BIOCEPT INC - Quarter Report: 2018 March (Form 10-Q)

UNITED STATES  

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018

OR

For the transition period from                      to                     .

Commission file number: 001-36284

Biocept, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

5810 Nancy Ridge Drive, San Diego, California

(Address of principal executive offices)

92121

(Zip Code)

(858) 320-8200

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Not Applicable

(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

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

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

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

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

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

As of May 11, 2018, there were 68,213,349 shares of the Registrant’s common stock outstanding.

BIOCEPT, INC.

FORM 10-Q

FOR THE QUARTERLY PERIOD ENDED

March 31, 2018

INDEX

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IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, or Quarterly Report, contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements included or incorporated by reference in this Quarterly Report other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. You can identify these and other forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “believe,” “continue” or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements also include the assumptions underlying or relating to such statements.

Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they are made except as required by law. Readers should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports and registration statements we file from time to time with the SEC.

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PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements

Biocept, Inc.

Condensed Balance Sheets

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed financial statements.

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Biocept, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

(Unaudited)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed financial statements.

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Biocept, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited)

Non-cash Investing and Financing Activities:

During the three months ended March 31, 2018, Biocept, Inc., or the Company, cancelled insurance premiums previously financed through third-parties with an aggregate remaining principal balance outstanding of approximately $31,000, and replaced them with insurance premiums financed through third-parties totaling approximately $80,000.

Fixed assets purchased totaling approximately $181,000 and $79,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018, respectively, were recorded as equipment financing obligations and were excluded from cash purchases in the Company’s statements of cash flows (see Note 7).

The amount of unpaid fixed asset purchases excluded from cash purchases in the Company’s statements of cash flows increased from approximately $58,000 at December 31, 2016 to approximately $203,000 at March 31, 2017 and decreased from approximately $31,000 at December 31, 2017 to approximately $19,000 at March 31, 2018.

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An offering of the Company’s common stock and warrants to purchase its common stock occurred on March 31, 2017. In the offering, warrants were issued to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,160,000 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $2.50 per share with a term of five years and an estimated aggregate grant date fair value of approximately $2.8 million, which was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital. Additionally, approximately $728,000 of fees and costs directly associated with this offering were recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital in accordance with applicable accounting guidance.

An offering of 32,854,606 shares of the Company’s common stock and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 32,854,606 shares of its common stock at a combined offering price of $0.45 per unit occurred on January 30, 2018. All warrants sold in this offering have an exercise price of $0.50 per share, subject to down round adjustment, are exercisable immediately and expire five years from the date of issuance. The estimated aggregate grant date fair value of approximately $9.7 million associated with these warrants was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital (see Note 4). Additionally, approximately $1.4 million of fees and costs directly associated with this offering were recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital in accordance with applicable accounting guidance.

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed financial statements.

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BIOCEPT, INC.

NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

(Unaudited)

1. The Company, Business Activities and Basis of Presentation

The Company and Business Activities

The Company was founded in California in May 1997, and effected a reincorporation to Delaware in July 2013. The Company is an early stage molecular oncology diagnostics company that develops and commercializes proprietary circulating tumor cell, or CTC, and circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, assays utilizing a standard blood sample, or liquid biopsy. The Company’s current and planned assays are intended to provide information to aid healthcare providers to identify specific oncogenic alterations that may qualify a subset of cancer patients for targeted therapy at diagnosis, progression or for monitoring in order to identify specific resistance mechanisms. Sometimes traditional procedures, such as surgical tissue biopsies, result in tumor tissue that is insufficient and/or unable to provide the molecular subtype information necessary for clinical decisions. The Company’s assays, performed on blood, have the potential to provide more contemporaneous information on the characteristics of a patient’s disease when compared with tissue biopsy and radiographic imaging. Additionally, commencing in October 2017, the Company’s pathology partnership program, branded as Empower TC^TM, provides the unique ability for pathologists to participate in the interpretation of liquid biopsy results and is available to pathology practices and hospital systems throughout the United States. Further, sales to laboratory supply distributors of the Company’s proprietary blood collection tubes commenced during the three months ending June 30, 2018, which allow for the intact transport of liquid biopsy samples for research use only from regions around the world.

The Company operates a clinical laboratory that is CLIA-certified (under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment of 1988) and CAP-accredited (by the College of American Pathologists), and manufactures cell enrichment and extraction microfluidic channels, related equipment and certain reagents to perform the Company’s diagnostic assays in a facility located in San Diego, California. CLIA certification and accreditation are required before any clinical laboratory may perform testing on human specimens for the purpose of obtaining information for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment of disease, or assessment of health. The assays the Company offers are classified as laboratory developed tests under the CLIA regulations.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed financial statements and notes are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or GAAP, and on the basis that the Company will continue as a going concern (see Note 2). The accompanying unaudited condensed financial statements and notes do not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets or the amounts and classification of liabilities that may result from the possible inability of the Company to continue as a going concern.

The unaudited condensed financial statements included in this Form 10-Q have been prepared in accordance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, instructions for Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Accordingly, the condensed financial statements are unaudited and do not contain all the information required by GAAP to be included in a full set of financial statements. The balance sheet at December 31, 2017 has been derived from the audited financial statements at that date but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for a complete set of financial statements. The audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, with our Annual Report on Form 10-K on March 28, 2018 include a summary of our significant accounting policies and should be read in conjunction with this Form 10-Q. In the opinion of management, all material adjustments necessary to present fairly the results of operations for such periods have been included in this Form 10-Q. All such adjustments are of a normal recurring nature. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations for the entire year.

Certain prior period balances have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

Revenue Recognition and Accounts Receivable

The Company's commercial revenues are generated from diagnostic services provided to patient’s physicians and billed to third-party insurance payers such as managed care organizations, Medicare and Medicaid and patients for any deductibles, coinsurance or copayments that may be due. Through December 31, 2017, the Company recognized revenue in accordance with the provisions of Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 954-605, Health Care Entities—Revenue Recognition, which required that four basic criteria must be met prior to recognition of revenue: (1) persuasive evidence of an arrangement existed; (2) delivery had occurred and title and the risks and rewards of ownership had been transferred to the client or services had been rendered; (3) the price was fixed or determinable; and (4) collectability was reasonably assured. Commencing on March 31, 2017, the Company recognized commercial revenue related to billings for assays delivered and billed to Medicare and other third-party payers on an accrual basis when amounts that will ultimately be realized can be estimated upon delivery, whereby prior to March 31, 2017, the Company recognized revenues

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for its commercial diagnostic services on a cash basis as collected because the amounts ultimately expected to be received could not be estimated upon delivery due to insufficient collection history experience. Commencing on January 1, 2018, the Company recognizes revenue in accordance with ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, which requires that an entity recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. The Company adopted the provisions of ASC 606 using the modified retrospective application method applied to all contracts, which did not impact amounts previously reported by the Company, nor did it require a cumulative effect adjustment upon adoption, as the Company’s method of recognizing revenue under ASC 606 was analogous to the method utilized immediately prior to adoption. Accordingly, there is no need for the Company to disclose the amount by which each financial statement line item was affected as a result of applying the new standard and an explanation of significant changes.

Contracts

For its commercial revenues, while the Company markets directly to physicians, its customer is the patient. Patients do not enter into direct agreements with the Company that commit either them to pay any portion of the cost of the tests if they have not met their annual deductible limit under their insurance policy, if any, or if their insurance otherwise declines to reimburse the Company. Accordingly, the Company establishes a contract with a commercial patient in accordance with other customary business practices, as follows:

The Company’s development services revenues are supported by contractual agreements and generated from assay development services provided to entities, as well as certain other diagnostic services provided to physicians, and revenues are recognized upon delivery of the performance obligations in the contract.

Performance Obligations

A performance obligation is a promise in a contract to transfer a distinct good or service, or a bundle of goods or services, to the customer. For its commercial and development services revenues, the Company’s contracts have a single performance obligation, which is satisfied upon rendering of services, which culminates in the delivery of a patient’s assay result(s) to the ordering physician or entity. The duration of time between accession receipt and delivery of a valid assay result to the ordering physician or entity is typically less than two weeks. Accordingly, the Company elected the practical expedient and therefore, does not disclose the value of unsatisfied performance obligations.

Transaction Price

The transaction price is the amount of consideration that the Company expects to collect in exchange for transferring promised goods or services to a customer, excluding amounts collected on behalf of third parties, such as sales taxes. The consideration expected from a contract with a customer may include fixed amounts, variable amounts, or both. The Company’s gross commercial revenues billed, and corresponding gross accounts receivable, are subject to estimated deductions for such allowances and reserves to arrive at reported net revenues, which relate to differences between amounts billed and corresponding amounts estimated to be subsequently collected, and is deemed to be variable although the variability is not explicitly stated in any contract. Rather, the implied variability is due to several factors, such as the payment history or lack thereof for third-party payers, reimbursement rate changes for contracted and non-contracted payers, any patient co-payments, deductibles or compliance incentives, the existence of secondary payers and claim denials. The Company estimates the amount of variable consideration using the most likely amount approach to estimating variable consideration for third-party payers, including direct patient bills, whereby the estimated reimbursement for services are established by payment histories on CPT codes for each payer, or similar payer types. When no payment history is available, the value of the account is estimated at Medicare rates, with additional other payer-specific reserves taken as appropriate. Collection periods for billings on commercial revenues range from less than 30 days to several months, depending on the contracted or non-contracted nature of the payer, among other variables. The estimates of amounts that will ultimately be realized from commercial diagnostic services for non-contracted payers require significant judgment by management.

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The Company limits the amount of variable consideration included in the transaction price to the unconstrained portion of such consideration. Revenue is recognized up to the amount of variable consideration that is not subject to a significant reversal until additional information is obtained or the uncertainty associated with the additional payments or refunds is subsequently resolved. Differences between original estimates and subsequent revisions, including final settlements, represent changes in the estimate of variable consideration and are included in the period in which such revisions are made. The Company monitors its estimates of transaction price to depict conditions that exist at each reporting date. If the Company subsequently determines that it will collect more consideration than it originally estimated for a contract with a customer, it will account for the change as an increase in the estimate of the transaction price in the period identified as an increase to revenue. Similarly, if the Company subsequently determines that the amount it expects to collect from a customer is less than it originally estimated, it will generally account for the change as a decrease in the estimate of the transaction price as a decrease to revenue, provided that such downward adjustment does not result in a significant reversal of cumulative revenue recognized. Revenue recognized from changes in transaction prices was not significant during the three months ended March 31, 2018.

Allocate Transaction Price

For the Company’s commercial revenues, the entire transaction price is allocated to the single performance obligation contained in a contract with a customer. For the Company’s development services revenues, the contracted transaction price is allocated to each single performance obligation contained in a contract with a customer as performed.

Point-in-time Recognition

The Company’s single performance obligation is satisfied at a point in time, and that point in time is defined as the date a patient’s successful assay result is delivered to the patient’s ordering physician or entity. The Company considers this date to be the time at which the patient obtains control of the promised diagnostic assay service. 

Contract Balances

The timing of revenue recognition, billings and cash collections results in accounts receivable recorded in the Company’s condensed balance sheets. Generally, billing occurs subsequent to delivery of a patient’s test result to the ordering physician or entity, resulting in an account receivable.  

Practical Expedients

The Company does not adjust the transaction price for the effects of a significant financing component, as at contract inception, the Company expects the collection cycle to be one year or less.

The Company expenses sales commissions when incurred because the amortization period is one year or less, which are recorded within sales and marketing expenses.  

The Company incurs certain other costs that are incurred regardless of whether a contract is obtained. Such costs are primarily related to legal services and patient communications. These costs are expensed as incurred and recorded within general and administrative expenses. 

Disaggregation of Revenue and Concentration of Risk

The composition of the Company’s net revenues recognized during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018 disaggregated by source and nature are as follows:

*Includes Medicare and Medicare Advantage, as reimbursement amounts are fixed.

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During the three months ended March 31, 2017, the Company recorded approximately $874,000 in nonrecurring net revenue as a result of recognizing revenue on an accrual basis commencing on March 31, 2017 associated with cases delivered on or prior to December 31, 2016, representing a corresponding decrease in net loss per common share of $0.04. The incremental net revenue as a result of recognizing revenue on an accrual basis commencing on March 31, 2017, or the total amount of net revenue recorded in excess of the amount of commercial cash collections, was approximately $726,000 and $139,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018, respectively, representing corresponding decreases in net loss per common share of $0.03 and zero, respectively.

Concentrations of credit risk with respect to revenues are primarily limited to geographies to which the Company provides a significant volume of its services, and to specific third-party payers of the Company’s services such as Medicare, insurance companies, and other third-party payers. The Company’s client base consists of many geographically dispersed clients diversified across various customer types.

The Company's third-party payers that represent more than 10% of total net revenues in any period presented, as well as their related net revenue amount as a percentage of total net revenues, during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018 were as follows:

The Company's third-party payers that represent more than 10% of total net accounts receivable, and their related net accounts receivable balance as a percentage of total net accounts receivable, at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018 were as follows:

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, and as subsequently updated and amended from time to time, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued authoritative guidance that requires entities to recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period, and may be applied retrospectively to each prior period presented or retrospectively with the cumulative effect recognized as of the date of adoption. The Company adopted the new standard for the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2018 using the modified retrospective application method, which did not have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures.

In January 2016, the FASB issued authoritative guidance requiring, among other things, that certain equity investments be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income, that financial assets and financial liabilities be presented separately by measurement category and form of financial asset on the balance sheet or the accompanying notes to the financial statements, that the prior requirement to disclose the method(s) and significant assumptions used to estimate the fair value that is required to be disclosed for financial instruments measured at amortized cost on the balance sheet be eliminated, and that a reporting organization is to present separately in other comprehensive income the portion of the total change in the fair value of a liability resulting from a change in the instrument-specific credit risk when the organization has elected to measure the liability at fair value in accordance with the fair value option for financial instruments. This guidance is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company adopted this guidance for the fiscal year beginning on January 1, 2018, which did not have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures.

In February 2016, the FASB issued authoritative guidance requiring, among other things, that entities recognize the assets and liabilities arising from leases on the balance sheet under revised criteria, while the classification criteria for distinguishing between

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finance leases and operating leases are substantially similar to the classification criteria in the previous leases guidance. In transition, lessees and lessors are required to recognize and measure leases at the beginning of the earliest period presented using a modified retrospective approach. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. The Company anticipates that the adoption of this guidance will materially affect its statement of financial position and will require changes to its processes. The Company expects to adopt this guidance for the reporting period beginning on January 1, 2019 and has not yet made a decision on the method of adoption with respect to the optional practical expedients.

In August 2016, the FASB issued authoritative guidance clarifying the classification of certain cash receipts and cash payments in the statement of cash flows. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years, on a retrospective transition method to each period presented. The Company adopted this guidance for the reporting period beginning January 1, 2018, which did not have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures.

In January 2017, the FASB issued authoritative guidance clarifying the definition of a business when evaluating transactions involving acquisitions or disposals of assets or businesses. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company adopted this guidance for the reporting period beginning January 1, 2018, which did not have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures.

In July 2017, the FASB issued authoritative guidance changing the classification analysis of certain equity-linked financial instruments (or embedded features) with down round features, whereby a down round feature no longer precludes equity classification when assessing whether the instrument is indexed to an entity’s own stock, and also clarifying existing disclosure requirements for equity-classified instruments. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020. Early adoption is permitted. The Company early adopted this guidance for the fiscal year beginning on January 1, 2018, which did not have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures upon adoption, but did result in equity classification for the warrants issued on January 30, 2018, whereby liability classification may have occurred in the absence of the adoption of this guidance due to the existence of a down round feature associated with the exercise price of the warrants, which would have resulted in material impacts to the Company’s financial statements and disclosures.

In August 2017, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that expands and refines hedge accounting for both nonfinancial and financial risk components and align the recognition and presentation of the effects of the hedging instrument and the hedged item in the financial statements. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early application is permitted. The Company currently intends to adopt this guidance for the fiscal year beginning on January 1, 2019 and does not anticipate that the adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures because the Company does not currently hold any financial instruments accounted for as a hedging activity.

In February 2018, the FASB issued authoritative guidance allowing a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from a tax bill, “H.R.1, An Act to Provide for Reconciliation Pursuant to Titles II and V of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2018,” or the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted on December 22, 2017. These amendments eliminate the stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, because these amendments only relate to the reclassification of the income tax effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the underlying guidance that requires that the effect of a change in tax laws or rates be included in income from continuing operations is not affected. This guidance also requires certain disclosures about stranded tax effects. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. The Company currently intends to adopt this guidance for the fiscal year beginning on January 1, 2019 and does not anticipate that the adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its financial statements or disclosures because the Company does not currently maintain any stranded tax effects in accumulated other comprehensive income.

2. Liquidity and Going Concern Uncertainty

As of March 31, 2018, cash totaled $9.3 million and the Company had an accumulated deficit of $201.6 million. For the year ended December 31, 2017 and the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company incurred net losses of $21.6 million and $6.4 million, respectively. At March 31, 2018, the Company had aggregate net interest-bearing indebtedness of $2.7 million, of which $1.6 million was due within one year, in addition to $3.3 million of other non-interest bearing current liabilities. Additionally, in February 2016, the Company signed a firm, non-cancelable, and unconditional commitment in an aggregate amount of $1,062,500 with a vendor to purchase certain inventory items, payable in minimum quarterly amounts of $62,500 through May 2020, under which approximately $500,000 remained outstanding at March 31, 2018 (see Note 11). These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for the one-year period following the date that these financial statements were issued. The accompanying financial statements and notes have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. The accompanying financial statements and notes do not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets or the amounts and classification of liabilities that may result from the possible inability of the Company to continue as a going concern.

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While the Company is currently in the commercialization stage of operations, the Company has not yet achieved profitability and anticipates that it will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. Historically, the Company’s principal sources of cash have included proceeds from the issuance of common and preferred stock, proceeds from the exercise of warrants to purchase common stock, proceeds from the issuance of debt, and revenues from laboratory services. The Company’s principal uses of cash have included cash used in operations, payments relating to purchases of property and equipment and repayments of borrowings. The Company expects that the principal uses of cash in the future will be for continuing operations, hiring of sales and marketing personnel and increased sales and marketing activities, funding of research and development, capital expenditures, and general working capital requirements. The Company expects that, as revenues grow, sales and marketing and research and development expenses will continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate and, as a result, the Company will need to generate significant growth in net revenues to achieve and sustain income from operations.

