsolicited offer to purchase us. These provisions, coupled with the provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, may delay or impede a merger, tender offer or proxy contest. In addition, directors are only removable by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of all classes of voting stock. These factors may further delay or prevent a change of control of the Company.

If we were deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, applicable restrictions could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We have not been and do not intend to become registered as an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, or the 1940 Act, because we believe the nature of our assets and the sources of our income exclude us from the definition of an investment company pursuant to Section (3)(a)(1)(C) under the 1940 Act. Accordingly, we are not subject to the provisions of the 1940 Act, such as conflict of interest rules, requirements for disinterested directors and other substantive provisions which were enacted to protect investors in “investment companies.”

Generally, a company is an “investment company” if it is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities or owns or proposes to own investment securities having a value exceeding 40 percent of the value of its total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis, unless an exception, exemption or safe harbor applies. We refer to this investment company definition test as the “40 percent test.”

We monitor our compliance with the 40 percent test and seek to conduct our business activities to comply with this test. It is not feasible for us to be regulated as an investment company because the restrictions imposed by the 1940 Act rules are inconsistent with our strategy. In order to continue to comply with the 40 percent test, we may need to take various actions which we might otherwise not pursue. The actions we may need to take to address these issues while maintaining compliance with the 40 percent test (or another exception or exemption from regulation as an investment company), include restructuring or terminating the Company, could adversely affect our ability to create and realize stockholder value.

Because we operate through our subsidiaries, our ability to comply with the 40 percent test is dependent on the ability of certain of our subsidiaries to rely on an exclusion or exemption from investment company registration. In this regard, one of our subsidiaries currently relies on the exclusion from investment company registration provided by Section 3(c)(5)(A) under the 1940 Act. Section 3(c)(5)(A), as interpreted by the staff of the SEC, requires us to invest at least 55 percent of our assets in “notes, drafts, acceptances, open accounts receivable, and other obligations representing part or all of the sales price of merchandise, insurance, and services” (or “Qualifying Assets”).

In complying with Section 3(c)(5)(A), one of our subsidiaries, SWK Funding LLC (“SWK Funding”), relies on an interpretation that royalty interests that entitle SWK Funding to collect royalty receivables that are directly based on the sales price of specific biopharmaceutical products that use intellectual property covered by specific license agreements are Qualifying Assets under Section 3(c)(5)(A). This interpretation was promulgated by the SEC staff in a no-action letter issued to Royalty Pharma on August 13, 2010. The assets acquired by SWK Funding therefore, are limited by the provisions of the 1940 Act and SEC staff interpretations thereunder. If the SEC or its staff in the future adopts a contrary interpretation or otherwise restricts the conclusions in the staff’s no-action letter such that royalty interests are no longer treated as Qualifying Assets for purposes of Section 3(c)(5)(A), SWK Funding could be required to restructure its activities or sell certain of its assets, potentially negatively affecting our performance. As a result, our business will be material and adversely affected if SWK Funding fails to qualify for Section 3(c)(5)(A).

The rules and interpretations of the SEC and the courts, relating to the definition of “investment company” are highly complex in numerous respects. While we intend to conduct our operations so that we will not be deemed an investment company, we can give no assurances that we will not be deemed an “investment company” and be required to register under the 1940 Act. If we were to be deemed an “investment company,” restrictions imposed by the 1940 Act, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with affiliates, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and would have a material adverse effect on our business and the price of our shares. In addition, we could be subject to legal actions by regulatory authorities and others and could be forced to dissolve. The costs of defending any such actions could constitute a material part of our assets and dissolution could have materially adverse effects on our company and the value of our common stock.

Risks Associated with Investments in the Health Care and Life Science IndustrySciences Industries

Public health epidemics, pandemics or outbreaks, including COVID-19, could adversely affect our business.

Public health epidemics, pandemics or outbreaks, and the resulting business or economic disruptions resulting therefrom, could adversely impact our business as well as our ability to raise capital. The impact of COVID-19 has been and will likely continue to be extensive in many aspects of society, which has resulted in and will likely continue to result in significant disruptions to the global economy, as well as businesses and capital markets around the world.

The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our business will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration of the pandemic, new information that may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and public and private actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact. COVID-19 has and will likely continue to result in social, economic and labor instability in the countries in which we or our partner companies operate.

