Beyond Air, Inc. - Annual Report: 2017 (Form 10-K)

 

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The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are highly competitive. There are many pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, medical device companies, public and private universities and research organizations actively engaged in the research and development of products that may be similar to our product candidates. We are aware of several companies currently developing and selling NO therapies for various indications such as pulmonary hypertension. For example Mallinkrodt commercializes INOMAX® (nitric oxide) for inhalation, which is approved for use to treat newborns suffering from HRF-PPHN, in the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Japan. The Linde Group has marketing rights to INOMAX® in Europe. Air Liquide sells a similar product in Europe, called VasoKINOX™, together with their delivery platform called OptiKINOX™, for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension that occurs during or after heart surgery. In Europe, Bedfont Scientific Ltd. has a delivery system called NOxBOX® and Air Products PLC has a gas product called NOXAP®, each used in delivering inhaled NO formulations. Bellepheron Therapeutics is developing NO-based products for pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Geno LLC is developing NO-based products for the treatment of a variety of pulmonary and cardiac diseases such as acute vasoreactivity testing, pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In addition, other companies may be developing generic NO formulation delivery systems for various dosages. Ceretec, Inc., a company affiliated with 12th Man Technologies Inc., recently obtained clearance from the FDA to market an NO gas product for use in membrane diffusing capacity testing in pulmonary function laboratories in the United States. Novoteris, LLC previously received orphan drug designation from the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) for the use of inhaled NO-based treatments in treating CF. If the FDA approves Novoteris’ product candidate for the indication for which it received orphan drug designation, then Novoteris will be eligible for orphan drug exclusivity if its product receives approval first, which would have no effect on our product given we are a medical device. In January 2015, Ikaria entered into an agreement with Novoteris to collaborate on the development of an outpatient program for treating bacterial infections associated with CF. Recently, we have become aware that each of Ikaria and Novoteris is conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial using a 160 ppm NO formulation to treat patients with CF. Moreover, Novoteris is also conducting a Phase 2 study in NTM Abscessus in Canada.

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Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Requirements

 

We have incurred significant losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. We are a clinical-stage company. We have no approved products and have generated no revenue to date and may never generate revenue or achieve profitability.

 

Our ability to implement our business strategy is subject to numerous risks that you should be aware of before making an investment decision. These are not the only risks we face. These risks include, among others, that:

 

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we are a development-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company and have a limited operating history on which to assess our business, have incurred significant losses since our inception, including a net loss of $18 million for year ended December 31, 2017, and an accumulated deficit of approximately $31.6 million as of December 31, 2017, and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future;

 

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we are unable to predict the extent of future losses or when we will become profitable based on the sale of any product, if at all. Even if we succeed in developing and commercializing our product candidates, we may never generate revenue to sustain profitability;

 

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we have no source of revenue, and we expect that we will need to raise additional funding before we can expect to become profitable from sales of our products;

 

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we are heavily dependent upon the success of our product candidates, which are in various stages of clinical development, and we cannot provide any assurance that the FDA or other regulatory agencies will allow us to conduct further clinical trials;

 

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we are in the process of developing our proprietary NO delivery system, and unexpected delays will adversely impact the timing of our U.S.-based clinical trials and approvals;

 

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we might be unable to develop product candidates that will achieve commercial success in a timely and cost-effective manner, or ever;

 

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our competitors may develop or commercialize products faster or more successfully than us;

 

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because some of the target patient populations of our product candidates are small, we must be able to successfully identify patients and achieve a significant market share to maintain profitability and growth;

 

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our reliance on third parties to help conduct our pre-clinical studies, clinical trials and commercial scale manufacturing;

 

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we do not have any products approved for sale by the FDA or any other regulatory agencies, and we cannot provide any assurance that any of our product candidates will receive regulatory approval;

 

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if we are unable to obtain and maintain effective intellectual property rights for our technologies, product candidates or any future product candidates, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets; and

 

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our future success depends in part upon our ability to retain our executive and scientific teams, and to attract, retain and motivate other qualified personnel.

 

It is highly likely that we will need to raise additional capital to meet our business requirements in the future, and such capital raising may be costly or difficult to obtain, and could dilute current stockholders’ ownership interests.

 

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the progress and results of our clinical trials, the timing and outcome of regulatory review of our product candidates, commercial manufacturing success, the number and development requirements of other product candidates that we pursue, and the costs of commercialization activities, including product marketing, sales, and distribution. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with the development and commercialization of our product candidates, we are unable to reasonably estimate the amounts of additional capital outlays and operating expenditures that our business will require. It is likely that we will need to raise additional funds through public or private debt or equity financings to meet various objectives including, but not limited to:

 

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clinical trials for our product candidates;

 

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researching and developing new products;

 

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pursuing growth opportunities, including more rapid expansion;

 

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acquiring complementary businesses or technologies;

 

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making capital improvements to improve our infrastructure;

 

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hiring qualified management and key employees;

 

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responding to competitive pressures;

 

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complying with regulatory requirements; and

 

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maintaining compliance with applicable laws.

 

Any additional capital raised through the sale of equity or equity-linked securities may dilute our current stockholders’ ownership in us and could also result in a decrease in the market price of our Common Stock. The terms of those securities issued by us in future capital transactions may be more favorable to new investors and may include preferences, superior voting rights and the issuance of warrants or other derivative securities, which may have a further dilutive effect.

 

Furthermore, any debt or equity financing that we may need may not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all.

 

Additionally, we may incur substantial costs in pursuing future capital financing, including investment banking fees, legal fees, accounting fees, securities law compliance fees, printing and distribution expenses and other costs. We may also be required to recognize non-cash expenses in connection with certain securities we issue, such as convertible notes and warrants, which may adversely impact our financial condition.

 

If we are unable to obtain required additional capital, we may have to curtail our growth plans or cut back on existing business, and we may not be able to continue operating if we do not generate sufficient revenues from operations needed to stay in business.

 

Risks Related to the Discovery and Development of Our Product Candidates

 

We are heavily dependent on the success of our product candidates, which are in the early stages of clinical development. We cannot give any assurance that any of our product candidates will receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before they can be commercialized.

 

To date, we have invested substantially all of our efforts and financial resources to design and develop our product candidates, including conducting clinical studies and providing general and administrative support for these operations. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for, and then successfully commercialize one or more product candidates. We currently generate no revenue from sales of any product, and we may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable product.

 

Each of our product candidates is in the early stages of development and will require additional clinical development (and in some cases additional preclinical development), management of nonclinical, clinical and manufacturing activities, regulatory approval, obtaining adequate manufacturing supply, building of a commercial organization and significant marketing efforts before we generate any revenue from product sales. To date, we have conducted a pilot clinical trial involving 43 patients with bronchiolitis (mainly caused by RSV) and a pilot clinical trial in nine patients with CF. In addition, Rambam healthcare campus in Israel conducted a compassionate treatment for two patients with CF who suffer from NTM infections (specifically M. Abscessus). All of these studies were conducted outside the United States and were not conducted pursuant to an FDA IND. The results of these three studies showed improvements in various endpoints and clinical outcomes. The trials were small, however, and it is likely that the FDA will view them as not significant because of their size and scope. In addition, the delivery systems were different from the one that we intend to test and market, subject to FDA approval, in the United States, further reducing the likelihood that FDA would view these test results as adequate or sufficient to support marketing applications. We therefore intend to conduct larger clinical trials aiming for statistically and clinically significant favorable results, or we will not be able to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates. It may be years before a pivotal study is initiated, if at all. Before a medical device clinical trial can be undertaken in the United States, the sponsor of the trial must submit an IDE application for a medical device and the FDA must permit the trial to go forward. We cannot assure that we will obtain such agency acquiescence in a timely manner, or at all. 

 

In addition, we cannot be sure that we will be successful in completing the development of our NO Delivery System to the satisfaction of the FDA, which could lead to material delays in our ability to commence U.S.-based clinical trials, if at all. We are not permitted to market or promote any of our product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. 

 

We as a company have never submitted marketing applications for approval of our product candidates to the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities; although in 2014 the FDA granted the Company orphan drug designation for the use of NO in the treatment of CF and in 2015, the EU also granted the Company orphan drug designation for the use of NO in the treatment of CF. We are no longer pursuing the drug regulatory pathway so the orphan drug designation may mean nothing.  We cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical studies or receive regulatory approval. Further, our product candidates may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical studies. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we do receive FDA approval for our drug, the indications for which we are initially seeking approval are very narrow and this, as a result, may limit their commercial viability.

 

We generally plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates in the United States, the EU and in additional foreign countries. To obtain regulatory approvals we must comply with the numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety, efficacy, chemistry, manufacturing and controls, clinical studies, commercial sales, pricing and distribution of our product candidates. Even if we are successful in obtaining approval in one jurisdiction, we cannot ensure that we will obtain approval in any other jurisdictions. If we are unable to obtain approval for our product candidates in multiple jurisdictions, our revenue and results of operations would be negatively affected.

 

The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable. 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, typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical studies and depends upon numerous factors. 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, which may cause delays in the approval or the decision not to approve an application. We have not obtained regulatory approval for any product candidate, and it is possible that none of our existing product candidates or any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval.

 

The process required by the FDA before a new medical device may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:

 

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completion of or reference to extensive preclinical laboratory tests and preclinical animal studies, all performed in accordance with the FDA’s Good Laboratory Practice (“GLP”);

 

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submission to the FDA of a pre-IDE application, which the FDA authorizes before we may begin conducting human clinical trials, provided that the FDA does not object; the IDE must be updated annually;

 

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performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of the medical device candidate for each proposed indication; and

 

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submission to the FDA of a 510(k) or PMA, after completion of all pivotal clinical trials.

 

An IDE application is a request for authorization from the FDA to administer an investigational medical device to humans. We currently do not have any IDEs in effect. 

 

Clinical trials involve the administration of the medical device to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with current Good Clinical Practices (“cGCPs”) which include the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent for participation in any clinical trial. A protocol for each clinical trial and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IDE. Additionally, approval must also be obtained from each clinical trial site’s Institutional Review Board (“IRB”) before the trials may be initiated, and the IRB must monitor the study until completed and re-assess and approve the study at least annually. There are also requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical trials and clinical trial results to public registries.

 

Clinical trials for medical devices are usually conducted in two phases. Pilot clinical trials are normally conducted in small groups of patients to assess safety, find the optimal dosing range and assess potential efficacy. After a successful pilot study or studies, the device is administered to a population of patientslarge enough to meet the requirements for regulatory approval.  This size of trial is usually multi-center, controlled and potentially double-blind.

 

During the course of a clinical trial, we are required to inform the FDA and the IRB about adverse events associated with our product candidate. The FDA, the IRB, or the clinical trial sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Additionally, some clinical trials are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical trial sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board or committee, or DSMB. This group reviews unblinded data from clinical trials and provides authorization for whether a trial may move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the study. We may also suspend or terminate a clinical trial based on evolving business objectives or competitive climates.

 

Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, detailed investigational medical device information is submitted to the FDA in the form of an PMA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. The application includes all relevant data available from pertinent preclinical and clinical trials, including negative or ambiguous results as well as positive findings, together with detailed information relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacturing, controls and proposed labeling, among other things.

 

Once the PMA submission has been accepted for filing, the FDA’s goal is to review applications within ten months of filing. However, the review process is often significantly extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification. The FDA may refer the application to an advisory committee for review, evaluation, and recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of an advisory committee, but it typically follows such recommendations.

 

An IDE is a request for authorization from the FDA to administer an investigational medical device to humans.  We currently do not have any IDEs in effect.

 

Applications for our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:

 

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the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical studies;

 

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we may be unable to demonstrate to the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a product candidate’s risk-benefit ratio for its proposed indication is acceptable;

 

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the FDA may determine that the population studied in the clinical program was not sufficiently broad or representative to assure safety in the full population for which we seek approval;

 

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the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical studies;

 

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the data collected from clinical studies of our product candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of a PMA in the United States or elsewhere;

 

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the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes, test procedures and specifications or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies;

 

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the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval; and

 

 This lengthy approval process, as well as the unpredictability of the results of clinical studies, may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market any of our product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects. 

 

Medical device development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies may not be predictive of future study results.

 

Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical study process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical studies of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical studies. Product candidates that have shown promising results in early-stage clinical studies may still suffer significant setbacks in subsequent advanced clinical studies. There is a high failure rate for medical devices proceeding through clinical studies, and product candidates in later stages of clinical studies may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed satisfactorily through preclinical studies and initial clinical studies. A number of companies in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical studies due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier studies. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. We do not know whether any pivotal studies we may conduct will demonstrate consistent or adequate efficacy and safety sufficient to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates. Nor do we know whether the FDA will permit us to proceed directly to pivotal trials without performing pilot trials in the United States using the same delivery system that we will seek approval by the agency.

 

We are working on NTM Abscessus which is very rare. 

 

NTM Abscessus is a very rare disease and only a small number of people suffer from this condition. As a result of these small numbers, we may not be able to complete the study related to NTM Abscessus or, even if approved, the device for that indication may never be profitable. In addition, there are many strains of NTM but our study is only on one of them, Abscessus. Therefore, we may face a situation that this strain will disappear or there will no candidates with this strain, so the FDA may not grant us approval to treat other NTM strains without further validation and trials, or possibly ever, and/or the FDA may not allow us to work on NTM in patients who do not have CF.

 

We are working on bronchiolitis in infants that usually is caused by the RSV virus. RSV is a seasonal virus and the length of the disease and the severity of the disease might change every year.

 

RSV is a seasonal virus (only in the winter). In our trial, we are heavily dependent on the occurrence and the severity of this virus. RSV or the winter cannot be predicted. For example, if the winter is warm or short, or the RSV infection was not severe enough when we conducted our trial, or the length of stay in the hospital at the year that trial was conducted was different from previous seasons, then we might miss the season or the results can be significantly different between two seasons or between different countries or even between different sites.

 

We are heavily dependent on the Aeronox system to conduct our trial outside the United States, and we may be required to seek an alternative delivery system for our proprietary 160 ppm NO formulation if we were to conduct a clinical trial within the United States. 

 

We are heavily dependent on the Aeronox system and the company that manufactures it, International Biomedical, located in Texas. If International Biomedical decides not to continue to support the Aeronox system (for example, selling parts and providing repair services for the device), then we might not be able to conduct our U.S. trial. This system is not manufactured specifically for us, and we have no agreement with International Biomedical for the continued manufacture or support of this Aeronox system. Additionally, the Aeronox system is not currently approved for use in the United States at the 160 ppm concentration required by our proprietary 160 ppm NO formulation, and we currently engage a third-party contractor to modify the Aeronox system in order for it to monitor our NO formulation at 160 ppm. Unless the Aeronox system obtains such approval, of which we have no current expectation, we would be required to seek an alternative delivery system in order to conduct a clinical trial of our formulation within the United States.

 

 

We may find it difficult to enroll patients in our clinical studies. Difficulty in enrolling patients could delay or prevent clinical studies of our product candidates.

 

Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in clinical studies of our product candidates is critical to our success. The timing of our clinical studies depends in part on the speed at which we can recruit patients to participate in testing our product candidates, and we may experience delays in our clinical studies if we encounter difficulties in enrollment.

 

Some of the conditions for which we plan to evaluate our current product candidates are for rare diseases. For example, we estimate that 5,000 patients suffer from NTM abscessus in the United States. Accordingly, there is a limited patient pool from which to draw for clinical studies. Further, the eligibility criteria of our clinical studies will further limit the pool of available study participants as we will require that patients have specific characteristics that we can measure or to assure their disease is either severe enough or not too advanced to include them in a study.

 

Additionally, the process of finding patients may prove costly. We also may not be able to identify, recruit and enroll a sufficient number of patients to complete our clinical studies because of the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study, particularly the toxicity of NO in certain doses, the availability and efficacy of competing therapies and clinical studies, the proximity and availability of clinical study sites for prospective patients and the patient referral practices of physicians. If patients are unwilling to participate in our studies for any reason, the timeline for recruiting patients, conducting studies and obtaining regulatory approval of potential products will be delayed.

 

If we experience delays in the completion or termination of any clinical study of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of our product candidates will be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenue from any of these product candidates could be delayed or prevented. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical studies will increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical studies may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates.

 

We may encounter substantial delays in our clinical studies, or we may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities.

 

Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of our product candidates, we must conduct extensive clinical studies to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, time consuming and uncertain as to outcome. We cannot guarantee that any clinical studies will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. Our clinical studies involve infants, children, and adults and, before we are permitted to enroll them in clinical trials, we must demonstrate that although the research may pose a risk to the subjects, there is a prospect of direct benefit to each patient. We must do so to the satisfaction of each research site’s IRB. If we fail to adequately demonstrate this to the satisfaction of the relevant IRB, it will decline to approve the research, which could have significant adverse consequences for the Company.