In May 2015, the SEC declared effective a shelf registration statement filed by the Company, which expires on May 21, 2018. The shelf registration statement allows the Company to issue any combination of its common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants from time to time for an aggregate initial offering price of up to $50 million, subject to certain limitations for so long as its public float is less than $75 million. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated April 25, 2016 between the Company and H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, or Wainwright, and a securities purchase agreement dated April 29, 2016 between the Company and the purchasers signatory thereto, the Company received approximately $4.3 million of net cash proceeds upon the sale of its common stock and warrants to purchase its common stock. Subsequent to the closing of this offering on May 4, 2016, no warrants sold in this offering have been exercised, with approximately $4.5 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $3.90 per share until their expiration in May 2021. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated March 28, 2017 between the Company and Roth Capital Partners, LLC as lead placement agent, and WestPark Capital and Chardan Capital as co-placement agents, a securities purchase agreement for an offering of 4,320,000 shares of the Company’s common stock was effected under this registration statement at a per share price of $2.15. In a concurrent private placement, the Company sold unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,160,000 shares of its common stock that closed concurrently with the offering of common stock sold pursuant to this shelf registration statement, of which none have been subsequently exercised. All warrants sold in this offering have a per share exercise price of $2.50 and expire on October 1, 2022. The closing of the sale of these securities to the purchasers occurred on March 31, 2017, when the Company received approximately $8.6 million of net cash proceeds. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated December 5, 2017 between the Company and Dawson James Securities, Inc. as lead placement agent, and WestPark Capital as co-placement agent, a securities purchase agreement for a registered direct offering of 4,925,000 shares of the Company’s common stock was effected under this registration statement at a per share price of $0.68. The placement agent was issued a warrant to purchase 246,250 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $0.85 per share, which is first exercisable on June 5, 2018 and expires on December 5, 2022. The closing of the sale of these securities occurred on December 8, 2017, when the Company received approximately $2.9 million of net cash proceeds. The specific terms of additional future offerings, if any, under this shelf registration statement would be established at the time of such offerings.

On October 19, 2016, the Company received net cash proceeds of approximately $9.0 million from of the closing of a follow-on public offering. Subsequent to the closing of this offering on October 19, 2016, the offering’s underwriters exercised their overallotment option to purchase 627,131 option warrants for total proceeds of $564. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, approximately $7.5 million of additional cash proceeds had been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering, with approximately $3.2 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $1.10 per share until their expiration in October 2021.

Pursuant to a common stock and warrant purchase agreement dated August 9, 2017 between the Company and Ally Bridge LB Healthcare Master Fund Limited, or Ally Bridge, the Company received net cash proceeds of approximately $2.0 million from the sale of its common stock and warrants. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, no additional cash proceeds had been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering, with approximately $2.2 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $1.50 per share until their expiration in August 2022.

On January 30, 2018, the Company received net cash proceeds of approximately $13.3 million from the closing of a follow-on public offering of 32,854,606 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 32,854,606 shares of its common stock at a combined offering price of $0.45 per unit. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, no additional cash proceeds have been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering, with approximately $16.4 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $0.50 per share, subject to down round adjustment, until their expiration in January 2023.

Management’s Plan to Continue as a Going Concern

In order to continue as a going concern, the Company will need, among other things, additional capital resources. Until the Company can generate significant cash from operations, including assay revenues, management’s plans to obtain such resources for the Company include proceeds from offerings of the Company’s equity securities or debt, cash received from the exercise of outstanding common stock warrants, or transactions involving product development, technology licensing or collaboration. Management can provide no assurances that any sources of a sufficient amount of financing will be available to the Company on favorable terms, if at all.

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3. Sales of Equity Securities

In May 2015, the SEC declared effective a shelf registration statement filed by the Company, which expires on May 21, 2018. The shelf registration statement allows the Company to issue any combination of its common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants from time to time for an aggregate initial offering price of up to $50 million, subject to certain limitations for so long as the Company’s public float is less than $75 million. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated April 25, 2016 between the Company and Wainwright, and a securities purchase agreement dated April 29, 2016 between the Company and the purchasers signatory thereto, a public offering of 1,662,191 shares of the Company’s common stock and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,163,526 shares of common stock was effected under this registration statement at a combined offering price of $3.00. All warrants sold in this offering have a per share exercise price of $3.90, are exercisable immediately and expire five years from the date of issuance. The estimated grant date fair value of these warrants of approximately $2.0 million was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital upon the closing of this offering. The closing of the sale of these securities to the purchasers occurred on May 4, 2016, pursuant to which the Company received approximately $4.3 million of net cash proceeds after deducting $0.7 million of costs directly associated with the offering that were recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital under applicable accounting guidance. Subsequent to the closing of this offering on May 4, 2016, no warrants sold in this offering have been exercised, with approximately $4.5 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $3.90 per share until their expiration in May 2021. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated March 28, 2017 between the Company and Roth Capital Partners, LLC as lead placement agent, and WestPark Capital and Chardan Capital as co-placement agents, a securities purchase agreement for a second offering of 4,320,000 shares of the Company’s common stock was effected under this registration statement at a per share price of $2.15, which closed on March 31, 2017. In a concurrent private placement, the Company sold unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,160,000 shares of the Company’s common stock that closed concurrently with the March 2017 offering of common stock sold pursuant the shelf registration statement, of which none have been subsequently exercised. All warrants sold in this offering have a per share exercise price of $2.50 and expire on October 1, 2022. The estimated grant date fair value of these warrants of approximately $2.8 million was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital upon the closing of this offering. At the closing of these sales on March 31, 2017, the Company received approximately $8.6 million of net cash proceeds after deducting $0.7 million of costs directly associated with the offering that were recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital under applicable accounting guidance. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated December 5, 2017 between the Company and Dawson James Securities, Inc. as lead placement agent, and WestPark Capital as co-placement agent, a securities purchase agreement for a registered direct offering of 4,925,000 shares of the Company’s common stock was effected under this registration statement at a per share price of $0.68. The placement agent was issued a warrant to purchase 246,250 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $0.85 per share, which is first exercisable on June 5, 2018 and expires on December 5, 2022. The estimated grant date fair value of this warrant of approximately $0.1 million was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital upon the closing of this offering. The closing of the sale of these securities occurred on December 8, 2017, when the Company received approximately $2.9 million of net cash proceeds after deducting $0.4 million of costs directly associated with the offering that were recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital under applicable accounting guidance. The specific terms of additional future offerings, if any, under this shelf registration statement would be established at the time of such offerings.

Pursuant to a common stock and warrant purchase agreement dated August 9, 2017 between the Company and Ally Bridge, an offering of 1,466,667 shares of the Company’s common stock and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,434,639 shares of common stock was effected at a combined offering price of $1.50 per unit for total gross proceeds to the Company of $2.2 million. All warrants sold in this offering have a per share exercise price of $1.50, are exercisable immediately and expire five years from the date of issuance. The estimated grant date fair value of this warrant of approximately $1.5 million was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital upon the closing of this offering. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, no additional cash proceeds had been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering. As such, the total increase in capital from the sale of the common stock and warrants has been approximately $2.0 million after deducting $0.2 million of associated costs incurred, which were offset against these proceeds under applicable accounting guidance.

On January 30, 2018, the Company received net cash proceeds of approximately $13.3 million from the closing of a follow-on public offering of 32,854,606 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 32,854,606 shares of its common stock at a combined offering price of $0.45 per unit, with $1.4 million of costs directly associated with the offering recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital under applicable accounting guidance. All warrants sold in this offering have an exercise price of $0.50 per share, subject to down round adjustment, are exercisable immediately and expire five years from the date of issuance. The estimated grant date fair value of these warrants of approximately $9.7 million was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital upon the closing of this offering (see Note 4). Subsequent to the closing of this offering, no additional cash proceeds have been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering.

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4. Fair Value Measurement

The estimated nonrecurring fair value measurements associated with fixed asset purchases recorded as equipment financing obligations totaling approximately $79,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2018 were based on information provided by vendors, which involved the use of significant unobservable Level 3 inputs.

The estimated fair value of the credit facility entered into with Oxford Finance LLC in April 2014, or the April 2014 Credit Facility, at March 31, 2018 approximated its carrying value, which was determined using a discounted cash flow analysis. The analysis considered interest rates of instruments with similar maturity dates, which involved the use of significant unobservable Level 3 inputs.

Other Fair Value Measurements

As of the closing of the Company’s January 30, 2018 offering, the estimated grant date fair value of approximately $0.29 per share associated with the warrants to purchase up to 32,854,606 shares of common stock issued in this offering, or a total of approximately $9.7 million, was recorded as an offset to additional paid-in capital. All warrants sold in this offering have an exercise price of $0.50 per share, subject to down round adjustment, are exercisable immediately and expire five years from the date of issuance. The fair value of the warrants was estimated using a Monte Carlo simulation valuation model using Geometric Brownian Motion, incorporating anticipated future financing events, with the following assumptions:

5. Balance Sheet Details

The following provides certain balance sheet details:

During the three months ended March 31, 2018, non-financed equipment fixed assets with aggregate gross book values and corresponding accumulated depreciation amounts of approximately $209,000 were disposed of.

6. April 2014 Credit Facility

On April 30, 2014, the Company received net cash proceeds of approximately $4,898,000 pursuant to the execution of the April 2014 Credit Facility. Upon the entry into the April 2014 Credit Facility, the Company was required to pay the lender a facility fee of

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$50,000 in conjunction with the funding of the term loan. The April 2014 Credit Facility is secured by substantially all of the Company’s personal property other than its intellectual property. Amounts due to Oxford Finance LLC under the April 2014 Credit Facility are callable before maturity by the lender under certain subjective acceleration clauses of the underlying agreement, including changes deemed to be materially adverse by the lender. The term loan under the April 2014 Credit Facility bears interest at an annual rate of 7.95%. The Company was required to make interest-only payments on the term loan through August 1, 2015. The outstanding term loan under the April 2014 Credit Facility began amortizing at the end of the applicable interest-only period, with monthly payments of principal and interest being made by the Company to the lender in consecutive monthly installments following such interest-only period. The term loan under the April 2014 Credit Facility matures on July 1, 2018. Under the original terms of the underlying agreement, the Company is also required to make a final payment to the lender equal to 5.5% of the original principal amount of the term loan funded. At its option, the Company may prepay the outstanding principal balance of the term loan in whole but not in part, subject to a prepayment fee of 1% of any amount prepaid.

On June 30, 2016, the Company entered into an amendment of the April 2014 Credit Facility. This amendment required the Company to make interest-only payments on the term loan from July 1, 2016 through September 30, 2016, and also requires an additional final payment of $50,000 to the lender. The terms of the amendment require the amortization of the outstanding amount due under the term loan to commence at the end of the applicable interest-only period, with monthly payments of principal and interest, in arrears, being made by the Company to the lender in consecutive monthly installments following such interest-only period. Additionally, pursuant to the amendment the aggregate outstanding principal amount of the Company’s permitted indebtedness, consisting of capitalized lease obligations and purchase money indebtedness outstanding at any time, was increased to $1.2 million. The June 30, 2016 amendment of the April 2014 Credit Facility was accounted for as a modification of debt under applicable accounting guidance. On June 28, 2017, the Company entered into an amendment of the April 2014 Credit Facility whereby the aggregate outstanding principal amount of the Company’s permitted indebtedness was increased to $3.0 million.

The April 2014 Credit Facility includes affirmative and negative covenants applicable to the Company and any subsidiaries created in the future. The affirmative covenants include, among others, covenants requiring the Company to maintain its legal existence and governmental approvals, deliver certain financial reports and maintain insurance coverage. The negative covenants include, among others, restrictions on transferring collateral, incurring additional indebtedness, engaging in mergers or acquisitions, paying dividends or making other distributions, making investments, creating liens, selling assets, and suffering a change in control, in each case subject to certain exceptions. The April 2014 Credit Facility also includes events of default, the occurrence and continuation of which provide Oxford Finance LLC, as collateral agent, with the right to exercise remedies against the Company and the collateral securing the term loan under the April 2014 Credit Facility, including foreclosure against the Company’s properties securing the April 2014 Credit Facility, including its cash. These events of default include, among other things, the Company’s failure to pay any amounts due under the April 2014 Credit Facility, a breach of covenants under the April 2014 Credit Facility, insolvency, a material adverse change, the occurrence of any default under certain other indebtedness in an amount greater than $250,000, and a final judgment against the Company in an amount greater than $250,000.

A warrant to purchase up to 17,655 shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price of $14.16 per share with a term of 10 years was issued to Oxford Finance LLC on April 30, 2014. Issuance costs of approximately $102,000 associated with the term loan under the April 2014 Credit Facility were recorded as a discount to outstanding debt as of the closing date, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $4,898,000. The estimated fair value of the warrant issued of approximately $233,000 was also recorded as a discount to outstanding debt as of the closing date. The discounts and other issuance costs are amortized to interest expense utilizing the effective interest method over the underlying term of the loan, with total unamortized discounts of approximately $33,000 and $14,000 remaining at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, respectively. The effective annual interest rate associated with the April 2014 Credit Facility was 13.87% at both December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018. As of March 31, 2018, total remaining principal payments of $693,000 were due under the April 2014 Credit Facility.

7. Equipment Financings

The Company leases certain laboratory equipment under arrangements accounted for as capital leases and classified as equipment financings. The financed equipment is depreciated on a straight-line basis over periods ranging from approximately 3 to 7 years. The total gross value of fixed assets capitalized under such financing arrangements was approximately $2,295,000 and $2,374,000 at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, respectively. Total accumulated depreciation related to financed equipment was approximately $759,000 and $826,000 at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, respectively, and total depreciation expense related to financed equipment during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018 was approximately $55,000 and $67,000, respectively.

On January 26, 2018, the Company executed an agreement with a third-party lender to finance $240,000 of planned fixed asset purchases and an anticipated $10,000 of corresponding maintenance obligations. Under the terms of the lease agreement, upon lease commencement and repayment, which occurs once the Company has financed $240,000 of equipment purchases under the lease agreement, the Company is required to make 22 payments of $11,081 per month thereafter, subject to adjustment in the event of an increase in the three-year Treasury note rates prior to lease commencement and repayment. Until lease commencement and repayment,

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the Company is required to pay pro-rated equipment rental charges of any equipment financed under this agreement. The Company expects lease commencement and repayment to occur by June 30, 2018. Through the date that these financial statements were available to be issued, approximately $98,000 of equipment purchases and $5,000 of corresponding maintenance obligations had been financed under this agreement.

The following schedule sets forth the remaining future minimum lease payments outstanding under financed equipment arrangements, as well as corresponding remaining sales tax and maintenance obligation payments that are expensed as incurred and due within each respective year ending December 31, as well as the present value of the total amount of the remaining minimum lease payments as of March 31, 2018:

The aggregate weighted average effective annual interest rate associated with equipment financings was 13.51% and 12.38% at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, respectively, and the maturity dates on such outstanding arrangements range from June 2018 to September 2024. During the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018, total interest expense related to equipment financings of $38,000 and $43,000, respectively, was recorded to the Company’s unaudited condensed statement of operations and comprehensive loss. At March 31, 2018, the present value of minimum lease payments due within one year was approximately $476,000.

8. Stock-Based Compensation

Equity Incentive Plans

The Company maintains two equity incentive plans: the Amended and Restated 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2013 Plan, and the 2007 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2007 Plan. The 2013 Plan includes a provision that shares available for grant under the Company’s 2007 Plan become available for issuance under the 2013 Plan and are no longer available for issuance under the 2007 Plan. As of March 31, 2018, 333,333 shares of the Company’s common stock were authorized exclusively for the issuance of stock awards to employees who have not previously been an employee or director of the Company, except following a bona fide period of non-employment, as an inducement material to the individual’s entering into employment with the Company, as defined under applicable Nasdaq Listing Rules. As of March 31, 2018, under all plans, a total of 3,522,955 non-inducement shares were authorized for issuance, 2,033,009 shares had been issued with 1,860,698 non-inducement stock options and restricted stock units, or RSUs, underlying outstanding awards, and 1,489,946 non-inducement shares were available for grant. As of March 31, 2018, a total of 333,333 inducement shares were authorized for issuance, 158,049 inducement shares had been issued with 133,049 inducement stock options and RSUs underlying outstanding awards, and 175,284 inducement shares were available for grant under the 2013 Plan.

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Stock Options

A summary of stock option activity for the three months ended March 31, 2018 is as follows:

The intrinsic values of options outstanding, options exercisable, and options vested and unvested expected to vest at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018 were each zero.

On May 2, 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors approved the issuance of an aggregate of 550,000 performance stock options to be granted on May 31, 2017 to certain of the Company’s employees and all of its executive officers pursuant to the 2013 Plan, of which 200,000 performance stock options were granted to the Company’s CEO, 100,000 performance stock options were granted to its CFO, and 75,000 performance stock options were granted to each of its Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Medical Director. Each performance stock option granted on May 31, 2017 had an exercise price of $1.50 per share and an estimated grant date fair value of $0.99 per share. On July 6, 2017, the Company’s Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors approved the issuance of an aggregate of 75,000 performance stock options to be granted on July 31, 2017 to certain of the Company’s employees pursuant to the 2013 Plan, of which 2,500 performance stock options were forfeited by December 31, 2017. Each performance stock option granted on July 31, 2017 had an exercise price of $1.39 per share and an estimated grant date fair value of $0.83 per share. The vesting of each of the performance stock options granted during the year ended December 31, 2017 was to be determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors upon the Company’s achievement of specified corporate goals for 2017. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, none of the performance option awards granted during the year ended December 31, 2017 were declared vested by the Company’s Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors, and the 622,500 shares underlying the remaining outstanding performance stock option awards at December 31, 2017 were forfeited.

Restricted Stock

A summary of RSU activity for the three months ended March 31, 2018 is as follows:

At March 31, 2018, the intrinsic values of RSUs outstanding and RSUs unvested and expected to vest were each approximately $55,000. Of the 185,920 RSUs outstanding at March 31, 2018, 10,920 were fully vested.

On May 2, 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors approved the issuance of an aggregate of 175,000 time-based RSUs and 175,000 performance RSUs to be granted on May 31, 2017 to certain of the Company’s employees and all of its executive officers pursuant to the 2013 Plan, of which 50,000 time-based RSUs and 25,000 performance RSUs were granted to its CEO, and 25,000 time-based RSUs and 25,000 performance RSUs were granted to each of its CFO, Chief Scientific Officer, and Senior Medical Director. Each RSU granted on May 31, 2017 had a grant date fair value of $1.50 per share. Vesting of the time-based RSUs granted on May 31, 2017 occurred on the one-year anniversary of the vesting commencement date, or May 2, 2018, while vesting of the performance RSUs was to be determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or its Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors upon the achievement of specified corporate goals for 2017. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, none of the performance RSUs

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granted on May 31, 2017 were declared vested by the Company’s Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors, and the 175,000 shares underlying these awards were forfeited.

Stock-based Compensation Expense

The following table presents the effects of stock-based compensation related to equity awards to employees and nonemployees on the unaudited condensed statements of operations and comprehensive loss during the periods presented:

Stock-based compensation expense was recorded net of estimated forfeitures of 0% - 8% per annum during each of the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018. As of March 31, 2018, total unrecognized share-based compensation expense related to unvested stock options and RSUs, adjusted for estimated forfeitures, was approximately $1,197,000 and is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately 2.4 years.

9. Common Stock Warrants Outstanding

A summary of equity-classified common stock warrant activity for the three months ended March 31, 2018 is as follows:

Further information about equity-classified common stock warrants outstanding at March 31, 2018 is as follows:

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All warrants outstanding at March 31, 2018 are exercisable, except for the 246,250 warrants issued on December 8, 2017, which first become exercisable on June 5, 2018 and expire on December 5, 2022. The exercise price of $0.50 per share associated with the 32,854,606 warrants issued on January 30, 2018 is subject to down round adjustment. The intrinsic value of equity-classified common stock warrants outstanding at March 31, 2018 was zero.

