UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark one)

☒ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20192022

☐TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from __________ to __________

Commission file number 000-05576

SPHERIX INCORPORATEDDOMINARI HOLDINGS INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

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

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None.

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

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

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

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

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definition 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. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

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 voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2019: $5,730,2482022: $30,913,061 based upon the closing sale price of our common stock of $2.50$5.90 on that date. Common stock held by each officer and director and by each person known to own in excess of 5% of outstanding shares of our common stock has been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. The determination of affiliate status in not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

There were 4,825,5494,840,597 shares of the Registrant’s common stock outstanding as of January 30, 2020.March 20, 2023.

DOMINARI HOLDINGS INC.

(Formerly AIkido Pharma, Inc.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

SPECIAL CAUTIONARY NOTICE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Forward looking statements are often identified by the words “will,” “may,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects” and words of similar import. Such words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but are not intended to constitute the exclusive means of identifying such statements. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” below that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Given these uncertainties, prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

All references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” refer to Spherix Incorporated,Dominari Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries unless the context requires otherwise.

Item 1. BUSINESS.

GeneralOVERVIEW

Spherix IncorporatedDominari Holdings Inc. (“Dominari”) is a holding company that, through its various subsidiaries, is engaged in financial services, investment advising and wealth management, asset management, investment banking, the acquisition of interests in high growth industries, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and development.  In addition to capital investment, Dominari provides management support to the executive teams of its subsidiaries, helping them to operate efficiently and reduce cost under a streamlined infrastructure. Dominari and its subsidiaries are collectively referred to herein as “Company”, “we”, “our” or “us”.

Dominari Financial, Inc. (“Dominari Financial”), our wholly-owned financial subsidiary, is the M&A arm of Dominari and will execute the Company’s roll-up strategy in the financial sector. The roll-up strategy seeks to acquire third-party financial assets such as registered investment advisors, broker dealers, asset management firms and fintech firms. Our first transaction in furtherance of our financial roll-up strategy, the acquisition of 100% of a registered broker-dealer from Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust, was initially formed in 1967consummated on March 27, 2023. The newly acquired dually registered broker-dealer and investment adviser will be renamed Dominari Securities, LLC (“Dominari Securities”) and is currently a biotechnology company seeking to develop small-molecule anti-cancer therapeutics. wholly-owned subsidiary of Dominari Financial. Dominari Securities will provide wealth management services, asset management services, investment banking and sales and trading.

The Company recently purchasedis in the rights toprocess of winding down its historical pipeline of biotechnology assets held by Aikido Labs, LLC. These biotechnology assets consist of patented technology from leading universities and researchers, and we are currently in the process of developing innovative therapeutic drugs through partnerships with world renowned educational institutions, including The University of Texas at Austin and Wake Forest University. Our diverse pipeline of therapeutics includes therapiesprospective treatments for pancreatic cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Prior toleukemia.  The Company is also developing a broad-spectrum antiviral platform, in which the closing on December 5, 2019lead compounds have activity in cell-based assays against multiple viruses including Influenza virus, Ebolavirus and Marburg virus, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the acquisition of assets and rights from CBM BioPharma, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“CBM”), and since July 2013, theCOVID-19.

HISTORY

The Company focused its efforts on owning, developing, acquiring and monetizing intellectual property assets. Since March 2016, the Company has received limited funds from its intellectual property monetization.was founded in 1967 as Spherix Incorporated. In addition to its patent monetization efforts, since the fourth quarter of 2017 the Company has been transitioningchanged its name to focus its effortsAikido Pharma Inc. From 2017 to 2022, the Company operated as a technologybiotechnology company with a diverse portfolio of small-molecule anticancer and antiviral therapeutics in development. During the second half of 2022, in an effort to enhance shareholder value, the Company shifted its primary focus away from biotechnology development company. These efforts have focused on biotechnology research and blockchain technology research. The Company’s biotechnology research development includes investments in: (i) Hoth Therapeuticsto a new line of business in the financial services industry.  In furtherance of this new focus, in June of 2022, the Company formed Dominari Financial, with the purpose of making strategic acquisitions across the financial services industry. On December 22, 2022, the Company changed its name to Dominari Holdings Inc. 

On September 9, 2022, we entered into a membership interest purchase agreement (the “FPS Purchase Agreement”) with Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust (“Hoth”Seller”), a development stage biopharmaceuticalConnecticut bank, for the purchase of its wholly owned subsidiary, Fieldpoint Private Securities, LLC, a Connecticut limited liability company focused on unique targeted therapeutics for patients suffering from indications such as atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema,(“FPS”) and (ii) DatChat, Inc. (“DatChat”), a privately held personal privacy platform focused on encrypted communication, internet security and digital rights management.

As a result of the Company’s biotechnology research development and associated investments and acquisitions, our business portfolio now focuses on the treatment of three different cancers, including pancreatic cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Our AML and ALL compounds, developed at the Wake Forest University, are next generation targeted therapeutics designed to overcome multiple resistance mechanisms observedbroker-dealer registered with the current standard of care. DHA-dFdC, our pancreatic drug developed at the University of Texas at Austin, is a new compound which we hopeFinancial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”).   Pursuant to become the next generation of chemotherapy treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer. The Company believes that DHA-dFdC overcomes tumor cell resistance to current chemotherapeutic drugs and is well tolerated in preclinical toxicity tests. Preclinical studies have also indicated that DHA-dFdC inhibits pancreatic cancer cell growth (up to 100,000-fold more potent that gemcitabine, a current standard therapy), has documented efficacy against pancreatic tumors in a clinically relevant transgenic mouse model and has demonstrated activities against other cancers, including leukemia, lung and melanoma.

CBM BioPharma, Inc. Transaction

On October 10, 2018, the Company entered into that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of October 10, 2018, by and among the Company, Spherix Delaware Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation, Scott Wilfong, as the CBM stockholder representative, and CBM, pursuant to which all shares of capital stock of CBM would be converted into the right to receive an aggregate of 15,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, with CBM continuing as the surviving corporation in the merger.

On May 15, 2019, the Company restructured the terms of the CBM merger and chose to proceed with purchasing substantially all of the assets, properties and rights (the “Acquisition”) of CBM. On December 5, 2019, the Company completed the Acquisition of CBM, pursuant to that certain AssetFPS Purchase Agreement, dated as of May 15, 2019, by and between the Company and CBM, as amended by that certain Amendment No. 1 to Asset Purchase Agreement, dated as of May 30, 2019, and Amendment No. 2 to Asset Purchase Agreement, dated as of December 5, 2019 (collectively, the “CBM Purchase Agreement”). As consideration for the Acquisition, the Company agreed to pay to CBM consideration consisting of (i) $1,000,000 in cash (the “Cash Consideration”) and (ii) an aggregate of 1,939,058 shares (the “Stock Consideration”) of the Company’s common stock valued at a price per share of $3.61. The Cash Consideration will become payable to CBM upon the consummation by the Company of the first sale of the Company’s common stock or any other equity or equity-linked financing of the Company to investors in or more transactions, after the date of the CBM Purchase Agreement, for which the Company receives aggregate gross proceeds of greater than $2,000,000 (a “Qualified Financing”). Upon the consummation of the Qualified Financing, the Company will retain the first $2,000,000 of the gross proceedswe purchased from the Qualified Financing and CBM will receiveSeller 100% of the gross proceedsmembership interests in FPS (the “Membership Interests”) and, as a result thereof, will operate the newly acquired dual registered broker-dealer and investment adviser as a wholly owned subsidiary.  The FPS Purchase Agreement provided for Dominari’s acquisition of such Qualified Financing receivedFPS’s Membership Interests in two closings, the first of which occurred on October 4, 2022 (the “Initial Closing”), at which Dominari paid to the Seller $2,000,000 in consideration for a transfer by the CompanySeller to Dominari of 20% of the Membership Interests.   Following FINRA’s approval of the Continuing Membership Application pursuant to FINRA Rule 1017 (the “Rule 1017 Application”) on March 20, 2023, the second closing occurred on March 27, 2023 (the “Second Closing”), at which time Dominari paid to the Seller an additional $1.00 in excess of $2,000,000 as well as the gross proceeds of any subsequent equity financingsconsideration for a transfer by the Company until the Cash Consideration amount is satisfied in full. Additionally, at closing, 7% or 135,734 shares of common stockSeller to Dominari of the Stock Consideration was deposited with VStock, the Company’s transfer agent, to be held in escrow for six months post-closing to satisfy certain indemnification obligations pursuant to the terms and conditionsremaining 80% of the CBM Purchase Agreement, and 93% or 1,803,324 shares of the Stock Consideration was issued and delivered to CBM.Membership Interests.

