If we are unable to retain or recruit qualified personnel for growth, our business results could suffer.
We have benefited substantially from the leadership and performance of our senior management and other key employees. For example, our chief executive officer, as well as other key members of our senior management, has experience successfully developing novel technologies and scaling early-stage medical device and pharmaceutical companies to achieve profitability. We also rely on our qualified sales representatives and on consultants and advisors in our research, operations, clinical and commercial efforts to grow our business, develop and commercialize new products and implement our business strategies. Our success will depend on our ability to retain our current management and key employees, consultants and advisors, and to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future, including by providing competitive compensation and benefit programs, flexible work arrangements, career advancement prospects and sufficient opportunities to develop leadership, managerial and other valuable skills. The loss of services of these personnel, which could occur without notice and without cause or good reason, could prevent or delay our growth plans and the implementation and completion of our strategic objectives, or divert management’s attention to seeking qualified replacements. Our U.S. employees, including our senior management, are not subject to non-competition agreements. Accordingly, the adverse effect of losing key personnel could be compounded by our inability to prevent them from competing with us.
We have and may continue to enter into acquisitions, collaborations, in-licensing agreements, joint ventures, alliances or partnerships with third parties that could fail.
We have and may continue to enter into acquisitions, collaborations, in-licensing agreements, joint ventures and partnerships in order to retain our competitive position within the marketplace, develop new products or expand into new markets. Examples include our acquisitions of DOSE Medical and Avedro, as well as our licensing of Santen’s PRESERFLO® Microshunt® (Preserflo MicroShunt), the Intratus drug delivery platform and the Attillaps and iVeena pharmaceutical compounds and our collaboration agreement with Radius XR to market its wearable patient engagement and diagnostic system. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully complete any future acquisition we may pursue, or that we will be able to successfully integrate any acquired business, product or technology in a cost-effective and non-disruptive manner. Our future successes will depend, in part, on our ability to manage an expanded business, which may pose substantial challenges for our management, such as increased costs and complexity. There can be no assurances that we will be successful in managing such expanded business or that we will realize the expected economies of scale, synergies and other benefits currently anticipated from recent or future acquisitions or strategic transactions. Additionally, these collaborations, joint ventures, and partnerships may fail to result in any commercialized product, including due to delays in or failures to obtain regulatory approvals, such as the failure to receive approval of the PreserFlo MicroShunt in the U.S., and could require us to invest a substantial amount of resources only to ultimately change regulatory strategies or to fail. In addition, these arrangements may be terminated before we are able to realize net sales to sufficiently cover the costs associated therewith, which could materially impact our business. We cannot assure you that any such transaction would result in the benefits expected from the transaction, including revenue growth, increased profitability or an enhancement in our business prospects. Further, pursuing acquisitions, collaborations, in-licensing agreements, joint ventures, alliances or partnerships with third parties, whether or not completed, is costly and time-consuming and could distract Company management from the operation of the business, which could negatively impact our operating results.
Failure to protect our information technology infrastructure against cyber incidents, network security breaches, service interruptions, or data corruption could materially disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business, operating results, or the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting.
The efficient operation of our global business depends on our information technology systems, including telecommunications, the internet, network communications, email and various computer hardware and software applications. We rely on our information technology systems to effectively manage sales and marketing data, accounting and financial functions, inventory management, product development tasks, clinical data, quality systems, customer service and technical support functions. Our information technology systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, fires, floods and other natural disasters, terrorist attacks, power losses, computer system or data network failures, data corruption and security breaches or other cyber-based incidents, some of which we have experienced and which we continue to monitor. Cyber incidents can include ransomware, computer denial-of-service attacks, worms, and other malicious software programs introduced to our computers and networks, including intrusions that are designed to evade detection for an extended period of time, phishing attacks, social engineering attacks, and efforts to discover and exploit any design flaws, bugs, security vulnerabilities or weaknesses, as well as intentional or