UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

OR

For the transition period from ____________to_________________

Commission file Number: 000-24249

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock, $0.01 par value per share, held by non-affiliates of the registrant on June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $42,186,849 (based on the closing sales price of the registrant’s common stock on that date). Shares of the registrant’s common stock held by each officer and director and each person who owns 10% or more of the outstanding common stock of the registrant have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of March 25, 2022, 4,226,422 shares of the registrant’s common stock, $0.01 par value per share, were issued and outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K will be incorporated by reference from certain portions of the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement for the 2021 annual meeting of stockholders, or Proxy Statement, or will be included in an amendment hereto, to be filed within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part hereof.

Interpace Biosciences, Inc.

Annual Report on Form 10-K

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT INFORMATION

This Annual Report on Form 10-K, and the documents incorporated by reference in this document, our press releases and oral statements made from time to time by us or on our behalf, may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (or the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). In this context, forward-looking statements are not historical facts and include statements about our plans, objectives, beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements include statements preceded by, followed by, or that include the words “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “seeks,” “plans,” “estimates,” “intends,” “projects,” “targets,” “should,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “can,” “can have,” “likely,” or the negatives thereof or other comparable words and expressions regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including risks and uncertainties associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These forward-looking statements are contained throughout this Form 10-K, including, but not limited to, statements found in Part I – Item 1 – “Business” and Part II – Item 7 – “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Forward-looking statements are only predictions and are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions involving judgments about, among other things, future economic, competitive and market conditions and future business decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond our control. These predictions are also affected by known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. Many of these factors are beyond our ability to control or predict. Our actual results could differ materially from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the following:

Please see Part I - Item 1A – “Risk Factors” of this Form 10-K, as well as other documents we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, from time-to-time, for other important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our current expectations and from the forward-looking statements discussed herein. Because of these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. In addition, these statements speak only as of the date of this Form 10-K and, except as may be required by law, we undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

In this Form 10-K, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “Interpace” and the “Company” refer to Interpace Biosciences, Inc., including consolidated subsidiaries as of December 31, 2021.

PART I

Company Overview

We are an emerging leader in enabling precision medicine principally in oncology by offering specialized services along the therapeutic value chain from early diagnosis and prognostic planning to targeted therapeutic applications through our clinical and pharma services. Through our clinical services, we enable physicians to personalize the clinical management of each individual patient by providing genomic information to better diagnose, monitor and inform cancer treatment. Our clinical services provide clinically useful molecular diagnostic tests, bioinformatics and pathology services for evaluating risk of cancer by leveraging the latest technology in personalized medicine for improved patient diagnosis and management. Through our pharma services, we develop, commercialize and provide molecular- and biomarker-based tests and services and provide companies with customized solutions for patient stratification and treatment selection through an extensive suite of molecular and biomarker-based testing services, DNA and RNA extraction and customized assay development and trial design consultation. Our pharma services provide pharmacogenomics testing, genotyping, biorepository and other specialized services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and advance personalized medicine by partnering with pharmaceutical, academic and technology leaders to effectively integrate pharmacogenomics into drug development and clinical trial programs with the goals of delivering safer, more effective drugs to market more quickly, and improving patient care.

Our clinical services’ customers consist primarily of physicians, hospitals, cancer centers, commercial laboratories, pathology groups and clinics. Our largest customer for ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® products in 2021 was [Laboratory Corporation of America^® or LabCorp]. Our revenue channels include reimbursement by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and direct client billings (for example, hospitals and clinics), and commercial payers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare and others.

We partner with pharmaceutical and biotech companies and clinicians as oncology diagnostic specialists by supporting development and patient care from bench to bedside. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies work with us to provide molecular profiles on clinical trial participants. Similarly, we believe the oncology industry is undergoing a rapid evolution in its approach to diagnostic, prognostic and treatment outcome testing, embracing precision testing and individualized medicine as a means to drive higher standards of patient treatment and disease management. These profiles may help identify biomarker and genomic variations that may be targetable for developing novel personalized therapeutics or that may be responsible for differing responses to existing oncology therapies, thereby increasing the efficiency of trials while lowering costs. We believe tailored and combination therapies can revolutionize oncology care through molecular- and biomarker-based testing services, enabling physicians and researchers to target the factors that make each patient and disease unique. Our pharma services’ customers consist primarily of pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

To optimize the operations of laboratory operations within our pharma services, during late 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, we transitioned activities from our Rutherford, NJ facility to our Morrisville, NC facility. We invested several million dollars to facilitate this relocation, including but not limited to the transfer of personnel, expansion of the Morrisville facility and validation of transferred processes. We believe that this investment will result in a reduction in future operating costs. We have also undergone several other cost-cutting initiatives, primarily reductions in headcount, and those costs are categorized as transition expenses as well. It is not certain whether the transition will produce the predicted financial benefits. During Fiscal 2021, the Company experienced a fairly significant decrease in volume within pharma services. The decrease in revenue within pharma services was approximately 32% from the comparable prior year period.

In October 2021, the Company entered into a $7.5 million revolving credit facility with Comerica Bank (“Comerica”). In addition, also in October 2021, the Company entered into an $8.0 million term loan with BroadOak Fund V, L.P. (“BroadOak”). See Part II – Item 7 – “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Liquidity and Capital Resources” for more details.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, together with related precautionary measures, continues to impact portions of the regions in which we operate. These regions are attempting to address the COVID-19 pandemic in varying ways, including stay-at-home orders, temporarily closing businesses, restricting gatherings, restricting travel, and mandating social distancing and face coverings. The level and nature of the disruption caused by COVID-19 is unpredictable, may be cyclical and long-lasting and may vary from location to location.

The continuing impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our operations, including duration, severity and scope, remains highly uncertain and cannot be fully predicted at this time. While we believe we have generally recovered from the adverse impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on our business during 2020, we believe that the COVID-19 pandemic could continue to adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition in the future.

We continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and the guidance that is being provided by relevant federal, state and local public health authorities and may take additional actions based upon their recommendations. It is possible that we may have to make adjustments to our operating plans in reaction to developments that are beyond our control.

Lab closures experienced thus far by the Company have consisted of periodic, temporary work stoppages to clean and disinfect the labs; however, this could change in the future based upon conditions caused by the pandemic. It is also possible that we could experience supply chain shortages if the pandemic worsens and if one or more suppliers is unable to continue to provide us with supplies. For the foreseeable future, however, we do not anticipate supply chain shortages of critical supplies.

We have developed contingency plans and will continue to monitor and update them in order to mitigate pandemic-related, adverse financial impacts upon our business.

Market Overview

Global Molecular Diagnostic Market

The global molecular diagnostics market is estimated to be $11.77 billion (USD) in 2021 and is expected to grow to $18.1 billion (USD) by 2026 with a CAGR of 9.0% between 2021 and 2026, according to Market Data Forecast’s Molecular Diagnostics Market report (ID: 10293, published January 2022).

The global esoteric testing market size was valued at $20.2 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $66.2 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.5% from 2021 to 2030, according to an August 2021 report by Allied Market Research. We believe that the specialty molecular diagnostics market offers significant growth and strong patient value given the substantial opportunity it affords to lower healthcare costs by helping to reduce unnecessary surgeries and ensuring the appropriate frequency of monitoring. We are keenly focused on growing our test volumes, securing additional insurance coverage and reimbursement, maintaining and growing our current reimbursement and supporting revenue growth for our molecular diagnostic tests, introducing related first line product and service extensions, as well as expanding our business by developing and promoting synergistic products in our markets. We also believe that BarreGEN^® is a potentially significant pipeline product, and we are providing necessary resources to support the development process.

Contract Research Organization Market size was valued at over $43.9 billion in 2020 and is estimated to grow at a 7.8% CAGR between 2021 and 2027. Growing demand for clinical trials in emerging countries coupled with increasing prevalence of chronic diseases is escalating the market growth. The pharma services (clinical research) segment in the contract research organization market accounted for $25.2 billion in 2020 and is projected to showcase an 8% growth rate by 2027.

United States Clinical Oncology Market

Despite many advances in the treatment of cancer, it remains one of the greatest areas of unmet medical need. In 2020, the World Health Organization attributed nearly 10 million deaths globally to cancer, which is about one in six deaths. Within the United States, cancer is the second most common cause of death, exceeded only by heart disease, accounting for nearly one out of every five deaths. Of note, pancreatic cancer is now the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimated that the direct medical treatment costs of cancer in the United States for 2015 were $80.2 billion. In the United States in 2022, it is expected that in total there will be approximately 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed, which is the equivalent of approximately 5,205 new cases each day, according to the American Cancer Society. The incidence, deaths and economic loss caused by cancer are staggering. The following table published by The American Cancer Society shows estimated new cases and deaths in 2020 in the United States for selected major cancer types:

References

United States and International Clinical Trials Market Overview

The United States is currently a world leader in biopharmaceutical research and development and manufacturing. In fiscal year 2021, the National Cancer Institute received a budget of $6.44 billion, an increase of $119 million over fiscal year 2020, to issue grants to support research, with a targeted investment in enhanced and early detection of disease through the analysis of circulating biomarkers using minimally invasive methods, as well as a focused investment in cancer prevention and treatment including research on new vaccines to prevent cancer-causing infections and investigational immuno-oncology drugs and drug combinations. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) reports that the average cost to develop a drug, including trial failures, can be as high as $2.6 billion and the approval process from development to market may be as long as 15 years. According to the National Cancer Institute, the overall cancer death rate in the United States continues to decline. Life expectancy increases can be attributed to earlier detection, new treatments and oncology medications.

Outside of the United States, particularly in potential target geographies of the European and Asia Pacific (“APAC”) regions, growth in the pharmaceuticals and clinical trials market is continuing. Medicines spending in the top five European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) is expected to increase at a CAGR of between 3% and 6%, or $51 billion, over the next five years (2022 to 2026), up from $44 billion in the past five years, according to the IQVIA Institute analysis. New brands were the largest driver of growth from 2016 to 2021 and are expected to continue in the next five years (2022 to 2026) but may be hampered by lingering effects of the pandemic on marketing operations and reimbursement decisions. APAC’s location provides access to large patient pools within favorable regulatory environments. The CRO market is valued at approximately $7.6 billion as of 2021 and is forecast to reach $11.9 billion by 2025. As a result of ease in regulatory approval, low worker rates, availability of a large patient pool, and the presence of key suppliers, the APAC region is anticipated to see a CAGR growth rate of 12% between 2017 and 2025.

While oncology drugs have the potential to be among the most personalized therapeutics, very few have successfully made it to market. The application of pharmacogenomics to oncology clinical trials enables researchers to better predict differences in drug response, efficacy and toxicity among trial participants, as well as to optimize treatment regimens based on these differences. According to IQVIA, in 2021, more than half (53%) of all pharmaceutical sales in the United States were from specialty drugs, a category of drugs including oncology treatments tailored to patients’ genomic profiles. We believe a growing demand for faster development of personalized medicines and more effective clinical trials are growth drivers of this market, and our core expertise is pharmacogenomics, or the study of genetic analysis based on a patient’s response to a particular therapy or drug.

Our Strategy

Our primary goal is to become a leader in providing high quality and dependable personalized medicine with exceptional growth. Our strategy is to grow our business both organically as well as by selective partnering, which could potentially include licensing, acquisitions or mergers, to generate positive returns for our shareholders and driving towards cash flow break-even. We expect to not only continue to further develop our existing gastrointestinal and endocrine assays but to also expand our presence in other markets where we have expertise and access. Our existing customer base and broad-based capabilities provide us a unique window not only into our current customers’ needs but also permit us to anticipate their future needs.

The key tactics to achieve our goals include:

The reliability of the volume growth from our clinical customers combined with more variable but scalable revenue from our pharmaceutical and biotech customers, we believe, provides the opportunity to expand our services and grow our business. We also believe that the synergistic opportunities of our businesses are important especially in targeted product categories where we have a history of clinical data and sample biorepositories as we expand our roster of pharmaceutical client opportunities. We also believe that our LIM’s systems, with the current investments we are making, is already an important tool to support our future growth as we begin to convert data into usable and unique information and insights for our customers’ benefit. Our unique commercial infrastructure focused on clinical and pharmaceutical customers is one of our most important assets and we anticipate expanding it in the future with highly trained commercial personnel that have growth potential and can effectively communicate our value proposition to our sophisticated customers. The information and analytics that we have, we believe, will help further differentiate us from our competitors.

Our Service Offerings

Our business is based on demand for molecular- and biomarker-based characterization of cancers from three main sectors: (1) clinical services for physicians, hospitals and clinics, (2) pharma services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and (3) pharma services for the research community.

Clinicians and oncologists in cancer centers and hospitals seek molecular-based testing since these methods often produce higher value and more accurate cancer diagnostic information than traditional analytical methods. Our proprietary and unique disease-focused or esoteric tests aim to provide actionable information that can guide patient management decisions, potentially resulting in decreased costs.

We continue to pursue the strategy of trying to demonstrate increased value and efficacy with payers who wish to contain costs and academic collaborators seeking to develop new insights and treatments.

Our pharma services are sought by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies engaged in designing and running clinical trials, from pre-clinical to post market surveillance, for their value and efficacy in oncology and immuno-oncology treatments and therapeutics.

We aim to provide physicians and patients with diagnostic options for detecting genomic and other molecular alterations that are associated with gastrointestinal, endocrine, and lung cancers. Our clinical services’ customers consist primarily of physicians, hospitals and clinics.

Clinical services

Our clinical services business commercializes clinically useful molecular diagnostic tests and molecular pathology services. We commercialize genomic tests and related first line assays principally focused on early detection of patients at high risk of cancer using the latest technology to help personalize medicine and improve patient diagnosis and management. Our tests and services provide mutational analysis of genomic material contained in suspicious cysts, nodules and lesions with the goal of better informing treatment decisions in patients at risk of thyroid, pancreatic, and other cancers. The molecular diagnostic tests we offer enable healthcare providers to better assess cancer risk, helping to avoid unnecessary surgical treatment in patients at low risk, while also helping to identify high risk patients that would benefit from surgical intervention.

Our mission is to provide personalized medicine through genomics-based diagnostics and innovation to advance patient care based on rigorous science. Our laboratories are licensed pursuant to federal law under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”) and are accredited by College of American Pathologists (“CAP”) and our products are approved by New York State. We are leveraging our licensed and accredited laboratories to refine and commercialize our assays and products. We aim to provide physicians and patients with diagnostic options for detecting genomic and other molecular alterations that are associated with gastrointestinal, endocrine, and other cancers. Our customers consist primarily of physicians, hospitals and clinics.

We currently have five commercialized molecular diagnostic tests in the marketplace: PancraGEN^®, which is a pancreatic cyst and pancreaticobiliary solid lesion genomic test that helps physicians better assess risk of pancreaticobiliary cancers using our proprietary PathFinderTG^® platform; PanDNA, a “molecular only” version of PancraGEN^® that provides physicians a snapshot of a limited number of factors; ThyGeNEXT^®, which is an expanded oncogenic mutation panel that helps identify malignant thyroid nodules; ThyraMIR^®, which, in combination with ThyGeNEXT^®, assesses thyroid nodules for risk of malignancy utilizing a proprietary microRNA gene expression assay. and RespriDx^®, which is a genomic test that helps physicians differentiate metastatic or recurrent lung cancer from the presence of newly formed primary lung cancer and which also utilizes our PathFinderTG^® platform.

Gastrointestinal Cancer Products

Our current gastrointestinal integrated pathology risk diagnostic assay, PancraGEN^® is based on our PathFinderTG^® platform. PathFinderTG^® is designed to use advanced clinical algorithms to accurately stratify patients according to risk of pancreatic cancer by assessing panels of DNA abnormalities in patients who have pancreaticobiliary lesions (cysts or solid masses) with potential for cancer. PanDNA is a “molecular only” reporting option for physicians that perform their own integration of first line testing results. PathFinderTG^® is supported by our state of the art CLIA certified, and CAP accredited laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our Pittsburgh laboratory is our largest clinical laboratory where we process the majority of our oncology related commercial tests; we also support our other gastrointestinal and endocrine commercial activities through this laboratory.

Early detection of pancreatic cancer is crucial. Based on the American Cancer Society Cancer 2022 Cancer Facts and Figures, pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. (estimated) with an average five year survival rate of 11%. PancraGEN^® and PanDNA^® are designed to determine risk of malignancy in pancreatic cysts and pancreaticobiliary solid lesions, which are more often than not benign lesions but have potential for developing into cancer. We believe that PancraGEN^® is the leader in the market for integrated molecular diagnostic tests for determining risk of pancreaticobiliary malignancy. We currently estimate that the immediate addressable market for PancraGEN^® is approximately 115,000 indeterminate pancreaticobiliary lesions annually or approximately $200 million annually based on the current size of the patient population and reimbursement rates. To date, PancraGEN^® testing has been used in more than 56,000 clinical cases. The National Pancreatic Cyst Registry study published in Endoscopy in 2015 demonstrated that PancraGEN^® more accurately determines the malignant potential of pancreatic cysts than international consensus 2012 imaging criteria, helping to ensure that surgery is reserved for the most appropriate patients. When molecular analysis is not performed, the vast majority of all pancreatic cyst surgeries are performed on cystic lesions that do not harbor malignancy.

The American Gastroenterological Association 2015 Guidelines have cautioned that many pancreatic surgeries have been performed unnecessarily for lesions that will not progress to invasive adenocarcinoma. In addition, the 2016 guidelines published by the American Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy (ASGE) in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy included a specific recommendation for use of molecular testing in specific circumstances where other types of testing and analysis have not provided sufficient data on which to determine the best course of action for patient treatment. Accordingly, we believe that PancraGEN^® provides a highly reliable diagnostic and prognostic option that identifies cancer risk in circumstances where risk of cancer is otherwise uncertain.

Endocrine Cancer Products

We currently market and sell a dual platform endocrine cancer risk diagnostic assay. The incidence of thyroid nodules is on the rise. ThyGeNEXT^® is a next generation DNA and RNA sequencing oncogene and mRNA fusion panel that is used to evaluate indeterminate thyroid biopsies. ThyGeNEXT^® works synergistically with our second endocrine cancer diagnostic test ThyraMIR^®, which is based on measuring the relative expression of ten distinct microRNAs. The combination of ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® is designed to provide a highly sensitive “rule-in” and “rule-out” test to accurately risk stratify indeterminate thyroid nodules.

We estimate the total market for our endocrine cancer assays is approximately $230 million annually based on the current size of the patient population, estimated numbers of indeterminate biopsies and reimbursement rates. ThyGeNEXT^® plus ThyraMIR^® is a combination testing platform. The mutational analysis provided by ThyGeNEXT can help inform treatment alone when strong BRAF V600E-like mutations are found. However, reflex to ThyraMIR occurs approximately 85% of the time to provide a greater understanding of malignancy risk and is especially helpful when weaker drivers of malignancy, such as RAS-like mutations, are found.

Endocrinologists and ear, nose and throat (“ENT”) specialists evaluate most thyroid nodules for possible cancer by collecting cells through Fine Needle Aspiration (“FNA”) that are then analyzed by cytopathologists to determine whether or not a thyroid nodule is cancerous. It is estimated that approximately 20% or well over 100,000 biopsies analyzed annually yield indeterminate results, meaning they cannot be diagnosed as definitely being malignant or benign by cytopathology alone. In the past, guidelines recommended that some patients with indeterminate cytopathology results undergo surgery to remove all or part of their thyroid to obtain an accurate diagnosis by looking directly at the thyroid tissue. According to a study published by Wang, et al. in 2011, in approximately 77% of these cases, the thyroid nodule proved to be benign. Current National Comprehensive Cancer Network (“NCCN”) and American Thyroid Association (“ATA”) guidelines support use of molecular analysis for nodules with indeterminate cytology results as this testing can prove beneficial to further characterize these lesions and support optimal patient management.

Lung Cancer Product—RespriDx^® Test and Metastatic versus Primary Platform

RespriDx^® compares the mutational fingerprint of two or more sites of cancer to determine whether the neoplastic deposits are representative of a recurrence (metastasis) of lung cancer or a new primary or independent tumor. The test, which currently provides only nominal revenues, defines the presence or absence of cancer in atypical cytology by comparing the mutational profile with that of known previous cancer. RespriDx^® assists in determining the most appropriate course of treatment, whether chemotherapy, surgery, or other modalities.

CLIA Certified and CAP Accredited Laboratories

Our testing is performed in our state of the art Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (“CLIA”) certified College of American Pathologists (“CAP”) accredited laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CLIA is 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. Clinical laboratories must be certified under CLIA in order to perform testing on human specimens, unless they fall within an exception to CLIA certification, such as research laboratories that test human specimens but do not report patient-specific results for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any disease or impairment of, or the assessment of the health of individual patients. CLIA certification is also required to be eligible to bill Federal and State healthcare programs, as well as many private third-party payers, for diagnostic testing and services. In addition, proprietary tests must also be recognized as part of an accredited program under CLIA so that they can be offered in a CLIA-certified laboratory. 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. For renewal of CLIA certification, clinical laboratories are subject to survey and inspection every two years. Moreover, CLIA inspectors may make random inspections of clinical laboratories outside of the renewal process.