Any abrupt and substantial change in economic conditions also may decrease the value of collateral securing some of our loans and the value of our equity investments. Any sustained disruption in the capital markets from the COVID-19 pandemic could negatively impact our and our partner companies’ ability to raise capital.

Several measures are currently being proposed by the US and other governments to address the current COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts. At this time, it is impossible to predict the success of these measures and whether or not they will have unforeseen negative consequences for our business. For example, some proposals in the US Congress contemplate a debt-servicing holiday for borrowers for an unspecified period of time. If this type of measure becomes law, our partner companies may defer making payments under our term loans, which would decrease our cash flows, revenues, net income, assets and liquidity.

Healthcare and life science industries are subject to extensive government regulation, litigation risk, reimbursement risk and certain other risks particular to that industry.those industries.

We have invested and plan to continue investing in cash flow streams produced by life science products that are subject to extensive regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, similar foreign regulatory authorities, and to a lesser extent, other federal and state agencies. If any of these products and the companies which manage such products fails to comply with applicable regulations, they could be subject to significant penalties and claims that could materially and adversely affect their sales levels and operations. Medical devices and drugs are subject to the expense, delay and uncertainty of the regulatory approval process in order to reach the market and, even if approved, these products may not be accepted in the marketplace. In addition, governmental budgetary constraints effecting the regulatory approval process, new laws, regulations or judicial interpretations of existing laws and regulations might adversely affect a partner company or product in this industry.

The products and services provided by pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies are generally subject to the ability to obtain and maintain adequate reimbursement from governmental and other third-party payors for such products and services. The commercial success of such products and services could be compromised if governmental or third-party payors do not provide coverage and reimbursement, breach, rescind or modify their contracts or reimbursement policies or delay payments for such products and services.

Companies in the life science industry may also have a limited number of suppliers of necessary components or a limited number of manufacturers for their products, and therefore face a risk of disruption to their manufacturing process if they are unable to find alternative suppliers when needed.

Any of these factors could materially and adversely affect the operations of a partner company in this industry or the licensee’s operations, which in turn, would impair our ability to timely collect principal and interest payments owed to us or decrease our royalty-related income.

Some of our partner companies may be unable to protect their proprietary rights and may infringe on the proprietary rights of others.

Our partner companies assert various forms of intellectual property protection. Intellectual property may constitute an important part of partner company assets and competitive strengths, particularly for royalty monetization transactions. Federal law, most typically copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, generally protects intellectual property rights. Although we expect that our partner companies will take reasonable efforts to protect the rights to their intellectual property, third parties may develop similar intellectual property independently or attempt to abandon intellectual property licenses if it is determined such intellectual property from a partner company is no longer needed. Moreover, the complexity of international trade secret, copyright, trademark and patent law, coupled with the limited resources of our partner companies and the demands of quick delivery of products and services to market, create a risk that partner company efforts to prevent misappropriation of their technology will prove inadequate.

Some of our partner companies also license intellectual property from third parties and it is possible that they could become subject to infringement actions based upon their use of the intellectual property licensed from those third parties. Our partner companies generally obtain representations as to the origin and ownership of such licensed intellectual property. However, this may not adequately protect them. Any claims against our partner companies’ proprietary rights, with or without merit, could subject the companies to costly litigation and divert their technical and management personnel from other business concerns. If our partner companies incur costly litigation and their personnel are not effectively deployed, the expenses and losses incurred by our partner companies will increase and their profits, if any, will decrease.

Third parties have and may assert infringement or other intellectual property claims against our partner companies based on their patents or other intellectual property rights. Even though we believe our partner companies’ products do not infringe any third party’s patents, they may have to pay substantial damages, possibly including treble damages, if it is ultimately determined that they do. They may have to obtain a license to sell their products if it is determined that their products infringe on another person’s intellectual property. Our partner companies might be prohibited from selling their products before they obtain a license, which, if available at all, may require them to pay substantial royalties. Even if infringement claims against our partner companies are without merit, defending these types of lawsuits takes significant time, is expensive and may divert management attention from other business concerns.