Among the assets that Spherix acquired from CBM in the Acquisition are two drug candidates for the treatment of two cancers, acute myeloid leukemia (“AML”) and pancreatic cancer.

KPC34DOMINARI SECURITIES

Developed atDominari Securities plans to offer a broad range of broker-dealer and registered investment adviser services, commencing shortly after the Wake Forest School of Medicine, CBM’s AML drug candidate (“KPC34”) is designed to bypass the resistant mechanisms in AML cancer cells. In preclinical studies in mice, KPC34 has shown to be a superior treatment to gemcitabine, the current state of the art treatment for AML and has served to double the mean survival time of mice versus the current standard of care treatments. KPC34 has also been shown to be more effective in AML relapse cases in mice, notably increasing the lifespan of mice treated with the drug.

KPC34 is able to be orally administered, which may be critical for patients that are unable to tolerate repeated cycles of chemotherapy. Because of the low AML patient population, FDA orphan drug status will be sought for KPC34.

License Agreement with Wake Forest University

On April 17, 2018, CBM entered into a license agreement (the “WF Agreement”) with Wake Forest University Health Sciences (“WF”). The WF Agreement granted to CBM an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to WF’s and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s patents relating to the KPC34 drug candidate (the “WF Patent Rights”). The WF Agreement also granted to CBM the right to sublicense.

CBM paid WF an upfront license fee of $10,000 and will owe an additional $10,000 per year to WF beginning on the third anniversary of the WF Agreement. In addition, CBM is obligated to pay to WF a single-digit royalty fee and certain other milestone and other payments upon sales milestones. The aggregate milestone payments under the WF Agreement are up to $1,400,000. In addition, as consideration for entering into the WF Agreement, CBM issued WF 5,000 shares of common stock to WF, which equaled 2% of CBM’s issued and outstanding capital stock at the effective date of the WF Agreement.

The term of the WF Agreement continues until the expiration of the last of the WF Patent Rights to expire or the expiration of market exclusivity via orphan drug status or new chemical entity status (or their non-U.S. equivalents), or until the WF Agreement is earlier terminated. CBM may terminate the WF Agreement upon 90 days’ prior written notice. Either party may terminate the WF Agreement upon a breach of the WF Agreement that has not been cured in 90 days. Additionally, the WF Agreement will automatically terminate in the event CBM becomes insolvent, makes an assignment for the benefit of creditors, or if a petition for bankruptcy is filed.

On November 13, 2019, WF, the Company and CBM entered into an assignment of agreement, whereby CBM assigned allcompletion of its rights, title and interestacquisition of FPS, which is expected to and obligations under the WF Agreement to the Company.

DHA-dFdC

Developed at the University of Texas at Austin, CBM’s pancreatic cancer drug candidate (“DHA-dFdC”) has shown positive resultsbegin in preclinical studies, inhibiting pancreatic tumor growth in clinically relevant transgenic mouse models. Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of people around the world.

DHA-dFdC has been shown to be well tolerated in preclinical toxicity tests, has demonstrated activities against other cancers (e.g. leukemia, lung, melanoma) and may stimulate immunogenic cell death to activate host antitumor immunity.

Patent License Agreement with the University of Texas at Austin

On April 12, 2018, CBM entered into a patent license agreement (the “UT Agreement”) with the University of Texas at Austin on behalf of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System. The UT Agreement granted to CBM an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to certain patent applications related to nucleobase analogue derivatives and their applications, and specifically to the DHA-dFdC drug candidate (the “UT Patent Rights”). The UT Agreement also granted to CBM the right to sublicense.2023, including:

On November 13, 2019, the University of Texas at Austin, the Company and CBM entered into an assignment of agreement, whereby CBM assigned all of its rights, title and interest to, and obligations under the UT Agreement to the Company.Wealth Management Services

H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC At The Market Offering

On August 9, 2019, the Company entered into that certain At The Market Offering Agreement, dated as of August 9, 2019, by and between the Company and H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, as agent (“H.C. Wainwright”) (the “ATM Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell, from time to time through H.C. Wainwright, shares of the Company’s common stock, having an aggregate offering price of up to $1.2 million (the “HCW Shares”). The offer and sale of the HCW Shares is made pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 and the related prospectus (File No. 333-222488). Pursuant to the ATM Agreement, H.C. Wainwright may sell the HCW Shares by any method permitted by law deemed to be an “at the market offering” as defined in Rule 415 of theDominari Securities Act, including sales made by means of ordinary brokers’ transactions, including on The NASDAQ Capital Market, at market prices or as otherwise agreed with H.C. Wainwright. H.C. Wainwright will use commercially reasonable efforts consistent with its normal trading and sales practices to sell the HCW Shares from time to time, based upon instructions from the Company, including any price or size limits or other customary parameters or conditions the Company may impose.

The Company is not obligated to make any sales of the HCW Shares under the ATM Agreement. The offering of HCW Shares pursuant to the ATM Agreement will terminate upon the earliest of (a) the sale of all of the HCW Shares subject to the ATM Agreement, (b) the termination of the ATM Agreement by H.C. Wainwright or the Company, as permitted therein, or (c) August 9, 2022. The Company will pay H.C. Wainwright a commission rate equal to 3.0% of the aggregate gross proceeds from each sale of HCW Shares and have agreedplans to provide H.C. Wainwright with customary indemnificationa comprehensive array of financial services to high-net-worth individuals and contribution rights. The Company will also reimburse H.C. Wainwright for certain specified expenses in connection with entering into the ATM Agreement. As of the date hereof, the Company has sold a total of 532,070 shares of common stock for aggregate gross proceeds of $1.2 million at an average selling price of $2.17 per share, resulting in net proceeds of $1.1 million after deducting commissions and other transaction costs.

DatChat Securities Purchase Agreement

On March 12, 2018, the Company entered into that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of March 12, 2018, by and among the Company, Spherix Merger Subsidiary Inc., a Nevada corporation, Darin Myman, as the representative of the stockholders of the Company, and DatChat, as amended by that certain First Amendment to Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of May 3, 2018 (collectively, the “Merger Agreement”). DatChat developed a secure messaging application that utilizes blockchain technology. After further negotiations, the Company determined not to pursue a merger with DatChat and on August 8, 2018, entered into that certain Securities Purchase Agreement, dated as of August 8, 2018, by and between the Company and DatChat (the “DatChat Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company and DatChat agreed to terminate the Merger Agreement and release and discharge and hold harmless each of the other parties with respect to the transaction contemplated by the Merger Agreement.

Pursuant to a share purchase agreement, dated as of May 15, 2019, the Company purchased (i) 50,000 shares of common stock of CBM and (ii) certain securities and uncertificated rights of DatChat from an existing shareholder of CBM and DatChat for an aggregate purchase price of $350,000. The investment represents a 20% interest in CBM, and the securities and rights of DatChat that were purchased from the existing shareholder of CBM include: (a) a senior convertible note issued by DatChat with outstanding principal of $300,000, with an initial conversion rate of $0.20 per share (b) a warrant to purchase 2,250,000 shares of DatChat common stock at an initial exercise price of $0.20 per share, (c) an option to acquire an additional $300,000 senior convertible note and a warrant to purchase 1,500,000 shares of DatChat common stock, (d) a contingent option to purchase 500,000 shares of DatChat common stock from an existing DatChat stockholder, and (e) a contingent option to put 200,000 shares of DatChat common stock, subject to certain terms and conditions. The transaction closed on May 22, 2019.

Acquisition of shares of Hoth Therapeutics, Inc.

On June 30, 2017, the Company entered into that certain Securities Purchase Agreement, dated as of June 30, 2017, by and between the Company and Hoth (the “Hoth Purchase Agreement”), for the purchase of an aggregate of 1,700,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of Hoth, for a purchase price of $675,000. Hoth is a development stage biopharmaceutical company focused on unique targeted therapeutics for patients suffering from indications such as atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema. Hoth’s primary asset is a sublicense agreement with Chelexa Biosciences, Inc. (“Chelexa”) pursuant to which Chelexa has granted Hoth an exclusive sublicense to use its BioLexa Platform, a proprietary, patented, drug compound platform developed at the University of Cincinnati. Hoth intends to develop BioLexa’s applications in the aesthetic dermatology field to help treat and reduce post-procedure infections, accelerate healing and improve clinical outcomes for patients undergoing procedures. Hoth will be implementing FDA testing procedures for BioLexa. In addition to the Purchase Agreement, the Company and Hoth entered into a Registration Rights Agreement, pursuant to which Hoth is obligated to register for resale on a registration statement on Form S-1 under the Securities Act, all of the shares. Further, the Company, Hoth and Hoth’s existing shareholders have entered into a Shareholders Agreement, pursuant to which Spherix shall have a right to appoint one director to the board of directors of Hoth for so long as the Company holds at least 10% of the issued and outstanding common stock of Hoth.