Pharma services

We provide data driven solutions for pharmaceutical and biotech companies engaged in clinical trials and focus on providing these clients with oncology specific and non-oncology genetic testing services for phase I-IV clinical trials along with critical support of ancillary services. These ancillary services include: biorepository, clinical trial logistics, clinical trial design, bioinformatics analysis, customized assay development. DNA and RNA extraction and purification, genotyping, gene expression, flow cytometry, cytogenetic and FISH and biomarker analyses. We also seek to apply our expertise in laboratory developed tests to assist in developing and commercializing drug-specific companion diagnostics. We have established business relationships with key instrument manufacturers to provide a multi-omic approach, and to drive acceptance among biopharmaceutical sponsors developing innovative immuno-oncology therapies.

We also utilize our pharma services laboratories to provide clinical trial services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to improve the efficiency and economic viability of clinical trials. Our clinical trials services leverage our knowledge of clinical oncology and molecular diagnostics and our laboratories’ fully integrated capabilities. We believe our pharma services operates one of only a few laboratories with the capability to combine somatic and germline mutational analyses in clinical trials.

Our pharma services laboratory located in Morrisville, North Carolina has current certificates under CLIA to perform high complexity testing and are accredited by CAP, one of seven CLIA-approved accreditation organizations.

Industry research has shown many promising drugs have produced disappointing results in clinical trials. For example, a 2016 article by the University of Michigan reported that only 1 in 50 cancer drug candidates make it to the clinical market. Given such a high failure rate of oncology drugs, combined with constrained budgets for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, there is a significant need for drug developers to utilize molecular diagnostics to decrease these failure rates. For specific molecular-targeted therapeutics, the identification of appropriate biomarkers indicative of disease type or prognosis may help to optimize clinical trial patient selection and increase trial success rates by helping clinicians identify patients that are most likely to benefit from a therapy based on their individual genomic profile.

From a laboratory infrastructure standpoint, we possess capabilities in histology, immunohistochemistry (“IHC”), flow cytometry, cytogenetics and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (“FISH”), as well as sophisticated molecular analysis techniques, including next generation sequencing. This allows for comprehensive esoteric testing within one lab enterprise, with our CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory serving as a central hub for specimen tracking. Using this approach, we are able to support demanding clinical trial protocols requiring multiple assays and techniques aimed at capturing data on multiple biomarkers. Our suite of available testing platforms allows for highly customized clinical trial design which is supported by our dedicated group of development scientists and technical personnel.

Through this combination of a variety of testing platforms powered by a team of experienced scientists, we offer a comprehensive approach to clinical trial support. As trial design becomes increasingly complex to cater to more specific drug targets and patient populations, we believe that clinical result generation and reporting through a single-source solution for testing is becoming more valuable than ever. Examples of clinical trial services offered by our pharma services include:

In March of 2022, ClinicalTrials.gov reported over 80,000 clinical trials that are either preparing or recruiting patients. Molecular- and biomarker-based testing services have been altering the clinical trials landscape by providing biotech and pharmaceutical companies with information about trial subjects’ genetic profiles that may be able to inform researchers whether or not a subject will benefit from the trial drug or will experience adverse effects. We believe that streamlined subject selection and stratification and tailored therapies selected to maximally benefit each group of subjects may increase the number of trials that result in approved therapies and make conducting clinical trials more efficient and less costly for biotech and pharmaceutical companies. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), 2021 produced over 50 new drug approvals and 20% of these drugs were oncology-focused, highlighting the potential value of incorporating genomic information into oncology clinical trial design.

We also provide genetic testing for drug metabolism to aid biotech and pharmaceutical companies identify subjects’ likely responses to treatment, allowing these companies to conduct more efficient and safer clinical trials. We believe pharmacogenomics drug metabolism testing helps deliver the promise of personalized medicine by enabling researchers to tailor therapies in development to differences in patients’ genomic profiles.

Sales and Marketing

Our sales and marketing efforts consist of both direct and indirect sales channels with the majority of efforts focused on direct sales in the United States as well as a collaborative arrangement with another laboratory services company. In the US, pharma services also execute an indirect channel partner strategy by partnering with clinical research organizations (“CROs”) to support demand for unique or esoteric testing, customized data management and individual development of unique biomarkers.

Our commercialization efforts for our clinical services are currently focused on endocrinology, gastroenterology and lung cancers. Communication of our marketing messaging and value proposition is done principally through our two field-based commercial sales teams of approximately 26 representatives and managers. In addition, we employ medical science liaisons or MSLs to respond to clinician inquiries. Additionally, we communicate through print, digital advertising, a web presence, peer-reviewed publications, and trade show exhibits. We believe that our molecular diagnostic tests provide value to payers, physicians and patients by improving patient care and lowering healthcare costs through avoidance of unnecessary surgeries, reducing the morbidity associated with unnecessary surgeries for patients, and providing better diagnostic and prognostic insights to physicians. We support the value propositions of our tests through rigorous science and the accumulation of bioinformatics data that demonstrate clinical and analytical validity as well as clinical utility, and how they actually impact physicians’ decisions. We believe our repository of bioinformatics data accumulated in over 37,000 cases using PancraGEN and over 30,000 cases using our thyroid assays is a valuable tool in developing our analytics and potentially an even more valuable tool in the future.

We communicate to payers, integrated delivery systems and hospital systems about our molecular diagnostic tests’ value through highly trained professionals who are experienced in reimbursement and business to business selling and through face to face meetings, phone calls, digital communications and advisory boards. We develop health economic analyses and budget impact models and incorporate these along with our clinical validation studies, and clinical utility studies to demonstrate our molecular diagnostic tests’ value to this distinct and important constituency.

Our U.S. pharma services business development and sales professionals have scientific backgrounds in hematology, pathology, and laboratory services, with many years of experience in biopharmaceutical and clinical oncology sales, esoteric laboratory sales from leading biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical or specialty reference laboratory companies. We currently have a team of 4 business development and sales professionals in the United States. We support our sales force with scientific experts who bring deep domain knowledge in the design and use of our technologies and services.

Our pharma services team also executes an indirect channel partner strategy. As a result of this strategy, the pharma services team conducts project support for sponsors as a partner of such central labs as Covance, ICON Laboratories Inc. and Parexel International Corp. In addition to both direct and indirect sales channels, the pharma services team has formed a partnership with the China-based lab partner Genecast Biotechnology Co., Ltd. or, Genecast. Through our partnership with Genecast, we believe we are able to support our global pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients with their testing needs in the Chinese market.

We also promote our tests and services through marketing channels commonly used by the biopharma and pharmaceutical industries, such as internet, industry meetings and broad-based publication of our scientific and economic data. In addition, we provide easy to access information to our customers over the internet through dedicated websites. Our customers value easily accessible information in order to quickly review patient or study information. We do not, however, market our tests directly to individual patients or consumers.

Clinical Services Reimbursement Coverage

Additional Reimbursement Coverage During 2021

Reimbursement progress is key for our clinical services. We continued to expand the reimbursement of our products in 2021. Specifically, the most significant progress we have made regarding payers in 2021 is as follows:

Competition

We compete on the basis of factors such as reputation, scientific expertise, service quality, management experience, performance record, customer satisfaction, accessibility, flexibility, ability to respond to specific customer needs, integration skills, and product portfolio and price. Increased competition and/or a decrease in demand for our clinical and pharma services may also lead to other forms of competition. We believe that our business has a variety of competitive advantages that allow us to compete successfully in the marketplace. While we believe we compete effectively with respect to each of these factors, certain competitors of ours are substantially larger than us and have greater capital, personnel and other resources than we have. Many of our competitors also offer broader product lines outside of the molecular diagnostic testing market, and many have greater brand recognition than we do. Moreover, our competitors may make rapid technological developments that may result in our technologies and products becoming obsolete before we recover the expenses incurred to develop them or before they generate significant revenue. Increased competition may lead to pricing pressures and competitive practices that could have a material adverse effect on our market share and our ability to attract new business opportunities as well as our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We also compete with physicians and the medical community who use traditional methods to diagnose gastrointestinal and endocrine cancers. In many cases, practice guidelines in the United States have recommended therapies, surveillance or surgery to determine if a patient’s condition is malignant or benign. As a result, we believe that we will need to continue to educate physicians and the medical community on the value and benefits of our molecular diagnostic tests in order to change clinical practices and continue to support the use of molecular diagnostic tests in clinical guidelines.

Specifically, in regard to our thyroid diagnostic tests, Veracyte, Inc., or Veracyte, has a molecular thyroid nodule cancer diagnostic test (Afirma) that is the current market leader and competes with our ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMir^® tests. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, or Quest, currently offers a diagnostic test similar to the earlier version of our ThyGeNEXT^® test and announced an agreement to distribute the Afirma test in partnership with Veracyte. CBLPath, Inc., or CBL, offers ThyroSeq^®, a diagnostic test that analyzes genetic alterations using next-generation sequencing. In addition, other thyroid based endocrine competitors include Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc., or other companies we are not aware of. Additionally, in February 2020, we entered into an arrangement to co-market our thyroid test for an additional two years with LabCorp on a reference laboratory basis. We are in the process of negotiating a renewal of the LabCorp contract.

We are currently not aware of any direct competitors to PancraGEN^® that integrate clinical, imaging, cytology, and molecular information to stratify patients’ risk for malignancy and inform physicians on the best course of action, i.e., surgery or surveillance and surveillance interval length. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center now offers PancreaSeq^®, a Next Generation Sequencing “gene only” panel that focuses on the analysis of mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, most of which may help establish the type of pancreatic cyst present and some of which may help establish the presence of malignancy. Some of these related genomic regions are included in PancraGEN^®. This laboratory test however does not integrate any additional information to fully characterize a patient’s risk for pancreatic cancer. Importantly, there has been no long-term clinical validation or utility studies completed on any gene panel for pancreatic cyst fluid other than that associated with PancraGEN^®. PancraGEN^® has been validated in multiple studies and peer reviewed publications and has been used in over 45,000 patients. Additionally, we validated and launched a DNA only version of PancraGEN^®, known as PanDNA^®.

It is also possible that we face future competition from other laboratory-developed tests (LDT’s), developed by commercial laboratories such as Quest and other diagnostic companies developing new tests or technologies. Furthermore, we may be subject to competition as a result of new, unforeseen technologies that may be developed by our competitors in the gastrointestinal and endocrine cancer molecular diagnostic tests space.

We are aware of companies that are in the process of developing assays and LDTs for Barrett’s esophagus, such as Cernostics Inc. In addition, NeoGenomics Laboratories, Inc., or NeoGenomics, is marketing a Barrett’s assay, so it appears likely that this space will also be more competitive in the future.

With respect to pharma services, we also face competition from companies that currently offer or are developing products to profile genes, gene expression or protein biomarkers in various cancers. Precision medicine is a new area of science, and we cannot predict what tests others will develop that may compete with or provide results superior to the results we are able to achieve with the tests we develop. Our competitors include public companies such as NeoGenomics, and many private companies.

Research and Development

We conduct most of our research and development activities at our CLIA certified and CAP accredited laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our research and development efforts primarily focus on providing data and analyses necessary to support and improve our existing products on the market. Additionally, our research and development activities provide product line extension of our existing products as well as new product opportunities utilizing our proprietary platforms and extensive bioinformatics repositories and data bases.

Also, we use reagents for cross site validations and validations of new assays to be used in clinical trials. We may enter into collaborative relationships with research and academic institutions for the development of additional or enhanced tests to further increase the depth and breadth of our test offerings. Where appropriate, we may also enter into licensing agreements with our collaborative partners to both license intellectual property for use in our test panels as well as licensing such intellectual property out.

Our research and development costs are primarily clinical costs and were approximately $1.9 million and $2.8 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively.

We continue to generate and publish clinical evidence related to our key products, including ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® and PancraGEN^® as well as our pipeline product, BarreGEN^®.

Clinical Evidence

Intellectual Property

Patents, trademarks and other proprietary rights are important to us. We generate our own intellectual property portfolio and hold numerous patents and patent applications covering our existing and future products and technologies. As of December 31, 2021, we owned seven issued United States Patents. The U.S. patents are directed to, amongst other things, methods of measuring carcinoembryonic antigen in a biological sample; methods for treating subject with a high risk of disease progression from Barrett’s metaplasia to esophageal adenocarcinoma; and methods of treating a subject identified with a papillary thyroid carcinoma. As of December 31, 2021, we owned four issued patents outside of the United States, one each in Australia, Europe (validated in certain European countries), Japan, and Israel. As of December 31, 2021, we owned five pending patent applications in the United States. Provided all maintenance fees and annuities are paid, our issued United States patents expire from 2031 through 2034 and our foreign patents expire in 2027 or 2031, and our pending patent applications, if issued, are expected to expire between 2027 and 2038, absent any disclaimers, adjustments or extensions. On March 29, 2017 we were notified by the European Patent Office that our EP patent # 2772550 for diagnosing thyroid cancer from a sample based upon at least MIR-375 was issued (validated in Spain, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands) and, provided all maintenance fees and annuities are paid, expires in 2031. On January 16, 2018, we were notified that an Opposition had been filed against EP patent # 2772550 alleging that the patent is invalid. On February 25, 2019, the European Patent Office Opposition Division issued a decision revoking the patent on grounds that the claims were not supported by a valid basis. On April 25, 2019, we filed a Notice of Appeal challenging the European Patent Office Opposition Division and we are waiting for the appeal to be decided. We continue to believe that the patent is valid. Our patents are directed to certain of the technologies relating to detecting, diagnosing, and classifying thyroid tumors, pancreatic cysts and other forms of gastrointestinal disorders, such as Barrett’s esophagus.

On April 9, 2019 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued U.S. Patent No. 10,255,410, supporting BarreGEN^®. Additionally, United States Patent No. 10,444,239 issued on October 15, 2019, for methods measuring carcinoembryonic antigen in a biological sample.

In addition to our own molecular diagnostic test development efforts, we are currently using, and intend to use in the future, certain tests and biomarkers that have been developed by third parties or by us in collaboration with third parties. While a significant amount of intellectual property in the field of molecular diagnostic tests is already in the public domain, ThyraMIR^®, ThyGeNEXT^®, and some of the future tests developed by us, or by third parties on our behalf for use in our tests, may require, that we license the right to use certain intellectual property from third parties and pay customary royalties or make one time payments.

On August 13, 2014, we consummated an agreement to acquire certain fully developed thyroid and other tests in development for thyroid cancer, associated intellectual property and a biobank with more than 5,000 patient tissue samples pursuant to an asset purchase agreement, or the Asuragen Asset Purchase Agreement. We paid $8.0 million at closing and paid an additional $0.5 million to Asuragen for certain integral transition service obligations set forth in a transition services agreement, entered into concurrently with the Asuragen Asset Purchase Agreement. We also entered into two license agreements with Asuragen (the Asuragen License Agreement and the CPRIT License Agreement) relating to our ability to sell the fully developed diagnostic tests and other tests in development for thyroid cancer. Under the Asuragen License Agreement, we owed a $500,000 milestone payment, all of which was paid in installments throughout 2016 and paid in full as of January 13, 2017. We are further obligated to pay royalties on the future net sales of tests based on the miRInform^® pancreas platform, if developed, on the future net sales of tests based on the miRInform^® thyroid platform (i.e., ThyGeNEXT^®) and potentially on certain other thyroid diagnostics tests. We rely on Asuragen as our sole supplier for certain components of our endocrine cancer diagnostic tests pursuant to our supply agreement with them.

In October 2014, we acquired RedPath Integrated Pathology Inc. (RedPath) which included its pancreatic and gastrointestinal assets. Additionally, we have a broad and growing trademark portfolio. We have secured trademark registrations for the marks AccuCEA^® (or TM), PancraGEN^®, PanDNA^®, BarreGEN^® and miRInform^® in the United States, and miRInform^® with the World Intellectual Property Organization. In July 2019, in connection with the acquisition of the pharma services business of Cancer Genetics we acquired certain know-how.

Our clinical and our pharma services rely on a combination of trade secrets and proprietary processes to protect our intellectual property. We enter into non-disclosure agreements with certain vendors and suppliers to attempt to ensure the confidentiality of our intellectual property. We also enter into non-disclosure agreements with our customers. In addition, we require that all our employees sign confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements.

Raw Material and Suppliers

We procure reagents, equipment and other materials that we use to perform our tests from sole suppliers. We also purchase components used in our collection kits from sole-source suppliers. Some of these items are unique to these suppliers and vendors. Our most significant suppliers for reagents and supplies include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Illumina, Inc., Qiagen, Asuragen, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG. While we have developed alternate sourcing strategies for most of these materials and vendors, we cannot be certain whether these strategies will be effective or the alternative sources will be available when we need them. If these suppliers can no longer provide us with the materials we need to perform the tests and for our collection kits, if the materials do not meet our quality specifications or are otherwise unusable, if we cannot obtain acceptable substitute materials, or if we elect to change suppliers, an interruption in test processing could occur, we may not be able to deliver patient reports and we may incur higher one-time switching costs. Any such interruption may significantly affect our future revenue, cause us to incur higher costs, and harm our customer relationships and reputation. In addition, in order to mitigate these risks, we maintain inventories of these supplies at higher levels than would be the case if multiple sources of supply were available. If our test volume decreases or we switch suppliers, we may hold excess inventory with expiration dates that occur before use which would adversely affect our losses and cash flow position. As we introduce any new test, we may experience supply issues as we ramp test volume.

Government Regulations and Industry Guidelines

The healthcare industry, and thus our business, is subject to extensive Federal, State, local and foreign regulation. Both Federal and State governmental agencies continue to subject the healthcare industry to intense regulatory scrutiny, including heightened civil and criminal enforcement efforts. We believe that we have structured our business operations and relationships with our customers to comply with applicable legal requirements. However, it is possible that governmental entities or other third parties could interpret these laws differently and assert otherwise. We discuss below the statutes and regulations that are most relevant to our business and most frequently cited in enforcement actions.

Regulations over Our Clinical Laboratories

The conduct and provision of our clinical services and pharma services are regulated under the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments (“CLIA”). CLIA requires us to maintain Federal certification. CLIA imposes requirements relating to test processes, personnel qualifications, facilities and equipment, recordkeeping, quality assurance and participation in proficiency testing. CLIA compliance and certification are also a condition for participation by clinical laboratories in the Medicare Program and for eligibility to bill for services provided to governmental healthcare program beneficiaries. As a condition of CLIA certification, our laboratories are subject to survey and inspection every other year, in addition to being subject to additional random inspections. The biennial survey is typically conducted by a State agency, or, if the laboratory is accredited, a CMS-approved accreditation organization. Sanctions for failure to meet these certification, accreditation and licensure requirements include suspension, revocation or limitation of a laboratory’s CLIA certification, accreditation or license, which is necessary to conduct business, cancellation or suspension of the laboratory’s ability to receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, as well as imposition of plans to correct deficiencies, injunctive actions and civil monetary and criminal penalties. The loss or suspension of a CLIA certification, imposition of a fine or other penalties, or future changes in the CLIA law or regulations (or interpretation of the law or regulations) could harm our business. In addition to CLIA requirements, we participate in the accreditation program of the College of American Pathologists (“CAP”). Under CMS requirements, accreditation by CAP is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of CLIA.

In addition to CLIA certification, we are required to hold state licenses in certain states. Some state licensing requirements differ from federal regulation and may be stricter. CLIA does not preempt state laws that are more stringent. If we were to lose our CLIA certification, CAP Accreditation, or required state licenses for our laboratories, whether as a result of revocation, suspension or limitation, we would no longer be able to provide our services, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our laboratories are also subject to licensing and regulation under Federal, State and local laws relating to hazard communication and employee right-to-know regulations, and the safety and health of laboratory employees. Additionally, our laboratories are subject to applicable Federal and State laws and regulations and licensing requirements relating to the handling, storage and disposal of hazardous waste and laboratory specimens, including the regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation, and the National Fire Protection Agency. The regulations of the United States Department of Transportation, Public Health Service and Postal Service apply to the surface and air transportation of laboratory specimens. Typically, we use outside vendors who are contractually obligated to comply with applicable laws and regulations to dispose of hazardous waste. These vendors are licensed or otherwise qualified to handle and dispose of such waste.

In addition to its comprehensive regulation of safety in the workplace, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has established extensive requirements relating to workplace safety for healthcare employers whose workers may be exposed to blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and the hepatitis B virus, by preventing or minimizing any exposure through needle stick or similar penetrating injuries. Although we believe that we are currently in compliance in all material respects with such Federal, State and local laws, failure to comply with such laws could subject us to denial of the right to conduct business, fines, criminal penalties and other enforcement actions.