 

A failure of one or more clinical studies can occur at any stage of testing, and our future clinical studies may not be successful. Events that may prevent successful or timely completion of clinical development include but are not limited to:

 

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inability to generate sufficient preclinical, toxicology or other in vivo or in vitro data to support the initiation of human clinical studies;

 

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delays in reaching a consensus with regulatory agencies on study design;

 

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delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective contract research organizations (“CROs”) and clinical study sites, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and clinical study sites;

 

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delays in obtaining required IRB approval at each clinical study site;

 

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imposition of a clinical hold by regulatory agencies, after review of an IDE application, or equivalent application, or an inspection of our clinical study operations or study sites;

 

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delays in recruiting suitable patients to participate in our clinical studies;

 

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difficulty collaborating with patient groups and investigators;

 

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failure by our CROs, other third parties or us to adhere to clinical study requirements;

 

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failure to perform in accordance with the FDA’s GPC requirements, or applicable regulatory guidelines in other countries;

 

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delays in having patients complete participation in a study or return for post-treatment follow-up;

 

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patients dropping out of a study;

 

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occurrence of serious adverse events associated with the product candidate that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits;

 

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changes in regulatory requirements and guidance that require amending or submitting new clinical protocols;

 

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the cost of clinical studies of our product candidates being greater than we anticipate;

 

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clinical studies of our product candidates producing negative or inconclusive results, which may result in us deciding, or regulators requiring us, to conduct additional clinical studies or abandon product development programs; and

 

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delays in manufacturing, testing, releasing, validating or importing/exporting sufficient stable quantities of our product candidates for use in clinical studies or the inability to do any of the foregoing.

 

Any inability to successfully complete preclinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue. We may also be required to conduct additional safety, efficacy and comparability studies before we will be allowed to start clinical studies. Clinical study delays could also shorten any periods during which our products have patent protection and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations. 

 

Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could 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.

 

Undesirable side effects caused by our product candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical studies and could result in a more restrictive marketing label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other comparable foreign authorities. There is currently limited data regarding possible side effects for an antimicrobial dosage of NO treatments, such as our product candidates. Potential side effects of NO treatments may include high methemoglobin, nitrogen dioxide (“NO₂”) toxicity, nose bleeding and low blood pressure. Results of our studies may identify unacceptable severity and prevalence of these or other side effects. In such an event, our studies could be suspended or terminated, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. 

 

NO-related side effects could affect patient recruitment, the ability of enrolled patients to complete the study or result in potential product liability claims.

 

Additionally, if one or more of our product candidates receives marketing approval, and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by such products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including but not limited to:

 

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regulatory authorities may withdraw approvals of such product;

 

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regulatory authorities may require additional warnings on the label;

 

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as a condition of approval, we may be required to create a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”) plan, which could include a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients, a communication plan for healthcare providers and/or other elements to assure safe use;

 

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we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; and

 

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our reputation may suffer.

 

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.

 

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, we will still face extensive, ongoing regulatory requirements and review, and our products may face future development and regulatory difficulties.

 

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for one or more of our product candidates in the United States, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on a product’s indicated uses or marketing or to the conditions for approval, or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies, including post-market surveillance. As a condition to granting marketing approval of a product, the FDA may require a company to conduct additional clinical trials. The results generated in these post-approval clinical trials could result in loss of marketing approval, changes in product labeling, or new or increased concerns about side effects or efficacy of a product. For example, the labeling for our product candidates, if approved, may include restrictions on use or warnings. The Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (“FDAAA”) gives the FDA enhanced post-market authority, including the explicit authority to require post-market studies and clinical trials, labeling changes based on new safety information, and compliance with FDA-approved REMS programs. If approved, our product candidates will also be subject to ongoing FDA requirements governing the manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, safety surveillance, advertising, promotion, record keeping, and reporting of safety and other post-market information. The FDA’s exercise of its authority could result in delays or increased costs during product development, clinical trials and regulatory review, increased costs to comply with additional post-approval regulatory requirements, and potential restrictions on sales of approved products. Foreign regulatory agencies often have similar authority and may impose comparable costs. Post-marketing studies, whether conducted by us or by others and whether mandated by regulatory agencies or voluntary, and other emerging data about marketed products, such as adverse event reports, may also adversely affect sales of our product candidates once approved, and potentially our other marketed products. Further, the discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of our products that implicate (or are perceived to implicate) an entire class of products could have an adverse effect on sales of our approved products. Accordingly, new data about our products could negatively affect demand because of real or perceived side effects or uncertainty regarding efficacy and, in some cases, could result in product withdrawal or recall. Furthermore, new data and information, including information about product misuse, may lead government agencies, professional societies, and practice management groups or organizations involved with various diseases to publish guidelines or recommendations related to the use of our products or the use of related therapies or place restrictions on sales. Such guidelines or recommendations may lead to lower sales of our products. 

 

The holder of an approved PMA or cleared 510(k) also is subject to obligations to monitor and report adverse events and instances of the failure of a product to meet the specifications in the marketing application. Application holders must submit new or supplemental applications and obtain FDA approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling, or manufacturing process. Application holders must also submit advertising and other promotional material to the FDA and report on ongoing clinical trials. Legal requirements have also been enacted to require disclosure of clinical trial results on publicly available databases.

 

In addition, manufacturers of FDA regulated products and their facilities are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with the FDA’s cGMPs regulations. If we or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product, the manufacturing facility, or us, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing, requiring new warnings or other labeling changes to limit use of the product, requiring that we conduct additional clinical trials, imposing new monitoring requirements, or requiring that we establish a REMS program for our approved products. Advertising and promotional materials must comply with FDA rules in addition to other potentially applicable federal and state laws. The distribution of product samples to physicians must comply with the requirements of the Prescription Drug Marketing Act. Sales, marketing, and scientific/educational grant programs must comply with the anti-fraud and abuse provisions of the Social Security Act, the False Claims Act, and similar state laws. We would also be required under the Sunshine provision of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) to report annually to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on payments that we make to physicians and teaching hospitals and ownerships interests in the company held by physicians. Pricing and rebate programs must comply with the Medicaid rebate requirements of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 and the Veterans Healthcare Act of 1992. If products are made available to authorized users of the Federal Supply Schedule of the General Services Administration and to low income patients of certain hospitals, additional laws and requirements apply. Our activities are also potentially subject to federal and state consumer protection and unfair competition laws. If we or our third-party collaborators fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency may take any of the following actions:

 

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conduct an investigation into our practices and any alleged violation of law;

 

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issue warning letters or untitled letters asserting that we are in violation of the law;

 

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seek an injunction or impose civil or criminal penalties or monetary fines;

 

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suspend or withdraw regulatory approval;

 

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require that we suspend or terminate any ongoing clinical trials;

 

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refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to applications filed by us;

 

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suspend or impose restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing requirements;

 

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seize or detain products, refuse to permit the import or export of products, or require us to initiate a product recall; or

 

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exclude us from providing our products to those participating in government health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and refuse to allow us to enter into supply contracts, including government contracts.

 

The occurrence of any of the foregoing events or penalties may force us to expend significant amounts of time and money and may significantly inhibit our ability to bring to market or continue to market our products and generate revenue. Similar regulations apply in foreign jurisdictions.

 

Risks Related to our Reliance on Third Parties

 

We rely on third parties to conduct our preclinical and clinical studies and perform other tasks for us. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or comply with regulatory requirements, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

 

We have relied upon and plan to continue to rely upon third-party CROs to monitor and manage data for our ongoing preclinical and clinical programs. We rely on these parties for execution of our preclinical and clinical studies, and we directly control only certain aspects of their activities, although from a regulatory perspective we are responsible for their actions. We are 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 CROs and other vendors are required to comply with Good Clinical Practice (“GCP”), QSR and GLP, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA, the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), and comparable foreign regulatory authorities for all of our product candidates in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce these regulations through periodic inspections of study sponsors, principal investigators, study sites and other contractors. If we or any of our CROs or vendors fail to comply with applicable regulations, the clinical data generated in our clinical studies may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical studies 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 studies comply with GCP regulations. In addition, our clinical studies must be conducted with products that are produced under QSR regulations. Our failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical studies, which would delay the regulatory approval process, or have other adverse consequences.

 

If any of our relationships with these third-party CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or do so on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, our CROs are not our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such CROs, we cannot control whether they devote sufficient time and resources to our on-going clinical, nonclinical and preclinical programs. If CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical studies may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates. CROs may also generate higher costs than anticipated. As a consequence, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed.

 

Switching or adding additional CROs involves additional cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays may occur, which could materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter similar challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

 

We will rely on third parties to manufacture our NO delivery system. Our business could be harmed if those third parties fail to provide us with sufficient quantities of our needed supplies, or fail to do so at acceptable quality levels or prices.

 

We do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture the components of our NO delivery system, and we lack the resources and the capability to manufacture any of our product candidates on a clinical or commercial scale. We plan to rely on third parties for such supplies. There are a limited number of manufacturers who have the ability to produce our delivery system, and there may be a need to identify alternate manufacturers to prevent a possible disruption of our clinical studies. Any significant delay or discontinuity in the supply of these components could considerably delay completion of our clinical studies, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates, which could harm our business and results of operations.

 

We and our collaborators and contract manufacturers are subject to significant regulation with respect to manufacturing our product candidates. The manufacturing facilities on which we rely may not continue to meet regulatory requirements and have limited capacity.

 

All entities involved in the preparation of medical devices for clinical studies or commercial sale, including our existing contract manufacturers for our product candidates, are subject to extensive regulation. Components of a finished medical device product approved for commercial sale or used in late-stage clinical studies must be manufactured in accordance with QSR. These regulations govern manufacturing processes and procedures (including record keeping) and the implementation and operation of quality systems to control and assure the quality of investigational products and products approved for sale. Poor control of production processes can lead to the introduction of contaminants or to inadvertent changes in the properties or stability of our product candidates that may not be detectable in final product testing. We, our collaborators or our contract manufacturers must supply all necessary documentation in support of any marketing application on a timely basis and must adhere to GLP and QSR regulations enforced by the FDA and other regulatory agencies through their facilities inspection program. The facilities and quality systems of some or all of our collaborators and third-party contractors must pass a pre-approval inspection for compliance with the applicable regulations as a condition of regulatory approval of our product candidates or any of our other potential products. In addition, the regulatory authorities may, at any time, audit or inspect a manufacturing facility involved with the preparation of our product candidates or our other potential products or the associated quality systems for compliance with the regulations applicable to the activities being conducted. We do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, our contract manufacturing partners for compliance with the regulatory requirements. If these facilities do not pass a pre-approval plant inspection, regulatory approval of the products may not be granted or may be substantially delayed until any violations are corrected to the satisfaction of the regulatory authority, if ever.

 

The regulatory authorities also may, at any time following approval of a product for sale, audit the manufacturing facilities of our collaborators and 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.

 

If we, our collaborators, or any of our third-party manufacturers fail to maintain regulatory compliance, the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities can impose regulatory sanctions including, among other things, refuse to approve a pending application for a new drug product, withdrawal of an approval, suspend production, suspend clinical studies, require a recall or suspension of production. As a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially harmed.

 

Additionally, if supply from one approved manufacturer is interrupted, an alternative manufacturer would need to be qualified through an PMA or Marketing Authorization Application amendment, or equivalent foreign regulatory filing, which could result in further delay. 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.

 

These factors could cause us to incur higher costs and could cause the delay or termination of clinical studies, regulatory submissions, required approvals or commercialization of our product candidates. Furthermore, if our suppliers fail to meet contractual requirements and we are unable to secure one or more replacement suppliers capable of production at a substantially equivalent cost, our clinical studies may be delayed or we could lose potential revenue.

 

Our reliance on third parties requires us to share our trade secrets, which increases the possibility that a competitor will discover them or that our trade secrets will be misappropriated or disclosed.

 

Because we rely on third parties to develop and manufacture our product candidates, we must, at times, share trade secrets with them. We seek to protect our proprietary technology in part by entering into confidentiality agreements and, if applicable, material transfer agreements, collaborative research agreements, consulting agreements or other similar agreements with our collaborators, advisors, employees and consultants prior to beginning research or disclosing proprietary information. These agreements typically limit the rights of the third parties to use or disclose our confidential information, such as trade secrets. Despite the contractual provisions employed when working with third parties, the need to share trade secrets and other confidential information increases the risk that such trade secrets become known by our competitors, are inadvertently incorporated into the technology of others, or are disclosed or used in violation of these agreements. Given that our proprietary position is based, in part, on our know-how and trade secrets, a competitor’s discovery of our trade secrets or other unauthorized use or disclosure would impair our competitive position and may have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

Risks Related to Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

 

If the market opportunities for our product candidates are smaller than we believe they are, our revenue may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.

 

Our projections of both the number of people who have our target diseases, as well as the subset of people with these diseases who have the potential to benefit from treatment with our product candidates, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including the scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations or market research and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than expected. The effort to identify patients with diseases we seek to treat is in early stages, and we cannot accurately predict the number of patients for whom treatment might be possible. Additionally, the potentially addressable patient population for each of our product candidates may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with our product candidates, and new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business.

 

We intend to rely on third-party manufacturers to produce our product candidates, but we have not entered into binding agreements with any such manufacturers to support commercialization.

 

We have not yet secured manufacturing capabilities for commercial quantities of our product candidates. We intend to rely on third-party manufacturers for commercialization. We may be unable to negotiate binding agreements with the manufacturers to support our commercialization activities on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. See “Risk Related to our Reliance on Third Parties—We and our collaborators and contract manufacturers are subject to significant regulation with respect to manufacturing our product candidates. The manufacturing facilities on which we rely may not continue to meet regulatory requirements and have limited capacity.”

 

We face intense competition and rapid technological change and the possibility that our competitors may discover, develop or commercialize therapies that are similar, more advanced or more effective than ours, which may adversely affect our financial condition and our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates.

 

The medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are highly competitive. There are many medcial device companies, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, public and private universities and research organizations actively engaged in the research and development of products that may be similar to our products. We are aware of several companies currently developing and/or selling NO therapies for various indications such as PPHN. For example, Ikaria, Inc. commercializes INOMAX® (nitric oxide) for inhalation, which is approved for use to treat newborns suffering from HRF-PPHN, in the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Japan. The Linde Group has marketing rights to INOMAX® in Europe. Air Liquide sells a similar product in Europe, called VasoKINOX™, together with their delivery platform called OptiKINOX™, for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension that occurs during or after heart surgery. In Europe, Bedfont Scientific Ltd. has a delivery system called NOxBOX® and Air Products PLC has a gas product called NOXAP®, each used in delivering inhaled NO formulations. Bellepheron Therapeutics is developing NO-based products for persistent arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Geno LLC is developing NO-based products for the treatment of a variety of pulmonary and cardiac diseases such as acute vasoreactivity testing, pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In addition, other companies may be developing generic NO formulation delivery systems for various dosages. Ceretec, Inc., a company affiliated with 12th Man Technologies Inc., recently obtained clearance from the FDA to market an NO gas product for use in membrane diffusing capacity testing in pulmonary function laboratories in the United States. Novoteris, LLC previously received orphan drug designation from the FDA and EMA for the use of inhaled NO-based treatments in treating CF. In January 2015, Ikaria entered into an agreement with Novoteris to collaborate on the development of an outpatient program for treating bacterial infections associated with CF. Recently, we have become aware that Ikaria and Novoteris are planning a Phase 2 clinical trial using a 160 ppm NO formulation to treat patients with CF. 

 

In addition to NO treatments currently available or under development, we also face competition from non-NO-based drugs and therapies. For example, the successful development of immunizations for bronchiolitis may render useless any product we develop for that indication. Also, antibiotic treatments for infections associated with CF, and inhaled short-acting beta-2 agonist and oral corticosteroids for the treatment of asthma may be preferred over any product that we develop. Even if we successfully develop our product candidates, and obtain approval for them, other treatments may be preferred and we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates.

 

Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, such as larger research and development staff and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations. Additional mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. As a result, these companies may obtain regulatory approval more rapidly than we are able to and may be more effective in selling and marketing their products as well. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing on an exclusive basis, products that are more effective or less costly than any product candidate that we may develop, or achieve earlier patent protection, regulatory approval, product commercialization and market penetration than we do. Additionally, technologies developed by our competitors may render our potential product candidates uneconomical or obsolete, and we may not be successful in marketing our product candidates against competitors.

 

We currently have no marketing and sales organization. If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may be unable to generate any revenue.

 

Although our employees may have sold other similar products in the past while employed at other companies, we as a company have no experience selling and marketing our product candidates and we currently have no marketing or sales organization. To successfully commercialize any products that may result from our development programs, we will need to develop these capabilities, either on our own or with others. If our product candidates receive regulatory approval, we intend to establish a sales and marketing organization with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize our product candidates in major markets, which will be expensive, difficult and time consuming. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of our products.