10. Net Loss per Common Share

Basic and diluted net loss per common share is determined by dividing net loss applicable to common shareholders by the weighted-average common shares outstanding during the period. Because there is a net loss attributable to common shareholders for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018, the outstanding RSUs, warrants, and common stock options have been excluded from the calculation of diluted loss per common share because their effect would be anti-dilutive. Therefore, the weighted-average shares used to calculate both basic and diluted loss per share are the same.

The following potentially dilutive securities have been excluded from the computations of diluted weighted-average shares outstanding for the periods presented, as they would be anti-dilutive:

11. Commitments and Contingencies

In the normal course of business, the Company may be involved in legal proceedings or threatened legal proceedings. The Company is not party to any legal proceedings or aware of any threatened legal proceedings that are expected to have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, results of operations or liquidity.

In February 2016, the Company signed a firm, non-cancelable, and unconditional commitment in an aggregate amount of $1,062,500 with a vendor to purchase certain inventory items, payable in minimum quarterly amounts of $62,500 through May 2020. At March 31, 2018, a balance of $500,000 remained outstanding under this purchase commitment.

During the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018, total expense recorded in the Company’s unaudited condensed statements of operations and comprehensive loss for sales tax and maintenance obligations associated with equipment financing arrangements was approximately $18,000 and $29,000, respectively. At December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, approximately $46,000 and $64,000, respectively, of such sales tax and maintenance obligations incurred but not paid were recorded in accrued other liabilities in the Company’s balance sheet (see Note 5). Future payments totaling approximately $361,000 for sales tax and maintenance obligations associated with financed equipment were due under equipment financing arrangements at March 31, 2018, which will be expensed as incurred (see Note 7).

12. Related Party Transactions

A member of the Company’s management is the controlling person of Aegea Biotechnologies, Inc., or Aegea. On September 2, 2012, the Company entered into an Assignment and Exclusive Cross-License Agreement, or the Cross-License Agreement, with Aegea. The Company received a payment of approximately $15,000 during the year ended December 31, 2017, as well as a payment of approximately $19,000 subsequent to March 31, 2018, from Aegea as reimbursements for shared patent costs under the Cross-License Agreement (see Note 13).

Pursuant to a sublease agreement dated March 30, 2015, the Company subleased 9,849 square feet, plus free use of an additional area, of its San Diego facility to an entity affiliated with the Company’s non-executive Chairman for $12,804 per month, with a refundable security deposit of $12,804 received from the subtenant. The initial term of the sublease expired on July 31, 2015 and was subject to renewal on a month-to-month basis thereafter. On February 1, 2017, the Company received notice from the subtenant terminating the sublease effective March 31, 2017. During the year ended December 31, 2017, the total amount of the $12,804 security deposit previously received from the subtenant was applied against approximately $16,000 in additional rents owed as a result of the subtenant continuing to occupy the subleased areas beyond March 31, 2017, and the balance of approximately $3,200 due to the Company was waived. A total of approximately $38,000 and $51,000 in rental income was recorded to other income/(expense) in the Company’s

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statement of operations and comprehensive loss during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and the year ended December 31, 2017, respectively.

13. Subsequent Events

The Company received a payment of approximately $19,000 subsequent to March 31, 2018 from Aegea as reimbursement for shared patent costs under the Cross-License Agreement (see Note 12).

Subsequent to the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company financed certain business insurance premiums totaling approximately $387,000 through third-parties.

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Item 2. 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 our unaudited condensed financial statements and related notes included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the audited financial statements and notes thereto as of and for the year ended December 31, 2017 and the related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, both of which are contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 28, 2018. Past operating results are not necessarily indicative of results that may occur in future periods.

Company Overview

We are an early stage molecular oncology diagnostics company that develops and commercializes proprietary circulating tumor cell, or CTC, and circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, assays utilizing a standard blood sample, or “liquid biopsy.” Our current and planned assays are intended to provide information to aid healthcare providers to identify specific oncogenic alterations that may qualify a subset of cancer patients for targeted therapy at diagnosis, progression or for monitoring in order to identify specific resistance mechanisms. Sometimes traditional procedures, such as surgical tissue biopsies, result in tumor tissue that is insufficient and/or unable to provide the molecular subtype information necessary for clinical decisions. Our assays, performed on blood, have the potential to provide more contemporaneous information on the characteristics of a patient’s disease when compared with tissue biopsy and radiographic imaging.

Our current assays and our planned future assays focus on key solid tumor indications utilizing our Target-Selector^TM liquid biopsy technology platform for the biomarker analysis of CTCs and ctDNA from a standard blood sample. Our patented Target-Selector CTC offering is based on an internally developed microfluidics-based cell capture and analysis platform, with enabling features that change how information provided by CTC testing is used by clinicians. Our CTC technology could also be validated on cerebral spinal fluid in order to provide information for patients with leptomeningeal disease. Our patented Target-Selector ctDNA technology enables detection of mutations and genome alterations with enhanced sensitivity and specificity, and is applicable to nucleic acid from ctDNA, and could potentially be validated for other sample types such as bone marrow, tissue or cerebrospinal fluid. Our Target-Selector CTC and ctDNA platforms provide both biomarker detection as well as monitoring capabilities and require only a patient blood sample. We believe that our Target-Selector platform technology has the potential to be developed and commercialized as in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test kits, and we are currently pursuing this strategy.

At our corporate headquarters facility located in San Diego, California, we operate a clinical laboratory that is certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, or CLIA, and accredited by the College of American Pathologists, or CAP. We also performed research and development that led to our current assays, and continue to perform research and development for our planned assays, at this same facility. In addition, we manufacture our microfluidic channels, related equipment and certain reagents. The assays we offer and intend to offer are classified as laboratory developed tests, or LDTs, under CLIA regulations. CLIA certification is required before any clinical laboratory, including ours, may perform testing on human specimens for the purpose of obtaining information for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of disease or the assessment of health. In addition, we participate in and have received CAP accreditation, which includes rigorous bi-annual laboratory inspections and adherence to specific quality standards.

Our primary sales strategy is to engage medical oncologists and other physicians in the United States at private and group practices, hospitals and cancer centers. In addition, we market our clinical trial and research services to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations. Additionally, commencing in October 2017, our pathology partnership program, branded as Empower TC^TM, provides the unique ability for pathologists to participate in the interpretation of liquid biopsy results and is available to pathology practices and hospital systems throughout the United States. Further, sales to laboratory supply distributors of our proprietary blood collection tubes, or BCTs, commenced during the three months ending June 30, 2018, which allow for the intact transport of liquid biopsy samples for research use only, or RUO, from regions around the world.

Our revenue generating efforts are focused in three areas:

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Assays, Products and Services

We have commercialized our Target-Selector assays for a number of solid tumor indications such as: breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, pancreaticobiliary cancer, and ovarian cancer. These assays utilize our dual CTC and ctDNA technology platforms and provide biomarker analysis from a patient’s blood sample.

In the case of our breast and gastric cancer offerings, biomarker analysis involves fluorescence in situ hybridization, or FISH, for the detection and quantitation of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, or HER2, gene copy number as well as immunocytochemical, or ICC, analysis of estrogen receptor, or ER, protein, progesterone receptor, or PR, protein, and androgen receptor, or AR, protein, which are currently commercially available. A patient’s HER2 status provides the physician with information about the appropriateness of therapies such as Herceptin^® or Tykerb^®. ER and PR status provides the physician with information about the appropriateness of endocrine therapies such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors.

Our lung cancer biomarker analysis offering currently includes FISH testing for ALK, ROS1, RET, MET and FGFR1 gene rearrangements, as well as analysis for the T790M, Deletion 19, and L858R mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR gene, as well as BRAF, KRAS and NRAS. The L858R mutation of the EGFR gene and Exon 19 deletions as activators of EGFR kinase activity are associated with the use of the drugs Tarceva^®, Gilotrif^® and Iressa^®. For lung cancer, we also offer a resistance profile assay consisting of the biomarkers MET, HER2 (both of which we perform using our technology for CTCs), KRAS, and T790M (both of which are performed using ctDNA in plasma). These assays can be used by physicians to identify the mechanism causing disease progression for patients with NSCLC who are being treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or TKI, therapy and therefore may qualify patients for inclusion in a clinical trial. In November 2015, Tagrisso^® was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, providing another biomarker-based therapy for the treatment of patients with EGFR-related lung cancer. Tagrisso^® is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic disease, who have progressed on or after EGFR TKI therapy, and who have acquired a T790M resistance mutation. Recently, the FDA approved the combination of Novartis’ Tafinlar^® (dabrafenib) and Mekinist^® (trametinib) for the treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors express the BRAF V600E mutation, an FDA “breakthrough therapy” designation for patients who have received prior chemotherapy. This combination was approved in Europe for the same indication in March 2017. BRAF mutations, which appear in approximately 1-3% of NSCLC cases globally, are associated with Zelboraf^® and Tafinlar^® treatment, as these BRAF inhibitors are both approved for the treatment of patients with melanoma.

In September 2017, we launched our assay for mutations of the NRAS oncogene, which can be used to detect and monitor an actionable biomarker associated with multiple cancer types such as metastatic melanoma, colorectal and lung cancer. As a result, we now offer 15 CLIA-certified liquid biopsy tests utilizing our Target-Selector platform to determine the status of key cancer biomarkers listed in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines^®. Our NRAS assay combines our proprietary switch blocker technology for improved mutation detection with next generation sequencing, resulting in ultra-high sensitivity.

Fibroblast growth receptor 1, or FGFR1, amplification is offered using our CTC technology. FGFR1 is present in several tumor types, including both NSCLC and small cell lung cancer, or SCLC, and has been shown to be a prognostic indicator of progression. FGFR1 is also a key target for several drugs undergoing clinical development.

We analytically validated PD-L1 testing utilizing our CTC technology in 2016. PD-L1 is a biomarker that is informative for immuno-oncology therapies currently marketed for lung cancer and melanoma, as well as therapies in development for multiple tumor types. We collaborated with David Rimm, M.D., Ph.D., a pathologist at Yale Medical School and a scientific advisor to us, on the analytical development of this assay.

We plan to release additional blood-based biomarker assays, such as those that test for ESR1, to our current menu of liquid biopsy assays using blood samples. In addition, we plan to complete the development and offer multiplexed biomarker tests, which will allow the detection and quantitative monitoring of multiple biomarkers in a single assay.

In August 2017, we announced that we had executed a distribution agreement for our proprietary blood collection tubes with VWR International, LLC which can preserve intact cells (such as CTCs) for up to 96 hours and ctDNA for up to 8 days, allowing for the intact transport of RUO liquid biopsy samples from regions around the world.

In October 2017, we launched our pathology partnership initiative, branded as Empower TC, expanding access of our proprietary liquid biopsy testing to community pathologists and hospitals throughout the United States. The aim of this program is to incorporate community pathologists into the review of biomarkers found in liquid biopsy for patients diagnosed with cancer. Pathologists are now enabled to interpret our liquid biopsy results locally, while patient specimens will continue to be sent to us for processing in our CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited high complexity laboratory.

Pharmaceutical and Research Collaborations

We continue to execute on our strategies intended to expand our business globally, as well as to engage with pharmaceutical companies on clinical trials and assay development. We have preferred provider agreements in place in Mexico with Quest

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Diagnostics to support testing for Astra Zeneca. In addition, we have distribution agreements in place in Mexico, Uruguay, Turkey, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, Lebanon, Columbia, Israel and Canada.

We completed a study, published in Cancer Medicine in March 2013, utilizing our assay, and a version of this assay adapted for use with bone marrow samples, with a group at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center comprised of breast cancer surgeons, pathologists and basic researchers. In this study, we demonstrated the ability to identify HER2 positive CTCs and disseminated tumor cells, or DTCs, seen in bone marrow in patients that had been previously classified as HER2 negative by analysis of their tumor tissue. A HER2 positive result in a patient with breast cancer provides an indication to the physician that there is likely to be a survival benefit from treatment with Herceptin^®, which has been demonstrated in a number of large clinical studies.

We were involved in a clinical study led by investigators at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute following up on the study findings, published in Cancer Medicine regarding CTCs. This study has completed enrolling patients. In the screening phase of this study, we tested in our CLIA-certified, CAP accredited, and state-licensed laboratory blood samples from HER2 negative patients based on standard tumor tissue analysis, to identify those patients that have HER2 positive CTCs. These patients were then assigned to chemotherapy plus Herceptin^®, and followed for a period of time, with additional CTC assays, including biomarker analysis for HER2 using FISH, performed at subsequent time points. In December 2014, we announced findings that were presented at the San Antonio Breast Conference that 22% of 311 patients tested, who were previously HER2 negative according to a solid tumor biopsy, were found, upon disease progression, to be HER2 positive by CTC analysis, making them potential candidates for anti-HER2 therapy as the cancer evolves. Moreover, our multi-antibody CTC capture method identified a substantial subset of patients who would not likely be detected with commonly used CTC capture technologies. This added 10% (included in the 22%) to the number of women who were candidates for this highly specific targeted therapy.

With our cooperation, researchers at Columbia published a study in the journal Clinical and Translational Oncology in January 2015. The study demonstrated the high correlation (79%) of circulating tumor cells, primary tumor tissue biopsy and metastatic tumor tissue biopsy for determination of hormone receptor status (ER/PR) in breast cancer patients. The investigators also found that this high correlation was strongest when comparing metastatic tissue biopsy to CTCs (83%). The conclusion of the study was that determining ER/PR status in CTCs using our platform is feasible, with high concordance in ER/PR between tumor tissue (as determined with immunohistochemistry, or IHC) and CTCs (as determined with immunocytochemistry, or ICC). The authors suggest a larger trial to determine the prognostic significance of these findings.

In collaboration with the University of California, San Diego, in June 2015 we presented the clinical validation data of our ctDNA assay demonstrating a very high level of concordance to tissue results (88%), and with our >95% analytical sensitivity and 99% analytical specificity, that we offer a validated, robust non-invasive solution for mutation identification and monitoring in patients with lung cancer. The FDA approval of Tagrisso^®, a third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, presents an opportunity for patients to be monitored using a ctDNA assay.

During 2016, we announced a pharmaceutical collaboration agreement that provides testing for a clinical trial, which includes metastatic lung cancer patients with leptomeningeal or brain metastases. In this exploratory trial, we are testing both cerebrospinal fluid and blood for molecular alterations that could be impacted by treatment. In April 2016, we announced a collaboration involving a study conducted with Dr. Giuseppe Giaccone at the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital to assess resistance biomarkers in NSCLC patients treated with EGFR inhibitors or chemotherapy. We announced another collaboration involving a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology, or ESMO, Annual Congress in October 2016, evaluating the detection of EGFR alterations (del19, L858R and T790M) by our Target-Selector liquid biopsy. Subsequent to this study, we have earned business in both Mexico and Columbia for EGFR testing in blood to qualify patients for a pharmaceutical company’s targeted therapy. The relationship also resulted in a 2017 study that includes peripheral blood CTC assessment of PD-L1 protein expression in patients undergoing chemotherapy as a monotherapy or in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor. In December 2016, we announced a clinical study agreement with Columbia University Medical Center to evaluate the clinical utility of our Target-Selector platform to diagnose leptomeningeal metastases, or LM, in breast cancer patients. Dr. Kevin Kalinsky leads the study to test CTCs in cerebrospinal fluid and blood, where CTC analysis will be compared to standard methods for confirming LM diagnosis.

In April 2017, we announced our entry into a preferred provider collaboration and services agreement with Oregon Health & Sciences University on behalf of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, or collectively OHSU. The multiphase agreement grants OHSU the rights to commercially offer our Target-Selector liquid biopsy testing services exclusively throughout the state of Oregon. Additionally, we and OHSU plan to engage in technology transfer, whereby OHSU will have the ability to use Target-Selector assays in-house, and act as a secondary laboratory for our research and testing activities. We and OHSU also plan to co-develop additional liquid biopsy assay technologies and platform capabilities including highly sensitive, multiplexed assay panels for molecular biomarker detection and assessment. Additional research and development and commercial pilot projects are anticipated under the agreement.

In May 2017, we announced jointly with the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute, or ALCMI, entry into a clinical collaboration and initiation of the ALCMI-009 liquid biopsy clinical trial. This large-scale trial was developed and will be conducted by ALCMI with its consortium of leading U.S. and international oncology centers. The prospective, multi-center study, which plans to enroll 400

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patients, will utilize our Target-Selector testing platform and services to detect and assess cancer biomarkers found in both CTCs and ctDNA from the blood of patients with lung cancer. We expect this study to commence in the first half of 2018.

In May 2017, we entered into a clinical study agreement with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Led by recognized oncologist and ALK alteration researcher, Dr. Saad Khan, the study is designed to evaluate the clinical utility of our Target-Selector platform for patients diagnosed with ALK-positive NSCLC and treated with ALK-inhibitor therapy. A second arm of the study will evaluate patients with rare cancers such as anaplastic thyroid cancer to determine if driver mutations such as ALK rearrangements can be identified and treated with targeted therapy to improve patient outcomes.

In October 2017, we entered into a promotion and marketing agreement with Miraca Life Sciences, Inc., or Miraca Life Sciences, to market our Target-Selector liquid biopsy tests and services to community-based oncologists and hematologists in specified sales territories in the United States. Based on the agreement, Miraca Life Sciences’ sales professionals will promote our liquid biopsy tests to both their existing and new clinician clients in designated sales territories, with the potential to expand the agreement to additional territories in the future. All tests will be performed in our CLIA-certified CAP-accredited laboratory.

In November 2017, we announced a collaboration involving 100 patients in a clinical study with the University of California, San Diego. The study entails clinical validation of the PD-L1 antibody clones 28-8 and 22C3 on our Target-Selector CTC platform. Concordance of PD-L1 protein expression in tissue biopsy versus liquid biopsy, as well as correlation of therapeutic response with PD-L1 liquid biopsy status, are the study objectives.  

In November 2017, we submitted a scientific abstract in collaboration with Dr. Shilpa Gupta from the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota. The abstract was accepted as a poster presentation for the April 2018 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting. The results demonstrate proof-of-concept use of our Target-Selector CTC platform to correlate CTC count with clinical responses in refractory testicular cancer patients undergoing therapy. This work is part of a Phase 2 clinical trial of brentuximab vedontin (an anti-CD-30 antibody) with bevacizumab in refractory CD-30 + germ cell tumors. The capability for our Target-Selector CTC platform to monitor this rare cancer type presents the potential for a precision medicine-based approach to guide treatment decisions for these patients.

Provider Agreements

In January 2017, we announced that we had secured an in-network provider agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the largest provider of health benefits in Texas. In addition, we entered into a national master business agreement with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a not-for-profit trade association that provides multiple services for its 38-member Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plan companies across the U.S., including forming national strategic vendor partnerships. We were selected by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association based on a rigorous request-for-proposal progress. This agreement establishes pricing for our Target-Selector liquid biopsy testing service through the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s group purchasing organization, CareSourcing Workgroup. The pricing offered by the CareSourcing Workgroup group purchasing organization is available to those Blue Cross and Blue Shield member health plans that have, or may seek, in-network agreements with us.

In June 2017, we entered into a participating provider agreement with MediNcrease Health Plans, LLC and a preferred provider agreement with Scripps Health Plan Services, Inc., both establishing pricing for our Target-Selector liquid biopsy testing service.