Potential U.S. Food and Drug Administration Regulation of Laboratory Developed Tests (“LDTs”)

Both United States Federal and State governmental agencies continue to subject the healthcare industry to intense regulatory scrutiny, including heightened civil and criminal enforcement efforts. As indicated by work plans and reports issued by these agencies, the Federal government will continue to scrutinize, among other things, the marketing, labeling, promotion, and manufacturing of LDTs. While subject to oversight by CMS through its enforcement of CLIA, the FDA has claimed regulatory authority over all laboratories that produce LDTs, a type of in vitro diagnostic test that is designed, manufactured and used within a single laboratory. The FDA has regulatory responsibility over, among other areas, instruments, test kits, reagents and other devices used in clinical laboratories to perform diagnostic testing in the United States.

Historically, the FDA has exercised enforcement discretion over most LDTs. However, in July 2014, the FDA issued two draft guidance documents: “Framework for Regulatory Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests,” which provided an overview of how the FDA would regulate LDTs through a risk-based approach, and “FDA Notification and Medical Device Reporting for Laboratory Developed Tests,” which provided guidance on how the FDA intends to collect information on existing LDTs, including adverse event reports. Pursuant to the Framework for Regulatory Oversight draft guidance, LDT manufacturers would be subject to medical device registration, listing, and adverse event reporting requirements. LDT manufacturers would be required to either submit a pre-market application and receive the FDA’s approval before an LDT may be marketed, or submit a pre-market notification in advance of marketing, unless subject to continued enforcement discretion. The Framework for Regulatory Oversight draft guidance states that within six months after the guidance documents are finalized, all laboratories will be required to give notice to the FDA and provide basic information concerning the nature of the LDTs offered. If the FDA were to regulate LDTs as proposed under the 2014 draft guidance documents, then it would classify LDTs into one of three classes according to the current system used to regulate medical devices. Class I devices are those for which reasonable assurance of the safety and effectiveness can be provided by adherence to the FDA’s general regulatory controls for medical devices. Class II devices are subject to the FDA’s general controls, and any other special controls as deemed necessary by the FDA to provide reasonable assurance of the safety and effectiveness of the devices. Class III devices are those devices which are deemed by the FDA to pose the greatest risk, such as life-sustaining, life-supporting or implantable devices, have a new intended use, or use advanced technology that is not substantially equivalent to that of a legally marketed device. Under the guidance documents, LDTs would also be subject to significant post-market requirements as well.

On January 13, 2017, the FDA released a discussion paper on LDTs outlining a possible, substantially-revised risk-based approach for FDA and CMS oversight of LDTs. According to the 2017 discussion paper, previously marketed LDTs would not be expected to comply with most or all FDA oversight requirements (grandfathering), except for adverse event and malfunction reporting. In addition, certain new and significantly modified LDTs would not be expected to comply with pre-market review unless the agency determines certain tests could lead to patient harm. Since many LDTs currently on the market would be grandfathered in, pre-market review of new and significantly modified LDTs could be phased-in over a four-year period, as opposed to the nine years proposed in the Framework for Regulatory Oversight draft guidance. In addition, tests introduced after the effective date, but before their phase-in date, could continue to be offered during pre-market review.

The discussion paper notes that FDA will focus on analytical and clinical validity as the basis for marketing authorization. The FDA anticipates laboratories that already conduct proper validation should not be expected to experience new costs for validating their tests to support marketing authorization and laboratories that conduct appropriate evaluations would not have to collect additional data to demonstrate analytical validity for FDA clearance or approval. The evidence of the analytical and clinical validity of all LDTs would be made publicly available. Laboratories developing LDTs would be encouraged to submit prospective change protocols in their pre-market submission that outline specific types of anticipated changes, the procedures that will be followed to implement them and the criteria that will be met prior to implementation.

Despite the FDA decision to not release the final guidance at this time, it can choose to regulate LDTs at any time. Failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements could result in enforcement action by the FDA, such as fines, product suspensions, warning letters, recalls, injunctions and other civil and criminal sanctions. There are other regulatory and legislative proposals that would increase general FDA oversight of clinical laboratories and LDTs. The outcome and ultimate impact of such proposals on the business is difficult to predict at this time. We are monitoring developments and anticipate that our products will be able to comply with requirements if ultimately imposed by the FDA. In the meantime, we maintain our CLIA certification of accreditation, which permits the use of LDTs for diagnostic purposes.

In March 2017, members of Congress posted a discussion draft of “The Diagnostics Accuracy and Innovation Act” (DAIA). The discussion draft included language that, if enacted, would have established a new regulatory framework for the oversight of in vitro clinical tests (“IVCTs”) which include LDTs. In March 2020, members of Congress introduced “The Verifying Accurate, Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act”; this bill was re-introduced in substantially similar form in June 2021. Pursuant to VALID, a risk-based approach would be used to regulate IVCTs while grandfathering many existing IVCTs. Each test will be classified as high-risk or low-risk. Pre-market review will be required for high-risk tests. To market a high-risk IVCT, reasonable assurance of analytical and clinical validity for the intended use must be established. Under VALID, a precertification process would be established which will allow a laboratory to establish that the facilities, methods, and controls used in the development of certain IVCTs meet quality system requirements. If pre-certified, low-risk IVCTs it develops will not be subject to pre-market review. The new regulatory framework will include quality control and post-market reporting requirements. The FDA will have the authority to withdraw from the market IVCTs if it is reasonable possible that such tests will cause serious adverse health consequences (among other criteria). Failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can result in enforcement action by the FDA, such as fines, product suspensions, warning letters, recalls, injunctions and other civil and criminal sanctions. It is unclear when, or if, the VALID Act will become law.

Healthcare, Fraud, Abuse and Anti-Kickback Laws

The Anti-Kickback Statute makes it a felony for a person or entity, including a laboratory, to knowingly and willfully offer, pay, solicit or receive remuneration, directly or indirectly, in order to induce business that is reimbursable under any Federal healthcare program. A violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute may result in imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 for each offense in the case of individuals and $500,000 for each offense in the case of organizations. Convictions under the Anti-Kickback Statute result in mandatory exclusion from federal healthcare programs for a minimum of five years. In addition, HHS has the authority to impose civil assessments and fines and to exclude healthcare providers and others engaged in prohibited activities from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs. Actions, which violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, also incur liability under the Federal False Claims Act, discussed in more detail below, which prohibits knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment to the U.S. Government.

Although the Anti-Kickback Statute applies only to federal healthcare programs, a number of states have passed statutes substantially similar to the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits similar conduct toward all other health plans and third-party payers. Federal and state law enforcement authorities scrutinize arrangements between healthcare providers and potential referral sources to ensure that the arrangements are not designed as a mechanism to induce patient care referrals or induce the purchase or prescribing of particular products or services. The law enforcement authorities, the courts and Congress have also demonstrated a willingness to look behind the formalities of a transaction to determine the underlying purpose of payments between healthcare providers and actual or potential referral sources. Generally, courts have taken a broad interpretation of the scope of the Anti-Kickback Statute, holding that the statute may be violated if merely one purpose of a payment arrangement is to induce referrals or purchases.

In addition to the Anti-Kickback Statute, the U.S. enacted the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018, or EKRA, as part of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act). EKRA is an all-payer anti-kickback law that makes it a criminal offense to pay any remuneration to induce referrals to, or in exchange for, patients using the services of a recovery home, a substance use clinical treatment facility, or laboratory. Although it appears that EKRA was intended to reach patient brokering and similar arrangements to induce patronage of substance use recovery and treatment, the language in EKRA is broadly written. The term “laboratory” is defined broadly and without reference to any connection to substance use disorder treatment. EKRA is a criminal statute and violations can result in fines of up to $200,000, up to 10 years in prison, or both, per violation. As drafted, EKRA prohibits incentive compensation to sales employees, a practice that is common in the industry.

Several other healthcare fraud and abuse laws could have an effect on our business. For example, provisions of the Social Security Act permit Medicare and Medicaid to exclude an entity that charges the federal healthcare programs substantially in excess of its usual charges for its services. The terms “usual charge” and “substantially in excess” are ambiguous and subject to varying interpretations. Further, the Federal False Claims Act, discussed in more detail below, prohibits a person from knowingly submitting a claim, making a false record or statement in order to secure payment or retaining an overpayment by the federal government. In addition to actions initiated by the government itself, the statute authorizes actions to be brought on behalf of the federal government by a private party having knowledge of the alleged fraud. Because the complaint is initially filed under seal, the action may be pending for some time before the defendant is even aware of the action. If the government is ultimately successful in obtaining redress in the matter or if the plaintiff succeeds in obtaining redress without the government’s involvement, then the plaintiff will receive a percentage of the recovery. Finally, the Social Security Act includes its own provisions that prohibit the filing of false claims or submitting false statements in order to obtain payment. Violation of these provisions may result in fines, imprisonment or both, and possible exclusion from Medicare or Medicaid programs.

We are also subject to the federal physician self-referral prohibitions, commonly known as the Stark Law, and state equivalents. These restrictions generally prohibit us from billing a patient or Medicare for any diagnostic services when the physician ordering the service, or any member of such physician’s immediate family, has an investment interest in or compensation arrangement with us, unless the arrangement meets an exception to the prohibition. The government has also claimed in FCA litigation that the Stark Law applies to Medicaid claims. Some states have also enacted state Stark Law equivalents that can apply to that state’s Medicaid plan and/or commercial payors.

Persons or entities found to violate the Stark Law are required to refund any payments received pursuant to a referral prohibited by these laws to the patient, or the Medicare program, as applicable. Sanctions for a violation of the Stark Law include the following:

These penalty amounts are adjusted each year for inflation. The Stark Law prohibitions apply regardless of the reasons for the financial relationship and the referral. No finding of intent to violate the Stark Law is required for a violation. In addition, violations of the Stark Law may also serve as the basis for liability under the Federal False Claims Act.

Additionally, the Federal Civil Monetary Penalties Law prohibits, among other things, the offering or transfer of remuneration to a Medicare or state healthcare program beneficiary if the person knows or should know it is likely to influence the beneficiary’s selection of a particular provider, practitioner, or supplier of services reimbursable by Medicare or a state healthcare program, unless an exception applies.

We do retain healthcare practitioners as key opinion leaders providing consultation in various aspects of the business. These arrangements as any arrangement that includes compensation to a healthcare provider may trigger Federal or State anti-kickback and Stark Law liability. Our arrangements with healthcare providers are designed to meet available safe harbors and exceptions provided in the anti-kickback laws and Stark laws, respectively. There is no guarantee that the government will find that these arrangements are designed properly or that they do not trigger liability. Under existing laws, all arrangements must have a legitimate purpose and compensation must be fair market value. These terms require some subjective analysis and there is limited available case law or guidance for the application of these laws to the CLIA Laboratory industry. Safe harbors in the anti-kickback laws do not necessarily equate to exceptions in the Stark Law; and there is no guarantee that the government will not have issue with the relationships between the laboratories and the healthcare providers.

HIPAA, Fraud and Privacy Regulations

The Federal government’s efforts to combat fraud in the healthcare setting were consolidated and strengthened under Public Law 104-191, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA. HIPAA established a comprehensive program to combat fraud committed against all health plans, both public and private by, among other things creating two new Federal offenses: healthcare fraud (18 U.S. Code § 1347) and false statements relating to healthcare matters (18 U.S. Code § 1035). These provisions prohibit: (1) the knowing and willful execution, or attempted execution, of a scheme or artifice (a) to defraud any healthcare benefit program (including private payers), or (b) to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any healthcare benefit program, in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items, or services; and (2) the knowing and willful (a) falsification, concealment or covering up of a material fact by any trick, scheme or device, or (b) making of any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation, or making or using any materially false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. A violation of these provisions is a felony and may result in fines, imprisonment and/or exclusion from government-sponsored programs.

HIPAA, along with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and the various regulations promulgated thereunder, also establish uniform standards governing the conduct of certain electronic healthcare transactions and protecting the security and privacy of individually identifiable health information maintained or transmitted by certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, which are referred to as “covered entities,” as well as individuals or entities to the extent they function as a business associate of a covered entity. The regulations promulgated under HIPAA govern: the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, restricting the use and disclosure of certain individually identifiable health information and establishing certain rights of individuals who are the subject of such information (45 C.F.R. §§ 164.500, et seq.); Administrative Requirements for electronic transactions, establishing standards for common healthcare transactions, such as claims information, plan eligibility, payment information and the use of electronic signatures (45 C.F.R. §§ 162.100, et seq.); Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information, requiring covered entities to implement and maintain certain security measures to safeguard certain electronic health information (45 C.F.R. §§ 164.302, et seq.); and Breach Notification, requiring covered entities and their business associates to provide certain notifications following a breach of unsecured protected health information (PHI) (45 C.F.R. §§ 164.400, et seq.). As a covered entity, and also in our capacity as a business associate to certain of our customers, we are subject to these standards. We may also be liable for violations of HIPAA by any individual or entity, which may include a business associate, that is acting as our agent under the federal common law of agency. While the government intended this legislation to reduce administrative expenses and burdens for the healthcare industry, our compliance with certain provisions of these standards entails significant costs for us and limits our performance of functions or activities that involve collecting, receiving, maintaining, transmitting, using, or disclosing PHI. Our failure to comply with HIPAA, HITECH, and their implementing regulations could lead to enforcement action that could have an adverse effect on our business. If we or our operations are found to be in violation of HIPAA, HITECH, or their respective implementing regulations, we may be subject to potentially significant penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages and fines, and may incur damage to our reputation.

In addition to Federal regulations issued under HIPAA and HITECH, many States and foreign jurisdictions have enacted privacy and security statutes or regulations that, in some cases, are more stringent than those issued under HIPAA. In those cases, it may be necessary to modify our planned operations and procedures to comply with the more stringent laws as HIPAA and HITECH do not supersede State laws to the extent such State laws are broader in scope, impose more stringent requirements for PHI, or give individuals more rights with respect to their PHI. If we fail to comply with applicable State or foreign laws, rules, or regulations, we could be subject to additional sanctions or other liabilities under those laws, rules, and regulations.

Federal and State Consumer Protection Laws

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is an independent U.S. law enforcement agency charged with protecting consumers and enhancing competition across broad sectors of the economy. In 2022, the FTC has said that it will be evaluating new data privacy regulations, which, if adopted, could impact our operations. The FTC’s authority with respect to data privacy and security comes from Section 5 of the FTC Act. The FTC uses its broad grant of authority to regulate data privacy and security, using its powers to investigate and bring lawsuits. Where appropriate, the FTC can seek a variety of remedies, such as but not limited to requiring the implementation of comprehensive privacy and security programs, biennial assessments by independent experts, monetary redress to consumers, and provision of robust notice and choice mechanisms to consumers.

In addition to the FTC Act, many U.S. states have unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes, known as UDAP statutes, that are substantively similar to the FTC Act and have been applied in the privacy and data security context. These UDAP statutes vary in substance and strength from state to state. Many have broad prohibitions against unfair and deceptive acts and practices. These statutes generally allow for private rights of action, and are enforced by the states’ Attorneys General.

California, Virginia, and Colorado have adopted comprehensive consumer privacy laws that are in effect or will take effect within the next 12 to 18 months, and regulate how certain for-profit businesses collect, use, and disclose the personal information of consumers who reside in those respective states. Among other things, these laws confer to their consumers the right to: receive notice of information collection and use practices; access, delete, correct, or transfer personal information and opt out of the “sale” of their personal information. These laws also require companies to adopt reasonable measures to safeguard the personal information that we collect and regulate categories of “sensitive” data such as information associated with minors, citizenship, and other personal data for which these state laws have designated special protection. These laws do not, however, apply to personal information that constitutes PHI under HIPAA, HIPAA-regulated entities to the extent that the entity maintains patient information in the same manner as PHI, and de-identified data as defined under HIPAA. As a result, we do not or likely will not have compliance obligations with respect to most testing and patient information we collect and process. However, we are required to comply with these consumer privacy laws insofar as we collect other categories of California, Virginia and Colorado consumers’ personal information. These laws are generally enforced by the respective state Attorney General. California’s law also includes a private right of action for certain data breaches.

Dozens of other states in the United States are currently considering similar, consumer data privacy laws, which could impact our operations if enacted.

Healthcare Reform

The United States and many foreign jurisdictions have enacted or proposed legislative and regulatory changes affecting the healthcare system. The United States government, state legislatures and foreign governments also have shown significant interest in implementing cost-containment programs to limit the growth of government-paid healthcare costs, including price controls, restrictions on reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products for branded prescription drugs.

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA (also known as the Affordable Care Act), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance and coverage for patients, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry, coordinate and promote research on comparative clinical effectiveness of different technologies and procedures, and impose additional health policy reforms. PPACA, as well as other healthcare reform measures that have been and may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria, new payment methodologies and in additional downward pressure on pricing and implemented changes which significantly affect the pharmaceutical, medical device and clinical laboratory industries. There have been legislative and administrative actions to make changes to PPACA, including repeal and replacement of certain provisions.

The PPACA has also been subject to challenges in the courts however, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in 2021.

Further changes to the PPACA remain possible, although the new Administration under President Biden has signaled that it plans to build on the Affordable Care Act and expand the number of people who are eligible for subsidies under it. President Biden has used executive orders to undo changes to the PPACA made by the Trump administration and indicated he would advocate for legislation to build on the PPACA. It is unknown what form any such changes or any law would take, and how or whether it may affect our business in the future. We expect that changes or additions to the PPACA, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and changes stemming from other healthcare reform measures, especially with regard to healthcare access, financing or other legislation in individual states, could have a material adverse effect on the healthcare industry.

We expect that additional federal, state and foreign healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in limited coverage and reimbursement and reduced demand for our products, once approved, or additional pricing pressures.

Third Party Coverage and Reimbursement for our Clinical Services

Our customers’ bills are paid by many different payer groups. The majority of reimbursement dollars for traditional laboratory services are provided by traditional commercial insurance products, most notably preferred provider organizations, or PPOs, and other managed care plans, as well as government healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. PPOs, HMOs and other managed care plans typically contract with a limited number of laboratories and then designate the laboratory or laboratories to be used for tests ordered by participating physicians. We are currently an out-of-network provider with most payers, which means we do not have a contract with payers to pay a specific rate for our tests. We did previously announce a new national agreement with Aetna through which the Company is now an in-network provider for Aetna’s members. We are subject to applicable state laws regarding who should be billed, how they should be billed, how business should be conducted, and how patient obligations regarding cost sharing should be handled. In addition, if we become an “in-network” provider for certain payers in the future, we will also be subject to the terms of contracts (which could include reduced reimbursement rates) and may be subject to discipline, breach of contract actions, non-renewal or other contractually provided remedies for non-compliance with the contract’s requirements and/or applicable laws.

We generally bill third-party payers and individual patients for testing services on a test-by-test basis. Third-party payers include Medicare, private insurance companies, institutional direct clients and Medicaid, each of which has different billing requirements. Medicare reimbursement programs are complex and often ambiguous, and are continuously being evaluated and modified by CMS. Our ability to receive timely reimbursements from third-party payers is dependent on our ability to submit accurate and complete billing statements, and/or correct and complete missing and incorrect billing information. Missing and incorrect information on reimbursement submissions slows down the billing process and increases the aging of accounts receivable. We must bill Medicare directly for tests performed for Medicare patients and must accept Medicare’s fee schedule for the covered tests as payment in full. State Medicaid programs are generally prohibited from paying more than the Medicare fee schedule. Through February 2021, we were contracted with XIFIN, Inc. (“XIFIN”), a healthcare billing services management company, to work with our in-house staff and help manage our third-party billing. In early March 2021, we expanded our relationship with XIFIN to deploy XIFIN’s revenue cycle management solution enterprise-wide to support all of our diagnostics testing services. During January 2022, the Company became aware that CMS issued a new billing policy whereby CMS would no longer reimburse for the use of the Company’s ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® tests when billed together by the same provider/supplier for the same beneficiary on the same date of service. In February 2022, the Company announced that this billing policy determination by CMS had been changed retroactively to January 1, 2022. As a result, the Company will continue billing for both tests according to its LCD as originally set by Novitas.

Some billing arrangements require us to bill multiple payers, and there are several other factors that complicate billing (e.g., disparity in coverage and information requirements among various payers; and incomplete or inaccurate billing information provided by ordering physicians). Since 2018 several private payers implemented pre-authorization requirements for molecular and genetic testing, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare, as well as various lab benefit companies such as American Imaging Management, Inc., or AIM, and Beacon Lab Benefits Solutions, or Beacon. In addition, more commercial payers are contracting with and delegating risk for lab services costs to lab benefits management companies (e.g. eviCore healthcare, AIM, and Beacon). This requires us to go through their technology assessment process to secure coverage and obtain a contract as an in-network lab provider for our services. We incur additional costs as a result of our participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs because diagnostic testing services are subject to complex, stringent and frequently ambiguous federal and state laws and regulations, including those relating to coverage, billing and reimbursement. Additionally, auditing for compliance with applicable laws and regulations as well as internal compliance policies and procedures adds further cost and complexity to the billing process. Further, our billing systems require significant technology investment and, as a result of marketplace demands, we need to continually invest in our billing systems. Changes in laws and regulations could further complicate our billing and increase our billing expense. CMS establishes procedures and continuously evaluates and implements changes to the reimbursement process and requirements for coverage.

