AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. - Annual Report: 2020 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ___________ to __________

Commission file number 1-38519

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

1101 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 201

Alameda, California 94501

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (510) 671-8370

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

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

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

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 ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted 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 such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

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 to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act): Yes ☐ No ☒

The approximate aggregate market value of shares of voting common stock held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which shares of common stock were last sold as of June 30, 2020 was $19.6 million. Shares held by each executive officer and director and by each person who beneficially owns more than 5% of the outstanding common stock have been excluded in that such persons may under certain circumstances be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of March 26, 2021, there were outstanding 37,935,088 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

None

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc.

Table of Contents

PART I

Certain statements contained herein are forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements pertaining to future financial and/or operating results, future growth in research, technology, clinical development, and potential opportunities for AgeX, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates”) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential products, uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory approvals, need and ability to obtain future capital, and maintenance of intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the businesses of AgeX, particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in AgeX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AgeX disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

References to “ AgeX,” “our” or “us” mean AgeX Therapeutics, Inc.

The description or discussion, in this Form 10-K, of any contract or agreement is a summary only and is qualified in all respects by reference to the full text of the applicable contract or agreement.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

This Annual Report (“Report”) on Form 10-K contains market data and industry forecasts that were obtained from industry publications, third-party market research and publicly available information. These publications generally state that the information contained therein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. While we believe that the information from these publications is reliable, we have not independently verified such information.

This Report also contains estimates and other statistical data made by independent parties and by us relating to market size and growth and other data about our industry. We obtained the industry and market data in this Report from our own research as well as from industry and general publications, surveys and studies conducted by third parties, some of which may not be publicly available. Such data involves a number of assumptions and limitations and contains projections and estimates of the future performance of the industries in which we operate that are subject to a high degree of uncertainty. We caution you not to give undue weight to such projections, assumptions and estimates.

Item 1. Business

Overview of Business

We are a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics targeting human aging and degenerative diseases. Our mission is to apply our comprehensive experience in fundamental biological processes of human aging to a broad range of age-associated medical conditions. We believe that demand for therapeutics addressing such conditions is on the rise, commensurate with the demographic shift of aging in the United States and many other industrialized countries.

Our proprietary technology, based on telomerase-mediated cellular immortality and regenerative biology, allows us to utilize telomerase-expressing regenerative pluripotent stem cell (“PSCs”) for the manufacture of cell-based therapies to regenerate tissues afflicted with age-related chronic degenerative disease. We own or have licenses to a number of patents and patent applications used in the generation of these product candidates, including intellectual property related to PSC-derived clonal embryonic progenitor cell lines (PureStem^® technology) and HyStem^® delivery matrices. Our technology platform also includes UniverCyte™ which uses the HLA-G gene to potentially confer low immune observability to cells, so as to suppress rejection of transplanted cells and tissues. AgeX plans to use or license the use of this patented technology to produce genetically-modified master cell banks of pluripotent stem cells that can then be differentiated into any young cell type of the human body that now express the immune tolerogenic molecule.

Our product candidates in the discovery stage include two cell-based therapies derived from telomerase-positive PSCs and two product candidates derived from our proprietary induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR^TM) technology. We are also sponsoring a research program to derive neural stem cells from PSCs to treat degenerative diseases such as Huntington’s Disease. We will need to conduct or sponsor research and development work, or license our technology to other biotechnology or pharma companies interested in furthering research and development, as part of our plan to develop these cell- and drug-based therapies, each targeting large unmet needs in age-related medicine.

Development of Our Business

AgeX was incorporated during 2017 as a subsidiary of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (“Lineage”), formerly known as BioTime, Inc. On August 17, 2017, we entered into an Asset Contribution and Separation Agreement (the “Asset Contribution Agreement”) with Lineage pursuant to which Lineage contributed certain assets and cash to us in exchange for 28,800,000 shares of our common stock.

The assets contributed to us by Lineage included laboratory equipment, patents, patent applications, and certain human pluripotent cell lines and human embryonic progenitor cell lines and shares of LifeMap Sciences, Inc. common stock representing a controlling interest in that company. Concurrently with the contribution of assets to us by Lineage under the Asset Contribution Agreement, we entered into a License Agreement with Lineage pursuant to which Lineage has licensed to us, with rights to sublicense, certain intellectual property, including patents and patent applications and know-how for use in the development, manufacture and commercialization of products or services for the prevention, treatment, amelioration, diagnosis or monitoring of all human and non-human animal diseases and conditions except for the field of medical products, devices and services for the reserved Lineage fields of orthopedic, ophthalmic, and medical aesthetic uses (the “Lineage Exclusive Field”). In addition, Lineage retains an option right, on terms to be negotiated, to license iTR patents in research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of treatments based on iTR in the Lineage Exclusive Field. The licensed patents and know-how relate generally to (a) PureStem^® human embryonic progenitor cell lines, and (b) methods of manufacturing and quality control analysis of cell based therapies derived from pluripotent stem cells. We also received an option to license certain Lineage retained rights outside of orthopedic indications unless a license grant would compete with a Lineage program or products in the Lineage Exclusive Field.

Lineage and certain Lineage subsidiaries also entered into agreements pursuant to which they have licensed or sublicensed to us, on a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty bearing basis, certain additional patents and patent rights and know-how relating to HyStem^® hydrogel technology, human embryonic progenitor cell technology, and human pluripotent stem cell lines and technology for use outside the Lineage Exclusive Fields, or in the case of certain sublicense rights, fields previously licensed to third parties.

The human embryonic progenitor cell lines, human pluripotent stem cell lines, and patents contributed or licensed or sublicensed to us by Lineage and its subsidiaries include our initial product candidates AGEX-BAT1 brown adipocytes and AGEX-VASC1 young vascular cells, and our foundation technologies PureStem^®, HyStem^® and induced tissue regeneration or iTR technology.

Concurrently with the acquisition of assets from Lineage, we sold 4,950,000 shares of common stock for $10.0 million in cash primarily to investors other than Lineage. At the close of the financing, Lineage owned 85.4% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock. On June 7, 2018, we sold 2.0 million shares of common stock for $2.50 per share to Juvenescence Limited (“Juvenescence”) for aggregate cash proceeds to us of $5.0 million. That financing along with the 2017 sales of shares of common stock and subsequent sales of common stock purchase warrants to other private investors allowed us to focus our initial resources on our pre-clinical research and development programs.

On August 30, 2018, Lineage sold 14.4 million of its shares of AgeX common stock to Juvenescence. Upon completion of the transaction, Lineage’s ownership in AgeX was reduced from 80.4% to 40.2% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock, and Juvenescence’s ownership in AgeX was increased from 5.6% to 45.8% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock. As a result, beginning on August 30, 2018, we were no longer considered a subsidiary of Lineage for financial reporting purposes, because on that date, Lineage experienced a “loss of control” of a subsidiary, as defined by generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.

On November 28, 2018 (the “Distribution Date”) Lineage distributed to its shareholders, on a pro rata basis, 12,697,028 shares of the AgeX common stock it then held (the “Distribution”). Immediately after the Distribution, Lineage retained 1,718,972 shares of AgeX common stock, representing approximately 4.8% of the common stock then issued and outstanding. Following the Distribution, our common stock began publicly trading on the NYSE American under the symbol “AGE”.

During August 2018, we expanded our technology platforms by acquiring from Escape Therapeutics, Inc. patents and patent applications related to HLA-G-modified cells and methods of generating allogeneic cells with reduced risk of being rejected by patients regardless of the HLA class I haplotype. These patents are the foundation for our Univercyte™ technology platform.

On March 2, 2021, we announced that AgeX and LyGenesis, Inc. (“LyGenesis”), a privately held biotechnology company developing cell therapies that enable organ regeneration, will proceed to negotiate an agreement for a merger of the two companies. LyGenesis recently received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for its Investigational New Drug application to conduct a Phase 2a clinical trial on the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of its lead cell therapy for patients with end-stage liver disease, with study initiation planned for 2021.

Based on the terms currently being discussed, a newly formed subsidiary of AgeX would merge into LyGenesis. At the closing of the merger, AgeX would issue to LyGenesis stockholders a number of shares of AgeX common stock representing two-thirds of the total number of shares of AgeX common stock to be outstanding immediately following the consummation of the merger on a fully diluted basis, but prior to the issuance of additional shares in a contemplated capital raising transaction following the execution of a merger agreement and contingent on the closing of the merger. Under the terms being discussed, if the merger is completed, AgeX’s pre-merger stockholders would receive an 80% economic interest in AgeX’s induced tissue regeneration or iTR technology; the terms and structure of such economic interest have not yet been determined.

There can be no assurance that the negotiations between AgeX and LyGenesis will result in the execution of a definitive merger agreement on the terms being discussed or at all, or, if a merger agreement is entered into, that the merger will be consummated. The completion of any merger would be subject to approval by a special independent committee of the AgeX Board of Directors and by the respective Boards of Directors of both companies. The merger would also be subject to approval by AgeX stockholders and LyGenesis stockholders, including in each case approval by both a majority of the outstanding shares and by the holders of a majority of the shares not held by Juvenescence Limited.

Juvenescence, the largest shareholder of AgeX, is also the largest shareholder of LyGenesis. Juvenescence beneficially owns approximately 52.7% of the AgeX common stock determined as disclosed in its most recent amendment to its Schedule 13D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and owns approximately 48% of the common stock of LyGenesis (assuming the conversion of its convertible debt into equity). The Chairman of AgeX’s Board of Directors, Dr. Gregory Bailey, is the Chief Executive Officer of Juvenescence. Two directors of LyGenesis, James Mellon and David Ellam, are the Chairman and the Chief Financial Officer of Juvenescence, respectively.

On March 15 2021, AgeX disposed of its interest in its majority-owned subsidiary LifeMap Sciences, Inc. through a cash-out merger. See Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report.

Additional Information

AgeX is incorporated in the State of Delaware. Our common shares trade on the NYSE American under the symbol “AGE.” Our principal executive offices are located at 1101 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 201, Alameda, CA 94501, and our phone number at that address is (510) 671-8370. Our website address is www.agexinc.com. The information on, or that can be accessed through our website is not part of this Report. We make available, free of charge through our website, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after the reports are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

iTR^TM, and UniverCyte^TM, are trademarks of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. HyStem^® and PureStem^® are registered trademarks of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Emerging Growth Company

We are an “emerging growth company” under the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act of 2012 or the JOBS Act. As an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of specified reduced disclosure and other requirements that are otherwise applicable, in general, to public companies that are not emerging growth companies. These provisions include:

We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of our common equity securities pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”); (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt securities during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).

The JOBS Act permits an emerging growth company to take advantage of an extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies. However, we have elected to comply with newly adopted or revised accounting standards when they become applicable to public companies because our financial statements were previously consolidated with those of our former parent company Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. which is not an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act and is therefore not permitted to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards that become applicable to public companies. This election under the JOBS Act to not delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards is irrevocable.

Overview of Our Opportunity in Age-Related Diseases

To date, conventional pharmaceutical approaches to the chronic degenerative conditions associated with aging have provided limited benefit. Often the approaches offer merely relief from the symptoms of ageing and age-related disease, rather than targeting underlying disease processes. We believe this is about to change through harnessing the power of new cellular and molecular technologies. We aim to lead this coming revolution with our pioneering technologies to restore tissue and organ function. Our cell therapy approach is focused on generating and delivering new cells to patients. Our iTR approach is focused on reversing the age of cells already in the body, where our research team in February 2020 published that they had converted the cells of a 114-year-old to young pluripotent stem cells in the lab [J. Lee et al., Induced pluripotency and spontaneous reversal of cellular aging in supercentenarian donor cells, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communication, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.02.092].

Aging is one of the most significant demographic trends of our time. As shown in Figure 1, the U.S. Census Bureau projects a sharp rise in the number of Americans over 80 years of age, with an acceleration occurring between the years 2020 and 2030.

Figure 1. Projected increase in the numbers of the U.S. population over 80 years of age (U.S. Census Bureau)

This demographic shift associated with 76 million aging baby boomers poses a significant challenge to our healthcare system and our economy as a whole. The unsolved problem relates to the fact that chronic conditions account for about 80% of total health care expenditures in the United States, with the elderly having a higher prevalence of chronic degenerative disease than the young. Approximately 80% of older adults have one chronic disease, and 68% have two or more.

Our technology platforms reflect over 25 years of research and development in cell immortality and regenerative medicine. It is designed to address some of the largest unmet needs of an aging population by translating state-of-the-art laboratory science relating to aging into meaningful therapeutic biologicals and drugs.

Overview of Our Product Candidates

Our product pipeline includes two cell-based and two iTR-based product candidates in development.

Our lead cell-based therapeutic candidates in development are AGEX-BAT1 and AGEX-VASC1:

Our lead small molecule drug-based therapeutic candidate for induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR) in discovery is AGEX-iTR1547 and our lead biologic candidate for iTR is AGEX-iTR1550:

Our currently marketed research products include cGMP ES Cells (human embryonic stem or “hES”) cells produced under current good manufacturing practices (or “cGMP”) and PSC-derived cells for research:

Overview of Our Technology Platforms

The technology underlying our product development programs is based on telomerase-mediated cellular immortality and regenerative biology. By “telomerase-mediated cellular immortality” we refer to the fact that cells that express sufficient levels of a protein called telomerase are capable of replicating without limit. By “regenerative biology,” we refer to novel methods to regenerate tissues afflicted with age-related chronic degenerative disease such as peripheral vascular disease and ischemic heart disease as well as age-related metabolic disorders such as those associated with Type II diabetes and obesity, as well as others. We utilize telomerase-expressing regenerative Pluripotent Stem Cells, or PSCs, for the manufacture of cell-based therapies. We own or have licensed numerous patents and patent applications covering methods and compositions relating to this technology platform.

Our core technology platforms provide us with a strong foundation for successfully addressing many of the diseases of ageing by focusing on broad therapeutic applicability and commercially scalable technologies:

1. PureStem: AgeX’s allogeneic cell derivation and manufacturing platform, based on human embryonic progenitors, which are cells in state of development between embryonic stem cells and adult cells. We believe PureStem has the potential to solve several major challenges faced by the cell therapy industry by generating cellular therapeutics which would:

In addition, we believe PureStem cells may have advantages over mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which may only survive transiently in the body and exert any short-term benefit by releasing paracrine factors, which may limit their potential of MSCx.

MSCs neither engraft nor become specialized cells. On the other hand, cells derived from PureStem progenitors will be young, not prone to the disadvantages associated with older cells, and are expected to become permanently engrafted in the body to deliver a true regenerative outcome. To date, AgeX has isolated more than 200 cell types from PureStem.

2. UniverCyte™: AgeX’s pioneering technology to genetically modify allogeneic donor cells to potentially become hypoimmunogenic/universal, so they can potentially be transplanted into all patients in an off-the- shelf manner, without the normal need for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching between donor and receipt or immunosuppression. UniverCyte utilizes a potent molecule called HLA-G. HLA is a group of related proteins that helps the immune system distinguish the body’s own proteins from proteins made by foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria. HLA-G’s only known physiological role in nature is to prevent destruction of a semi-allogeneic fetus by the maternal immune system. UniverCyte could potentially avoid immune rejection of transplanted cells, solving a major challenge facing the allogeneic cell therapy industry. In addition to utilizing UniverCyte™ for its own future cell therapy products, AgeX may make UniverCyte™ available to other cell therapy companies through licensing arrangements.

3. HyStem^®: Delivery technology to stably engraft cells or slowly release small molecules in the body for greater safety and efficacy. The key advantages of HyStem^® over competitors may include: (1) higher cell retention, survival, proliferation and engraftment; (2) biodegradability which can be fine-tuned; (3) non-immunogenicity; (4) immunosuppressive in nature; (5) ease of usage; and (6) scalability.

4. Induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR^TM): The aim of iTR is to return aged cells back to a youthful state, thereby inducing a capacity for scarless regeneration characteristic of early developing tissues, without reverting cells to pluripotency. This technology is sometimes referred to as “partial reprogramming” or “epigenetic reprogramming of aging”. This novel approach may trigger complete regeneration of cells, and potentially even complex tissues, damaged as a result of age-related degenerative processes or trauma. The premise behind iTR is that aging, and in turn degenerative diseases of old age, are a result of the loss of two characteristics of cells; namely, replicative immortality and regenerative capacity. These two characteristics are present in embryonic cells but are lost at the embryonic to fetal transition (EFT). With this loss, humans can no longer generate new cells or repair damaged cells scarlessly and in sufficient numbers to maintain health. We discovered that cells begin expressing the gene COX7A1 at the EFT when regeneration is commonly lost. Therefore the gene may be a key inhibitor of cellular regeneration. For example, we have discovered that restoring a regenerative pattern of COX7A1 gene expression may facilitate hair regeneration in mouse models. In addition, we have invented multiple platforms for delivering iTR using small molecules as well as biologic strategies such as those using gene therapy to transiently express reprogramming factors. We have filed patent applications on the use of iTR in a wide array of degenerative conditions including cancer.

5. ESI cell lines: AgeX has six clinical-grade human embryonic stem cell lines, they are distinguished as the first clinical-grade human pluripotent stem cell lines created under current Good Manufacturing Practice as described in Cell Stem Cell (2007;1:490-4). They are listed on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stem Cell Registry in the USA and are among the best characterized and documented stem cell lines in the world. ESI-053 is among only a few pluripotent stem cell lines from which a derived cell therapy product candidate has been granted FDA IND clearance for human studies. The FDA cleared an IND application from ImStem Biotechnology, one of our sublicensees, for a MSC product derived from ESI-053 for multiple sclerosis. This was believed to be the first MSC product derived from an pluripotent stem line to be accepted for a human trial by the FDA. The ESI cell lines are available as research or clinical grade product, and have been offered since 2006.

Business Strategy

Each of our four proprietary platform technologies, PureStem^® for cell derivation and manufacturing, UniverCyte™ for generation of hypoimmunogenic cells, iTR^TM for reversing the age of cells already in the body and HyStem^® for cell or small molecule-based iTR delivery, presents AgeX with a multiplicity of attractive opportunities which we may pursue. Given these platform technologies may be highly desirable to multiple academic and biopharma companies due to their broad applicability and potentially important clinical and commercial benefits, AgeX plans to pursue different business models for these platforms:

Each of these models may provide particular benefits to AgeX in terms of financing and efficiency of operations. However, each alternative has potential disadvantages as well. If AgeX out-licenses its technology it will avoid the costs and risks of research and development, clinical trials, regulatory approval, manufacturing, and commercialization of product candidates, but the revenues AgeX would receive from commercialization of products developed under those arrangements would likely be limited to royalties on product sales and potentially licensing fees and milestone payments representing a relatively small portion of total product revenues. Similarly, co-development and marketing or similar arrangements would permit AgeX to share costs and risks but would also require AgeX to share revenues from the product candidates that may be successfully developed and commercialized. See “Risk Factors” elsewhere in this Report for information about certain risks associated with reliance on arrangements with third parties for research, product development, clinical trials, manufacturing, and commercializing product candidates.

We may finance our iTR research and development through Reverse Bio. To the extent that such financing is obtained through the sale of capital stock or other equity securities to investors or other biopharma companies by Reverse Bio, or the sale of Reverse Bio shares held by AgeX, our equity interest in Reverse Bio and its iTR business would be diluted.

Background of Human Aging

Cell Immortality

There is a growing consensus in the scientific community that human aging is due in large part to the aging of individual cells in the various tissues of the body (somatic cells). In contrast, the reproductive lineage of cells (germ-line) perpetuate the human species from generation-to-generation without limit and continue to generate new people over the millennia.

In 1961, Dr. Leonard Hayflick first reported that normal human cells in the body (unlike the germ-line) can proliferate for only a finite number of times (typically fewer than 100 times). This phenomenon, known as the “Hayflick Limit”, “cell mortality”, or “cellular aging”, is a normal property of somatic cells. In the 1990s, our CEO, Dr. Michael D. West, founded a biotechnology company called Geron Corporation, where his team isolated for the first time the human gene called “Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase” or “telomerase.” In 1998, Geron scientists in collaboration with scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, published the result that telomerase could stop the aging of human cells, or could “immortalize” them.

Figure 2. The Germ-line/soma dichotomy wherein germ-line cells express telomerase, maintain telomere length, and exhibit replicative immortality, while body (somatic) cells lack telomerase, showing progressive telomere shortening until they reach the Hayflick limit.

In 1994, Dr. West’s group demonstrated through an assay for measuring telomerase activity that nearly 90% of cancer cell types cultured in the laboratory or tumors surgically removed from patients abnormally express telomerase. This broke the then dogma that there was no common mechanism at work in cancer. Scientists have concluded that cell mortality, while being detrimental in old age, benefits us early in life by helping to repress cancer cell growth. Figure 2 illustrates this dichotomy wherein immortal cells such as the germ-line cells that perpetuate the species are immortal through telomerase activity while body (somatic) cells lack telomerase expression, and as a result show progressive telomere shortening and a finite lifespan (are mortal).

The Weismann Barrier

Early in the evolution of life, primitive unicellular and even multicellular organisms may have lacked programmed aging as a result of the potential of their cells having the potential for both replicative immortality and regeneration. However, in more complex animals such as mammals, somatic cells lose not only replicative immortality, but after most organ systems are formed during embryonic development, they also lose full regenerative potential. This repression of both telomerase-mediated cell immortality and regeneration potential is called the “Weismann Barrier” (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. The Weismann Barrier coincides with the loss of both replicative immortality and regeneration. Levels of expression of the gene COX7A1 provide a useful marker of the loss of regenerative potential.

PSCs represent the earliest stages of human development and are the first normal human cells cultured in the laboratory that display both telomerase-mediated replicative immortality and regenerative potential. Therefore, our scientists utilized these cells as well as the primitive regenerative cells derived from them, called “PureStem^®” cell lines, in research where they were compared to diverse adult cells on the mortal side of the Weismann barrier to uncover the mechanisms regulating the loss of regenerative potential. Artificial intelligence algorithms were used to parse millions of gene expression data points and the results were published in late 2017. Figure 3 shows the Weismann Barrier and the associated rise of a gene expression marker of the non-regenerative state designated COX7A1. This proprietary marker, along with other insights obtained from the research, provides us with a window into this biology and a means of screening for agents capable of restoring a regenerative state to old nonregenerative cells. It is anticipated that such agents may not only reset the pattern of gene expression in adult cells back to that their regenerative counterparts but may also induce tissue regeneration when applied in vivo in the context of age-related degenerative disease. Since the previously mentioned 2017 publication described the re-emergence of the regenerative phenotype in the majority of cancer cell lines, the discoveries may open the door to potentially important diagnostic and therapeutic implications as well.

Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs)

Figure 4. Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs) possess both telomerase-mediated replicative immortality and regenerative potential, capable of producing all human cell types.

In an effort to utilize telomerase-mediated immortality and regenerative biology in the development of novel therapeutics, in the mid-1990s, Dr. West, organized a collaboration with Drs. James Thomson, John Gearhart, and Roger Pedersen that led to the first isolation of PSCs. In contrast to other types of cells, PSCs are unique by at least two important criteria. The first criterion relates to the ability of pluripotent cells to proliferate, or make more copies of themselves, indefinitely, that is to say, they are “immortal”. The second relates to the ability of PSCs to differentiate into any of the hundreds of specialized cell types in the body. This replicative immortality of PSCs facilitates the industrial scalability of product. We believe that many of these cell types have potential for regenerating function in tissues damaged by degenerative diseases when transplanted. A small sampling of these cell types is shown in Figure 4. Unlike PSCs, adult stem cells typically have severely-reduced scale-up potential (are mortal unlike immortal PSCs), and have passed the Weismann Barrier, and are therefore limited in their ability to regenerate normal tissue when transplanted in vivo. Therefore, we believe that PSC-based cellular therapeutics have significant competitive advantages over cell-based therapeutics being developed by many adult stem cell companies.

Our Technology Platforms

PureStem^® Technology

Regulatory approval of cell- and tissue-based products require high standards of quality control. In the case of stem cell-derived products, there is a high standard for insuring the known identity, purity, and reproducibility of the cells to be administered. PSCs provide certain advantages over adult stem cell products when used in the manufacture of cell-based therapeutics for the treatment of age-related disease. These advantages include:

PureStem^® technology is based on the observation that embryonic anlagen of many tissues in the human body are naturally comprised of highly proliferative cells with relatively long telomere length. Therefore, it is possible to generate clonal lineages of these cells in vitro. Cells derived from adult tissues commonly permanently cease to divide after a certain number of doublings, a condition known as senescence. In addition, adult and even fetal tissues largely contain differentiated cells often with limited or no capacity of replication in vitro. As a result, the clonal expansion of human embryonic progenitor cell types allows not only a novel and more facile point of scalability but also generates populations of cells that are multipotent instead of pluripotent, and therefore markedly easier to define identity, purity, and potency.

We have studied the fate of over 200 diverse PureStem cell lines in thousands of differentiation conditions. This was accomplished by thawing individual cryopreserved PureStem cell lines, culturing them in the laboratory, and then exposing the cells to factors that differentiate cells such as protein growth and differentiation factors, hormones, and small molecules implicated in causing cells to change from one type of cell into another (differentiation). Using individual cells from the over 200 diverse PureStem cell lines previously isolated and cryopreserved, we treated the diverse cells with thousands of differentiation conditions, prepared RNA, and determined the gene expression pattern of the cells using gene expression microarrays. These experiments have shown that the PureStem cell lines display site-specific markers that identify not only the type of cells, but also where in the body the cells would normally reside. Therefore, in the example of cartilage cells, it was possible to produce diverse types of cartilage in this manner. We have licensed from our former parent company Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (“Lineage”) PureStem applications outside of orthopedics, medical aesthetics, and certain ophthalmological applications.

We have chosen two PureStem applications for our initial product development based on unmet medical need along with other factors. The first product candidates are AGEX-BAT1, brown adipose tissue or BAT cells for the treatment of metabolic disorders such as obesity or Type II diabetes, and AGEX-VASC1, vascular endothelial progenitors for the treatment of age-related ischemic disease such as that leading to peripheral vascular disease and ischemic heart disease. These cells will be formulated in a delivery matrix designated HyStem^® to promote viability of the graft as well as to localize the cells to the intended site in the body.

HyStem^® Delivery Technology

HyStem^® is a patented biomaterial that mimics the extracellular matrix that is the structural network of macromolecules surrounding cells in the body. The extracellular matrix is essential for normal cellular function and survival of transplanted cells. Many tissue engineering and regenerative cell-based therapies are expected to benefit from the delivery of therapeutic cells in a matrix for precise localized delivery and survival. HyStem is a unique hydrogel that has been shown to support cellular attachment in vivo. Current research at medical institutions has shown that HyStem is compatible with a wide variety of cells and tissue types including those of the brain, bone, skin, cartilage, vascular system and heart. The technology underlying HyStem hydrogels was developed at the University of Utah and was been exclusively licensed to Lineage for human therapeutic applications and sublicensed to AgeX for certain fields. The HyStem technology is based on a unique thiol cross-linking chemistry to prepare hyaluronan-based matrices as hydrogels. Since the first published report in 2002, there have been numerous academic scientific publications supporting the biocompatibility of thiol cross-linked hyaluronan-based matrices and their applications as medical devices and in cell culture, tissue engineering, and animal models of cell-based therapies.

Figure 5. AgeX plans to utilize the HyStem technology for the delivery of cell-based therapeutics.

Due to the unique cross-linking chemistry, HyStem matrices have the ability to be safely combined with living cells and subsequently injected or applied locally as a hydrogel which allows the gel to conform to the three-dimensional contour of a tissue. Building upon this platform, we initially plan to use HyStem for cell-based therapy.

The building blocks for HyStem hydrogels may vary with the application but typically include combinations of hyaluronan, gelatin, or heparin, each of which has been thiol-modified. Hydrogels are formed by cross-linking mixtures of these thiolated macromolecules with polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA). The rate of gelation and the hydrogel stiffness can be controlled by varying the amount of cross-linker. An important attribute of HyStem hydrogels is their large water content, over 98%. As a result, these hydrogels have a high permeability for oxygen, nutrients, and other water-soluble metabolites.

UniverCyte™

Our UniverCyte^™ technology uses a proprietary, novel, modified form of HLA-G and is intended to permit donor cells to be transplanted into patients without donor-patient tissue matching and without administering immunosuppressant medication. Immunosuppressive drugs can reduce patient resistance to infectious diseases and cancers as well as cause organ and other toxicities. Reducing or eliminating the need for immunosuppressants after cell transplantation by use of hypoimmunogenic cells may make therapies universally available. We plan to use or license the use of this patented technology to produce genetically-modified master cell banks of pluripotent stem cells that can then be differentiated into any young cell type of the human body that now express the immune tolerogenic molecule.

Products and Product Candidates

Our Therapeutic Product Candidates

AGEX-BAT1 - Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) Progenitors

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is abundant early in life but lost precipitously with age. This tissue is believed to generate heat through expression of a gene called UCP1. In addition, the high levels of glucose and lipid uptake by the tissue is believed to balance metabolism in young people. In contrast, central obesity and Type II diabetes has been correlated with low levels of BAT.

Figure 6. Human tissue-derived BAT cells (left) stained red for the presence of UCP1 show a minority of cells being true BAT cells. PureStem-derived AGEX-BAT1 cells are uniformly UCP1 positive.

The demonstration in published literature in the public domain that the transplantation of BAT from young mice to obese diabetic mice resulted in weight loss and increased insulin sensitivity has led to a search for a source of industrially-scalable clinical grade BAT cells as well as an appropriate matrix for lipotransfer. There currently is no FDA-approved matrix for cell transplantation. However, Lineage has obtained a CE Mark for the marketing of HyStem (Renevia) for cell-assisted lipotransfer procedures in Europe. Therefore, we believe HyStem can be used for the delivery of BAT cells produced using PureStem technology. As shown in Figure 6, the AGEX-BAT1 progenitors strongly express the BAT marker UCP1 when induced to differentiate and show a relatively high degree of purity compared to human tissue-derived BAT.

We have entered into a Sponsored Research Agreement with Ohio State University using AGEX-BAT1 in mice to determine whether transplantation of AgeX-BAT1 cells may lead to improvements in diet-induced obesity, metabolic health including glucose metabolism, and cardiac function. For purposes of this proof of concept work, two different cell transplant matrices will be tested, HyStem and a 3-D silk scaffold.

AGEX-VASC1 - Vascular Progenitors

PureStem technology can also yield highly purified embryonic vascular components. As shown below, select clonal lines express markers such as VE-Cadherin (CDH5) and PECAM1, as well as VWF and other markers of venous, arterial, and lymphatic endothelium. Flow cytometry shows purity indistinguishable from 100%.

In addition to vascular endothelial cells, we have characterized vascular smooth muscle cell progenitors. This makes it possible for us to construct two of the key cellular components of arterial vessels, such as those compromised in coronary artery disease.

Figure 7. PureStem-derived vascular endothelial cell lines are capable of regenerating young vasculature (bottom left) and appear to have essentially 100% purity by FACs analysis.

HyStem hydrogels have been successfully used in cell transplantation research in animal models and in a CE marked product developed by Lineage for autologous adipose tissue preparations to restore and/or augment facial volume as a treatment of facial lipoatrophy after subcutaneous fat volume loss. AgeX’s near term goal is to optimize process development for planned animal preclinical testing of AgeX-VASC1 formulated in HyStem for delivery into ischemic heart tissue to regenerate collateral circulation.

AGEX-iTR1547 — Induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR^TM)

Leveraging our assets in pluripotency and bioinformatics, we have performed research manipulating cellular immortality and regenerative biology in human cells. In 2010, our scientists while at Lineage demonstrated the reversal of the developmental aging of human cells using transcriptional reprogramming technology. In 2017, we published certain markers of the Weismann barrier, and the high prevalence of a reversion back before the Weismann barrier in diverse cancer cell types cultured in vitro.

We extended this research to determine whether reprogramming can be modified to only reverse the aging of cells back before the Weismann Barrier, not back to pluripotency. We have utilized for example the gene COX7A1 as a marker of cells that have lost regenerative potential (crossed the Weismann Barrier). As shown in Figure 8, our proprietary formulation AGEX-iTR1547 has demonstrated initial capability of reducing the expression of the marker gene COX7A1 back to before the Weismann Barrier without reverting the cells to pluripotency. When implemented in vivo, this partial reprogramming, or iTR, would be expected to induce tissue regeneration, and when combined with telomerase, could modulate both cellular immortality and regenerative biology for therapeutic effect. In addition to the small molecule product candidate designated iTR1547, we have invented biological interventions based, for example, on gene therapy. Our inventions relating to iTR biologics disclose both DNA and RNA-based strategies. Our gene delivery iTR product candidate is designated iTR1550. We are performing research to optimize AGEX-iTR1547 and in parallel a gene delivery formulation designated AGEX-iTR1550 in order to initiate preclinical studies of one or both of the agents on the scarless regeneration of the skin.

Figure 8. PSCs such as ES Cells and PureStem EP Cells display a regenerative capacity like cells that have not cross the Weismann Barrier. During pre- and post-natal development, skin cells become increasingly incapable of scarless regeneration as reflected in increasing COX7A1 expression. iPS cell reprograming reverts cells back to pluripotency, while AgeX-iTR1547 reverts cells back only to a point prior to the Weismann Barrier (regenerative state).

Status and Development Plan

The product candidates we have chosen are in the discovery stage of development. Prior to filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the initiation of clinical trials of our initial product candidates, AGEX-BAT1, AGEX-VASC1, and AGEX-ITR1547/AGEX-iTR1550 a number of important research and development goals will need to be achieved, including discovery-level research for the qualification of reagents used in the manufacture of the product, completion of the standard operating procedures to be used (SOPs), complete the methods and documentation for characterization of the product; and producing and testing the genetic modifications in the master cell banks of the pluripotent stem cells under current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) in order to produce product that will not illicit immune rejection following transplantation. In addition, we will be required to expand the numbers of the pluripotent stem cell master cell banks for future use; produce working cell banks from which the product will be manufactured for clinical trials; produce the relevant product under cGMP conditions; and expand the number of relevant cells and cryopreserve them under cGMP conditions. In addition, we will be required to design the pre-clinical studies including the study endpoints, perform biosafety testing and release the first clinical batch based on preliminary characterization results, and complete full product characterization. Biosafety testing will necessarily include pilot testing in animals such as (NOD/SCID) mice, dosing spiking studies at early and later endpoints, tumorgenicity and biodistribution studies to determine whether the cells form undesired tumors or migrate to inappropriate sites respectively in the animal. Lastly, we will need to define the clinical trial and regulatory strategy and hold Pre-Pre-IND and Pre-IND meetings with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as successfully submit an investigational new drug application or IND to the FDA and receive clearance to begin trials. Thereafter, we will need to demonstrate safety and efficacy of the product in human clinical trials in Phase I and II trials, and continued safety and efficacy for achieving the desired endpoint in Phase III trials, potentially then leading to product registration. See “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business Operations” for discussion of risks relating to product development and clinical trials. These include, but are not limited to, failure to successfully complete the aforementioned studies due to the failure of the product, processes, or skills of our employees, unforeseen delays in the development process, failure to raise requisite financing, or failure to receive permission from the FDA to advance product development. To the extent we license development of one or more product candidates to third parties or enter into a collaboration arrangements for product development, our licensees or collaborators would need to undertake and achieve the foregoing goals.

Because our product candidates are still in the discovery stage, our choice of product candidates and development plans are subject to change based on a variety of factors. We may determine to abandon the development of one or more of our product candidates, or we may prioritize the development of one or more product candidates, or we may select or acquire and prioritize the development of new product candidates. Our choice and prioritization of product candidates for development will be influenced by a variety of factors, including but not limited to:

Other Products

Neural Stem Cells

During January 2020 we began a research collaboration under a Sponsored Research Agreement with the University of California at Irvine (UCI) using our PureStem technology to derive neural stem cells, with the goal of developing cellular therapies to treat neurological disorders and diseases. The collaboration’s initial work is expected to be concluded during 2021. The primary goal of the research will be to develop a robust method of deriving neural stem cells from PSCs in sufficient quantity and with sufficient purity and identity for use in cell based therapy. The initial focus will be on Huntington’s disease, while other potential targets may include Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and stroke. UCI has already accumulated safety and efficacy animal data that may support an IND submission to the FDA for the commencement of clinical trials to treat Huntington’s disease.

The collaboration includes an opportunity for us to organize a company to be jointly owned with UCI and certain researchers to pursue clinical development and commercialization of cell therapies derived using licensed inventions arising from the research program, as well as certain patent pending technology for neural stem cell derivation, and certain technical data to support IND submissions.

ESI BIO Research Products

We, through our ESI BIO research product division, market a number of products related to pluripotent stem cells including, research-grade as well as cGMP-grade human PSC lines. We plan to contract with third parties where the third parties to allow them to utilize cGMP PSC lines in defined fields of application in exchange for certain compensation including the payment of royalties to us if they are successful in developing and commercializing a product.

Subsidiaries

As of and for the year ended December 31, 2020, AgeX consolidated the following subsidiaries:

All material intercompany accounts and transactions between AgeX and its subsidiaries have been eliminated in consolidation.

Manufacturing

We presently do not have any manufacturing facilities and we will need to rely on third party contract manufacturers for the production of our cell lines and product candidates and to comply with quality manufacturing processes and controls.

Facilities

Until December 31, 2020, when our lease expired, our offices and research laboratory were located in approximately 23,911 square feet of space in a building in an office and research park at 965 Atlantic Avenue, Alameda, California. On November 3, 2020, AgeX entered into a one year lease effective January 1, 2021 for office space only comprising of 135 square feet in a building in an office and research park at 1101 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 201, Alameda, California. Accordingly, we no longer have our own research laboratory facilities.

Commercialization Plan

With the exception of our research product sales which generate a trivial amount of revenues, we currently have no commercialized or marketed products such as FDA-approved drugs in our portfolio. As a result, we have not yet assembled an infrastructure for sales and marketing. At the point in time, if ever, that our product candidates approach clearance or approval, we plan to develop a commercial plan that may initially include strategic marketing partnerships.

Intellectual Property

Patents and Trade Secrets

We rely primarily on patents and contractual obligations with employees and third parties to protect our proprietary rights. We have sought, and intend to continue to seek, appropriate patent protection for important and strategic components of our proprietary technologies by filing patent applications in the U.S. and certain foreign countries. There are no assurances that any of our intellectual property rights will guarantee protection or market exclusivity for our products and product candidates. We also use license agreements both to access technologies developed by other companies and universities and to convey certain intellectual property rights to others. Our financial success will be dependent, in part, on our ability to obtain commercially valuable patent claims, to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights, and to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others if we are unable to obtain enabling licenses.

The patents for our core programs are summarized below.

AGEX-BAT1

Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) Progenitor Cells: The pending patent applications related to BAT progenitor cells, which are owned by AgeX, include U.S. and international patent applications. The applications are directed to the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (including hES cells) into progenitor cell types capable of making the cellular components of brown fat. The patents also describe culture and purification methods. The approximate expiration dates of the BAT patents, if issued, will range from 2034 to 2036. The AGEX-BAT1 product may also rely on the HyStem patents, which are described in detail below under the heading “HyStem^® Technology”.

AGEX-VASC1

Vascular Progenitors: The pending patent application pertaining to purified vascular progenitor cells and embryonic vascular components are owned by AgeX or an AgeX subsidiary or licensed from Lineage. The patents include U.S. patent applications and are directed to methods to enhance vascular tube networks, compositions of pericyte progenitor cells, compositions of exosomes containing angiogenic molecules, compositions of vascular and lymphatic cells, and methods to culture and purify the cells or components thereof. The approximate expiration dates of the vascular progenitor patents, if issued, range from 2032 to 2038. We plan to file an international patent application claiming priority from a pending US provisional application by the filing deadline, which could lead to a patent that if issued would expire in 2039. The AGEX-VASC1 product may also rely on the HyStem patents, which are described in detail below, under the heading “HyStem^® Technology”.

AGEX-iTR1547 and AGEX-iTR1550

Induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR^TM): The pending patent applications related to the iTR programs, which are owned by AgeX, include applications pending, for example, in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Japan and a pending international patent application. These patents and patent applications are directed to compositions and methods for healing damaged tissue using the iTR treatment methods. The patent applications are also directed to treatment methods by regenerating aging tissue by modulating genes involved in tissue regeneration, including reprogramming cells and tissues back to a regenerative state. The approximate expiration dates of the iTR patents, if issued, will range from 2034 to 2041.

Other AGEX Licensed and Sublicensed Patents

PureStem^® Progenitor Cells: The patents and pending applications related to our PureStem^® technology include patents and applications in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. These patents are directed to methods for generating diverse isolated progenitor cell lines which generally do not express COX7A1 and combinations of other methods for employing pluripotent stem cell lines suitable for clinical use. The pending applications are directed to clonally purified human embryonic progenitor cell lines and methods for reproducible, large scale production of clonally purified human embryonic progenitor cells, compositions and methods for generating diverse cell types, and assays useful in identifying hES cell lines and pluripotent cells resulting from the transcriptional reprogramming of somatic cells that have embryonic telomere length. The approximate expiration date of the PureStem^® issued patents is 2031 and the approximate date of expiration of the pending patents, if issued, will range from 2029 to 2032.

The PureStem^® patent portfolio includes patents and pending applications licensed from Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., which later became Ocata Therapeutics, Inc. (“Ocata”). The Ocata issued patents cover methods for reprogramming animal differentiated somatic cells to undifferentiated cells and methods for producing differentiated progenitor cells using morula-derived or inner cell mass cells from a blastocyst and expire from approximately 2020 to 2026. The Ocata pending applications relate to methods for the derivation of cells that have a reduced differentiation potential using PSCs, methods for reprogramming animal differentiated somatic cells to undifferentiated cells and methods for producing differentiated progenitor cells using morula-derived or inner cell mass cells from a blastocyst. The Ocata pending patents, if issued, will expire between 2020 and 2026.

HyStem^® Technology: AgeX has a sublicense to the HyStem technology from Lineage and the technology was originally developed by the University of Utah Research Foundation with patents issued in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, UK, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Japan, Australia, and South Africa. The patents have claims covering compositions, pharmaceutical compositions with living cells methods of crosslinking, methods of making, methods of administering the compositions, and the use of the synthetic extracellular matrix in both research and clinical applications. The expiration dates of the HyStem^® patents range from 2023 to 2027.

ESI Human Embryonic Stem Cell (hES) Cell Lines: AgeX licenses rights to the ES Cell International Pte. Ltd. patent portfolio with patents issued in the United States, Australia, Israel, UK, Singapore, Japan, and applications pending in the US and Europe. The patents are directed to methods for the differentiation of or enhancing the differentiation of stem cells into cardiomyocytes, neural cells, and pancreatic endoderm cells, compositions of pancreatic progenitor cells, methods of promoting the attachment, survival and/or proliferation of substantially undifferentiated stem cells in culture, methods for identifying and selecting cardiomyocytes, methods of freezing stem cells or progenitor cells, methods for identifying cardiogenic factors, compositions and methods for modulating spontaneous differentiation of a stem cell, methods of modulating the differentiation of undifferentiated, pluripotent human embryonic stem cells in culture, isolated endodermal progenitor cells, methods for transducing human embryonic stem cells, cell culture systems. The pending applications are directed to methods for the differentiation of hES cells into the three cell lineages, including for example cardiomyocytes, skeletal muscle cells, vascular endothelial cells, and pancreatic endoderm cells, as well as, various culture and purification methods and compositions and methods of treatment. The ESI issued patents will expire from 2019 to 2027, and the approximate date of expiration of the pending patents, if issued, will range from 2022 to 2027.

UniverCyte (HLA-G) Technology: In August 2018, we acquired from Escape Therapeutics patents and patent applications related to HLA-G-modified cells and methods of generating allogeneic cells with reduced risk of being rejected by patients regardless of the HLA class I haplotype. The patents and pending application related to our HLA-G modified cells technology include patents issued in the United States, Australia and Japan and applications are pending in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. The patents are directed to cells which are genetically modified to express a Human Leukocyte Antigen-G (HLA-G) and have reduced immunogenicity, and nucleic acid compositions useful for generating the genetically modified cells. The pending applications are directed to compositions and methods for generating cells which are genetically modified to express HLA-G having reduced immunogenicity, nucleic acid compositions useful for generating the genetically modified cells, and methods of producing artificial tissues using the genetically modified cells. The approximate expiration date of the UniverCyte™ (HLA-G) issued patents is 2033 and the approximate date of expiration of the pending patents, if issued, will also be 2033. We intend to use the UniverCyte™ technology in the development of our two lead product candidates, AGEX-BAT1 and AGEX-VASC1 for the treatment of Type II diabetes and peripheral vascular disease and ischemic heart disease, respectively. In addition, we may seek to license out or form collaborations for the use of our UniverCyte™ technology.