On February 14, 2019, the Company purchased an aggregate of 35,714 shares of the common stock of Hoth in connection with Hoth’s initial public offering, which was consummated on February 20, 2019, at a purchase price of $5.60 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $200,000. Hoth’s common stock commenced trading on The NASDAQ Capital Market, on February 15, 2019 under the ticker symbol “HOTH”. The Company entered into a lock-up agreement with Hoth pursuant to which the Company has agreed not to sell any shares of Hoth common stock or common stock equivalents until February 20, 2022, which is the 36 month anniversary of the consummation of Hoth’s initial public offering, (the “Spherix Securities”) provided, however (i) Spherix may offer, sell, contract to sell, hypothecate, pledge, dividend or distribute to its shareholders or otherwise dispose of, directly or indirectly, up to an aggregate of 10% of the initially issued Spherix Securities, provided further that the recipients of the Spherix Securities shall not be permitted to resell such Spherix Securities until six months after the date of the Initial Public Offering, (ii) beginning 12 months after the date of Hoth’s initial public offering, Spherix may offer, sell, contract to sell, hypothecate, pledge, dividend or distribute to its shareholders or otherwise dispose of, directly or indirectly, up to an additional 10% of the initially issued Spherix Securities, (iii) beginning 24 months after the date of Hoth’s initial public offering, Spherix may offer, sell, contract to sell, hypothecate, pledge, dividend or distribute to its shareholders or otherwise dispose of, directly or indirectly, up to an additional 10% of the initially issued Spherix Securities and (iv) beginning 36 months after the date of the Hoth initial public offering, Spherix may offer, sell, contract to sell, hypothecate, pledge, dividend or distribute to its shareholders or otherwise dispose of, directly or indirectly, the Spherix Securities without any restrictions.

On October 2, 2019, the Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board of Directors”) approved a distribution to the Company’s stockholders of approximately 100,000 shares of Hoth held by the Company. Accordingly, each of the Company’s stockholders received one (1) share of Hoth common stock for every twenty-nine (29) shares of Company common stock held as of 5 p.m. Eastern Time on October 21, 2019, the dividend record date. The Company did not distribute fractional shares of Hoth common stock, and any fractional shares were rounded down to the nearest whole share.

Mellow Scooters Investment

On November 23, 2018, the Company entered into that certain Security Purchase Agreement, dated as of November 23, 2018, by and between the Company and Mellow Scooters, LLC (“Mellow Scooters”), a leading-edge company that enables anyone to own and operate a personal fleet of electric scooters and dockless bicycles to generate revenue. Mellow Scooters agreed to sell 250 units to the Company, representing 25% of its issued and outstanding limited liability company membership interests for a subscription price of $106,000. The $106,000 consisted of (a) a cash payment of $30,000, (b) the forgiveness of prior advances made to Mellow Scooters by the Company, and (c) an obligation of the Company to pay certain specific future expenses of Mellow Scooters (amounts in clauses (b) and (c) not to exceed a maximum of $76,000 in the aggregate).

TheBit Daily LLC Investment

On March 23, 2018, the Company purchased 8.0% of the issued and outstanding limited liability company membership interests of TheBit Daily LLC, a development stage media and education platform focused on the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, for a subscription price of $25,000.

Our principal executive offices are located at One Rockefeller Plaza, 11^th Floor, New York, New York 10020, our telephone number is (703) 992-9325, and our Internet website addresswww.spherix.com.

Our common stock trades on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “SPEX”.

Available Information

Our principal Internet address is www.spherix.com.  We make available free of charge on www.spherix.com our annual, quarterly and current reports, and amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.

Competition

The biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, strong emphasis on proprietary products and significant competition. CBM faces potential competition from many sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and government agenciesfamilies, corporate executives, and public and private businesses. Clients will be able to choose a variety of ways to establish a relationship and conduct business, including by establishing brokerage accounts with transaction-based pricing and/or investment advisory accounts with asset-based fee pricing. Dominari Securities also plans to provide the following private client services:

Full-Service Brokerage.  Dominari Securities plans to offer full-service brokerage services covering investment alternatives, including exchange-traded and over-the-counter corporate equity and debt securities, money market instruments, exchange-traded options, municipal bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and unit investment trusts. Dominari Securities expects its revenue to be derived from commissions from private clients through accounts with transaction-based pricing. Dominari Securities will charge brokerage commissions on investment products in accordance with a schedule which Dominari Securities plans to formulate. Discounts will be made available to and will able to be negotiated with customers based on transaction size and volume as well as a number of other factors.

Wealth Planning. Dominari Securities also plans to offer financial and wealth planning services which will include asset management, individual and corporate retirement solutions, insurance and annuity products, IRAs and 401(k) plans, U.S. stock plan services to corporate executives and businesses, education savings programs, and trust and fiduciary services to individual and corporate clients through third-party trust companies.

Margin Lending. Dominari Securities, through its clearing partnerships, also intends to extend credit to its customers, collateralized by securities and cash in the customer’s account, for a portion of the purchase price, and to receive income from interest on such extensions of credit at interest rates derived from Dominari Securities’ posted rate as adjusted, from time to time.

Asset Management

Dominari Securities also plans to offer discretionary and non-discretionary fee-based programs to provide tailored investment management solutions and services to high-net-worth private clients, institutions and corporations and/or plans sponsored by them. These will include, but will not be limited to, portfolio management, manager research institutions. Any product candidatesand due diligence through third party partners, asset allocation advice and financial planning. Dominari Securities plans to offer Portfolio management strategies and third-party investment management capabilities through separately managed accounts, alternative investments and discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management programs as well as managed portfolios of mutual funds. Platform support functions will include sales and marketing along with administrative services such as trade execution, client services, records management and client reporting and performance monitoring. Dominari Securities expects to generate revenues through the receipt of investment advisory and transactional fees for advisory services and to also generate revenue from fees earned through sharing arrangements with registered and private alternative investment vehicles. Dominari Securities also expects to earn investment advisory fees on all assets held in discretionary and non-discretionary asset-based programs. These fees will be typically billed monthly in advance, and will be calculated based on all fee-based assets under management balances at the end of the prior month. Dominari Securities also expects to receive income from revenue-sharing arrangements that CBM successfully developsare derived from management and commercializesincentive fees on alternative investments and will be calculated on a pre-determined basis with registered and private investment companies. The Company’s asset management services are expected to include:

Separately Managed Accounts. The Company plans to provide clients with fee-based programs: (i) a unified managed account which allows multiple investment managers, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to be combined in a single custodial account; and (ii) an asset review dual contract program designed for clients seeking a direct contractual relationship with investment managers.

Discretionary Advisory Accounts.  Dominari Securities plans to offer client-focused discretionary fee-based investment programs managed by Dominari Securities advisors.

Non-Discretionary Advisory Accounts. Dominari plans to provide fee-based non-discretionary investment advisory services and consultation to clients.

Alternative Investments. Dominari plans to offer high net worth and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in a wide range of non-traditional investment strategies. Strategies are expected to include single manager hedge funds, fund of funds, diversified private equity funds and single investment late stage private equity funds.

Private Market Platform.Through a collaborative effort among the firm’s business units, Dominari’s private market platform will focus on sourcing private investments across various sectors. Transactions are expected to cover the full spectrum of private investments, including early stage, late stage, direct, co-investments, funds and secondary market transactions in debt, equity and hybrid securities.

Investment Banking

Dominari Securities’ investment banking division will provide strategic advisory services and capital markets products to emerging growth and middle market businesses. The investment banking groups will focus on the consumer and retail, energy, financial institutions, healthcare, rental services, technology, education, and transportation and logistics sectors. Investment banking services include:

Financial Advisory. Dominari Securities will advise buyers and sellers on sales, divestitures, mergers, acquisitions, tender offers, privatizations, spin-offs, joint ventures, restructurings and liability management. Dominari Securities intends to provide dedicated senior bankers to clients focusing throughout the financial advisory process, which combines our structuring and negotiating expertise with our industry knowledge, extensive relationships and capital markets capabilities.

Equities Capital Markets. Dominari Securities will provide capital raising solutions for corporate clients through initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, confidentially marketed public offerings, registered directs, private investments in public equity, private placements, at-the-market offerings, and equity-linked offerings.