As an integral part of our billing compliance program, we investigate reported failures or suspected failures to comply with federal and state healthcare reimbursement requirements. Any Medicare or Medicaid overpayments are reimbursed by us. As a result of these efforts, we have periodically identified and reported overpayments, reimbursed the payers for overpayments and taken appropriate corrective action.

Historically, due to the nature of our business, we have performed requested testing and have reported test results regardless of collectability or form of reimbursement. We submit claims for reimbursement on a best efforts basis including the use of a third-party revenue cycle management firm. If at times the billing information is incorrect or incomplete, we subsequently attempt to contact the healthcare provider or patient to obtain any missing information and to rectify incorrect billing information. Missing or incorrect information on requisitions complicates and slows down the billing process and may also impact revenue recognition. The increased use of electronic ordering reduces the incidence of missing or incorrect information, and we are seeking to electronically integrate with more and more payers and clients.

There are a number of factors that influence coverage and reimbursement for molecular diagnostic tests. In the United States, the American Medical Association assigns specific CPT codes, which are necessary for reimbursement of molecular diagnostic tests. Once the CPT code is established, CMS establishes reimbursement payment levels and coverage rules under Medicare, and private payers establish rates and coverage rules independently. However, the availability of a CPT code is not a guarantee of coverage or adequate reimbursement levels, and the revenues generated from our tests will depend, in part, on the extent to which third-party payers provide coverage and establish adequate reimbursement levels.

United States and other government regulations governing coverage and reimbursement for molecular diagnostic testing may affect, directly or indirectly, the design of our tests and the potential market for their use. The availability of third-party reimbursement for our tests and services may be limited or uncertain. Third-party payers may deny coverage if they determine that the tests or service has not received appropriate FDA or other government regulatory clearances, is not used in accordance with cost-effective treatment methods as determined by the payer, or is deemed by the third-party payer to be experimental, unnecessary or inappropriate. Furthermore, third-party payers, including Federal and State healthcare programs, government authorities, private managed care providers, private health insurers and other organizations, frequently challenge the prices, medical necessity, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare products and services, including laboratory tests. Such payers may limit coverage of our tests to specific, limited circumstances, may not provide coverage at all, or may not provide adequate reimbursement rates, if covered. Further, one payer’s determination to provide coverage does not assure that other payers will also provide coverage for the test. Adequate third-party reimbursement may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to maintain our revenue and growth. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time.

Government payers, such as Medicare and Medicaid, have taken steps and are expected to continue to take steps to control the cost, utilization and delivery of healthcare services, including clinical test services. For example, Medicare has adopted policies under which it does not pay for many commonly ordered clinical tests unless the ordering physician has provided an appropriate diagnosis code supporting the medical necessity of the test. Physicians are required by law to provide diagnostic information when they order clinical tests for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Currently, Medicare does not require the beneficiary to pay a co-payment for diagnostic information services reimbursed under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule. Certain Medicaid programs require Medicaid recipients to pay co-payment amounts for diagnostic information services.

The Medicare Part B program contains fee schedule payment methodologies for clinical testing services performed for covered patients, including a national ceiling on the amount that carriers could pay under their local Medicare clinical testing fee schedules. Historically, the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, or CLFS, has been subject to local variations in pricing. In April 2014, President Obama signed the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, or PAMA, which included a substantial new payment system for clinical laboratory tests under the CLFS. Under PAMA, CLFS rates are based upon the weighted median of private payor rates reported for each type of laboratory test. PAMA requires laboratories that receive a majority of their Medicare revenue from payments made under the CLFS and the Physician Fee Schedule, and at least $12,500 in CLFS revenue during the six month data collection period to report private payor data collected from such 6-month period (January 1 through June 30 in the applicable year) to CMS between January 1 through March 31 of the following year. CMS posted the first new Medicare CLFS rates (based on weighted median private payer rates) in November 2017 and the new rates became effective on January 1, 2018. CMS published final rules implementing these changes in 2016 and 2018. The result of the PAMA calculations was an increase in our reimbursement rate for ThyGenX^® of approximately 40% for our Medicare volume. However, on July 26, 2018, we received a coding update from CMS, which changed the billable procedure code (CPT) for ThyGeNEXT^®. This code change resulted in a reduction of the fee schedule for payments to us. We have recently presented clinical data to CMS adding additional markers to the panel that we run that increase our gene families above 50. If approved, reimbursement for the new panel will exceed the previously approved rate. There can be no assurances that our request will be successful and that the rate will be escalated.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, as amended by the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, revised payment reductions and the data reporting schedule for CDLTs that are not ADLTs. Under these laws, the next data reporting period is January 1, 2023 through March 31, 2023, and will be based upon the data collected during the January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019 period. Any reductions to payment rates resulting from the new methodology are limited to 10% per test per year in each of the years 2018 through 2020 and to 15% per test per year in each of the years 2023 through 2025. Payments will not be reduced for 2021 or 2022 for CDLTs.

Under the revised Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, reimbursement for clinical laboratory testing was reduced for most tests in 2018, 2019, and 2020. PAMA calls for further revisions of the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule for years after 2021, based on future surveys of market rates.

Penalties for violations of laws relating to billing government healthcare programs and for violations of federal and state fraud and abuse laws include: (1) exclusion from participation in Medicare/Medicaid programs; (2) asset forfeitures; (3) civil and criminal fines and penalties; and (4) the loss of various licenses, certificates and authorizations necessary to operate our business. Civil monetary penalties for a wide range of violations may be assessed on a per violation basis. A parallel civil remedy under the federal False Claims Act provides for penalties on a per violation basis, plus damages of up to three times the amount claimed.

Historically, most Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries were covered under the traditional Medicare and Medicaid programs administered by the federal government. Reimbursement from traditional Medicare and Medicaid programs represented approximately 43% of our consolidated net revenues during 2020. Over the last several years, the federal government has continued to expand its contracts with private health insurance plans for Medicare beneficiaries and has encouraged such beneficiaries to switch from the traditional programs to the private programs, called “Medicare Advantage” programs. There has been growth of health insurance providers offering Medicare Advantage programs and of beneficiary enrollment in these programs. Commercial health plans that might not cover one or all of our tests for their commercially insured members are required to follow the Novitas LCD coverage policy for their Medicare Advantage members. To the extent we maintain the LCD coverage policies with Novitas for our products, any shift of members from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage plans doesn’t represent a risk of lost revenue. In recent years, in an effort to control costs, states also have mandated that Medicaid beneficiaries enroll in private managed care arrangements.

The current position of our laboratories is that they do not meet the definition of an “Applicable Manufacturer” under the “Sunshine Act” section of PPACA and therefore are not subject to the disclosure or tax requirements contained in PPACA. However, as new regulations are implemented and diagnostic tests reclassified, this may change and the laboratory business may be subject to PPACA as are other companies. There is no guarantee that our interpretation of the law is now or will be in the future consistent with government guidance and interpretation.

In December 2019, our Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) issued a new draft local coverage determination (LCD) for our ThyGeNEXT^® test, representing an increase of approximately $2,400 per assay over previous reimbursement coverage. This increase in reimbursement rates reflects the expansion of the ThyGeNEXT^® panel to aid in identifying the appropriate patients for surgery. Final approval is expected during the first half of 2020. Additionally, in February 2020, the CMS modified the reimbursement for ThyraMIR^® retroactively to January 1, 2020. This determination increases the Medicare reimbursement for ThyraMIR^® from approximately $1,800 to $3,000 reflecting a re-evaluation of the technical and clinical performance of the test relative to other molecular tests in the market and their respective prices.

In January 2022, the Company announced that CMS issued a new billing policy whereby CMS will no longer reimburse for the use of the Company’s ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® tests when billed together by the same provider/supplier for the same beneficiary on the same date of service. On February 28, 2022, the Company announced that the National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) program issued a response on behalf of CMS stating that the January 2022 billing policy reimbursement change for ThyGeNEXT^® (0245U) and ThyraMIR^® (0018U) tests has been retroactively reversed to January 1, 2022. CMS is currently reimbursing the Company for one of its two thyroid tests, and has agreed to retroactively reimburse for the second test once they have completed their internal administrative adjustments. We have been notified by CMS/NCCI that processing of claims for dates of service after January 1, 2022 will be completed beginning July 1, 2022. As of the date of this filing, the Company has not yet realized the full cash collection benefit of current and retroactive Thyroid testing and such cash collections may be temporarily reduced or delayed until we resolved the matter with CMS.

Reporting Segments

We operate under one segment which is the business of developing and selling diagnostic clinical and pharma services.

Employees

As of February 28, 2022, we had approximately 147 full time employees and 147 total employees. We are not party to a collective bargaining agreement with any labor union.

Corporate Information

We were originally incorporated in New Jersey in 1986 and began commercial operations as PDI, Inc., a contract sales organization or CSO in 1987. In connection with PDI, Inc.’s initial public offering, it reincorporated in Delaware in 1998. In 2015 the CSO business and assets were sold, and we operated our molecular diagnostics business as Interpace Diagnostics Group, Inc. (IDXG). On July 15, 2019, we acquired the pharma services business from the secured creditors of CGI and Gentris, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of CGI and conduct that business as Interpace Pharma Solutions, Inc. We conduct our business through our wholly-owned subsidiaries, Interpace Diagnostics, LLC, which was formed in Delaware in 2013, Interpace Diagnostics Corporation (formerly known as RedPath Integrated Pathology, Inc.), which was formed in Delaware in 2007, and Interpace Pharma Solutions Inc. (formerly known as Interpace BioPharma, Inc.), which was formed in Delaware in 2019. On November 12, 2019, we changed the name of Interpace Diagnostics Group, Inc. to Interpace Biosciences, Inc. and that of our newly-formed subsidiary, Interpace BioPharma, Inc. to Interpace Pharma Solutions, Inc. Our executive offices are located at Morris Corporate Center 1, Building C, 300 Interpace Parkway, Parsippany, New Jersey 07054. Our telephone number is (855) 776-6419.

Business Development

Series B Investment by 1315 Capital and Ampersand

On January 10, 2020, we entered into a Securities Purchase and Exchange Agreement (the “Securities Purchase and Exchange Agreement”) with 1315 Capital II, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership (“1315 Capital”), and Ampersand 2018 Limited Partnership (“Ampersand” and together with 1315 Capital, the “Investors”) pursuant to which we sold to the Investors, in a private placement pursuant to Regulation D and Section 4(a)(2) under the Securities Act, an aggregate of $20,000,000 in Series B Preferred Stock, at an issuance price per share of $1,000. Pursuant to the Securities Purchase and Exchange Agreement, 1315 Capital purchased 19,000 shares of Series B Preferred Stock at an aggregate purchase price of $19,000,000 and Ampersand purchased 1,000 shares of Series B Preferred Stock at an aggregate purchase price of $1,000,000.

In addition, we exchanged $27,000,000 of the Company’s existing Series A Preferred Stock held by Ampersand, represented by 270 shares of Series A Preferred Stock, which represented all of the Company’s issued and outstanding Series A Preferred Stock, for 27,000 newly created shares of Series B Preferred Stock (such shares of Series B Preferred Stock, the “Exchange Shares” and such transaction, the “Exchange”). Following the Exchange, no shares of Series A Preferred Stock remain designated, authorized, issued or outstanding. Under the terms of the Securities Purchase and Exchange Agreement, Ampersand also agreed to waive all dividends and weighted-average anti-dilution adjustments accrued to date on the Series A Preferred Stock.

For so long as each of Ampersand and 1315 Capital holds at least sixty percent (60%) of the Series B Preferred Stock issued to it on January 15, 2020, such Investor will be entitled to elect two directors to the Board, provided that one of the directors qualifies as an “independent director” under Rule 5605(a)(2) of the listing rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market (or any successor rule or similar rule promulgated by another exchange on which the Company’s securities are then listed or designated) (“Independent Director”). However, if at any time such Investor holds less than sixty percent (60%), but at least forty percent (40%), of the Series B Preferred Stock issued to them on January 15, 2020, such Investor would only be entitled to elect one director to the Board. Any director elected pursuant to the terms of the Certificate of Designation may be removed without cause by, and only by, the affirmative vote of the holders of Series B Preferred Stock. A vacancy in any directorship filled by the holders of Series B Preferred Stock may be filled only by vote or written consent in lieu of a meeting of such holders of Series B Preferred Stock or by any remaining director or directors elected by such holders of Series B Preferred Stock.

The Certificate of Designation of Preferences, Rights and Limitations of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Certificate of Designation”) provides that each share of Series B Preferred Stock is convertible, at any time and from time to time, at the option of the holder into a number of shares of our common stock equal to dividing the amount equal to the greater of the stated value of $1,000 of such Series B Preferred Stock, plus any dividends declared but unpaid thereon, or such amount per share as would have been payable had each such share been converted into our common stock immediately prior to a liquidation, by sixty cents ($0.60) (as adjusted to $6.00 following effectuation of the Reverse Stock Split in January 2020 and subject to further adjustment in the event of any stock dividend, stock split, combination, or other similar recapitalization affecting such shares). The aggregate number of shares of our common stock that may be issued through conversion of the currently outstanding Series B Preferred Stock is 78,333,334 shares (as adjusted to 7,833,334 shares following effectuation of the Reverse Stock Split and subject to appropriate adjustment in the event of any stock dividend, stock split, combination or other similar recapitalization affecting such shares). On any matter presented to our stockholders for their action or consideration at any meeting of stockholders of the Company (or by written consent of stockholders in lieu of meeting), each holder of outstanding shares of Series B Preferred Stock will be entitled to cast the number of votes equal to the number of whole shares of our common stock into which the shares of Series B Preferred Stock held by such holder are convertible as of the record date for determining stockholders entitled to vote on such matter. Except as provided by law or by the Certificate of Designation, holders of Series B Preferred Stock will vote together with the holders of common stock as a single class and on an as-converted to common stock basis.

The Series B Preferred Stock entitles the holders thereof to certain protective provisions. In particular, for so long as any shares of Series B Preferred Stock are outstanding, the written consent of the holders of at least seventy five percent (75%) of the then outstanding shares of Series B Preferred Stock (voting as a single class) is required for us to amend, waive, alter or repeal the preferences, rights, privileges or powers of the holders of the Series B Preferred Stock, amend, alter or repeal any provision of the Certificate of Designation in a manner adverse to the holders of the Series B Preferred Stock, authorize, create or issue any equity securities senior to or pari passu with the Series B Preferred Stock, or increase or decrease the number of directors constituting the Board. Moreover, for so long as thirty percent (30%) of the Series B Preferred Stock outstanding as of January 15, 2020 remains outstanding (subject to appropriate adjustment in the event of any stock dividend, stock split, combination or other similar recapitalization affecting such shares, including the Reverse Stock Split effected in January 2020), the written consent of the holders representing at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the of the outstanding shares of Series B Preferred Stock (voting as a single class) is required for us to: (A) authorize, create or issue any debt securities for borrowed money or funded debt (1) pursuant to which we issue shares, warrants or any other convertible security, or (2) in excess of $4,500,000 initially, with such amount to be increased in connection with an aggregate consolidated revenue milestone, but excluding certain specified permitted transactions; (B) merge with or acquire all or substantially all of the assets of one or more other companies or entities with a value in excess of $20,000,000, to be increased in connection with an aggregate consolidated revenue milestone; (C) materially change our business; (D) consummate any Liquidation (as defined in the Certificate of Designation); (E) transfer material intellectual property rights other than in the ordinary course of business; (F) declare or pay any cash dividend or make any cash distribution on any of our equity interests other than the Series B Preferred Stock; (G) repurchase or redeem any shares of our capital stock, except for the redemption of the Series B Preferred Stock pursuant to the terms of the Certificate of Designation, or repurchases of our common stock under agreements previously approved by the Board with employees, consultants, advisors or others who performed services for us in connection with the cessation of such employment or service; (H) incur any additional individual debt, indebtedness for borrowed money or other additional liabilities pursuant to we issue shares, warrants or any other convertible security, or incur any individual debt, indebtedness for borrowed money or other liabilities pursuant to which we do not issue shares, warrants or any other convertible security exceeding, in each case, $4,500,000 initially, with such amount to be increased in connection with an aggregate consolidated revenue milestone, but excluding certain specified permitted transactions; (I) change any of our accounting methods, except for those changes required by GAAP or applicable regulatory agencies or authorities; or (J) conduct a public offering of common stock registered with the SEC, including any at-the-market offering of our common stock.

During April 2020, the Company applied for various federal stimulus loans, grants and advances made available under Title 1 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, including a loan request under the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). In connection with the Company’s application for the PPP loan, both Ampersand and 1315 Capital consented to, and agreed to vote their shares of Series B Preferred Stock in favor of any “Fundamental Action” taken by the Company as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors. “Fundamental Actions” include the Company’s ability to a) authorize, create or issue any debt securities for borrowed money or funded debt; b) merge with or acquire all or substantially all of the assets of one or more other companies or entities with a value in excess of $20 million; c) transfer, by sale, exclusive license or otherwise, material intellectual property rights of the Company or any of its direct or indirect subsidiaries, other than those accomplished in the ordinary course of business; d) declare or pay any cash dividend or make any cash distribution on any equity interests of the Company other than the Series B Shares; e) incur any additional individual debt, indebtedness for borrowed money or other additional liabilities; and f) change any accounting methods or practices of the Company, except for those changes required by GAAP or applicable regulatory agencies or authorities. Subsequently, the Company and Ampersand agreed that Ampersand no longer was required to vote its shares of Series B Preferred Stock in favor of any “Fundamental Action” taken by the Company as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors.

Reverse Stock Split

At a Special Meeting of Stockholders held on December 13, 2019, our stockholders authorized our Board, in its discretion, to amend our certificate of incorporation, as amended, to effect a reverse split of our outstanding common stock at a ratio between one-for-five (1:5) and one-for-fifteen (1:15), with such final ratio to be determined by the Board following the special meeting (the “Reverse Stock Split”). On January 14, 2020, the Board determined to set the Reverse Stock Split ratio at one-for-ten (1:10) and approved the final form of the certificate of amendment to our certificate of incorporation to effectuate the Reverse Stock Split, which was filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware on January 14, 2020. The Reverse Stock Split became effective in accordance with the terms of the certificate of amendment at 12:01a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 15, 2020, at which time every ten (10) shares of common stock issued and outstanding automatically combined into one (1) share of issued and outstanding common stock, without any change in the par value per share. Fractional shares were not issued as a result of the Reverse Stock Split. Instead, any fractional shares of our common stock that would have otherwise resulted from the Reverse Stock Split were rounded up to the nearest whole share.

The Reverse Stock Split resulted in a proportionate adjustment to the per share exercise price and the number of shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of our outstanding stock options and warrants, as well as the number of shares of common stock eligible for issuance under the Interpace Biosciences, Inc. 2019 Equity Incentive Plan and the Interpace Biosciences, Inc. Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

Except as otherwise indicated, all share and per share information herein gives effect to the Reverse Stock Split.

Available Information

We maintain an internet website at www.interpace.com. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are available free of charge through the “Investor Relations” portion of our website, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with the SEC. The content contained in, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated into this Form 10-K.

In addition to the other information provided in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes in Part II - Item 8, you should carefully consider the following factors in evaluating our business, operations and financial condition. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, which we currently deem immaterial or that are similar to those faced by other companies in our industry or businesses in general, such as competitive conditions, may also impair our business operations. The occurrence of any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Summary of Risk Factors

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, discussed in more detail in the following section. These risks include, among others, the following key risks:

Risks Related to our Business

There are substantial doubts about our ability to continue as a going concern due to our operating history of net losses, negative working capital and insufficient cash flows, and lack of liquidity to pay our current obligations and if we are unable to continue our business, our shares may have little or no value.

Our ability to become a profitable operating company is dependent upon our ability to generate revenues and/or obtain financing adequate to support our cost structure. We do not currently have enough cash on hand to meet our obligations over the next twelve months, and we cannot provide our stockholders any assurance that we will be able to raise sufficient funding from the generation of revenue, the sale of our common stock, or through financing to sustain us over the next twelve months.

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, we had an operating loss of $14.0 million. As of December 31, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents of $3.1 million and current liabilities of $15.7 million. The Company must fund its operating deficit until a sustainable level of revenue is achieved. These factors have raised substantial doubts about our ability to continue as a going concern. We may need to attempt to raise additional equity capital by selling shares of common stock or other dilutive or non-dilutive means, if necessary. However, the doubts raised, relating to our ability to continue as a going concern, may make investing in our securities an unattractive investment for potential investors. These factors, among others, may make it difficult to raise any additional capital.