Future legislation, and/or regulations and policies adopted by the FDA or other U.S. or foreign regulatory authorities may increase the time and cost required by some of our partner companies to conduct and complete clinical trials for the product candidates that they develop, and there is no assurance that these companies will obtain regulatory approval to market and commercialize their products in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

The FDA and other foreign and U.S. regulatory authorities have established regulations, guidelines and policies to govern the drug development and approval process which affect some of our partner companies. Any change in regulatory requirements due to the adoption by the FDA and/or foreign or other U.S. regulatory authorities of new legislation, regulations, or policies may require some of our partner companies to amend existing clinical trial protocols or add new clinical trials to comply with these changes. Such amendments to existing protocols and/or clinical trial applications or the need for new ones, may significantly impact the cost, timing and completion of the clinical trials.

In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s and other authorities approval processes may significantly delay or prevent regulatory approval, as well as impose more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements. Foreign regulatory authorities may also increase their scrutiny of approval processes resulting in similar delays. Increased scrutiny and approval processes may limit the ability of our partner companies to market and commercialize their products in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

The pharmaceutical industry is subject to numerous risks, including competition, extensive government regulation, product liability, patent exclusivity and commercial difficulties.

Our assets include royalties and royalty-linked debt that are paid on sales of pharmaceutical products, which are subject to numerous risks. The successful and timely implementation of the business model of our specialty pharmaceutical and drug discovery partner companies depends on their ability to adapt to changing technologies and introduce new products. As competitors continue to introduce competitive products, the ability of our partner companies to continue effectively marketing their existing product portfolio, and to develop and acquire innovative products and technologies that improve efficacy, safety, patients’ and clinicians’ ease of use and cost-effectiveness is important to the success of such partner companies. The success of new product offerings will depend on many factors, including the ability to properly anticipate and satisfy customer needs, obtain regulatory approvals on a timely basis, develop and manufacture products in an economic and timely manner, obtain or maintain advantageous positions with respect to intellectual property, and differentiate products from competitors. Failure by our partner companies to successfully commercialize existing or planned products, or acquire other new products, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the ability of generic manufactures to invalidate a partner company’s patents protecting its products or to invalidate the patents supporting products in which we receive royalty-related income could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Some of our partner companies may be unable to protect their proprietary rights and may infringe on the proprietary rights of others.

Our partner companies assert various forms of intellectual property protection. Intellectual property may constitute an important part of partner company assets and competitive strengths, particularly for royalty monetization transactions. Federal law, most typically copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, generally protects intellectual property rights. Although we expect that our partner companies will take reasonable efforts to protect the rights to their intellectual property, third parties may develop similar intellectual property independently or attempt to abandon intellectual property licenses if it is determined such intellectual property from a partner company is no longer needed. Moreover, the complexity of international trade secret, copyright, trademark and patent law, coupled with the limited resources of our partner companies and the demands of quick delivery of products and services to market, create a risk that partner company efforts to prevent misappropriation of their technology will prove inadequate.

Some of our partner companies also license intellectual property from third parties and it is possible that they could become subject to infringement actions based upon their use of the intellectual property licensed from those third parties. Our partner companies generally obtain representations as to the origin and ownership of such licensed intellectual property. However, this may not adequately protect them. Any claims against our partner companies’ proprietary rights, with or without merit, could subject the companies to costly litigation and divert their technical and management personnel from other business concerns. If our partner companies incur costly litigation and their personnel are not effectively deployed, the expenses and losses incurred by our partner companies will increase and their profits, if any, will decrease.

Third parties have and may assert infringement or other intellectual property claims against our partner companies based on their patents or other intellectual property rights. Even though we believe our partner companies’ products do not infringe any third party’s patents, they may have to pay substantial damages, possibly including treble damages, if it is ultimately determined that they do. They may have to obtain a license to sell their products if it is determined that their products infringe on another person’s intellectual property. Our partner companies might be prohibited from selling their products before they obtain a license, which, if available at all, may require them to pay substantial royalties. Even if infringement claims against our partner companies are without merit, defending these types of lawsuits takes significant time, is expensive and may divert management attention from other business concerns.

The development of products by life science companies requires significant research and development, clinical trials and regulatory approvals.