Debt Capital Markets. Dominari Securities plans to offer debt capital markets solutions for emerging growth and middle market companies. Dominari Securities will focus on structuring and distributing public and private debt through financing transactions, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, growth capital financings, recapitalizations and Chapter 11 exit financings. Dominari Securities will also participate in high yield debt and fixed and floating-rate senior and subordinated debt offerings.

Fund Placement. Dominari Securities will provide alternative investment firms with a broad and deep portfolio of value-added services. Services will include bespoke strategic and tactical advisory as well as primary fundraises, co-investments and direct transactions.

Debt Advisory & Restructuring. Dominari Securities will offer creative solutions to leveraged corporate issuers and credit investors. We will evaluate a full range of strategic alternatives, identify the appropriate structure and source of funds to provide our clients the ability to pursue an optimal and value maximizing outcome.

Sales and Trading

We intend to provide a broad range of sales and trading services to our clients. Sales and trading services will include:

Institutional Equity Sales and Trading. Dominari Securities will act as an agent in the execution of its customers’ orders through our clearing strategic partners.

Equity Derivatives and Index Options. Dominari Securities will offer listed equity and index options strategies for investors seeking to manage risk and optimize returns within the equities market.

Institutional Fixed Income Sales and Trading. Dominari Securities will trade and in public and private debt (including sovereign debt) securities, including investment and non-investment grade, distressed and convertible corporate securities as well as municipal securities through our clearing partners.

Securities Lending. In connection with both its trading and brokerage activities, Dominari Securities, through its clearing relationships, will borrow securities to cover short sales and to complete transactions in which customers have failed to deliver securities by the required settlement date and lend securities to other brokers and dealers for similar purposes. Dominari Securities will earn interest on its cash collateral provided and will pay interest on the cash collateral received less a rebate earned for lending securities.

Regulation

Regulation in the United States

The financial services industry in which we will operate is subject to extensive regulation. In the U.S., the SEC is the federal agency responsible for the administration of federal securities laws. In addition, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) is a self-regulatory organization (“SRO”) that is actively involved in the regulation of securities businesses. In addition to federal regulation, we are subject to state securities regulations in each state and U.S. territory in which we conduct securities or investment advisory activities. The SEC, FINRA, and state securities regulators conduct periodic examinations of broker-dealers and investment advisors. The designated examining authority under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) for Dominari Securities’ activities as a broker-dealer is FINRA. Financial services businesses are also subject to regulation and examination by state securities regulators and attorneys general in those states in which they do business. In addition, broker-dealers and investment advisors must also comply with the rules and regulation of clearing houses, exchanges, and trading platforms of which they are a member.

Broker-dealers are subject to SEC, FINRA, and state securities regulations that cover all aspects of the securities business, including sales and trading methods, trade practices among broker-dealers, use and safekeeping of customers’ funds and securities, capital structure and requirements, anti-money laundering efforts, recordkeeping and the conduct of broker-dealer personnel including officers and employees (although state securities regulations are, in a number of cases, more limited). Registered investment advisors are subject to, among other requirements, SEC regulations concerning marketing, transactions with affiliates, custody of client assets, disclosures to clients, conflict of interest, insider trading and recordkeeping. Additional legislation, changes in rules promulgated by the SEC, FINRA, and other SROs of which the broker-dealer is a member, and state securities regulators, or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws or rules may directly affect the operations and profitability of broker-dealers and investment advisors. The SEC, FINRA, and state securities regulators and state attorneys general may conduct administrative proceedings or initiate civil litigation that can result in adverse consequences for Dominari Securities, its affiliates, including affiliated investment advisors, as well as its and their officers and employees (including, without limitation, injunctions, censures, fines, suspensions, directives that impact business operations (including proposed expansions), membership expulsions, or revocations of licenses and registrations).

SEC Regulation Best Interest (“Reg BI”) requires that a broker-dealer and its associated persons act in a retail customer’s best interest and not place their own financial or other interests ahead of a retail customer’s interests when recommending securities transactions or investment strategies, including recommendations of types of accounts. To meet this best interest standard, a broker-dealer must satisfy four component obligations including a disclosure obligation, a care obligation, a conflict of interest obligation, and a compliance obligation and both broker-dealers and investment advisors are required to provide disclosures about their standard of conduct and conflicts of interest.

In addition, certain states, have proposed or adopted measures that would make broker-dealers, sales agents and investment advisors and their representatives subject to a fiduciary duty when providing products and services to customers. The SEC did not indicate an intent to pre-empt state regulation in this area, and some of the state proposals would allow for a private right of action. In the event out wealth management division makes recommendations to retail customers, it will be required to comply with the obligations imposed under Reg BI and applicable state laws.

Regulatory Capital Requirements 

Dominari Securities will be subject to financial capital requirements that are set by regulation. Dominari Securities is a registered broker-dealer and is required to maintain net capital in an amount equal to SEC minimum financial requirements. As a broker-dealer, Dominari Securities is subject to the SEC’s Uniform Net Capital Rule (the “Net Capital Rule”). Compliance with the Net Capital Rule could limit Dominari Securities’ operations, such as underwriting and trading activities, and financing customers’ prime brokerage or other margin activities, in each case, that could require the use of significant amounts of capital, limit its ability to engage in certain financing transactions, such as repurchase agreements, and may also restrict its ability (i) to make payments of dividends, withdrawals or similar distributions or payments to a stockholder/parent or other affiliate, (ii) to make a redemption or repurchase of shares of stock, or (iii) to make an unsecured loan or advance to such shareholders or affiliates.

Under the Exchange Act, state securities regulators are not permitted to impose capital, margin, custody, financial responsibility, making and keeping records, bonding, or financial or operational reporting requirements on registered broker-dealers that differ from, or are in addition to, the requirements in those areas established under the Exchange Act, including the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

Regulation outside the United States

In the event Dominari Securities provides financial services internationally, it will be subject to extensive regulations proposed, promulgated and enforced by, among other regulatory bodies, the European Commission and European Supervisory Authorities (including the European Banking Authority and European Securities and Market Authority), U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (“BaFin”), Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, the Japan Financial Services Agency, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Every country in which we may do business will impose upon us laws, rules and regulations similar to those in the U.S., including with respect to some form of capital adequacy rules, customer protection rules, data protection regulations, anti-money laundering and anti-bribery rules, compliance with other applicable trading and investment banking regulations and similar regulatory reform.

Competition

All aspects of our business are expected to be intensely competitive. We will compete primarily with any existing therapiessmall to mid-size bank holding companies that engage in wealth management, investment banking and new therapiescapital markets activities as one of their lines of business and that may become availablehave greater capital and resources than we do. We will also compete against other broker-dealers, asset managers and boutique firms. We believe the principal factors that will drive our competitiveness in the future.

Intellectual Property and Patent Rights

Our success depends, in part, onfuture will include our ability to: provide differentiated insights to obtain, maintain,our clients that lead to better business outcomes; attract, retain and enforce patents and other proprietary protectionsdevelop skilled professionals; deliver a competitive breadth of our commercially important technologies and product candidates, to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others,high-quality service offerings; and to maintain trade secrets or other proprietary know-how, both in the U.S.a flat, nimble and other countries. We were assigned licenses that CBM had with Wake Forest University Health Sciences (“Wake Forest”)entrepreneurial culture built on immediacy and The University of Texas at Austin (“UTA”) that include rights to eight patents and patent applications as follows:client service.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity presents significant challenges to the business community in general, including to the financial services industry. Increasingly, bad actors, both domestic and international, attempt to steal personal data and/or interrupt the normal functioning of businesses through accessing individuals' and companies' files and equipment connected to the internet. Recent incidents have reflected the increasing sophistication of intruders and their intent to steal personally identifiable information as well as funds and securities. These intruders sometimes use instructions that are seemingly from authorized parties but in fact, are from parties intent on attempting to steal. In other instances these intruders attempt to bypass normal safeguards and disrupt or steal significant amounts of information and then either release it to the internet or hold it for ransom. Regulators are increasingly requiring companies to provide heightened levels of sophisticated defenses. Dominari Securities will maintain ongoing planning and systems to prevent any such attack from disrupting its services to clients as well as to prevent any loss of data concerning its clients, their financial affairs, as well as Company privileged information.

Employees

Employees

As of December 31, 2019,2022, we have three7 full-time employees and 1 part-time employee, none of which are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Government Regulation

The Company has transitioned to a highly regulated industry that is subject to significant federal, state, local and foreign regulation. The Company’s present and future business has been, and will continue to be, subject to a variety of laws including, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDC Act, and the Public Health Service Act, among others.

Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local levels, and in other countries and jurisdictions, including the European Union, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and import and export of pharmaceutical products. The processes for obtaining marketing approvals in the United States and in foreign countries and jurisdictions, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other regulatory authorities, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.

In the United States, the FDA approves and regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the “FDCA”) and the implementing regulations promulgated thereunder. The failure to comply with requirements under the FDCA and other applicable laws at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval may subject an applicant and/or sponsor to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, including refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, imposition of a clinical hold, issuance of warning letters and other types of letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, restitution, disgorgement of profits, or civil or criminal investigations and penalties brought by the FDA and the Department of Justice or other governmental entities.

An applicant seeking approval to market and distribute a new drug product in the United States must typically undertake the following:

Orphan Drug Act in the United States

The Orphan Drug Act provides incentives to manufacturers to develop and market drugs for rare diseases and conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S. at the time of application for orphan drug designation. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting a BLA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process. If a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease for which it has such designation, the holder of the approval is entitled to a seven-year exclusive marketing period in the U.S. for that product except in very limited circumstances. For example, a drug that the FDA considers to be clinically superior to, or different from, another approved orphan drug, even though for the same indication, may also obtain approval in the U.S. during the seven-year exclusive marketing period. In addition, holders of exclusivity for orphan drugs are expected to assure the availability of sufficient quantities of their orphan drugs to meet the needs of patients. Failure to do so could result in the withdrawal of marketing exclusivity for the drug.

Orphan Designation and Exclusivity in the European Union

Products authorized as “orphan medicinal products” in the EU are entitled to certain exclusivity benefits. In accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No. 141/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1999 on orphan medicinal products, a medicinal product may be designated as an orphan medicinal product if: (1) it is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition; (2) either (a) such condition affects no more than five in 10,000 persons in the European Union when the application is made, or (b) the product, without the incentives derived from orphan medicinal product status, would not generate sufficient return in the European Union to justify investment; and (3) there exists no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment of such condition authorized for marketing in the EU, or if such a method exists, the product will be of significant benefit to those affected by the condition.

An application for orphan drug designation must be submitted before the application for marketing authorization. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process.

Products authorized in the EU as orphan medicinal products are entitled to 10 years of market exclusivity. The 10-year market exclusivity may be reduced to six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established that the product no longer meets the criteria for orphan designation, for example, if the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity. Additionally, marketing authorization may be granted to a similar product during the 10-year period of market exclusivity for the same therapeutic indication at any time if:

Healthcare Reform in the United States

In the United States and some non-United States jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could, among other things, affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.

Among policy makers and payors in the United States and elsewhere, there is significant interest in promoting changes in healthcare systems with the stated goals of containing healthcare costs, improving quality and/or expanding access. For example, in the United States, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”), was passed, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both the government and private insurers. Among the ACA’s provisions of importance to our business are the following:

There have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA, as well as recent efforts by the current administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of the ACA and we expect such challenges and amendments to continue. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 includes a provision repealing, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the ACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate.” Additionally, on January 22, 2018, the Executive Office of the President of the United States signed a continuing resolution on appropriations for fiscal year 2018 that delayed the implementation of certain ACA-mandated fees, including the 2.3% excise tax imposed on manufacturers and importers for certain sales of medical devices, the so-called “Cadillac” tax on certain high cost employer-sponsored insurance plans, and the annual fee imposed on certain health insurance providers based on market share.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the U.S. since the ACA was enacted. In August 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, led to aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year. These reductions went into effect in April 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, including the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, will remain in effect through 2027 unless additional action is taken by Congress. In January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, including hospitals, imaging centers and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.

Further, recently, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal legislation designed to bring transparency to product pricing and reduce the cost of products and services under government healthcare programs. Additionally, individual states in the U.S. have also become increasingly active in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures. Moreover, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what products to purchase and which suppliers will be included in their healthcare programs.

Regulation in the European Union

In the European Union (the “EU”), for example, there is a centralized approval procedure that authorizes marketing of a product in all countries of the EU, which includes most major countries in Europe. If this procedure is not used, approval in one country of the EU can be used to obtain approval in another country of the EU under two simplified application processes, the mutual recognition procedure or the decentralized procedure, both of which rely on the principle of mutual recognition. After receiving regulatory approval through any of the European registration procedures, pricing and reimbursement approvals are also required in most countries.

Other Regulations

We are also subject to numerous federal, state and local laws relating to such matters as safe working conditions, manufacturing practices, environmental protection, fire hazard control, and disposal of hazardous or potentially hazardous substances and biological materials. We may incur significant costs to comply with such laws and regulations now or in the future.

Item 1A. RISK FACTORS.

Risks Related

The Company’s business and operations are subject to Our Businessnumerous risks. The material risks and uncertainties that management believes affect the Company are described below. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing the Company. Additional risks and uncertainties that are presently unknown, management is not aware of or focused on or that management currently deems immaterial may also impair the Company’s business operations. If any of the following risks actually occur, the Company’s financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

BUSINESS RISKS

Because we have a limited operating history to evaluate our company, the likelihood of our success must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered by an early-stage financial services company.

Since we have a limited operating history in our current financial services business, of technology and biotechnology development, it will make it difficult for investors and securities analysts to evaluate our business and prospects. You must consider our prospects in light of the risks, expenses, and difficulties we face as an early stageearly-stage financial services company with a limited operating history. Investors should evaluate an investment in our securities in light of the uncertainties encountered by early stageearly-stage companies in an intensely competitive industry. There can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful or that we will be able to become profitable.

Our cancer treatment business is pre-revenue, pre-development and subject to the risks of an early stage biotechnology company.

Since the Company’s primary focus for the foreseeable future will likely be our cancer treatment business, shareholders should understand that we are primarily an early stage biotechnology company with no history of revenue-generating operations, and our only assets consist of our proprietary drug and the know-how of our officers. Therefore we are subject to all the risks and uncertainties inherent in a new business, in particular new businesses engaged in the early detection of certain cancers. DHA-dFdC is in its early stages of development, and we still must establish and implement many important functions necessary to commercialize the biotechnology.

Accordingly, you should consider the Company’s prospects in light of the costs, uncertainties, delays and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in their pre-revenue and pre-development generatingstart-up stages, particularly those in the biotechnology field.financial services industry. Shareholders should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties that a business with no operating history will face. In particular, shareholders should consider that there is a significant risk that we will not be able to:

Any of the foregoing risks may adversely affect the Company and result in the failure of our business. In addition, we expect to encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors. At some point, we will need to transition from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be able to reach such achievements, which would have a material adverse effect on our Company.

We continue to incur operating losses and may not achieve profitability.

Our loss from operations for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 was $5.7 million and $6.9 million, respectively. Our net loss for the year ended December 31, 20192022 was $4.2 million and our net income for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $2.0$22.1 million. Our accumulated deficit was $144.3$185.9 million atas of December 31, 2019. We recognized $9,000 and $28,000 in revenue in 2019 and 2018, respectively.2022. Our ability to become profitable depends upon our ability to generate revenue from biotechnologyour financial products. We do not know when, or if, we will generate any revenue from such biotechnologyfinancial products. Even though our revenue may increase, we expect to incur significant additional losses while we grow and expand our business. We cannot predict if and when we will achieve profitability. Our failure to achieve and sustain profitability could negatively impact the market price of our common stock.

We expect to need additional capital to fund our growing operations and if we are unable to obtain sufficient capital, we may be forced to limit the scope of our operations.

We expect that for our business to grow we will need additional working capital.  If adequate additional debt and/or equity financing is not available on reasonable terms or at all, we may not be able to continue to expand our business or pay our outstanding obligations, and we will have to modify our business plans accordingly.  These factors would have a material adverse effect on our future operating results and our financial condition. 

If we reach a point where we are unable to raise needed additional funds to continue as a going concern, we will be forced to cease our activities and dissolve the Company.  In such an event, we will need to satisfy various creditors and other claimants, severance, lease termination and other dissolution-related obligations and we may not have sufficient funds to pay to our stockholders.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud and our business may be harmed and our stock price may be adversely impacted.

Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and to effectively prevent fraud. Any inability to provide reliable financial reports or to prevent fraud could harm our business. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires management to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In order to continue to comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we are required to continuously evaluate and, where appropriate, enhance our policies, procedures and internal controls. If we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls over financial reporting, we could be subject to litigation or regulatory scrutiny and investors could lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports. We cannot assure you that in the future we will be able to fully comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or that management will conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. If we fail to fully comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our business may be harmed and our stock price may decline.

Our assessment, testing and evaluation of the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting resulted in our conclusion that, as of December 31, 2019,2022, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective, due to our lack of segregation of duties, and lack of controls in place to ensure that all material transactions and developments impacting the consolidated financial statements are reflected. We can provide no assurance as to conclusions of management with respect to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in the future.