 

Further, given our lack of prior experience in marketing and selling medical device products, our initial estimate of the size of the required sales force may be materially more or less than the size of the sales force actually required to effectively commercialize our product candidates. As such, we may be required to hire substantially more sales representatives to adequately support the commercialization of our product candidates or we may incur excess costs as a result of hiring more sales representatives than necessary. With respect to certain geographical markets, we may enter into collaborations with other entities to utilize their local marketing and distribution capabilities, but we may be unable to enter into such agreements on favorable terms, if at all. If our future collaborators do not commit sufficient resources to commercialize our future products, if any, and we are unable to develop the necessary marketing capabilities on our own, we will be unable to generate sufficient product revenue to sustain our business. We may be competing with 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.

 

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

 

Even with the requisite approvals from the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, the commercial success of our product candidates will depend in part on the medical community, 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 others in the medical community. The degree of market acceptance of any of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:

 

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the safety and efficacy of the product as demonstrated in clinical studies and potential advantages over competing treatments;

 

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the prevalence and severity of any side effects, including any limitations or warnings contained in a product’s approved labeling;

 

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the clinical indications for which approval is granted;

 

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relative convenience and ease of administration;

 

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the cost of treatment, particularly in relation to competing treatments;

 

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the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;

 

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the strength of marketing and distribution support and timing of market introduction of competitive products;

 

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publicity concerning our products or competing products and treatments; and

 

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sufficient third-party insurance coverage and reimbursement.

 

Even if a potential product displays a favorable efficacy and safety profile in preclinical and clinical studies, market acceptance of the product will not be fully known until after it is launched. Our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of the product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful. If our product candidates are approved but fail to achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community, we will not be able to generate sufficient revenue to become or remain profitable. 

 

The insurance coverage and reimbursement status of newly-approved products is uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for new or current products could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate revenue.

 

The pricing, coverage and reimbursement of our product candidates, if approved, must be adequate to support our commercial infrastructure. Our per-patient prices must be sufficient to recover our development and manufacturing costs and potentially achieve profitability. Accordingly, the availability and adequacy of coverage and reimbursement by governmental and private payors are essential for most patients to be able to afford expensive treatments such as ours, assuming approval. Sales of our product candidates will depend substantially, both domestically and abroad, on the extent to which the costs of our product candidates will be paid for by health maintenance, managed care, pharmacy benefit and similar healthcare management organizations, or reimbursed by government authorities, private health insurers and other third-party payors. If coverage and reimbursement are not available, or are available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be high enough to allow us to establish or maintain pricing sufficient to realize a return on our investment.

 

There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. In the United States, the principal decisions about coverage and reimbursement for new medical devices are typically made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as CMS decides whether and to what extent a new device will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private payors tend to follow the coverage reimbursement policies established by CMS to a substantial degree. It is difficult to predict what CMS will decide with respect to reimbursement for products such as ours.

 

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, Canada and other countries has 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. In general, the prices of medical devices under such systems are substantially lower than in the United States. 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 products 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 new products approved and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products.

 

Healthcare legislative reform measures may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

In the United States, there have been and continue to be a number of legislative initiatives to contain healthcare costs. For example, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and American Care Act (“ACA”) as amended by the ACA was passed, which substantially changes the way health care is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impacts the U.S. medical device industry.  We can’t predict how our product candidates may be impacted.

 

Future legislation or regulations may adversely affect reimbursement from government programs.

 

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted. In August 2011, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things, created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to recommend to Congress proposals in spending reductions. The Joint Select Committee did not achieve targeted deficit reductions, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction of several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to healthcare providers of up to 2.0% per fiscal year, starting in 2013. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several categories of healthcare providers and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. On December 13, 2016, the President signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, which, among other things, may increase the types of clinical trial designs that would be acceptable to support a PMA. It is unclear, at this time, how these provisions will be implemented or whether they would have any effect on our company.

 

Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for medical device products. 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 may be. In that regard, Congress has taken the first step in repealing the funding mechanism for certain aspects of the ACA. If the ACA or parts of it are repealed, it is unclear what impact that would have on reimbursements or coverage and it is equally unclear what programs, if any, Congress and the Trump Administration might enact and sign into law to replace the repealed portions of the ACA.

 

We are subject to additional federal and state laws and regulations relating to our business, and our failure to comply with those laws could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial conditions

 

We are subject to additional health care regulation and enforcement by the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include the following:

 

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the federal health care program Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering, or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, in exchange for or to induce either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order, or recommendation of, any good or service for which payment may be made under government health care programs such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs;

 

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federal false claims laws that prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid or other government health care programs that are false or fraudulent;

 

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federal criminal laws that prohibit executing a scheme to defraud any health care benefit program or making false statements relating to health care matters; and

 

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state law equivalents of each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws that may apply to items or services reimbursed by any third-party payor, including commercial insurers.

 

Further, the ACA, among other things, amends the intent requirement of the federal anti-kickback and criminal health care fraud statutes. A person or entity can now be found guilty of fraud or false claims under the ACA without actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the ACA provides that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the false claims statutes. Possible sanctions for violation of these anti-kickback laws include monetary fines, civil and criminal penalties, exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs and forfeiture of amounts collected in violation of such prohibitions. Any violations of these laws, or any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition.

 

The ACA also imposes new reporting requirements on device and pharmaceutical manufacturers to make annual public disclosures of payments to certain health care providers and physician ownership of their stock by health care providers. Failure to submit required information may result in civil monetary penalties of up to an aggregate of $150,000 per year (or up to an aggregate of $1 million per year for “knowing failures”), for all payments, transfers of value, or ownership or investment interests that are not reported. Manufacturers were required to begin data collection on August 1, 2013 and were required to report such data to CMS by March 31, 2014.

 

In addition, there has been a recent trend of increased federal and state regulation of payments made to physicians for marketing. Some states, such as California, Massachusetts and Vermont mandate implementation of corporate compliance programs, along with the tracking and reporting of gifts, compensation, and other remuneration to physicians.

 

The scope and enforcement of these laws is uncertain and subject to change in the current environment of health care reform, especially in light of the lack of applicable precedent and regulations. We cannot predict the impact on our business of any changes in these laws. Federal or state regulatory authorities may challenge our current or future activities under these laws. Any such challenge could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition. Any state or federal regulatory review of us, regardless of the outcome, would be costly and time-consuming.

 

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

 

If we are unable to obtain and maintain effective patent rights for our product candidates or any future product candidates, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets. 

 

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our technologies and product candidates. Our success depends in large part on our and our licensors’ ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection in the United States and in other countries with respect to our proprietary technology and products.

 

We have sought to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our novel technologies and products that are important to our business. This process is expensive and time consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We may also fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection.

 

The patent position of medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain and involves complex legal and factual questions for which legal principles remain unsolved. The patent applications that we own or in-license may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our product candidates in the United States or in other foreign countries. There is no assurance that all potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications has been found, which can invalidate a patent or prevent a patent from issuing from a pending patent application. Even if patents do successfully issue, and even if such patents cover our product candidates, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability or scope, which may result in such patents being narrowed, found unenforceable or invalidated. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property, provide exclusivity for our product candidates or prevent others from designing around our claims. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business.

 

We have filed several patent applications directed to various aspects of our product candidates. We cannot offer any assurances about which, if any, patents will issue, the breadth of any such patent or whether any issued patents will be found invalid and unenforceable or will be threatened by third parties. Any successful opposition to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us after patent issuance could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful commercialization of any product candidates that we may develop. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product candidate under patent protection could be reduced. In addition, some or all of our patent applications may not result in issued patents.

 

If we cannot obtain and maintain effective patent rights for our product candidates, we may not be able to compete effectively and our business and results of operations would be harmed.

 

We have a non-exclusive license to certain patents owned by CareFusion that relate to methods and devices for delivering 80-400 PPM NO formulations to patients. CareFusion may grant additional non-exclusive licenses to third parties.

 

Absent any agreement with CareFusion to the contrary, each of the joint owners may make, use, offer to sell, or sell the patented invention within the United States, or import the patented invention into the United States, without the consent of and without accounting to the other owner. While we are unaware of any other licenses issued by CareFusion to third parties granting rights in the patents CareFusion licensed to us, we cannot be sure other licenses have not already been granted, or will not be granted in the future, by CareFusion to third parties.

 

Any such licenses may enable third parties to develop and market products competitive with ours, provided that they do not infringe our other intellectual property rights. The terms of our non-exclusive license with CareFusion leaves full control of any and all enforcement of the licensed patents with CareFusion. If CareFusion elects to not enforce any or all of the licensed patents it could significantly undercut the value of any of our product candidates, which would materially adversely affect our revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

 

Intellectual property rights of third parties could adversely affect our ability to commercialize our product candidates, and we might be required to litigate or obtain licenses from third parties in order to develop or market our product candidate. Such litigation or licenses could be costly or not available on commercially reasonable terms.

 

Given the number of companies developing various types of NO devices, it is difficult to conclusively assess our freedom to operate without infringing on third party rights. There are numerous companies that have pending patent applications and issued patents in the field of therapeutic NO delivery. Our competitive position may suffer if patents issued to third parties or other third party intellectual property rights cover our products or elements thereof, or our manufacture or uses relevant to our development plans. In such cases, we may not be in a position to develop or commercialize products or our product candidates unless we successfully pursue litigation to nullify or invalidate the third party intellectual property right concerned, or enter into a license agreement with the intellectual property right holder, if available on commercially reasonable terms. There may be pending patent applications of which we are not aware, that if they result in issued patents, could be alleged to be infringed by our product candidates. If such an infringement claim should be brought and be successful, we may be required to pay substantial damages, be forced to abandon our product candidates or seek a license from any patent holders. No assurances can be given that a license will be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all.

 

It is also possible that we have failed to identify relevant third party patents or applications. For example, U.S. applications filed before November 29, 2000 and certain U.S. applications filed after that date that will not be filed outside the United States remain confidential until patents issue. Patent applications in the United States and elsewhere are published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date. Therefore, patent applications covering our product candidate or platform technology could have been filed by others without our knowledge. Additionally, pending patent applications which have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our platform technologies, our product candidate or the use of our product candidate. Third party intellectual property right holders may also actively bring infringement claims against us. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully settle or otherwise resolve such infringement claims. If we are unable to successfully settle future claims on terms acceptable to us, we may be required to engage in or continue costly, unpredictable and time-consuming litigation and may be prevented from or experience substantial delays in pursuing the development of and/or marketing our product candidate. If we fail in any such dispute, in addition to being forced to pay damages, we may be temporarily or permanently prohibited from commercializing our product candidate that is held to be infringing. We might, if possible, also be forced to redesign our product candidate so that we no longer infringe the third party intellectual property rights. Any of these events, even if we were ultimately to prevail, could require us to divert substantial financial and management resources that we would otherwise be able to devote to our business.

 

Patent terms are limited and we may not be able to effectively protect our products and business.

 

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after it is filed. Although various extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited.

 

In addition, upon issuance in the United States, the patent term may be extended based on certain delays caused by the applicant(s) or the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Even if we obtain effective patent rights for our product candidates, we may not have sufficient patent terms or regulatory exclusivity to protect our products, and our business and results of operations would be adversely affected.

 

Patent policy and rule changes could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents.

 

Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. The laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. We therefore cannot be certain that we or our licensor were the first to make the invention claimed in our owned and licensed patents or pending applications, or that we or our licensor were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, in the United States prior to March 15, 2013, the first to invent the claimed invention is entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application is entitled to the patent. After March 15, 2013, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“Leahy-Smith Act”), enacted on September 16, 2011, the United States has moved to a first to file system. The Leahy-Smith Act also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The effects of these changes are currently unclear as the USPTO must still implement various regulations, the courts have yet to address these provisions and the applicability of the act and new regulations on specific patents discussed herein have not been determined and would need to be reviewed. In general, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

 

If we are unable to maintain effective proprietary rights for our product candidates or any future product candidates, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.

 

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable or that we elect not to patent, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our product candidate discovery and development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors and contractors. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and trade secrets by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. While we have confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems, agreements or security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors.

 

All of our employees, consultants, advisors and any third parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information or technology enter into confidentiality agreements and we expect they will assign all rights in their inventions to us pursuant to the terms of such agreements; however, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed or that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Misappropriation or unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets could impair our competitive position and may have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, if the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are deemed inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating the trade secret.

 

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay our development and commercialization efforts.

 

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There have been many lawsuits and other proceedings involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including with respect to NO delivery systems and formulations, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO and corresponding foreign patent offices. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties.

 

Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. We do not know whether there are any third-party patents that would impair our ability to commercialize these product candidates. We also cannot be sure that we have identified each and every patent and pending patent application in the United States and abroad that is relevant or necessary to the commercialization of our product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our product candidates, any molecules formed during the manufacturing process or any final product itself, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product candidate unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or are finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable.

 

Similarly, if any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of our formulations, processes for manufacture or methods of use, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize the applicable product candidate unless we obtained a license or until such patent expires or is finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. In either case, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

 

Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, pay royalties, redesign our infringing products or obtain one or more licenses from third parties, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. 

 

We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary rights to our product candidates through acquisitions and in-licenses.

 

We currently own and have in-licensed rights to intellectual property through licenses from third parties and under patents that we own, to develop our product candidates. Because our programs may require the use of proprietary rights held by third parties, the growth of our business will likely depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license or use these proprietary rights. In addition, our product candidates may require specific formulations to work effectively and efficiently and the rights to these formulations may be held by others. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary for our product candidates. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities.

 

For example, we sometimes collaborate with U.S. and foreign academic institutions to accelerate our preclinical research or development underwritten agreements with these institutions. Typically, these institutions provide us with an option to negotiate a license to any of the institution’s rights in technology resulting from the collaboration. Regardless of such option, we may be unable to negotiate a license within the specified timeframe or under terms that are acceptable to us. If we are unable to do so, the institution may offer the intellectual property rights to other parties, potentially blocking our ability to pursue our program.

 

In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights, we may have to abandon development of that program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

 

If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license intellectual property and other rights from third parties or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our licensors, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

 

We are currently a party to intellectual property license agreements that are important to our business, and we expect to enter into additional license agreements in the future. Our existing license agreements impose, and we expect that future license agreements will impose, various diligence, milestone payment, royalty and other obligations on us. For example, our existing license agreement with CareFusion imposes the following milestones, which comport with the plans we discuss under “Business—Our Strategy”: completion of a Phase II study by September 2017; completion of a Phase III study by September 2018; FDA approval for a licensed product by September 2020; and the first sale of a licensed product by September 2021. We have completed the Phase II, double blind, randomized study conducted in Israel in infants with bronchiolitis discussed under “Business—Our Strategy”, and we have commenced the Phase III study referenced under “Business—Our Strategy”. One of the challenges to complete the Phase III study by September 2018 includes the fact that RSV is a seasonal virus (occurring only in the winter). In our Phase III trial, we are heavily dependent on the occurrence and the severity of this virus. RSV or the winter cannot be predicted. For example, if the winter is warm or short, or the RSV infection is not severe enough when we conducted our trial, or the length of stay in the hospital during the year in which the trial is conducted were different from previous seasons, then we might miss the season or the results can be significantly different between two seasons or between different countries or even between different sites. If we fail to complete the Phase III study by September 2018 there is a risk that we will not be able to get FDA approval for a licensed product by September 2020. If we fail to get FDA approval for a licensed product by September 2020 there is a risk that we may fail to achieve our goal of completing the first sale of a licensed product by September 2021. If we fail to comply with our obligations under the CareFusion agreement or other agreements, or we are subject to a bankruptcy, we may be required to make certain payments to the licensor, we may lose our license or the licensor may have the right to terminate the license, in which event we would not be able to develop or market products covered by the license.

 

Licensing of intellectual property is of critical importance to our business and involves complex legal, business and scientific issues. Disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including but not limited to:

 

·

the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;

 

·

the extent to which our technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;

 

·

the sublicensing of patent and other rights;

 

·

our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;

 

·

the ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our collaborators; and

 

·

the priority of invention of patented technology.

 

If disputes over intellectual property and other rights that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates.

 

We may be involved in lawsuits or post-grant proceedings to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensor, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

 

Competitors may infringe the patents of our licensor. If our licensing partner were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product candidate is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable.

 

Pending patent applications may be subject to third-party preissuance submission of prior art to the USPTO, and any patents issuing thereon may become involved in derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post grant review, interference proceedings or other patent office proceedings in the United States challenging our patent rights.

 

Proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by us or declared by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our licensor. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Our defense of litigation or proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. In addition, the uncertainties associated with litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise the funds necessary to continue our clinical trials, continue our research programs, license necessary technology from third parties or enter into development partnerships that would help us bring our product candidates to market.