The development of products by life science companies requires significant research and development, clinical trials and regulatory approvals. In addition, similar activities and costs may be required to support products that have already been commercialized. The results of product development efforts may be affected by a number of factors, including the ability to innovate, develop and manufacture new products, complete clinical trials, obtain regulatory approvals and reimbursement in the U.S. and abroad, or gain and maintain market approval of products. In addition, regulatory review processes by U.S. and foreign agencies may extend longer than anticipated as a result of decreased funding and tighter fiscal budgets. Further, patents attained by others can preclude or delay the commercialization of a product. There can be no assurance that any products now in development will achieve technological feasibility, obtain regulatory approval, or gain market acceptance. Failure can occur at any point in the development process, including after significant funds have been invested. Products may fail to reach the market or may have only limited commercial success because of efficacy or safety concerns, failure to achieve positive clinical outcomes, inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, failure to achieve market adoption, limited scope of approved uses, excessive costs to manufacture, the failure to establish or maintain intellectual property rights, or the infringement of intellectual property rights of others. Failure by our partner companies to successfully commercialize pipeline products in which we have an economic interest could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Future legislation, and/or regulations and policies adopted by the FDA or other U.S. or foreign regulatory authorities may increase the time and cost required by some of our partner companies to conduct and complete clinical trials for the product candidates that they develop, and there is no assurance that these companies will obtain regulatory approval to market and commercialize their products in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

The FDA and other foreign and U.S. regulatory authorities have established regulations, guidelines and policies to govern the drug development and approval process which affect some of our partner companies. Any change in regulatory requirements due to the adoption by the FDA and/or foreign or other U.S. regulatory authorities of new legislation, regulations, or policies may require some of our partner companies to amend existing clinical trial protocols or add new clinical trials to comply with these changes. Such amendments to existing protocols and/or clinical trial applications or the need for new ones, may significantly impact the cost, timing and completion of the clinical trials.

In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s and other authorities approval processes may significantly delay or prevent regulatory approval, as well as impose more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements. Foreign regulatory authorities may also increase their scrutiny of approval processes resulting in similar delays. Increased scrutiny and approval processes may limit the ability of our partner companies to market and commercialize their products in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

Changes in healthcare laws and other regulations applicable to some of our partner companies’ businesses may constrain their ability to offer their products and services.

Changes in healthcare or other laws and regulations applicable to the businesses of some of our partner companies may occur that could increase their compliance and other costs of doing business, require significant systems enhancements, or render their products or services less profitable or obsolete, any of which could have a material adverse effect on their results of operations. There has also been an increased political and regulatory focus on healthcare laws in recent years, and new legislation could have a material effect on the business and operations of some of our partner companies.

We also anticipate that Congress, state legislatures, and third-party payors may continue to review and assess alternative healthcare delivery and payment systems and may in the future propose and adopt legislation or policy changes or implementations effecting additional fundamental changes in the healthcare delivery system. We cannot assure you as to the ultimate content, timing, or effect of changes, nor is it possible at this time to estimate the impact of any such potential legislation on certain of our portfolio companies, our business model, prospects, financial condition or results of operations.

Risks AssociatedThe potential inability of our partner companies’ and counterparties marketing pharmaceutical products from which we receive royalty payments to charge desired prices with respect to prescription drugs could impact their revenues and in turn their ability to repay us or the magnitude of their payments to us.

Our pharmaceutical portfolio companies and pharmaceutical royalties are subject to risks associated with the Companypricing for prescription drugs. It is uncertain whether pharmaceutical products customers generally will continue to utilize established prescription drug pricing methods, or whether other pricing benchmarks will be adopted for establishing prices within the industry. Legislation may lead to changes in the pricing for Medicare and our Capital Structure

Our common stock is currently quoted onMedicaid programs. Regulators have conducted investigations into the QB tieruse of prescription drug pricing methods for federal program payment, and whether such methods have inflated drug expenditures by the Over-the-Counter Marketplace,Medicare and Medicaid programs. Federal and state proposals have sought to change the basis for calculating payment of certain drugs by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. We cannot predict the ultimate content, timing or effect of any such legislation or executive action or the OTCQB, and we could become subjectimpact of potential legislation or executive action on us. Any changes to additional SEC regulation if we experience a significant decline in our stock price.