General Risks Related to Obtaining and Enforcing Patent Protection

There is a risk that any patent applications that we file and any patents that we hold or later obtain could be challenged by third parties and be declared invalid or infringing on third-party claims. Litigation, interferences, oppositions, inter partes reviews or other proceedings are, have been and may in the future be necessary in some instances to determine the validity and scope of certain of our proprietary rights, and in other instances to determine the validity, scope or non-infringement of certain patent rights claimed by third parties to be pertinent to the manufacture, use or sale of our products. We may also face challenges to our patent and regulatory protections covering our products by third parties, including manufacturers of generics and biosimilars that may choose to launch or attempt to launch their products before the expiration of our patent or regulatory exclusivity. Litigation, interference, oppositions, inter partes reviews, administrative challenges or other similar types of proceedings are unpredictable and may be protracted, expensive and distracting to management. The outcome of such proceedings could adversely affect the validity and scope of our patent or other proprietary rights, hinder our ability to manufacture and market our products, require us to seek a license for the infringed product or technology or result in the assessment of significant monetary damages against us that may exceed any amounts that we may accrue on our financial statements as a reserve for contingent liabilities. An adverse determination in a judicial or administrative proceeding or a failure to obtain necessary licenses could prevent us from manufacturing or selling our products. Furthermore, payments under any licenses that we are able to obtain would reduce our profits derived from the covered products and services.

The enforcement of patent rights often requires litigation against third-party infringers, and such litigation can be costly to pursue. Even if we succeed in having new patents issued or in defending any challenge to issued patents, there is no assurance that our patents will be comprehensive enough to provide us with meaningful patent protection against our competitors.

In addition to relying on patents, we rely on trade secrets, know-how, and continuing technological advancement to maintain our competitive position. We have entered into intellectual property, invention, and non-disclosure agreements with our employees, and it is our practice to enter into confidentiality agreements with our consultants. There can be no assurance, however, that these measures will prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our trade secrets and know-how, or that others may not independently develop similar trade secrets and know-how or obtain access to our trade secrets, know-how, or proprietary technology.

Our Licensing Arrangements

License Agreement with Lineage: iTR, PureStem^® and Telomere Length

Concurrently with the contribution of assets to us by Lineage under an Asset Contribution and Separation Agreement, we entered into a License Agreement with Lineage pursuant to which Lineage has licensed to us, with rights to sublicense, certain intellectual property, including patents and patent applications and know-how for use in the development, manufacture and commercialization of products or services for the prevention, treatment, amelioration, diagnosis or monitoring of all human and non-human animal diseases and conditions except for the field of medical products, devices and services for the reserved Lineage fields of orthopedic, ophthalmic, and medical aesthetic uses (the “Lineage Exclusive Field”). In addition, Lineage retains an option right, on terms to be negotiated, to license iTR patents in research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of treatments based on iTR in the Lineage Exclusive Field. The licensed patents and know-how relate generally to (a) Lineage’s PureStem^® human embryonic progenitor cell lines, and (b) telomere length and DNA quality control analysis in pluripotent stem cells.

The Lineage patent rights licensed to us are exclusive and worldwide except for existing third-party licenses, and for medical products, devices, and services related to tendon. We additionally received an option to license certain Lineage retained rights outside of orthopedic indications unless a license grant would compete with a Lineage program or products in the Lineage Exclusive Field.

The License Agreement contains customary provisions pertaining to patent maintenance, enforcement, and defense and related cost allocations, insurance, indemnification, and termination of the license in the event of a breach or default by a party, or the bankruptcy or other insolvency event with respect to a party.

Additional License and Sublicense Agreements

Lineage and certain Lineage subsidiaries also entered into agreements pursuant to which they have licensed or sublicense to us, on a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty bearing basis, certain additional patents and patent rights and know-how relating to Lineage HyStem^® hydrogel technology, human embryonic progenitor cell technology, and human pluripotent stem cell lines and technology for use outside the Lineage Exclusive Fields, or in the case of certain sublicense rights, fields previously licensed to third parties.

Hydrogel Patent License and Sublicense

Lineage has granted to us a sublicense of certain patents licensed to Lineage by the University of Utah Research Foundation (the “Utah Sublicense”), and has granted to us a direct license of certain patents held by Lineage (the “HyStem License”), related to HyStem^® hydrogel technology for use outside of the Lineage Exclusive Field for products that include cells and that are covered by certain other patents contributed, licensed, or sublicensed to us by Lineage. We may only develop, sell, and otherwise commercialize a product under the Utah Sublicense and HyStem License if we spend at least a low seven figure amount on research with respect to the product. Lineage will agree to provide us with a reasonable amount of the hydrogel product for the purpose of our research for we will pay Lineage’s cost of manufacturing and supplying the hydrogel.

The Utah Sublicense and the HyStem License will not permit sublicensing and will be non-exclusive for medical products, devices, and services related to human tendon, and will be exclusive for all other licensed fields. The Utah Sublicense and HyStem License will expire upon the latest expiration date of a sublicensed or licensed patent, unless terminated earlier pursuant to the respective agreements. We will pay Lineage a royalty, in an amount not exceeding 10 percent, on “net sales” as defined in the Utah Sublicense and HyStem License. Commencing June 30, 2019, and for each 12-month period thereafter, we will pay Lineage a minimum royalty in the low five figures regardless of the actual amount of net sales for the applicable period.

The foregoing description of the HyStem License and the Utah Sublicense is qualified in its entirety by reference to the HyStem License Agreement and the Utah Sublicense Agreement, copies of which are filed as Exhibits to our Registration Statement on Form 10 and are incorporated herein by reference.

Sublicense of Certain Progenitor Patents

Lineage has granted to us a sublicense of certain patents licensed to Lineage that pertain to the derivation of human embryonic progenitor cell lines. The sublicense will permit us to use the sublicensed patents for the treatment, palliation, diagnosis, or prevention of any disease, disorder or health condition outside of the Lineage Exclusive Field. The sublicense expires the later of July 10, 2028 or the latest expiration date of a sublicensed patent, unless terminated earlier pursuant to the terms of the sublicense.

We will pay Lineage a royalty on “net sales,” as defined in the sublicense agreement, until the royalty payments to Lineage’s licensor by Lineage total $1.2 million and thereafter will pay to Lineage a low single digit royalty on its own net sales and a low double digit royalty on sublicensing consideration.

If we grant a sublicense to use the patents, we will pay Lineage a portion of any consideration received for a sublicense, including but not limited to, upfront payments and milestones, and non-cash exchanges or considerations, but not payments for developing a product, service or process. If we become obligated to pay royalties to one or more affiliates of Lineage for the use of patent rights related to this sublicense and as a result, the royalties payable to Lineage with respect to royalties under the sublicense plus the royalties payable to the affiliates would exceed a designated amount of net sales, the royalties due to Lineage may be reduced but not less than the designated amount. In addition, we will pay to Lineage a royalty on “net sales,” as defined in the sublicense agreement, by the sublicensee. If we become obligated to pay royalties to one or more affiliates of Lineage for the use of patent rights related to this sublicense and as a result, the royalties payable to Lineage with respect to sales by a sublicensee plus the royalties payable to the affiliates would exceed a designated amount of net sales, the royalty due on net sales by the sublicensee may be reduced but not less than the designated amount.

The sublicense agreement includes reciprocal cross-licenses between Lineage and us with respect to any new patents that may be issued based on the use of the sublicensed patents. Any such license to Lineage will be exclusive in the Lineage Exclusive Field and nonexclusive in all other licensed fields. Any such license from Lineage to us will be for use outside the Lineage Exclusive Field and for medical products or services involving tendon. Each license will be for a term of 10 years.

The foregoing description of the sublicense agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the sublicense agreement, a copy of which is filed as an exhibit to our Registration Statement on Form 10 and is incorporated herein by reference.

ESI License

Lineage’s subsidiary ES Cell International Pte, or ESI, has granted to us non-exclusive rights to certain ESI patents and human pluripotent stem cell lines, or ESI Cell Lines, for use outside of the Lineage Exclusive Field and outside certain other fields for which ESI has previously granted licenses. We will pay ESI a 2% royalty on “net sales,” as defined in the license agreement. If we become obligated to pay royalties to one or more third party or to Lineage for the use of patent rights related to this license and as a result the royalties payable to ESI with respect to this license agreement plus the royalties payable to such third party or Lineage would exceed a designated amount of net sales, the royalty due on net sales by the sublicensee may be reduced. The patent license expires upon the latest expiration date of a licensed patent, unless terminated earlier pursuant to the terms of the license. All other rights under the license are terminable by either party under the conditions specified in the license.

If we grant rights to any third party to use ESI Cell Lines derived under cGMP, we will pay ESI a share of all consideration that we receive as consideration for the grant of those rights, including all cash and non-cash consideration but not royalties. We are not permitted to grant sublicenses to the licensed ESI patents but may sublicense the use of ESI Cell Lines.

AgeX also will pay ESI 5% of any fees that AgeX may receive for providing third parties with a “drug master file” for submission to the FDA or similar regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions that may be used to provide confidential detailed information about facilities, processes or articles used in the manufacturing, processing, packaging and storing of one or more human drugs, including but not limited to biologics, cell lines and cell products.

AgeX has agreed not to provide ESI cell lines to third parties for use to develop cell therapies to treat spinal cord injury, and has agreed to allow ESI to designate up to three oncology indications to be treated by dendritic cell therapies derived from ESI cell lines which, through a subsequent amendment to the License Agreement, will be designated as exclusive ESI fields for which AgeX will not provide ESI cell lines to third parties.

The foregoing description of the ESI License Agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the ESI License Agreement, a copy of which is filed as an exhibit to our Registration Statement on Form 10 and is incorporated herein by reference.

Competition

The biotechnology industry is highly competitive and characterized by rapid change (even disruptive advances) that challenge the ability of any one company to maintain leadership. Therefore, we face competition on multiple fronts, including from other biotechnology companies, large pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and government research entities. We believe the competitive advantages of our technology platform and resulting product candidates arise from the large market opportunities addressed by our product candidates, their anticipated safety profile, the expected cost of manufacture of off-the-shelf products, our intellectual property, as well the fundamental and widespread role of cell aging and regeneration in human age-related degenerative disease.

There are numerous biotechnology companies developing therapeutics for human aging, with each company often focusing on a specific molecular pathway within cells. For example, ResTORbio, Inc. is developing modulators of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway to treat immunological and cardiovascular disorders. Calico Life Sciences LLC is a Google-founded research and development company aimed at identifying molecular pathways that control animal lifespan and translating these insights into novel therapeutics designed to increase human healthspan. Calico has not disclosed its lead product development plans. Unity Biotechnology, Inc. focuses on cellular senescence, in particular, the use of agents that can target senescent cells for selective ablation (senolysis). Unity’s stated targeted age-related diseases include osteoarthritis as well as other ophthalmological and pulmonary diseases.

Our therapeutic product candidates in development are likely to face competition from a large number of companies and technological strategies including therapeutics intended to address our lead indications, including:

Many of our competitors have greater financial, collaborative, technical, regulatory, and human resources as well as products more advanced in development than our product pipeline, including products already marketed for our target indications. As a result, these competitors may have great success in obtaining regulatory approvals, reimbursement, or market acceptance. Our competitors, may have greater success in attracting qualified personnel, recruiting clinical trial sites, or in establishing strategic partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies to fund large late-stage clinical trials or product marketing. In addition, our future business could be limited should our competitors commercialize products demonstrated to be more effective, safer, or less expensive than our comparable products.

Government Regulation and Product Approval

Government authorities at the federal, state, and local level, and in other countries, extensively regulate among other things, the development, testing, manufacture, quality, approval, safety, efficacy, distribution, labeling, packaging, storage, record keeping, marketing, import/export, and promotion of drugs, biologics, and medical devices. Authorities also heavily regulate many of these activities for human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products (“HCT/Ps”).

FDA and Foreign Regulation of Therapeutic Products

The FDA and foreign regulatory authorities will regulate our proposed products as drugs, biologicals, or medical devices, depending upon such factors as: the use to which the product will be put, the chemical composition of the product, and the interaction of the product with the human body. In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs and biologicals under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), the Public Health Service Act (“PHSA”), and implementing regulations. In addition, establishments that manufacture human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products are subject to additional registration and listing requirements, including current good tissue practice regulations. To the extent AgeX develops cellular and tissue-based products or therapies, its products will be subject to review by the FDA staff in its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (“CBER”) Office of Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies. In some instances, AgeX’s clinical study protocol for a cell therapy product must be reviewed by the National Institute of Health through its Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee.

Any human drug and biological products that we may develop for testing, marketing, or use in the United States will be subject to rigorous FDA review and approval procedures. After testing in animals to evaluate the potential efficacy and safety of the product candidate, an investigational new drug (“IND”) submission must be made to the FDA to obtain authorization for human testing. Extensive clinical testing, which is generally done in three phases, must then be undertaken at a hospital or medical center to demonstrate optimal use, safety, and efficacy of each product in humans. Each clinical study is conducted under the auspices of an independent Institutional Review Board (“IRB”). The IRB will consider, among other things, ethical factors, the safety of human subjects, and the possible liability of the institution.

Clinical trials are generally conducted in three “phases.” Phase I clinical trials are conducted in a small number of healthy volunteers or volunteers with the target disease or condition to assess safety. Phase II clinical trials are conducted with groups of patients afflicted with the target disease or condition in order to determine preliminary efficacy, optimal dosages and expanded evidence of safety. In some cases, an initial trial is conducted in diseased patients to assess both preliminary efficacy and preliminary safety, in which case it is referred to as a Phase I/II trial. Phase III trials are large-scale, multi-center, comparative trials and are conducted with patients afflicted with the target disease or condition in order to provide enough data to demonstrate the efficacy and safety required by the FDA. The FDA closely monitors the progress of each of the three phases of clinical testing and may, at its discretion, re-evaluate, alter, suspend, or terminate the clinical trial based upon the data which have been accumulated to that point and its assessment of the risk/benefit ratio to the intended patient population. All adverse events must be reported to the FDA. Monitoring of all aspects of the study to minimize risks is a continuing process. The time and expense required to perform this clinical testing can far exceed the time and expense of the research and development initially required to create the product.

No action can be taken to market any therapeutic product in the U.S. until an appropriate New Drug Application (“NDA”) or Biologics License Application (“BLA”) has been approved by the FDA. Submission of the application is no guarantee that the FDA will find it complete and accept it for filing. If an application is accepted for filing, following the FDA’s review, the FDA may grant marketing approval, request additional information, or deny the application if it determines that the application does not provide an adequate basis for approval. FDA regulations also restrict the export of therapeutic products for clinical use prior to FDA approval. To date, the FDA has not granted marketing approval to any pluripotent stem-based therapeutic products and it is possible that the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies may subject our product candidates to additional or more stringent review than drugs or biologicals derived from other technologies.

The FDA offers several programs to expedite development of products that treat serious or life-threatening illnesses and that provide meaningful therapeutic benefits to patients over existing treatments. A product may be eligible for breakthrough therapy designation if it treats a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates it may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints. In 2017, FDA established a new regenerative medicine advanced therapy (“RMAT”) designation as part of its implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act. An RMAT is defined as a cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering product, human cell and tissue product, or any combination product using such therapies or products, with limited exceptions that is intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition; and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that it has the potential to address unmet medical needs for such a disease or condition. RMAT designation provides potential benefits that include more frequent meetings with FDA to discuss the development plan for the product candidate and eligibility for rolling review and priority review. Products granted RMAT designation may also be eligible for accelerated approval on the basis of a surrogate or intermediate endpoint reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit, or reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites, including through expansion to additional sites. Once approved, when appropriate, the FDA can permit fulfillment of post-approval requirements under accelerated approval through the submission of clinical evidence, clinical studies, patient registries, or other sources of real world evidence such as electronic health records; through the collection of larger confirmatory datasets; or through post-approval monitoring of all patients treated with the therapy prior to approval.

Some of our future products may be eligible for RMAT designation. There is no assurance that the FDA will grant breakthrough therapy, accelerated approval or RMAT status to any of our product candidates.

In addition to regulations in the United States, we are subject to a variety of foreign regulations governing clinical trials and commercial sales and distribution of our products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a drug candidate, we must obtain approval by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries or economic areas, such as the European Union, before we can commence clinical trials or market products in those countries or areas. The approval process and requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary greatly from place to place, and the time may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval.

Combination Products

If we develop any products that are used with medical devices, they may be considered combination products, which are defined by the FDA to include products comprised of two or more regulated components or parts such as a biologic and a device. For example, we may use HyStem^® hydrogels to administer one or more pluripotent stem cell-based therapy products. When regulated independently, biologics and devices each have their own regulatory requirements. However, regulatory requirements for a combination product comprised of a biologic administered with a delivery device can be more complex, because in addition to the individual regulatory requirements for each component, additional combination product regulatory requirements may apply.

510(k) Medical Devices & Notification

Product marketing in the U.S. for most Class II and limited Class I devices typically follows a 510(k) pathway. To obtain 510(k) clearance, a manufacturer must submit a premarket notification demonstrating that the proposed device is substantially equivalent to a legally marketed device, referred to as the predicate device. A predicate device may be a previously 510(k) cleared device or a device that was in commercial distribution before May 28, 1976 for which the FDA has not yet called for submission of PMA applications, or a product classification created by FDA when it granted de novo authorization. The manufacturer must show that the proposed device has the same intended use as the predicate device, and it either has the same technological characteristics, or it is shown to be equally safe and effective and does not raise different questions of safety and effectiveness as compared to the predicate device.

There are three types of 510(k)s: traditional; special, for devices that are modified and the modification needs a new 510(k) but the modification does not affect the intended use or alter the fundamental scientific technology of the device; and abbreviated, for devices that conform to a recognized standard. The special and abbreviated 510(k)s are intended to streamline review. The FDA intends to process special 510(k)s within 30 days of receipt and abbreviated 510(k)s within 90 days of receipt. Though statutorily required to clear a traditional 510(k) within 90 days of receipt, the clearance pathway for traditional 510(k)s can take substantially longer.

After a device receives 510(k) clearance, any modification that could significantly affect its safety or effectiveness, or that would constitute a major change in its intended use, requires a new 510(k) clearance or could require a PMA approval. The FDA requires each manufacturer to make this determination in the first instance, but the FDA can review any such decision. If the FDA disagrees with a manufacturer’s decision not to seek a new 510(k) clearance, the agency may retroactively require the manufacturer to seek 510(k) clearance or PMA approval. The FDA also can require the manufacturer to cease marketing and/or recall the modified device until 510(k) clearance or PMA approval is obtained.

Post-Approval Matters

Even after initial FDA approval has been obtained, further studies may be required to provide additional data on safety or to gain approval for the use of a product as a treatment for clinical indications other than those initially targeted. Data resulting from these clinical trials may result in expansions or restrictions to the labeled indications for which a product has already been approved.

FDA Regulation of Manufacturing

The FDA regulates the manufacturing process of pharmaceutical products, human tissue and cell products, and medical devices, requiring that they be produced in compliance with cGMP. The FDA regulates and inspects equipment, facilities, laboratories, and processes used in the manufacturing and testing of products prior to providing approval to market products. If after receiving approval from the FDA, a material change is made to manufacturing equipment or to the location or manufacturing process, additional regulatory review may be required. The FDA also conducts regular, periodic visits to re-inspect the equipment, facilities, laboratories and processes of manufacturers following an initial approval. If, as a result of those inspections, the FDA determines that that equipment, facilities, laboratories or processes do not comply with applicable FDA regulations and conditions of product approval, the FDA may seek civil, criminal or administrative sanctions and/or remedies against the manufacturer, including suspension of manufacturing operations. Issues pertaining to manufacturing equipment, facilities or processes may also delay the approval of new products undergoing FDA review.

Federal Funding of Research

The National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) has adopted guidelines on the use of hES cells in federally funded research, consistent with President Obama’s Executive Order which rescinded President Bush’s Executive Orders that permitted federal funding of research on hES cells using only the limited number of hES cell lines. The central focus of the guidelines is to assure that hES cells used in federally funded research are derived from human embryos that were created for reproductive purposes, are no longer needed for this purpose, and are voluntarily donated for research purposes with the informed written consent of the donors. Those hES cells that were derived from embryos created for research purposes rather than reproductive purposes, and other hES cells that were not derived in compliance with the guidelines, are not eligible for use in federally funded research.

California State Regulations

The state of California has adopted legislation and regulations that require institutions that conduct stem cell research to notify, and in certain cases obtain approval from, a Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (“SCRO Committee”) before conducting the research. Under certain California regulations, all hES cell lines that will be used in our research must be acceptably derived. California regulations further require certain records to be maintained with respect to stem cell research and the materials used. AgeX programs that involve the use of stem cells will be reviewed by a SCRO Committee to confirm compliance with federal and state guidelines. The hES cell lines that we use are all on the NIH registry of lines that have been reviewed and meet standards for federal funding grants.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) has issued regulations to protect the privacy and security of protected health information used or disclosed by health care providers. HIPAA also regulates standardization of data content, codes, and formats used in health care transactions and standardization of identifiers for health plans and providers. Penalties for violations of HIPAA regulations include civil and criminal penalties.

The requirements under these regulations may periodically change and could have an effect on our business operations if compliance becomes substantially more costly than under current requirements. New laws governing privacy may also be adopted in the future. We can provide no assurance that we will remain in compliance with diverse privacy requirements in all of the jurisdictions in which we do business. Failure to comply with privacy requirements could result in civil or criminal penalties, which could have a materially adverse effect on our business.

Federal and State Fraud and Abuse Laws

We are also subject to various laws pertaining to healthcare “fraud and abuse,” including anti-kickback laws and false claims laws. Anti-kickback laws make it illegal to solicit, offer, receive or pay any remuneration in exchange for or to induce the referral of business, including the purchase or prescription of a particular drug that is reimbursed by a state or federal program. The term “remuneration” has been broadly interpreted to include anything of value. Several courts have interpreted the statute's intent requirement to mean that if any one purpose of an arrangement involving remuneration is to induce referrals of federal healthcare covered business, the Anti‑Kickback Statute has been violated. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, collectively the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), among other things, amended the intent requirement of the federal Anti‑Kickback Statute such that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate, in order to commit a violation. Violations of fraud and abuse laws may be punishable by criminal and/or civil sanctions, including fines and civil monetary penalties, as well as by the possibility of exclusion from federal healthcare programs (including Medicare and Medicaid). Liability under the false claims laws may also arise when a violation of certain laws or regulations related to the underlying products (e.g., violations regarding improper promotional activity or unlawful payments) contributes to the submission of a false claim.

Additionally, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) prohibits U.S. corporations and their representatives from offering, promising, authorizing or making payments to any foreign government official, government staff member, political party or political candidate in an attempt to obtain or retain business abroad. The scope of the FCPA includes interactions with certain healthcare professionals in many countries. Other countries have enacted similar anti-corruption laws and/or regulations.

Healthcare Reform

In the United States and foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes to the healthcare system that could affect our future results of operations. There have been and continue to be a number of initiatives at the United States federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs.

In particular, the ACA has had, and is expected to continue to have, a significant impact on the healthcare industry. The ACA was designed to expand coverage for the uninsured while at the same time containing overall healthcare costs. Substantial new provisions affecting compliance have also been enacted, which may require us to modify our business practices with healthcare providers and entities, and a significant number of provisions are not yet, or have only recently become, effective.

Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA, and there may be additional challenges and amendments to the ACA in the future, including efforts to implement changes to the law that may impact reimbursement for drugs and biologics.

Further, there has been heightened government scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed pharmaceutical products. Such scrutiny has resulted in several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to pharmaceutical product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for products. Such proposals have included, for example, measures to permit Medicare Part D plans to negotiate the price of certain drugs under Medicare Part B and to allow some states to negotiate drug prices under Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services has already started the process of soliciting feedback on some of these measures and, at the same, is immediately implementing others under its existing authority. Although some of these and other proposals will require authorization through additional legislation to become effective, Congress and the President are likely to continue to seek new legislative and/or administrative measures to control drug costs. At the state level, legislatures have become increasingly aggressive in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.

It is uncertain whether and how future legislation, whether domestic or foreign, could affect prospects for our product candidates or what actions foreign, federal, state, or private payors for health care treatment and services may take in response to any such health care reform proposals or legislation. Adoption of price controls and other cost-containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures reforms may prevent or limit our ability to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our product candidates.

Moreover, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (the “DSCSA”) imposes obligations on manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, among others, related to product tracking and tracing. While some requirements of the DSCSA began in November 2014, many key requirements, development of standards, and the system for product tracing will continue to be phased in until 2023. Among the requirements of the DSCSA, manufacturers will be required to provide certain information regarding the drug product to individuals and entities to which product ownership is transferred, label drug product with a product identifier, and keep certain records regarding the drug product. The transfer of information to subsequent product owners by manufacturers will eventually be required to be done electronically. Manufacturers will also be required to verify that purchasers of the manufacturers' products are appropriately licensed. Further, under this new legislation, manufacturers will have drug product investigation, quarantine, disposition, and notification responsibilities related to counterfeit, diverted, stolen, and intentionally adulterated products, as well as products that are the subject of fraudulent transactions or that are otherwise unfit for distribution such that they would be reasonably likely to result in serious health consequences or death.

Reimbursement

Medicare, Medicaid, and Third-Party Reimbursement Programs

Sales of the therapeutic products and medical devices that we and our subsidiaries may develop will depend, in part, on the extent to which the costs of those products will be covered by third-party payors, such as government health programs, commercial insurance, and managed healthcare organizations.

The containment of healthcare costs has become a priority of federal and state governments and the prices of drugs have been a focus in this effort. In the United States, the federal and many state governments have adopted or proposed initiatives relating to Medicaid and other health programs that may limit reimbursement or increase rebates that providers are required to pay to the state. In addition to government regulation, managed care organizations in the United States, which include medical insurance companies, medical plan administrators, health-maintenance organizations, hospital and physician alliances and pharmacy benefit managers, continue to put pressure on the price and usage of healthcare products. Managed care organizations and third-party payers seek to contain healthcare expenditures, and their purchasing strength has been increasing due to their consolidation into fewer, larger organizations and a growing number of enrolled patients. Adoption of price controls, cost-containment measures, and more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit our net revenue and results. If third-party payors do not consider the products we develop to be cost-effective compared to other therapies, they may not cover our products as a benefit under their plans or, if they do, the level of payment may not be sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a profitable basis.

Efforts by government agencies and state legislatures in the United States could affect us and our industry. The ACA increased many of the mandatory discounts and rebates and imposed a new Branded Prescription Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Importers fee payable by manufacturers. The new U.S. presidential administration has identified repealing and replacing the ACA as a priority. The timing and method of the full or partial repeal or amendment of the ACA or the adoption of new healthcare legislation remains uncertain, but impending changes will likely impact the number of patient lives covered, the quality of the insurance, Medicaid eligibility and the level of patient protections provided.

Other legislative and regulatory actions that would have a significant impact include: changes to how the Medicare program covers and reimburses current and future drugs, changes in the Federal payment rate or new rebate requirements for covered drugs and policies for payment in Medicare or Medicaid; and changes to coverage and payment for biosimilars, including the current Medicare biosimilar coverage and payment policies intended to encourage biosimilar adoption, or other policies that provide easier substitution or reimbursement advantages.

We face similar issues outside of the United States. In some non-U.S. jurisdictions, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing drug pricing vary widely from country to country. For example, the EU provides options for its member states to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. A member state may approve a specific price for aa medicinal product, or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of placing a medicinal product on the market. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for pharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products. Historically, products launched in the EU do not follow price structures of the United States and generally tend to be significantly lower.

Employees

As of December 31, 2020, we employed 6 persons on a full-time basis and 5 persons on a part-time basis. Two full-time and one part-time employees hold Ph.D.’s in one or more fields of science.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our business is subject to various risks, including those described below. You should consider the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this Report, which could materially adversely affect our proposed operations, our business prospects, and financial condition, and the value of an investment in our business. There may be other factors that are not mentioned here or of which we are not presently aware that could also affect our business operations and prospects.

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Capital Resources

We are a discovery-stage development company with limited capital resources and have incurred operating losses since our inception. We anticipate that we will incur continued losses for the foreseeable future and will need to continue to raise capital to finance our operations, and we do not know if we will ever attain profitability.

We are a discovery-stage therapeutics company with a limited operating history and limited capital resources. Since our inception in August 2017, we have incurred operating losses and negative cash flows and we expect to continue to incur losses and negative cash flow in the future. Our operating losses were $10.7 million and $12.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $97.1 million as of December 31, 2020.

These net losses and negative cash flows have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital. We expect to continue to incur significant additional operating losses for the foreseeable future and will need to continuously raise additional capital to fund our operations. The amount of our expenses and anticipated losses will depend on our capital resources and whether we license out product development to third parties or participate ourselves directly or financially with collaborators in research, development and commercialization efforts. Our capital needs will increase greatly if we advance our product candidates through clinical trials and seek regulatory approval and, if we receive FDA approval, commercialize our product candidates ourselves.

The amount of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses, our ability to raise the capital needed to continue our operations, and our ability to generate revenues. If we or any licensees or collaborators are unable to develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, or if revenues from any product candidates that receive marketing approval are insufficient, we will not achieve profitability. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability. If we are unable to achieve and then maintain profitability, the value of our equity securities will be materially and adversely affected.

We need additional financing to execute our operating plan and continue to operate as a going concern.

As required under Accounting Standards Update 2014-15, Presentation of Financial Statements-Going Concern (ASC 205-40), we have the responsibility to evaluate whether conditions and/or events raise substantial doubt about our ability to meet our future financial obligations as they become due within one year after the date the financial statements are issued. Based on our most recent projected cash flows, we believe that our cash and cash equivalents, even with the amount of credit remaining available under our loan agreements with Juvenescence, would not be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated operating and other funding requirements for the next twelve months from the date of filing of this Report. These factors raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern and the report of our independent registered public accountants accompanying our audited financial statements in this Report contains a qualification to such effect.

Because we will continue to experience net operating losses, our ability to continue as a going concern is subject to our ability to obtain necessary capital from outside sources, including obtaining additional capital from the sale of our common stock or other equity securities or assets, obtaining additional loans from financial institutions or investors, and entering into collaborative research and development arrangements or licensing some or all of our patents and know-how to third parties while retaining a royalty and other contingent payment rights related to the development and commercialization of products covered by the licenses. Our continued net operating losses and the risks associated with the development of our product candidates and technologies, and our deferral of in-house development of our product candidates and technologies in connection with recent reductions in staffing and the closing of our research laboratory facilities, will increase the difficulty in obtaining such capital, and there can be no assurances that we will be able to obtain such capital on favorable terms or at all. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development activities, or ultimately not be able to continue as a going concern.

Our ability to borrow funds under our loan agreements with Juvenescence is subject to Juvenescence’s discretion in funding our requests for loans, and all of the loans under the 2020 Loan Agreement will become collateralized by our assets and those of most of our subsidiaries upon Juvenescence’s request.

During February 2021, our 2019 Loan Facility Agreement (the “2019 Loan Agreement”) with Juvenescence was amended to increase the total credit line from $2.0 million to $6.0 million, of which we had previously borrowed $2.0 million. All loans in excess of the initial $2.0 million that we previously borrowed are subject to Juvenescence’s discretion and accordingly there is no assurance that we will be able to borrow additional funds under the 2019 Loan Agreement. Under the terms of our 2020 Secured Convertible Facility Agreement (the “2020 Loan Agreement”) with Juvenescence described in Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report, we have borrowed $7.5 million of the $8.0 million credit line through January 2021. The 2020 Loan Agreement provides that at Juvenescence’s request, loans under the 2020 Loan Agreement will become collateralized by all of our assets and those of our subsidiaries ReCyte Therapeutics and Reverse Bio (the “Guarantor Subsidiaries”) under the terms of a Security and Pledge Agreement. If the loans are collateralized and an Event of Default, as defined in the 2020 Loan Agreement, or other default under the Security and Pledge Agreement, were to occur after Juvenescence could foreclose on its security interest and sell our assets and those of our Guarantor Subsidiaries to satisfy the unpaid principal balance of those loans plus costs incurred in connection with the Event of Default and the foreclosure and sale of the assets. As a result, we and our Guarantor Subsidiaries could lose some or all of our respective assets, leaving few if any assets available for the operation of our business or the business of our subsidiaries, or for sale for the benefit of our stockholders through a winding up of our affairs and liquidation of our assets.

The terms of our 2020 Loan Agreement with Juvenescence could make it more difficult for us to raise additional capital from other sources.

The 2020 Loan Agreement with Juvenescence, among other matters: (a) requires AgeX and the Guarantor Subsidiaries to grant Juvenescence a security interest and lien on substantially all of our respective assets at Juvenescence’s request; (b) requires AgeX to issue additional common stock purchase warrants to Juvenescence; (c) required AgeX to reduce spending on employee salaries and consulting fees; and (d) prohibits AgeX and the Guarantor Subsidiaries from borrowing funds from other lenders or engaging in certain secured transactions without the consent of Juvenescence, unless we repay all amounts owed to Juvenescence under the 2020 Loan Agreement and the funds we borrowed under the 2019 Loan Agreement. The requirement that we reduce our spending on employee salaries and consulting fees necessitated staffing reductions that resulting in a substantial curtailment of our operations, including our research and development efforts. Accordingly, the terms of the 2020 Loan Agreement and the required curtailment of our operations and research and development plans could make AgeX less attractive to new equity investors and could impair our ability to finance our operations or the operations of our Guarantor Subsidiaries from sources other than Juvenescence.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenue, we may finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements. We do not currently have any committed external source of funds other than a Sales Agreement with Chardan Capital Markets LLC pursuant to which we may sell up to $12.6 million of our common stock in “at-the-market” sales, and as of March 26, 2021, the right to borrow up to an additional $4.5 million in total, subject to Juvenescence’s discretion, under the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement. We will need to seek additional capital regardless of market conditions and the terms of any financings that may be available to us.

To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of shares of our common stock or other equity or convertible debt securities, or debt coupled with warrants or other equity securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a common stockholder. We will need to issue additional common stock purchase warrants to Juvenescence in connection with any additional borrowings under the 2020 Loan Agreement, which to the extent issued will dilute the interests of our other stockholders. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may be required to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

Risks Related to Our Business Operations

Due to our limited financial resources we have reduced our staffing, eliminated our of our research laboratory facilities, and eliminated in-house research and product development work. We will seek opportunities to outsource or license product development and commercialization but there is no assurance that we will be able to do so successfully.

During April 2020, we implemented a plan to reduce spending on employee salaries and consulting fees that resulted in large staff reductions, including the elimination of most of our research personnel and certain management and administrative personnel. We then subleased most of our former laboratory facility space and we did not renew the laboratory facility lease, or lease other laboratory facility space, after our lease expired at the end of 2020. As a result, we do not have a research laboratory facility or a research staff, and we have curtailed development of our product candidates and technologies except for certain research and development work that is being conducted under sponsored research agreements with certain universities and a limited amount of work contracted out to third party service providers. We also may license technologies or product development to, or enter into collaborative arrangements with, other companies in the cell therapy or biopharma industry to conduct research and development, manufacturing, and marketing for AgeX for particular product candidates, but there is no assurance that we will be able to enter into any such agreements on terms acceptable to us.

We may expend our limited resources to pursue one or more particular product candidates or indications and fail to pursue product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success

Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we may focus on research programs and product candidates that we identify for specific indications and we may seek to develop those product candidates through out-sourcing or out-licensing to third parties if we are able to make such arrangements. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that may later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to timely capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate.

We have not tested any of our product candidates in clinical trials. Success in early development and preclinical studies or clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained in later preclinical studies and clinical trials.

Our product candidates have never been evaluated in human clinical trials, and we may experience unexpected or adverse results in the future if any human clinical trials of any of our product candidates are conducted. Typically, it takes about six to ten years to develop a new drug from the time it enters Phase 1 clinical trials to when it is approved for treating patients, but in many cases it may take longer, and the costs of advancing product candidates through clinical trials will be substantial and will tend to increase significantly with each successive clinical trial phase.

Adequate and well-controlled clinical trials will need to demonstrate that our product candidates are safe and effective, with a favorable benefit-risk profile, for use in their target indications before regulatory approvals can be sought for their commercial sale. Any positive results that may be observed for product candidates in preclinical animal models may not be predictive of future clinical trials in humans. Our product candidates may also fail to show the desired safety and efficacy in later stages of clinical development even if they successfully advance through initial clinical trials. Further, some or all of our cell-based therapies under development may require the genetic modification of the pluripotent master cell banks such that the resulting cells can escape immune rejection by the intended patient. There is no certainty that a genetic modification will provide a long-term solution to transplant rejection, or that the modified cells will not cause unanticipated health risks to the patient that could delay or even halt the development of the products.

Many companies in the biotechnology industry have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in early-stage development and there is a high failure rate for product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are subject to varying interpretations, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. Even if a clinical trial demonstrates statistical significance, regulatory agencies may not accept the use of the historical control. Regulatory delays or rejections may be encountered as a result of many factors, including changes in regulatory policy during the period of product development. We cannot be certain that any clinical trials and applications for marketing approval will not face similar setbacks.

Our choice of product candidates and our development plans for our product candidates are subject to change based on a variety of factors, and if we abandon development of a product candidate we may not be able to develop or acquire a replacement product candidate.

We may determine to abandon the development of one or more of our product candidates, or we may change the prioritization of the development of certain product candidates, or we may select or acquire and prioritize the development of new product candidates. Our choice and prioritization of product candidates for development will be influenced by a variety of factors, including but not limited to:

We may determine to expand our organization and obtain laboratory facilities if we are able to raise sufficient capital to do so, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt our operations.

As of December 31, 2020, we had 11 employees. If we are able to obtain sufficient capital and determine to reinstitute our internal research and development efforts, we may have difficulty locating, leasing, and equipping a new laboratory facility and identifying, hiring and integrating new scientific and laboratory personnel. Many of the biotechnology companies that we compete against for qualified personnel and consultants have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles and a longer history in the industry than we do and are better positioned to attract and retain personnel and consultants. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel and consultants, the rate and success at which we can discover and develop product candidates and operate our business will be limited.

Future growth would impose significant additional responsibilities on our management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain, motivate and integrate additional employees, consultants and contractors. Also, our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from our day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, give rise to operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Any growth of administrative resources could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of product candidates. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate and/or grow revenues could be reduced, and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our product candidates and compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.

The commercial success of any of our current or future product candidates will depend upon the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors, and others in the medical community.

Even with approvals from the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, the commercial success of our products will depend in part on the health care providers, patients, and third-party payors accepting our product candidates as medically useful, cost-effective, and safe. Any product that we bring to the market may not gain market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and other health care providers. The clinical development, commercialization, and marketing of cell therapies are at an early-stage, substantially research-oriented, and financially speculative. To date, very few companies have been successful in their efforts to develop and commercialize cell therapies. In general, cell therapies may be susceptible to various risks, including undesirable and unintended side effects, unintended immune system responses, inadequate therapeutic efficacy, potentially prohibitive costs or other characteristics that may prevent or limit their approval or commercial use. Furthermore, the number of people who may use cell- or tissue-based therapies is difficult to forecast with accuracy. Our future success is dependent on the establishment of a large global market for cell therapies and our ability to capture a share of this market with our product candidates.

Even if we, a collaborator, or a licensee of our technology successfully develop and obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, the market may not understand or accept them. Our product candidates represent novel treatments and are expected to compete with a number of more conventional products and therapies manufactured and marketed by others, including major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The degree of market acceptance of any of our products will depend on a number of factors, including without limitation:

Even if a product displays a favorable efficacy and safety profile upon approval, market acceptance of the product will initially remain uncertain. Efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of the products may require significant investment and resources and may never be successful. If our products fail to achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors, and other health care providers, we will not be able to generate sufficient revenue to become or remain profitable.

If the market opportunities for our product candidates are smaller than we believe they are, we may not meet our revenue expectations and, even assuming approval of a product candidate, our business may suffer.

Our projections of the number of potential users of our product candidates in the markets we are attempting to address are based on our beliefs and estimates and include several key assumptions based on our industry knowledge, industry publications, third-party research reports and other surveys. You should bear in mind the following:

If the actual market for any of our product candidates is smaller than we expect, our revenue may be limited and it may be more difficult for us to achieve or maintain profitability.

We will face risks related to the manufacture of medical products for any product candidates that we develop.

The manufacture of medical products, and in particular biologics, is complex and requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls, none of which we presently have. Unless we are able to raise the capital required to construct our own manufacturing facilities and are able to develop the expertise to manage and operate a manufacturing facility of our own, we may need to rely on third-party manufacturers to manufacture any products that we develop. There is no assurance that we will be able to identify manufacturers on acceptable terms or at all. Regardless of whether we do our own manufacturing or rely on third parties to manufacture products for us, we will face all risks related to the manufacture of therapeutic products for use in medicine including the following risks:

In addition, we may rely on third parties to perform release testing on our product candidates prior to delivery to patients. If these tests are not appropriately conducted and test data are not reliable, patients could be put at risk of serious harm which could result in product liability suits.

If we or any third-party manufacturers that we may engage were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide our product candidates to patients in clinical trials or to the medical marketplace would be jeopardized. Any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial supplies could delay the completion of clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, could require us to either commence new clinical trials at additional expense or terminate clinical trials completely.

The regulatory authorities also may, at any time following approval of a product for sale, audit our manufacturing facilities or those of our third-party contractors. If any such inspection or audit identifies a failure to comply with applicable regulations or if a violation of our product specifications or applicable regulations occurs independent of such an inspection or audit, we or the relevant regulatory authority may require remedial measures that may be costly and/or time-consuming for us or a third party to implement and that may include the temporary or permanent suspension of a clinical study or commercial sales or the temporary or permanent closure of a facility. Any such remedial measures imposed upon us or third parties with whom we contract could materially harm our business.

Additionally, if supply from one approved manufacturer is interrupted, there could be a significant disruption in commercial supply. The regulatory agencies may also require additional studies if a new manufacturer is relied upon for commercial production. Switching manufacturers may involve substantial costs and is likely to result in a delay in our desired clinical and commercial timelines.

Further, our product candidates are manufactured by starting with established master cell banks of human embryonic cells and other cells that are cryopreserved. We will be required to expand the numbers of the pluripotent stem cell master cell banks for future use, as well as produce working cell banks from which the product will be manufactured for clinical trials, produce the relevant product under cGMP conditions, expand the number of relevant cells and cryopreserve them under cGMP conditions. We may not be able to expand the numbers of the pluripotent stem cell master cell banks to provide sufficient cells for clinical trial or for commercial scale production. We may not be able to manufacture product that meets release criteria due to sterility, identity or potency issues. We may not have access or be able to make the reagents necessary to manufacture the cells and we may not have access to an adequate supply channels to transport and distribute the products. There are also risks that the cells may be destroyed by interruption in their cryopreservation by means of natural disasters such as earthquakes, power outages, or other unexpected events, or the cells may be determined to be unacceptable as a source of human cellular therapies for reasons we cannot envision. We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of any of our product candidates or products will not occur in the future. If any of our master cell banks are lost or destroyed, including due to systems failure in the cryopreservation processes, our planned clinical trials would be severely delayed, and we would incur significant costs associated with obtaining new supply of cell banks. Accordingly, failures or difficulties faced at any level of our supply chain could adversely affect our business and delay or impede the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates or products and could have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Any therapies that we may develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing cell-based products for us. Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval.

Each of these risks could delay our clinical trials, any approval of our product candidates by the FDA, or the commercialization of our product candidates, and could result in higher costs or deprive us of potential product revenue.

Any cell-based products that receive regulatory approval may be difficult and expensive to manufacture on a commercial scale.

Pluripotent stem cell and progenitor cell derived therapeutic cells have only been produced on a small scale and not in quantities and at levels of purity and viability that will be needed for wide scale commercialization. If we are successful in developing products that consist of cells or compounds derived from pluripotent stem cells or progenitor cells, we will need to develop facilities, processes, and technology for the commercial production of those products. Pluripotent stem cell or progenitor cell based products are likely to be more expensive to manufacture on a commercial scale than most other drugs on the market today. The high cost of manufacturing a product will require that we charge our customers a high price for the product in order to cover our costs and earn a profit. If the price of our products is too high, hospitals and physicians may be reluctant to purchase our products and we may not be able to sell our products in sufficient volumes to recover our costs or to earn a profit.

If we fail to meet our obligations under license agreements, we may lose our rights to key technologies on which our business depends.