 

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our ordinary shares.

 

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.

 

We employ individuals who were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any of our employee’s former employer or other third parties. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could adversely impact our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees.

 

We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.

 

We may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in or right to compensation with respect to our patents or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or claiming the right to compensation. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, valuable intellectual property. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. To the extent that our employees have not effectively waived the right to compensation with respect to inventions that they helped create, they may be able to assert claims for compensation with respect to our future revenue may be successful. As a result, we may receive less revenue from future products if such claims are successful which in turn could impact our future profitability.

 

Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.

 

As is the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biotechnology industry involves both technological and legal complexity. Therefore, obtaining and enforcing biotechnology patents is costly, time consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the United States has recently enacted and is currently implementing wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.

 

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

 

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States.

 

Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and may also export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

 

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

 

Under applicable employment laws, we may not be able to enforce covenants not to compete and therefore may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of some of our former employees.

 

We generally enter into non-competition agreements with our employees and certain key consultants. These agreements prohibit our employees and certain key consultants, if they cease working for us, from competing directly with us or working for our competitors or clients for a limited period of time. We may be unable to enforce these agreements under the laws of the jurisdictions in which our employees work and it may be difficult for us to restrict our competitors from benefitting from the expertise our former employees or consultants developed while working for us. For example, Israeli courts have required employers seeking to enforce non-compete undertakings of a former employee to demonstrate that the competitive activities of the former employee will harm one of a limited number of material interests of the employer which have been recognized by the courts, such as the secrecy of a company’s confidential commercial information or the protection of its intellectual property. If we cannot demonstrate that such interests will be harmed, we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of our former employees or consultants and our ability to remain competitive may be diminished.

 

Risks Relating to Our Business Operations

 

We manage our business through a small number of employees and key consultants. We depend on them even more than similarly-situated companies.

 

We have a total of ten full-time employees and a number of dedicated consultants, of whom work for us on a part-time basis. In addition, any of our employees and consultants may leave our company at any time, subject to certain notice periods. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or any key employees or consultants would adversely affect our ability to execute our business plan and harm our operating results.

 

We do not currently carry “key person” insurance on the lives of members of management.

 

We will need to expand our organization and we may experience difficulties in recruiting needed additional employees and consultants, which could disrupt our operations.

 

As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop and because we are so leanly staffed, we will need additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial, legal and other resources. The competition for qualified personnel in the pharmaceutical field is intense. Due to this intense competition, we may be unable to attract and retain qualified personnel necessary for the development of our business or to recruit suitable replacement personnel.

 

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, operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Our expected growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of additional 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 revenue could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize product candidates and compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.

 

Although a substantial amount of our effort will focus on the continued clinical testing, potential approval and commercialization of our existing product candidates, the success of our business also depends upon our ability to identify, license or discover additional product candidates. Our research programs or licensing efforts may fail to yield additional product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the following:

 

·

our research or business development methodology or search criteria and process may be unsuccessful in identifying potential product candidates;

 

·

we may not be able or willing to assemble sufficient resources to acquire or discover additional product candidates;

 

·

our product candidates may not succeed in preclinical or clinical testing;

 

·

our potential product candidates may be shown to have harmful side effects or may have other characteristics that may make the products unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval;

 

·

competitors may develop alternatives that render our product candidates obsolete or less attractive;

 

·

product candidates we develop may be covered by third parties’ patents or other exclusive rights;

 

·

the market for a product candidate may change during our program so that such a product may become unreasonable to continue to develop;

 

·

a product candidate may not be capable of being produced in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, or at all; and

 

·

a product candidate may not be accepted as safe and effective by patients, the medical community or third-party payors.

 

If any of these events occur, we may be forced to abandon our development efforts for a program or programs, or we may not be able to identify, license or discover additional product candidates, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations. Research programs to identify new product candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential programs or product candidates that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.

 

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

 

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC. In July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”), was enacted. There are significant corporate governance and executive compensation related provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act that require the SEC to adopt additional rules and regulations in these areas such as “say on pay” and pay parity. Recent legislation permits smaller “emerging growth companies” to implement many of these requirements over a longer period and up to five years from the pricing of our initial offering. We intend to take advantage of this new legislation but cannot guarantee that we will not be required to implement these requirements sooner than budgeted or planned and thereby incur unexpected expenses. Stockholder activism, the current political environment and the current high level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance and we may be required to incur substantial costs to maintain our current levels of such coverage.

 

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal controls for financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, we will be required to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management to report, commencing in our Current Report on Form 8-K, as filed with the SEC on January 20, 2017, on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, if then required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our testing may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. Our compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will require that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management efforts. We currently do not have an internal audit group, and we will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge. Moreover, if we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner or if we identify or our independent registered public accounting firm identifies deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.

 

New laws and regulations as well as changes to existing laws and regulations affecting public companies, including the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules adopted by the SEC, would likely result in increased costs to us as we respond to their requirements. Similarly, in the future, we may attempt to list our Common Stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market, the NYSE MKT or another national securities exchange, which would subject us to additional rules and regulations, as well as additional costs.

 

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. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.

 

If we obtain FDA approval for any of our product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the United States, our operations may directly, or indirectly through our customers, subject us 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, our proposed 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: 

 

·

the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, to induce, or in return for, the purchase or recommendation of an item or service reimbursable under a federal healthcare program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs;

 

·

federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws, which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payors that are false or fraudulent;

 

·

the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), which created new federal criminal statutes that prohibit executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program and making false statements relating to healthcare matters;

 

·

HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”), and its implementing regulations, which imposes certain requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;

 

·

the federal physician sunshine requirements under the Health Care Reform Laws requires manufacturers of drugs, devices and medical supplies to report annually to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians, other healthcare providers and teaching hospitals and ownership and investment interests held by physicians and other healthcare providers and their immediate family members and applicable group purchasing organizations; and

 

·

state law equivalents of each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws that may apply to items or services reimbursed by any third-party payor, including commercial insurers, state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government, or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources; state laws that require manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures and state laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts.

 

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. For example, the Health Care Reform Law, among other things, amends the intent requirement of the federal anti-kickback and criminal healthcare fraud statutes. A person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of this statute or specific intent to violate it. Moreover, the Health Care Reform Law provides that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal anti-kickback statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act.

 

If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, 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.

 

International expansion of our business exposes us to business, regulatory, political, operational, financial and economic risks associated with doing business outside of the United States or Israel.

 

Other than our operations that are located in Israel (as further described below), we currently have limited international operations, but our business strategy incorporates potentially significant international expansion, particularly in anticipation of approval of our product candidates. We plan to maintain sales representatives and conduct physician and patient association outreach activities, as well as clinical trials, outside of the United States and Israel. Doing business internationally involves a number of risks, including but not limited to: 

 

·

multiple, conflicting and changing laws and regulations such as privacy regulations, tax laws, export and import restrictions, employment laws, regulatory requirements and other governmental approvals, permits and licenses;

 

·

failure by us to obtain regulatory approvals for the use of our products in various countries;

 

·

additional potentially relevant third-party patent rights;

 

·

complexities and difficulties in obtaining protection and enforcing our intellectual property;

 

·

difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;

 

·

complexities associated with managing multiple payor reimbursement regimes, government payors or patient self-pay systems;

 

·

limits on our ability to penetrate international markets;

 

·

financial risks, such as longer payment cycles, difficulty collecting accounts receivable, the impact of local and regional financial crises on demand and payment for our products and exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations;

 

·

natural disasters, political and economic instability, including wars, terrorism and political unrest, outbreak of disease, boycotts, curtailment of trade and other business restrictions;

 

·

certain expenses including, among others, expenses for travel, translation and insurance; and

 

·

regulatory and compliance risks that relate to maintaining accurate information and control over sales and activities that may fall within the purview of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), its books and records provisions or its anti-bribery provisions.

 

Any of these factors could significantly harm our future international expansion and operations and, consequently, our results of operations.

 

If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business. 

 

Our research and development activities and our third-party manufacturers’ and suppliers’ activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials, including the components of our product candidates and other hazardous compounds. We and our manufacturers and suppliers are subject to laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous materials. In some cases, these hazardous materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our and our manufacturers’ facilities pending their use and disposal. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts, business operations and environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance. We do not currently carry biological or hazardous waste insurance coverage.

 

The use of any of our product candidates could result in product liability or similar claims that could be expensive, damage our reputation and harm our business.

 

Our business exposes us to an inherent risk of potential product liability or similar claims. The medical device industry has historically been litigious, and we face financial exposure to product liability or similar claims if the use of any of our products were to cause or contribute to injury or death. There is also the possibility that defects in the design or manufacture of any of our products might necessitate a product recall. Although we plan to maintain product liability insurance, the coverage limits of these policies may not be adequate to cover future claims. In the future, we may be unable to maintain product liability insurance on acceptable terms or at reasonable costs and such insurance may not provide us with adequate coverage against potential liabilities. A product liability claim, regardless of merit or ultimate outcome, or any product recall could result in substantial costs to us, damage to our reputation, customer dissatisfaction and frustration and a substantial diversion of management attention. A successful claim brought against us in excess of, or outside of, our insurance coverage could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

Our business and operations would 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, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. While we have not experienced any such system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and we may incur substantial costs to attempt to recover or reproduce the data. If any disruption or security breach resulted in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and/or the further development of our product candidates could be delayed.

 

Risks Related to the Ownership of our Common Stock

 

There is a limited liquid and orderly trading market for our Common Stock, which may make it difficult for you to sell your shares of our Common Stock.

 

There is limited trading activity in our Common Stock and an active trading market for our shares may never develop or be sustained. As a result, investors in our Common Stock must bear the economic risk of holding those shares for an indefinite period of time.

 

Our Common Stock is subject to only limited quotation on the OTC Pink, and it is not otherwise regularly quoted on any other over-the-counter market.

 

Although our Common Stock is quoted on the OTC, trading of our Common Stock is extremely limited and sporadic and at very low volumes. We do not now, and may not in the future, meet the initial listing standards of any national securities exchange. We presently anticipate that our Common Stock will continue to be quoted on OTC Pink or another over-the-counter quotation system in the foreseeable future. In those venues, our stockholders may find it difficult to obtain accurate quotations as to the market value of their shares of our Common Stock, and may find few buyers to purchase their stock and few market makers to support its price. As a result of these and other factors, you may be unable to resell your shares of our Common Stock at or above the price for which you purchased them, or at all. Further, an inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling additional equity in the future, and may impair our ability to enter into strategic partnerships or acquire companies or products by using our shares of Common Stock as consideration.

 

Our share price is volatile and may be influenced by numerous factors, some of which may be beyond our control.

 

The trading price of our Common Stock is likely to be highly volatile, and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, these factors include:

 

·

the product candidates we seek to pursue, and our ability to obtain rights to develop, commercialize and market those product candidates;

 

·

our decision to initiate a clinical trial, not to initiate a clinical trial or to terminate an existing clinical trial;

 

·

actual or anticipated adverse results or delays in our clinical trials;

 

·

our failure to commercialize our product candidates, if approved;

 

·

unanticipated serious safety concerns related to the use of any of our product candidates;

 

·

adverse regulatory decisions;

 

·

additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel;

 

·

changes in laws or regulations applicable to our product candidates, including without limitation clinical trial requirements for approvals;

 

·

disputes or other developments relating to patents and other proprietary rights and our ability to obtain patent protection for our product candidates;

 

·

our dependence on third parties, including CROs as well as our potential partners that provide us with companion diagnostic products; failure to meet or exceed any financial guidance or expectations regarding development milestones that we may provide to the public;

 

·

actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results;

 

·

failure to meet or exceed the estimates and projections of the investment community;

 

·

overall performance of the equity markets and other factors that may be unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including changes in market valuations of similar companies;

 

·

conditions or trends in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries;

 

·

introduction of new products offered by us or our competitors;

 

·

announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments by us or our competitors;

 

·

our ability to maintain an adequate rate of growth and manage such growth;

 

·

issuances of debt or equity securities;

 

·

sales of our Common Stock by us or our stockholders in the future, or the perception that such sales could occur;

 

·

trading volume of our Common Stock; ineffectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures;

 

·

general political and economic conditions;

 

·

effects of natural or man- made catastrophic events; and

 

·

other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control.

 

In addition, the stock market in general, and the stocks of small-cap biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our Common Stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. The realization of any of the above risks or any of a broad range of other risks, including those described in these “Risk Factors,” could have a dramatic and material adverse impact on the market price of our Common Stock.

 

Our Common Stock may be a “penny stock.”

 

Generally, a “penny stock” is an equity security that is not listed on a national securities exchange and has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to specific exceptions. Our Common Stock presently has, and since our inception has had, no trading activity to support a market price, but many historical sales of our Common Stock have been at a price per share less than $5.00. As a result, our Common Stock may be considered to be a penny stock. Regulations imposed by the SEC and other regulatory authorities requiring, among other things, that broker-dealers effecting transactions in a penny stock make certain disclosures to and obtain a written suitability statement from potential purchasers, could restrict the ability of broker-dealers to sell our Common Stock if it were to be considered a penny stock, which could affect the ability of our stockholders to sell their shares of our stock. In addition, if our Common Stock continues to be quoted on the “OTC Pink Current Information” tier of OTC Markets, then our stockholders may find it difficult to obtain accurate quotations for our Common Stock, and may find few buyers to purchase our Common Stock and few market makers to support its price.

 

FINRA sales practice requirements may limit a stockholder’s ability to buy and sell our stock.

 

In addition to rules applicable to “penny stock,” the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or  FINRA, has adopted rules requiring that, in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA has indicated its belief that there is a high probability that speculative low-priced securities will not be suitable for at least some customers. These FINRA requirements make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that at least some of their customers buy our Common Stock, which may limit the ability of our stockholders to buy and sell our Common Stock and could have an adverse effect on the market for and price of our shares.

 

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

 

Any trading market for our Common Stock that may develop will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on us or our business. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would be negatively affected. If securities or industry analysts initiate coverage, and one or more of those analysts downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

 

We may be exposed to additional risks as a result of “going public” by means of a reverse merger transaction.

 

We may be exposed to additional risks because the business of AIT Ltd. has become a public company through a “reverse merger” transaction. There has been increased focus by government agencies on transactions such as the Merger in recent years, and we may be subject to increased scrutiny by the SEC and other government agencies and holders of our securities as a result of the completion of that transaction. Further, since we existed as a “shell company” under applicable rules of the SEC prior to the closing of the Merger on January 13, 2017, we are subject to certain restrictions and limitations for certain specified periods of time relating to potential future issuances of our securities and compliance with applicable SEC rules and regulations. Additionally, our “going public” by means of a reverse merger transaction may make it more difficult for us to obtain coverage from securities analysts of major brokerage firms following the Merger because there may be little incentive to those brokerage firms to recommend the purchase of our Common Stock. The occurrence of any such event could cause our business or stock price to suffer.

 

We incur increased costs associated with, and our management currently do and in the future will need to devote substantial time and effort to, compliance with public company reporting and other requirements.

 

As a public company, and particularly if and after we cease to be an “emerging growth company” or a “smaller reporting company,” we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that AIT Ltd. did not incur as a private company. In addition, the rules and regulations of the SEC and national securities exchanges impose numerous requirements on public companies, including requirements relating to our corporate governance practices, with which we now need to comply. Since becoming subject to the Exchange Act, we have been required to, among other things, file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. Our management and other personnel currently do and in the future will need to devote substantial time to gaining expertise regarding operations as a public company and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and our efforts and initiatives to comply with those requirements could be expensive.

 

AIT Ltd. was not subject to requirements to establish, and did not establish, internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures prior to the Merger. Our management team and Board of Directors currently do and in the future will need to devote significant efforts to maintaining adequate and effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting in order to comply with applicable regulations, which may include hiring additional legal, financial reporting and other finance staff. Additionally, any of our efforts to improve our internal controls and design, implement and maintain an adequate system of disclosure controls may not be successful and will require that we expend significant cash and other resources.

 

We are an emerging growth company and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our Common Stock less attractive to investors.

 

We are an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies, including, among other things:

 

·

exemption from the auditor attestation requirements under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002;

 

·

reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements;

 

·

exemption from the requirements of holding non-binding stockholder votes on executive compensation arrangements; and

 

·

exemption from any rules requiring mandatory audit firm rotation and auditor discussion and analysis and, unless the SEC otherwise determines, any future audit rules that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

 

We will be an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) December 31, 2021, (ii) the last day of the fiscal year during which we have total annual gross revenues of $1 billion or more, (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous three-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt and (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the federal securities laws. We will qualify as a large accelerated filer as of the first day of the first fiscal year after we (i) have more than $700 million in aggregate market value of outstanding common equity held by our non-affiliates as of the last day of our second fiscal quarter, (ii) have been public for at least 12 months and (iii) have filed at least one annual report pursuant to the Exchange Act.