Our results of operations have been adversely affected and, in the future, could be materially adversely impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The world is currently suffering a COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in governments around the world implementing stringent measures to help control the spread of the virus, including stay-at-home orders, temporarily closing businesses, restricting gatherings, restricting travel, and mandating social distancing and face coverings. The continuing impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our operations, including duration, severity and scope, remains highly uncertain and cannot be fully predicted at this time. Such impact is a function of the scope of any new virus mutations and outbreaks, the nature of government public health guidelines and the public’s adherence to those guidelines, the rate of individuals becoming fully vaccinated, the public’s adherence to guidelines to receive booster shots, the success of business and economic recovery as the pandemic recedes, unemployment levels, the extent to which new shutdowns may be needed and the impact of any further government economic relief on the U.S. economy. In particular, the continued spread of the coronavirus globally is adversely affecting global economies and financial markets which has materially and adversely impacted our operations including, without limitation, the functioning of our laboratories, the availability of supplies including reagents, the progress and data collection of our pharma services, demand for our services and travel, customer demand and employee health and availability. Further, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in part caused us to reevaluate the carrying charge of our intangible assets and led us to restate certain of our financial statements to record impairment charges and amortization expense. While we believe we have generally recovered from the adverse impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on our business during 2020, we believe that the COVID-19 pandemic could continue to adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition in the future.

The ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, financial markets volatility and capital markets disruption. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.

In late February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, significantly amplifying already existing geopolitical tensions among Russia and other countries in the region and in the west, including the U.S. Russia’s invasion, the responses of countries and political bodies to Russia’s actions, the larger overarching tensions, and Ukraine’s military response and the potential for wider conflict have resulted in financial market volatility and capital markets disruption, potentially increasing in magnitude, and could have severe adverse effects on regional and global economic markets and international relations. The extent and duration of the military action, sanctions and resulting market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial.

Following Russia’s actions, various countries, including the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union, issued broad-ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Such sanctions included, among other things, a prohibition on doing business with certain Russian companies, officials and oligarchs; a commitment by certain countries and the European Union to remove selected Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) electronic banking network that connects banks globally; a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to the U.S.; and restrictive measures to prevent the Russian Central Bank from undermining the impact of the sanctions. The current sanctions (and potential further sanctions in response to continued Russian military activity) and other actions may have adverse effects on regional and global economic markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets, potentially making it more difficult for us to obtain additional funds and increasing the volatility of our stock price. Any of the abovementioned factors could affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results.

Actions that we have taken to restructure our business to strengthen the Company’s profile, enhance shareholder values, and increase revenue growth may not be as effective as anticipated.

During Fiscal 2020 and 2021, we implemented certain restructuring and reprioritization plans to strengthen the Company’s profile, enhance shareholder values, and increase revenue growth, by engaging in actions that included, but were not limited to, corporate reprioritization efforts and implementation of various cost saving measures. These plans included the transition of pharma activities from the Rutherford, NJ facility to our Morrisville, NC facility in order to optimize the operations of laboratory operations within our pharma services. We invested several million dollars to facilitate this relocation which was completed in March 2021, including but not limited to the transfer of personnel, expansion of the Morrisville facility and validation of transferred processes. While we expect to realize cost-saving benefits from these initiatives, these actions may not be successful and may not bring the cost saving benefits that we anticipate.

We have a history of operating losses, and our clinical and pharma services have generated limited revenue. We expect to incur net losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or sustain profitability.

Although we expect our revenue to grow in the future, there can be no assurance that we will achieve revenue sufficient to offset expenses. Over the next several years, we expect to (i) continue to devote resources to increase adoption of, and reimbursement for, our clinical services tests and assays and to use our bioinformatics data to develop and enhance our clinical services products and services, (ii) leverage and invest in our pharma services to expand and enhance our pharma services and (iii) develop and acquire additional products and services. However, our business may never achieve or sustain profitability, and our failure to achieve and sustain profitability in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, as well as cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

We have and may continue to experience intangible asset impairment charges.

We are required to evaluate the carrying value of intangibles at least annually, and between annual tests if events or circumstances warrant such a test. We review the recoverability of long-lived assets and finite-lived intangible assets whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of such assets may not be recoverable. If the sum of the expected future undiscounted cash flows is less than the carrying amount of the asset, an impairment loss is recognized by reducing the recorded value of the asset to its fair value measured by future discounted cash flows. This analysis requires estimates of the amount and timing of projected cash flows and, where applicable, judgments associated with, among other factors, the appropriate discount rate. Such estimates are critical in determining whether any impairment charge should be recorded and the amount of such charge if an impairment loss is deemed to be necessary. Writing down or reserving for other intangible assets or impairments has had and would have a negative and unexpected impact on our net worth.

In January 2021, we filed restated financial statements contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the years ended December 31, 2014 through 2019 as well as the financial statements contained in the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for each quarterly period within those fiscal years as well as the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020. Such restatements reflected a non-cash impairment charge and amortization expense related to our Barrett’s intangible asset of approximately $18 million.

We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

We began commercial sales of our molecular diagnostic tests in late 2014. On July 15, 2019, we acquired the pharma services business. We conduct our business through our wholly-owned subsidiaries, Interpace Diagnostics, LLC, which was formed in Delaware in 2013, Interpace Diagnostics Corporation (formerly known as RedPath Integrated Pathology, Inc.), which was formed in Delaware in 2007, and Interpace BioPharma, Inc., which was formed in Delaware in 2019. On November 12, 2019 we changed the name of Interpace Diagnostics Group, Inc. to Interpace Biosciences, Inc. and that of our newly-formed subsidiary, Interpace BioPharma, Inc. to Interpace Pharma Solutions, Inc. Consequently, any evaluations about our future success, performance or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history.

Our quarterly and annual revenues and operating results may vary which may cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may vary as a result of a number of factors, including:

We believe that quarterly, and in certain instances annual, comparisons of our financial results are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Fluctuations in quarterly and annual results could materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock in a manner unrelated to our long-term operating performance.

We depend on sales and reimbursements from our clinical services for more than 50% of our revenue, and we will need to generate sufficient revenue from these and other products and/or solutions that we develop or acquire to grow our business.

More than 50% of our revenue is derived from our clinical services. We have molecular diagnostics tests and complimentary service extensions that are in development, but there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully commercialize or sufficiently increase revenues from those tests. If we are unable to increase sales of our molecular diagnostic tests, expand reimbursement for these tests, or successfully develop and commercialize other molecular diagnostic tests, our revenue and our ability to achieve and sustain profitability would be impaired, and this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, and the market price of our common stock could decline.

We rely on third-parties to process and transmit claims to payers for our clinical services, and any delay in processing or transmitting could have an adverse effect on our revenue and financial condition.

We rely on third-parties to provide overall processing of claims and to transmit actual claims to payers based on specific payer billing formats. In 2019, we transitioned to a new third-party processor and there can be no assurance that we will not experience interruptions or collection delays with our future billings, an occurrence of which may adversely impact our revenue and financial condition. If claims for our clinical services are not submitted to payers on a timely basis, or if we are again required to switch to a different third-party processor to handle claim submissions, we may experience delays in our ability to process claims and receive payment from payers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Due to how we recognize revenue, our quarterly revenue and operating results are likely to fluctuate.

We adopted Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) ASU 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)” (or “ASC 606”) effective January 1, 2018. As of this date, all revenue is recognized on the accrual basis, based upon actual collection histories for tests and services and respective payers or payer groups. Due to this change in accounting and the estimations required under ASC 606, our quarterly revenue and operating results are likely to fluctuate. As we recognize revenue from payers under ASC 606, we may subsequently determine that certain judgments underlying estimated reimbursement change, or that the estimates we used at the time we accrued such revenue vary materially from the actual reimbursements subsequently realized, and our financial results could be negatively impacted in future quarters. We experienced an adjustment in our estimate for variable consideration under ASC 606 during the fourth quarter of 2019 which resulted in a $5.2 million reduction in revenue recognized year to date; however there have been no such adjustments since then.

As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may be difficult due to fluctuations resulting from the estimation process under ASC 606 and such comparisons may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. In addition, these fluctuations in revenue may make it difficult in the near term for us, research analysts and investors to accurately forecast our revenue and operating results. If our revenue or operating results fall below consensus expectations, the price of our common stock would likely decline.

A deterioration in the collectability of our accounts receivable could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Collection of accounts receivable from third-party payers and clients is critical to our operating performance. Our primary collection risks are (i) the risk of overestimating our net revenue at the time of billing, which may result in us receiving less than the recorded receivable, (ii) the risk of non-payment as a result of denied claims, (iii) in certain states, the risk that clients will fail to remit insurance payments to us when the commercial insurance company pays out-of-network claims directly to the client and (iv) resource and capacity constraints that may prevent us from handling the volume of billing and collection issues in a timely manner. Additionally, our ability to hire and retain experienced personnel affects our ability to bill and collect accounts in a timely manner. We routinely review accounts receivable balances in conjunction with these factors and other economic conditions that might ultimately affect the collectability of the client accounts and factor them into our estimation of collectability as warranted. Significant changes in business operations, payer mix or economic conditions, including changes resulting from legislation or other health reform efforts (including to repeal or significantly change the Affordable Care Act), could affect our collection of accounts receivable, cash flows and results of operations. In addition, increased client concentration in states that permit commercial insurance companies to pay out-of-network claims directly to the client instead of the provider, could adversely affect our collection of receivables. Unexpected changes in reimbursement rates by third-party payers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is substantially dependent on third-party reimbursement. Any change in the overall health care reimbursement system may adversely impact our business.

Our revenues are substantially dependent on third-party reimbursement. We are paid directly by private insurers and governmental agencies, often on a fixed fee basis. If the average fees allowable by private insurers or governmental agencies were reduced, the negative impact on revenues could have a material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Also, if amounts owed to us by payors are reduced or not paid on a timely basis, we may be required to increase our concessions and/or decrease our revenues. Changes to the health care reimbursement system that favor other technologies or treatment regimens and reduce our reimbursements may adversely affect our ability to market our services profitably. Overall, such dependency and potential changes could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our inability to finance our business on acceptable terms in the future may limit our ability to develop and commercialize products and services and grow our business.

Our business is not currently operating on a cash flow breakeven or positive basis, and as a result, we may need to finance our business in the future through collaborations, equity offerings, debt financings, licensing arrangements or other dilutive or non-dilutive means. On January 7, 2021, we entered into promissory notes (“Notes”) with our two private equity investors in the aggregate amount of $5 million with a maturity date of June 30, 2021 which were secured by all of our assets. In October 2021, the Company entered into a $7.5 million revolving credit facility with Comerica Bank (“Comerica”). In addition, also in October 2021, the Company entered into an $8.0 million term loan with BroadOak Fund V, L.P. (“BroadOak”), the proceeds of which were used to repay in full at their maturity the Notes extended by our two private equity investors. The BroadOak loan agreement contains affirmative and negative restrictive covenants, including restrictions on certain mergers, acquisitions, investments and encumbrances which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business. The BroadOak loan agreement also contains customary events of default. The Comerica loan agreement contains affirmative and negative restrictive covenants that are applicable whether or not any amounts are outstanding under the Comerica loan agreement. These restrictive covenants, which include restrictions on certain mergers, acquisitions, investments, encumbrances, etc., could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business. The Comerica loan agreement also contains financial covenants requiring specified minimum liquidity and minimum revenue thresholds and also contains customary events of default.

We will need additional funding to repay the Comerica and BroadOak borrowings as well as to continue operations. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we seek to raise funds by issuing additional equity securities, dilution to our stockholders could result. Any public offering of equity securities must be approved by the holders of our Series B Preferred Stock who are our private equity investors. In addition, we are currently ineligible to use a Form S-3 shelf registration statement. If we are unable to timely repay the Comerica and BroadOak borrowings when due, Comerica and BroadOak will have the right to foreclose on our assets (BroadOak being subordinated to Comerica). The incurrence of additional indebtedness or the issuance of certain equity securities could result in increased fixed payment obligations and could also result in restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt or issue additional equity, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights, limitations on our ability to enter into mergers or acquisition of assets, and other operating restrictions that could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business.

If we are unable to timely repay our outstanding obligations, our secured lenders will have the right to foreclose on our assets.

In October 2021, the Company entered into a $7.5 million revolving credit facility with Comerica and an $8.0 million term loan with BroadOak, which are secured by all of our assets. We will need additional funding to repay these outstanding obligations as well as to continue operations. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to timely repay these outstanding obligations, our secured lenders will have the right to foreclose on substantially all of our assets.

Risks Related to our Preferred Stock

We have issued and may issue additional preferred stock in the future, and the terms of the preferred stock may reduce the value of our common stock.

We are authorized to issue up to five million shares of preferred stock in one or more series. Our Board may determine the terms of future preferred stock offerings without further action by our stockholders. If we issue additional preferred stock, it could affect stockholder rights or reduce the market value of our outstanding common stock. In particular, specific rights granted to future holders of preferred stock may include voting rights, preferences as to dividends and liquidation, conversion and redemption rights, sinking fund provisions, and restrictions on our ability to merge with or sell our assets to a third party. We have designated, issued and sold an aggregate of 47,000 outstanding shares of Series B Preferred Stock.

Two private equity firms and their affiliate’s control, on an as-converted basis, an aggregate of 65% of our outstanding shares of common stock through their holdings of our Series B Preferred Stock, and this concentration of ownership along with their authority for designation rights for a majority of our directors and their right to approve certain of our actions has a substantial influence on our decisions.

Ampersand holds 28,000 shares of our Series B Preferred Stock and 1315 Capital holds 19,000 shares of our Series B Preferred Stock. Accordingly, on an as converted basis, Ampersand and its affiliates beneficially own 38.7% of the Company’s outstanding common stock of 4,217,063 and 1315 Capital and its affiliates beneficially own 26.3%. The conversion and sale by such holders of one or more large blocks of our common stock could have a negative impact on the market price of our common stock.

These stockholders, acting together, have control over the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. Holders of Series B Preferred Stock were granted director designation rights over a majority of our Board. Accordingly, these stockholders, acting together, have significant influence over our management and affairs. This concentration of ownership might harm the market price of our common stock by delaying, deterring or preventing a change in control, making some transactions more difficult or impossible to complete without the support of these shareholders, regardless of the impact of this transaction on our other shareholders. Such ownership interests could effectively deter a third party from making an offer to buy us, which might involve a premium over our current stock price or other benefits for our stockholders, or otherwise prevent changes in the control or management. For example, this concentration of ownership may have the effect of impeding a merger, consolidation, takeover or other business combination involving us or discouraging a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.

The holders of our Series B Preferred Stock have preferential rights that may be adverse to holders of our common stock.

The holders of our Series B Preferred Stock have preferential rights with respect to distributions upon a liquidation of the Company, including certain business combinations or sales of assets deemed to be a liquidation. Accordingly, no distributions upon liquidation may be made to the holders of common stock until the holders of the Series B Preferred Stock have been paid their liquidation preference. As a result, it is possible that, on a liquidation event and depending on the price thereof, all amounts available for the holders of equity of the Company would be paid to the holders of Series B Preferred Stock, and that the holders of common stock would not receive any payment. In addition, the holders of Series B Preferred Stock have the right to approve certain actions of the Company.

In April 2020, 1315 Capital consented to, and agreed to vote (by proxy or otherwise) their Series B Preferred Stock in favor of any “Fundamental Action” taken by the Company as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors. “Fundamental Actions” include the Company’s ability to a) authorize, create or issue any debt securities for borrowed money or funded debt; b) merge with or acquire all or substantially all of the assets of one or more other companies or entities with a value in excess of $20 million; c) transfer, by sale, exclusive license or otherwise, material intellectual property rights of the Company or any of its direct or indirect subsidiaries, other than those accomplished in the ordinary course of business; d) declare or pay any cash dividend or make any cash distribution on any equity interests of the Company other than the Series B Shares; e) incur any additional individual debt, indebtedness for borrowed money or other additional liabilities; and f) change any accounting methods or practices of the Company, except for those changes required by GAAP or applicable regulatory agencies or authorities.

Risks Related to our Clinical Services

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

Billing for clinical 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. 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 write-offs of doubtful accounts and long collection cycles, which could have a material adverse effect on our clinical services, results of operations and financial condition. Among others, the following factors make the billing process complex:

As we grow and introduce new clinical services tests and other services, we will likely 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 revenue and cash flow from our clinical services. Additionally, our billing activities require us to implement compliance procedures and oversight, train and monitor our employees or contractors, 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. These billing complexities, and the related uncertainty in obtaining payment for our diagnostic solutions, could negatively affect our revenue and cash flow, our ability to achieve profitability, and the consistency and comparability of our results of operations.

We depend on a few payers for a significant portion of our revenue for our clinical services, and if one or more significant payers, including CMS, stops providing reimbursement or decreases the amount of reimbursement for our tests, or if we are unable to successfully negotiate additional reimbursement contracts for our clinical services tests, our revenue could decline and our commercial success could be compromised.

Revenue for clinical services tests performed on patients covered by Medicare was approximately 54% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. The percentage of our revenue derived from significant payers for our clinical services tests is expected to fluctuate from period to period as our revenue increases, as additional payers provide reimbursement for such tests, and in the event that one or more payers were to stop reimbursing for our clinical services tests or change their reimbursement amounts.

In January 2022, the Company announced that CMS issued a new billing policy whereby CMS will no longer reimburse for the use of the Company’s ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® tests when billed together by the same provider/supplier for the same beneficiary on the same date of service. On February 28, 2022, the Company announced that the National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) program issued a response on behalf of CMS stating that the January 2022 billing policy reimbursement change for ThyGeNEXT^® (0245U) and ThyraMIR® (0018U) tests has been retroactively reversed to January 1, 2022. CMS is currently reimbursing the Company for one of its two thyroid tests, and has agreed to retroactively reimburse for the second test once they have completed their internal administrative adjustments. We have been notified by CMS/NCCI that processing of claims for dates of service after January 1, 2022 will be completed beginning July 1, 2022. As of the date of this filing, the Company has not yet realized the full cash collection benefit of current and retroactive Thyroid testing and such cash collections may be temporarily reduced or delayed until we resolved the matter with CMS.

Novitas Solutions has been and is the current regional MAC that handles claims processing for Medicare services with jurisdiction for PancraGEN^®, ThyGeNEXT^®, ThyraMIR^®, and RespriDx^®. On a five-year rotational basis, Medicare requests bids for its regional MAC services. Any future changes in the MAC processing or coding for Medicare claims for our molecular diagnostic tests could result in a change in the coverage or reimbursement rates for such molecular diagnostic tests, or the loss of coverage.

Our PancraGEN^®, ThyraMIR^® and ThyGeNEXT^® tests are reimbursed by Medicare based on applicable CPT codes. RespriDx^® is currently only covered by the Medicare Advantage program and our BarreGEN^® assay is not reimbursed at all. Any future reductions from the current reimbursement rates for our clinical services tests would have a material adverse effect on business and results of operations.

Although we have entered into contracts with certain third-party payers which establish allowable rates of reimbursement for our clinical services tests, payers may suspend or discontinue reimbursement at any time, may require or increase co-payments from patients, or may reduce the reimbursement rates paid to us. Any such actions could have a negative effect on our revenue for our clinical services tests.

If payers do not provide reimbursement, rescind or modify their reimbursement policies or delay payments for clinical services, or if we are unable to successfully negotiate additional reimbursement contracts for our clinical services tests, our commercial success could be compromised.

Physicians may generally not order our clinical services tests unless payers reimburse a substantial portion of the test price. There is uncertainty concerning third-party reimbursement of any test incorporating new molecular diagnostic technology. Reimbursement by a payer may depend on a number of factors, including a payer’s determination that tests such as our molecular diagnostic tests are: (a) not experimental or investigational; (b) pre-authorized and appropriate for the patient; (c) cost-effective; (d) supported by peer-reviewed publications; and (e) included in clinical practice guidelines. Since each payer generally makes its own decision as to whether to establish a policy or enter into a contract to reimburse our clinical services tests, seeking these approvals is a time-consuming and costly process. Although we have contracted rates of reimbursement with certain payers, which establishes allowable rates of reimbursement for our PancraGEN^®, ThyGeNEXT^®, ThyraMIR^® and RespriDx^® assays, payers may suspend or discontinue reimbursement at any time, may require or increase co-payments from patients, may impose pre-authorization requirements or may reduce the reimbursement rates paid to us. Any such actions could have a negative effect on our revenue for our clinical services tests.

We have contracted rates of reimbursement with select payers for PancraGEN^®, ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® and to a limited extent, RespriDx^®. Without a contracted rate for reimbursement, claims may be denied upon submission, and we may need to appeal the claims. The appeals process is time consuming and expensive, and may not result in payment. We expect to continue to focus resources on increasing adoption of and coverage and reimbursement for our molecular diagnostic tests. We cannot, however, predict whether, under what circumstances, or at what payment levels payers will reimburse us for our molecular diagnostic tests, if at all. In addition to our current commercial products on the market and in our pipeline, the launch of any new molecular diagnostic tests in the future may require that we expend substantial time and resources in order to obtain and retain reimbursement. Also, payer consolidation can create uncertainty as to whether coverage and contracts with existing payers will even remain in effect. Finally, commercial payers may tie their allowable rates to Medicare rates, and should Medicare reduce their rates, we may be negatively impacted. If we fail to establish broad adoption of and reimbursement for our assays, or if we are unable to maintain existing reimbursement from payers, our ability to generate revenue for our clinical services tests could be harmed and this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may experience a reduction in revenue if physicians decide not to order our clinical services tests.