Our business will depend on several critical technologies that we have licensed or sublicensed from Lineage or certain Lineage subsidiaries. The license and sublicense agreements impose obligations on us, including payment obligations and obligations to pursue development and commercialization of products and technologies under the licensed patents or technology. If the licensor or sublicensor believes that we have failed to meet our obligations under a license or sublicense agreement, they could seek to limit or terminate our license rights, which could lead to costly and time-consuming litigation and, potentially, our loss of the licensed rights. During the period of any such litigation our ability to carry out the development and commercialization of potential new products or technologies, and our ability to raise any capital that we might then need, could be significantly and negatively affected. If our license rights were restricted or ultimately lost, we would not be able to continue to use the licensed or sublicensed technology in our business.

Our future success depends on our ability to retain our key personnel and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.

Our industry has experienced a high rate of turnover of management personnel in recent years. We are highly dependent on the development, regulatory, commercialization and business development expertise of Michael West, Ph.D., our Chief Executive Officer, as well as the other principal members of our management. Although we have employment agreements with our executive officers, these agreements do not prevent them from terminating their employment with us at any time. In addition, because we will rely on Juvenescence to provide the services of certain administrative and management personnel, we will not have the benefit of the full time and effort of those Juvenescence employees in the management and development of our business.

If we lose one or more of our executive officers or key employees, our ability to implement our business strategy successfully could be seriously harmed. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to develop, gain regulatory approval of and commercialize product candidates successfully. Competition to hire from this limited pool is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these additional key personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also will experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we will rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be engaged by entities other than us and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, our ability to develop and commercialize product candidates will be limited.

Our business and operations could suffer in the event of system failures.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters including earthquakes and tsunamis, terrorism, war, and telecommunication and electrical failures. A loss of or damage to our data, a disruption in access to our data, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, could disrupt our operations, delay or otherwise adversely affect the development of our product candidates, significantly increase our costs, or result in delays in any future regulatory filings we may make.

In addition, our product candidates are manufactured by starting with cells that are stored in a cryopreserved master cell bank. While we believe we have adequate backup should any cell bank be lost in a catastrophic event, it is possible that we or our third-party suppliers and manufacturers could lose multiple cell banks and have our manufacturing severely impacted by the need to replace the cell banks. See “—We will face risks related to the manufacture of medical products for any product candidates that we develop.” We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of any of our product candidates or products will not occur in the future. Any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial supplies could delay the completion of planned clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at additional expense or terminate clinical trials completely. Any adverse developments affecting clinical or commercial manufacturing of our product candidates or products may result in shipment delays, inventory shortages, lot failures, product withdrawals or recalls or other interruptions in the supply of our product candidates or products. Accordingly, failures or difficulties faced at any level of our supply chain could adversely affect our business and delay or impede the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates or products and could have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Security breaches and other disruptions could compromise our information and expose us to liability, and could cause our business and reputation to suffer.

In the ordinary course of business, we collect and store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of the licensors and licensees of the patents and other intellectual property we use, and personally identifiable information of employees and consultants. The secure processing, maintenance, and transmission of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to employee error, malfeasance, or other disruptions. Any such breach could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed, publicly disclosed, lost, or stolen. Any such access, disclosure, theft, or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings or liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, and could disrupt our operations and damage our reputation. Even if we do not incur an interruption of or our operations, fines, penalties, or financial liability to third parties from a security breach, we could suffer a loss of confidence in our services, which could adversely affect our business and competitive position.

Failure of our internal control over financial reporting could harm our business and financial results.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. Internal control over financial reporting includes maintaining records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect our transactions; providing reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary for preparation of our financial statements; providing reasonable assurance that receipts and expenditures of our assets are made in accordance with management authorization; and providing reasonable assurance that unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements would be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting is not intended to provide absolute assurance that a misstatement of our financial statements would be prevented or detected. Because we are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting issuer, we are exempt from the requirement of having our internal controls over financial reporting audited by our independent registered public accountants, which means that material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal controls that might be detected by an audit may not be detected and remedied. If we are successful in developing new medical products and technologies, the commercialization of those products and technologies will place significant additional pressure on our system of internal control over financial reporting. Any failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting could limit our ability to report our financial results accurately and timely or to detect and prevent fraud. Our accounting and other management systems and resources may not be adequately prepared to meet the financial reporting and other requirements to which we will be subject, and failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic and the worldwide attempts to contain it could harm our business and our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely impacted by such pandemic.

The recent global outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19, and the various attempts throughout the world to contain it, have created significant volatility, uncertainty and disruption. In response to government directives and guidelines, health care advisories and employee and other concerns, we have altered certain aspects of our operations. A number of our employees have had to work remotely from home and those on site have had to follow our social distance guidelines, which could impact their productivity. COVID-19 could also disrupt our operations due to absenteeism by infected or ill members of management or other employees, or absenteeism by members of management and other employees who cannot effectively work remotely but who elect not to come to work due to the illness affecting others in our office or laboratory facilities, or due to quarantines. COVID-19 illness could also impact members of our Board of Directors resulting in absenteeism from meetings of the directors or committees of directors, and making it more difficult to convene the quorums of the full Board of Directors or its committees needed to conduct meetings for the management of our affairs.

Additionally, the anticipated economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely impacted financial markets, resulting in high share price volatility, reduced market liquidity, and substantial declines in the market prices of the securities of some publicly traded companies. Volatile or declining markets for equities could adversely affect our ability to raise capital when needed through the sale of shares of common stock or other securities. Accordingly, we cannot assure that adequate financing will be available on favorable terms, if at all. If we are not able to raise the capital we need, we could be forced to modify, curtail, delay, or suspend some or all aspects of planned operations. Sales of additional equity securities could result in significant dilution of the interests of our shareholders.

The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and the various responses might impact our business, operations and financial results will depend on numerous evolving factors that we will not be able to accurately predict, including: the duration and scope of the pandemic; governmental, business and individuals’ actions that have been and continue to be taken in response to the pandemic; and the availability and cost to access COVID-19 tests, vaccines and therapies. Due to the uncertain scope and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertain timing of any recovery or normalization, we are currently unable to estimate the resulting impacts on our operations and financial results. We will continue to actively monitor the issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic and may take further actions that alter our operations, as may be required by federal, state, local or foreign authorities, or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, any customers and stockholders. It is not clear what the potential effects any such alterations or modifications may have on our business, including the effects on our financial results.

We are subject to laws and regulations governing corruption, which will require us to develop, maintain, and implement costly compliance programs.

We must comply with a wide range of laws and regulations to prevent corruption, bribery, and other unethical business practices, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or FCPA, anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws in other countries. The creation and implementation of international business practices compliance programs is costly and such programs are difficult to enforce, particularly where reliance on third parties is required.

Anti-bribery laws prohibit us, our employees, and some of our agents or representatives from offering or providing any personal benefit to covered government officials to influence their performance of their duties or induce them to serve interests other than the missions of the public organizations in which they serve. Certain commercial bribery rules also prohibit offering or providing any personal benefit to employees and representatives of commercial companies to influence their performance of their duties or induce them to serve interests other than their employers. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the U.S. to comply with certain accounting provisions requiring us to maintain books and records that accurately and fairly reflect all transactions of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, and devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls for international operations. The anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA are enforced primarily by the United States Department of Justice. The SEC is involved with enforcement of the books and records provisions of the FCPA.

Compliance with these anti-bribery laws is expensive and difficult, particularly in countries in which corruption is a recognized problem. In addition, the anti-bribery laws present particular challenges in the medical industry because in many countries including China, hospitals are state-owned or operated by the government, and doctors and other hospital employees are considered foreign government officials. Furthermore, in certain countries (China in particular), hospitals and clinics are permitted to sell pharmaceuticals to their patients and are primary or significant distributors of pharmaceuticals. Certain payments to hospitals in connection with clinical studies, procurement of pharmaceuticals and other work have been deemed to be improper payments to government officials that have led to vigorous anti-bribery law enforcement actions and heavy fines in multiple jurisdictions, particularly in the U.S. and China.

It is not always possible to identify and deter violations, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations.

In the medical industry, corrupt practices include, among others, acceptance of kickbacks, bribes or other illegal gains or benefits by the hospitals and medical practitioners from manufacturers of pharmaceutical or other products, distributors or their third party agents in connection with the prescription of certain pharmaceuticals or sale of products. If our employees, affiliates, distributors or third party marketing firms violate these laws or otherwise engage in illegal practices with respect to their sales or marketing of our products or other activities involving our products, we could be required to pay damages or heavy fines by multiple jurisdictions where we operate, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. There have been recent occurrences in which certain hospitals have denied access to sales representatives from pharmaceutical companies because the hospitals wanted to avoid the perception of corruption. If this attitude becomes widespread among our potential customers, our ability to promote our products to hospitals may be adversely affected.

If we and our subsidiaries expand operations internationally, we will need to increase the scope of our compliance programs to address the risks relating to the potential for violations of the FCPA and other anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. Our compliance programs will need to include policies addressing not only the FCPA, but also the provisions of a variety of anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws in multiple foreign jurisdictions, provisions relating to books and records that apply to us as a public company, and include effective training for our personnel throughout our organization. The creation and implementation of anti-corruption compliance programs is costly and such programs are difficult to enforce, particularly where reliance on third parties is required. Violation of the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws can result in significant administrative and criminal penalties for us and our employees, including substantial fines, suspension or debarment from government contracting, prison sentences, or even the death penalty in extremely serious cases in certain countries. The SEC also may suspend or bar us from trading securities on U.S. exchanges for violation of the FCPA’s accounting provisions. Even if we are not ultimately punished by government authorities, the costs of investigation and review, distraction of our personnel, legal defense costs, and harm to our reputation could be substantial and could limit our profitability or our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidates. In addition, if any of our competitors are not subject to the FCPA, they may engage in practices that will lead to their receipt of preferential treatment from foreign hospitals and enable them to secure business from foreign hospitals in ways that are unavailable to us.

Risks Related to Our Industry

We face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological change and the possibility that our competitors may achieve regulatory approval before us or develop therapies that are more advanced or effective than ours, which may harm our business and financial condition, and our ability to successfully market or commercialize our product candidates.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by rapidly changing technologies, competition and a strong emphasis on intellectual property. We may face competition from other companies focused on therapeutics for age-related disease, which is a highly competitive environment. There are numerous biotechnology companies developing therapeutics for human aging, with each company often focusing on a specific molecular pathway within cells. For example, ResTORbio, Inc. is developing modulators of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway to treat immunological and cardiovascular disorders. Calico Life Sciences LLC is a Google-founded research and development company aimed at identifying molecular pathways that control animal lifespan and translating these insights into novel therapeutics designed to increase human healthspan. Unity Biotechnology, Inc. focuses on cellular senescence, in particular, the use of agents that can target senescent cells for selective ablation (senolysis). Unity’s stated targeted age-related diseases include osteoarthritis as well as other ophthalmological and pulmonary diseases. Our therapeutic products in development are likely to face competition from a large number of companies and technological strategies including therapeutics intended to address our lead indications. See “Business – Competition.”

We may also face competition from large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic research institutions, government agencies and public and private research institutions. Many of our current or potential competitors, either alone or with their collaboration partners, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals, and marketing approved products than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and gene therapy industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient, or are less expensive than any products that we may develop or that would render any products that we may develop obsolete or non-competitive. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. In particular, the Ministry of Labor Health and Welfare in Japan may grant SAKIGAKE designation to a competing product candidate, which is designed to provide for faster review and approval for any such product candidate as compared to the conventional process. If any competing product candidate receives SAKIGAKE designation in Japan, it may be commercialized more quickly in Japan than any of our product candidates. Additionally, technologies developed by our competitors may render our potential product candidates uneconomic or obsolete, and we may not be successful in marketing any product candidates we may develop against competitors.

Any product candidates for which we intend to seek approval as biologic products may face competition sooner than anticipated.

The ACA includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed reference biological product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first licensed by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a full BLA for the competing product containing the sponsor’s own pre-clinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of their product. The law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty. While it is uncertain when such processes intended to implement BPCIA may be fully adopted by the FDA, any such processes could have a material adverse effect on the future commercial prospects for our biological products.

There is a risk that any of our product candidates approved as a biological product under a BLA would not qualify for the 12-year period of exclusivity or that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider our product candidates to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for generic competition sooner than anticipated. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biological products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing.

The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, our business will be substantially harmed.

The time required to obtain approval by the FDA and comparable foreign authorities is unpredictable but typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. In addition, approval policies, regulations, or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions. We have not obtained regulatory approval for any product candidate and it is possible that any other product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval. Neither we nor any future collaborator or licensee is permitted to market any of our product candidates in the United States until we receive regulatory approval of a biologic license application, or BLA, from the FDA. It is possible that the FDA may refuse to accept for substantive review any BLAs that we submit for our product candidates or may conclude after review of our data that our application is insufficient to obtain marketing approval of our product candidates.

Prior to obtaining approval to commercialize a product candidate in the United States or abroad, we or our collaborators or licensees will need to demonstrate with substantial evidence from well-controlled clinical trials, and to the satisfaction of the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies, that the product candidate is safe and effective for the intended uses. Results from nonclinical studies and clinical trials can be interpreted in different ways. Even if we believe the nonclinical or clinical data for our product candidates are promising, such data may not be sufficient to support approval by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. The FDA may also require us to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials for our product candidates either prior to or post-approval, or it may object to elements of our clinical development program. Depending on the extent of these or any other FDA-required studies, approval of any BLA or application that we submit may be delayed by several years or may require us to expend significantly more resources than we have available.

Any therapeutic products that we and our subsidiaries may develop cannot be sold until the FDA and corresponding foreign regulatory authorities approve the products for medical use. The need to obtain regulatory approval to market a new product means that:

Approval of our product candidates may be delayed or refused for many reasons, including the following:

Of the large number of potential products in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA or foreign regulatory approval processes and are commercialized. The lengthy approval process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

Ethical, social and legal concerns about research regarding stem cells, could result in regulations restricting or prohibiting the processes we may use. Federal and state agencies, congressional committees and foreign governments have expressed interest in further regulating biotechnology. More restrictive regulations or claims that our products are unsafe or pose a hazard could prevent us from commercializing any products. New government requirements may be established that could delay or prevent regulatory approval of our product candidates under development. It is impossible to predict whether legislative changes will be enacted, regulations, policies or guidance changed, or interpretations by agencies or courts changed, or what the impact of such changes, if any, may be.

Regulatory requirements governing gene and cell therapy products have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. The FDA has established the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies within its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, to consolidate the review of gene therapy and related products, and has established the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee to advise the CBER in its review. Gene therapy clinical trials conducted at institutions that receive funding for recombinant DNA research from the NIH, also are potentially subject to review by the NIH Office of Science Policy’s Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, or the RAC, in limited circumstances. Although the FDA decides whether individual gene therapy protocols may proceed, the RAC public review process, if undertaken, can delay the initiation of a clinical trial, even if the FDA has reviewed the trial design and details and authorized its initiation. Conversely, the FDA can put an investigational new drug application, or IND, on clinical hold even if the RAC has provided a favorable review or an exemption from in-depth, public review. If we were to engage an NIH-funded institution to conduct a clinical trial, that institution’s institutional biosafety committee, or IBC, as well as its institutional review board, or IRB, would need to review the proposed clinical trial to assess the safety of the trial and may determine that RAC review is needed. In addition, adverse developments in clinical trials of gene therapy products conducted by others may cause the FDA or other oversight bodies to change the requirements for approval of any of our product candidates. Similarly, foreign regulatory authorities may issue new guidelines concerning the development and marketing authorization for gene therapy medicinal products and require that we comply with these new guidelines.

Some of our future products may be viewed by the FDA as combination products and the review of combination products is often more complex and more time consuming than the review of other types of products.

Our future products may be regulated by the FDA as combination products. For a combination product, the FDA must determine which center or centers within the FDA will review the product candidate and under what legal authority the product candidate will be reviewed. The process of obtaining FDA marketing clearance or approval is lengthy, expensive, and uncertain, and we cannot be sure that any of our combination products, or any other products, will be cleared or approved in a timely fashion, or at all. In addition, the review of combination products is often more complex and more time consuming than the review of a product candidate under the jurisdiction of only one center within the FDA. We cannot be sure that the FDA will not select to have our combination products reviewed and regulated by only one FDA center and/or different legal authority, in which case the path to regulatory approval would be different and could be more lengthy and costly. If the FDA does not approve or clear our products in a timely fashion, or at all, our business and financial condition will be adversely affected.

If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the study until its conclusion. We may encounter delays in enrolling, or be unable to enroll, a sufficient number of patients to complete any of clinical trials of our product candidates, and even once enrolled we may be unable to retain a sufficient number of patients to complete the trials. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:

In addition, clinical trials of our product candidates will compete with other clinical trials for product candidates of other companies that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us, because some patients who might have opted to enroll in trials of our product candidates may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we expect that clinical trials or our product candidates may be conducted at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in such clinical trial site.

Delays or failures in planned patient enrollment or retention may result in increased costs, program delays or both, which could have a harmful effect on our ability to develop our product candidates or could render further development impossible.

Even if we obtain FDA approval for any of our product candidates in the United States, we may never obtain approval for or commercialize it in any other jurisdiction, which would limit our ability to realize its full market potential.

In order to market any products in any particular jurisdiction, we or a licensee or collaborator will need to establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements on a country-by-country basis regarding safety and efficacy. Approval by the FDA in the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions. However, the failure to obtain approval in one jurisdiction may negatively impact our ability to obtain approval elsewhere. In addition, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not guarantee regulatory approval in any other country.

Approval processes vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and validation and additional administrative review periods. Seeking foreign regulatory approval could result in difficulties and increased costs for us and require additional preclinical studies or clinical trials which could be costly and time consuming. Regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in those countries. We do not have any product candidates approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including in international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in international markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of any product we develop will be unrealized.

Clinical studies are costly, time consuming and inherently risky, and we may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities.

Clinical development is expensive, time consuming and involves significant risk. We cannot guarantee that any clinical studies will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. A failure of one or more clinical studies can occur at any stage of development. Events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include but are not limited to:

Any inability to successfully complete clinical development and obtain regulatory approval could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue. Clinical study delays could also shorten any periods during which our products have patent protection and may allow competitors to develop and bring products to market before we do and may harm our business and results of operations.

Even if a product candidate receives regulatory approval, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense, and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our product candidates.

Any product candidate for that receives marketing approval, along with the manufacturing processes, post-approval clinical data, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, recordkeeping, export, import, advertising and promotional activities for such product, among other things, will be subject to extensive and ongoing requirements of and review by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, establishment registration and drug listing requirements, continued compliance with cGMP requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and recordkeeping and Good Clinical Practice, or GCP, requirements for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval.

The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of genetic medicines to ensure they are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use and if we market our products for uses beyond their approved indications, we may be subject to enforcement action for off-label marketing. Violations of the U.S. federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, relating to the promotion of prescription drugs may lead to FDA enforcement actions and investigations alleging violations of federal and state health care fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws.

In addition, later discovery of previously unknown adverse events or other problems with our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may yield various results, including:

The FDA’s policies may change, and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of any of our product candidates. For example, in December 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act, or Cures Act, was signed into law. The Cures Act, among other things, is intended to modernize the regulation of drugs and biologics and spur innovation, but its ultimate implementation is unclear. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained which would adversely affect our business, prospects and ability to achieve or sustain profitability. We also cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, either in the United States or abroad.

Our product candidates may cause serious adverse events or undesirable side effects or have other properties which may delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or, result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

Serious adverse events or undesirable side effects caused by our product candidates could cause an interruption, delay or halt of clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other comparable foreign authorities. Results of clinical trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects, toxicities or unexpected characteristics, including death.

For example, there have been significant adverse side effects in cell therapy treatments in the past, including reported cases of certain cancers. In addition to side effects that may be caused by our product candidates, the conditioning, administration process or related procedures also can cause adverse side effects, including compromise of a patient’s immune system. If unacceptable side effects arise in the development of our product candidates, we, the FDA, the IRBs at the institutions in which our studies are conducted or Data Safety Monitoring Board, or DSMB, could suspend or terminate our clinical trials or the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease clinical trials or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. We expect to have to train medical personnel using our product candidates to understand the side effect profiles for our clinical trials and upon any commercialization of any of our product candidates. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of our product candidates could result in patient injury or death. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by any such product, including during any long-term follow-up observation period recommended or required for patients who receive treatment using our products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular product candidate, if approved, and could significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

We face potential product liability, and, if successful claims are brought against us, we may incur substantial liability and costs. If the use or misuse of our product candidates harm patients or is perceived to harm patients even when such harm is unrelated to our product candidates, our regulatory approvals could be revoked or could otherwise be negatively impacted, and we could be subject to costly and damaging product liability claims.

The use or misuse of any product candidates in clinical trials and the sale of any products for which we obtain marketing approval exposes us to the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims might be brought against us by consumers, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, or others selling or otherwise coming into contact with our products. There is a risk that our product candidates may induce adverse events. If we cannot successfully defend against product liability claims, we could incur substantial liability and costs. In addition, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims may result in:

We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. If and when we commence clinical trials or obtain marketing approval for any product candidates, we intend to increase our insurance coverage to include clinical use or the sale of commercial products, as applicable; however, we may be unable to obtain product liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on drugs or medical treatments that had unanticipated adverse effects. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us could cause our stock price to decline and, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could adversely affect our results of operations and business.

Our insurance policies are expensive and protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.

We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter. Some of the policies we currently maintain include general liability, employment practices liability, property, auto, workers’ compensation, umbrella, and directors’ and officers’ insurance.

Any additional product liability insurance coverage we acquire in the future, may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive and, in the future, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. If we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we intend to acquire insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products; however, we may be unable to obtain product liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us could cause our share price to decline and, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could adversely affect our results of operations and business, including preventing or limiting the commercialization of any product candidates we develop.

As a public company, it can be difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified people to serve on our Board of Directors, our board committees or as executive officers. We do not know, however, if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage. Any significant uninsured liability may require us to pay substantial amounts, which would adversely affect our cash position and results of operations.

Our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, CROs, consultants, vendors, and any third parties we may engage in connection with development and commercialization may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Misconduct by our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, contract research organizations, or CROs, consultants, vendors, and any third parties we may engage in connection with development and commercialization, could include intentional, reckless or negligent conduct or unauthorized activities that violate: (i) the laws and regulations of the FDA, EMA rules and regulations and other similar regulatory requirements, including those laws that require the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such authorities; (ii) manufacturing standards; (iii) data privacy, security, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations; or (iv) laws that require the reporting of true, complete and accurate financial information and data. Specifically, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Activities subject to these laws could also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, creation of fraudulent data in pre-clinical studies or clinical trials or illegal misappropriation of drug product, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with such laws or regulations. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business and results of operations, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, disgorgements, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, other U.S. federal healthcare programs or healthcare programs in other jurisdictions, individual imprisonment, other sanctions, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations.

Government-imposed bans or restrictions and religious, moral, and ethical concerns about the use of human embryonic stem cells could prevent us from developing and successfully marketing stem cell products.

Government-imposed bans or restrictions on the use of embryos or human embryonic stem cells (“hES cells”), in research and development in the United States and abroad could generally constrain stem cell research, thereby limiting the market and demand for our products.

California law requires that stem cell research be conducted under the oversight of a SCRO Committee. Many kinds of stem cell research, including the derivation of new hES cell lines, may only be conducted in California with the prior written approval of the SCRO Committee. A SCRO Committee could prohibit or impose restrictions on the research that we plan to do. An adverse decision by a SCRO Committee, or their imposition of restrictions on a research program could adversely affect our ability to enter into co-development or licensing arrangements for the development of a product candidate.

The use of hES cells may give rise to religious, moral, and ethical issues. These considerations could lead to more restrictive government regulations or could generally constrain stem cell research, thereby limiting the market and demand for our products.

Adverse publicity regarding cell-based therapies could impact our business.

Adverse publicity due to the ethical and social controversies surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells or any adverse reported side effects from any stem cell or other cell therapy clinical trials or to the failure of such trials to demonstrate that these therapies are efficacious could materially and adversely affect our ability to raise capital, conduct and complete clinical trials and achieve market acceptance of such products, if approved. For example, research institutions, including those who may be our collaborators, may from time to time publish findings or studies regarding the human genome (such as the Human Genome Project) that adversely implicate our product candidates, including findings of cancer dependencies in cell lines used in our cell-based therapies.

The price and sale of any product candidates that be marketed may be limited by health insurance coverage and government regulation.

Success in selling our pharmaceutical and cell-based products and medical devices may depend in part on the extent to which health insurance companies, HMOs, and government health administration authorities such as Medicare and Medicaid will pay for the cost of the products and related treatment. Until a new product is introduced into the medical marketplace, we will not know with certainty whether adequate health insurance, HMO, and government coverage will be available to permit the product to be sold at a price high enough for us to generate a profit. In some foreign countries, pricing or profitability of health care products is subject to government control, which may result in low prices for our products. In the United States, there have been a number of federal and state proposals to implement similar government controls, and new proposals are likely to be made in the future. We cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement in the United States, the EU or elsewhere will be available for our product candidates or any product that we may develop, and any reimbursement that may become available may be decreased or eliminated in the future.

Third-party payors increasingly are challenging prices charged for pharmaceutical products and services, and many third-party payors may refuse to provide coverage and reimbursement for particular drugs or biologics when an equivalent generic drug, biosimilar or a less expensive therapy is available. It is possible that a third-party payor may consider our product candidates as substitutable and only offer to reimburse patients for the less expensive product. Even if we show improved efficacy or improved convenience of administration with our product candidates, pricing of existing third-party therapeutics may limit the amount we will be able to charge for our product candidates. These payors may deny or revoke the reimbursement status of a given product or establish prices for new or existing marketed products at levels that are too low to enable us to realize an appropriate return on our investment in our product candidates. If reimbursement is not available or is available only at limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may not be able to obtain a satisfactory financial return on our product candidates.

There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly-approved products. In the United States, third-party payors, including private and governmental payors, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs, play an important role in determining the extent to which new drugs and biologics will be covered. The Medicare and Medicaid programs increasingly are used as models in the United States for how private payors and other governmental payors develop their coverage and reimbursement policies for drugs and biologics. Some third-party payors may require pre-approval of coverage for new or innovative devices or drug therapies before they will reimburse healthcare providers who use such therapies. We cannot predict at this time what third-party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates.

No uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors in the United States. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our product candidates to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance. Furthermore, rules and regulations regarding reimbursement change frequently, in some cases on short notice, and we believe that changes in these rules and regulations are likely.

Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe and other countries have and will continue to put pressure on the pricing and usage of our product candidates. In many countries, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for medical products but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for our product candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our product candidates may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially-reasonable revenue and profits.

Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors in the United States and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for newly approved products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. While it is not possible to predict or model the insurance landscape at the time any of our product candidates may receive regulatory approval, we expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed health care, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and biologics and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products.

Enacted and future healthcare legislation, including the ACA, may increase the difficulty and cost for to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates and may affect the prices we may set.

In the United States, the EU and other jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes to the healthcare system that could affect our future results of operations. As a result of the adoption of the ACA in the United States, substantial changes have been made to the system for paying for healthcare in the United States. Certain provisions related to cost-savings and reimbursement measures could adversely affect our future financial performance. For example, among the provisions of the ACA, those of greatest importance to the biopharmaceutical industry includes the following:

The ACA has been subject to revision and to judicial, congressional, and executive challenges. As a result of tax reform legislation passed in December 2017, the requirement that all individuals maintain health insurance coverage or pay a penalty, referred to as the “individual mandate” was eliminated effective January 1, 2019. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the repeal of the individual mandate will cause 13 million fewer Americans to be insured in 2027 and premiums in insurance markets may rise. A challenge to validity of the ACA on constitutional grounds is currently pending before the Supreme Court.

The costs of prescription pharmaceuticals in the United States has also been the subject of considerable debate, and new legislative and administrative measures could be implemented to address such costs. To date, there have been several recent U.S. congressional inquiries and proposed state and federal legislation designed to, among other things, improve transparency in drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, reduce the costs of drugs under Medicare, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. The pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is also subject to governmental control outside the United States. In these other countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost effectiveness of our product candidates to other available therapies. If reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our ability to generate revenues and become profitable could be impaired.

Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for approved products. In addition, there have been several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed bills designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, reduce the cost of drugs under Medicare and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our 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 us to more stringent labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.

Moreover, payment methodologies may be subject to changes in healthcare legislation and regulatory initiatives. For example, CMS may develop new payment and delivery models, such as bundled payment models. In addition, recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products. We expect that additional U.S. federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that the U.S. federal government will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our product candidates or additional pricing pressures.

Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly aggressive in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. Legally-mandated price controls on payment amounts by third-party payors or other restrictions could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs. This could reduce the ultimate demand for our product candidates or put pressure on our product pricing.

In the EU, similar political, economic and regulatory developments may affect our ability to profitably commercialize our product candidates, if approved. In addition to continuing pressure on prices and cost containment measures, legislative developments at the EU or member state level may result in significant additional requirements or obstacles that may increase our operating costs. The delivery of healthcare in the EU, including the establishment and operation of health services and the pricing and reimbursement of medicines, is almost exclusively a matter for national, rather than EU, law and policy. National governments and health service providers have different priorities and approaches to the delivery of health care and the pricing and reimbursement of products in that context. In general, however, the healthcare budgetary constraints in most EU member states have resulted in restrictions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines by relevant health service providers. Coupled with ever-increasing EU and national regulatory burdens on those wishing to develop and market products, this could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to commercialize our product candidates, if approved.

In markets outside of the United States and EU, reimbursement and healthcare payment systems vary significantly by country, and many countries have instituted price ceilings on specific products and therapies.

We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action in the United States, the EU or any other jurisdiction. If we or any third parties we may engage are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we or such third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our product candidates may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

If we fail to comply with the extensive legal and regulatory requirements affecting the health care industry, we could face increased costs, penalties and a loss of business.

Our activities, and the activities of any collaborators, distributors and other third-party providers that we may engage in the future, will be subject to extensive government regulation and oversight both in the U.S. and in foreign jurisdictions. The FDA and comparable agencies in other jurisdictions will directly regulate many of our most critical business activities, including the conduct of preclinical and clinical studies, product manufacturing, advertising and promotion, product distribution, adverse event reporting, and product risk management. Our interactions in the U.S. or abroad with physicians and other health care providers that prescribe or purchase our products will also be subject to government regulation designed to prevent fraud and abuse in the sale and use of the products and place greater restrictions on the marketing practices of health care companies. Health care companies such as ours are facing heightened scrutiny of their relationships with health care providers from anti-corruption enforcement officials. In addition, health care companies such as ours have been the target of lawsuits and investigations alleging violations of government regulation, including claims asserting submission of incorrect pricing information, impermissible off-label promotion of pharmaceutical products, payments intended to influence the referral of health care business, submission of false claims for government reimbursement, antitrust violations, and violations related to environmental matters. Risks relating to compliance with laws and regulations may be heightened if we operate globally.

Regulations governing the health care industry are subject to change, with possibly retroactive effect, including:

Violations of governmental regulation may be punishable by criminal and civil sanctions against us, including fines and civil monetary penalties and exclusion from participation in government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, as well as sanctions against executives overseeing our business. In addition to penalties for violation of laws and regulations, we could be required to repay amounts we received from government payors or pay additional rebates and interest if we are found to have miscalculated the pricing information we have submitted to the government. We cannot ensure that our compliance controls, policies and procedures will in every instance protect us from acts committed by our employees, collaborators, partners or third-party providers that would violate the laws or regulations of the jurisdictions in which we operate. Whether or not we have complied with the law, an investigation into alleged unlawful conduct could increase our expenses, damage our reputation, divert management time and attention, and adversely affect our business.

We may be subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, and health information privacy and security laws, and if we are unable to comply with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.

If the FDA grants marketing approval for any of our product candidates or technologies and commercializing those products or technologies begins in the United States, our operations may be subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the federal False Claims Act, and physician sunshine laws and regulations. These laws may impact, among other things, product sales, marketing, and education programs. In addition, we may be subject to patient privacy regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. In addition, recent health care reform legislation has strengthened these laws. Further, state laws differ from each other and from federal law in significant ways, thus complicating compliance efforts.

If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from participation in government health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, imprisonment, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.

Risks Related to our Dependence on Third Parties

We may become dependent on future collaborations to develop and commercialize our product candidates and to provide the regulatory compliance, sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities required for the success of our business.

We may enter into various kinds of collaborative research and development and product marketing agreements to develop and commercialize our products. The expected future milestone payments and cost reimbursements from collaboration agreements could provide an important source of financing for our research and development programs, thereby facilitating the application of our technology to the development and commercialization of our products, but there are risks associated with entering into collaboration arrangements.

The process of establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships is difficult, time-consuming and involves significant uncertainty, such as:

There is a risk that a collaboration partner might fail to perform its obligations under the collaborative arrangements or may be slow in performing its obligations. In addition, a collaboration partner may experience financial difficulties at any time that could prevent it from having available funds to contribute to the collaboration. If a collaboration partner fails to conduct its product development, commercialization, regulatory compliance, sales and marketing or distribution activities successfully and in a timely manner, or if it terminates or materially modifies its agreements with us, the development and commercialization of one or more product candidates could be delayed, curtailed, or terminated because we may not have sufficient financial resources or capabilities to continue such development and commercialization on our own.

We have no marketing, sales, or distribution resources for the commercialization of any products or technologies that we might successfully develop.

We do not have any infrastructure for the sales, marketing or distribution of our products, and the cost of establishing and maintaining such an organization may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. There are significant expenses and risks involved with establishing our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, including our ability to hire, retain and appropriately incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel, and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities could delay any product launch, which would adversely impact the commercialization of any approved product candidate.

If we market products through arrangements with third parties, we may pay sales commissions to sales representatives or we may sell or consign products to distributors at wholesale prices. As a result, our gross profit from product sales may be lower than it would be if we were to sell our products directly to end users at retail prices through our own sales force. There can be no assurance we will able to negotiate distribution or sales agreements with third parties on favorable terms to justify our investment in our products or achieve sufficient revenues to support our operations.

If we are unable to build our own sales force or negotiate a collaborative relationship for the commercialization of our product candidates, we may be forced to delay the potential commercialization of such candidates or reduce the scope of our sales or marketing activities for them. If we elect to increase our expenditures to fund commercialization activities ourselves, we will need to obtain additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. We could enter into arrangements with collaborative partners at an earlier stage than otherwise would be ideal and we may be required to relinquish rights to our product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects.

If we are unable to establish adequate sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing our product candidates and may not become profitable and may incur significant additional losses. We will be competing with many companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations. Without an internal team or the support of a third party to perform marketing and sales functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies.

We do not have the ability to independently conduct clinical trials required to obtain regulatory approvals for our product candidates and intend to rely on third parties to conduct, supervise and monitor our clinical trials.

We will need to rely on third parties, such as contract research organizations, data management companies, contract clinical research associates, medical institutions, clinical investigators and contract laboratories to conduct any clinical trials that we may undertake for our product candidates. We may also rely on third parties to assist with our preclinical development of product candidates.

If we outsource clinical trials, we may be unable to directly control the timing, conduct and expense of our clinical trials. However, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory and scientific standards and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.

We and our third-party contractors will be required to comply with the GLPs and GCPs, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and are also required by the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area and comparable foreign regulatory authorities in the form of International Conference on Harmonization guidelines for any of our product candidates that are in preclinical and clinical development. The Regulatory authorities enforce GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites. If we or our third-party contractors fail to comply with GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with GCP regulations. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations. Accordingly, if our third-party contractors fail to comply with these regulations or fail to recruit a sufficient number of subjects, we may be required to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Our third-party contractors will not be our employees, and we will not control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our future clinical and nonclinical programs. These third-party contractors may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials, or other product development activities which could harm our competitive position. We face the risk of potential unauthorized disclosure or misappropriation of our intellectual property by third-party contractors, which may reduce our trade secret protection and allow our potential competitors to access and exploit our proprietary technology. If our third-party contractors do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations, fail to meet expected deadlines, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for any other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize any product candidate that we develop. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for any product candidate that we develop would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed.

If our relationship with any third-party contractors terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative third-party contractors or do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding additional third-party contractors involves substantial cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new third party commences work. As a result, delays occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we intend to carefully manage our relationships with our third-party contractors, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain and enforce patents and to protect our trade secrets, others could use our technology to compete with us, which could limit opportunities for us to generate revenues by licensing our technology and selling our products.

There is no certainty that our pending or future patent applications will result in the issuance of patents.

We acquired rights to patent applications for technology that Lineage has developed, and we may file additional new patent applications in the future seeking patent protection for new technology or products that we develop ourselves or jointly with others. However, there is no assurance that any of our licensed patent applications, or any patent applications that we may file in the future in the United States or abroad, will result in the issuance of patents.

The process of applying for and obtaining patents can be expensive and slow.

Intellectual property we may develop using grants received from the federal government are subject to rights maintained by the government.

Research and development we perform that is funded by grants from the federal government, and any intellectual property that we create using those grants, is subject to the rights maintained by the federal government.

Our patents may not protect our technologies or products from competition.

We may not be able to enforce our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents, if issued, on our technology and product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. The requirements for patentability may differ in certain countries, particularly in developing countries. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we may obtain patent protection, but where patent enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. The products offered by foreign competitors may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued or licensed patents or where any future patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing with us.

Moreover, our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights may be adversely affected by unforeseen changes in foreign intellectual property laws. Additionally, laws of some countries outside of the United States and Europe do not afford intellectual property protection to the same extent as the laws of the United States and Europe. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in certain foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of some countries, including India, China and certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights. This could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or the misappropriation of our other intellectual property rights. For example, many foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in certain countries outside the United States and Europe. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, if our ability to enforce our patents to stop infringing activities is inadequate. These products may compete with our products, and our patents, if issued, or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and resources from other aspects of our business. Furthermore, while we intend to protect our intellectual property rights in major markets, we cannot ensure that we will be able to initiate or maintain similar efforts in all jurisdictions in which we may wish to market products or license our patented technologies. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate.

We may be subject to patent infringement claims that could be costly to defend, which may limit our ability to use disputed technologies, and which could prevent us from pursuing research and development or commercialization of some of our technologies or products, require us to pay licensing fees to have freedom to operate and/or result in monetary damages or other liability for us.

The success of our business depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing patents and other proprietary rights of others. If the technology that we use infringes a patent held by others, we could be sued for monetary damages by the patent holder or its licensee, or we could be prevented from continuing research, development, and commercialization of technologies and products that rely on that technology, unless we are able to obtain a license to use the patent. The cost and availability of a license to a patent cannot be predicted, and the likelihood of obtaining a license at an acceptable cost would be lower if the patent holder or any of its licensees is using the patent to develop or market a technology or product with which our technologies or products would compete. If we could not obtain a necessary license, we would need to develop or obtain rights to alternative technologies, which could prove costly and could cause delays in developing our technologies or products, or we could be forced to discontinue the development or marketing of any technologies and products that were developed using the technology covered by the patent.

Risks Related to Our Relationship with Juvenescence

Our Chief Operating Officer is not a fulltime AgeX employee.

Our Chief Operating Officer is an employee of Juvenescence and is expected to devote 85% of his time to our affairs and the balance of his time to the affairs of Juvenescence and accordingly we may compete with Juvenescence for his time and attention.

Conflicts of interest may arise from our relationship with Juvenescence, which owns a significant percentage of our common stock and is a significant creditor and will be able to substantially influence us and exert control over matters subject to stockholder approval and the election of directors.

As of March 14, 2021, Juvenescence beneficially owned approximately 52.7% of our common stock, as reported in the most recent amendment of their Schedule 13D, which will enable them to substantially influence us and exert control through this ownership position. The Chairman of our Board of Directors is the Chief Executive Officer of Juvenescence. Juvenescence will be able to exert control over or substantially influence elections of directors, approval of our equity incentive plans, amendments to our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, amalgamation, sale of assets or other major corporate transaction. Juvenescence has controlling stakes and minority investments in several other companies engaged in various aspects of the aging industry, which companies may propose collaborations with AgeX. Juvenescence has also loaned AgeX $9.5 million and has agreed to provide additional loans subject to certain conditions under our loan agreements with them as described in Note 9 to the consolidated financial statements included in this Report. Juvenescence’s interests may not always coincide with our corporate interests or the interests of other stockholders, and it may exercise its voting and other rights, including rights as a creditor, in a manner with which other stockholders may not agree or that may not be in the best interests of AgeX or stockholders other than Juvenescence. So long as Juvenescence continues to own a significant amount of our equity and remains a significant creditor, it will continue to be able to strongly influence and effectively control our decisions. While the directors elected by Juvenescence will be obligated to act in accordance with their fiduciary duty, they may have equity or other interests in Juvenescence and, accordingly, their interests may be aligned with Juvenescence’s interests, which may not always coincide with our corporate interests or the interests of our other stockholders.

Juvenescence could own a majority of the outstanding shares of AgeX common stock through the conversion of loans under the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement or the exercise of Warrants.

The 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement provide that the aggregate principal amount outstanding loans under those loan agreements may be converted, in whole or in part, into shares of AgeX common stock at any time at Juvenescence’s election. The 2019 Loan Agreement contains a “change of control blocker” provision intended to prevent Juvenescence from converting an amount of the outstanding loan balance that would result in Juvenescence holding 50% or more of the outstanding shares of AgeX common stock without approval by the AgeX stockholders. However, AgeX submitted to its stockholders, and AgeX stockholders approved, a proposal to permit Juvenescence to convert loans outstanding under the 2020 Loan Agreement and to exercise Warrants issued in conjunction with the 2020 Loan Agreement even if the conversion or exercise would result in Juvenescence holding 50% or more of the outstanding shares of AgeX common stock. As a result of that stockholder approval, Juvenescence may, through the exercise of Warrants that it holds or through the conversion of outstanding 2020 Loan Agreement loans into shares of AgeX common stock, acquire additional shares of AgeX common stock that would increase Juvenescence’s holdings to more than 50% of the outstanding shares of AgeX common stock. As a controlling stockholder, Juvenescence would have the power to elect all directors of AgeX and to approve or reject all matters submitted for stockholder approval by the AgeX Board of Directors, by Juvenescence as a stockholder, or by other stockholders, including but not limited to: equity compensation plans for employees, officers, and directors; mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations; sales of AgeX assets; and amendments of AgeX’s certificate of incorporation and bylaws. Furthermore, upon Juvenescence holding more than 50% the outstanding AgeX common stock, AgeX would qualify as a “controlled company” as defined by the NYSE American Company Guide. Being a “controlled company” would entitle AgeX to exempt itself from the requirement that a majority of its directors be “independent” directors as defined in the NYSE American Company Guide, and that the Compensation Committee and the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee be comprised entirely of independent directors.

Risks Pertaining to Our Common Stock

There is a limited history to the public trading of our common stock and there is no assurance that a market for our common stock will be sustained.

Public trading of our common stock on the NYSE American began on November 29, 2018. Accordingly, there is only a limited history of the public trading of our common stock and there can be no assurance that an active market for our common stock will be sustained.

We cannot predict the prices at which our common stock may trade. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly, depending upon many factors, some of which may be beyond our control, including, but not limited to:

Because we are engaged in the development of pharmaceutical and cell therapy products, the price of shares of our common stock may rise and fall rapidly.

The price of our common stock may rise rapidly in response to certain events, such as the commencement of clinical trials of an experimental new therapy, even though the outcome of those trials and the likelihood of ultimate FDA approval of a therapeutic product remain uncertain. Similarly, prices of our common stock may fall rapidly in response to certain events such as unfavorable results of clinical trials or a delay or failure to obtain FDA approval. Further, the failure of our earnings to meet analysts’ expectations could result in a significant rapid decline in the market price of our common stock.

Because we do not pay dividends, our stock may not be a suitable investment for anyone who needs to earn dividend income.

We do not have current plans to pay any cash dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends on shares of common stock will be at the sole discretion of our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors may take into account general and economic conditions, our financial condition and results of operations, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us and such other factors as our Board of Directors may deem relevant. For the foreseeable future we anticipate that any earnings generated in our business will be used to finance the growth of our business and will not be paid out as dividends to our stockholders. This means that our stock may not be a suitable investment for anyone who needs to earn income from their investments.

Securities analysts may not initiate coverage or continue to cover our common stock, and this may have a negative impact on the market price of our shares.

