ABEO Abeona Therapeutics, Inc.

Risks

• Our gene therapy product candidates are based on a novel technology, which makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of product candidate development and subsequently obtaining regulatory approval. Only a few gene therapy products have been approved in the U.S. and the EU.
• Regulatory requirements governing gene and cell therapy products have evolved and may continue to change in the future. For example, the FDA has established the Office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies within CBER to consolidate the review of gene therapy and related products, and the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee to advise CBER on its review.
• We may find it difficult to enroll patients in our clinical studies, which could delay or prevent clinical studies of our product candidates.
• We may encounter substantial delays in our clinical studies or we may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities.
• Our product or product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval or commercialization.
• Even if we complete the necessary preclinical and clinical studies, we cannot predict when or if we will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate or the approval may be for a narrower indication than we expect.
• Even if we obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate, our products will remain subject to regulatory scrutiny.
• We could experience production problems in our manufacturing facilities that result in delays in our development or commercialization programs or otherwise adversely affect our business.
• If we, our collaborators, or any third-party manufacturers we engage fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.
• We expect to rely on third parties to conduct some or all aspects of our viral vector production, drug product manufacturing, research and preclinical and clinical testing, and these third parties may not perform satisfactorily.
• Our reliance on third parties requires us to share our trade secrets, which increases the possibility that a competitor will discover them or that our trade secrets will be misappropriated or disclosed.
• Our drug candidates are subject to the risks of failure inherent in the development of pharmaceutical products based on new technologies, and our failure to develop safe commercially viable drugs would severely limit our ability to become profitable or to achieve significant revenues.
• We may be unable to successfully develop, market, or commercialize our products or our product candidates without establishing new relationships and maintaining current relationships and our ability to successfully commercialize, and market our product candidates could be limited if a number of these existing relationships are terminated.
• We are subject to extensive governmental regulation, which increases our cost of doing business and may affect our ability to commercialize any new products that we may develop.
• We may incur substantial product liability expenses due to the use or misuse of our products for which we may be unable to obtain insurance coverage.
• Our ability to successfully develop and commercialize our drug candidates will substantially depend upon the availability of reimbursement funds for the costs of the resulting drugs and related treatments.
• The market may not accept any pharmaceutical products that we develop.
• Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent our product candidates’ commercial success.
• We may be subject, directly or indirectly, to federal, state, and foreign healthcare laws and regulations, including fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws and health information privacy and security laws. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.
• Our business could suffer if we lose the services of, or fail to attract, key personnel.
• Trends toward managed health care and downward price pressures on medical products and services may limit our ability to profitably sell any drugs that we may develop.
• Security breaches and other disruptions could compromise our information and expose us to liability, which would cause our business and reputation to suffer.
• Our rights to develop and commercialize our product candidates are subject to, in part, the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by others.
• If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products and technology, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our products and technology may be adversely affected.
• Our intellectual property licenses with third parties may be subject to disagreements over contract interpretation, which could narrow the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology or increase our financial or other obligations to our licensors.
• We may not be successful in obtaining necessary rights to our product candidates through acquisitions and in-licenses.
• Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
• We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
• Issued patents covering our product candidates could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court. We may not be able to protect our trade secrets in court.
• Third-parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could harm our business.
• Intellectual property litigation could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.
• We may be subject to claims asserting that our employees, consultants or advisors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their current or former employers or claims asserting ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.
• Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
• If we do not obtain patent term extension and data exclusivity for our product candidates, our business may be harmed.
• Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.
• We have experienced a history of losses, we expect to incur future losses and we may be unable to obtain necessary additional capital to fund operations in the future.
• We do not have significant operating revenue and may never attain profitability.
• The market price of our common stock may be volatile and adversely affected by several factors.
• We have not paid cash dividends in the past and do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any return on investment may be limited to the value of our common stock.
• Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly.
• Provisions of our charter documents could discourage an acquisition of our company that would benefit our stockholders and may have the effect of entrenching, and making it difficult to remove, management.
• Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls could have a material adverse effect on our business.
• There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with continued listing standards of the Nasdaq Capital Market.
• Our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards may be subject to limitation.
• Ownership of our shares is concentrated in the hands of a few investors which could limit the ability of our other stockholders to influence the direction of the Company.