If we are unable to create or maintain sufficient demand for our clinical services tests or if we are unable to expand our product offerings, we may not become profitable. To generate demand, we will need to continue to educate physicians and the medical community on the value and benefits of our clinical services tests in order to change clinical practices through clinical trials, published papers, presentations at scientific conferences and one-on-one education by our commercial sales force, which are costly and time-consuming. In addition, our ability to obtain and maintain adequate reimbursement from third-party payers for our clinical services tests will be critical to generating revenue.

In many cases, practice guidelines in the United States have recommended therapies or surgery to determine if a patient’s condition is malignant or benign. Accordingly, physicians may be reluctant to order a diagnostic test that may suggest surgery is unnecessary. In addition, our assays are performed at our laboratories rather than by a pathologist in a local laboratory, so pathologists may be reluctant to support our tests. Moreover, guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid nodules may change to recommend another type of treatment protocol, and these changes may result in medical practitioners deciding not to use our molecular diagnostic tests. These facts may make physicians reluctant to use our assays, which could limit our ability to generate revenue from our clinical services tests and achieve profitability, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may experience a reduction in revenue if patients decide not to use our clinical services tests.

Some patients may decide not to use our clinical services tests due to price, all or part of which may be payable directly by the patient if the patient’s insurer denies reimbursement in full or in part. Many insurers seek to shift more of the cost of healthcare to patients in the form of higher deductibles, co-payments, or premiums. In addition, the economic environment in the United States may result in the loss of healthcare coverage. Implementation of provisions of PPACA provided coverage for patients, particularly in the individual market, who were previously either uninsured or faced high premiums. However, premiums for many of the plans participating in the exchanges established as part of this legislation have increased and some health plans have chosen to drop out of these networks in specific markets or the program altogether. In 2018, Congress passed legislation revising certain provisions of PPACA and federal agencies also have issued final rules to repeal or revise regulations governing the implementation of certain provisions of PPACA which may negatively impact our revenues. Overall, the scope and timing of any further legislation, judicial action or federal regulations to limit, revise, or replace PPACA or regulations governing its implementation is uncertain, but if enacted could have a significant impact on the U.S. healthcare system and our revenues. These events may result in an increase of uninsured patients, increases in premiums, and reductions in coverage for some patients. Patients may therefore delay or forego medical checkups or treatment due to their inability to pay for our clinical services tests, which could have a negative effect on our revenues. We do have a Patient Assistance Program that allows eligible patients to apply for assistance in covering a portion of their out of pocket obligation or all costs for claims denied as non-covered for our clinical services tests if they meet the criteria for participation.

If our clinical services tests do not perform as expected, we may not be able to achieve widespread market adoption among physicians, which would cause our operating results, reputation, and business to suffer.

Our success depends in part on the market’s confidence that we can provide reliable, high-quality molecular information products. There is no guarantee that the accuracy and reproducibility we have demonstrated to date will continue, particularly for clinical samples, as our test volume increases. We believe that our customers are likely to be particularly sensitive to product defects and errors, including if our products fail to detect genomic alterations with high accuracy from clinical specimens or if we fail to list, or inaccurately include, certain treatment options and available clinical trials in our product reports. As a result, the failure of our products to perform as expected would significantly impair our operating results and our reputation. We may be subject to legal claims arising from any defects or errors in our clinical services tests.

Our profitability will be impaired by our obligations to make royalty and milestone payments to our licensors for our clinical services tests.

In connection with our acquisition of certain assets of Asuragen in 2014, we currently license certain patents and know-how from Asuragen relating to (i) miRInform^® thyroid and pancreas cancer diagnostic tests and other tests in development for thyroid cancer (the “Asuragen License Agreement”), and (ii) the sale of diagnostic devices and the performance of certain services relating to thyroid cancer (the “CPRIT License Agreement”). Pursuant to the Asuragen License Agreement and the CPRIT License Agreement, we are obligated to make certain royalty and milestone payments to Asuragen and the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, or CPRIT. Under the Asuragen License Agreement, we are obligated to pay royalties on the future net sales of tests utilizing the miRInform^® thyroid platform (i.e., ThyGeNEXT^®), potentially on certain other thyroid diagnostics tests and potentially on other tests in development for thyroid cancer. A similar obligation exists if we elect to launch any molecular tests utilizing the miRInform^® pancreas platform. We are also required by the CPRIT License Agreement with Asuragen to make certain related royalty payments to CPRIT.

When performing the ThyraMIR^® test, we use products supplied by Exiqon A/S (now a part of Qiagen), subject to a license agreement with Exiqon A/S. The license agreement obligates us to pay royalties on the future net sales of our assays that utilize licensed patents and know-how obtained from Exiqon A/S. Our profitability will be impaired by our obligations to make royalty payments to our licensors. Although we believe, under such circumstances, that the increase in revenue will exceed the corresponding royalty payments, our obligations to our licensors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations if we are unable to manage our operating costs and expenses at profitable levels.

If we breach certain agreements with Asuragen, it could have a material adverse effect on our sales and commercialization efforts for our thyroid cancer diagnostic tests as well as any potential tests in development for thyroid cancer utilizing their technology and the sale of diagnostic devices and the performance of certain services relating to thyroid cancer.

Under the CPRIT License Agreement, we are obligated to pay 5% of net sales on sales of certain diagnostic devices and the performance of services relating to thyroid cancer that incorporate technology developed and funded under an agreement between Asuragen and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, subject to a maximum deduction of 3.5% for royalties paid to third parties. Both of the Asuragen License Agreement and the CPRIT License Agreement continue until terminated by (i) mutual agreement of the parties or (ii) either party in the event of a material breach of the respective agreement by the other party.

If we materially breach or fail to perform any provision under the CPRIT License Agreement, Asuragen will have the right to terminate our license from CPRIT, and upon the effective date of such termination, our right to practice the licensed technology would end. To the extent such licensed technology rights relate to our molecular diagnostic tests currently on the market, we would expect to exercise all rights and remedies available to us, including attempting to cure any breach by us, and otherwise seek to preserve our rights under the technology licensed to us, but we may not be able to do so in a timely manner, at an acceptable cost to us or at all. Any uncured, material breach under these license agreements could result in our loss of rights to practice the technology licensed to us under these license agreements, and to the extent such rights and other technology relate to our molecular diagnostic tests currently on the market, it could have a material adverse effect on our sales and commercialization efforts for NGS-based thyroid and pancreatic cancer molecular diagnostic tests and other tests in development for thyroid cancer, and the sale of molecular diagnostic tests and the performance of certain services relating to thyroid cancer.

Under the agreement, neither party will be held responsible for a default or breach for failure or delay in performing its obligations when such failure or delay is caused by or results from events beyond reasonable control of the non-performing party, including fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, embargoes, shortages, epidemics or pandemics, quarantines war, acts of war, etc.

Clinical utility studies are important in demonstrating to both customers and payers a molecular diagnostic test’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 a molecular diagnostic test provides clinically meaningful information and value, commercial adoption of such test may be slow, which would negatively impact our business.

Clinical utility studies show when and how to use a molecular diagnostic clinical test 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 molecular diagnostic test 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 molecular diagnostic clinical test, as well as why they should use it. These publications are also used with payers to obtain coverage for a molecular diagnostic test, helping to assure there is appropriate reimbursement. We will need to conduct additional studies for our molecular diagnostic tests and other diagnostic tests we plan to introduce, to increase the market adoption and obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement. Should we not be able to perform these studies, should the costs or length of time required for these studies exceed their value, or should their results not provide clinically meaningful data and value for oncologists and other physicians, adoption of our molecular diagnostic tests could be impaired, and we may not be able to obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement for them.

We rely on sole suppliers for some of the materials used in our tests and services, and we may not be able to find replacements or transition to alternative suppliers in a timely manner.

We rely on sole suppliers for certain materials that we use to perform our tests and services, including Asuragen, for our endocrine cancer diagnostic tests pursuant to our supply agreement with them. We also purchase reagents used in our tests and services from sole-source suppliers. While we have developed alternate sourcing strategies for these materials and vendors, we cannot be certain whether these strategies will be effective or the alternative sources will be available in a timely manner. If these suppliers can no longer provide us with the materials we need to perform our tests and services, if the materials do not meet our quality specifications, or if we cannot obtain acceptable substitute materials, an interruption in test processing and services could occur. Any such interruption may directly impact our revenue and cause us to incur higher costs. In particular, the continued spread of the coronavirus globally could materially and adversely impact our operations including without limitation our supply chain, which may have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may experience problems in scaling our operations, or delays or reagent and supply shortages for our tests and services that could limit the growth of our revenue.

If we encounter difficulties in scaling our operations as a result of, among other things, quality control and quality assurance issues and availability of reagents and raw material supplies, we will likely experience reduced sales of our tests and services, increased repair or re-engineering costs, and defects and increased expenses due to switching to alternate suppliers, any of which would reduce our revenues and gross margins. Although we attempt to match our capabilities to estimates of marketplace demand, to the extent demand materially varies from our estimates, we may experience constraints in our operations and delivery capacity, which could adversely impact revenue in a given fiscal period. Should our need for raw materials and reagents used in our tests and services fluctuate, we could incur additional costs associated with either expediting or postponing delivery of those materials or reagents.

If we are unable to support demand for our tests and services, or any of our future tests, services or solutions, our business could suffer.

As demand for our tests and services grow, we will also need to continue to scale up our testing capacity and processing technology, expand customer service, billing and systems processes and enhance our internal quality assurance program. We will also need additional certified laboratory scientists and other scientific and technical personnel to process higher volumes of our tests and services. We cannot assure you that increases in scale, related improvements and quality assurance will be implemented successfully or that appropriate personnel will be available. Failure to implement necessary procedures, transition to new processes or hire the necessary personnel could result in higher costs of processing tests or inability to meet demand. There can be no assurance that we will be able to perform our testing and services on a timely basis at a level consistent with demand, or that our efforts to scale our operations will not negatively affect the quality of test results. If we encounter difficulty meeting market demand or quality standards, our reputation could be harmed and our future prospects and our business could suffer, causing a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Developing new tests and related services and solutions involves a lengthy and complex process, and we may not be able to commercialize on a timely basis, or at all, other tests, assays, services and solutions under development.

Developing new tests, services and solutions will require us to devote considerable resources to research and development, which we may not be in a position to do. We may face challenges obtaining sufficient numbers of samples to validate a newly acquired or developed test or service. In order to develop and commercialize new tests and services, we need to:

Typically, few research and development projects result in commercial products, and success in early clinical studies often is not replicated in later studies. At any point, we may abandon development of a test, service or solutions or we may be required to expend considerable resources repeating clinical studies, which would adversely affect the timing for generating revenue from such test, service or solution. If a clinical validation study fails to demonstrate the prospectively defined endpoints of the study or if we fail to sufficiently demonstrate analytical validity, we might choose to abandon the development of the test, service or solution which could harm our business. In addition, competitors may develop and commercialize new competing tests, services and solutions faster than us or at a lower cost, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unable to develop or acquire tests, services and solutions to keep pace with rapid technological, medical and scientific change, our operating results and competitive position in the market could be affected.

Recently, there have been numerous advances in technologies relating to diagnostics, particularly diagnostics that are based on genomic information. These advances require us to continuously develop our technology and to work to develop new solutions to keep pace with evolving standards of care. Our clinical services and pharma services could become obsolete unless we continually innovate and expand our product offerings to include new clinical applications. If we are unable to develop or acquire new tests, services and solutions or to demonstrate the applicability of our tests and services for other diseases, our sales could decline and our competitive position could be harmed.

If we cannot enter into new clinical study collaborations, our product development and subsequent commercialization could be delayed.

In the past, we have entered into clinical study collaborations related to our tests and services, and our success in the future depends in part on our ability to enter into additional collaborations with highly regarded institutions. This can be difficult due to internal and external constraints placed on these organizations. Some organizations may limit the number of collaborations they have with any one company so as to not be perceived as biased or conflicted. Organizations may also have insufficient administrative and related infrastructure to enable collaboration with many companies at once, which can extend the time it takes to develop, negotiate and implement a collaboration. Moreover, it may take longer to obtain the samples we need which could delay our trials, publications, and product launches and reimbursement. Additionally, organizations often insist on retaining the rights to publish the clinical data resulting from the collaboration. The publication of clinical data in peer-reviewed journals is a crucial step in commercializing and obtaining reimbursement for our diagnostic tests, and our inability to control when and if results are published may delay or limit our ability to derive sufficient revenue from them.

If the FDA changes its enforcement policy as to LDTs or disagrees with our position that our clinical services tests are LDTs covered by the FDA’s current enforcement discretion policy, we could be subject to a number of enforcement actions, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our clinical services and/or incur substantial costs and delays associated with trying to obtain pre-market clearance or approval and comply with applicable post-market requirements.

Clinical laboratory tests like our clinical services tests are regulated under CLIA as well as by applicable state laws and may also be subject to FDA regulation, depending on how the test is classified. For example, the FDA regulates in vitro diagnostic tests (also called in vitro devices or “IVDs”), specimen collection kits, analyte specific reagents (ASRs), and instruments used in conducting diagnostic testing. Most tests that qualify as LDTs are currently subject to enforcement discretion by the FDA, but there is substantial uncertainty regarding the scope of the FDA’s enforcement discretion policy and the proper interpretation of the definition of LDTs (as set forth in the 2014 draft guidance described below, which defines LDTs as “those in vitro diagnostic devices (IVD) that are intended for clinical use and are designed, manufactured and used within a single laboratory”). In July 2014, the FDA issued two draft guidance documents: “Framework for Regulatory Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests,” which provides an overview of how the FDA would regulate LDTs through a risk-based approach, and “FDA Notification and Medical Device Reporting for Laboratory Developed Tests”, which provides guidance on how the FDA intends to collect information on existing LDTs, including adverse event reports. Pursuant to the Framework for Regulatory Oversight draft guidance, LDT manufacturers will be subject to medical device registration, listing, and adverse event reporting requirements. LDT manufacturers will be required to either submit a pre-market application and receive the FDA’s approval before an LDT may be marketed or submit a pre-market notification in advance of marketing unless subject to continued enforcement discretion. The Framework for Regulatory Oversight draft guidance states that within six months after the guidance documents are finalized, all laboratories will be required to give notice to the FDA and provide basic information concerning the nature of the LDTs offered.

On January 13, 2017, the FDA released a discussion paper on LDTs outlining a possible, substantially-revised risk-based approach for FDA and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, oversight of LDTs. According to the 2017 discussion paper, most previously marketed LDTs would not be expected to comply with most or all FDA oversight requirements (grandfathering), except for adverse event and malfunction reporting. In addition, certain new and significantly modified LDTs would not be expected to comply with pre-market review unless the agency determines certain tests could lead to patient harm. Since many LDTs currently on the market would be grandfathered in, pre-market review of new and significantly modified LDTs could be phased-in over a four-year period, as opposed to the nine years proposed in the Framework for Regulatory Oversight draft guidance. In addition, tests introduced after the effective date, but before their phase-in date, could continue to be offered during pre-market review.

The discussion paper notes that the FDA will focus on analytical and clinical validity as the basis for marketing authorization. The FDA anticipates laboratories that already conduct proper validation should not be expected to experience new costs for validating their tests to support marketing authorization and laboratories that conduct appropriate evaluations would not have to collect additional data to demonstrate analytical validity for FDA clearance or approval. The evidence of the analytical and clinical validity of all LDTs would be made publicly available. LDTs would be encouraged to submit prospective change protocols in their pre-market submission that outline specific types of anticipated changes, the procedures that will be followed to implement them and the criteria that will be met prior to implementation.

In March 2017, members of Congress posted a discussion draft of “The Diagnostics Accuracy and Innovation Act” (DAIA). The discussion draft included language that, if enacted, would have established a new regulatory framework for the oversight of in vitro clinical tests (“IVCTs”) which include LDTs. In 2020, members of Congress introduced “The Verifying Accurate, Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act”; this bill was re-introduced in substantially similar form in June 2021. If enacted, VALID would create a risk-based approach to regulate IVCTs while grandfathering many existing IVCTs. The new regulatory framework will include quality control and post-market reporting requirements. Each test will be classified as high-risk or low-risk. Pre-market review will be required for high-risk tests. To market a high-risk IVCT, reasonable assurance of analytical and clinical validity for the intended use must be established. Under VALID, a precertification process would be established which will allow a laboratory to establish that the facilities, methods, and controls used in the development of certain IVCTs meet quality system requirements. If pre-certified, low-risk IVCTs it develops will not be subject to pre-market review. The new regulatory framework will include quality control and post-market reporting requirements. The FDA will have the authority to withdraw from the market IVCTs if it is reasonably possible that such tests will cause serious adverse health consequences (among other criteria). We cannot predict whether this bill will become law or the ultimate impact of its passage, or other legislative or regulatory changes, would have on our business. If the FDA implements a new framework for enforcement of its regulations against LDTs, our existing products that are classified as LDTs, if any, and/or any of our future LDTs we seek to develop and market for clinical use, we may be required to obtain pre-certification or approval before continuing to market such tests in the U.S. We may not be able to obtain such pre-certifications or approvals on a timely basis or at all. Our business could be negatively impacted as a result of commercial delay that may be caused by any new requirements.

If we are required to submit applications for our currently-marketed clinical services tests, we may be required to conduct additional studies, which may be time-consuming and costly and could result in our currently-marketed tests being withdrawn from the market. Continued compliance with the FDA’s regulations would increase the cost of conducting our clinical services, and subject us to heightened regulation by the FDA and penalties for failure to comply with these requirements. Failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can result in enforcement action by the FDA, such as fines, product suspensions, warning letters, recalls, injunctions and other civil and criminal sanctions. Any other regulatory or legislative proposals that would increase general FDA oversight of clinical laboratories and LDTs could negatively impact our business if additional requirements are imposed. We are monitoring developments and anticipate that our clinical services products will be able to comply with requirements that are ultimately imposed by the FDA. In the meantime, we maintain our CLIA accreditation, which permits the use of LDTs for diagnostics purposes.

Similarly, notwithstanding any change in existing enforcement policies, if the FDA determines that any of our clinical services tests are IVDs, rather than LDTs and, accordingly, seeks to enforce the applicable medical device regulations against us, we could be subject to a wide range of penalties and would likely be prohibited from continuing to offer the applicable tests in interstate commerce until we have obtained FDA approval or clearance through the Premarket Approval (PMA) process or the 510(k) process, respectively, as applicable. Additionally, we could be subject to enforcement for noncompliance with the FDA’s regulations on marketing and promotional communications, manufacturing, quality and safety standards, labeling, storage, registration and listing, recordkeeping, adverse event reporting, and any other regulations applicable to IVDs. Any adverse enforcement action against us may have a material adverse effect on our clinical services and results of operations.

If we are sued for product liability or errors and omissions liability related to our tests and services, we could face substantial liabilities that exceed our resources.

The marketing, sale and use of our tests and services could lead to product liability claims if someone were to allege that the test or service failed to perform as it was designed. We may also be subject to liability for errors in the results we provide to physicians or for a misunderstanding of, or inappropriate reliance upon, the information we provide. A product liability or errors and omissions liability claim could result in substantial damages and be costly and time consuming for us to defend. Although we maintain product liability and errors and omissions insurance, we cannot be certain that our insurance would fully protect us from the financial impact of defending against these types of claims or any judgments, fines or settlement costs arising out of such claims. Any product liability or errors and omissions 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 cause injury to our reputation or cause us to suspend sales of our products and solutions. The occurrence of any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our failure to comply with fraud and abuse laws or payer regulations could result in our being excluded from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, or other governmental payer programs, subject to fines, penalties, and repayment obligations, decrease our revenues and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition for our clinical services.

The Medicare program is administered by CMS, which, like the states that administer their respective state Medicaid programs, imposes extensive and detailed requirements on diagnostic services providers, including, but not limited to, rules that govern how we structure our relationships with physicians, how and when we submit reimbursement claims and how we provide our specialized diagnostic services. In addition, federal and state laws prohibit fraudulent billing and provide for the recovery of overpayments. In particular, if we fail to comply with federal and state documentation, coding and billing rules, we could be subject to liability under the federal False Claims Act, including criminal and/or civil penalties, loss of licenses and exclusion from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The False Claims Act prohibits individuals and companies from knowingly submitting false claims for payments to, or improperly retaining overpayments from, the government. Private payers also have complex documentation, coding, and billing rules, and can bring civil actions against laboratories. Our failure to comply with applicable Medicare, Medicaid and other third party payer rules could result in liability under the False Claims Act, our inability to participate in a governmental payer program, recoupment or returning funds already paid to us, civil monetary penalties, criminal penalties and/or limitations on the operational function of our laboratory, all of which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Risks Related to our Pharma Services

We may not realize all of the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of our pharma services business or those benefits may take longer to realize than expected. We may also encounter significant unexpected difficulties in integrating the pharma services business.