The market price and liquidity of our common stock will depend, in part, on the research and reports that securities analysts publish about our business and our common stock. We do not have any control over these analysts. There is no guarantee that securities analysts will cover our common stock. If securities analysts do not cover our common stock, the lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of those shares. If securities analysts do cover our shares, they could issue reports or recommendations that are unfavorable to the price of our shares, and they could downgrade a previously favorable report or recommendation, and in either case our share price could decline as a result of the report. If one or more of these analysts ceases to cover our shares or fails to publish regular reports on our business, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

You may experience dilution of your ownership interests if we issue additional shares of common stock or preferred stock.

In the future, we may issue our authorized but previously unissued equity securities, resulting in the dilution of the ownership interests of our present stockholders. We are currently authorized to issue an aggregate of 105,000,000 shares of capital stock consisting of 100,000,000 shares of common stock and 5,000,000 “blank check” shares of preferred stock. As of March 26, 2021, there were 37,935,088 shares of common stock issued and outstanding, and 2,881,604 shares of common stock reserved for issuance upon the exercise of outstanding stock options or other stock-based awards under our 2017 Equity Incentive Plan. No shares of preferred stock are presently outstanding.

We will issue additional shares to Juvenescence if Juvenescence elects to exercise its right to convert the principal amount of outstanding loans under the 2019 Loan Agreement or the 2020 Loan Agreement and a $160,000 Origination Fee, into shares of our common stock. The number of shares that would be issuable to Juvenescence depends on the market price of our common stock and the amount of loans that Juvenescence might elect to convert into common stock. Juvenescence may also acquire shares of AgeX common stock by exercising warrants issued under the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement. We also have the right to convert the loans from Juvenescence into shares of our common stock if we raise new capital in at least certain amounts specified in the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement. See Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report.

We may issue additional common stock or other securities that are convertible into or exercisable for common stock in order to raise additional capital, or in connection with hiring or retaining employees or consultants, or in connection with future acquisitions of licenses to technology or medical products or for other business purposes. The future issuance of any additional shares of common stock or other securities may create downward pressure on the trading price of our common stock.

We may also issue preferred stock having rights, preferences, and privileges senior to the rights of our common stock with respect to dividends, rights to share in distributions of our assets if we liquidate our company, or voting rights. Any preferred stock may also be convertible into common stock on terms that would be dilutive to holders of common stock.

We may finance a portion of our operations by organizing subsidiaries and selling shares of capital stock in those subsidiaries to private investors. Sales of subsidiary shares would reduce our ownership interest in the subsidiaries, and correspondingly dilute our shareholder’s ownership interests in our consolidated enterprise. Our subsidiaries could also have their own stock option plans and the exercise of subsidiary stock options or the sale of restricted stock under those plans would also reduce our ownership interest in the subsidiaries, with a resulting dilutive effect on the ownership interest of our shareholders in our consolidated enterprise. Subsidiaries might also issue preferred stock having rights, preferences, and privileges senior to the rights of the subsidiary common stock we hold with respect to dividends, rights to share in distributions of our assets if the subsidiary is liquidated, or voting rights. Any subsidiary preferred stock may also be convertible into common stock on terms that would be dilutive to us as a holder of subsidiary common stock.

Unless our common stock continues to be listed on a national securities exchange it will become subject to the so-called “penny stock” rules that impose restrictive sales practice requirements.

On June 1, 2020, we received a letter (the “Deficiency Letter”) from the staff of the NYSE American (the “Exchange”) indicating that AgeX does not meet certain of the Exchange’s continued listing standards as set forth in Section 1003(a)(i) of the Exchange Company Guide in that we have stockholders equity of less than $2,000,000 and have incurred losses from continuing operations and/or net losses during our two most recent fiscal years. Pursuant to Section 1009 of the Exchange Company Guide and as provided in the Deficiency Letter provided the Exchange staff with a plan (the “Compliance Plan”) advising the Exchange staff of action we have taken and will take that would bring AgeX into compliance with the Exchange’s continued listing standards by December 1, 2021. The Exchange staff has accepted our Compliance Plan. The Exchange staff will review AgeX’s compliance with the Compliance Plan on a quarterly basis and if AgeX does not show progress consistent with the Compliance Plan or is not in compliance with the Exchange’s continued listing standards by December 1, 2021, the Exchange will commence delisting procedures. If the Exchange staff determines that AgeX is not in compliance with the Compliance Plan at any time, the Exchange staff will promptly initiate delisting proceedings.

AgeX intends to make arrangements to have its common stock quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board if its common stock is delisted from the NYSE American

If we are unable to maintain the listing of our common stock on the Exchange or another national securities exchange, our common stock could become subject to the so-called “penny stock” rules if the shares have a market value of less than $5.00 per share. The SEC has adopted regulations that define a penny stock to include any stock that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions, including an exception for stock traded on a national securities exchange. The SEC regulations impose restrictive sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell penny stocks to persons other than established customers and accredited investors. An accredited investor generally is a person whose individual annual income exceeded $200,000, or whose joint annual income with a spouse exceeded $300,000 during the past two years and who expects their annual income to exceed the applicable level during the current year, or a person with net worth in excess of $1.0 million, not including the value of the investor’s principal residence and excluding mortgage debt secured by the investor’s principal residence up to the estimated fair market value of the home, except that any mortgage debt incurred by the investor within 60 days prior to the date of the transaction shall not be excluded from the determination of the investor’s net worth unless the mortgage debt was incurred to acquire the residence. For transactions covered by this rule, the broker-dealer must make a special suitability determination for the purchaser and must have received the purchaser’s written consent to the transaction prior to sale. This means that if we are unable maintain the listing of our common stock on a national securities exchange, the ability of stockholders to sell their AgeX common stock in the secondary market could be adversely affected.

If a transaction involving a penny stock is not exempt from the SEC’s rule, a broker-dealer must deliver a disclosure schedule relating to the penny stock market to each investor prior to a transaction. The broker-dealer also must disclose the commissions payable to both the broker-dealer and its registered representative, current quotations for the penny stock, and, if the broker-dealer is the sole market-maker, the broker-dealer must disclose this fact and the broker-dealer’s presumed control over the market. Finally, monthly statements must be sent disclosing recent price information for the penny stock held in the customer’s account and information on the limited market in penny stocks.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and may elect to comply with reduced public company reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, which could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more; (ii) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of our common equity securities pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the Exchange Act.

We could be subject to securities class action litigation.

In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biopharmaceutical companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and our bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of our company that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares. These provisions could also limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our common stock. In addition, because our Board of Directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our Board of Directors. Among other things, these provisions include those establishing:

Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, which prohibits a person who owns in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Not Applicable.

Item 2. Properties

We relocated our principal offices to 1101 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 201, Alameda, California, following the December 31, 2020 expiration of the sublease of our former office and laboratory facility at 965 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 101, Alameda California. AgeX’s new offices occupy 135 square feet of space in a building located in an office and research park. Base monthly rent is $947 for the one year lease term and also covers office furniture rental, janitorial services, utilities and internet service.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we may be involved in routine litigation incidental to the conduct of our business. We are not presently involved in any material litigation or proceedings, and to our knowledge no such litigation or proceedings are contemplated.

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

Our common stock has been traded on the NYSE American under the symbol “AGE” since November 29, 2018.

As of March 1, 2021, we had 241 holders of record of our common stock. This number does not include stockholders whose shares of AgeX common stock are held in “street name” in accounts with securities broker-dealers or other financial institutions or fiduciaries.

The following table shows certain information concerning the stock options outstanding and available for issuance under all of our compensation plans and agreements as of December 31, 2020 (in thousands, except weighted average exercise price):

Additional information concerning our 2017 Equity Incentive Plan and the stock options may be found in Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data

Not applicable.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations is intended to provide information necessary to understand our audited consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, and highlight certain other information which, in the opinion of management, will enhance a reader’s understanding of our financial condition, changes in financial condition and results of operations. These historical financial statements may not be indicative of our future performance. This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains a number of forward-looking statements, all of which are based on our current expectations and could be affected by the uncertainties and risks described throughout this filing, particularly in “Risk Factors.”

Emerging Growth Company Status

The Jumpstart our Business Startups Act of 2012 (“JOBS Act”) permits an “emerging growth company” such as AgeX to take advantage of an extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies. However, we elected to comply with newly adopted or revised accounting standards when they become applicable to public companies because our financial statements were consolidated with those of Lineage, which is not an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act and is therefore not permitted to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards that become applicable to public companies. This election under the JOBS Act to not delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards is irrevocable.

Overview

We are a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics targeting human aging and degenerative diseases. Our initial discovery and preclinical programs focus on utilizing brown adipose tissue in targeting diabetes, obesity, and heart disease; and induced tissue regeneration in utilizing the human body’s own abilities to scarlessly regenerate tissues damaged from age or trauma. We may also pursue other early-stage pre-clinical programs.

Since inception, our operations have focused on building our technology platform, identifying potential product candidates, establishing and protecting our intellectual property and raising capital. Prior to our disposition of LifeMap Sciences during March 2021, our revenues were principally derived from subscription and advertising revenue from LifeMap Sciences’ online databases based upon applicable subscription or advertising periods. We do not have any products approved for sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales.

Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses and we will need to obtain additional financing in order to continue our operations, including our research and development programs. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources” for a discussion of our available capital resources and our need for financing. Our operating losses were $10.7 million and $12.6 million, for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $97.1 million. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future.

Critical Accounting Policies

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”), requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in our consolidated financial statements and related notes. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report. We have identified below our critical accounting policies and estimates that we believe require the greatest amount of judgment. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates that are subject to significant judgment including those related to going concern assessment of consolidated financial statements, allocations and adjustments necessary for carve-out basis of presentation, including the separate return method for income taxes, useful lives associated with long-lived assets, including evaluation of asset impairment, allowances for uncollectible accounts receivables, loss contingencies, deferred income taxes and tax reserves, including valuation allowances related to deferred income taxes, and assumptions used to value stock-based awards, or other equity instruments. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates compared to historical experience and trends, which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities. To the extent that there are material differences between our estimates and our actual results, our future consolidated financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows will be affected.

We believe the assumptions and estimates associated with the following have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Principles of consolidation – AgeX’s consolidated financial statements include the accounts of its subsidiaries and certain research and development departments, including former Lineage personnel, transferred from Lineage to AgeX in connection with the Asset Contribution Agreement described in Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements. AgeX consolidated its direct and indirect wholly-owned or majority-owned subsidiaries because AgeX has the ability to control their operating and financial decisions and policies through its ownership, and the noncontrolling interest is reflected as a separate element of stockholders’ equity (deficit) on AgeX’s consolidated balance sheets.

As of, and for the year ended, December 31, 2020, AgeX consolidated ReCyte Therapeutics, LifeMap Sciences and its Israeli subsidiary LifeMap Sciences, Ltd. and included the historical expenses of certain former Lineage research and development departments (see Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements).AgeX disposed of its interest in LifeMap Sciences and its Israeli subsidiary through a cash-out merger during March 2021.

Going concern assessment – We assess going concern uncertainty for our consolidated financial statements to determine if we have sufficient cash and cash equivalents on hand and working capital to operate for a period of at least one year from the date our consolidated financial statements are issued or are available to be issued, which is referred to as the “look-forward period” as defined by FASB’s ASU No. 2014-15. As part of this assessment, based on conditions that are known and reasonably knowable to us, we consider various scenarios, forecasts, projections, and estimates, and we make certain key assumptions, including the timing and nature of projected cash expenditures or programs, among other factors, and our ability to delay or curtail those expenditures or programs within the look-forward period in accordance with ASU No. 2014-15, if necessary.

Related party transactions – Shared Facilities and Services Agreement - As more fully described in Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report, Lineage provided us with the use of Lineage facilities and services under a Shared Facilities and Services Agreement (the “Shared Facilities Agreement”). Accordingly, Lineage allocated expenses such as salaries and payroll related expenses incurred and paid on our behalf based on the amount of time that particular employees devote to AgeX affairs. Other expenses such as legal, accounting and financial reporting, marketing, and travel expenses were allocated to us to the extent that those expenses were incurred by or on behalf of AgeX. Lineage also allocated certain overhead expenses such as rent and utilities, property taxes, insurance, laboratory expenses and supplies, telecommunications and other indirect expenses. These allocations were made based upon activity-based allocation drivers such as time spent, percentage of square feet of office or laboratory space used, headcount and percentage of personnel devoted to our operations or management. Management evaluated the appropriateness of the allocations on a periodic basis and believes that this basis for allocation was reasonable. The Shared Facilities Agreement terminated on September 30, 2019 and Lineage will not be providing us with further services or use of its facilities.

Related party transactions - allocated expenses from Lineage – Consistent with the principles of carve-out financial statements and presentation discussed in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements, certain expenses were allocated by Lineage and included in our consolidated statements of operations and consolidated statements of stockholders’ equity (deficit) as a contribution by Lineage. Research and development expenses include allocations from Lineage primarily attributable to certain former Lineage research departments contributed to us. Those expenses are primarily comprised of former Lineage personnel and related expenses, including stock-based compensation, and other outside expenses relevant to the nature of the research projects that were contributed to us pursuant to the Asset Contribution Agreement discussed in Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report. Management considers the allocation methodologies used to allocate expenses as reasonable and appropriate based on historical Lineage expenses attributable to us and our operations for purposes of the standalone, carve-out consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report. The expenses reflected in the consolidated financial statements may not be indicative of expenses that we will incur in the future.

Research and development – Research and development expenses include both direct expenses incurred by us or our subsidiaries and indirect overhead costs allocated by Lineage that benefited or supported our research and development functions. Direct research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and related benefits, including stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets, outside consultants and suppliers, and license fees paid to third parties to acquire patents or licenses to use patents and other technology. Indirect research and development expenses include overhead expenses allocated to us by Lineage discussed under Related party transactions - Shared Facilities and Services Agreement above. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Research and development expenses incurred and reimbursed by grants from third parties or governmental agencies, including service revenues from co-development projects with customers, if any and as applicable, approximate the respective revenues recognized in the consolidated statements of operations.

General and administrative – General and administrative expenses include both direct expenses incurred by us and indirect overhead costs allocated by Lineage that benefited or supported our general and administrative functions. Direct general and administrative expenses consist primarily of compensation and related benefits, including stock-based compensation, for executive and corporate personnel, and professional and consulting fees. Indirect general and administrative expenses include overhead expenses allocated to us by Lineage discussed under Related party transactions - Shared Facilities and Services Agreement above.

Income taxes – For Federal and California purposes, AgeX’s activity through August 30, 2018 was included in Lineage’s federal consolidated and California combined tax returns. For those periods, the income tax provision was prepared in accordance with ASC 740, Income Taxes, using the separate return method to determine the tax provision of AgeX for carve-out presentation purposes of its consolidated financial statements. The separate return method, amongst other things, requires that the amount of current and deferred tax expense for a group that files a consolidated income tax return be allocated among the members of that group as if each group member were a separate taxpayer. As a result, the provision for income taxes has been presented as if AgeX had filed a separate federal consolidated tax return and a California combined tax return for the periods presented. In using the separate return method, the sum of the amounts allocated to the members of the income tax return group may not equal the consolidated amount. If tax attributes recorded in the carve-out consolidated financial statements are materially different from the actual tax attributes pertaining to us or our legal entities and our subsidiaries, or to Lineage and its subsidiaries, those differences are identified and disclosed in Note 7 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in the Report. Accordingly, depending on our future legal structure and related tax elections that may be taken by us, our effective tax rate in future years could vary materially from our historical effective tax rates. The historical deferred tax assets, including the operating losses and credit carryforwards generated by certain research and development departments that operated within Lineage and were transferred to us on August 17, 2017, have been presented as our tax attributes consistent with the principles of the separate return method described above.

As of December 31, 2020, the deferred tax assets and liabilities presented in Note 7 included elsewhere in this Report, including net operating loss carryforwards and research and development credits, represent the tax attributes of AgeX and its subsidiaries. However, the net operating losses and research and development credits generated before August 17, 2017 with respect to Lineage research departments that were transferred to us on that date will remain as tax attributes of Lineage.

In general, net operating losses and other tax credit carryforwards generated by legal entities in a consolidated federal tax group or a combined state tax group, collectively “the tax group”, are available to other members of the tax group depending on the nature of the transaction that a member may enter into while still in the tax group. However, under the Tax Matters Agreement between Lineage and AgeX entered into on August 17, 2017, any use of a member’s net operating loss and other tax credit carryforwards by the other member is subject to reimbursement by the benefiting member for the actual tax benefit realized. Since the August 30, 2018 deconsolidation of AgeX and to date, neither Lineage nor AgeX has used the tax attributes of the other.

We account for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740, which prescribes the use of the asset and liability method, whereby deferred tax asset or liability account balances are calculated at the balance sheet date using current tax laws and enacted rates in effect. Valuation allowances are established when necessary to reduce deferred tax assets when it is more likely than not that a portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. Our judgments, estimates and projections regarding future taxable income may change over time due to changes, among other factors, in market conditions, changes in tax laws, and tax planning strategies. If our assumptions and consequently our estimates change in the future, the valuation allowance may be increased or decreased, which may have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

The guidance also prescribes a recognition threshold and a measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not sustainable upon examination by taxing authorities. We recognize accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. No unrecognized tax benefits have been recorded and no amounts were accrued for the payment of interest and penalties as of December 31, 2020 and 2019. We do not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months. We are currently unaware of any tax issues under review.

On December 22, 2017, the United States enacted major federal tax reform legislation, Public Law No. 115-97, commonly referred to as the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“2017 Tax Act”), which enacted a broad range of changes to the Internal Revenue Code. Changes to taxes on corporations impacted by the 2017 Tax Act include, but not limited to, lowering the U.S. federal tax rates to a 21 percent flat tax rate, eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”), imposing additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and net operating losses, allowing any net operating loss (“NOLs”) generated in tax years ending after December 31, 2017 to be carried forward indefinitely and generally repealing carrybacks, reducing the maximum deduction for NOL carryforwards arising in tax years beginning after 2017 to a percentage of the taxpayer’s taxable income, and allowing for additional expensing of certain capital expenditures. The 2017 Tax Act also puts into effect a number of changes impacting operations outside of the United States including, but not limited to, the imposition of a one-time tax “deemed repatriation” on accumulated offshore earnings not previously subject to U.S. tax, and shifts the U.S taxation of multinational corporations from a worldwide system of taxation to a territorial system. ASC 740 requires the effects of changes in tax rates and laws on deferred tax balances (including the effects of the one-time transition tax) to be recognized in the period in which the legislation is enacted. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities may affect certain aspects of the 2017 Tax Act, for example, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“CAA”) modified certain provisions of the 2017 Tax Act. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the 2017 Tax Act, the CARES Act or the CAA.

On December 22, 2017, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”) to provide guidance for companies that are not able to complete their accounting for the income tax effects of the 2017 Tax Act in the period of enactment. SAB 118 allows us to record provisional amounts during a measurement period not to extend beyond one year of the enactment date. We applied the guidance in SAB 118 when accounting for the enactment-date effects of the 2017 Tax Act during the year ended December 31, 2018. As of December 31, 2018, we completed the accounting for all the enactment-date income tax effects of the 2017 Tax Act as further discussed in Note 7 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report.

Stock-based compensation – We recognize compensation expense related to employee stock option grants and other equity based awards, if any, in accordance with FASB ASC 718, Compensation – Stock Compensation (“ASC 718”).

We use the Black-Scholes option pricing model for estimating the fair value of options granted under our 2017 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”). The fair value of each restricted stock or restricted stock unit grant, if any, is determined based on the value of the common stock granted or sold. We have elected to treat stock-based awards with time-based service conditions as a single award and recognize stock-based compensation on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period.

Compensation expense for non-employee stock-based awards is recognized in accordance with ASC 718. Stock option awards issued to non-employees, principally consultants or outside contractors, as applicable, are accounted for at fair value using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. Management believes that the fair value of the stock options can more reliably be measured than the fair value of services received. We record compensation expense based on the then-current fair values of the stock options at the grant date in accordance with ASU 2018-07, Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which simplifies the accounting for non-employee share-based payment transactions. We adopted ASU 2018-07 on January 1, 2019. As we had one stock option grant issued to a nonemployee as of the adoption date and one additional stock option grant during 2019 to the same nonemployee, the application of the new standard did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Compensation expense for non-employee grants is recorded on a straight-line basis in the consolidated statements of operations.

The Black-Scholes option pricing model requires us to make certain assumptions including the fair value of the underlying common stock, the expected term, the expected volatility, the risk-free interest rate and the dividend yield.

The fair value of the shares of common stock underlying the stock options has historically been determined by our Board of Directors. Because there was no public market for our common stock prior to November 29, 2018, our Board of Directors determined the fair value of the common stock at the time of the grant of options prior to that date by considering a number of objective and subjective factors including contemporaneous sales of our common stock to investors, valuation of comparable companies, operating and financial performance and general and industry-specific economic outlook, amongst other factors. The fair value was determined in accordance with applicable elements of the practice aid issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants titled Valuation of Privately Held Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation. Since our common stock began publicly trading on the NYSE American, the fair value of our common stock underlying stock options has been valued based on prevailing market prices.

The expected term of employee stock options represents the weighted-average period that the stock options are expected to remain outstanding. We estimate the expected term of options granted based upon the “simplified method” provided under Staff Accounting Bulletin, Topic 14, or SAB Topic 14.

Because our common stock had no publicly traded history prior to November 29, 2018, for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, we estimated the expected volatility using our own stock price volatility to the extent applicable or a combination of our stock price volatility and the stock price volatility of peer companies, for a period equal to the expected term of the options. The peer companies used include selected public companies within the biotechnology industry with comparable characteristics to AgeX, including similarity in size, lines of business, market capitalization, revenue and financial leverage.

The risk-free interest rate assumption is based upon observed interest rates on the United States government securities appropriate for the expected term of our stock options.

The dividend yield assumption is based on our history and expectation of dividend payouts. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

All excess tax benefits and tax deficiencies from stock-based compensation awards accounted for under ASC 718 are recognized as an income tax benefit or expense, respectively, in the consolidated statements of operations. An excess income tax benefit arises when the tax deduction of a share-based award for income tax purposes exceeds the compensation cost recognized for financial reporting purposes, and a tax deficiency arises when the compensation cost exceeds the tax deduction.

Stock-based compensation expense for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 consists of stock-based compensation under the AgeX 2017 Equity Incentive Plan, and stock-based compensation of AgeX’s subsidiaries that have their own stock option plans.

Certain of our consolidated subsidiaries have their own share-based compensation plans. For share-based compensation awards granted by those privately-held consolidated subsidiaries under their respective equity plans, we determine the fair value of the options granted under those plans using similar methodologies and assumptions we used for our stock options discussed above.

Although the fair value of stock options is determined in accordance with FASB guidance, changes in the assumptions and allocations can materially affect the estimated value and therefore the amount of compensation expense recognized in the consolidated financial statements.

Long-lived intangible assets – Long-lived intangible assets, consisting primarily of acquired patents, acquired in-process research and development (“IPR&D”) with alternative future uses, patent applications, and licenses to use certain patents, are stated at acquired cost, less accumulated amortization. Amortization expense is computed using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets, generally over 10 years.

Impairment of long-lived assets – Long-lived assets, including long-lived intangible assets, are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be fully recoverable. If an impairment indicator is present, we evaluate recoverability by a comparison of the carrying amount of the assets to future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated by the assets. If the assets are impaired, the impairment recognized is measured by the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the estimated fair value of the assets. Through December 31, 2020, there have been no such impairment losses.

Revenue recognition – During the first quarter of 2018, we adopted FASB ASU 2014-09, Revenues from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which created a single, principle-based revenue recognition model that supersedes and replaces nearly all existing U.S. GAAP revenue recognition guidance. We adopted ASU 2014-09 using the modified retrospective transition method applied to those contracts which were not completed as of the adoption date. Results for reporting periods beginning on January 1, 2018 and thereafter are presented under Topic 606.

We recognize revenue in a manner that depicts the transfer of control of a product or a service to a customer and reflects the amount of the consideration it expects to receive in exchange for such product or service. In doing so, We follow a five-step approach: (i) identify the contract with a customer, (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract, (iii) determine the transaction price, (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations, and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the customer obtains control of the product or service. We consider the terms of a contract and all relevant facts and circumstances when applying the revenue recognition standard. We apply the revenue recognition standard, including the use of any practical expedients, consistently to contracts with similar characteristics and in similar circumstances.

In the applicable paragraphs below, we have summarized our revenue recognition policies for various revenue sources in accordance with Topic 606.

Subscription and advertisement revenues. Through March 15, 2021, we consolidated LifeMap Sciences. LifeMap Sciences sells subscription-based products, including research databases and software tools, for biomedical, gene, and disease research. LifeMap Sciences sells these subscriptions primarily through the internet to biotech and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. LifeMap Sciences’ principal subscription product is the GeneCards^® Suite, which includes the GeneCards^® human gene database, and the MalaCards™ human disease database.

LifeMap Sciences’ performance obligations for subscriptions include a license of intellectual property related to its genetic information packages and premium genetic information tools. We deemed these licenses to be functional licenses that provide customers with a “right to access” to LifeMap Sciences’ intellectual property during the subscription period and, accordingly, revenue was recognized over a period of time, which was generally the subscription period. Payments were typically received at the beginning of a subscription period and revenue was recognized according to the type of subscription sold. For subscription contracts in which the subscription term commenced before a payment was due, LifeMap Sciences recorded an accounts receivable as the subscription was earned over time and billed the customer according to the contract terms.

LifeMap Sciences’ deferred subscription revenues primarily represent subscriptions for which cash payment has been received for the subscription term, but the subscription term had not been completed as of the balance sheet date reported. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, LifeMap Sciences recognized $1.3 million in each year in subscription and advertisement revenues. As of December 31, 2020, there was $275,000 included in deferred revenues in the consolidated balance sheets which was expected to be recognized as subscription revenue over the next twelve months and $64,000 included in other noncurrent liabilities which was expected to be recognized as subscription revenues in the period thereafter.

LifeMap Sciences has licensed from third parties the databases and software it commercializes and has a contractual obligation to pay royalties to the licensor on subscriptions sold. These costs were included in cost of sales on the consolidated statements of operations when the cash was received and the royalty obligation was incurred, as the royalty payments do not qualify for capitalization of costs to fulfill a contract under ASC 340-40, Other Assets and Deferred Costs - Contracts with Customers.

LifeMap Sciences did not generate sufficient revenues to meet its operating expenses. On March 15, 2021, LifeMap Sciences was acquired by a third party in a cash-out merger. See Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Report.

Grant revenues. In applying the provisions of Topic 606, we have determined that government grants are out of the scope of Topic 606 because the government entities do not meet the definition of a “customer”, as defined by Topic 606, as there is not considered to be a transfer of control of good or services to the government entities funding the grant. We account for grants received to perform research and development services in accordance with ASC 730-20, Research and Development Arrangements, which requires an assessment, at the inception of the grant, of whether the grant is a liability or a contract to perform research and development services for others. If we or a subsidiary receiving the grant is obligated to repay the grant funds to the grantor regardless of the outcome of the research and development activities, then we are required to estimate and recognize that liability. Alternatively, if we or a subsidiary receiving the grant is not required to repay, or if it is required to repay the grant funds only if the research and development activities are successful, then the grant agreement is accounted for as a contract to perform research and development services for others, in which case, grant revenue is recognized when the related research and development expenses are incurred.

In September 2018, we were awarded a grant of up to approximately $225,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH grant provides funding for continued development of our technologies for treating osteoporosis. Grant funds were made available by the NIH as allowable expenses were incurred. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, we incurred approximately $25,000 and $180,000, respectively, of allowable expenses under the NIH grant and recognized a corresponding amount of grant revenues. As of March 31, 2020, we expended the full amount available under the grant.

On April 8, 2020, we were awarded a grant of up to approximately $386,000 from the NIH. The NIH grant provides funding for continued development of AgeX’s technologies for treating stroke. The grant funds will be made available by the NIH to AgeX as allowable expenses are incurred. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we incurred approximately $282,000 of allowable expenses under the NIH grant and recognized a corresponding amount of grant revenues.

Arrangements with multiple performance obligations. Future contracts with customers may include multiple performance obligations. For such arrangements, we will allocate revenue to each performance obligation based on its relative standalone selling price. We generally determine or estimate standalone selling prices based on the prices charged, or that would be charged, to customers for that product or service. As of and for the year ended December 31, 2020, we did not have significant arrangements with multiple performance obligations.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic

The recent global outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19, and the various attempts throughout the world to contain it, have created significant volatility, uncertainty and disruption. In response to government directives and guidelines, health care advisories and employee and other concerns, we have altered certain aspects of our operations. A number of our employees have had to work remotely from home and those on site have had to follow our social distance guidelines, which could impact their productivity. COVID-19 could also disrupt our operations due to absenteeism by infected or ill members of management or other employees, or absenteeism by members of management and other employees who cannot effectively work remotely but who elect not to come to work due to the illness affecting others in our office or laboratory facilities, or due to quarantines. COVID-19 illness could also impact members of our Board of Directors resulting in absenteeism from meetings of the directors or committees of directors, and making it more difficult to convene the quorums of the full Board of Directors or its committees needed to conduct meetings for the management of our affairs.

The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and the various responses might impact our business, operations and financial results will depend on numerous evolving factors that we will not be able to accurately predict, including: the duration and scope of the pandemic; governmental, business and individuals’ actions that have been and continue to be taken in response to the pandemic; and the availability and cost to access COVID-19 tests, vaccines and therapies. Due to the uncertain scope and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertain timing of any recovery or normalization, we are currently unable to estimate the resulting impacts on our operations and financial results. We will continue to actively monitor the issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic and may take further actions that alter our operations, as may be required by federal, state, local or foreign authorities, or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, any customers and stockholders. It is not clear what the potential effects any such alterations or modifications may have on our business, including the effects on our financial results.

Financial Operations Overview

To date, our revenues were principally derived from subscription and advertising revenues from LifeMap Sciences’ online databases based upon applicable subscription or advertising periods. LifeMap Sciences was acquired by a third party through a cash-out merger during March 2021 and as a result of that merger transaction we no longer own interest in LifeMap Sciences and will no longer recognize any post-merger revenues attributable to LifeMap Sciences’ business. We do not have any therapeutic products approved for sale and have generated insignificant revenues from commercialized product sales, and we do not expect to generate any significant revenues from product sales for the foreseeable future.

Our operating expenses consist of research and development expenses primarily from our pre-clinical programs and general and administrative expenses. As a result of the layoffs of mostly research personnel in April 2020 research and development work have been scaled back and contracted out to third party service providers within the newly imposed budgetary constraints under the 2020 Loan Agreement. Accordingly, the historical amounts of expense presented and discussed in this Report are likely not going to be indicative of expenses during future periods.

Results of Operations

Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019

Revenues and Cost of Sales

The amounts in the table below show our consolidated revenues by source and cost of sales for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands).

Our revenues were primarily generated by LifeMap Sciences, as subscription and advertising revenues from its GeneCards^® online database. We disposed of our interest in LifeMap Sciences through a cash-out merger during March 2021 and no longer own an interest in LifeMap Sciences and will no longer recognize any post-merger revenues attributable to LifeMap Sciences’ business.

We recognized income of approximately $307,000 during 2020 and approximately $180,000 during 2019 from grants awarded by the NIH. We expended the full amount available under one of the NIH grants as of March 31, 2020. Research and development expenses related to grant revenues are reported in operating expenses.

Other revenues of $296,000 and $253,000 for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, were generated primarily from other service revenues associated with LifeMap Sciences’ online database business.

Operating Expenses

We have made certain adjustments to our operating plans and budgets to reduce our cash expenditures in order to extend the period over which we can continue our operations with our available cash resources. These adjustments entailed a staff force reduction, primarily research and development personnel effective May 1, 2020. As a result of those staff reductions and related adjustments to our operating budgets we expect that our operating expenses, particularly those related to research and development, for periods after May 1, 2020 will be lower than our expenses for the corresponding periods of 2019. However, we paid approximately $105,000 in accrued payroll and unused paid time off and other benefits, and we recognized approximately $194,800 in restructuring charges in connection with the reduction in staffing, consisting of contractual severance, which have been reflected in our operating results for 2020.

The following table shows our consolidated operating expenses for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands).

Research and development expenses

Research and development expenses decreased by $0.9 million to $5.0 million in 2020 as compared to $5.9 million in 2019. The decrease was primarily attributable to the following reductions: $0.8 million in personnel-related expenses as result of our layoff of 11 employees in May 2020; $0.7 million in shared facilities and services fees to Lineage following the termination of the Shared Facilities and Services Agreement on September 30, 2019; $0.2 million in laboratory expense and supplies; and $0.2 million in outside research and services allocable to research and development expenses. These decreases were offset to some extent by an increase of $0.6 million in depreciation and amortization of laboratory equipment and improvements which included accelerated depreciation of lab equipment of $0.2 million; $0.3 million in severance expenses allocable to research and development with the layoff of certain employees in May 2020; and $0.1 million in laboratory facilities and equipment related expenses. See Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Report.

The following table shows the amounts and percentages of our total research and development expenses, allocated to our primary research and development programs during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively (amounts in thousands).

General and administrative expenses

The following table shows the amount and percentages of our consolidated general and administrative expenses incurred during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively (amounts in thousands).

General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2020 decreased by $0.7 million to $7.4 million as compared to $8.1 million in 2019. This decrease was primarily attributable to the following decreases in expenses: $0.9 million of noncash stock-based compensation expense; $0.4 million in general office and facilities related expenses; $0.2 million in shared facilities and services fees from Lineage following the termination of the Shared Facilities and Services Agreement on September 30, 2019; $0.2 million in travel and lodging expenses; $0.1 million in professional fees for accounting services; and $0.1 million in investor and public relations related expenses. These decreases were offset to some extent by an increase of $0.6 million in professional fees for general and patent related legal services; $0.3 million in personnel and related costs resulting from the employment of AgeX’s own finance team commencing October 1, 2019; $0.2 million in consulting fees; and $0.1 million in insurance premiums.

Other income (expense), net

Other income (expense), net, in 2020 and 2019 consist primarily of proceeds from the sale of intangible assets offset by net foreign currency transaction gains and losses recognized by LifeMap Sciences for intercompany payables and receivables denominated in currency other than United States dollars, and interest income and interest expense, net.

Income taxes

For Federal and California purposes, our activity through August 30, 2018 was included in Lineage’s federal consolidated and California combined tax returns. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, the provision for income taxes has been presented on a separate federal consolidated tax return and a California combined tax return using the separate return method, as we will file separately from Lineage for periods after August 30, 2018, the date in which Lineage deconsolidated AgeX as discussed in Note 7 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report.

Beginning in 2018, the 2017 Tax Act subjects a U.S. stockholder to tax on Global Intangible Low Tax Income “GILTI” earned by certain foreign subsidiaries. In general, GILTI is the excess of a U.S. shareholder’s total net foreign income over a deemed return on tangible assets. The provision further allows a deduction of 50% of GILTI, however this deduction is limited to the company’s pre-GILTI U.S. income. For the year ended December 31, 2019, our foreign income inclusion was immaterial. For the year ended December 31, 2020, AgeX’s foreign entity operated at a book loss. However, for GILTI purposes, US tax laws are applied to the foreign activity and as a result there was an immaterial amount included in income for 2020. Current interpretations under ASC 740 state that an entity can make an accounting policy election to either recognize deferred taxes for temporary basis differences expected to reverse as GILTI in future years or to provide for the tax expense related to GILTI in the year the tax is incurred as a period expense. We have elected to account for GILTI as a current period expense when incurred.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, we experienced a domestic loss from continuing operations and a foreign loss. Although we did not record a domestic provision or benefit, we did record a foreign benefit for income taxes, due to an adjustment in the prior year's foreign tax provision reported.

As of December 31, 2020, we had net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $49.2 million for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Of this amount, $8.9 million is attributable to LifeMap Sciences, which includes $2.7 million in NOLs generated while it was included in the consolidated tax group and would be available to offset income of AgeX in the future. The remaining LifeMap Sciences NOLs of $6.2 million are attributable to NOLs generated for the tax years during which LifeMap Sciences filed a separate federal income tax return and, accordingly, those NOLs are available only to LifeMap Sciences’ taxable income and will not be available within AgeX in future years. In general, NOLs and other tax credit carryforwards generated by legal entities in a consolidated federal tax group are available to other members of the tax group depending on the nature of the transaction that a member may enter into while still in the consolidated federal tax group. However, under the Tax Matters Agreement between Lineage and AgeX, any use of a member’s NOLs and other tax credit carryforwards by the other member is subject to reimbursement by the benefiting member for the actual tax benefit realized. Since the August 30, 2018 deconsolidation of AgeX, and to date, neither Lineage nor AgeX has used the tax attributes of the other.

As of December 31, 2020, we had net operating losses of approximately $41.0 million for California purposes. As we and our subsidiaries have been included in the combined California tax return with Lineage, up to the date of deconsolidation on August 30, 2018, those state net operating losses will remain with AgeX.

Federal net operating losses generated on or prior to December 31, 2017, expire in varying amounts between 2028 and 2037, while federal net operating losses generated after December 31, 2017, carryforward indefinitely. The state net operating losses expire in varying amounts between 2028 and 2040.

As of December 31, 2020, AgeX had research and development tax credit carryforwards for federal and state tax purposes of $1.3 million and $1.0 million, respectively. Although this LifeMap Sciences credit has been included as part of the AgeX credit carryforwards, LifeMap Sciences filed a separate federal income tax return prior to January 1, 2018 and its prior research credit carryforwards cannot be used to offset federal taxable income of AgeX. As AgeX and its subsidiaries were included in the California combined return with Lineage, these credits noted above will remain with AgeX. The federal tax credits expire between 2028 and 2040, while the state tax credits have no expiration date.

A valuation allowance is provided when it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. We established a full valuation allowance for all periods presented due to the uncertainty of realizing future tax benefits from our net operating loss carryforwards and other deferred tax assets.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Operating Losses and Going Concern Considerations

We have incurred operating losses and negative cash flows since inception and had an accumulated deficit of $97.1 million as of December 31, 2020. We expect to continue to incur operating losses and negative cash flows.

We have made certain adjustments to our operating plans and budgets to reduce our projected cash expenditures in order to extend the period over which we can continue our operations with our available cash resources. These adjustments entailed down-sizing of our leased office space effective January 1, 2021, a staff force reduction during 2020, primarily impacting research and development personnel, and the elimination of our leased laboratory facility, that will require the deferral of certain work on the development of our product candidates and technologies. We incurred certain expenses arising from the staff reduction, including severance expenses as disclosed in Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report. However, notwithstanding those adjustments, based on our most recent projected cash flows, and not taking account of the scheduled maturity of loan balances under the 2019 Loan Agreement during February 2022, our cash and cash equivalents and potential additional loans that may become available to us from Juvenescence under the 2019 Loan Agreement and the 2020 Loan Agreement, and the proceeds of up to $12.6 million we may receive from the sale of our common stock in “at-the-market” transactions through a Sales Agreement with Chardan Capital, LLC as a sales agent, would not be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated operating and other funding requirements for the next twelve months from the date of filing of this Report. These factors raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern. See Notes 4 and 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report for additional information about our loan agreements with Juvenescence. We will need to raise additional capital in the near term to be able to meet our operating expenses.

Through March 26, 2021, we had borrowed a total of $9.5 million under the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement, but all additional loans to us from the $4.5 million in total of credit amounts that remained available as of March 26, 2021 under those loan agreements are subject to Juvenescence’s discretion, and accordingly there is no assurance that we will be able to borrow additional funds from Juvenescence when we need funding for our operations. The 2020 Loan Agreement prohibits us and our subsidiaries ReCyte Therapeutics and Reverse Bio from borrowing funds from other lenders or engaging in certain other transactions without the consent of Juvenescence unless we repay all amounts owed to Juvenescence under the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement. Under the 2020 Loan Agreement, Juvenescence may require AgeX and the Guarantor Subsidiaries to grant Juvenescence a security interest and lien on substantially all of our respective assets. These factors and the impact of potential dilution through the issuance of shares of our common stock upon the conversion of the Juvenescence loans into AgeX common stock and the exercise of warrants issued to Juvenescence under the 2019 Loan Agreement and 2020 Loan Agreement could make AgeX less attractive to new equity investors and could impair our ability to finance our operations or the operations of our subsidiaries unless Juvenescence agrees, in its discretion, to lend us funds.

During March 2021, in connection with the disposition of our interest in LifeMap Sciences through a cash-out merger, we received $250,000 from LifeMap Sciences as a repayment of a portion of inter-company indebtedness from us. We received gross proceeds of approximately $466,400 from the disposition of our interest in LifeMap Sciences through the cash-out merger.

We may sell up to $12.6 million of common shares in “at-the-market” transactions through a Sales Agreement with Chardan Capital, LLC as a sales agent. We do not have any other committed sources of funds for additional financing.

The availability of financing for AgeX also may be adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic which could continue to depress national and international economies and disrupt capital markets, supply chains, and aspects of our operations. The extent to which the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately impact our business, results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows is highly uncertain and difficult to predict because it will depend on many factors that are outside our control. The unavailability or inadequacy of financing to meet future capital needs could force us to modify, curtail, delay, or suspend some or all aspects of planned operations.

To the extent that we are able to raise additional capital through the sale of AgeX equity or convertible debt securities or the sale of equity or convertible debt securities of any of our subsidiaries, the ownership interest of our present stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of any securities we or our subsidiaries issue may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Additional debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends, and may involve the issuance of convertible debt or stock purchase warrants that would dilute the equity interests of our stockholders. If we raise funds through additional strategic partnerships or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us.

Cash used in operating activities

During the year ended December 31, 2020, our total research and development expenses were $5.0 million and our general and administrative expenditures were $7.4 million. Net loss attributable to us for the year ended December 31, 2020 amounted to $10.9 million. Net cash used in operating activities during this period amounted to $7.8 million. The difference between the net loss attributable to us and net cash used in operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2020 was primarily attributable to the following: $2.2 million in depreciation and amortization; $0.9 million in stock-based compensation expense; and $0.1 million in foreign currency remeasurement. These expenses were offset to some extent by $0.1 million in net loss attributable to noncontrolling interest and $62,000 net change in working capital from operating activities.

Cash used in investing activities

During the year ended December 31, 2020, net cash used in investing activities was $20,000, which was paid entirely for the purchase of laboratory equipment.

Cash provided by financing activities

During the year ended December 31, 2020, net cash provided by financing activities amounted to $6.0 million, which was attributable to the draw of the remaining $0.2 million from the $2.0 million loan facility under the 2019 Loan Agreement, $5.5 million drawn against the $8.0 million line of credit under the 2020 Loan Agreement, and $0.4 million of Paycheck Protection Program loan proceeds. These proceeds were offset by $157,000 used to pay for debt related costs.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

As of December 31, 2020, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined in Item 303(a) (4) (ii) of SEC Regulation S-K.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Not applicable.

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

Stockholders and Board of Directors

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc.

Alameda, California

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity (deficit), and cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2020, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Going Concern Uncertainty

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1, the Company has had recurring losses and negative operating cash flows since inception, an accumulated deficit at December 31, 2020, and insufficient cash and cash equivalents and loan proceeds at December 31, 2020 to fund operations for twelve months from the date of issuance. All of these matters raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in Note 1. The consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Intangible Assets Impairment Assessments - Long-Lived Intangible Assets

Critical Audit Matter Description

As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company’s long-lived net intangible assets, which consisted primarily of patents and acquired in-process research and development, had a balance of $1.6 million as of December 31, 2020.

Long-lived intangible assets are assessed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying amounts of the assets may not be recoverable. Recoverability of a long-lived intangible asset that will continue to be used in the Company’s operations is measured by comparing the carrying amount of the asset to the forecasted undiscounted future cash flows related to the asset.

Auditing the Company’s impairment analysis of its long-lived intangible assets is complex because of the significant judgment used by management in the identification of events that suggest an asset group may not be recoverable, and the highly subjective assumptions used by management in the impairment testing process.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Addressing the matter involved performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements. These procedures included, among others, obtaining an understanding of and evaluating management’s process for identifying potential impairment events; evaluating the appropriateness of the cash flow model used in the impairment testing process; testing the completeness, accuracy, and relevance of underlying data used in the model; and evaluating the reasonableness of the significant assumptions used by management, including the future cash flow projections. We evaluated the reasonableness of management’s assumptions for future cash flow projections in consideration of (i) the current and past performance of the asset group, (ii) the consistency with external market and industry data, and (iii) whether these assumptions were consistent with evidence obtained in other areas of the audit.

/s/ OUM & CO. LLP

San Francisco, California

March 31, 2021

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2017.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

AGEX THERAPEUTICS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except par value amounts)