Since October 2005, our common stock has been quoted on the OTCQB or its predecessor. The OTCQB is generally considered less efficient than exchanges such as The New York Stock Exchange and The NASDAQ Stock Market. Quotation of our common stock on the OTCQBmethod for calculating prescription drug costs may reduce the liquidityrevenues of our securities, limit the number of investors who tradepharmaceutical portfolio companies, which could in our securities, result in a lower stock priceturn impair their ability to timely make any principal and larger spread in the bid and ask prices for shares of our common stock and could have an adverse effect oninterest payments owed to us. Additionally, we may become subjectany such changes to pharmaceutical product reimbursement similarly could reduce the SEC rules that affect “penny stocks,” which are stocks below $5.00 per share that are not listed on a national exchange. These SEC rules would make it more difficult for brokers to find buyers for our securities and could lowerrevenues of the net sales prices that our stockholders are able to obtain. If our common stock again becomes subject to those rules, we may not be able to raise equity capital.

Our quotation on the OTCQB and our stock price, if it were to experience a decline, may greatly impair our ability to raise any future necessary capital through equity or debt financing and significantly increase the dilution to our current stockholders caused by any issuance of equity in financing or other transactions. The price atpharmaceutical products from which we would issue shares in such transactions is generally based on the market price of our common stock, and a decline in the stock price could result in our need to issue a greater number of shares to raise a given amount of funding.receive royalties. 

In addition, because our common stock is not listed on a national exchange, we may again become subject to Rule 15g-9 under the Exchange Act, which imposes additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers that sell low-priced securities to persons other than established customers and institutional accredited investors. For transactions covered by this rule, a broker-dealer must make a special suitability determination for the purchaser and have received the purchaser’s written consent to the transaction prior to sale. Consequently, the rule may affect the ability of broker-dealers to sell our common stock and affect the ability of our stockholders to sell their shares of our common stock in the secondary market. Moreover, investors may be less interested in purchasing low-priced securities because the brokerage commissions, as a percentage of the total transaction value, tend to be higher for such securities, and some investment funds will not invest in low-priced securities (other than those which focus on small-capitalization companies or low-priced securities).

Funds affiliated with Carlson can control or exert significant influence over our management and policies through their ownership of a large amount of our common stock.

As of December 31, 2017, funds affiliated with Carlson owned (including the 100,000 shares of common stock underlying the warrant held by Double Black Diamond Offshore Ltd. (“Double Black”)), in the aggregate 69 percent of our combined issued and outstanding common stock, unvested restricted stock, and common stock underlying the warrant. Michael Weinberg, the chairman of our board of directors, and Christopher W. Haga, a director, are employees of Carlson. Due to the large percentage of ownership by funds affiliated with Carlson, including Double Black, they have the ability to control or exert significant influence over our management and policies, such as the election of our directors, the appointment of new management and the approval of any other action requiring the approval of our stockholders, including any amendments to our certificate of incorporation, a sale of all or substantially all of our assets or a merger or other significant transaction. The investment objectives of Carlson and its affiliates may from time to time be different than or conflict with those of our other stockholders.

In addition, pursuant to the terms of a Stockholders’ Agreement entered into on August 18, 2014, funds affiliated with Carlson have the right to approve specific transactions, including the incurrence of indebtedness over specified amounts, the sale of assets over specified amounts, declaration of dividends, loans, capital contributions to or investments in any third party over specified amounts, changes in the size of the board of directors and changes in our chief executive officer.

We have adopted provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and a stockholder rights plan that could delay or prevent an acquisition of the Company.

The board of directors has the authority to issue up to 5 million shares of preferred stock. Without any further vote or action on the part of the stockholders, the board of directors has the authority to determine the price, rights, preferences, privileges, and restrictions of the preferred stock. This preferred stock, if issued, might have preference over and harm the rights of the holders of common stock. Although the ability to issue this preferred stock provides us with flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, it can also be used to make it more difficult for a third party to acquire a majority of our outstanding voting stock. We currently have no plans to issue preferred stock.

Additionally, we have a stockholder rights plan that is intended to protect our ability to utilize our NOL carryforwards and which would also make it difficult for a third party to acquire a significant number of shares of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions that may deter an unsolicited offer to purchase us. These provisions, coupled with the provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, may delay or impede a merger, tender offer or proxy contest. In addition, directors are only removable by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of all classes of voting stock. These factors may further delay or prevent a change of control of the Company.

If we were deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, applicable restrictions could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We have not been and do not intend to become registered as an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, or the 1940 Act, because we believe the nature of our assets and the sources of our income exclude us from the definition of an investment company pursuant to Section (3)(a)(1)(C) under the 1940 Act. Accordingly, we are not subject to the provisions of the 1940 Act, such as conflict of interest rules, requirements for disinterested directors and other substantive provisions which were enacted to protect investors in “investment companies.”

Generally, a company is an “investment company” if it is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities or owns or proposes to own investment securities having a value exceeding 40 percent of the value of its total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis, unless an exception, exemption or safe harbor applies. We refer to this investment company definition test as the “40 percent test.”

We monitor our compliance with the 40 percent test and seek to conduct our business activities to comply with this test. It is not feasible for us to be regulated as an investment company because the restrictions imposed by the 1940 Act rules are inconsistent with our strategy. In order to continue to comply with the 40 percent test, we may need to take various actions which we might otherwise not pursue. The actions we may need to take to address these issues while maintaining compliance with the 40 percent test (or another exception or exemption from regulation as an investment company), include restructuring or terminating the Company, could adversely affect our ability to create and realize stockholder value.

Because we operate through our subsidiaries, our ability to comply with the 40 percent test is dependent on the ability of certain of our subsidiaries to rely on an exclusion or exemption from investment company registration. In this regard, one of our subsidiaries currently relies on the exclusion from investment company registration provided by Section 3(c)(5)(A) under the 1940 Act. Section 3(c)(5)(A), as interpreted by the staff of the SEC, requires us to invest at least 55 percent of our assets in “notes, drafts, acceptances, open accounts receivable, and other obligations representing part or all of the sales price of merchandise, insurance, and services” (or Qualifying Assets).

In complying with Section 3(c)(5)(A), one of our subsidiaries, SWK Funding LLC, relies on an interpretation that royalty interests that entitle SWK Funding LLC to collect royalty receivables that are directly based on the sales price of specific biopharmaceutical products that use intellectual property covered by specific license agreements are Qualifying Assets under Section 3(c)(5)(A). This interpretation was promulgated by the SEC staff in a no-action letter issued to Royalty Pharma on August 13, 2010. The assets acquired by SWK Funding LLC therefore, are limited by the provisions of the 1940 Act and SEC staff interpretations thereunder. If the SEC or its staff in the future adopts a contrary interpretation or otherwise restricts the conclusions in the staff’s no-action letter such that royalty interests are no longer treated as Qualifying Assets for purposes of Section 3(c)(5)(A), SWK Funding LLC could be required to restructure its activities or sell certain of its assets, potentially negatively affecting our performance. As a result, our business will be materially and adversely affected if SWK Funding LLC fails to qualify for Section 3(c)(5)(A).

The rules and interpretations of the SEC and the courts, relating to the definition of “investment company” are highly complex in numerous respects. While we intend to conduct our operations so that we will not be deemed an investment company, we can give no assurances that we will not be deemed an “investment company” and be required to register under the 1940 Act. If we were to be deemed an “investment company,” restrictions imposed by the 1940 Act, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with affiliates, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and would have a material adverse effect on our business and the price of our shares. In addition, we could be subject to legal actions by regulatory authorities and others and could be forced to dissolve. The costs of defending any such actions could constitute a material part of our assets and dissolution could have materially adverse effects on our company and the value of our common stock.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Our corporate headquarters is locatedand the location of our Finance Receivables segment are in Dallas, Texas, where we lease approximately 2,400 square feet of space. The Pharmaceutical Development segment’s headquarters is located in Boonton, New Jersey, where Enteris leases approximately 32,000 square feet of space. We believe these facilities are adequate for our business requirements.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are involved in, or have been involved in, arbitrations or various other legal proceedings that arise from the normal course of our business. We cannot predict the timing or outcome of these claims and other proceedings. The ultimate outcome of any litigation is uncertain, and either unfavorable or favorable outcomes could have a material negative impact on our results of operations, balance sheets and cash flows due to defense costs, and divert management resources. Currently, we are not involved in any arbitration and/or other legal proceeding that we expect to have a material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.

OurOn January 22, 2020, our common stock isbecame listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, under the symbol “SWKH.” Prior to that time, our common stock was quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace, under the symbol “SWKH.” The table below sets forth the high and low bid prices ofQuotations for our common stock while it was quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace during the periods indicated. These prices represent quotations between dealers without adjustment for retail markup, mark down or commissions, and may not represent actual transactions.