Our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of the pharma services business depends, to a large extent, on our ability to integrate it successfully. The combination and integration of two independent operations is a complex, costly and time-consuming process. As a result, we have been required and are continuing to devote significant management attention and resources to integrating the business practices and operations of our pharma services with our clinical services practices and operations. The integration process, which includes moving laboratory locations, may disrupt the operations and, if implemented ineffectively or if impacted by unforeseen negative economic or market conditions or other factors, we may not realize the full anticipated benefits of the acquisition. Our failure to meet the challenges involved in integrating the two operations to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisition could cause an interruption of, or a loss of momentum in, our activities and could adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, the overall integration of the operations may result in material unanticipated problems, expenses, liabilities, competitive responses, loss of customer relationships, and diversion of management’s attention. The difficulties of combining the operations include but are not limited to:

Many of these factors are outside of our control and any one of them could result in increased costs, decreases in the amount of expected revenues and diversion of management’s time and energy, which could materially impact the business, financial condition and our results of operations. In addition, even if the operations of our clinical services operations and our pharma services are integrated successfully, we may not realize the full benefits of the acquisition, including the synergies, cost savings or sales or growth opportunities that we expect. These benefits may not be achieved within the anticipated time frame, or at all.

Furthermore, additional unanticipated costs which may be incurred in the continuing integration of operations or unanticipated increases in expenses unrelated to the acquisition of our pharma services may offset the expected benefits from the acquisition of our pharma services. In addition, our acquisition of the pharma services business has resulted in the incurrence of additional amortization expenses related to intangible assets, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition, operating results, and cash flow. Further, the acquisition of the pharma services business resulted in the Company recording significant goodwill and other assets, and we may be required to incur impairment charges, which could adversely affect our consolidated financial position and results of operations. Since the acquisition, we have also undergone several cost-cutting initiatives with our pharma services business, including reductions in headcount. Further, during Fiscal 2021, the Company experienced a fairly significant decrease in volume within pharma services. The decrease in revenue within pharma services was approximately 32% from the comparable prior year period. Such revenue headwinds may continue in future periods. As such, all of these factors could decrease or delay the expected accretive effect of the pharma services business acquisition and negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. As a result, we cannot be certain that the integration process and resulting combined operations will result in the realization of the full benefits anticipated from the acquisition.

If we are unable to increase sales of the tests and services in our pharma services or to successfully develop and commercialize other proprietary tests in our pharma services, we may be unable to achieve profitability.

Our pharma services provide pharmaceutical and biotech companies, universities and contract research organizations performing clinical trials with lab testing services for patient stratification and treatment selection through an extensive suite of molecular- and biomarker-based testing services, DNA- and RNA- extraction and customized assay development and trial design consultation. It is unclear whether we will be able to maintain and grow the number of customers who will avail themselves of our tests and services, or how regular a flow of business we will be able to obtain from existing customers. If we are unable to increase sales of our tests and services or to successfully develop, validate and commercialize other diagnostic tests and services, our pharma services may not produce sufficient revenues to become profitable.

If pharmaceutical and biotech companies, universities and contract research organizations performing clinical trials decide not to use our diagnostic tests and services, we may be unable to generate sufficient revenue to sustain our pharma services.

To generate demand for our pharma services, we need to educate pharmaceutical and biotech companies, universities and contract research organizations performing clinical trials on the utility of our tests and services to improve the outcomes of clinical trials for new oncology drugs and more rapidly advance targeted therapies through the clinical development process through published papers, presentations at scientific conferences and one-on-one education sessions by members of our sales force. We may need to hire additional commercial, scientific, technical and other personnel to support this process. If we cannot convince pharmaceutical and biotech companies, universities and contract research organizations performing clinical trials to order our diagnostic tests and services or other future tests and services we develop, we will likely be unable to create demand for our tests and services in sufficient volume for us to achieve sustained profitability of our pharma services.

As a result of our pharma services, our quarterly operating results may be subject to significant fluctuations and may be difficult to forecast.

The nature of the services of our pharma services is that they tend to come in relatively large projects but episodically, rather than providing steady sources of revenues. The timing, size and duration of our contracts with our customers depend on the size, pace and duration of such customer’s clinical trial, over which we have no control and sometimes limited visibility. In addition, our expense levels are based, in part, on expectation of future revenue levels. A shortfall in expected revenue could, therefore, result in a disproportionate decrease in our net income. As a result, our quarterly operating results may be subject to significant fluctuations and may be difficult to forecast.

If we fail to perform our pharma services in accordance with contractual and regulatory requirements, and ethical considerations, we could be subject to significant costs or liability.

Through our pharma services offerings, we contract with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, universities and contract research organizations performing clinical trials to perform lab testing services for patient stratification and treatment selection through an extensive suite of molecular- and biomarker-based testing services, DNA- and RNA- extraction and customized assay development and trial design consultation. Such services are complex and subject to contractual requirements, regulatory standards and ethical considerations. If we fail to perform our services in accordance with these requirements, standards, and considerations regulatory authorities may take action against us or our customers. Such actions may include failure of such regulatory authority to grant marketing approval of our customers’ products, imposition of holds or delays, suspension or withdrawal of clearances or approvals, rejection of data collected, laboratory license revocation, product recalls, operational restrictions, civil or criminal penalties or prosecutions, damages or fines. Any such action could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Risks Related to our Operations

The loss of members of our senior management team or our inability to attract and retain key personnel could adversely affect our business.

As a small company with less than 200 employees, the success of our business depends largely on the skills, experience and performance of members of our senior management team, including our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, and others in key management positions. During January and February 2021, we experienced turnover in our chief executive officer and chief financial officer positions. The efforts of these persons will be critical to us as we continue to grow our clinical services and develop and/or acquire additional molecular diagnostic tests, and increase or maintain pharma services tests and service revenue or to successfully develop and commercialize other pharma services proprietary tests and services. If we were to lose one or more of these key employees, we may experience difficulties in competing effectively, developing our technologies and implementing our business strategy. In addition, our commercial laboratory operations depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled scientists, including licensed clinical laboratory scientists. We may not be able to attract or retain qualified scientists and technicians in the future due to the competition for qualified personnel, and we may have to pay higher salaries to attract and retain qualified personnel. We may also be at a disadvantage in recruiting and retaining key personnel as our small size, limited resources, and limited liquidity may be viewed as providing a less stable environment, with fewer opportunities than would be the case at one of our larger competitors. If we are not able to attract and retain the necessary personnel to accomplish our business objectives, we may experience constraints that could adversely affect our ability to support our clinical laboratory and commercialization.

If we lose the support of key opinion leaders or KOL’s, it may limit our revenue growth from our tests or services and our ability to achieve profitability.

We have established relationships with leading oncology opinion leaders at premier cancer institutions and oncology networks. If these key opinion leaders determine that our existing products and services or other products and services that we develop are not clinically effective, that alternative technologies are more effective, or if they elect to use internally developed products, we would encounter significant difficulty validating our testing platform, driving adoption, or establishing our tests as a standard of care, which would limit our revenue growth and our ability to achieve profitability.

If we cannot maintain our current relationships, or enter into new relationships, with biopharmaceutical companies to leverage our bioinformatics data, we may be unable to recognize revenues from biopharmaceutical companies and our product development could be delayed.

We have limited experience in marketing and selling our products, and if we are unable to expand our direct sales and marketing force to adequately address our customer’s needs, our business may be adversely affected.

Although we have been selling commercial products since 2014, genomic diagnostics and pharma services are new areas of science, and we continue to focus and refine our efforts to sell, market and receive reimbursement for our clinical service products and to leverage our bioinformatics data. We may not be able to market, sell, or distribute our existing products or services or other products or services we may develop effectively enough to support our planned growth.

Our future sales will depend in large part on our ability to develop, and substantially expand, our sales force and to increase the scope of our marketing efforts. Our target market of physicians is a large and diverse market. As a result, we believe it is necessary to develop a sales force that includes sales representatives with specific technical backgrounds. We will also need to attract and develop marketing personnel with industry expertise. Competition for such employees is intense. We may not be able to attract and retain personnel or be able to build an efficient and effective sales and marketing force, which could negatively impact sales and market acceptance of our products and services and limit our revenue growth and potential profitability.

Our expected future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain, and integrate additional employees. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our products and leverage our data and to compete effectively will depend in part on our ability to manage this potential future growth effectively, without compromising quality.

If our sales force is less successful than anticipated, our business expansion plans could suffer and our ability to generate revenues could be diminished. In addition, we have limited history selling our clinical services tests on a direct basis and operating our pharma services, and leveraging our bioinformatics data and our limited history makes forecasting difficult.

If our sales force is not successful, or new additions to our sales team fail to gain traction among our customers, we may not be able to increase market awareness and sales of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharma services. If we fail to establish our clinical services tests and pharma services in the marketplace, it could have a negative effect on our ability to sell subsequent products or services and hinder the desired expansion of our business. We have growing, however limited, historical experience forecasting the direct sales of our clinical services products, and no prior history operating our pharma services before our acquisition of pharma services in 2019. Our ability to produce product quantities that meet customer demand is dependent upon our ability to forecast accurately and plan production accordingly.

If we are unable to compete successfully in the markets our clinical services and pharma services operate in, we may be unable to increase or sustain our revenue or achieve profitability.

We compete with physicians and the medical community who use traditional methods to diagnose gastrointestinal, endocrine and lung cancers and to conduct clinical trials. In many cases, practice guidelines in the United States have recommended non-molecular testing like cytology or diagnostic surgery to determine if a patient’s condition is malignant or benign. As a result, we believe that we will need to continue to educate physicians and the medical community on the value and benefits of our clinical services tests in order to impact clinical practices. In addition, we face competition from other companies that offer diagnostic tests. Specifically, in regard to our thyroid diagnostic tests, Veracyte has thyroid nodule cancer diagnostic tests which are currently on the market that compete with our ThyGeNEXT^® and ThyraMIR^® tests. Quest currently offers Veracyte’s tests via a co-marketing agreement, and CBL is offering a diagnostic test performed via the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) that analyzes genetic alterations using next-generation sequencing mutation panel for pancreatic cysts. While we do not believe we currently have significant direct competition for PancraGEN^® in the gastrointestinal market, technology such as a next-generation sequencing mutation panel could in the future lead to increased competition.

It is also possible that we face future competition from laboratory developed tests, or LDTs, developed by commercial laboratories such as Quest and/or other diagnostic companies developing new molecular diagnostic tests or technologies. Furthermore, we may be subject to competition as a result of the new, unforeseen technologies that can be developed by our competitors in the gastrointestinal and endocrine cancer molecular diagnostic testing space. To compete successfully, we must be able to demonstrate, among other things, that our test results are accurate and cost effective, and we must secure a meaningful level of reimbursement for our tests. Since our clinical services began in 2014, many of our potential competitors have stronger brand recognition and greater financial capabilities than we do. Others may develop a test with a lower price than ours that could be viewed by physicians and payers as functionally equivalent to our molecular diagnostic tests or offer a test at prices designed to promote market penetration, which could force us to lower the price of our clinical services tests and affect our ability to achieve and maintain profitability. If we are unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors, we may be unable to increase market acceptance of our clinical services tests and overall sales, which could prevent us from increasing our revenue or achieving profitability and cause the market price of our common stock to decline. As we add new clinical services tests and other products and services, we will likely face many of these same competitive risks that we do currently.

With respect to our pharma services, we also face competition from companies that currently offer or are developing products to profile genes, gene expression or protein biomarkers in various cancers. Precision medicine is a new area of science, and we cannot predict what tests others will develop that may compete with or provide results superior to the results we are able to achieve with the tests we develop. Our competitors for our pharma services include public companies such as NeoGenomics and many private companies.

If we cannot license rights to use third-party technologies on reasonable terms, we may not be able to commercialize new products or services in the future.

In the future, we may license third-party technology to develop or commercialize new products or offer new services. In return for the use of a third-party’s technology, we may agree to pay the licensor royalties based on sales of our solutions. Royalties are a component of cost of revenue and affect the margins on our solutions. We may also need to negotiate licenses to patents and patent applications after introducing a commercial product. Our business may suffer if we are unable to enter into the necessary licenses on acceptable terms, or at all, if any necessary licenses are subsequently terminated, if the licensors fail to abide by the terms of the license or fail to prevent infringement by third parties, or if the licensed patents or other rights are found to be invalid or unenforceable.

Unfavorable results of legal proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in or outside the ordinary course of business. The results of legal proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of merit, litigation may be both time-consuming and disruptive to our operations and cause significant expense and diversion of management attention. If we do not prevail in the legal proceedings, we may be faced with significant monetary damages or injunctive relief against us that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If a catastrophe strikes any of our laboratories or if any of our laboratories becomes inoperable for any other reason, we will be unable to perform our testing and pharma services and our business will be harmed.

The laboratories and equipment we use to perform our tests and services would be costly to replace and could require substantial lead time to replace and qualify for use if they became inoperable. Our facilities may be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including earthquakes, flooding, power outages, and health epidemics or pandemics, including the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), which may render it difficult or impossible for us to perform our testing or services for some period of time or to receive and store samples. The inability to perform our tests or services for even a short period of time, including due to disruption in staffing, supplies, distribution, or transport or temporary closures related to an outbreak of disease such as COVID-19, may result in the loss of customers or harm our reputation, and we may be unable to regain those customers in the future. Although we maintain insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business, 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. In addition, COVID-19 has materially and adversely impacted our operations particularly during portions of 2020. Further continued spread of COVID-19 globally and resulting travel and other restrictions that may be imposed could negatively impact our ability to obtain raw materials needed for manufacture of our clinical services testing, our ability to provide testing and our pharma services to patients, our financial condition and our results of operation. The extent to which COVID-19 and global efforts to contain its spread will impact our operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time, and include the duration, severity and scope of the outbreak and the actions taken to contain or treat the COVID-19 outbreak.

If we use hazardous materials in a manner that causes contamination or injury, we could be liable for resulting damages.

We are subject to federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations governing the use, discharge, storage, handling and disposal of biological material, chemicals and waste. 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, remediation costs and any related penalties or fines, and any liability could exceed our resources or any applicable insurance coverage we may have. The cost of compliance with these laws and regulations may become significant, and our failure to comply may result in substantial fines or other consequences, and either could have a significant impact on our operating results.

Security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions to us or our third-party service providers could compromise sensitive information related to our business or prevent us from accessing critical information and expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business and our reputation.

Our business requires that we and our third-party service providers collect and store sensitive data, including PHI, personally identifiable information such as genetic information or credit card information about patients or other individuals, and our proprietary business and financial information. We must comply with the HIPAA and HITECH privacy, security, and breach notification regulations with respect to PHI in our capacity as a covered entity and business associate, and with consumer protection and consumer privacy laws that apply to our processing of this sensitive data, which may increase our operational costs. Furthermore, the privacy, security, and breach notification regulations implemented under HIPAA and HITECH as well as other federal and state consumer protection and consumer privacy laws and regulations that may apply to us provide for significant fines and other penalties, including potential civil and criminal fines and penalties, for non-compliance. We face a number of risks relative to our protection of, and our service providers’ protection of, this critical information, other personally identifiable information, and our proprietary business and financial information, including loss of access, fraudulent modifications, inappropriate disclosure and inappropriate access, as well as risks associated with our ability to identify and audit such events. The secure processing, storage, maintenance and transmission of this critical information is vital to our operations and business strategy, and we devote significant resources to protecting such information. Although we take measures to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or disclosure, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or viruses or otherwise breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other activities. If such event would occur and cause interruptions in our operations, our networks would be compromised and the information we store on those networks could be accessed by unauthorized parties, publicly disclosed, modified without our knowledge, lost or stolen. In 2017, we discovered malware installed on certain servers. After an internal investigation, we do not believe that any PHI or other sensitive data on the affected servers was accessed or compromised. We removed the malware, and enhanced our cybersecurity procedures.

Additionally, we engage third-party contractors who, insofar as they are our business associates, are contractually and legally obligated to safeguard and maintain the confidentiality of any PHI that they create, receive, maintain, transmit, use, or disclose on our behalf. Unauthorized persons may be able to gain access to PHI stored by such third-party contractors, including in their computer networks. Any wrongful use or disclosure of PHI by us or our third-party contractors, including disclosure due to data theft or unauthorized access to our or our third-party contractors’ computer networks, could subject us to fines or penalties that could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Although HIPAA and HITECH and their implementing regulations do not expressly provide for a private right of damages, they permit state attorneys general to bring civil actions and obtain damages on behalf of state residents for violations, and enjoin further violations, of the privacy and security regulations implemented under HIPAA. We also could incur damages under state laws to private parties for the wrongful use or disclosure of confidential health information or other private personal information by us or our third-party contractors. Unauthorized access, loss, modification or dissemination could disrupt our operations, including our ability to process tests, provide test results, bill payers or patients, process claims, provide customer assistance services, conduct research and development activities, collect, process and prepare company financial information, provide information about our solution and other patient and physician education and outreach efforts through our website, or manage the administrative aspects of our business and damage our reputation, any of which could adversely affect our business. In addition, the interpretation and application of consumer, health-related or other data protection laws in the United States are often uncertain, contradictory and in flux, particularly as more states enact comprehensive consumer privacy laws. It is possible that these various laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices. Complying with these various laws could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices, systems and compliance procedures in a manner adverse to our business.

We may need to increase the size of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.

We are a small company with less than 200 employees. We may increase the number of employees in the future depending on the progress and growth of our business. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including the need to identify, attract, retain, motivate and integrate additional employees with the necessary skills to support the growing complexities of our business. Rapid and significant growth may place strain on our administrative, financial and operational infrastructure. Our future financial performance and our ability to sell or promote our existing tests and services and develop and commercialize new tests and services and to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to manage any future growth effectively. To that end, we must be able to:

We may not be able to accomplish these tasks, and our failure to accomplish any of them could harm our financial results. We may need to reduce the size of our organization in order to become profitable and we may experience difficulties in managing these reductions.

Risks Related to Regulation within our Markets

If we fail to comply with federal, state and foreign laboratory licensing requirements, we could lose the ability to perform our tests or experience disruptions to our business.

We are subject to CLIA regulations, a Federal law that regulates clinical laboratories that perform testing on specimens derived from humans for the purpose of providing information for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any disease, or impairment of, or the assessment of the health of, human beings. CLIA regulations mandate specific personnel qualifications, facilities administration, quality systems, inspections and proficiency testing. CLIA certification is also required in order for us to be eligible to bill federal and state healthcare programs, as well as many private third-party payers, for our molecular diagnostic tests. To renew these certifications, we are subject to survey and inspection every two years. Moreover, CLIA inspectors may make random inspections of our clinical reference laboratories. We are also required to maintain State licenses to conduct testing in our Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania laboratory. Pennsylvania law requires that we maintain a license, and establish standards for the day-to-day operation of our clinical reference laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In addition, our Pittsburgh laboratory is required to be licensed by certain states, including California, Maryland, New York and Rhode Island. New York law requires us to obtain test-specific approval before offering our tests as LDT. California, Maryland, New York and Rhode Island laws also mandate proficiency testing for laboratories licensed under the laws of each respective State regardless of whether such laboratories are located in California, Maryland, New York or Rhode Island. If we were unable to obtain or maintain our CLIA certificate for our laboratories, whether as a result of revocation, suspension or limitation, we would no longer be able to perform our current clinical services and pharma services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we were to lose our licenses issued by States where we are required to hold licenses, if such licenses expired or were not renewed, or if we failed to obtain and maintain a State license that we are required to hold, we may be subject to significant fines, penalties and liability, and may be forced to cease testing (if Pennsylvania) or cease testing specimens from those States (if California, New York, Maryland, or Rhode Island), which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. New molecular diagnostic tests and pharma services we may develop may be subject to new requirements by governmental bodies, including state governments, and we may not be able to offer our new molecular diagnostic tests or pharma services in such jurisdictions until such requirements are met.

Legislation reforming the U.S. healthcare system may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operations.

PPACA made changes that significantly affected the pharmaceutical, medical device and clinical laboratory industries. For example, PPACA includes coordination and promotion of research on comparative clinical effectiveness of different technologies and procedures, initiatives to revise Medicare payment methodologies, such as bundling of payments across the continuum of care by providers and physicians, and initiatives to promote quality indicators in payment methodologies. PPACA also includes significant new fraud and abuse measures, including required disclosures of financial arrangements with physicians, lower thresholds for violations and increasing potential penalties for such violations. The effect of PPACA and any potential changes that may be necessitated by the legislation is uncertain, any of which may potentially affect our business.

Our current position is that we do not meet the definition of an “Applicable Manufacturer” under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act of the PPACA and are therefore not subject to the disclosure or tax requirements contained in PPACA. If the government were to reach a different conclusion, our failure to disclose could result in significant monetary penalties and potential claims from certain third parties.