In December 2017, we signed an agreement with Wellmark, Inc., the largest health insurer in Iowa and South Dakota. The agreement marks our third Blue Cross Blue Shield contract and enables patients diagnosed with cancer the ability to access our proprietary testing services in-network under their Wellmark health plan.

We are currently contracted with nine preferred provider organization networks, three large health plans, and five regional independent physician associations, and expect to continue to gain contracts in order to be considered as an “in-network” provider with additional plans.

Patents and Technology

We have issued patents with broad claims covering our blood collection tube, antibody cocktail approach, microchannel, CTC detection methodologies, and ctDNA analysis. In addition to issued patents in the U.S., we have patents for our proprietary microchannel in China, Korea, Europe, Hong Kong, and Japan, and for our antibody cocktail in Australia, Europe, and Japan. Our patent estate continues to evolve, and in addition to the broad patent estate around our CTC platform, we also have issued patents in the U.S., Australia, and China for our novel switch blocker technology, solidifying our proprietary enrichment methodology for detecting ctDNA with very high sensitivity. Our CTC platform patents were filed from 2005 through 2012, and we expect to have patent protection into the 2030s. Our CTC patents and applications cover not only cancer as a target, but also prenatal and other rare cells of interest. Recently allowed patents in the U.S. cover the capture of “any target of interest on any solid surface” using our

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antibody capture approach. The patent for our proprietary specimen collection tubes expire in 2031, and the patents for our ctDNA technology expire in the early 2030’s.

As of March 31, 2018, we owned 26 issued patents and 23 patents pending related to our current technologies. Of these, 8 were issued and 5 were pending patents in the U.S., while 18 were issued and 18 were pending patents in non-U.S. territories. Separately, we also owned 7 issued patents related to our earlier microarray and cell analysis technology.

Results of Operations

Three Months Ended March 31, 2017 and 2018

The following table sets forth certain information concerning our results of operations for the periods shown:

Net Revenues

Net revenues were approximately $807,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared with approximately $1,683,000 for the same period in 2017, a decrease of $876,000, or 52%, which is primarily due to the conversion from cash-based revenue recognition for our commercial revenues to accrual-based revenue recognition during the three months ended March 31, 2017. As a result of the change to accrual-based revenue recognition, we recognized total nonrecurring net revenue of $874,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2017, which represents the estimated value of net accounts receivable at December 31, 2016 that was recognized as revenue during the three months ended March 31, 2017, and the incremental net revenue recorded as a result of the change was $726,000, which represents the total amount of net revenue recorded in excess of the amount of commercial cash collections during the three months ended March 31, 2017. The amount of incremental net revenue recorded during the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $139,000. Of the $1,683,000 of net revenues recognized during the three months ended March 31, 2017, $786,000 related to revenues recognized on an accrual basis, while $897,000 related to revenues recognized upon the receipt of cash, as compared to the same period in 2018 when $807,000 of revenues were recognized on an accrual basis and no revenues were recognized upon the receipt of cash.

The net estimated revenue per commercial accession delivered during the three months ended March 31, 2018 was approximately $922, based on 875 commercial accessions delivered and approximately $807,000 in corresponding commercial net revenues. The following table sets forth certain information regarding commercial accessions received during the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2018:

Additionally, there was a $16,000 decrease in development services revenues during the three months ended March 31, 2018 as compared to the same period in 2017, which was primarily related to a decrease in the value per development services accession delivered, which was partially offset by an increase in the number of development services accessions delivered, as follows:

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Costs and Expenses

Cost of Revenues. Cost of revenues was approximately $2,434,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared with approximately $2,130,000 for the same period in 2017, an increase of $304,000, or 14%. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $195,000 in computer equipment, software amortization, depreciation expense, and allocated information technology and facility charges as we implemented our pathology partnership initiative, invested in upgrading our laboratory equipment and information system and maintained our facility. Additionally, there was an increase of $116,000 in materials, shipping and other direct costs, as well as an increase of $77,000 in personnel costs as the average number of full-time laboratory and manufacturing employees increased from 36 full-time employees during the three months ended March 31, 2017 to 41 full-time employees during the same period in 2018, as we created excess laboratory accession throughput capacity of approximately 30% as of March 31, 2018 in advance of an anticipated increase in accession volumes resulting from our planned expanded sales force and pathology partnership initiative. Further, there was an increase of approximately $66,000 in consulting costs primarily associated with the increased use of non-employee pathologists. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $150,000 resulting from greater laboratory costs charged to research and development expenses associated with increased research and development activities.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses were approximately $1,071,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared with approximately $757,000 for the same period in 2017, an increase of $314,000, or 41%. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $181,000 in higher personnel costs as the average headcount in our research and development function increased to 14 full-time employees during the three months ended March 31, 2018 from 10 full-time employees during the same period in 2017, as we focus on the development and deployment of next generation sequencing, support and implementation of data-intensive laboratory processes, and new product validations. Additionally, there was an increase of $150,000 in laboratory costs allocated from cost of revenues, which was partially offset by a decrease of $17,000 in materials and other costs associated with increased research and development activities during the three months ended March 31, 2018 as compared to the same period in 2017.

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses were approximately $1,939,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared with approximately $1,907,000 during the same period in 2017, an increase of $32,000, or 2%. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $191,000 in non-stock-based compensation personnel costs and travel expenses as the average headcount included in the general and administrative function rose from 11 full-time employees during the three months ended March 31, 2017 to 15 full-time employees during the same period in 2018, primarily resulting from bringing our billing function in-house in April 2017. Additionally, there was an increase of $67,000 in directors and officers insurance costs. These increases were partially offset by decreases of $79,000 in allocated facilities costs, $77,000 in stock-based compensation expense, and $70,000 in third-party service provider and other costs primarily associated with bringing our billing function in-house in April 2017.

Sales and Marketing Expenses. Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $1,637,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared with approximately $1,278,000 for the same period in 2017, an increase of $359,000, or 28%. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $340,000 in personnel and travel costs as the average headcount included in the sales and marketing function rose from 18 full-time employees during the three months ended March 31, 2017 to 24 full-time employees during the same period in 2018 as we expanded our sales force, as well as increases of $32,000 in computer equipment, allocated information technology costs, shipping and other office expenses and $25,000 in marketing materials, trade show and conference costs associated with our expanded sales force and commercial activities, which were partially offset by a decrease of $38,000 in third-party service provider and consulting fees.

Income Tax Expense

Over the past several years we have generated operating losses in all jurisdictions in which we may be subject to income taxes. As a result, we have accumulated significant net operating losses and other deferred tax assets. Because of our history of losses and the uncertainty as to the realization of those deferred tax assets, a full valuation allowance has been recognized. We do not expect to report a provision for income taxes until we have a history of earnings, if ever, that would support the realization of our deferred tax assets.

We have not completed a study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since our formation, due to the complexity and cost associated with such a study, and the fact that there may be additional ownership changes in the future, however, we believe ownership changes likely occurred in each year from 2015 through 2018. As a result, we have estimated that the use of our net operating loss is limited and the remaining net operating loss carryforwards and

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research and development credits we estimate can be used in the future remain fully offset by a valuation allowance to reduce the net asset to zero.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash Flows

Our net cash flow from operating, investing and financing activities for the periods below were as follows:

Cash Used in Operating Activities. Net cash used in operating activities was $5.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared to net cash used in operating activities of $3.7 million for the same period in 2017. The net increase of $1.9 million in cash used was primarily related to an increase in cash used to fund our net loss.

Cash Used in Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities of approximately $54,000 and $127,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, was related to purchases of fixed assets.

Cash Provided by Financing Activities. Net cash provided by financing activities was $12.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared to net cash provided by financing activities of $13.3 million for the same period in 2017. Our primary sources of cash from financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2018 consisted of $13.3 million in net proceeds from our offering of common stock and warrants in January 2018, which was partially offset by $0.5 million of principal payments made on indebtedness. Our primary sources of cash from financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2017 consisted of $8.6 million in net proceeds from our offering of common stock and warrants in March 2017, as well as proceeds of $5.3 million from the exercise of common stock warrants sold in our offering in October 2016, which were partially offset by $0.6 million of principal payments made on indebtedness.

Liquidity, Capital Resources and Expenditure Requirements

We expect to continue to incur substantial operating losses in the future. It may take several years to achieve positive operational cash flow, or we may not ever achieve positive operational cash flow. We expect that we will use the net proceeds from our sale of equity securities, if any, cash received from the licensing of our technology, if any, and our revenues from operations to hire sales and marketing personnel, support increased sales and marketing activities, fund further research and development, clinical utility studies and future enhancements of our assays, acquire equipment, implement automation and scale our capabilities to prepare for significant assay volume, for general corporate purposes and to fund ongoing operations and the expansion of our business, including the increased costs associated with expanded commercial activities. We may also use the net proceeds from our sale of equity securities, if any, cash received from the licensing of our technology, if any, and our revenues from operations to acquire or invest in businesses, technologies, services or products, although we do not have any current plans to do so.

As of March 31, 2018, our cash totaled $9.3 million, and our outstanding net indebtedness totaled $2.7 million. While we currently are in the commercialization stage of operations, we have not yet achieved profitability and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. We have determined that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the one-year period following the date that our unaudited condensed financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2018 were issued, and we expect that we will need additional financing to execute on our current or future business strategies beyond July 2018.

Subsequent to the closing of a follow-on offering of our common stock and warrants to purchase shares of our common stock on February 13, 2015, cash proceeds of approximately $9.8 million were received from the exercise of warrants sold in that offering, while approximately $2.7 million in gross warrant proceeds remain outstanding and available to be exercised at $4.68 per share until their expiration in February 2020.

In May 2015, the SEC declared effective a shelf registration statement filed by us, which expires on May 21, 2018. The shelf registration statement allows us to issue any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants from

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time to time for an aggregate initial offering price of up to $50 million, subject to certain limitations for so long as our public float is less than $75 million. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated April 25, 2016 between us and H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC and a securities purchase agreement dated April 29, 2016 between us and the purchasers signatory thereto, we received approximately $4.3 million of net cash proceeds upon the sale of our common stock and warrants to purchase our common stock. Subsequent to the closing of this offering on May 4, 2016, no warrants sold in this offering have been exercised, with approximately $4.5 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $3.90 per share until their expiration in May 2021. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated March 28, 2017 between us and Roth Capital Partners, LLC as lead placement agent, and WestPark Capital and Chardan Capital as co-placement agents, a securities purchase agreement for an offering of 4,320,000 shares of our common stock was effected under this registration statement at a per share price of $2.15. In a concurrent private placement, we sold unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,160,000 shares of our common stock that closed concurrently with the offering of common stock sold pursuant to this shelf registration statement, of which none have been subsequently exercised. All warrants sold in this offering have a per share exercise price of $2.50 and expire on October 1, 2022. The closing of the sale of these securities to the purchasers occurred on March 31, 2017, when we received approximately $8.6 million of net cash proceeds. Pursuant to an exclusive placement agent agreement dated December 5, 2017 between us and Dawson James Securities, Inc. as lead placement agent, and WestPark Capital as co-placement agent, a securities purchase agreement for a registered direct offering of 4,925,000 shares of our common stock was effected under this registration statement at a per share price of $0.68. The placement agent was issued a warrant to purchase 246,250 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $0.85 per share, which is first exercisable on June 5, 2018 and expires on December 5, 2022. The closing of the sale of these securities occurred on December 8, 2017, when we received approximately $2.9 million of net cash proceeds. The specific terms of additional future offerings, if any, under this shelf registration statement would be established at the time of such offerings.

On October 19, 2016, we received net cash proceeds of approximately $9.0 million from the closing of a follow-on public offering. Subsequent to the closing of this offering on October 19, 2016, the offering’s underwriters exercised their overallotment option to purchase 627,131 option warrants for total proceeds of $564. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, approximately $7.5 million of additional cash proceeds had been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering, with approximately $3.2 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $1.10 per share until their expiration in October 2021.

Pursuant to a common stock and warrant purchase agreement dated August 9, 2017 between us and Ally Bridge LB Healthcare Master Fund Limited, we received net cash proceeds of approximately $2.0 million from the sale of our common stock and warrants. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, no additional cash proceeds had been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering, with approximately $2.2 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $1.50 per share until their expiration in August 2022.

On January 30, 2018, we received net cash proceeds of approximately $13.3 million from the closing of a follow-on public offering. Subsequent to the closing of this offering, no additional cash proceeds have been received from the exercise of warrants sold in this offering, with approximately $16.4 million in gross warrant proceeds remaining outstanding and available to be exercised at $0.50 per share, subject to down round adjustment, until their expiration in January 2023.

We expect that we will need additional financing to execute on our current or future business strategies. Until we can generate significant cash from operations, including assay revenues, we expect to continue to fund operations with the proceeds from offerings of our equity securities or debt, or transactions involving product development, technology licensing or collaboration. For example, we have an effective shelf registration statement on file with the SEC which allows us to issue any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants from time to time until expiry on May 21, 2018, subject to certain restrictions that apply for so long as our public float is less than $75 million. The specific terms of additional future offerings, if any, under this shelf registration statement would be established at the time of such offerings. We can provide no assurances that any sources of a sufficient amount of financing will be available to us on favorable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise a sufficient amount of financing in a timely manner, we would likely need to scale back our general and administrative activities and certain of our research and development activities. Our forecast pertaining to our current financial resources and the costs to support our general and administrative and research and development activities are forward-looking statements and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could vary materially and negatively as a result of a number of factors, including:

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We may raise additional capital to fund our current operations and to fund expansion of our business to meet our long-term business objectives through public or private equity offerings, debt financings, borrowings or strategic partnerships coupled with an investment in our company or a combination thereof. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of convertible debt securities, or other debt securities, these securities could be secured and could have rights senior to those of our common stock. In addition, any new debt incurred by us could impose covenants that restrict our operations. The issuance of any new equity securities will also dilute the interest of our current stockholders. Given the risks associated with our business, including our unprofitable operating history and our ability or inability to develop additional assays, additional capital may not be available when needed on acceptable terms, or at all. If adequate funds are not available, we will need to curb our expansion plans or limit our research and development activities, which would have a material adverse impact on our business prospects and results of operations.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not engaged in any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4) of Regulation S-K.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

For a discussion of accounting policies that we consider critical to our business operations and understanding of our results of operations, and that affect the more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our financial statements, please see the information listed in Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates” contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. Except as provided below, there have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies and estimates from the information provided in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Revenue Recognition and Accounts Receivable

Our commercial revenues are generated from diagnostic services provided to patient’s physicians and billed to third-party insurance payers such as managed care organizations, Medicare and Medicaid and patients for any deductibles, coinsurance or copayments that may be due. Through December 31, 2017, we recognized revenue in accordance with the provisions of Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 954-605, Health Care Entities—Revenue Recognition, which required that four basic criteria must be met prior to recognition of revenue: (1) persuasive evidence of an arrangement existed; (2) delivery had occurred and title and the risks and rewards of ownership had been transferred to the client or services had been rendered; (3) the price was fixed or determinable; and (4) collectability was reasonably assured. Commencing on March 31, 2017, we recognized commercial revenue related to billings for assays delivered and billed to Medicare and other third-party payers on an accrual basis when amounts that will ultimately be realized can be estimated upon delivery, whereby prior to March 31, 2017, we recognized revenues for our commercial diagnostic services on a cash basis as collected because the amounts ultimately expected to be received could not be estimated upon delivery due to insufficient collection history experience. Commencing on January 1, 2018, we recognize revenue in accordance with ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, which requires that an entity recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. We adopted the provisions of ASC 606 using the modified retrospective application method applied to all contracts, which did not impact amounts previously reported by us, nor did it require a cumulative effect adjustment upon adoption, as our method of recognizing revenue under ASC 606 was analogous to the method utilized immediately prior to adoption. Accordingly, there is no need for us to disclose the amount by which each financial statement line item was affected as a result of applying the new standard and an explanation of significant changes.

Contracts

For our commercial revenues, while we market directly to physicians, our customer is the patient. Patients do not enter into direct agreements with us that commit either them to pay any portion of the cost of the tests if they have not met their annual deductible limit under their insurance policy, if any, or if their insurance otherwise declines to reimburse us. Accordingly, we establish a contract with a commercial patient in accordance with other customary business practices, as follows:

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Our development services revenues are supported by contractual agreements and generated from assay development services provided to entities, as well as certain other diagnostic services provided to physicians, and revenues are recognized upon delivery of the performance obligations in the contract.

Performance Obligations

A performance obligation is a promise in a contract to transfer a distinct good or service, or a bundle of goods or services, to the customer. For commercial and development services revenues, our contracts have a single performance obligation, which is satisfied upon rendering of services, which culminates in the delivery of a patient’s assay result(s) to the ordering physician or entity. The duration of time between accession receipt and delivery of a valid assay result to the ordering physician or entity is typically less than two weeks. Accordingly, we elected the practical expedient and therefore, does not disclose the value of unsatisfied performance obligations.

Transaction Price

The transaction price is the amount of consideration that we expect to collect in exchange for transferring promised goods or services to a customer, excluding amounts collected on behalf of third parties, such as sales taxes. The consideration expected from a contract with a customer may include fixed amounts, variable amounts, or both. Our gross commercial revenues billed, and corresponding gross accounts receivable, are subject to estimated deductions for such allowances and reserves to arrive at reported net revenues, which relate to differences between amounts billed and corresponding amounts estimated to be subsequently collected, and is deemed to be variable although the variability is not explicitly stated in any contract. Rather, the implied variability is due to several factors, such as the payment history or lack thereof for third-party payers, reimbursement rate changes for contracted and non-contracted payers, any patient co-payments, deductibles or compliance incentives, the existence of secondary payers and claim denials. We estimate the amount of variable consideration using the most likely amount approach to estimating variable consideration for third-party payers, including direct patient bills, whereby the estimated reimbursement for services are established by payment histories on CPT codes for each payer, or similar payer types. When no payment history is available, the value of the account is estimated at Medicare rates, with additional other payer-specific reserves taken as appropriate. Collection periods for billings on commercial revenues range from less than 30 days to several months, depending on the contracted or non-contracted nature of the payer, among other variables. The estimates of amounts that will ultimately be realized from commercial diagnostic services for non-contracted payers require significant judgment by management.

We limit the amount of variable consideration included in the transaction price to the unconstrained portion of such consideration. Revenue is recognized up to the amount of variable consideration that is not subject to a significant reversal until additional information is obtained or the uncertainty associated with the additional payments or refunds is subsequently resolved. Differences between original estimates and subsequent revisions, including final settlements, represent changes in the estimate of variable consideration and are included in the period in which such revisions are made. We monitor our estimates of transaction price to depict conditions that exist at each reporting date. If we subsequently determine that we will collect more consideration than we originally estimated for a contract with a customer, we will account for the change as an increase in the estimate of the transaction price in the period identified as an increase to revenue. Similarly, if we subsequently determine that the amount it expects to collect from a customer is less than it originally estimated, we will generally account for the change as a decrease in the estimate of the transaction price as a decrease to revenue, provided that such downward adjustment does not result in a significant reversal of cumulative revenue recognized. Revenue recognized from changes in transaction prices was not significant during the three months ended March 31, 2018.

Allocate Transaction Price

For our commercial revenues, the entire transaction price is allocated to the single performance obligation contained in a contract with a customer. For our Company’s development services revenues, the contracted transaction price is allocated to each single performance obligation contained in a contract with a customer as performed.

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Point-in-time Recognition

Our single performance obligation is satisfied at a point in time, and that point in time is defined as the date a patient’s successful assay result is delivered to the patient’s ordering physician or entity. We consider this date to be the time at which the patient obtains control of the promised diagnostic assay service. 

Contract Balances

The timing of revenue recognition, billings and cash collections results in accounts receivable recorded in our condensed balance sheets. Generally, billing occurs subsequent to delivery of a patient’s test result to the ordering physician or entity, resulting in an account receivable.  

Practical Expedients

We do not adjust the transaction price for the effects of a significant financing component, as at contract inception, we expect the collection cycle to be one year or less.

We expense sales commissions when incurred because the amortization period is one year or less, which are recorded within sales and marketing expenses.  

We incur certain other costs that are incurred regardless of whether a contract is obtained. Such costs are primarily related to legal services and patient communications. These costs are expensed as incurred and recorded within general and administrative expenses. 

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Not applicable.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our periodic and current reports that we file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable and not absolute assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In reaching a reasonable level of assurance, management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. In addition, the design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, control may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

As of March 31, 2018, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level as of March 31, 2018. There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the three months ended March 31, 2018 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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PART II. OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

None.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

An investment in shares of our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, as well as the other information contained elsewhere in this report, before deciding whether to purchase, hold or sell shares of our common stock. The occurrence of any of the following risks could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or growth prospects or cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements we have made in this report and those we may make from time to time. You should consider all of the risk factors described when evaluating our business. We have marked with an asterisk (*) those risk factors that reflect changes from the risk factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 28, 2018.

Risks Relating to Our Financial Condition and Capital Requirements

*We are an early stage molecular oncology diagnostics company with a history of net losses; we expect to incur net losses in the future, and we may never achieve sustained profitability.

We have historically incurred substantial net losses, including net losses of $21.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 and $6.4 million and three-month period March 31, 2018, and we have never been profitable. At March 31, 2018, our accumulated deficit was $201.6 million. Before 2008, we were pursuing a business plan relating to fetal genetic disorders and other fields, all of which were unrelated to cancer diagnostics. The portion of our accumulated deficit that relates to the period from inception through December 31, 2007 is $66.5 million.

We expect our losses to continue as a result of costs relating to our lab operations as well as increased sales and marketing costs and ongoing research and development expenses. These losses have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our working capital, total assets and stockholders’ equity. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with our commercialization efforts, we are unable to predict when we will become profitable, and we may never become profitable. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our inability to achieve and then maintain profitability would negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We need to raise additional capital to continue as a going concern.

We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future and will have to raise additional capital to fund our planned operations and to meet our long-term business objectives. As a result, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern unless we are able to successfully raise additional capital. Until we can generate significant cash from operations, including product and assay revenues, we expect to continue to fund our operations with the proceeds from offerings of our equity securities or debt, or transactions involving product development, technology licensing or collaboration. We can provide no assurances that any sources of a sufficient amount of financing will be available to us on favorable terms, if at all. Failure to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts would significantly impact our ability to continue as a going concern. The actual amount of funds that we will need and the timing of any such investment will be determined by many factors, some of which are beyond our control.

*An event of default under our credit facility may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition.

On April 30, 2014, we borrowed $5.0 million pursuant to the terms of a credit facility, or the April 2014 Credit Facility, with Oxford Finance LLC, or Oxford. At March 31, 2018, a principal balance of approximately $0.7 million was outstanding and due within one year under the April 2014 Credit Facility. The April 2014 Credit Facility includes events of default, the occurrence and continuation of which provide Oxford, as collateral agent, with the right to exercise remedies against us and the collateral securing the loans under the April 2014 Credit Facility, including foreclosure against our properties securing the April 2014 Credit Facility, including our cash. These events of default include, among other things, our failure to pay any amounts due under the April 2014 Credit Facility, a breach of covenants under the April 2014 Credit Facility, our insolvency, a material adverse change, the occurrence of any default under certain other indebtedness in an amount greater than $250,000, and a final judgment against us in an amount greater than $250,000.

Accordingly, the occurrence of an event of default under our April 2014 Credit Facility, unless cured or waived, may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

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Risks Relating to Our Business and Strategy

*If we are unable to increase sales of our current products, assays and services or successfully develop and commercialize other products, assays and services, our revenues will be insufficient for us to achieve profitability.

We currently derive substantially all of our revenues from sales of diagnostic assays. We began offering our assays through our Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, or CLIA, certified, CAP accredited, and state-licensed laboratory in 2014. Additionally, sales to laboratory supply distributors of our proprietary blood collection tubes, or BCTs, commenced during the three months ending June 30, 2018, which allow for the intact transport of liquid biopsy samples for RUO from regions around the world. We are in varying stages of research and development for other products and diagnostic assays that we may offer. If we are unable to increase sales of our existing products and diagnostic assays or successfully develop and commercialize other products and diagnostic assays, we will not produce sufficient revenues to become profitable.

If we are unable to execute our sales and marketing strategy for our products and diagnostic assays and are unable to gain acceptance in the market, we may be unable to generate sufficient revenue to sustain our business.

We are an early stage molecular oncology diagnostics company and have engaged in only limited sales and marketing activities for the diagnostic assays we currently offer through our CLIA-certified, CAP accredited, and state-licensed laboratory. To date, our revenue has been insufficient to fund operations.

Although we believe that our current assays and our planned future assays, as well as our BCT product, represent a promising commercial opportunity, our products or assays may never gain significant acceptance in the marketplace and therefore may never generate substantial revenue or profits for us. We will need to establish a market for our products and diagnostic assays and build that market through physician education, awareness programs and the publication of clinical trial results. Gaining acceptance in medical communities requires, among other things, publications in leading peer-reviewed journals of results from studies using our current products, assays and services and/or our planned future products, assays and services. The process of publication in leading medical journals is subject to a peer review process and peer reviewers may not consider the results of our studies sufficiently novel or worthy of publication. Failure to have our studies published in peer-reviewed journals would limit the adoption of our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services.

Our ability to successfully market the products and diagnostic assays that we have developed, and may develop in the future, will depend on numerous factors, including:

Failure to achieve widespread market acceptance of our current products, assays and services, as well as our planned future products, assays and services, would materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we cannot develop products, assays and services to keep pace with rapid advances in technology, medicine and science, our operating results and competitive position could be harmed.

In recent years, there have been numerous advances in technologies relating to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Several new cancer drugs have been approved, and a number of new drugs in clinical development may increase patient survival time. There have also been advances in methods used to identify patients likely to benefit from these drugs based on analysis of biomarkers. We must continuously develop new products and diagnostic assays and enhance any existing products, assays and services to keep pace with evolving standards of care. Our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services could become obsolete unless we continually innovate and expand them to demonstrate benefit in the diagnosis, monitoring or prognosis of

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patients with cancer. New cancer therapies typically have only a few years of clinical data associated with them, which limits our ability to develop products and diagnostic assays based on, for example, biomarker analysis related to the appearance or development of resistance to those therapies. If we cannot adequately demonstrate the applicability of our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services to new treatments, by incorporating important biomarker analysis, sales of our products, assays and services could decline, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services do not continue to perform as expected, our operating results, reputation and business will suffer.

Our success depends on the market’s confidence that we can continue to provide reliable, high-quality products and assay results. We believe that our customers are likely to be particularly sensitive to product or assay defects and errors. As a result, the failure of our current or planned future products or assays to perform as expected, including with respect to our ability to maintain the sensitivity, specificity, concordance or reproducibility of such assays, would significantly impair our reputation and the public image of our products and cancer assays, and we may be subject to legal claims arising from any defects or errors.

If our sole laboratory facility becomes damaged or inoperable, or we are required to vacate the facility, our ability to sell and provide our products and diagnostic assays and pursue our research and development efforts may be jeopardized.

We currently derive our revenues from our diagnostic assays conducted in our CLIA-certified, CAP accredited, and state-licensed laboratory. We do not have any clinical reference laboratory facilities other than our facility in San Diego, California. Our facilities and equipment could be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including fire, earthquake, flooding and power outages, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to sell our products or perform our diagnostic assays for some period of time. The inability to sell our current or planned future products, or to perform our current assays and our planned future assays, or the backlog of assays that could develop if our facility is inoperable for even a short period of time, may result in the loss of customers or harm to our reputation or relationships with scientific or clinical collaborators, and we may be unable to regain those customers or repair our reputation in the future. Furthermore, our facilities and the equipment we use to perform our research and development work could be costly and time-consuming to repair or replace.

The San Diego area has recently experienced serious fires and power outages and is considered to lie in an area with earthquake risk.

Additionally, a key component of our research and development process involves using biological samples as the basis for our diagnostic assay development. In some cases, these samples are difficult to obtain. If the parts of our laboratory facility where we store these biological samples were damaged or compromised, our ability to pursue our research and development projects, as well as our reputation, could be jeopardized. We carry insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business, but this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all.

Further, if our CLIA-certified, CAP accredited, and state-licensed laboratory became inoperable we may not be able to license or transfer our technology to another facility with the necessary qualifications, including state licensure and CLIA certification, under the scope of which our current assays and our planned future assays could be performed. Even if we find a facility with such qualifications to perform our assays, it may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms.

*If we cannot compete successfully with our competitors, we may be unable to increase or sustain our revenues or achieve and sustain profitability.

Our principal competition comes from mainstream diagnostic methods, used by medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians for many years, which focus on tumor tissue analysis. The methods or behavior of medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians may be difficult to change regarding the use of our CTC and ctDNA assays, including molecular diagnostic assays, in their practices in conjunction with or instead of tissue biopsies and analysis. In addition, companies offering capital equipment, BCTs, and kits or reagents to local pathology laboratories or laboratory supply distributors represent another source of potential competition. These kits are used directly by the pathologist, which can facilitate adoption. Historically, we have focused our marketing and sales efforts on medical oncologists rather than pathologists, although commencing in October 2017, our Empower TC offering provides the unique ability for pathologists to participate in the interpretation of liquid biopsy results and is available to pathology practices and hospital systems throughout the United States.

We also face competition from companies that offer products or are conducting research to develop products for CTC or ctDNA assays in various cancers. CTC and ctDNA products, assays and services represent a new area of science and we cannot predict what products or assays others will develop that may compete with or provide results similar or superior to the results we are able to achieve with the products or assays we develop. Competitors include but are not limited to companies such as Atossa, Qiagen, Roche, Guardant Health, Cancer Genetics, Agena Bioscience, Alere (Adnagen), Illumina, Grail, Apocell, EPIC Sciences, Clearbridge Biomedics, Biodesix, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Foundation Medicine, Neogenomics, Cynvenio Biosystems, Genomic Health, Fluxion

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Biosciences, RareCells, ScreenCell, Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Sysmex, Natera, Inc, and Caris Life Sciences. Some of these groups, in addition to operating research and development laboratories, are establishing CLIA-certified testing laboratories while others are focused on selling equipment and reagents.

There are a number of companies which are focused on the oncology diagnostic market, such as Agendia and Genoptix, who while not currently offering CTC or ctDNA assays are selling to the medical oncologists and pathologists and could develop or offer CTC or ctDNA assays. Large laboratory services companies such as Quest and LabCorp provide more generalized cancer diagnostic assays and testing but could also offer a CTC or ctDNA assay service. Companies like Abbott, Danaher, Qiagen, Thermo Fisher Scientific and others could develop equipment or reagents in the future as well. Currently, companies like Streck, Roche and Biomatrica offer BCTs, and in the future, companies like Covidien, Beckton Dickinson, Thermo Fisher, and other large medical device companies may develop BCTs as well.

Some of our present and potential competitors have widespread brand recognition and substantially greater financial and technical resources and development, production and marketing capabilities than we do. Others may develop lower-priced, less complex assays that payers, medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians could view as functionally equivalent to our current or planned future assays, which could force us to lower the list price of our assays and impact our operating margins and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability. In addition, technological innovations that result in the creation of enhanced products or diagnostic tools that are more sensitive or specific than ours may enable other clinical laboratories, hospitals, physicians or medical providers to provide specialized products or diagnostic assays similar to ours in a more patient-friendly, efficient or cost-effective manner than is currently possible. If we cannot compete successfully against current or future competitors, we may be unable to increase or create market acceptance and sales of our current or planned future products or assays, which could prevent us from increasing or sustaining our revenues or achieving or sustaining profitability.

We expect that biopharmaceutical companies will increasingly focus attention and resources on the personalized cancer diagnostic sector as the potential and prevalence of molecularly targeted oncology therapies approved by the FDA along with companion diagnostics increases. For example, the FDA has approved three such agents: Xalkori^® from Pfizer Inc. along with its companion anaplastic lymphoma kinase FISH test from Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Zelboraf^® from Daiichi-Sankyo/Genentech/Roche along with its companion BRAF kinase V600 mutation test from Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. and Tafinlar^® from GlaxoSmithKline along with its companion BRAF kinase V600 mutation test from bioMerieux. Since companion diagnostic tests are part of FDA labeling, non-FDA cleared tests such as ours would be considered an off-label use and this may limit our access to this market segment.

Additionally, projects related to cancer diagnostics and particularly genomics have received increased government funding, both in the United States and internationally. As more information regarding cancer genomics becomes available to the public, we anticipate that more products aimed at identifying targeted treatment options will be developed and that these products may compete with ours. In addition, competitors may develop their own versions of our current or planned future products or assays in countries where we did not apply for patents or where our patents have not issued and compete with us in those countries, including encouraging the use of their product or assay by physicians or patients in other countries.

*We expect to continue to incur significant expenses to develop and market products and diagnostic assays, which could make it difficult for us to achieve and sustain profitability.

In recent years, we have incurred significant costs in connection with the development of our products and diagnostic assays. Our research and development expenses were $3.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 and $1.1 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2018, and our sales and marketing expenses were $6.3 million and $1.6 million, respectively. We expect our expenses to continue to increase for the foreseeable future as we conduct studies of our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services, continue to establish our sales and marketing organization, drive adoption of and reimbursement for our products and diagnostic assays and develop new products, assays and services. As a result, we need to generate significant revenues in order to achieve sustained profitability.

If medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians decide not to order our current or planned future assays, or if laboratory supply distributors or their customers decide not to order our current or planned future products, we may be unable to generate sufficient revenue to sustain our business.

To generate demand for our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services, we will need to educate medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists, and other physicians and other health care professionals, as well as laboratory and medical equipment suppliers, on the clinical utility, benefits and value of the products, assays and services we provide through published papers, presentations at scientific conferences, educational programs and one-on-one education sessions by members of our sales force. In addition, we need to medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians of our ability to obtain and maintain coverage and adequate from third-party payers. We need to hire additional commercial, scientific, technical and other personnel to support this process. Unless an adequate number of medical practitioners order our current assays and our planned future assays, or unless an adequate number of laboratory supply distributors

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order our current and planned future products, we will likely be unable to create demand in sufficient volume for us to achieve sustained profitability.

Clinical utility studies are important in demonstrating to both customers and payers an assay’s clinical relevance and value. If we are unable to identify collaborators willing to work with us to conduct clinical utility studies, or the results of those studies do not demonstrate that an assay provides clinically meaningful information and value, commercial adoption of such assay may be slow, which would negatively impact our business.

Clinical utility studies show when and how to use a clinical test or assay and describe the particular clinical situations or settings in which it can be applied and the expected results. Clinical utility studies also show the impact of the test or assay results on patient care and management. Clinical utility studies are typically performed with collaborating oncologists or other physicians at medical centers and hospitals, analogous to a clinical trial, and generally result in peer-reviewed publications. Sales and marketing representatives use these publications to demonstrate to customers how to use a clinical test or assay, as well as why they should use it. These publications are also used with payers to obtain coverage for a test or assay, helping to assure there is appropriate reimbursement.

We need to conduct additional studies for our assays, increase assay adoption in the marketplace and obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement. Should we not be able to perform these studies, or should their results not provide clinically meaningful data and value for medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians, adoption of our assays could be impaired, and we may not be able to obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement for them.

*The loss of key members of our executive management team could adversely affect our business.

Our success in implementing our business strategy depends largely on the skills, experience and performance of key members of our executive management team and others in key management positions, including Michael W. Nall, our Chief Executive Officer and President, Lyle J. Arnold, Ph.D., our Senior Vice-President of Research & Development and Chief Scientific Officer, Michael Terry, our Senior Vice President Commercial Operations, and Timothy C. Kennedy, our Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President of Operations and Secretary. The collective efforts of each of these persons and others working with them as a team are critical to us as we continue to develop our technologies, products, services, assays and research and development and sales programs. As a result of the difficulty in locating qualified new management, the loss or incapacity of existing members of our executive management team could adversely affect our operations. If we were to lose one or more of these key employees, we could experience difficulties in finding qualified successors, competing effectively, developing our technologies and implementing our business strategy. Our executive management team each have employment agreements, however, the existence of an employment agreement does not guarantee retention of members of our executive management team and we may not be able to retain those individuals for the duration of or beyond the end of their respective terms. We do not maintain “key person” life insurance on any of our employees.

In addition, we rely on collaborators, consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our collaborators, consultants and advisors are generally employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under agreements with other entities that may limit their availability to us.

The loss of a key employee, the failure of a key employee to perform in his or her current position or our inability to attract and retain skilled employees could result in our inability to continue to grow our business or to implement our business strategy.

There is a scarcity of experienced professionals in our industry. If we are not able to retain and recruit personnel with the requisite technical skills, we may be unable to successfully execute our business strategy.

The specialized nature of our industry results in an inherent scarcity of experienced personnel in the field. Our future success depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, including scientific, technical, commercial, business, regulatory and administrative personnel, necessary to support our anticipated growth, develop our business and perform certain contractual obligations. Given the scarcity of professionals with the scientific knowledge that we require and the competition for qualified personnel among life science businesses, we may not succeed in attracting or retaining the personnel we require to continue and grow our operations.

Our failure to continue to attract, hire and retain a sufficient number of qualified sales professionals would hamper our ability to increase demand for our products and diagnostic assays, to expand geographically and to successfully commercialize any other products or assays we may develop.

To succeed in selling our products and diagnostic assays and any other products or assays that we are able to develop, we must expand our sales force in the United States and/or internationally by recruiting additional sales representatives with extensive experience in oncology and established relationships with medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists, oncology nurses, and other physicians and hospital personnel, as well as laboratory supply distributors. To achieve our marketing and sales goals, we will need to continue to build our sales and commercial infrastructure. Sales professionals with the necessary technical and business

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qualifications are in high demand, and there is a risk that we may be unable to attract, hire and retain the number of sales professionals with the right qualifications, scientific backgrounds and relationships with decision-makers at potential customers needed to achieve our sales goals. We expect to face competition from other companies in our industry, some of whom are much larger than us and who can pay greater compensation and benefits than we can, in seeking to attract and retain qualified sales and marketing employees. If we are unable to hire and retain qualified sales and marketing personnel, our business will suffer.

Our dependence on commercialization partners for sales of products, assays and services could limit our success in realizing revenue growth.

We intend to grow our business through the use of commercialization partners for the sales, marketing and commercialization of our current products, assays and services, as well as our planned future products, assays and services, and to do so we must enter into agreements with these partners to sell, market or commercialize our products, assays and services. These agreements may contain exclusivity provisions and generally cannot be terminated without cause during the term of the agreement. We may need to attract additional partners to expand the markets in which we sell products or assays. These partners may not commit the necessary resources to market and sell our products and diagnostics assays to the level of our expectations, and we may be unable to locate suitable alternatives should we terminate our agreement with such partners or if such partners terminate their agreement with us.

If current or future commercialization partners do not perform adequately, or we are unable to locate commercialization partners, we may not realize revenue growth.

We depend on third parties for the supply of blood samples and other biological materials that we use in our research and development efforts. If the costs of such samples and materials increase or our third-party suppliers terminate their relationship with us, our business may be materially harmed.

We have relationships with suppliers and institutions that provide us with blood samples and other biological materials that we use in developing and validating our current assays and our planned future assays. If one or more suppliers terminate their relationship with us or are unable to meet our requirements for samples, we will need to identify other third parties to provide us with blood samples and biological materials, which could result in a delay in our research and development activities and negatively affect our business. In addition, as we grow, our research and academic institution collaborators may seek additional financial contributions from us, which may negatively affect our results of operations.

We currently rely on third-party suppliers for our BCTs, shipping kits, and critical materials needed to perform our current assays, as well as our planned future products, assays and services, and any problems experienced by them could result in a delay or interruption of their supply to us.

We currently purchase our BCTs and raw materials for our microfluidic channels and assay reagents under purchase orders and do not have long-term contracts with most of the suppliers of these materials. If suppliers were to delay or stop producing our BCTs, shipping kits, materials or reagents, or if the prices they charge us were to increase significantly, or if they elected not to sell to us, we would need to identify other suppliers. We could experience delays in obtaining BCTs and shipping kits, manufacturing the microfluidic channels, or performing assays while finding another acceptable supplier, which could impact our results of operations. The changes could also result in increased costs associated with qualifying the new BCTs, shipping kits, materials or reagents and in increased operating costs. Further, any prolonged disruption in a supplier’s operations could have a significant negative impact on our ability to perform diagnostic assays in a timely manner and sell our products.

Some of the components used in our current or planned future products are currently sourced from a supplier for which alternative suppliers exist but we have not validated the products of such alternative suppliers, and substitutes for these components might not be able to be obtained easily or may require substantial design or manufacturing modifications. Any significant problem experienced by any one of our suppliers may result in a delay or interruption in the supply of components to us until that supplier cures the problem or an alternative source of the component is located and qualified. Any delay or interruption would likely lead to a delay or interruption in our manufacturing operations or product sales. The inclusion of substitute components must meet our product specifications and could require us to qualify the new supplier with the appropriate government regulatory authorities.

If we were sued for product liability or professional liability, we could face substantial liabilities that exceed our resources.

The marketing, sale and use of our products and current assays, as well our planned future products, assays and services, could lead to the filing of product liability claims against us if someone alleges that our products or assays failed to perform as designed. We may also be subject to liability for errors in the assay results we provide to physicians or for a misunderstanding of, or inappropriate reliance upon, the information we provide. A product liability or professional liability claim could result in substantial damages and be costly and time-consuming for us to defend.

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Although we believe that our existing product and professional liability insurance is adequate, our insurance may not fully protect us from the financial impact of defending against product liability or professional liability claims. Any product liability or professional liability claim brought against us, with or without merit, could increase our insurance rates or prevent us from securing insurance coverage in the future. Additionally, any product liability lawsuit could damage our reputation, result in the recall of products or assays, or cause current partners to terminate existing agreements and potential partners to seek other partners, any of which could impact our results of operations.

If we use biological and hazardous materials in a manner that causes injury, we could be liable for damages.

Our activities currently require the controlled use of potentially harmful biological materials and chemicals. We cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury to employees or third parties from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources or any applicable insurance coverage we may have. Additionally, we are subject to, on an ongoing basis, federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. The cost of compliance with these laws and regulations may become significant and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In the event of an accident or if we otherwise fail to comply with applicable regulations, we could lose our permits or approvals or be held liable for damages or penalized with fines.

We may acquire other businesses or form joint ventures or make investments in other companies or technologies that could harm our operating results, dilute our stockholders’ ownership, increase our debt or cause us to incur significant expense.

As part of our business strategy, we may pursue acquisitions of businesses and assets. We also may pursue strategic alliances and joint ventures that leverage our core technology and industry experience to expand our offerings or distribution. We have no experience with acquiring other companies and limited experience with forming strategic alliances and joint ventures. We may not be able to find suitable partners or acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete such transactions on favorable terms, if at all. If we make any acquisitions, we may not be able to integrate these acquisitions successfully into our existing business, and we could assume unknown or contingent liabilities. Any future acquisitions also could result in significant write-offs or the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Integration of an acquired company also may disrupt ongoing operations and require management resources that would otherwise focus on developing our existing business. We may experience losses related to investments in other companies, which could have a material negative effect on our results of operations. We may not identify or complete these transactions in a timely manner, on a cost-effective basis, or at all, and we may not realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, technology license, strategic alliance or joint venture.

To finance any acquisitions or joint ventures, we may choose to issue shares of our common stock as consideration, which would dilute the ownership of our stockholders. If the price of our common stock is low or volatile, we may not be able to acquire other companies or fund a joint venture project using our stock as consideration. Alternatively, it may be necessary for us to raise additional funds for acquisitions through public or private financings. Additional funds may not be available on terms that are favorable to us, or at all.

If we cannot support demand for our current products, assays and services, as well as our planned future products, assays and services, including successfully managing the evolution of our laboratory service, our business could suffer.

As our product and assay volume grows, we will need to increase our assay capacity, implement automation, increase our scale and related processing, customer service, billing, collection and systems process improvements and expand our internal quality assurance program and technology to support assays on a larger scale. Examples of challenges we may face include, but are not limited to, maintaining the same validated sensitivity in our assays for both CTC and ctDNA analysis as our assay volume increases. We will also need additional clinical laboratory scientists and other scientific and technical personnel to process these additional assays. Any increases in scale, related improvements and quality assurance may not be successfully implemented and appropriate personnel may not be available. As additional products, assays and services are commercialized, we may need to bring new equipment on line, implement new systems, technology, controls and procedures and hire personnel with different qualifications. Failure to implement or maintain necessary procedures or to hire the necessary personnel could result in a higher cost of processing or an inability to meet market demand. We cannot assure you that we will be able to perform assays on a timely basis, or procure BCTs, shipping kits or other materials we sell, at a level consistent with demand, that our efforts to scale our commercial operations will not negatively affect the quality of our assay results, or that we will respond successfully to the growing complexity of our operations. If we encounter difficulty meeting market demand or quality standards for our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services, including with respect to our assays our ability to maintain the sensitivity, specificity, concordance and reproducibility of such assays, our reputation could be harmed, and our future prospects and business could suffer, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

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Billing for our diagnostic assays is complex, and we must dedicate substantial time and resources to the billing process to be paid.

Billing for clinical laboratory assay services is complex, time-consuming and expensive. Depending on the billing arrangement and applicable law, we bill various payers, including Medicare, insurance companies and patients, all of which have different billing requirements. We generally bill third-party payers for our diagnostic assays and pursue reimbursement on a case-by-case basis where pricing contracts are not in place. To the extent laws or contracts require us to bill patient co-payments or co-insurance, we must also comply with these requirements. We may also face increased risk in our collection efforts, including potential write-offs of doubtful accounts and long collection cycles, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Several factors make the billing process complex, including:

We use standard industry billing codes, known as CPT codes, to bill for our diagnostic assays. These codes can change over time. When codes change, there is a risk of an error being made in the claim adjudication process. These errors can occur with claims submission, third-party transmission or in the processing of the claim by the payer. Claim adjudication errors may result in a delay in payment processing or a reduction in the amount of the payment received. Coding changes, therefore, may have an adverse effect on our revenues. There can be no assurance that payers will recognize these codes in a timely manner or that the process of transitioning to such a code and updating their billing systems and ours will not result in errors, delays in payments and a related increase in accounts receivable balances.

As we introduce new assays, we will need to add new codes to our billing process as well as our financial reporting systems. Failure or delays in effecting these changes in external billing and internal systems and processes could negatively affect our collection rates, revenue and cost of collecting.

Additionally, our billing activities require us to implement compliance procedures and oversight, train and monitor our employees, challenge coverage and payment denials, assist patients in appealing claims, and undertake internal audits to evaluate compliance with applicable laws and regulations as well as internal compliance policies and procedures. Payers also conduct external audits to evaluate payments, which add further complexity to the billing process. If the payer makes an overpayment determination, there is a risk that we may be required to return some portion of prior payments we have received. These billing complexities, and the related uncertainty in obtaining payment for our assays, could negatively affect our revenue and cash flow, our ability to achieve profitability, and the consistency and comparability of our results of operations.

We rely on third-party billing provider software, and an in-house billing function, to transmit claims to payers, and any delay in transmitting claims could have an adverse effect on our revenue.

While we manage the overall processing of claims, we rely on third-party billing provider software to transmit the actual claims to payers based on the specific payer billing format. We have previously experienced delays in claims processing when our third-party provider made changes to its invoicing system. Additionally, coding for diagnostic assays may change, and such changes may cause short-term billing errors that may take significant time to resolve. If claims are not submitted to payers on a timely basis or are erroneously submitted, or if we are required to switch to a different software provider to handle claim submissions, we may experience delays in our ability to process these claims and receipt of payments from payers, or possibly denial of claims for lack of timely submission, which would have an adverse effect on our revenue and our business.

We may encounter manufacturing problems or delays that could result in lost revenue.

We currently manufacture our proprietary microfluidic channels at our San Diego facility and intend to continue to do so. We believe we currently have adequate manufacturing capacity for our microfluidic channels. If demand for our current products, assays and

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services and our planned future products, assays and services increases significantly, we will need to either expand our manufacturing capabilities or outsource to other manufacturers. If we or third-party manufacturers engaged by us fail to manufacture and deliver our microfluidic channels or certain reagents in a timely manner, our relationships with our customers could be seriously harmed. We cannot assure you that manufacturing, or quality control problems will not arise as we attempt to increase the production of our microfluidic channels or reagents or that we can increase our manufacturing capabilities and maintain quality control in a timely manner or at commercially reasonable costs. If we cannot manufacture our microfluidic channels consistently on a timely basis because of these or other factors, it could have a significant negative impact on our ability to perform assays and generate revenues.

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

Our business strategy is to pursue increased international expansion, including partnering with academic and commercial testing laboratories, and introducing our technology outside the United States as part of IVD test kits and/or testing systems utilizing our technologies. Doing business internationally involves a number of risks, including:

Any of these risks, if encountered, could significantly harm our future international expansion and operations and consequently, have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

General economic or business conditions may have a negative impact on our business.

Continuing concerns over United States health care reform legislation and energy costs, geopolitical issues, the availability and cost of credit and government stimulus programs in the United States and other countries have contributed to increased volatility and diminished expectations for the global economy. These factors, combined with low business and consumer confidence and high unemployment, precipitated an economic slowdown and recession. If the economic climate deteriorates, our business, including our access to patient samples and the addressable market for products or diagnostic assays that we may successfully develop, as well as the financial condition of our suppliers and our third-party payers, could be adversely affected, resulting in a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Intrusions into our computer systems could result in compromise of confidential information.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our technology or systems that we interface with, including the Internet and related systems, may be vulnerable to physical break-ins, hackers, improper employee or contractor access, computer viruses, programming errors, or similar problems. Any of these might result in confidential medical, business or other information of other persons or of ourselves being revealed to unauthorized persons.

There are a number of state, federal and international laws protecting the privacy and security of health information and personal data. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, Congress amended the privacy and security provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. HIPAA imposes limitations on the use and disclosure of an individual’s healthcare information by healthcare providers, healthcare clearinghouses, and health insurance plans, collectively

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referred to as covered entities, and also grants individuals rights with respect to their health information. HIPAA also imposes compliance obligations and corresponding penalties for non-compliance on individuals and entities that provide services to healthcare providers and other covered entities, collectively referred to as business associates. ARRA also made significant increases in the penalties for improper use or disclosure of an individual’s health information under HIPAA and extended enforcement authority to state attorneys general. As amended by ARRA and subsequently by the final omnibus rule adopted in 2013, or Final Omnibus Rule, HIPAA also imposes notification requirements on covered entities in the event that certain health information has been inappropriately accessed or disclosed: notification requirements to individuals, federal regulators, and in some cases, notification to local and national media. Notification is not required under HIPAA if the health information that is improperly used or disclosed is deemed secured in accordance with encryption or other standards developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. Most states have laws requiring notification of affected individuals and/or state regulators in the event of a breach of personal information, which is a broader class of information than the health information protected by HIPAA. Many state laws impose significant data security requirements, such as encryption or mandatory contractual terms to ensure ongoing protection of personal information. Activities outside of the United States implicate local and national data protection standards, impose additional compliance requirements and generate additional risks of enforcement for non-compliance. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to ensure ongoing compliance with applicable privacy and data security laws, to protect against security breaches and hackers or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches.

We depend on our information technology and telecommunications systems, and any failure of these systems could harm our business.

We depend on information technology and telecommunications systems for significant aspects of our operations. In addition, our third-party billing software provider depends upon telecommunications and data systems provided by outside vendors and information we provide on a regular basis. These information technology and telecommunications systems support a variety of functions, including assay processing, sample tracking, quality control, customer service and support, billing and reimbursement, research and development activities and our general and administrative activities. Information technology and telecommunications systems are vulnerable to damage from a variety of sources, including telecommunications or network failures, malicious human acts and natural disasters. Moreover, despite network security and back-up measures, some of our servers are potentially vulnerable to physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses and similar disruptive problems. Despite the precautionary measures we have taken to prevent unanticipated problems that could affect our information technology and telecommunications systems, failures or significant downtime of our information technology or telecommunications systems or those used by our third-party service providers could prevent us from processing assays, providing assay results to medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists, other physicians, billing payers, processing reimbursement appeals, handling patient or physician inquiries, conducting research and development activities and managing the administrative aspects of our business. Any disruption or loss of information technology or telecommunications systems on which critical aspects of our operations depend could have an adverse effect on our business.

Regulatory Risks Relating to Our Business

Healthcare policy changes, including recently enacted legislation reforming the U.S. health care system, may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively the ACA, enacted in March 2010, makes a number of substantial changes in the way health care is financed by both governmental and private insurers. Among other things, the ACA requires each medical device manufacturer to pay an excise tax equal to 2.3% of the price for which such manufacturer sells its medical devices that are listed with the FDA. We believe that at this time this tax does not apply to our current diagnostic assays or to our products that are currently sold or in development; nevertheless, this could change in the future if either the FDA or the Internal Revenue Service, which regulates the payment of this excise tax, changes its position.

Although some of these provisions may negatively impact payment rates for clinical laboratory tests, the ACA also extends coverage to over 30 million previously uninsured people, which may result in an increase in the demand for our current assays and our planned future assays. The mandatory purchase of insurance has been strenuously opposed by a number of state governors, resulting in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions of the ACA. In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the ACA, with the exception of certain provisions dealing with the expansion of Medicaid coverage under the law. Since January 2017, the President of the United States has signed two executive orders and other directives designed to delay, circumvent, or loosen certain requirements mandated by the ACA. Concurrently, Congress has considered legislation that would repeal or repeal and replace all or part of the ACA. While Congress has not passed repeal legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 includes a provision repealing, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the ACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”. Congress may consider other legislation to repeal or replace elements of the ACA.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted. The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, or PAMA, was signed to law, which, among other things, significantly alters the current payment methodology under the

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CLFS. Under the new law, issued in 2016 and the reporting period beginning in 2017 and every three years thereafter (or annually in the case of advanced diagnostic lab tests), clinical laboratories must report laboratory test payment data for each Medicare-covered clinical diagnostic lab test that it furnishes during a time period. The reported data must include the payment rate (reflecting all discounts, rebates, coupons and other price concessions) and the volume of each test that was paid by each private payer (including health insurance issuers, group health plans, Medicare Advantage plans and Medicaid managed care organizations). Beginning in 2018, the Medicare payment rate for each clinical diagnostic lab test is equal to the weighted median amount for the test from the most recent data collection period. The payment rate will apply to laboratory tests furnished by a hospital laboratory if the test is separately paid under the hospital outpatient prospective payment system. The PAMA rate changes to our tests that were impacted did not materially affect our payments beginning in 2018; however, we cannot predict how this may change future payment in coming years. Also, under PAMA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, is required to adopt temporary billing codes to identify new tests and new advanced diagnostic laboratory tests that have been cleared or approved by the FDA. For an existing test that is cleared or approved by the FDA and for which Medicare payment is made as of April 1, 2014, CMS is required to assign a unique billing code if one has not already been assigned by the agency. In addition to assigning the code, CMS was required to publicly report payment for the tests no later than January 1, 2016. Further, under PAMA, CMS is required to adopt temporary billing codes to identify new tests and new advanced diagnostic laboratory tests that have been cleared or approved by the FDA. We cannot determine at this time the full impact of PAMA on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Additionally, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to recommend proposals in spending reductions to Congress. The Joint Select Committee did not achieve its targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2013 through 2021, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers and suppliers of up to 2% per fiscal year, starting in 2013, and will remain in effect through 2024 unless additional congressional action is taken. The full impact on our business the sequester law is uncertain. In addition, the Middle-Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, or MCTRJCA, mandated an additional change in Medicare reimbursement for clinical laboratory tests.

Some of our laboratory assay business is subject to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and, under the current statutory formula, the rates for these services are updated annually. For the past several years, the application of the statutory formula would have resulted in substantial payment reductions if Congress failed to intervene. In the past, Congress passed interim legislation to prevent the decreases. If Congress fails to intervene to prevent the negative update factor in future years, the resulting decrease in payment may adversely affect our revenue and results of operations. If in future years Congress does not adopt interim legislation to block or offset, and/or CMS does not moderate, any substantial CMS-proposed reimbursement reductions, the resulting decrease in payments from Medicare could adversely impact our revenues and results of operations.

We cannot predict whether future health care initiatives will be implemented at the federal or state level, or how any future legislation or regulation may affect us. The expansion of government’s role in the U.S. health care industry, and changes to the reimbursement amounts paid by Medicare and other payers for our current assays and our planned future assays, may reduce our profits, if any, and have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Moreover, Congress has proposed on several occasions to impose a 20% coinsurance payment requirement on patients for clinical laboratory tests reimbursed under the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, which would require us to bill patients for these amounts. In the event that Congress were to ever enact such legislation, the cost of billing and collecting for our assays could often exceed the amount actually received from the patient.

Our commercial success could be compromised if hospitals or other clients do not pay our invoices or if third-party payers, including managed care organizations and Medicare, do not provide coverage and reimbursement, breach, rescind or modify their contracts or reimbursement policies or delay payments for our current assays and our planned future assays.

Medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists and other physicians may not order our current assays and our planned future assays unless third-party payers, such as managed care organizations and government payers (e.g., Medicare and Medicaid), pay a substantial portion of the assay price. Coverage and reimbursement by a third-party payer may depend on a number of factors, including a payer’s determination that assays using our technologies are:

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Uncertainty surrounds third-party payer coverage and adequate reimbursement of any test incorporating new technology, including tests developed using our technologies. Technology assessments of new medical tests conducted by research centers and other entities may be disseminated to interested parties for informational purposes. Third-party payers and health care providers may use such technology assessments as grounds to deny coverage for a test or procedure. Technology assessments can include evaluation of clinical utility studies, which define how a test is used in a particular clinical setting or situation.

Because each payer generally determines for its own enrollees or insured patients whether to cover or otherwise establish a policy to reimburse our diagnostic assays, seeking payer approvals is a time-consuming and costly process. We cannot be certain that coverage for our current assays and our planned future assays will be provided in the future by additional third-party payers or that existing agreements, policy decisions or reimbursement levels will remain in place or be fulfilled under existing terms and provisions. If we cannot obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement from private and governmental payers such as Medicare and Medicaid for our current assays, or new assays or assay enhancements that we may develop in the future, our ability to generate revenues could be limited, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flow. Further, we may experience delays and interruptions in the receipt of payments from third-party payers due to missing documentation and/or other issues, which could cause delay in collecting our revenue.

In addition, to the extent that our assays are ordered for Medicare inpatients and outpatients, only the hospital may receive payment from the Medicare program for the technical component of pathology services and any clinical laboratory services that we perform, unless the testing is ordered at least 14 days after discharge and certain other requirements are met. We therefore must look to the hospital for payment for these services under these circumstances. If hospitals refuse to pay for the services or fail to pay in a timely manner, our ability to generate revenues could be limited, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flow.

*We expect to depend on Medicare and a limited number of private payers for a significant portion of our revenues and if these or other payers stop providing reimbursement or decrease the amount of reimbursement for our current assays and our planned future assays, our revenues could decline.

Approximately 39% of total net revenues during each of the year ended December 31, 2017 and the three-month period March 31, 2018 were associated with Medicare reimbursement. Approximately 19% of total net revenues during the year ended December 31, 2017 and 22% of total net revenues during the three-month period ended March 31, 2018 were associated with Blue Cross Blue Shield reimbursement, and approximately 12% and 22%, respectively, of total net revenues were associated with United Healthcare reimbursement. We cannot assure you that, even if our current assays and our planned future assays are otherwise successful, reimbursement for the currently Medicare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United Healthcare covered-portions of our current assays and our planned future assays would, without such contracted payer reimbursement for the capture/enumeration portion, produce sufficient revenues to enable us to reach profitability and achieve our other commercial objectives.

Medicare and other third-party payers may change their coverage policies or cancel future contracts with us at any time, review and adjust the rate of reimbursement or stop paying for our assays altogether, which would reduce our total revenues. Payers have increased their efforts to control the cost, utilization and delivery of health care services. In the past, measures have been undertaken to reduce payment rates for and decrease utilization of the clinical laboratory testing generally. Because of the cost-trimming trends, third-party payers that currently cover and provide reimbursement for our current assays and our planned future assays may suspend, revoke or discontinue coverage at any time, or may reduce the reimbursement rates payable to us. Any such action could have a negative impact on our revenues, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

In addition, we are currently considered a “non-contracted provider” by many private payers because we have not entered into a specific contract to provide diagnostic assays to their insured patients at specified rates of reimbursement. Additionally, a significant amount of our non-Medicare business (private payers) has historically not been contracted, and reimbursement for this business has historically not been at “in network” rates and has therefore been inconsistent. We first began to contract private payer networks in 2015, and since then our number of accessions treated as “in network” has increased as we continue to execute additional contracts, and reimbursement is improving. We are currently contracted with nine preferred provider organization networks, three large health plans, and five regional independent physician associations, and expect to continue to gain contracts in order to be considered as an “in-network” provider with additional plans. If we were to become a contracted provider with additional payers in the future, the amount of overall reimbursement we receive would likely decrease because we could be reimbursed less money per assay performed at a contracted rate than at a non-contracted rate, which could have a negative impact on our revenues. Further, we typically are unable to collect payments from patients beyond that which is paid by their insurance and will continue to experience lost revenue as a result.

*Because of certain Medicare billing policies, we may not receive complete reimbursement for assays provided to Medicare patients. Medicare reimbursement revenues are an important component of our business model, and private payers sometimes look to Medicare determinations when making their own payment determinations; therefore, incomplete or inadequate reimbursement from Medicare would negatively affect our business.

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Medicare has coverage policies that can be national or regional in scope. Coverage means that assay is approved as a benefit for Medicare beneficiaries. If there is no coverage, neither the supplier nor any other party, such as a reference laboratory, may receive reimbursement from Medicare for the service. There is currently no national coverage policy regarding the CTC enumeration portion of our assays. Because our laboratory is in California, the regional MAC for California is the relevant MAC for all our assays. The previous MAC for California, Palmetto, which is contracted with CMS to administer the MolDx program that sets guidelines for coding, coverage and reimbursement of molecular diagnostic assays, adopted a negative coverage policy for CTC enumeration. The current MAC for California, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, LLC, is adopting the coverage policies from Palmetto. Therefore, the enumeration portion of our assays is not currently covered, and we will receive no payment from Medicare for this portion of the service unless and until the coverage policy is changed. Although approximately 76% and 69% of all billable cases received during the year ended December 31, 2017 and three-month periods March 31, 2018, respectively, relate to our Target-Selector biomarker assays, we continue to receive orders for traditional enumeration testing, which counts disease burden, and therefore the enumeration testing receives no payment from Medicare based upon the existing coverage decision. The CTC enumeration counts disease burden and is a prognostic assay, and although valuable, it does not meet many of the medical necessity requirements of Medicare and the payers. We intend to pursue payment for the capture portion of our CTC technology that allows us to run our diagnostic testing for some of our Target-Selector assays.

We cannot assure you that, even if our current assays and our planned future assays are otherwise successful, reimbursement for the currently Medicare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United Healthcare-covered portions of our current assays and our planned future assays would, without such contracted payer reimbursement for the capture/enumeration portion, produce sufficient revenues to enable us to reach profitability and achieve our other commercial objectives.

The processing of Medicare claims is subject to change at CMS’ discretion at any time. Cost containment initiatives may be a threat to Medicare reimbursement levels (including for the covered components of our current assays and our planned future assays, including FISH analysis and molecular assays) for the foreseeable future.

Long payment cycles of Medicare, Medicaid and/or other third-party payers, or other payment delays, could hurt our cash flows and increase our need for working capital.

Medicare and Medicaid have complex billing and documentation requirements that we must satisfy in order to receive payment, and the programs can be expected to carefully audit and monitor our compliance with these requirements. We must also comply with numerous other laws applicable to billing and payment for healthcare services, including, for example, privacy laws. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in, among other things, non-payment, refunds, exclusion from government healthcare programs, and civil or criminal liabilities, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our revenues and earnings. In addition, failure by third-party payers to properly process our payment claims in a timely manner could delay our receipt of payment for our products and services, which may have a material adverse effect on our cash flows.

Complying with numerous regulations pertaining to our business is an expensive and time-consuming process, and any failure to comply could result in substantial penalties.

We are subject to CLIA, a federal law regulating clinical laboratories that perform testing on specimens derived from humans for the purpose of providing information for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of disease. Our clinical laboratory must be certified under CLIA in order for us to perform testing on human specimens. CLIA is intended to ensure the quality and reliability of clinical laboratories in the United States by mandating specific standards in the areas of personnel qualifications, administration, and participation in proficiency testing, patient test management, quality control, quality assurance and inspections. We have a current certificate of accreditation under CLIA to perform high complexity testing, and our laboratory is accredited by CAP, one of six CLIA-approved accreditation organizations. To renew this certificate, we are subject to survey and inspection every two years. Moreover, CLIA and CAP inspectors may make periodic inspections of our clinical laboratory outside of the renewal process. The failure to comply with CLIA or CAP requirements can result in enforcement actions, including the revocation, suspension, or limitation of our CLIA and/or CAP certificate of accreditation, as well as a directed plan of correction, state on-site monitoring, civil money penalties, civil injunctive suit and/or criminal penalties. We must maintain CLIA compliance and certification to be eligible to bill for assays provided to Medicare beneficiaries. If we were to be found out of compliance with CLIA program requirements and subjected to sanctions, our business and reputation could be harmed. Even if it were possible for us to bring our laboratory back into compliance, we could incur significant expenses and potentially lose revenue in doing so.

In addition, our laboratory is located in California and is required by state law to have a California state license; as we expand our geographic focus, we may need to obtain laboratory licenses from additional states. California laws establish standards for operation of our clinical laboratory, including the training and skills required of personnel and quality control. In addition, we hold licenses from the states of Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland and Rhode Island to test specimens from patients in those states or received from ordering physicians in those states. In addition, our clinical reference laboratory is required to be licensed on a product-specific basis by New York as an out of state laboratory and our products, as LDTs, must be approved by the New York State Department of Health before they are offered in New York. As part of this process, the State of New York requires validation of our assays. We currently do

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not have the necessary New York license, but we are in the process of addressing the requirements for licensure in New York. Other states may have similar requirements or may adopt similar requirements in the future. Finally, we may be subject to regulation in foreign jurisdictions if we seek to expand international distribution of our assays outside the United States.

If we were to lose our CLIA certification or California laboratory license, whether as a result of a revocation, suspension or limitation, we would no longer be able to offer our assays, which would limit our revenues and harm our business. If we were to lose, or fail to obtain, a license in any other state where we are required to hold a license, we would not be able to test specimens from those states. If we were to lose our CAP accreditation, our reputation for quality, as well as our business, financial condition and results of operations, could be significantly and adversely affected.

If the FDA were to begin requiring approval or clearance of our current products or assays and our planned future products or assays, we could incur substantial costs and time delays associated with meeting requirements for pre-market clearance or approval or we could experience decreased demand for, or reimbursement of, our assays.

We provide our assays as LDTs. Historically; the FDA has exercised enforcement discretion with respect to most LDTs and has not required laboratories that offer LDTs to comply with the agency’s requirements for medical devices (e.g., establishment registration, device listing, quality systems regulations, premarket clearance or premarket approval, and post-market controls). In recent years, however, the FDA has stated it intends to end its policy of enforcement discretion and regulate certain LDTs as medical devices. To this end, on October 3, 2014, the FDA issued two draft guidance documents, entitled “Framework for Regulatory Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs)” and “FDA Notification and Medical Device Reporting for Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs)”, respectively, that set forth a proposed risk-based regulatory framework that would apply varying levels of FDA oversight to LDTs. The FDA has indicated that it does not intend to modify its policy of enforcement discretion until the draft guidance documents are finalized. In January 2017, the FDA announced that final guidance on the oversight of LDTs would allow for further public discussion. On January 13, 2017 the FDA issued a “Discussion Paper on Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs),” which states that the material in the document does not represent a final version of the LDT draft guidance documents that were published in 2014 or position of the FDA; rather, the document is a method to encourage additional dialogue. The timing of when, if at all, the draft guidance documents will be finalized is unclear, and even then, the new regulatory requirements are proposed to be phased-in consistent with the schedule set forth in the guidance. Nevertheless, the FDA may decide to regulate certain LDTs on a case-by-case basis at any time. LDTs with the same intended use as a cleared or approved companion diagnostic are defined in FDA’s draft guidance as “high-risk LDTs (Class III medical devices)” for which premarket review would be first to occur.

FDA review, if required and successfully accomplished, would be expected to have some advantages. Certain health insurance payers have paid higher amounts over LDT prices for FDA approved or cleared tests, recognizing the additional costs of bringing a test through regulatory review. Some payers also accept FDA approval or clearance as a presumptive evidence of an assay’s analytic validity and clinical validity, which can reduce the barriers to coverage since the payer can focus its review on clinical utility.

The container we provide for collection and transport of blood samples from a health care provider to our clinical laboratory, as well as our BCTs, may be medical devices subject to the FDA regulation but are currently exempt from pre-market review by the FDA. While we believe that we are currently in material compliance with applicable laws and regulations, we cannot assure you that the FDA or other regulatory agencies would agree with our determination, and a determination that we have violated these laws, or a public announcement that we are being investigated for possible violations of these laws, could adversely affect our business, prospects, results of operations or financial condition.

Some of the materials we use for our current products, assays and services and may use in our planned future products, assays and services are labeled for RUO. In November 2013, the FDA finalized guidance regarding the sale and use of products labeled for research or investigational use only. Among other things, the guidance advises that the FDA continues to be concerned about distribution of research or investigational use only products intended for clinical diagnostic use and that the manufacturer’s objective intent for the product’s intended use will be determined by examining the totality of circumstances, including advertising, instructions for clinical interpretation, presentations that describe clinical use, and specialized technical support, surrounding the distribution of the product in question. The FDA has advised that if evidence demonstrates that a product is inappropriately labeled for research or investigational use only, the device would be misbranded and adulterated within the meaning of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Some of the materials and reagents obtained by us from suppliers for use in our current products, assays and services and our planned future products, assays and services are currently labeled as research or investigational use only products. If the FDA were to undertake enforcement actions, some of our suppliers might cease selling research or investigational use products to us, and any failure to obtain an acceptable substitute could significantly and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, including increasing the cost of materials or reagents used in our current products, assays and services or planned future products, assays and services or delaying, limiting or prohibiting the purchase of materials or reagents necessary to sell our current products or planned future products or to perform our current assays or our planned future assays.

Our BCTs will be marketed for RUO and distributed and sold to end users, some of which will be researchers and institutions while other end users could be labs performing clinical testing that will create their own LDTs utilizing our tubes. Some end users of the

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BCTs may assert that our BCT caused their assays to perform inadequately or give erroneous results. If that was the case, we could potentially incur additional liabilities.

Further, HHS requested that its Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society make recommendations about the oversight of genetic testing. A final report was published in April 2008. If the report’s recommendations for increased oversight of genetic testing were to result in further regulatory burdens, they could negatively affect our business and delay the commercialization of assays in development.

Additionally, on March 16, 2018 CMS issued a final determination decision memo for NGS for Medicare Beneficiaries with Advanced Cancer (CAG-00450N).  Under this final determination, NGS tests that gain FDA approval or clearance as a companion diagnostic will receive coverage, and the final determination of coverage for NGS tests that are LDTs will be left up to the local MAC. Currently, only 1 of our 15 CLIA validated assays is NGS-based; however, we plan to offer additional NGS assays in the future. To gain coverage for those assays, we will need to apply to Palmetto, which is the MAC that evaluates and recommends payment coverage or denial for molecular testing in our jurisdiction. Historically, Palmetto has offered a path to reimbursement by providing coverage while data is being gathered known as Coverage with Data Development, or CDD. Going forward, the extent to which CDD will be continued, if at all, or to the extent that a process will be available in its place, if any, are unclear.  

The requirement of pre-market review could negatively affect our business until such review is completed and clearance to market or approval is obtained. The FDA could require that we stop selling our products or diagnostic assays pending pre-market clearance or approval. If the FDA allows our products or assays to remain on the market but there is uncertainty about our products or assays, if they are labeled investigational by the FDA or if labeling claims the FDA allows us to make are very limited, orders from laboratory supply distributors and physicians, or reimbursement from third-party payers, may decline. The regulatory approval process may involve, among other things, successfully completing additional clinical trials and making a 510(k) submission or filing a pre-market approval application with the FDA. If the FDA requires pre-market review, our products or assays may not be cleared or approved on a timely basis, if at all. We may also decide voluntarily to pursue FDA pre-market review of our products or assays if we determine that doing so would be appropriate.

If we were required to conduct additional clinical studies or trials before continuing to offer assays that we have developed or may develop as LDTs, those studies or trials could lead to delays or failure to obtain necessary regulatory approval, which could cause significant delays in commercializing any future products and harm our ability to achieve sustained profitability.

If the FDA decides to require that we obtain clearance or approvals to commercialize our current assays or our planned future assays, we may be required to conduct additional pre-market clinical testing before submitting a regulatory notification or application for commercial sales. In addition, as part of our long-term strategy we may plan to seek FDA clearance or approval, so we can sell our assays outside our CLIA laboratory; however, we would need to conduct additional clinical validation activities on our assays before we can submit an application for FDA approval or clearance. Clinical trials must be conducted in compliance with FDA regulations or the FDA may take enforcement action or reject the data. The data collected from these clinical trials may ultimately be used to support market clearance or approval for our assays. It may take two years or more to conduct the clinical studies and trials necessary to obtain approval from the FDA to commercially launch our current assays and our planned future assays outside of our clinical laboratory. Even if our clinical trials are completed as planned, we cannot be certain that their results will support our assay claims or that the FDA or foreign authorities will agree with our conclusions regarding our assay results. Success in early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful, and we cannot be sure that the later trials will replicate the results of prior clinical trials and studies. If we are required to conduct pre-market clinical trials, whether using prospectively acquired samples or archival samples, delays in the commencement or completion of clinical testing could significantly increase our assay development costs and delay commercialization. Many of the factors that may cause or lead to a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to delay or denial of regulatory clearance or approval. The commencement of clinical trials may be delayed due to insufficient patient enrollment, which is a function of many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the protocol, the proximity of patients to clinical sites and the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial. Moreover, the clinical trial process may fail to demonstrate that our current assays and our planned future assays are effective for the proposed indicated uses, which could cause us to abandon an assay candidate and may delay development of other assays.

We may find it necessary to engage contract research organizations to perform data collection and analysis and other aspects of our clinical trials, which might increase the cost and complexity of our trials. We may also depend on clinical investigators, medical institutions and contract research organizations to perform the trials properly. If these parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, or if the quality, completeness or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or for other reasons, our clinical trials may have to be extended, delayed or terminated. Many of these factors would be beyond our control. We may not be able to enter into replacement arrangements without undue delays or considerable expenditures. If there are delays in testing or approvals as a result of the failure to perform by third parties, our research and development costs would increase, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory clearance or approval for our current assays and our planned future assays. In addition, we may not be able to establish or maintain relationships

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with these parties on favorable terms, if at all. Each of these outcomes would harm our ability to market our assays or to achieve sustained profitability.

We are subject to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations and could face substantial penalties if we are unable to fully comply with such laws.

We are subject to health care fraud and abuse regulation and enforcement by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. These health care laws and regulations include, for example:

Further, the ACA, among other things, amends the intent requirement of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and certain criminal health care fraud statutes. Where the intent requirement has been lowered, a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of this statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the government may now 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. Any action brought against us for violation of these laws or regulations, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws and regulations, we may be subject to any applicable penalty associated with the violation, including, among others, administrative, civil and criminal penalties, damages and fines, and/or exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid programs, including the California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal-the California Medicaid program) or other state or federal health care programs. Additionally, we could be required to refund payments received by us, and we could be required to curtail or cease our operations. Any of the foregoing consequences could seriously harm our business and our financial results.

We may be required to comply with laws governing the transmission, security and privacy of health information that require significant compliance costs, and any failure to comply with these laws could result in material criminal and civil penalties.

Under the administrative simplification provisions of HIPAA, HHS has issued regulations which establish uniform standards governing the conduct of certain electronic health care transactions and protecting the privacy and security of Protected Health Information used or disclosed by health care providers and other covered entities.

The privacy regulations regulate the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information by covered entities engaging in certain electronic transactions or “standard transactions.” They also set forth certain rights that an individual has with respect to his or her Protected Health Information maintained by a covered entity, including the right to access or amend certain records containing Protected Health Information or to request restrictions on the use or disclosure of Protected Health Information. The HIPAA security regulations establish administrative, physical and technical standards for maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Protected Health Information in electronic form. These standards apply to covered entities and also to “business associates” or third

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parties providing services to covered entities involving the use or disclosure of Protected Health Information. The HIPAA privacy and security regulations establish a uniform federal “floor” and do not supersede state laws that are more stringent or provide individuals with greater rights with respect to the privacy or security of, and access to, their records containing Protected Health Information. As a result, we may be required to comply with both HIPAA privacy regulations and varying state privacy and security laws.

Moreover, HITECH, enacted as part of ARRA, among other things, established certain health information security breach notification requirements, which were later further modified by the Final Omnibus Rule. In the event of a breach of unsecured Protected Health Information, a covered entity must notify each individual whose Protected Health Information is breached, federal regulators and in some cases, must publicize the breach in local or national media. Breaches affecting 500 individuals or more may be publicized by federal regulators who publicly identify the breaching entity, the circumstances of the breach and the number of individuals affected.

These laws contain significant fines and other penalties for wrongful use or disclosure of Protected Health Information. Given the complexity of HIPAA and HITECH and their overlap with state privacy and security laws, and the fact that these laws are rapidly evolving and are subject to changing and potentially conflicting interpretation, our ability to comply with the HIPAA, HITECH and state privacy requirements is uncertain and the costs of compliance are significant. Adding to the complexity is that our operations are evolving, and the requirements of these laws will apply differently depending on such things as whether or not we bill electronically for our services. The costs of complying with any changes to the HIPAA, HITECH and state privacy restrictions may have a negative impact on our operations. Noncompliance could subject us to criminal penalties, civil sanctions and significant monetary penalties as well as reputational damage.

Clinical research is heavily regulated and failure to comply with human subject protection regulations may disrupt our research program leading to significant expense, regulatory enforcement, private lawsuits and reputational damage.

Clinical research is subject to federal, state and, for studies conducted outside of the United States, international regulation. At the federal level, the FDA imposes regulations for the protection of human subjects and requirements such as initial and ongoing institutional review board review; informed consent requirements, adverse event reporting and other protections to minimize the risk and maximize the benefit to research participants. Many states impose human subject protection laws that mirror or in some cases exceed federal requirements. HIPAA also regulates the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information in connection with research activities. Research conducted overseas is subject to a variety of national protections such as mandatory ethics committee review, as well as laws regulating the use, disclosure and cross-border transfer of personal data. The costs of compliance with these laws may be significant and compliance with regulatory requirements may result in delay. Noncompliance may disrupt our research and result in data that is unacceptable to regulatory authorities, data lock or other sanctions that may significantly disrupt our operations.

Violation of a state’s prohibition on the corporate practice of medicine could result in a material adverse effect on our business.

A number of states, including California, do not allow business corporations to employ physicians to provide professional services. This prohibition against the “corporate practice of medicine” is aimed at preventing corporations such as us from exercising control over the medical judgments or decisions of physicians. The state licensure statutes and regulations and agency and court decisions that enumerate the specific corporate practice rules vary considerably from state to state and are enforced by both the courts and regulatory authorities, each with broad discretion. If regulatory authorities or other parties in any jurisdiction successfully assert that we are engaged in the unauthorized corporate practice of medicine, we could be required to restructure our contractual and other arrangements. In addition, violation of these laws may result in sanctions imposed against us and/or the professional through licensure proceedings, and we could be subject to civil and criminal penalties that could result in exclusion from state and federal health care programs.

Intellectual Property Risks Related to Our Business

If we are unable to obtain and maintain effective patent rights for our products or services, 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, products and services. Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent and other 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. The possibility exists that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection.

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The patent position of diagnostic 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 products or services 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 products and services, 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 products and services, 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, independently or together with our licensors, have filed several patent applications covering various aspects of our products and services. 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 products and services that we may offer. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product or service under patent protection could be reduced.

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 licensors 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 make 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, or the 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 United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, must still implement various regulations, the courts have yet to address any of 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 products or services, 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 products and services 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.

Although we expect all of our employees and consultants to assign their inventions to us, and all of our employees, consultants, advisors, and any third parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information, or technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, 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.

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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 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 products and services. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our products and services 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 products and services. We have conducted freedom to operate analyses with respect to only certain of our products and services, and therefore we do not know whether there are any third-party patents that would impair our ability to commercialize these products and services. We also cannot guarantee that any of our analyses are complete and thorough, nor can we be sure that we have identified each and every patent and pending application in the United States and abroad that is relevant or necessary to the commercialization of our products and services. 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 products or services may infringe.

For example, in August 2016, we received a letter from MolecularMD Corp. offering a license to two U.S. Patents owned by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and licensed to MolecularMD Corp., that are relevant to one of the biomarkers we detect in our Liquid Biopsy Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Profile Target-Selector assay and our Liquid Biopsy Lung Cancer Resistance Profile Target-Selector™ assay. One of the two patents is expected to expire in 2026. The other patent is expected to expire in 2028. Although we believe that the claims of both patents relevant to our assays would likely be held invalid, we cannot provide any assurances that a court or an administrative agency would agree with our assessment. If the validity of the relevant claims in question is upheld upon a validity challenge, then we may be liable for past damages and would need a license in order to continue commercializing our Liquid Biopsy Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Profile Target-Selector Assay and our Liquid Biopsy Lung Cancer Resistance Profile Target-Selector Assay in the United States. However, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

In addition, we are aware of a U.S. Patent owned by Amgen, Inc. that is relevant to one of the biomarkers we detect in our Liquid Biopsy Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Profile Target-Selector assay and our Liquid Biopsy Lung Cancer Resistance Profile Target-Selector assay. The patent is expected to expire in 2028. Although we believe that the claims of the patent relevant to our assays would likely be held invalid, we cannot provide any assurances that a court or an administrative agency would agree with our assessment. If the validity of the relevant claims in question is upheld upon a validity challenge, then we may be liable for past damages and would need a license in order to continue commercializing our Liquid Biopsy Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Profile Target-Selector assay and our Liquid Biopsy Lung Cancer Resistance Profile Target-Selector assay in the United States. However, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

We are also aware of a U.S. Patent owned by Genentech, Inc. that is relevant to one of the biomarkers we detect in our Liquid Biopsy Lung Cancer Resistance Profile Target-Selector assay and our Liquid Biopsy Colon Cancer Profile Target-Selector assay. The patent is expected to expire in 2025. Although we believe that the claims of the patent relevant to our assays would likely be held invalid, we cannot provide any assurances that a court or an administrative agency would agree with our assessment. If the validity of the relevant claims in question is upheld upon a validity challenge, then we may be liable for past damages and would need a license in order to continue commercializing our Liquid Biopsy Lung Cancer Resistance Profile Target-Selector assay and our Liquid Biopsy Colon Cancer Profile Target-Selector assay in the United States. However, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

In addition, in July 2016, we received a communication from the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (“Mayo”) offering a license to a U.S. Patent owned by Mayo that is relevant to an antibody that we use in our Liquid Biopsy Immuno-Oncology PD-L1 assay. The patent is expected to expire in 2021. At present, we believe that we will need a license to this patent to continue commercializing our Liquid Biopsy Immuno-Oncology PD-L1 assay. We are currently in discussions with Mayo and believe a license can be obtained on commercially reasonable terms. However, if we are unable to secure such a license, we may be liable for past damages, and our business could be materially and adversely affected.

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 aspects of our products or services, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such products or services unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or are finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

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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 products or services. 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 products or services through acquisitions and in-licenses.

We currently have rights to the intellectual property, through licenses from third parties and under patents that we own, to develop our products and services. 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. 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 products or services. 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. 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.

We sometimes collaborate with U.S. and foreign institutions to accelerate our research or development under written 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.

If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of that program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

Although we are not currently involved in any litigation, we may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensors. Although we are not currently involved in any litigation, if we or one of our licensing partners were to initiate legal proceedings against a third-party to enforce a patent covering one of our products or services, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product or service 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.

Interference 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 licensors. 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 interference 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 sufficient capital to continue our research programs, license necessary technology from third parties, or enter into development partnerships that would help commercialize our products or services.

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 common stock.

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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 certain 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, and we are not currently subject to any claims that our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties, we may in the future be subject to such claims. 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.

Although we are not currently experiencing any claims challenging the inventorship of our patents or ownership of our intellectual property, we may in the future be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in 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 products or services. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship. 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.

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 products and services 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. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and may also export 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.

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Our collaborators may assert ownership or commercial rights to inventions we develop from our use of the biological materials which they provide to us, or otherwise arising from the collaboration.

We collaborate with several institutions, physicians and researchers in scientific matters. We do not have written agreements with certain of such collaborators, or the written agreements we have do not cover intellectual property rights. Also, we rely on numerous third parties to provide us with blood samples and biological materials that we use to develop assays. If we cannot successfully negotiate sufficient ownership and commercial rights to any inventions that result from our use of a third-party collaborator’s materials, or if disputes arise with respect to the intellectual property developed with the use of a collaborator’s samples, or data developed in a collaborator’s study, we may be limited in our ability to capitalize on the market potential of these inventions or developments.

Risks Relating to Our Common Stock

The price of our common stock may be volatile.

Before our initial public offering, there was no public market for our common stock. Market prices for securities of early-stage life sciences companies have historically been particularly volatile. The factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate include, but are not limited to:

In addition, the equity markets have experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market prices for the securities of newly public companies for a number of reasons, including reasons that may be unrelated to our business or operating performance. These broad market fluctuations may result in a material decline in the market price of our common stock and you may not be able to sell your shares at prices you deem acceptable. In the past, following periods of volatility in the equity markets, securities class action lawsuits have been instituted against public companies. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial cost and the diversion of management attention.

Our failure to meet the continued listing requirements of The NASDAQ Capital Market could result in a de-listing of our common stock.

If we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of The NASDAQ Capital Market, such as the corporate governance requirements, the minimum closing bid price requirement, or the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement, NASDAQ may take steps to de-list our common stock. For example, in May 2016, we received a letter from NASDAQ indicating that we are not in compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement of NASDAQ Listing Rule 5550(b)(1), and in each of June 2016, November 2016, and January 2018, we received letters from NASDAQ indicating that we are not in compliance with the minimum bid price requirement of NASDAQ Listing Rule 5550(a)(2), which requires that companies listed on The NASDAQ Capital Market maintain a minimum closing bid price of at least $1.00 per share. If we fail to regain and/or maintain compliance with these, or any other of the continued listing requirements of The NASDAQ Capital Market, NASDAQ may take steps to de-list our common stock. Such a de-listing would likely have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock when you wish to do so. In the event of a de-listing, we would take actions to restore our compliance with NASDAQ’s listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our common stock to

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become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common stock, or prevent future non-compliance with NASDAQ’s listing requirements.

If our shares become subject to the penny stock rules, it would become more difficult to trade our shares.

The SEC has adopted rules that regulate broker-dealer practices in connection with transactions in penny stocks. Penny stocks are generally equity securities with a price of less than $5.00, other than securities registered on certain national securities exchanges or authorized for quotation on certain automated quotation systems, provided that current price and volume information with respect to transactions in such securities is provided by the exchange or system. If we do not retain a listing on The NASDAQ Capital Market, and if the price of our common stock is less than $5.00, our common stock will be deemed a penny stock. The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer, before a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from those rules, to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document containing specified information. In addition, the penny stock rules require that before effecting any transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from those rules, a broker-dealer must make a special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and receive (i) the purchaser’s written acknowledgment of the receipt of a risk disclosure statement; (ii) a written agreement to transactions involving penny stocks; and (iii) a signed and dated copy of a written suitability statement. These disclosure requirements may have the effect of reducing the trading activity in the secondary market for our common stock, and therefore stockholders may have difficulty selling their shares.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly.

We expect our operating results to be subject to quarterly fluctuations. Our net loss and other operating results will be affected by numerous factors, including:

If our quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Furthermore, any quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our stock to fluctuate substantially.

If securities or industry analysts issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock or do not publish research or reports about our company, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us, our business and our competitors. We do not control these analysts or the content and opinions or financial models included in their reports. Securities analysts may elect not to provide research coverage of our company, and such lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. The price of our common stock could also decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our common stock or if those analysts issue other unfavorable commentary or cease publishing reports about us or our business. If one or more equity research analysts cease coverage of our company, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.

*Future sales of our common stock or other securities, or the perception that future sales may occur, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline, even if our business is doing well.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock or other securities, or the perception that these sales may occur, could materially and adversely affect the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. For example, in May 2015, the SEC declared effective a shelf registration statement filed by us. This shelf registration statement allows us to issue any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants from time to time until expiry on May 21, 2018 for an aggregate initial offering price of up to $50 million, subject to certain limitations for so long as our public float is less than $75 million. The specific terms of additional future offerings, if any, under this shelf registration statement would be established at the time of such offerings. Depending on a variety of factors, including market liquidity of our common stock, the sale of shares under this shelf registration statement may cause the trading price of our common stock to decline. The sale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock under this shelf registration statement, or anticipation of such sales, could cause the

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trading price of our common stock to decline or make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise desire.

We had outstanding 68,213,349 shares of common stock as of May 11, 2018, of which no more than 666,515 are restricted securities that may be sold only in accordance with the resale restrictions under Rule 144 of the Securities Act. In addition, as of May 11, 2018, we had outstanding options to purchase 1,784,601 shares of our common stock, 10,920 shares of common stock were issuable upon the settlement of outstanding restricted stock units, or RSUs, and 41,503,131 shares of our common stock were issuable upon the exercise of outstanding warrants. Shares issued upon the exercise of stock options or upon the settlement of outstanding RSUs generally will be eligible for sale in the public market, except that affiliates will continue to be subject to volume limitations and other requirements of Rule 144 under the Securities Act. The issuance or sale of such shares could depress the market price of our common stock.

In the future, we also may issue our securities if we need to raise additional capital. The number of new shares of our common stock issued in connection with raising additional capital could constitute a material portion of the then-outstanding shares of our common stock.

If we are unable to favorably assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and our stock price could be materially adversely affected.

Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or the subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm conducted in connection with Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after our public float is at least $75 million and we no longer qualify as an “emerging growth company,” may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our consolidated financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. Inferior internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.

We are required to disclose changes made in our internal control procedures on a quarterly basis and our management is required to assess the effectiveness of these controls annually. However, for as long as we are an “emerging growth company” under the recently enacted JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting 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 take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company until December 31, 2019, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 before that time or if we have total annual gross revenue of $1.07 billion or more during any fiscal year before that time, in which cases we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31 or, if we issue more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during any three year period before that time, we would cease to be an emerging growth company immediately. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company” which would allow us to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. We cannot predict if investors find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, are subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. As a result, changes in rules of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or their interpretation,

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the adoption of new guidance or the application of existing guidance to changes in our business could significantly affect our financial position and results of operations.

We have incurred and will continue to 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 are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, the listing requirements of The NASDAQ Stock Market and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly, and increase demand on our systems and resources. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight may be required. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business and operating results. Further, there are significant corporate governance and executive compensation related provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted in 2010, that require the SEC to adopt additional rules and regulations in these areas such as “say on pay” and proxy access. Recent legislation permits smaller “emerging growth companies” to implement many of these requirements over a longer period. We intend to continue taking 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.

In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.

Anti-takeover provisions of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove the current members of our board and management.

Certain provisions of our amended certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change of control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares. Furthermore, these provisions could prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove members of our Board of Directors. (For example, Delaware law provides that if a corporation has a classified board of directors, stockholders cannot remove any director during his or her term without cause.) These provisions also could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for our common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our common stock. Stockholders who wish to participate in these transactions may not have the opportunity to do so. These provisions, among other things:

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In addition, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, which may, unless certain criteria are met, prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of the voting rights on our common stock, from merging or combining with us for a prescribed period of time.

Because we do not expect to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future, you must rely on appreciation of our common stock price for any return on your investment. Even if we change that policy, we may be restricted from paying dividends on our common stock.

We do not intend to pay cash dividends on shares of our common stock for the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon results of operations, financial performance, contractual restrictions, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant. Accordingly, you will have to rely on capital appreciation, if any, to earn a return on your investment in our common stock. Investors seeking cash dividends in the foreseeable future should not purchase our common stock.

The recently passed comprehensive tax reform bill could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

On December 22, 2017, the President of the United States signed into law new legislation that significantly revises the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code.  The newly enacted federal income tax law, among other things, contains significant changes to corporate taxation, including reduction of the corporate tax rate from a top marginal rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%, limitation of the tax deduction for interest expense to 30% of adjusted earnings (except for certain small businesses), limitation of the deduction for net operating losses to 80% of current year taxable income and elimination of net operating loss carrybacks, one time taxation of offshore earnings at reduced rates regardless of whether they are repatriated, elimination of U.S. tax on foreign earnings (subject to certain important exceptions), immediate deductions for certain new investments instead of deductions for depreciation expense over time, and modifying or repealing many business deductions and credits. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of the new federal tax law is uncertain and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the newly enacted federal tax law. The impact of this tax reform on holders of our common stock is also uncertain and could be adverse.  We urge our stockholders to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to this legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in or holding our common stock.

Our effective tax rate may fluctuate, and we may incur obligations in tax jurisdictions in excess of accrued amounts.

We are subject to taxation in numerous U.S. states and territories. As a result, our effective tax rate is derived from a combination of applicable tax rates in the various places that we operate. In preparing our financial statements, we estimate the amount of tax that will become payable in each of such places. Nevertheless, our effective tax rate may be different than experienced in the past due to numerous factors, including passage of the newly enacted federal income tax law, the results of examinations and audits of our tax filings, our inability to secure or sustain acceptable agreements with tax authorities, changes in accounting for income taxes and changes in tax laws. Any of these factors could cause us to experience an effective tax rate significantly different from previous periods or our current expectations and may result in tax obligations in excess of amounts accrued in our financial statements.

Our ability to use our estimated net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

Our ability to utilize our estimated federal net operating loss, carryforwards and federal tax credits may be limited under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code. Under the newly enacted federal income tax law, federal net operating losses incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses is limited. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the newly enacted federal tax law. In addition, the limitations apply if an “ownership change,” as defined by Section 382 of the Code, occurs. If we have experienced an ownership change at any time since our formation, we may already be subject to limitations on our ability to utilize our existing net operating losses and other tax attributes to offset taxable income. Future changes in our stock ownership (including in connection with future offerings, as well as other changes that may be outside of our control), may trigger an ownership change and, consequently, limitations under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our estimated pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset United States federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. As of December 31, 2017, we had estimated federal and state net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $13.6 million and $15.0 million, respectively, and estimated federal and California research and development credits of approximately $5,000 and $3,395,000, respectively, which could be limited if we have experienced or do experience any “ownership changes.” We have not completed a study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since our formation, due to the complexity and cost associated with such a study, and the fact that there may be additional ownership changes in the future, however, we believe ownership changes likely occurred in each year from 2015 through 2018. As a result, we have estimated that the use of our net operating loss is limited and the amounts above represent the remaining net operating loss carryforwards and research and development credits we estimate can be used in the future, which remain fully offset by a valuation allowance to reduce the net asset to zero.

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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 early-stage life sciences 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.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

None.

Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

Not applicable.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

Item 5. Other Information

Not applicable.

Item 6. Exhibits

The exhibits listed below are hereby filed with the SEC as part of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

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