 

We cannot predict if investors will find our Common Stock less attractive if we 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.

 

Shares of our Common Stock that have not been registered under federal securities laws are subject to resale restrictions imposed by Rule 144, including those set forth in Rule 144(i) which apply to a former “shell company.”

 

Prior to the closing of the Merger, we were deemed a “shell company” under applicable SEC rules and regulations, because we had no or nominal operations and either no or nominal assets, assets consisting solely of cash and cash equivalents, or assets consisting of any amount of cash and cash equivalents and nominal other assets. Pursuant to Rule 144 (“Rule 144”), promulgated under the Securities Act, sales of the securities of a former shell company, such as us, under that rule are not permitted until at least 12 months have elapsed from the date on which the Current Report on Form 8-K, filed by us on January 20, 2017, reflecting our status as a non-shell company, was filed with the SEC. As a result, most of our stockholders will be forced to hold their shares of our Common Stock for at least that 12-month period before they are eligible to sell those shares, and even after that 12-month period, sales may not be made under Rule 144 unless we and the selling stockholders are in compliance with other requirements of Rule 144. Further, it will be more difficult for us to raise funding to support our operations through the sale of debt or equity securities unless we agree to register such securities under the Securities Act, which could cause us to expend additional time and cash resources. Additionally, our previous status as a shell company could also limit our use of our securities to pay for any acquisitions we may seek to pursue in the future (although none are currently planned). The lack of liquidity of our securities as a result of the inability to sell under Rule 144 for a longer period of time could cause the market price of our securities to decline.

 

If we issue additional shares of our capital stock in the future, our existing stockholders will be diluted.

 

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation authorize the issuance of up to 100,000,000 shares of our Common Stock and up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock with the rights, preferences and privileges that our Board of Directors may determine from time to time. In addition to capital raising activities, which we expect to pursue in order to raise the funding we will need in order to continue our operations, other possible business and financial uses for our authorized capital stock include, without limitation, future stock splits, acquiring other companies, businesses or products in exchange for shares of our capital stock, issuing shares of our capital stock to partners or other collaborators in connection with strategic alliances, attracting and retaining employees by the issuance of additional securities under our equity compensation plans, or other transactions and corporate purposes that our Board of Directors deems are in the best interest of our company. Additionally, shares of our capital stock could be used for anti-takeover purposes or to delay or prevent changes in control or our management. Any future issuances of shares of our capital stock may not be made on favorable terms or at all, they may not enhance stockholder value, they may have rights, preferences and privileges that are superior to those of our Common Stock, and they may have an adverse effect on our business or the trading price of our Common Stock. The issuance of any additional shares of our Common Stock will reduce the book value per share and may contribute to a reduction in the market price of the outstanding shares of our Common Stock. Additionally, any such issuance will reduce the proportionate ownership and voting power of all of our current stockholders.

 

Future sales and issuances of our Common Stock or rights to purchase Common Stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans or otherwise, could result in dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.

 

We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To raise capital, we may sell Common Stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell Common Stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors in a prior transaction may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Additionally, any such sales may result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our Common Stock.

 

Anti-takeover provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, might discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our Board of Directors or management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our Common Stock.

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that may depress the market price of our Common Stock by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares of our Common Stock. These provisions may also prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove members of our Board of Directors or our management. Our corporate governance documents include provisions:

 

·

providing that directors may be removed by stockholders with or without cause;

 

·

limiting the ability of our stockholders to call and bring business before special meetings and to take action by written consent in lieu of a meeting;

 

·

requiring advance notice of stockholder proposals for business to be conducted at meetings of our stockholders and for nominations of candidates for election to our Board of Directors;

 

·

authorizing blank check preferred stock, which could be issued with voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to our Common Stock; and

 

·

limiting the liability of, and providing indemnification to, our directors and officers.

 

As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock from engaging in certain business combinations with us. Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Common Stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Common Stock.

 

The existence of the foregoing provisions and anti-takeover measures could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Common Stock. They could also deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you could receive a premium for your Common Stock in an acquisition.

 

The elimination of personal liability against our directors and officers under Delaware law and the existence of indemnification rights held by our directors, officers and employees may result in substantial expenses. 

 

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Bylaws eliminate the personal liability of our directors and officers to us and our stockholders for damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a director or officer to the extent permissible under Delaware law. Further, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Bylaws and individual indemnification agreements we have entered with each of our directors and executive officers provide that we are obligated to indemnify each of our directors or officers to the fullest extent authorized by the Delaware law and, subject to certain conditions, advance the expenses incurred by any director or officer in defending any action, suit or proceeding prior to its final disposition. Those indemnification obligations could expose us to substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against our directors or officers, which we may be unable to afford. Further, those provisions and resulting costs may discourage us or our stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against any of our current or former directors or officers for breaches of their fiduciary duties, even if such actions might otherwise benefit our stockholders.

 

We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future.

 

Other than the cash dividend paid in connection with the Merger, we have never declared or paid any dividends on our Common Stock and do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future payment of cash dividends in the future would depend on our financial condition, contractual restrictions, solvency tests imposed by applicable corporate laws, results of operations, anticipated cash requirements and other factors and will be at the discretion of the our Board of Directors. Our stockholders should not expect that we will ever pay cash or other dividends on our outstanding capital stock.

 

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.

Comprehensive tax reform bills could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

The U.S. government recently enacted comprehensive federal income tax legislation that includes significant changes to the taxation of business entities. These changes include, among others, (i) a permanent reduction to the corporate income tax rate, (ii) a partial limitation on the deductibility of business interest expense, (iii) a shift of the U.S. taxation of multinational corporations from a tax on worldwide income to a territorial system (along with certain rules designed to prevent erosion of the U.S. income tax base) and (iv) a one-time tax on accumulated offshore earnings held in cash and illiquid assets, with the latter taxed at a lower rate. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of this tax reform is uncertain, and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected. This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not discuss any such tax legislation or the manner in which it might affect holders of our common stock. We urge our stockholders to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to any such legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in our common stock.

 

ITEM 1B.    UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

 

None.

 

ITEM 2.    PROPERTIES

 

As of December 31, 2017, our executive offices were located at 2 Ilan Ramon, Science Park, Ness Ziona, 7403635 Israel under a lease that expires in April, 2018. We also lease an office at 500 Mamaroneck Avenue, Suite 321, Harrison, New York 10528 under a lease that expires in June 2018. We presently have our execuitve offices located at 500 Mamaroneck Avenue, Suite 321, Harrison, New York and expect to relocate and expand our offices in New York in the second or third quarter of 2018.

 

ITEM 3.    LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

From time to time, we may be a party to legal proceedings and subject to claims incident in the ordinary course of business. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we believe that the final outcome of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors.

 

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

Market Information

 

Our Common Stock is publicly traded on the OTC Pink.  Our Common Stock was originally listed on the OTC Pink in 2016 under the symbol “KKIC”. After the Merger, the symbol was changed to “AITB.” There was no trading volume for our common stock until July 2017, and there remains a generally low level volume of trading for our common stock in the public market. There can be no assurance that a liquid market for our common stock will develop in the foreseeable future. Transfer of our common stock may also be restricted under the securities or blue sky laws of certain states and foreign jurisdictions. Consequently, investors may not be able to liquidate their investments and should be prepared to hold the common stock for an indefinite period of time. The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low bid prices per share of our Common Stock as reported by the OTC Pink. The following quotations reflect inter-dealer prices, without retail mark-up, mark-down or commission and may not represent actual transactions.

 

Authorized Capital Stock; Issued and Outstanding Capital Stock

 

As of March 29, 2018, there were 8,397,056 shares of our common stock outstanding.

 

Warrants

 

Immediately prior to the Merger, AIT Ltd. consummated a private placement pursuant to which it issued to investors an aggregate of 1,701,616 of its ordinary shares, together with warrants to purchase an aggregate of 3,403,232 ordinary shares, referred to as the January 2017 Warrants, for gross proceeds of approximately $10,210 thousand.  In connection with the Merger, we assumed AIT Ltd.’s obligations under the purchase agreements with respect to such private placement, including the registration rights contained therein. In connection with the closing of the Merger, all outstanding ordinary shares, warrants and options of AIT Ltd. were converted into shares of our Common Stock, warrants for our Common Stock and options for our Common Stock, respectively, at a ratio of 1:1.

 

On March 31, 2017 we consummated a private placement in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 110,494 units, each composed of one share of our Common Stock and a five-year warrant to purchase two shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $6.90 per share, referred to as the March 2017 Warrants. We issued and sold the units to certain investors at a purchase price of $6.00 per unit, for which we received approximately $663 thousand of gross proceeds.  An additional 11,050 warrants in substantially the same form were issued to Laidlaw & Co. (UK) in connection with the March 31, 2017 private placement, referred to as the Laidlaw Warrants and, together with the January 2017 Warrants and the March 2017 Warrants, referred to as the Existing Warrants.

The Existing Warrants contain anti-dilution provisions in the case of a subdivision or combination of our shares of Common Stock, stock dividends, any reclassification of Common Stock, and corporate events such as a reorganization, consolidation, merger, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. Additionally, subject to certain exceptions, if we issue or sell, or are deemed to have issued or sold, any Common Stock for a consideration per share, referred to as the New Issuance Price, less than a price equal to the exercise price then in effect immediately prior to such issuance or sale, then immediately after such issuance or sale the Exercise Price then in effect would be reduced to the New Issuance Price. If any sale or issuance, or deemed issuance, is for no consideration, then the New Issuance Price is deemed to be $0.01 per share and the number of shares of Common Stock for which the warrant is exercisable would be increased to the number of shares determined by multiplying the exercise price in effect immediately prior to such adjustment by the number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrant immediately prior to such adjustment and dividing the product thereof by the Exercise Price resulting from such adjustment.

On February 16, 2018, we consummated the February 2018 Offering in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 4,599,604 warrants, referred to as  the February 2018 Warrants and, together with the Existing Warrants, referred to as the Warrants, being comprised of (i) 2,299,802 Tranche A Warrants  to purchase one share of Common Stock  at an exercise price of $4.25 per Tranche A Warrant Share, exercisable within three days from the issue date of the Tranche A Warrants and (ii) an equal number of Tranche B Warrants  to purchase one share of Common Stock at an exercise price of $4.25 per Tranche B Warrant Share, exercisable within three years from the issue date of the Tranche B Warrants. Immediately following the consummation of February 2018 Offering, each Purchaser exercised the full amount of their Tranche A Warrants resulting in gross proceeds to us from the sale of the February 2018 Warrants for $0.01 per underlying Warrant Share, together with the exercise price of the Tranche A Warrants, of approximately $9,820 thousand.

Upon close of the February 2018 Offering, the exercise price of all Existing Warrants detailed above was adjusted pursuant to the terms and conditions of those warrants, resulting in the adjustment of the exercise price to $4.25.

 

Dividend Policy

 

On January 9, 2017, in connection with the Merger, our Board of Directors declared a $2.50 per share cash dividend to our stockholders of record as of January 9, 2017, and we agreed to repurchase 90,000 shares of our Common Stock (on a post-reverse stock split basis) at a price of $0.2667 per share from our principal stockholder, Jason Lane. We do not expect to pay any further cash dividends for the foreseeable future. We expect that that any future earnings will be retained for use in developing and/or expanding our business.

 

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

 

From January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, we issued and sold the equity securities described below:

1.

Immediately prior to the Merger, AIT Ltd. consummated a private placement pursuant to which it issued to investors an aggregate of 1,701,616 of its ordinary shares, together with warrants to purchase an aggregate of 3,403,232 ordinary shares, referred to as the January 2017 Warrants, for gross proceeds of approximately $10,210 thousand.  In connection with the Merger, we assumed AIT Ltd.’s obligations under the purchase agreements with respect to such private placement, including the registration rights contained therein. In connection with the closing of the Merger, all outstanding ordinary shares, warrants and options of AIT Ltd. were converted into shares of our Common Stock, warrants for our Common Stock and options for our Common Stock, respectively, at a ratio of 1:1.

2.

On March 31, 2017 we consummated a private placement in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 110,494 units, each composed of one share of our Common Stock and a five-year warrant to purchase two shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $6.90 per share, referred to as the March 2017 Warrants. We issued and sold the units to certain investors at a purchase price of $6.00 per unit, for which we received approximately $663 thousand of gross proceeds.  An additional 11,050 warrants in substantially the same form were issued to Laidlaw & Co. (UK) in connection with the March 31, 2017 private placement, referred to as the Laidlaw Warrants and, together with the January 2017 Warrants and the March 2017 Warrants, referred to as the Existing Warrants.

3.

The Existing Warrants contain anti-dilution provisions in the case of a subdivision or combination of our shares of Common Stock, stock dividends, any reclassification of Common Stock, and corporate events such as a reorganization, consolidation, merger, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. Additionally, subject to certain exceptions, if we issue or sell, or are deemed to have issued or sold, any Common Stock for a consideration per share, referred to as the New Issuance Price, less than a price equal to the exercise price then in effect immediately prior to such issuance or sale, then immediately after such issuance or sale the Exercise Price then in effect would be reduced to the New Issuance Price. If any sale or issuance, or deemed issuance, is for no consideration, then the New Issuance Price is deemed to be $0.01 per share and the number of shares of Common Stock for which the warrant is exercisable would be increased to the number of shares determined by multiplying the exercise price in effect immediately prior to such adjustment by the number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrant immediately prior to such adjustment and dividing the product thereof by the Exercise Price resulting from such adjustment.

4.

On February 16, 2018, we consummated the February 2018 Offering in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 4,599,604 warrants, referred to as  the February 2018 Warrants and, together with the Existing Warrants, referred to as the Warrants, being comprised of (i) 2,299,802 Tranche A Warrants  to purchase one share of Common Stock  at an exercise price of $4.25 per Tranche A Warrant Share, exercisable within three days from the issue date of the Tranche A Warrants and (ii) an equal number of Tranche B Warrants  to purchase one share of Common Stock at an exercise price of $4.25 per Tranche B Warrant Share, exercisable within three years from the issue date of the Tranche B Warrants. Immediately following the consummation of February 2018 Offering, each Purchaser exercised the full amount of their Tranche A Warrants resulting in gross proceeds to us from the sale of the February 2018 Warrants for $0.01 per underlying Warrant Share, together with the exercise price of the Tranche A Warrants, of approximately $9,820 thousand.

5.

Upon close of the February 2018 Offering, the exercise price of all Existing Warrants detailed above was adjusted pursuant to the terms and conditions of those warrants, resulting in the adjustment of the exercise price to $4.25.

 

6.

In 2017 we granted stock options to purchase an aggregate of 371,500 shares of our Common Stock at a weighted average exercise price of $6.54 per share to certain of our employees, consultants and directors in connection with services provided to us by such persons.

 

7.

The securities described in paragraphs (1) and (2) above were issued to investors in reliance upon the exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act, as set forth in Section 4(a)(2) under the Securities Act and Regulation D promulgated thereunder relative to transactions by an issuer not involving any public offering, to the extent an exemption from such registration was required. All purchasers of Common Stock and Warrants to purchase Common Stock described above represented to us in connection with their purchase that they were accredited investors and were acquiring the shares for their own account for investment purposes only and not with a view to, or for sale in connection with, any distribution thereof and that they could bear the risks of the investment and could hold the securities for an indefinite period of time. The purchasers received written disclosures that the securities had not been registered under the Securities Act and that any resale must be made pursuant to a registration statement or an available exemption from such registration.

 

The stock options and the common stock issuable upon the exercise of such options as described in paragraph (3) were issued pursuant to written compensatory plans or arrangements with our employees and directors, in reliance on the exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act provided by Rule 701 promulgated under the Securities Act or the exemption set forth in Section 4(a)(2) under the Securities Act and Regulation D promulgated thereunder relative to transactions by an issuer not involving any public offering. All recipients either received adequate information about us or had access, through employment or other relationships, to such information.

 

All of the foregoing securities are deemed restricted securities for purposes of the Securities Act. All of the foregoing securities included appropriate legends setting forth that the securities had not been registered and the applicable restrictions on transfer. No underwriters were involved in the foregoing transactions.

 

Issuer Repurchases of Equity Securities

 

None.

 

ITEM 6.    SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

 

Not required for smaller reporting companies.

 

ITEM 7.    MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with “Item 6. Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion and other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements regarding our plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and projections. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in Item 1A “Risk Factors.”

 

Introduction

 

We are an emerging medical device company developing our AIT NO Delivery System, which is capable of generating NO from ambient air.  The AIT NO Delivery System can generate NO up to 400 ppm for delivery to a patient’s lung. The AIT NO Delivery System can deliver NO either continuously or for a fixed amount of time and has the ability to either titrate dose on demand or maintain a constant dose. We believe the AIT NO System can be used to treat patients on a ventilator that require NO, as well as patients with chronic lung disease or acute severe lung infections via delivery through a breathing mask.  Furthermore, we believe that there is a high unmet medical need for patients suffering from certain severe lung infections that our AIT NO Delivery System can potentially address.  Our initial areas of focus are PPHN, bronchiolitis and nontuberculous mycobacteria, or NTM,. Our current product candidates, if approved, will be marketed as medical devices and will be subject to premarket reviews and approvals by the FDA.

 

In contrast to approved NO delivery systems, our novel AIT NO Delivery System is designed to deliver not only low concentrations of NO, but also high concentrations of NO to the lungs, which we believe has the potential to eliminate microbial infections, including bacteria, fungi and viruses. Current FDA approved NO delivery systems are approved for persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn, or PPHN, which requires a NO concentration of 20 ppm and is not intended to treat microbial infections. The body produces NO naturally as an innate immunity mechanism. Based on our clinical studies, we believe that 160 ppm is the minimum therapeutic dose to achieve the desired pulmonary antimicrobial effect of NO. To date, the FDA has not approved any NO formulation and/or delivery system for the delivery of 160 ppm or higher to the lungs.

 

To date, we have not generated revenue from the sale of any product, and we do not expect to generate revenue unless and until we obtain marketing approval of, and commercialize, our product candidates. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $31.6 million. Our financing activities are described below under “Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

 

 

Financial Operations Overview

 

Operating Expenses

 

Our current operating expenses consist of three components: research and development expenses; general and administrative expenses; and costs related to aborted IPO.

 

Research and Development Expenses

 

Our research and development expenses consist primarily of the cost of third party clinical consultants and expenses related to conducting clinical and preclinical trials, patents maintenance, expenses related to the development of our delivery system, salaries and related personnel expenses, share-based compensation expenses, travel expenses and other research and development expenses.

 

We expect that our research and development expenses will materially increase because of our current and planned clinical activity and the development of our delivery system.

 

General and Administrative Expenses

 

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries, share-based compensation expense, professional service fees for accounting, legal, bookkeeping and facilities, travel expenses and other general and administrative expenses.

 

We expect our general and administrative expenses, such as accounting and legal fees, to increase in connection with our operations as a U.S. public company, and we expect increases in the number of our executive, accounting and administrative personnel due to our anticipated growth.

 

Costs related to aborted IPO

 

Costs related to aborted IPO consist of direct and incremental costs such as accounting, consulting, legal and printing fee that were incurred in connection with an IPO process pursuant to which we had planned to register and quote our Common Stock on the OTCQB, which we did not complete.

 

Financial Expense, net

 

Financial expense, net mainly consists of expenses in respect of the revaluation of warrants to purchase common stock, amortization of the beneficial conversion feature (“BCF”) in respect of our convertible notes, issuance cost related to warrants issued to investors. For more information refer to Note 13 to the consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 contained herein.

 

 Taxes on Income

 

Taxes on income comprise taxes incurred as result of the implementation of the cost plus method between AIT Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Advanced Inhalation Therapies (AIT) Inc., referred to as AIT Inc. AIT Inc. provides certain services to AIT Ltd., for which AIT Ltd. remunerates AIT Inc. based on a cost plus methodology. The Company applied the comparative profits method (“CPM”) for transfer pricing purposes. The CPM method compares the profit of the tested party to that of comparable companies that perform similar functions.

 

The markup on total costs, or “cost plus”, was selected as the profit level indicator, which reflects the remuneration by AIT Ltd. to AIT Inc. for services performed. Cost plus is defined as the ratio of operating profit to total costs.

 

 

Critical Accounting Estimates and Policies

 

We describe our significant accounting policies more fully in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016. We believe that the accounting policies below are critical in order to fully understand and evaluate our financial condition and results of operations.

 

We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”).

 

The preparation of the consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates, judgments and assumptions. Our management believes that the estimates, judgments and assumptions used are reasonable based upon information available at the time they are made. These estimates, judgments and assumptions can affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the dates of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

 

Stock-based compensation and fair value of ordinary shares

 

We account for stock-based compensation in accordance with ASC 718, “Compensation - Stock Compensation”, (“ASC 718”) and ASC 505-50, "Equity-Based Payment to Non-Employees" (ASC 505").  For more information refer to Note 2Q to the consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 contained herein.

 

Beneficial conversion feature with respect to convertible notes

 

Starting in December 2013 and continuing until December 31, 2016, AIT entered into Convertible Notes Agreements and received an aggregate amount of $3,342 in proceeds from these convertible notes.

 

On January 13, 2017, upon the Closing of the Merger all Convertible Notes and the accrued interest were converted into shares of Common Stock of the Company. With respect to the Convertible Notes, AIT applied ASC 470, "Debt with Conversion and Other Options". For more information refer to Note 7 to the consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 contained herein.

 

Warrants to purchase Common Stock

 

The Company accounted for warrants to purchase shares of its Common Stock held by investors which include down round protective provisions as a liability according to the provisions of ASC 815-40, "Derivatives and Hedging Contracts in Entity's Own Equity" ("ASC 815"). The Company measures the warrants at fair value by using the Black-Scholes model in each reporting period until they are exercised or expired, with changes in the fair values being recognized in the Company's statement of comprehensive loss as financial expense (income), net. For more information refer to Note 2(n) and Note 8 to the consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 contained herein.

 

Results of Operations

 

Comparison of the Year Ended December 31, 2017 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2016

 

 

 

Research and Development Expenses

 

The following table discloses the breakdown of research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016.

  

 

For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, we incurred research and development expenses in the aggregate of $4,438 thousand and $673 thousand, respectively. The increase was primarily due to an increase in costs of $2,537 thousand related to clinical trials, subcontractors, consultants, manufacturing of our delivery system by a third party contract manufacturer, purchase of certain intellectual property in the amount of $500 thousand and expenses of $480 thousand related to the warrants.

 

Our research and development expense is highly dependent on the execution of clinical trials and therefore is expected to fluctuate significantly from period to period. We expect that our R&D expenses will materially increase because of our current clinical activity, manufacturing of our NO Generator and Delivery System and filing the necessary submission with the FDA.

 

 

General and Administrative Expenses

 

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of payroll expenses, stock-based compensation expense, costs related to the Merger and recapitalization, professional service fees for accounting and legal advisors, facilities, travel expenses and other general and administrative expenses.

 

We expect our general and administrative expenses, such as accounting and legal fees, to increase in connection with our operations as a U.S. public company, and we expect increases in the number of our executive, accounting and administrative personnel due to our anticipated growth.

 

For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, we incurred general and administrative expenses of $6,629 thousand and $1,039 thousand, respectively. The increase of $5,590 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2017 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2016 resulted primarily from an increase of approximately $3,633 thousand in stock-based compensation expense mainly due to restricted shares to board members and a service provider, an increase in costs of $523 thousand related to legal, accounting and issuance fees in connection with the Merger, and an increase in payroll expenses of $695 thousand due to the hiring of general and administrative employees.

 

Costs Related to Aborted IPO 

 

Costs related to our aborted initial public offering in the year ended December 31, 2016 consisted of direct and incremental costs such as accounting, consulting, legal and printing fees that were incurred in connection with an initial public offering process pursuant to which we had planned to register and quote our Common Stock on the OTCQB, the over-the-counter trading marketplace for securities of early-stage or developing companies run by the OTC Markets Group, Inc., which we did not complete.

 

Operating loss

 

Our operating loss for the year ended December 31, 2017, was $11,067 thousand, as compared to an operating loss of $2,333 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016, an increase of $8,734 thousand.

 

Financial Expense, Net

 

Financial expense, net consists of expenses in respect of the revaluation of warrants to purchase common stock, amortization of the BCF in respect of our convertible notes, issuance cost related to warrants issued to investors, foreign currency translation adjustments and other financial expenses. For more information, refer to note 13 to our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 contained herein.

 

For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 we incurred financial expenses, net of $6,977 thousand and $1,360 thousand, respectively. The increase of $5,617 thousand resulted primarily from expenses of $5,412 thousand related to the issuance and revaluation of warrants granted to investors in connection with private placements, a decrease of $273 thousand in imputed interest in respect of our convertible notes and issuance costs of $457 thousand related to cost associated  with warrants issued to investors in the first quarter of 2017.

 

Net Loss

 

As a result of the foregoing, our net loss for the year ended December 31, 2017, was $18,044 thousand, as compared to $3,720 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016 an increase of $14,324 thousand.

 

 

Comparison of the year ended December 31, 2016 to the year ended December 31, 2015.

 

 

Research and development expenses

 

The following table discloses the breakdown of research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015.

 

 

Our research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2016, were $673 thousand, representing a decrease of $947 thousand, or 58%, compared to $1,620 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015. Approximately $466 thousand of the decrease was attributable to a decrease of expenses related to the Company’s device development efforts, as well as the Company’s preparation for a pre-IND meeting with the FDA during the 2015 period, which required significant expenditures related to engaging a regulatory consulting firm, preparing the required medical report and preparing the pre-IND package to be submitted to the FDA. The expenditures for device development efforts decreased given that we incurred the majority of expenses related to the first generation of our device in 2015. Approximately $290 thousand of the decrease was attributable to a decrease of share-based compensation and salaries and related personnel expenses, reflecting a decrease in the number of employees engaged in research and development activities. The additional decrease reflected in other expenses of approximately $258 thousand related to a decrease in consulting expenses. Approximately $66 thousand of the increase in 2016 compared to 2015 related to patents maintenance.

 

Our research and development expense is highly dependent on the execution of clinical trials and therefore is expected to fluctuate highly from year to year.

 

General and administrative expenses

 

Our general and administrative expenses totaled $1,039 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016, an increase of $450 thousand or 76%, compared to $589 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015. The increase resulted primarily from an increase in professional services of approximately $370 thousand, an increase in stock-based compensation of $136 thousand and a decrease of $39 thousand in salary and related expenses.

 

Cost related to aborted IPO

 

In late 2015 and early 2016, AIT Ltd. initiated an IPO process. As a result of a failure to complete the offering, the IPO was aborted and costs related to the aborted IPO in a total amount of $621 thousand were recognized in the statement of comprehensive loss as a separate line item.

 

Operating loss

 

Our operating loss for the year ended December 31, 2016, was $2,333 thousand, as compared to an operating loss of $2,209 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015, an increase of $124 thousand, or 6%.

 

Financial expense, net

 

We recognized financial expense, net of $1,360 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016, an increase of $366 thousand or 37%, compared to financial expense of $994 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015. The increase resulted primarily from an increase in the amortization expenses of the beneficial conversion feature and debt issuance costs of the convertible notes amounting to $1,050 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016, as compared to $768 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015. In addition, imputed interest expenses in respect of convertible notes, loans from related parties and a line of credit have been recognized in the total amount of $299 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to $216 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015.

 

Revaluation of warrants to purchase Series A Preferred Shares

 

The warrants to purchase Series A Preferred shares, which we classified as a non-current liability have been re-measured to fair value at each reporting date.

 

We did not recognize any expense related to adjustment of liability in respect of warrants issued for the year ended December 31, 2016, compared to expenses of $152 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015. The decrease in the adjustment derives from the exercise of warrants in August 2015.

 

 

Taxes on Income

 

Our taxes on income expenses totaled $27 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2016 a decrease of $100 thousand or 79%, compared to $127 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015. The decrease resulted primarily from a decrease in the cost plus method calculation between AIT Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Advanced Inhalation Therapies (AIT) Inc.

 

Loss

 

As a result of the foregoing, our net comprehensive loss for the year ended December 31, 2016, was $3,720 thousand, as compared to $3,482 thousand for the year ended December 31, 2015 an increase of $238 or 7%.

 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

 

Overview

 

We have incurred losses and generated negative cash flows from operations since inception. To date, we have not generated any revenue from the sale of products, and we do not expect to generate revenue from sale of our products in the next several years.  Since our inception through December 31, 2017, we have funded our operations principally with $12,662 thousand from the issuance of our equity securities and $3,721 from loans from related parties and convertible promissory notes.

 

Private Placements

 

Immediately prior to the Merger, AIT Ltd. consummated a private placement pursuant to which it issued to investors an aggregate of 1,701,616 of its ordinary shares, together with warrants to purchase an aggregate of 3,403,232 ordinary shares, referred to as the January 2017 Warrants, for gross proceeds of approximately $10,210 thousand.  In connection with the Merger, we assumed AIT Ltd.’s obligations under the purchase agreements with respect to such private placement, including the registration rights contained therein. In connection with the closing of the Merger, all outstanding ordinary shares, warrants and options of AIT Ltd. were converted into shares of our Common Stock, warrants for our Common Stock and options for our Common Stock, respectively, at a ratio of 1:1.

 

On March 31, 2017 we consummated a private placement in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 110,494 units, each composed of one share of our Common Stock and a five-year warrant to purchase two shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $6.90 per share, referred to as the March 2017 Warrants. We issued and sold the units to certain investors at a purchase price of $6.00 per unit, for which we received approximately $663 thousand of gross proceeds.  An additional 11,050 warrants in substantially the same form were issued to Laidlaw & Co. (UK) in connection with the March 31, 2017 private placement, referred to as the Laidlaw Warrants and, together with the January 2017 Warrants and the March 2017 Warrants, referred to as the Existing Warrants.

 

The Existing Warrants contain anti-dilution provisions in the case of a subdivision or combination of our shares of Common Stock, stock dividends, any reclassification of Common Stock, and corporate events such as a reorganization, consolidation, merger, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. Additionally, subject to certain exceptions, if we issue or sell, or are deemed to have issued or sold, any Common Stock for a consideration per share, referred to as the New Issuance Price, less than a price equal to the exercise price then in effect immediately prior to such issuance or sale, then immediately after such issuance or sale the Exercise Price then in effect would be reduced to the New Issuance Price. If any sale or issuance, or deemed issuance, is for no consideration, then the New Issuance Price is deemed to be $0.01 per share and the number of shares of Common Stock for which the warrant is exercisable would be increased to the number of shares determined by multiplying the exercise price in effect immediately prior to such adjustment by the number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrant immediately prior to such adjustment and dividing the product thereof by the Exercise Price resulting from such adjustment.

 

 

On February 16, 2018, we consummated the February 2018 Offering in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 4,599,604 warrants, referred to as  the February 2018 Warrants and, together with the Existing Warrants, referred to as the Warrants, being comprised of (i) 2,299,802 Tranche A Warrants  to purchase one share of Common Stock  at an exercise price of $4.25 per Tranche A Warrant Share, exercisable within three days from the issue date of the Tranche A Warrants and (ii) an equal number of Tranche B Warrants  to purchase one share of Common Stock at an exercise price of $4.25 per Tranche B Warrant Share, exercisable within three years from the issue date of the Tranche B Warrants. Immediately following the consummation of February 2018 Offering, each Purchaser exercised the full amount of their Tranche A Warrants resulting in gross proceeds to us from the sale of the February 2018 Warrants for $0.01 per underlying Warrant Share, together with the exercise price of the Tranche A Warrants, of approximately $9,820 thousand.

 

Upon close of the February 2018 Offering, the exercise price of all Existing Warrants detailed above was adjusted pursuant to the terms and conditions of those warrants, resulting in the adjustment of the exercise price to $4.25.

 

Future Funding Requirements

 

We have devoted substantially all of our efforts to business planning and research and development. We have incurred a net loss and had negative cash flow from operating activities of $18,044 thousand and $7,119 thousand respectively, for the twelve month period ended December 31, 2017, and had an accumulated deficit of $31,617 thousand as of December 31, 2017. As of December 31, 2017, we had $1,807 thousand in cash and cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities. Currently, our only source of liquidity is our current cash on hand. Our ability to continue to operate is dependent upon raising additional funds to finance our activities, and we do not currently have any commitments for future additional funding. There are no assurances that we will be successful in obtaining an adequate level of financing for the long-term development and commercialization of our product candidate.

 

The Company management and the Board of Directors believe that the Company’s existing financial resources are adequate to satisfy its expected liquidity requirements for at least twelve month period from the date of approval of the financial statements. To further address the Company's liquidity needs, the Company has adopted a contingency plan, which was approved by the Board, to be effected, in whole or in part, at its discretion, to allow the Company to continue its operations and meet its obligations, to the extent required. The contingency plan consist of cost reduction, which include mainly the following steps: reduction in consultant's expenses, headcount, compensation paid to key management personal and overhead expenses. The contingency plan, if needed, would commence in January of 2019.

 

We will require significant additional financing in the future to fund the continuing clinical development of our 160 ppm NO formulation and delivery system, our operations and commercialization, if we obtain regulatory approval of any product candidate, including our 160 ppm NO formulation and delivery system. We expect that our existing cash and cash equivalents will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through the first quarter of 2018. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we may use our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with the development of our 160 ppm NO formulation and delivery system, we are unable to estimate the amounts of increased capital outlays and operating expenses associated with completing the research and development of our product candidate.

 

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

 

·

the progress and costs of our preclinical studies, clinical trials and other research and development activities;

 

·

the scope, prioritization and number of our clinical trials and other research and development programs;

 

·

the costs and timing of obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidate;

 

·

the costs of filing, prosecuting, enforcing and defending patent claims and other intellectual property rights;

 

·

the costs of, and timing for, strengthening our manufacturing agreements for production of sufficient clinical quantities of our product candidate;

 

·

the potential costs of contracting with third parties to provide marketing and distribution services for us or for building such capacities internally;

 

·

the costs of acquiring or undertaking the development and commercialization efforts for additional, future therapeutic applications of our product candidate;

 

·

the magnitude of our general and administrative expenses; and

 

·

any cost that we may incur under current and future in-and out-licensing arrangements relating to our product candidate.

 

Cash Flows

 

Year Ended December 31, 2017 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015

 

 

Operating Activities

 

For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, net cash used in operations was $7,119 thousand and $692 thousand, respectively. In 2017 cash was used primarily for expenses related to the Merger, private placements, payroll, clinical trials conducted in Israel, services from subcontractors and third parties.

 

For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, net cash used in operations was $692 thousand and $1,658 thousand, respectively.

 

Investing Activities

 

For the year ended December 31, 2017 net cash used in investing activities was $1,149 thousand and for the year ended December 31, 2016 net cash provided by investing activities was $14 thousand. The increase resulted primarily from net investment of $604 thousand in short-term marketable securities, $244 thousand related to purchasing property and equipment and $295 thousand related to our acquisition of AIT Ltd. in the Merger. 

 

 

Net cash provided by investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2016 of $14 thousand reflected maturity of restricted bank deposits and the sale of property and equipment. Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2015 of $7 thousand reflected the purchase of property and equipment.

 

Financing Activities

 

Net cash provided by financing activities for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, was $9,462 thousand and $556 thousand, respectively. The increase resulted primarily from proceeds from the issuance of units, consisting of common stock and warrants for common stock, net of issuance costs, which totaled $9,889 thousand.

 

Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2016, and the year ended December 31, 2015, was $556 thousand and $1,633 thousand, respectively. The decrease resulted primarily from decrease in proceeds from issuance of convertible notes and conversion of warrants into Convertible Preferred A shares.

 

Sources of Liquidity and Current Outlook

 

We have incurred losses and generated negative cash flows from operations since inception. To date, we have not generated any revenue from the sale of products, and we do not expect to generate revenues from sale of our products in the next several years. We have financed our operations to date primarily through proceeds from sales of our equity and equity-linked securities, including pursuant to the Israeli Private Placement  the March 2017 Private Placement and the February 2018 Private Placement. Currently, our only source of liquidity is our current cash on hand. We do not currently have any commitments for future external funding.

 

We will require significant additional financing in the future to fund our operations if and when we obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our products. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

 

·

the progress and costs of our preclinical studies, clinical trials and other research and development activities;

 

·

the scope, prioritization and number of our clinical trials and other research and development programs;

 

·

the costs and timing of obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates;

 

·

the costs of filing, prosecuting, enforcing and defending patent claims and other intellectual property rights;

 

·

the costs of, and timing for, strengthening our manufacturing agreements for production of sufficient clinical quantities of our product candidates;

 

·

the potential costs of contracting with third parties to provide marketing and distribution services for us or for building such capacities internally;

 

·

the costs of acquiring or undertaking the development and commercialization efforts for additional, future therapeutic applications of our product candidates;

 

·

the magnitude of our general and administrative expenses; and

 

·

any cost that we may incur under current and future in-and out-licensing arrangements relating to our product candidates.

 

 

Potential sources of liquidity may include our issuance of equity or debt securities or our obtaining a credit facility from one or more financial institutions or otherwise. The sale of equity or convertible debt securities may result in dilution to our existing stockholders, and the incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also subject us to covenants that restrict our operations. Additional equity or debt financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate all or a portion of our operations.

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

We currently do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements.

 

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure about Market Risk

 

We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. Market risk represents the risk of loss that may impact our financial position due to adverse changes in financial market prices and rates. Our market risk exposure is primarily a result of foreign currency exchange rates.

 

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

 

Our results of operations and cash flow are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Certain of our expenses are denominated in New Israeli Shekels (“NIS”). Our results of operations and cash flow are, therefore, subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and may be adversely affected in the future due to changes in foreign exchange rates. Approximately 14% of our expenses are denominated in NIS. Changes of 5% and 10% in the USD/NIS exchange rate will not have a material impact on our operations. We do not hedge our foreign currency exchange risk. In the future, we may enter into formal currency hedging transactions to decrease the risk of financial exposure from fluctuations in the exchange rates of our principal operating currencies. These measures, however, may not adequately protect us from significant changes in such fluctuations.

 

ITEM 8.    FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

 

The financial statements together with the report of our independent registered public accounting firm, required to be filed pursuant to this Item 8 are appended to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.  An index of those consolidated financial statements is found in Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

ITEM 9.    CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

 

None.

 

ITEM 9A.    CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

 

Limitations on effectiveness of controls and procedures

 

In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.

 

 

Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures

 

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated, as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)). Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level as of December 31, 2017.

 

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

 

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act.

 

Our management conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria set forth in “Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013)” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.

 

Based on this assessment, our management concluded that, as of December 31, 2017, our internal control over financial reporting was effective.

 

Attestation Report of the Registered Public Accounting Firm

 

This annual report does not include an attestation report of our registered public accounting firm due to an exemption established by the JOBS Act for “emerging growth companies.”

 

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

 

There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during our most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

ITEM 9B.    OTHER INFORMATION

None.

 

PART III

 

ITEM 10.    DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Directors and Executive Officers

 

The table below sets forth the name, age and position of each of our directors and executive officers and as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

 

Steven A. Lisi, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

 

Steven Lisi has served on our Board since January 13, 2017, and has served on the Board of AIT Ltd., our wholly-owned subsidiary, since June 2016. Mr. Lisi has served as our Chief Executive Officer since June 14, 2017. Mr. Lisi was previously Senior Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Flamel Technologies (FLML), where he was instrumental in restructuring the company and transforming it from $100,000,000 in enterprise value to $1 billion in three years. Mr. Lisi raised $121 million in equity, led the sale of Flamel’s contract manufacturing facility, rationalized the product pipeline, refocused the business development effort, transformed the investor base and established Flamel’s presence in Ireland. Prior to his position with Flamel, Mr. Lisi spent 18 years investing in healthcare companies on a global basis at Mehta and Isaly (now OrbiMed), SAC Capital (portfolio manager), Millennium Partners (portfolio manager), Panacea Asset Management (co-owner) and Deerfield Management (Partner). Mr. Lisi serves on the Board of Mico Innovations, a next generation coronary and neurovascular stent company and was formerly on the Board of Incysus Ltd, a transformational cell therapy company targeting solid tumors. Mr. Lisi received his Masters in International Business from Pepperdine University.

 

Amir Avniel, President, Chief Operating Officer and Director

 

Amir Avniel has served on AIT Ltd.’s Board since 2011 and became AIT Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer in August 2014. He has served on our Board and served as our Chief Executive Officer from January 13, 2017 to June 14, 2017. He has more than ten years of management experience in the biotechnology industry. From 2013 through 2014, Mr. Avniel served as Strategy and Business Development of A.B. Seeds, a wholly owned subsidiary of Monsanto Company. Mr. Avniel served as the Chief Executive Officer of Rosetta Green Ltd. from 2010 through 2013 and led Rosetta Green in its acquisition by Monsanto. He also served as the president and the Chief Executive Officer of Rosetta Genomics from 2006 to 2009, and Mr. Avniel is a named inventor in over 20 patent applications. He studied computer science at the Academic College of Tel Aviv - Jaffa Israel and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences and Humanities - from Open University in Israel. Prior to his academic studies, he served as an officer in the Israel Defense Force, where he was awarded four commendations for excellence.

Ron Bentsur, Director

 

Ron Bentsur joined AIT Ltd. in August 2015 and serves as a director. Mr. Bentsur has served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of UroGen Pharma, Ltd. since August 2015. From 2009 through April 2015, Mr. Bentsur served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Bentsur’s tenure as CEO of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals culminated in the September 2014 FDA approval of Auryxia ^TM (ferric citrate) and its December 2014 U.S. launch. Prior to joining Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2006 to 2009, Mr. Bentsur served as Chief Executive Officer of XTL Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd. Prior to that, Mr. Bentsur served as Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., as Director of Technology Investment Banking at Leumi Underwriters, where he was responsible for all technology and biotechnology private placement and advisory transactions, and as a New York City-based investment banker, primarily at ING Barings Furman Selz. Mr. Bentsur holds a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration with distinction from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.B.A., magna cum laude, from New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business. Mr. Bentsur also serves as Director of Stemline Therapeutics, Inc.  Ron’s vast industry experience is invaluable to our Board.

 

 Ari Raved, Director

 

Mr. Ari Raved served as a Senior Vice President of IDB Development Corporation Limited., a subsidiary of IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. from 2004 to 2014. Mr. Raved served as the Vice President of IDB Development Corporation. He served as the Chairman of Bartan Holdings and Investments Ltd. from 2006 to 2014. He serves as a Director of Modiin Energy Limited Partnership. Mr. Raved has been a Director of the Company. since 2012. He served as a Director of Property & Building Corp. Ltd., from May 15, 2012 to December 14, 2015. He served as a Director of Gav-Yam Land Corporation Ltd. He served as a Director of Modiin Energy - LP.from 2006 until 2014 he was the Chairman of the Board at Bartan Holdings and Investments Ltd. Mr. Raved holds a Degree in Social Sciences and Masters of Arts in Labor Studies from Tel Aviv University.  Ari’s history from company inception is critical for our future success.

 

David Grossman, Director and Secretary

 

David Grossman has served on AIT Ltd’s board since February 2016 and our Board since January 13, 2017.. Since 2017, Mr. Grossman has served as a member of the board of directors at Gefen Biomed Investments Ltd. (TASE: GEFEN).Since 2016 until 2017, Mr. Grossman has served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at D-Pharm Ltd. (TASE: DPRM)Since 2015, Mr. Grossman has served on the board of Amnis Therapeutics Ltd. (TASE: AMNS) (formerly ITGI Medical Ltd.) and since 2014 is an External Director at Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (NASDAQ, TASE: APOP). From 2014 to 2016, Mr. Grossman served as the Chairman of Algomizer Ltd. (TASE: ALMO). Mr. Grossman previously served as Chief Executive Officer at XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: XTLB, TASE: XTL), from 2009 until 2014 and was also a member of the board from 2009 until 2013. He served as a Vice President of Eurocom Investments LP, a private equity fund, from 2006 to 2009. Also during that time, Mr. Grossman served as Vice President of Sahar Investments Ltd, (TASE: ENLT; formerly SAIN) which focused on investments in the life sciences arena. Prior to that, Mr. Grossman was a Senior Analyst at Israel Health Care Ventures (IHCV), an Israeli healthcare venture capital fund. Mr. Grossman has previously served on a number of boards of public companies including Proteologics Ltd. (TASE: PRTL) and InterCure Ltd. (TASE: INCR) from 2012 to 2013, Rosetta Green Ltd. (TASE: RSTG) from 2011 to 2014, Bio Light Israeli Life Science Investments Ltd. (TASE: BOLT) from 2009 to 2011, and Gilat Satcom Ltd. (AIM: GLT) from 2007 to 2008. Mr. Grossman received a BA in Business Administration with a focus on information technology, from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.  David’s experience in the industry, especially Israel, is a necessity for a company of our structure.

Erick J. Lucera, Director

Erick J. Lucera joined AIT’s Board of Directors in August 2017 and serves on our Audit Committee. He is the Chief Financial Officer of Valeritas, a US NASDAQ traded commercial stage company developing new technology for diabetes. Mr. Lucera served as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of Viventia Bio. From 2012 to 2015, he was Vice President, Corporate Development at Aratana Therapeutics, a veterinary biopharmaceutical company. While at Aratana, he helped grow the company’s product pipeline through a series of acquisitions and in licensing transactions financed through five public and private offerings of nearly $250 million. Before his career as a healthcare company executive, Mr. Lucera spent over 15 years in investment management as a healthcare analyst at Eaton Vance, the portfolio manager of the Triathlon Life Sciences Fund at Intrepid Capital and as head of the healthcare research team at Independence Investments. He holds a Certificate in Public Health from Harvard University, an MS in quantitative finance from Boston College, an MBA from Indiana University Bloomington, and a BS in accounting from the University of Delaware. Mr. Lucera has obtained CFA, CMA, and CPA designations.  Erick’s financial and industry background serve us well on many fronts, including our audit committee.

Yossef Av-Gay, Director

 

Professor Yossef Av-Gay, PhD, co-founded AIT Ltd. in 2011 and became a director of AIT Ltd. at that time. Prof. Av-Gay became AIT Ltd’s Chief Scientific Officer in 2012, and was AIT Ltd’s Chairman from January 2014 until July 2015. He has been a professor of microbiology at the UBC, Faculty of Medicine and the Division of Infectious Diseases since 1997. He is engaged in basic research in microbial genetics and biochemistry of microorganisms, and his research focuses on translational research of bacterial pathogens aiming at antimicrobial drug development. He is a consultant to several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and is a member of the scientific review panels of the Canadian Institute of Health Research (since 2010), the French Agence Nationale de la Rechereche (since 2008), Innovative Medicine Innovations, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (since 2010), the European Commission FP6, FP7 (since 2002) and Horizon 2020 (since 2014). Dr. Av-Gay received a B.Sc. in biology, a M.Sc. in microbiology and a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from Tel Aviv University.  Professor Av-Gay resigned from the Board of Directors on January 2, 2018.

Yoori Lee, Director

Ms. Yoori Lee joined AIT’s Board of Directors in January 2018.  She currently serves as Co-founder and President of Trio Health Advisory Group, Inc.  Trio Health’s mission is to improve the quality of care in patient outcomes through coordinating the efforts of all patient care stakeholders. Prior to Trio Health, Ms. Lee spent over 15 years at Leerink Partners LLC, a leading healthcare investment bank, where she was Managing Director, and Director of MEDACorp Services. Additionally, she helped found the MEDACorp network, a cadre of experts including more than 35,000 healthcare professionals in diverse areas of practice such as clinical medicine, biomedical research, regulatory affairs, public policy, healthcare administration and healthcare information technology.  Yoori’s perspective on the industry is unique and provides AIT with a distinct advantage over other companies of our size and stage of development.

 

Hai Aviv, Chief Financial Officer

 

Mr. Aviv joined the Company from Babylon Ltd., a publicly-traded Israeli company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and operating in the fields of internet, risk capital investments and software, where he was most recently the Chief Financial Officer. In his role, he was actively involved in mergers, acquisitions, and investments. From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Aviv was Babylon’s Corporate Controller. From 2005 to 2010, he was a manager at the Ernst & Young Accounting Firm of Kost Forer, Gabbay & Kasierer, in Tel Aviv, working predominantly with the high-tech team. Mr. Aviv is a Certified Public Accountant, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business and Accounting, and an MBT in Business and Taxation from The College of Management, Israel.

 

Term of Office of Directors

 

Our directors are elected at each annual meeting of stockholders for a term of one year. Each director shall serve until his successor is duly elected and qualified or until his earlier death, resignation or removal.

 

Family Relationships

 

There are no family relationships among any of our current or former directors or executive officers.

 

Involvement in Certain Legal Proceedings

 

None of our directors, executive officers, significant employees, promoters or control persons has been involved in any legal proceeding in the past ten years that would require disclosure under Item 401(f) of Regulation S-K promulgated under the Securities Act.

 

Committees of the Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors has established a separate standing audit committee within the meaning of Section 3(a)(58)(A) of the Exchange Act and adopted a charter for such committee. Due to the present and prior size of our Board of Directors, our Board of Directors believes that it is not necessary to have separate nominating or compensation committees at this time because the functions of each such committee are adequately performed by our full Board of Directors. However, we anticipate that our Board of Directors will form separate standing nominating and compensation committees, if and when our Board of Directors determines that the establishment of such committees is advisable as we seek to further develop our business and operations and potentially expand the size of our Board of Directors.

 

Director Candidates

 

Our Board of Directors has a critical role in guiding our strategic direction and overseeing the management of our business, and accordingly, we seek to attract and retain highly qualified directors who have sufficient time to engage in the activities of our Board of Directors and to understand and enhance their knowledge of our industry and business plans. In evaluating the suitability of individual candidates, the Board, in approving (and, in the case of vacancies, appointing) such candidates, may take into account many factors, including: personal and professional integrity, ethics and values; experience in corporate management, such as serving as an officer or former officer of a publicly held company; strong finance experience; experience relevant to our industry; experience as a board member or executive officer of another publicly held company; relevant academic expertise or other proficiency in an area of our operations; diversity of expertise and experience in substantive matters pertaining to our business relative to other board members; diversity of background and perspective, including, but not limited to, with respect to age, gender, race, place of residence and specialized experience; practical and mature business judgment, including, but not limited to, the ability to make independent analytical inquiries; and any other relevant qualifications, attributes or skills.  The Board evaluates each individual in the context of the Board as a whole, with the objective of assembling a group that can best perpetuate the success of the business and represent stockholder interests through the exercise of sound judgment using its diversity of experience in these various areas.

 

Stockholder Communications

 

Although we do not have a formal policy regarding stockholder communications with our Board of Directors, stockholders may communicate with our Board of Directors, or any individual director on our Board of Directors, by writing to us at the address of our principal executive offices, addressing the communication to the attention of our Chief Executive Officer, and specifying the Board of Directors or, if applicable, the individual member thereof as the intended recipient of the communication.

 

Board Leadership Structure and Role in Risk Oversight

 

The Board does not have a formal policy on whether or not the roles of Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer should be separate and believes that it should retain the flexibility to make this determination in the manner it believes will provide the most appropriate leadership for our company from time to time.  Currently, Steven A. Lisi serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, working closely with former CEO and present COO and President, Amir Avniel.  Mr. Lisi sets the strategic direction for the company and provides day-to-day leadership. As Chairman of the board of directors, Mr. Lisi further oversees the agenda for board meetings in collaboration with the other board members  

The board of directors oversees our exposure to risk through its interaction with management and receipt from management of periodic reports outlining matters related to financial, operational, regulatory, legal and strategic risks. Risk assessment and oversight are an integral part of our governance and management processes. Our board of directors encourages management to promote a culture that incorporates risk management into our corporate strategy and day-to-day business operations. Management discusses strategic and operational risks at regular management meetings, and conducts specific strategic planning and review sessions during the year that include a focused discussion and analysis of the risks facing us. Throughout the year, senior management reviews these risks with the board of directors at regular board meetings as part of management presentations that focus on particular business functions, operations or strategies and presents the steps taken by management to mitigate or eliminate such risks.

 

 

ITEM 11.    EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

 

Executive Compensation

 

The following table sets forth all of the compensation awarded to, earned by or paid to our named executive officers for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015.

 

 

Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End

 

 

Director Compensation

 

Persons serving as both an Officer and a Director of the Company are only included in the Executive Compensation Table above.

 

 

ITEM 12.    SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS

The following table sets forth information with respect to the beneficial ownership of our Common Stock by each person known by us to beneficially own more than 5.0% of any class of our voting securities together with:

 

 

The percentages of Common Stock beneficially owned are reported on the basis of regulations of the SEC governing the determination of beneficial ownership of securities. Except as indicated in the footnotes to this table, each beneficial owner named in the table below has sole voting and sole investment power with respect to all shares beneficially owned. Percentage computations are based on 8,397,056 shares of our Common Stock outstanding as of March 29, 2018

 

Under the terms of the Warrants no holder may exercise a Warrant to the extent such exercise would cause such holder, together with its affiliates and any other persons acting as a group with such holder or any of its affiliates, to have acquired a number of shares of Common Stock which would exceed 4.99%, or, in the case of certain holders indicated below, 9.985%, (subject to an increase of such percentage to 9.99% on 61 days’ notice by the holder to the Company) of our then outstanding Common Stock, excluding for purposes of such determination shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of Warrants that have not been exercised. We refer to the foregoing limitation applicable to each individual holder or group as the “Ownership Cap”. The share numbers in the table below do not reflect the Ownership Cap, but the figures contained in the “Percentage of Outstanding Shares” column reflect the Ownership Cap applicable to each holder.

 

 

Equity Compensation Plan Information

 

The following table summarizes securities available under our equity compensation plans as of December 31, 2017.

 

 

 

 

ITEM 13.    CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE

Transactions with Related Persons

Due to the small size of our company, we do not at this time have a formal written policy regarding the review of related party transactions, and rely on our full Board of Directors to review, approve or ratify such transactions and identify and prevent conflicts of interest. Pursuant to Delaware law, no director having an interest in a particular transaction is permitted to vote upon such transaction. Our Board of Directors reviews any such transaction in light of the particular affiliation and interest of any involved director, officer or other employee or stockholder and, if applicable, any such person’s affiliates or immediate family members. Management aims to present transactions to our Board of Directors for approval before they are entered into or, if that is not possible, for ratification after the transaction has occurred. If our Board of Directors finds that a conflict of interest exists, then it will determine the appropriate action or remedial action, if any. Our Board of Directors approves or ratifies a transaction if it determines that the transaction is consistent with our best interests and the best interest of our stockholders.

  

Director Independence

 

In connection with the closing of the Merger, our Board of Directors undertook a review of the composition of our Board of Directors and independence of each director. Based upon information requested from and provided by each director concerning his background, employment and affiliations, including family relationships, Mr. Lucera, Mr. Bentsur and Ms. Lee would qualify as “independent” as that term is defined by Nasdaq Listing Rule 5605(a)(2).

Employment or Service Agreements with Executive Officers; Consulting and Directorship Services Provided by Directors 

 

Our employment and service agreements with our Executive Officers and Directors contain provisions standard for a company in our industry regarding non-competition, confidentiality of information and assignment of inventions. Other than with respect to Hai Aviv, all of the agreements described below were entered into by AIT Ltd. prior to the Merger; however, we have honored such agreements subsequent to the merger and have performed thereunder as if the Company were the original party thereto.

 

Directors Agreement with Steven A. Lisi

 

On June 24, 2016, the Board of Directors of AIT Ltd., appointed Steven Lisi to serve as a Member of its Board of Directors, effective as of June 24, 2016, and concurrently entered into an agreement with Mr. Lisi to serve as a member of the Board of Directors pursuant to which, among other things, the Company agreed to pay as compensation and benefits upon consummation of a financing round in the United States (“Financing Round”) (i) an annual retainer of $40,000 to be paid on equal monthly installments; (ii) one-time bonus amounted to $150,000 with 30 days from completion of the Financing Round (“One-Time Bonus”) and (iii) restricted shares equal to 3% of all issued and outstanding fully diluted shares of the Company after the completion of the Financing Round (including any green shoe or similar) with vesting schedule of 33.33% of such shares to be vested immediately upon the completion of a Financing Round, 33.33% of such shares to be vested after 6 month anniversary of the completion of a Financing Round and the remaining 33.33% of such shares after 12 month anniversary of the completion of a Financing Round. Upon the closing of a change of control transaction, as defined in the agreement, the unvested options shall be accelerated and vested immediately. The One-Time Payment was paid on January 27, 2017. The Board of AIT Ltd. determined to issue to Mr. Lisi an aggregate of 364,286 ordinary shares issuable under this agreement in connection with financing transactions contemplated immediately prior to the Merger. The shares were exchanged for shares of our Common Stock in connection with the Merger.

 

In January, the board of directors approved a consulting fee payable to Mr. Lisi in an amount equal to $18,000 per month which terminated upon his acceptance of the CEO position in June, 2017 at which time, the Board of Directors approved a salary of $260,000 per annum to Mr. Lisi.

 

Employment Agreement with Mr. Amir Avniel, CEO

 

On October 1, 2014, we entered into a service agreement with Amir Avniel, employing him to provide the Company with professional Chief Executive Officer services, effective as of October 1, 2014.   As thereafter amended in September, 2015, Mr. Avniel was entitled to a base salary of $15,800 per month.

In October 31, 2016, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer has waived all his requirements for certain debts of the Company to him in total amount of $304,000.

In February, 2017, the Board of Directors approved a salary to Mr. Avniel of $260,000 per annum, which was thereafter confirmed by the Board of Directors in June 2017 when Mr. Avniel resigned from the position of CEO and assumed the position of COO.

 

Directors Agreement with David Grossman

 

On February 4, 2016, the Board of Directors approved the appointment of Mr. Grossman as a Director of the Company. Mr. Grossman shall be entitled to (i) 14,476 options of the Company with annual period over three years and (ii) an annual retainer of $25,000 subject to the consummation of an IPO.

  

Employment Agreement with Hai Aviv, CFO

 

On January 26, 2017, the Board of Directors of the Company, appointed Mr. Hai Aviv to serve as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, effective as of February 28, 2017.

 

Mr. Aviv, who is 35 years old, joined the Company from Babylon Ltd., a publicly-traded Israeli company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, operating in the fields of Internet, risk capital investments and software, where he has served as Chief Financial Officer from 2013 to the present. From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Aviv served as Babylon’s corporate controller. Mr. Aviv is a certified public accountant and, from 2005 to 2010, served as manager at the Ernst & Young Accounting Firm, Kost Forer, Gabbay & Kasierer, working predominantly with the high-tech team.

In connection with Mr. Aviv’s appointment as CFO, Mr. Aviv entered into an employment agreement with the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Advanced Inhalation Therapies, Ltd., providing for annual compensation in an amount equal to NIS 420,000, or approximately $113,400, based on an exchange rate of $0.27 per NIS. Severance and disability benefits are generally provided as required under Israeli law. Additionally, Mr. Aviv is entitled to a grant of options to purchase 50,000 shares of the Company’s Common Stock, par value $0.0001, per share, subject to the Board’s adoption of an equity compensation plan and due authorization of such grant. Under the employment agreement, Mr. Aviv has also agreed to customary non-disclosure and non-competition covenants, and either party may terminate the employment agreement upon 90-days prior written notice to the non-terminating party.

 

Under current applicable Israeli employment laws, we may not be able to enforce (either in whole or in part) covenants not to compete and therefore may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of some of our former employees. Please see “Risk factors-Risks Relating to Intellectual Property” for a further description of the enforceability of non-competition clauses. See “Management-Agreements and Arrangements with, and Compensation of, Directors and Executive Officers” for additional information.

 

ITEM 14.    PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES

Audit Fees

 

 The aggregate fees billed for the two most recently completed fiscal periods ended December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 for professional services rendered by Kost Forer Gabbay & Kasierer, a Member of Ernst & Young Global for the audit of our annual financial statements, quarterly reviews of our interim financial statements and services normally provided by the independent accountant in connection with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements for these fiscal periods were as follows:

 

In the above table, “audit fees” are fees billed by our company’s external auditor for services provided in auditing our company’s annual financial statements for the subject year. “Audit-related fees” are fees not included in audit fees that are billed by the auditor for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to the performance of the audit review of our company’s financial statements. “Tax fees” are fees billed by the auditor for professional services rendered for tax compliance, tax advice and tax planning. “All other fees” are fees billed by the auditor for products and services not included in the foregoing categories.

 

Policy on Pre-Approval by Audit Committee of Services Performed by Independent Auditors

 

The audit committee pre-approves all services provided by our independent auditors. All of the above services and fees were reviewed and approved by the audit committee before the respective services were rendered.

 

The board of directors has considered the nature and amount of fees billed by Kost Forer Gabbay & Kasierer, a Member of Ernst & Young Global and believes that the provision of services for activities unrelated to the audit is compatible with maintaining Kost Forer Gabbay & Kasierer’s independence.

PART IV

 

ITEM 15.    EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES

 

 

The following financial statements of AIT Therapeutics, Inc., together with the report thereon of Kost Forer Gabbay & Kasierer, a Member of Ernst & Young Global, an independent registered public accounting firm, are included in this annual report on Form 10-K:

 

 

 

All schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or the required information is shown in the financial statements or notes thereto.

 

 

2.1		Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization, dated as of December 29, 2016, by and among AIT Therapeutics, Inc. and Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd., filed as Exhibit 2.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
2.2		First Amendment to Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization, dated as of January 12, 2017, by and among AIT Therapeutics, Inc. and Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd., filed as Exhibit 2.2 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
2.3		Merger Completion Certificate, dated December 29, 2016, by and among Red Maple Ltd. and Advance Inhalation (AIT) Ltd., filed as Exhibit 2.3 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
3.1		Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of AIT Therapeutics, Inc., filed as Exhibit 3.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
3.2		Amended and Restated Bylaws of AIT Therapeutics, Inc. filed as Exhibit 3.2 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
4.1		Form of Common Stock certificate, filed as Exhibit 4.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.

10.1		Amended and Restated Agreement for the Transfer and Assumption of Obligations Under the Securities Purchase and Registration Rights Agreements, dated as of January 12, 2017, by and among AIT Therapeutics, Inc. and Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd., filed as Exhibit 10.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.2		Securities Purchase and Registration Rights Agreement, by and among Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and the Investors party thereto, filed as Exhibit 10.2 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.3		Warrant to Purchase Common Stock, by and among AIT Therapeutics, Inc. and the Holders party thereto, filed as Exhibit 10.3 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.4+		Personal Employment Agreement, dated as of September 9, 2012, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Mrs. Racheli Vizman, filed as Exhibit 10.6 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.5+		Addendum to Personal Employment Agreement, dated as of May 30, 2013, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Mrs. Racheli Vizman, filed as Exhibit 10.7 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.6		Addendum #2 to Personal Employment Agreement, dated as of April 8, 2014, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Mrs. Racheli Vizman, filed as Exhibit 10.8 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.7+		Addendum #3 to Personal Employment Agreement, dated as of July 12, 2015, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Mrs. Racheli Vizman, filed as Exhibit 10.9 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.8		License Agreement, dated as of November 1, 2011, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and The UBC, filed as Exhibit 10.10 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.9^		Non-Exclusive Patent License Agreement, dated as of October 22, 2013, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and SensorMedics Corporation, filed as Exhibit 10.9 to our Registration Statement on Form S-1(File No. 333-216287), and incorporated herein by reference.
10.10		Option Agreement, dated as of August 31, 2015, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Pulmonox Technologies Corporation, filed as Exhibit 10.13 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.11		Tenth Amendment to Option Agreement, dated as of December 31, 2016, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Pulmonox Technologies Corporation, filed as Exhibit 10.14 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.12+		Employment Agreement, dated as of June 24, 2016, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Steven Lisi, filed as Exhibit 10.15 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.13+		Employment Agreement, effective as of February 28, 2017 by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Hai Aviv, filed as Exhibit 10.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 31, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference
10.14+		Consulting Agreement, dated as of December 15, 2012, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Yossef Av-Gay, filed as Exhibit 10.15 to our Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-216287), and incorporated herein by reference.

10.15+		Amendment to Consulting Agreement, dated as of October 21, 2014, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Yossef Av-Gay, filed as Exhibit 10.16 to our Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-216287), and incorporated herein by reference.
10.16+		Employment Agreement, dated as of October 1, 2014, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Amir Avniel, filed as Exhibit 10.17 to our Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-216287), and incorporated herein by reference.
10.17+		Employment Agreement, dated as of September 17, 2015, by and between Advanced Inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Amir Avniel, filed as Exhibit 10.18 to our Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-216287), and incorporated herein by reference.
10.18+		Waiver of the back salary, dated as of October 31, 2016, by and between Advanced inhalation Therapies Ltd. and Amir Avniel, filed as Exhibit 10.19 to our Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-216287), and incorporated herein by reference.
10.19		Advanced Inhalation Therapies (AIT) Ltd. 2013 Share Option Plan, as amended and restated as of the closing of the Merger as a Stock Incentive Plan of AIT Therapeutics, Inc., filed as Exhibit 10.4 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, as amended and filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.20		Stock Purchase and Registration Rights Agreement, dated March 31, 2017, by and among the Company and the Investors party thereto, filed as Exhibit 10.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on April 4, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.21		Form of Subscription Agreement, dated March 31, 2017, by and among the Company and the Investors party thereto, filed as Exhibit 10.2 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on April 4, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.22		Form of loan agreement between the Company and Ari Raved.***
21.1		List of AIT Therapeutics, Inc. Subsidiaries, filed as Exhibit 21.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 20, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
23.1	*	Consent of Kost Forer Gabbay & Kasierer, a Member of Ernst & Young Global.*
31.1	*	Rule 13a-14(a) / 15d-14(a) Certification of Chief Executive Officer
31.2	*	Rule 13a-14(a) / 15d-14(a) Certification of Chief Financial Officer
32.1	****	Section 1350 Certification of Chief Executive Officer
32.2	****	Section 1350 Certification of Chief Financial Officer

 

---

 

+ Management contract or compensation plan arrangement

 

^ Portions of this exhibit have been omitted pursuant to a request for confidential treatment.

 

* Filed herewith.

 

** Previously filed with our Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC on February 27, 2017.

 

*** Previously filed with our Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC on May 2, 2017.

 

**** Furnished herewith.

 

Item 16.  Form 10-K Summary

 

None.