PPACA, as well as other healthcare reform measures that have been and may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria, new payment methodologies and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product or service, and could seriously harm our future revenues. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payers. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may compromise our ability to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our products. At the same time, there have been significant ongoing efforts to repeal, revise, or replace PPACA; however, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in 2021.

President Biden has used executive orders to undo certain changes to the PPACA made by the Trump administration and has indicated it will advocate for legislation to build on the PPACA. It is unknown what form any such changes or any law would take, and how or whether it may affect our business in the future. We expect that changes or additions to the PPACA, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and changes stemming from other healthcare reform measures, especially with regard to healthcare access, financing or other legislation in individual states, could have a material adverse effect on the healthcare industry.

For example, Medicare payment rates have been – and in the future, will continue to be, to varying extents, subject to sequestration. Reductions resulting from the Congressional sequester are applied to total claim payments made; however, they do not currently result in a rebasing of the negotiated or established Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement rates.

State legislation on reimbursement applies to Medicaid reimbursement and Managed Medicaid reimbursement rates within that state. Some states have passed or proposed legislation that would revise reimbursement methodology for clinical laboratory payment rates under those Medicaid programs.

In April 2014, President Obama signed the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, or PAMA, which included a substantial new payment system for clinical laboratory tests under the CLFS. Under PAMA, CLFS payment rates are based upon the weighted median of private payor rates for each type of laboratory test. To calculate these rates, PAMA requires CLIA-certified laboratories that receive a majority of their Medicare revenue from payments made under the CLFS and the Physician Fee Schedule, and receive at least $12,500 in CLFS revenue, within the 6-month reporting period, to report private payor rates and volumes for their tests with specific CPT codes based on final payments made during a 6-month period of data collection (from January 1 through June 30 of the applicable year). For most laboratory tests, the CLFS is updated every three years, but rates are updated annually for Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Tests, or ADLTs. The first private payor rate-based CLFS was based on data collected from January 1 through June 30, 2016, and, following an initial, one-year delay became effective on January 1, 2018. CMS published final rules implementing these changes in 2016 and 2018.

Under the revised Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, reimbursement for clinical laboratory testing was reduced for most tests in 2018, 2019, and 2020. PAMA (as revised) calls for further revisions of the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule for years after 2022, based on future surveys of market rates. Further reductions in reimbursement may result from such revisions.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, as amended by the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, revised payment reductions and the data reporting schedule for CDLTs that are not ADLTs. Under these laws, the next data reporting period is January 1, 2023 through March 31, 2023, and will be based upon the data collected during the January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019 period. Any reductions to payment rates resulting from the new methodology are limited to 10% per test per year in each of the years 2018 through 2020 and to 15% per test per year in each of the years 2023 through 2025. Payments will not be reduced for 2021 or 2022 for CDLTs.

We cannot predict whether future healthcare initiatives will be implemented at the federal or state level or in countries outside of the United States in which we may do business, or the effect any future legislation or regulation will have on us. There is additional uncertainty in light of the current Presidential administration. The taxes imposed by federal legislation, cost reduction measures and the expansion in the role of the U.S. government in the healthcare industry may result in decreased revenue, lower reimbursement by payers for our tests or reduced medical procedure volumes, all of which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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

We are subject to regulation by both the federal government and the governments of the states in which we conduct our operations. The federal and state laws which may apply to us include, but are not limited to:

In recent years U.S. Attorneys’ Offices have increased scrutiny of the healthcare industry, as have Congress, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Defense. These bodies have all issued subpoenas and other requests for information to conduct investigations of, and commenced civil and criminal litigation against, healthcare companies based on financial arrangements with health care providers, regulatory compliance, product promotional practices and documentation, and coding and billing practices. Whistleblowers have filed numerous qui tam lawsuits against healthcare companies under the federal and state False Claims Acts in recent years, in part because the whistleblower can receive a portion of the government’s recovery under such suits.

The growth of our business may increase the potential of violating these laws, regulations or our internal policies and procedures. The risk of our being found in violation of these or other laws and regulations is further increased by the fact that many have not been fully interpreted by the regulatory authorities or the courts, and their provisions are open to a variety of interpretations. Violations of federal or state regulations may incur investigation or enforcement action by the FDA, Department of Justice, State agencies, or other legal authorities, and may result in substantial civil, criminal, or other sanctions. Any action brought against us for violation of these or other 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 civil and criminal penalties, damages and fines, we could be required to refund payments received by us, we could face possible exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal or state healthcare programs and we could even be required to cease our operations. Any of the foregoing consequences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A failure to comply with federal and state laws and regulations pertaining to our payment practices could result in substantial penalties.

We retain healthcare practitioners as key opinion leaders providing consultation in various aspects of our business, maintain a sales force, and contract for marketing services. These arrangements, like any arrangement that includes compensation to a healthcare provider or potential referral source, may trigger federal or state anti-kickback, Stark Law liability, and False Claims Act liability. There are no guarantees that the federal or state governments will find that these arrangements are designed properly or that they do not trigger liability under federal and state laws. Under existing laws, all arrangements must be commercially reasonable and compensation must be fair market value. These terms require some subjective analysis. Safe harbors in the anti-kickback laws do not necessarily equate to exceptions in the Stark Law, and there is no guarantee that the government will agree with our payment practices with respect to the relationships between our laboratories and the healthcare providers, sales force members, or other parties. A failure to comply with Federal and State laws and regulations pertaining to our payment practices could result in substantial penalties and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, federal law prohibits any entity from offering or transferring to a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary any remuneration that the entity knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary’s selection of a particular provider, practitioner or supplier of Medicare or Medicaid payable items or services, including waivers of copayments and deductible amounts (or any part thereof) and transfers of items or services for free or for other than fair market value. Entities found in violation may be liable for civil monetary penalties of up to $10,000 for each wrongful act. Further, federal and state anti-kickback statutes or similar laws may be implicated by arrangements with patients to waive, reduce, or limit copays or other payment amounts, such as our Patient Assistance Program. Third-party payers, including commercial payers and government payers, may prohibit, limit, or restrict certain financial arrangements with patients. Violation of these laws or payment policies could result in significant fines, penalties, liability, recoupment, and exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

In 2018, the U.S. enacted the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act, or EKRA, as part of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act). EKRA is an all-payer anti-kickback law that makes it a criminal offense to pay any remuneration to induce referrals to, or in exchange for, patients using the services of a recovery home, a substance use clinical treatment facility, or laboratory. Although it appears that EKRA was intended to reach patient brokering and similar arrangements to induce patronage of substance use recovery and treatment, the language in EKRA is broadly written. The term “laboratory” is defined broadly and without reference to any connection to substance use disorder treatment. EKRA is a criminal statute and violations can result in fines of up to $200,000, up to 10 years in prison, or both, per violation. As drafted, EKRA prohibits incentive compensation to sales employees, a practice that is common in the industry.

Our business activities may be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and similar anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws.

Our business activities may be subject to the FCPA and similar anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws, regulations or rules of other countries in which we operate, including the U.K. Bribery Act. The FCPA generally prohibits offering, promising, giving, or authorizing others to give anything of value, either directly or indirectly, to a non-U.S. government official in order to influence official action, or otherwise obtain or retain business. The FCPA also requires public companies to make and keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect the transactions of the corporation and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls. Our business is heavily regulated and therefore involves significant interaction with public officials, potentially including officials of non-U.S. governments. Additionally, in many other countries, the health care providers who prescribe pharmaceuticals are employed by their government, and the purchasers of pharmaceuticals are government entities; therefore, our dealings with these prescribers and purchasers are subject to regulation under the FCPA. Recently, the SEC and Department of Justice have increased their FCPA enforcement activities with respect to pharmaceutical companies. There is no certainty that all of our employees, agents, contractors, or collaborators, or those of our affiliates, will comply with all applicable laws and regulations, particularly given the high level of complexity of these laws. Violations of these laws and regulations could result in fines, criminal sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees, the closing down of our facilities, requirements to obtain export licenses, cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries, implementation of compliance programs, and prohibitions on the conduct of our business. Any such violations could include prohibitions on our ability to offer our products in one or more countries and could materially damage our reputation, our brand, our international expansion efforts, our ability to attract and retain employees, and our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition.

Changes in governmental regulation could negatively impact our business operations and increase our costs.

The pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries are subject to a high degree of governmental regulation. Significant changes in these regulations affecting our business could result in the imposition of additional restrictions on our business, additional costs to us in providing our tests or services to our customers or otherwise negatively impact our business operations. Changes in governmental regulations mandating price controls and limitations on patient access to our products could also reduce, eliminate or otherwise negatively impact our sales. Additional changes may be forthcoming in light of the current Presidential administration.

Risks Relating To Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property effectively, our business would be harmed.

We rely on patent protection as well as trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property rights protection and contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary technology. If we fail to protect our intellectual property, third parties may be able to compete more effectively against us and we may incur substantial litigation costs in our attempts to recover or restrict use of our intellectual property. While we apply for patents covering our products and technologies and uses thereof, we may fail to apply for patents on important products and technologies in a timely fashion or at all, or we may fail to apply for patents in relevant jurisdictions. Others could seek to design around our current or future patented technologies. We may not be successful in defending any challenges made against our patents or patent applications. On January 16, 2018, we were notified that an Opposition had been filed against EP patent #2772550 alleging that the patent is invalid. On February 25, 2019, the European Patent Office Opposition Division issued a decision revoking the patent on grounds that the claims were not supported by a valid basis. On April 25, 2019, we filed a Notice of Appeal challenging the European Patent Office Opposition Division and we are waiting for the appeal to be decided. Any successful third-party challenge to our patents could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents and increased competition to our business. The outcome of patent litigation, such as oppositions or post-grant reviews can be uncertain and any attempt by us to enforce our patent rights against others may not be successful, or, if successful, may take substantial time and result in substantial cost, and may divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business.

Monitoring unauthorized disclosure is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to prevent such disclosure are, or will be, adequate. If we were to enforce a claim that a third-party had illegally obtained and was using our trade secrets, it would be expensive and time consuming, and the outcome would be unpredictable. Further, competitors could willfully infringe our intellectual property rights, design around our protected technology or develop their own competitive technologies that arguably fall outside of our intellectual property rights. Others may independently develop similar or alternative products and technologies or replicate any of our products and technologies. If our intellectual property does not adequately protect us against competitors’ products and methods, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our business and the results of our operations. To the extent our intellectual property offers inadequate protection, or is found to be invalid or unenforceable, we would be exposed to a greater risk of competition. If our intellectual property does not provide adequate coverage of our competitors’ products, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our overall business. Both the patent application process and the process of managing patent disputes can be time consuming and expensive.

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

As is the case with other companies operating in our industry, our success is somewhat dependent on intellectual property, particularly on obtaining and enforcing patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents of molecular diagnostics tests, like our molecular diagnostic tests in our PancraGEN^® and miRInform^® platforms (including ThyGeNEXT^®), involves both technological and legal complexity, and is therefore costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. From time-to-time the U.S. Supreme Court, other Federal courts, the U.S. Congress or the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, may change the standards of patentability and any such changes could have a negative impact on our business. For instance, on October 30, 2008, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision that methods or processes cannot be patented unless they are tied to a machine or involve a physical transformation.

The U.S. Supreme Court later reversed that decision in Bilski v. Kappos, finding that the “machine-or-transformation” test is not the only test for determining patent eligibility. The Court, however, declined to specify how and when processes are patentable. On March 30, 2012, in the case Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Federal Circuit’s application of Bilski and invalidated a patent focused on a process for identifying a proper dosage for an existing therapeutic because the patent claim embodied a law of nature. On July 3, 2012, the USPTO released a memorandum entitled “2012 Interim Procedure for Subject Matter Eligibility Analysis of Process Claims Involving Laws of Nature,” with guidelines for determining patentability of diagnostic or other processes in line with the Mayo decision. On June 13, 2013, in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, the Supreme Court held that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated. The Supreme Court did not address the patentability of any innovative method claims involving the manipulation of isolated genes. On March 4, 2014, the USPTO released a memorandum entitled “2014 Procedure for Subject Matter Eligibility Analysis Of Claims Reciting Or Involving Laws Of Nature/Natural Principles, Natural Phenomena, And/Or Natural Products.” This memorandum provides guidelines for the USPTO’s new examination procedure for subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for claims embracing natural products or natural principles.

On June 12, 2015, the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Ariosa v. Sequenom holding that a method for detecting a paternally inherited nucleic acid of fetal origin performed on a maternal serum or plasma sample from a pregnant female were unpatentable as directed to a naturally occurring phenomenon. On July 30, 2015, the USPTO released a Federal Register Notice entitled, “July 2015 Update on Subject Matter Eligibility,” This Notice updated the USPTO guidelines for the USPTO’s procedure for subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for claims embracing natural products or natural principles phenomenon. On May 4, 2016, the USPTO released life science examples that were intended to be used in conjunction with the USPTO guidance on subject matter eligibility. Although the guidelines and examples do not have the force of law, patent examiners have been instructed to follow them. On February 6, 2019, the Federal Circuit for Court of Appeals issued a decision in Athena Diagnostics, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Servs., LLC, which relied on the decisions from Mayo and Ariosa, to find a claim directed to a method for diagnosing neurotransmission or developmental disorders related to muscle specific tyrosine kinase not eligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101. What constitutes a law of nature and a sufficient inventive concept continues to remain uncertain, and it is possible that certain aspects of diagnostic tests will continue to be considered natural laws and, therefore, ineligible for patent protection.

Some aspects of our technology involve processes that may be subject to this evolving standard and we cannot guarantee that any of our pending or issued claims will be patentable or upheld as valid as a result of such evolving standards. In addition, patents we own or license that issued before these recent cases may be subject to challenge in court or before the USPTO in view of these current legal standards. Accordingly, the evolving interpretation and application of patent laws in the United States governing the eligibility of diagnostics for patent protection may adversely affect our ability to obtain patents and may facilitate third-party challenges to any owned and licensed patents. Changes in either the patent laws or in interpretations and application of patent laws may also diminish the value of our existing intellectual property or intellectual property that we continue to develop. We cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforceable in our patents or in third-party patents.

We may be involved in litigation related to intellectual property, which could be time-intensive and costly and may adversely affect our business, operating results or financial condition.

We may receive notices of claims of direct or indirect infringement or misappropriation or misuse of other parties’ proprietary rights from time to time and some of these claims may lead to litigation. We cannot assume that we will prevail in such actions, or that other actions alleging misappropriation or misuse by us of third-party trade secrets, infringement by us of third-party patents and trademarks or other rights, or the validity of our patents, trademarks or other rights, will not be asserted or prosecuted against us. We might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending patent applications and we might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions. No assurance can be given that other patent applications will not have priority over our patent applications. If third parties bring these proceedings against our patents, we could incur significant costs and experience management distraction. Litigation may be necessary for us to enforce our patents and proprietary rights or to determine the scope, coverage and validity of the proprietary rights of others. Defending any litigation, and particularly patent litigation, is expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome of any litigation or other proceeding is inherently uncertain and might not be favorable to us. It is also possible that we might not be able to obtain licenses to technology that we require on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, if we resort to legal proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity, scope and coverage of the intellectual property or other proprietary rights of others, the proceedings could be burdensome and expensive, even if we were to prevail. Any litigation that may be necessary in the future could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may be required to pay damages and ongoing royalties, and obtain one or more licenses from third parties, or be prohibited from selling our products. We may not be able to obtain these licenses on acceptable terms, if at all. We could incur substantial costs related to royalty payments for licenses obtained from third parties, which could negatively affect our financial results. In addition, our agreements with some of our customers, suppliers or other entities with whom we do business require us to defend or indemnify these parties to the extent they become involved in infringement claims, including the types of claims described above. If we are required or agree to defend or indemnify third parties in connection with any infringement claims, we could incur significant costs and expenses that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Other Risks Related to our Business

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards may be limited and may result in increased future tax liability to us.

We have incurred net losses since 2015 and may never achieve or sustain profitability. As of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, we had U.S. federal and state net operating losses, or NOLs, of approximately $118.6 million and $56.3 million respectively. Subject to the final two sentences of this paragraph, the federal and state NOL carryforwards will begin to expire, if not utilized, beginning in 2028 for certain states. These NOL carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. Under current federal income tax law, federal NOLs incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal NOLs is limited to 80% of Federal taxable income.

To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses, unused losses will carry forward to offset future taxable income, if any. We may be limited in the portion of NOL and tax credit carryforwards that we can use in the future to offset taxable income for U.S. federal and state income tax purposes. Sections 382 and 383 of Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the Code, limit the use of NOLs and tax credits after a cumulative change in corporate ownership of more than 50% occurs within a three-year period. The limitation could prevent us from using some or all of our NOLs and tax credits, as it places a formula limit of how much of our NOL and tax credit carryforwards we would be permitted to use in a tax year. The amount of the annual limitation, if any, will be determined based on the value of our company immediately prior to an ownership change. During the periods 2017 through 2019, the company experienced greater than 50% changes in ownership and as a result, NOLs attributable to the pre-ownership change are subject to a substantial annual limitation under Section 382 of the Code due to the ownership changes. The Company has adjusted their NOL carryforwards to address the impact of the Section 382 ownership changes. Federal Net Operating Losses of $71.2 million are subject to annual limitation as of the ownership changes for ownership changes. The remaining $47.4 million of NOLs incurred post July 15, 2019 are not subject to any annual limitation and can be carried forward indefinitely. Subsequent ownership changes may further affect the limitation in future years. In the event we have undergone or will undergo an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change NOL carryforwards to offset U.S. federal taxable income may become subject to these limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.

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

New income, sales and use or other tax laws or regulations could be enacted at any time, which could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws and regulations could be interpreted, modified or applied adversely to us. These events could require us to pay additional taxes on a prospective or retroactive basis, as well as penalties, interest and other costs for past amounts deemed to be due. New laws, or laws that are changed, modified or newly interpreted or applied, also could increase our compliance, operating and other costs, as well as the costs of our products. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws, some of which were further modified by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, and may be modified in the future by the current or a future presidential administration. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to current federal law, or any newly enacted federal tax legislation. Changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net operating losses, and other deferred tax assets relating to our operations, the taxation of foreign earnings, and the deductibility of expenses could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets and could increase our future tax expense.

If we do not increase our revenues and successfully manage the size of our operations, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

The majority of our operating expenses are personnel-related costs such as employee compensation and benefits, reagents and disposable supplies as well as the cost of infrastructure to support our operations, including facility space and equipment. We continuously review our personnel to determine whether we are fully utilizing their services. If we believe we are not in a position to fully utilize our personnel, we may make reductions to our workforce. If we are unable to achieve revenue growth in the future or fail to adjust our cost infrastructure to the appropriate level to support our revenues, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We may acquire businesses or assets or make investments in other companies or testing, service or solution 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 strategy, we may pursue acquisitions of synergistic businesses or other related assets. If we make any further 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 acquisition by us also could result in significant write-offs or the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities, any of which could harm our operating results and financial condition. Integration of an acquired company or business will also likely require management resources that otherwise would be available for ongoing development of our existing business. 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. To finance any acquisitions or investments, 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 for stock. Alternatively, it may be necessary for us to raise additional funds for these activities through public or private financings. Additional funds may not be available on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. If these funds are raised through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, dilution to our stockholders could result. The holders of our Series B Preferred Stock have the right to approve any public offering. Consummating an acquisition poses a number of risks including:

Additional risks of integration of an acquired business include:

If our information technology or communications systems fail or we experience a significant interruption in their operation, our reputation, business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

The efficient operation of our business is dependent on our information technology and communications systems. Increasingly, we are also dependent upon our ability to electronically interface with our customers. The failure of these systems to operate as anticipated could disrupt our business and result in decreased revenue and increased overhead costs. In addition, we do not have complete redundancy for all of our systems and our disaster recovery planning cannot account for all eventualities. Our information technology and communications systems, including the information technology systems and services that are maintained by third party vendors, are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, fire, terrorist attacks, epidemics, pandemics including COVID-19, malicious attacks by computer viruses or hackers, power loss, failure of computer systems, Internet, telecommunications or data networks. In 2017, we discovered malware installed on certain clinical services servers. We do not believe that any data on the affected servers was accessed or compromised. We removed the malware, and enhanced our cybersecurity procedures. Additionally, our clinical services and pharma services are largely dependent on our partially internally developed and partially purchased Laboratory Information Management Systems or LIMS, which is our automated basis of managing operations and storing data and customer information. If these systems or services become unavailable or suffer a security breach, or are uneconomical or impossible to update and modify, we may expend significant resources to address these problems, and our reputation, business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Related To Our Common Stock Price

The price and trading volume of our common stock may be highly volatile and could be further affected by events not within our control, and an investment in our common stock could suffer a decline in value.

During 2021, our common stock traded at a low of $2.98 and a high of $10.51. During 2020, our common stock traded at a low of $2.57 and a high of $11.00. Volatility in our stock price or trading volume may be in response to various factors, some of which may be beyond our control. In addition to the other factors discussed or incorporated by reference herein, factors that may cause fluctuations in our stock price or trading volume, include, among others: