Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by manmade problems such as terrorism. If any of our manufacturing, processing or storage facilities are damaged or destroyed, our business and prospects would be adversely affected.
A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or flood, or a significant power outage, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. If any of our manufacturing, processing or storage facilities, or any of the equipment in such facilities were to be damaged or destroyed, it may result a lack of any definitive offer to consummate a strategic transaction, or, if we receive such a definitive offer, the terms may not be as favorable as anticipated or may not result in the consummation of a transaction.
We have historically produced materials for our clinical trials at our manufacturing facilities located in Waltham, Massachusetts, and produced our critical raw materials for use in NeoCart production in our facilities located in Lexington, Massachusetts. If these facilities or the equipment in them are significantly damaged or destroyed, a strategic partner may not be able to quickly or inexpensively replace such manufacturing capacity. In addition, natural disasters could affect our third-party service providers’ and manufacturers ability to perform services and provide materials for us or a strategic partner on a timely basis. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, our efforts to complete a strategic transaction may be impeded. For example, acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our business or the business of our third-party service providers, partners, customers or the economy as a whole which could significantly impair our ability to successfully complete the Merger or any potential strategic transaction on terms that are favorable to our stockholders, or at all.
We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data.
We are increasingly dependent upon information technology systems, infrastructure and data. Our computer systems may be vulnerable to service interruption or destruction, malicious intrusion and random attack. Security breaches pose a risk that sensitive data, including intellectual property, clinical data, trade secrets or personal information may be exposed to unauthorized persons or to the public. Cyber-attacks are increasing in their frequency, sophistication and intensity, and have become increasingly difficult to detect. Cyber-attacks could include the deployment of harmful malware,denial-of service, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten data confidentiality, integrity and availability. Our key business partners face similar risks, and a security breach of their systems could adversely affect our security posture. While we continue to invest data protection and information technology, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent service interruptions, or identify breaches in our systems, that could adversely affect our business and operations and/or result in the loss of critical or sensitive information or the illegal transfer of funds to unknown persons, which could result in financial, legal, business or reputational harm. Any of these issues could significantly impair our ability to successfully complete the Merger or any potential strategic transaction on terms that are favorable to our stockholders, or at all.
Risks Related to Regulatory Approval
We are subject to numerous U.S. federal and state laws pertaining to health care fraud and abuse, including anti-kickback, self-referral, false claims and fraud laws, and any violation by us of such laws could result in fines or other penalties.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments tonon-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We cannot assure you that our internal control policies and procedures will protect us from reckless or negligent acts committed by our employees, future distributors, partners, collaborators or agents. Violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, could result in fines, penalties or prosecution and have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and reputation.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
Our ability to execute a strategic transaction may depend on our ability to protect our intellectual property and our proprietary technologies.
Our ability to execute a strategic transaction may depend in part on our ability to maintain patent protection and trade secret protection for our product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses as well as our ability to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. There can be no assurance that our patent applications or those of our licensors will result in additional patents being issued or that issued patents will afford sufficient protection against
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