Developments in market and economic conditions may adversely affect the Company’s business and profitability.

Performance in the financial services industry is heavily influenced by the overall strength of economic conditions and financial market activity, which generally have a direct and material impact on the Company’s results of operations and financial condition. These conditions are a product of many factors, which are mostly unpredictable and beyond the Company’s control, and may affect the decisions made by financial market participants.

Changes in economic and political conditions, including economic output levels, interest and inflation rates, employment levels, prices of commodities including oil and gas, exogenous market events, consumer confidence levels, and fiscal and monetary policy can affect market conditions. For example, the Federal Reserve’s policies determine, in large part, the cost of funds for lending and investing and the return earned on those loans and investments. Changes in the Federal Reserve’s policies are beyond our control and, consequently, the impact of these changes on our activities and results of our operations are difficult to predict. While global financial markets have shown signs of improvement in recent years, uncertainty remains. A period of sustained downturns and/or volatility in the securities markets, and/or prolonged levels of increasing interest rates, could lead to a return to increased credit market dislocations, reductions in the value of real estate, and other negative market factors which could significantly impair our revenues and profitability.

U.S. markets may also be impacted by political and civil unrest occurring in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, Venezuela and Asia. Continued uncertainties loom over the outcome of the EU’s financial support programs. It is possible that other EU member states may choose to follow Britain’s lead and leave the EU. Any negative impact on economic conditions and global markets from these developments could adversely affect our business, financial condition and liquidity.

Uncertain or unfavorable market or economic conditions could result in reduced transaction volumes, reduced revenue and reduced profitability in any or all of the Company’s principal businesses. For example: 

The Company may make strategic acquisitions of businesses, engage in joint ventures or divest or exit existing businesses, which could result in unforeseen expenses or disruptive effects on its business.

From time to time, the Company may consider acquisitions of other businesses or joint ventures with other businesses. Any acquisition or joint venture that the Company determines to pursue will be accompanied by a number of risks. After the announcement or completion of an acquisition or joint venture, the Company’s share price could decline if investors view the transaction as too costly or unlikely to improve the Company’s competitive position.

Costs or difficulties relating to such a transaction, including integration of products, employees, offices, technology systems, accounting systems and management controls, may be difficult to predict accurately and be greater than expected causing the Company’s estimates to differ from actual results. The Company may be unable to retain key personnel after the transaction, and the transaction may impair relationships with customers and business partners. In addition, the Company may be unable to achieve anticipated benefits and synergies from the transaction as fully as expected or within the expected time frame. Divestitures or elimination of existing businesses or products could have similar effects, including the loss of earnings of the divested business or operation. These difficulties could disrupt the Company’s ongoing business, increase its expenses, and adversely affect its operating results and financial condition. As the costs of doing business increase, the Company may not be able to continue to grow its revenues through “organic” growth (the growth attendant to hiring one employee at a time or through expanding into a new business line through a limited investment in technology and employment). In lieu of organic growth, it becomes increasingly necessary to grow through the acquisition of a business or businesses that fulfill the Company’s strategic decisions for growth. However, due to competition or the cost of such acquisitions, such expansion may not be available on a profitable basis and may threaten the Company’s ongoing ability to expand its business.

The ability to attract, develop and retain highly skilled and productive employees, particularly qualified financial advisors is critical to the success of the Company’s business.

The Company faces intense competition for qualified employees from other businesses in the financial services industry, and the performance of its business may suffer to the extent it is unable to attract and retain employees effectively, particularly given the relatively small size of the Company and its employee base compared to some of its competitors. The primary sources of revenue in each of the Company’s business lines are commissions and fees earned on advisory and underwriting transactions and customer accounts managed by its employees, who are regularly recruited by other firms and in certain cases are able to take their client relationships with them when they change firms. Experienced employees are regularly offered financial inducements by larger competitors to change employers, and thus competitors can de-stabilize the Company’s relationship with valued employees. Some specialized areas of the Company’s business are operated by a relatively small number of employees, the loss of any of whom could jeopardize the continuation of that business following the employee’s departure.

Turnover in the financial services industry is high. The cost of retaining skilled professionals in the financial services industry has escalated considerably. Financial industry employers are increasingly offering guaranteed contracts, upfront payments, and increased compensation. These can be important factors in a current employee’s decision to leave us as well as in a prospective employee’s decision to join us. As competition for skilled professionals in the industry remains intense, we may have to devote significant resources to attracting and retaining qualified personnel. To the extent we have compensation targets, we may not be able to retain our employees, which could result in increased recruiting expense or result in our recruiting additional employees at compensation levels that are not within our target range. In particular, our financial results may be adversely affected by the costs we incur in connection with any upfront loans or other incentives we may offer to newly recruited financial advisors and other key personnel. If we were to lose the services of any of our investment bankers, sales and trading professionals, asset managers, or executive officers to a competitor or otherwise, we may not be able to retain valuable relationships and some of our clients could choose to use the services of a competitor instead of our services. If we are unable to retain our senior professionals or recruit additional professionals, our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. Further, new business initiatives and efforts to expand existing businesses generally require that we incur compensation and benefits expense before generating additional revenues.

Moreover, companies in our industry whose employees accept positions with competitors frequently claim that those competitors have engaged in unfair hiring practices. We may be subject to claims in the future as we seek to hire qualified personnel, some of whom may work for our competitors. Some of these claims may result in material litigation.

We could incur substantial costs in defending against these claims, regardless of their merits. Such claims could also discourage potential employees who work for our competitors from joining us. Recent actions by some larger competitors to reject the “Recruiting Protocol”, an industry adopted set of practices permitting financial advisors to port their client relationships to a new firm under strict rules, is likely to increase the likelihood of litigation among competitors surrounding the employment of new advisors and their solicitation of their clients and may act as a new barrier to recruitment of financial advisors.

The Company depends on its senior employees and the loss of their services could harm its business.

The Company’s success is dependent in large part upon the services of its senior executives and employees. Any loss of service of the chief executive officer (“CEO”) may adversely affect the business and operations of the Company. If the Company’s senior executives or employees terminate their employment and the Company is unable to find suitable replacements in relatively short periods of time, its operations may be materially and adversely affected.

The precautions the Company takes to prevent and detect employee misconduct may not be effective and the Company could be exposed to unknown and unmanaged risks or losses.

The Company runs the risk that employee misconduct could occur. Misconduct by employees could include, employees binding the Company to transactions that exceed authorized limits or present unacceptable risks to the Company (rogue trading); employee theft and improper use of Company or client property; employees conspiring with other employees or third parties to defraud the Company; employees hiding unauthorized or unsuccessful activities from the Company, including outside business activities that are undisclosed and may result in liability to the Company; employees steering or soliciting their clients into investments which have not been sponsored by the Company and without the proper diligence; the improper use of confidential information; employee conduct outside of acceptable norms including harassment; or employees engaging in “hacking” or breaching our cybersecurity safeguards.

These types of misconduct could result in unknown and unmanaged risks or losses to the Company including regulatory sanctions and serious harm to its reputation. The precautions the Company takes to prevent and detect these activities may not be effective. If employee misconduct does occur, the Company’s business operations could be materially adversely affected.

There have been a number of highly-publicized cases involving fraud or other misconduct by employees in the financial services industry and there is a risk that our employees could engage in misconduct in the future that adversely affects our business. We are subject to a number of obligations and standards arising from our asset management business and our authority over the assets managed by our asset management business. In addition, our financial advisors may act in a fiduciary capacity, providing financial planning, investment advice and discretionary asset management. The violation of these obligations and standards by any of our employees could adversely affect our clients and us. It is not always possible to deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in all cases. If our employees engage in misconduct, our business could be materially adversely affected, including our cash position.

Employee misconduct, including harassment in the workplace, has come under increasing scrutiny in the national media. While the Company has adopted a Code of Conduct and instituted training for its employees, it is difficult to predict when an employee may deviate from acceptable practices and open the Company to liability either from actions taken by other employees or by authorities. The Company could also become liable for its actions in enforcing its rules of conduct on former employees who disagree with the Company’s actions.

FINANCIAL RISKS

Market Risk

Market risk refers to the risk that a change in the level of one or more market prices, rates, indices, volatilities, correlations or other market factors, such as market liquidity, will result in losses for a position or portfolio owned by us.

Our independent auditors have expressed substantial doubt aboutresults of operations may be materially affected by market fluctuations and by global and economic conditions and other factors, including changes in asset values.

Our results of operations may be materially affected by market fluctuations due to global financial markets, economic conditions, changes to global trade policies and tariffs and other factors, including the level and volatility of equity, fixed income and commodity prices, the level and term structure of interest rates, inflation and currency values, and the level of other market indices. The results of our ability to continue as a going concern.

DueCapital Markets business segment, particularly results relating to our net losses, negative cash flowinvolvement in primary and negative working capital,secondary markets for all types of financial products, are subject to substantial market fluctuations due to a variety of factors that we cannot control or predict with great certainty. These fluctuations impact results by causing variations in their report onbusiness flows and activity and in the fair value of securities and other financial products. Fluctuations also occur due to the level of global market activity, which, among other things, affects the size, number and timing of investment banking client assignments and transactions and the realization of returns from our audited financial statements forprincipal investments.

During periods of unfavorable market or economic conditions, the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, our independent auditors included an explanatory paragraph regarding substantial doubt about our ability to continuelevel of individual investor participation in the global markets, as a going concern. 

Wewell as the level of client assets, may seek to internally develop additional new inventions and intellectual property,also decrease, which would take timenegatively impact the results of our Private Client and be costly.  Moreover,Asset Management business segments. Substantial market fluctuations could also cause variations in the failure to obtain or maintain intellectual property rights for such inventions would lead to the lossvalue of our investments in such activities.

Partour funds, the flow of investment capital into or from Assets Under Management (“AUM”), and the way customers allocate capital among money market, equity, fixed income or other investment alternatives, which could negatively impact our Private Client and Asset Management business segments.

The Company may includeincur losses and be subject to reputational harm to the internal development of new inventionsextent that, for any reason, it is unable to sell securities it purchased as an underwriter at anticipated price levels. As an underwriter, the Company is subject to heightened standards regarding liability for material misstatements or intellectual property that we will seek to monetize. For example,omissions in December 2019, we acquired substantially all of the assets of CBM, including the acquisition of certain licensing rights with respect to patentsprospectuses and other intellectual property relatedoffering documents relating to pioneering drug compounds that were developed atofferings it underwrites. Any such misstatement or omission could subject the UniversityCompany to enforcement action by the SEC and claims of Wake Forest and the Universityinvestors, either of Texas at Austin, in the areas of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acral lentiginous melanoma and pancreatic cancer (collectively, the “University Developments”). Should we choose to assist in the development of the University Developments and/or internally develop any other inventions or intellectual property, such aspect of our business will require significant capital and will take time to achieve.  Such activities may also distract our management team from its present business initiatives, which could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s results of operations, financial condition and reputation. As a market maker and dealer, the Company may own large positions in specific securities, and these undiversified holdings concentrate the risk of market fluctuations and may result in greater losses than would be the case if the Company’s holdings were more diversified.

The value of our financial instruments may be materially affected by market fluctuations. Market volatility, illiquid market conditions and disruptions in the credit markets may make it extremely difficult to value and monetize certain of our financial instruments, particularly during periods of market displacement. Subsequent valuations in future periods, in light of factors then prevailing, may result in significant changes in the values of these instruments and may adversely impact historical or prospective fees and performance-based fees (also known as incentive fees, which include carried interest) in respect of certain businesses. In addition, at the time of any sales and settlements of these financial instruments, the price we ultimately realize will depend on the demand and liquidity in the market at that time and may be materially lower than their current fair value. Any of these factors could cause a decline in the value of our financial instruments, which may have an adverse effect on our business. Thereresults of operations in future periods. In addition, financial markets are susceptible to severe events evidenced by rapid depreciation in asset values accompanied by a reduction in asset liquidity. Under these extreme conditions, hedging and other risk management strategies may not be as effective at mitigating trading losses as they would be under more normal market conditions. Moreover, under these conditions, market participants are particularly exposed to trading strategies employed by many market participants simultaneously and on a large scale. Our risk management and monitoring processes seek to quantify and mitigate risk to more extreme market moves. However, severe market events have historically been difficult to predict and we could realize significant losses if extreme market events were to occur.

Holding large and concentrated positions may expose us to losses. Concentration of risk may reduce revenues or result in losses in our market-making, investing, underwriting, including block trading, and lending businesses in the event of unfavorable market movements, or when market conditions are more favorable for our competitors. Changes in interest rates (especially if such changes are rapid), sustained low or high interest rates or uncertainty regarding the future direction of interest rates, may create a less favorable environment for certain of the Company’s businesses, particularly its fixed income business, resulting in reduced business volume and reduced revenue. If interest rates remain at low levels, the Company’s profitability will be negatively impacted.

Credit Risk

Credit risk may expose the Company to losses caused by the inability of borrowers or other third parties to satisfy their obligations.

The Company is alsoexposed to the risk that third parties that owe it money, securities or other assets will not perform their obligations.

The Company is exposed to credit risk related to third parties such as trading counterparties, customers, clearing agents, exchanges, clearing houses, and other financial intermediaries as well as issuers whose securities we hold. These parties may default on their obligations owed to the Company due to bankruptcy, lack of liquidity, operational failure or other reasons. This default risk may arise, for example, from holding securities of third parties, executing securities trades that fail to settle at the required time due to non-delivery by the counterparty or systems failure by clearing agents, exchanges, clearing houses or other financial intermediaries, and extending credit to clients through bridge or margin loans or other arrangements. Significant failures by third parties to perform their obligations owed to the Company could adversely affect the Company’s revenue and its ability to borrow in the credit markets.

Liquidity Risk

Liquidity risk refers to the risk that we will be unable to finance our initiatives in this regard would not yield any viable new inventions or technology, which would leadoperations due to a loss of access to the capital markets or difficulty in liquidating our investments in timeassets. Liquidity risk also encompasses our ability (or perceived ability) to meet our financial obligations without experiencing significant business disruption or reputational damage that may threaten our viability as a going concern as well as the associated funding risks triggered by the market or idiosyncratic stress events that may negatively affect our liquidity and resources in such activities.may impact our ability to raise new funding.

Liquidity is essential to our businesses and we rely on external sources to finance a significant portion of our operations.

Our liquidity could be negatively affected by our inability to raise funding in the long-term or short-term debt capital markets, our inability to access the secured lending markets, or unanticipated outflows of cash or collateral by customers or clients. Factors that we cannot control, such as disruption of the financial markets or negative views about the financial services industry generally, including concerns regarding fiscal matters in the U.S. and other geographic areas, could impair our ability to raise funding. In addition, our ability to raise funding could be impaired if investors or lenders develop a negative perception of our long-term or short-term financial prospects due to factors such as an incurrence of large trading losses, a downgrade by the rating agencies, a decline in the level of our business activity, if regulatory authorities take significant action against us or our industry, or we discover significant employee misconduct or illegal activity. If we are unable to raise funding using the methods described above, we would likely need to finance or liquidate unencumbered assets, such as our investment portfolios or trading assets, to meet maturing liabilities or other obligations. We may be unable to sell some of our assets or we may have to sell assets at a discount to market value, either of which could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Operational Risk

Operational risk refers to the risk of loss, or of damage to our reputation, resulting from inadequate or failed processes or systems, from human factors or from external events (e.g., fraud, theft, legal and compliance risks, cyber-attacks or damage to physical assets). We may incur operational risk across the full scope of our business activities, including revenue-generating activities (e.g., sales and trading) and support and control groups (e.g., information technology and trade processing).

We are subject to operational risks, including a failure, breach or other disruption of our operations or security systems or those of our third parties (or third parties thereof), as well as human error or malfeasance, which could adversely affect our businesses or reputation.

Our businesses are highly dependent on our ability to process and report, on a daily basis, a large number of transactions across numerous markets. We may introduce new products or services or change processes or reporting, including in connection with new regulatory requirements, resulting in new operational risk that we may not fully appreciate or identify. The trend toward direct access to automated, electronic markets and the move to more automated trading platforms has resulted in the use of increasingly complex technology that relies on the continued effectiveness of the programming code and integrity of the data to process the trades. We rely on the ability of our employees, consultants, and internal systems to operate our different businesses and process a high volume of transactions. Additionally, we are subject to complex and evolving laws and regulations governing cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, which may differ and potentially conflict, in various jurisdictions. As a participant in the global capital markets, we face the risk of incorrect valuation or risk management of our trading positions due to flaws in data, models, electronic trading systems or processes or due to fraud or cyber-attack.

We also face the risk of operational failure or disruption of any of the clearing agents, exchanges, clearing houses or other financial intermediaries we use to facilitate our lending and securities transactions. In the event of a breakdown or improper operation of our or a direct or indirect third party’s systems (or third parties thereof) or processes or improper or unauthorized action by third parties, including consultants and subcontractors or our employees, we could suffer financial loss, an impairment to our liquidity position, a disruption of our businesses, regulatory sanctions or damage to our reputation. In addition, the interconnectivity of multiple financial institutions with central agents, exchanges and clearing houses, and the increased importance of these entities, increases the risk that an operational failure at one institution or entity may cause an industry-wide operational failure that could materially impact our ability to conduct business. Furthermore, the concentration of Company and personal information held by a handful of third parties increases the risk that a breach at a key third party may cause an industry-wide data breach that could significantly increase the cost and risk of conducting business. There can be no assurance that our business contingency and security response plans fully mitigate all potential risks to us. Our ability to raise additional capitalconduct business may be adversely affected by certain ofa disruption in the infrastructure that supports our agreements.

Our ability to raise additional capitalbusinesses and the communities where we are located. This may include a disruption involving physical site access; cybersecurity incidents; terrorist activities; political unrest; disease pandemics; catastrophic events; climate-related incidents and natural disasters (such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires); electrical outages; environmental hazards; computer servers; communications or other services we use; and our employees or third parties with whom we conduct business. Although we employ backup systems for use in our operating activitiesdata, those backup systems may be adversely impacted byunavailable following a disruption, the terms of a securities purchase agreement, dated as of July 15, 2015 (the “Securities Purchase Agreement”), between us andaffected data may not have been backed up or may not be recoverable from the investors who purchased securities in our July 2015 offering of our common stock and warrants forbackup, or the purchase of our common stock. The Securities Purchase Agreement provides that, until the warrants issued thereunder are no longer outstanding, we will not effect or enter into a variable rate transaction,backup data may be costly to recover, which includes issuances of securities whose prices or conversion prices may vary with the trading prices of or quotations for the shares of our common Stock at any time after the initial issuance of such securities, as well as the entry into agreements where our stock would be issued at a future-determined price. These warrants may remain outstanding as late as January 22, 2021, when the warrants expire in accordance with their terms. These restrictions may have an adverse impact on our ability to raise additional capital, or to use our cash to make certain payments that we are contractually obligated to make.

We may also identify targets with patent or other intellectual property assets that cost more than we are prepared to spend with our own capital resources.  We may incur significant costs to organize and negotiate a structured acquisition that does not ultimately result in an acquisition of any patent assets or, if consummated, proves to be unprofitable for us.  Acquisitions involving issuance of our securities could be dilutive to existing stockholders and could be at prices lower than those prices reflected in the trading markets.  These higher costs could adversely affect our operating resultsbusiness.

Notwithstanding evolving technology and technology-based risk and control systems, our businesses ultimately rely on people, including our employees and those of third parties with which we conduct business. As a result of human error or engagement in violations of applicable policies, laws, rules or procedures, certain errors or violations are not always discovered immediately by our technological processes or by our controls and other procedures, which are intended to prevent and detect such errors or violations. These can include calculation errors, mistakes in addressing emails or other communications, errors in software or model development or implementation, or errors in judgment, as well as intentional efforts to disregard or circumvent applicable policies, laws, rules or procedures. Human errors and malfeasance, even if we incurpromptly discovered and remediated, can result in material losses and liabilities for us. Any theft of data, technology or intellectual property may negatively impact our operations and reputation, including disrupting the valuebusiness activities of our securities will decline.  subsidiaries, affiliates, joint ventures or clients conducting business in those jurisdictions.

The integrationCompany’s information systems may experience an interruption or breach in security.

The Company relies heavily on communications and information systems to conduct its business. Any failure, interruption or breach in security of acquired assets may place a significant burden on management and our internal resources.  The diversion of management attention and any difficulties encounteredthese systems could result in failures or disruptions in the integration process could harm our business.

As we are targeting technology companies inCompany’s customer relationship management, regulatory or other reporting, general ledger, and other systems. While the development stage, their patentsCompany has policies and technologies are inprocedures designed to prevent or limit the early stageseffect of adoption.  Demand for somethe failure, interruption or security breach of these technologies will likely be untested and may be subject to fluctuation based upon the rate at which our licensees or others adopt our patents and technologies in their products and services.  As a result,its information systems, there can be no assurance asthat any such failures, interruptions or security breaches will not occur or, if they do occur, that they will be adequately addressed. Recent disclosures of such incursions by foreign and domestic unauthorized agents aimed at large financial institutions reflect higher risks for all such institutions. The occurrence of any failures, interruptions or security breaches of the Company’s information systems could damage the Company’s reputation, result in a loss of customer business, subject the Company to whetheradditional regulatory scrutiny, or expose the Company to civil litigation and possible financial liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition and results of operations.

Our businesses rely extensively on data processing and communications systems. In addition to better serving clients, the effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables us to reduce costs. Adapting or developing our technology systems to meet new regulatory requirements, client needs, and competitive demands is critical for our business. Introduction of new technology presents challenges on a regular basis. There are significant technical and financial costs and risks in the development of new or enhanced applications, including the risk that we might be unable to effectively use new technologies we acquire or develop will have valueadapt our applications to emerging industry standards. Our continued success depends, in part, upon our ability to: (i) successfully maintain and upgrade the capability of our technology systems; (ii) address the needs of our clients by using technology to provide products and services that can be realized through licensingsatisfy their demands; and (iii) retain skilled information technology employees. Failure of our technology systems, which could result from events beyond our control, or an inability to effectively upgrade those systems or implement new technology-driven products or services, could result in financial losses, liability to clients, and violations of applicable privacy and other applicable laws and regulatory sanctions.

Cybersecurity - Security breaches of our technology systems, or those of our clients or other activities.third-party vendors we rely on, could subject us to significant liability and harm our reputation.

WeOur operational systems and infrastructure must continue to be safeguarded and monitored for potential failures, disruptions, cyber-attacks and breakdowns. Our operations rely on the secure processing, storage and transmission of confidential and other information in our computer systems and networks. Although cybersecurity incidents among financial services firms are exploring and evaluating strategic alternatives andon the rise, we have not experienced any material losses relating to cyber-attacks or other information security breaches. However, there can be no assurance that we will not suffer such losses in the future.

Despite our implementation of protective measures and endeavoring to modify them as circumstances warrant, our computer systems, software and networks may be successfulvulnerable to human error, natural disasters, power loss, spam attacks, unauthorized access, distributed denial of service attacks, computer viruses and other malicious code and other events that could have an impact on the security and stability of our operations. Notwithstanding the precautions we take, if one or more of these events were to occur, this could jeopardize the information we confidentially maintain, including that of our clients and counterparties, which is processed, stored in identifying,and transmitted through our computer systems and networks, or completingotherwise cause interruptions or malfunctions in our operations or the operations of our clients and counterparties. We may be required to expend significant additional resources to modify our protective measures, to investigate and remediate vulnerabilities or other exposures or to make required notifications or disclosures. We may also be subject to litigation and financial losses that are neither insured nor covered under any strategic alternativeof our current insurance policies.

A technological breakdown could also interfere with our ability to comply with financial reporting and other regulatory requirements, exposing us to potential disciplinary action by regulators. Our regulators have introduced programs to review our protections against such incidents which, if they determined that our systems do not reasonably protect our clients’ assets and their data, could result in enforcement activity and sanctions.

In providing services to clients, we may manage, utilize and store sensitive or confidential client or employee data, including personal data. As a result, we may be subject to numerous laws and regulations designed to protect this information, such as U.S. federal and state and international laws governing the protection of personally identifiable information. These laws and regulations are increasing in complexity and number. If any person, including any of our associates, negligently disregards or intentionally breaches our established controls with respect to client or employee data, or otherwise mismanages or misappropriates such data, we could be subject to significant monetary damages, regulatory enforcement actions, fines and/or criminal prosecution. In addition, unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential client or employee data, whether through system failure, employee negligence, fraud or misappropriation, could damage our reputation and cause us to lose clients and related revenue.

Potential liability in the event of a security breach of client data could be significant. Depending on the circumstances giving rise to the breach, this liability may not be subject to a contractual limit or an exclusion of consequential or indirect damages. The federally mandated Consolidated Audit Trail (“CAT”) program which requires that client personally identifiable information be submitted to a database not controlled by us may expose us to liability for breaches of that database not under our control.

As a result of the foregoing, the Company has and is likely to incur significant costs in preparing its infrastructure and maintaining it to resist any such strategic alternative will yield additional value for shareholders.

Ourattacks. In addition to personnel dedicated to overseeing the infrastructure and systems to defend against cybersecurity incidents, senior management is regularly briefed on issues, preparedness and any incidents requiring response. At their regularly scheduled meetings, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors has commenced a reviewand the Board of strategic alternatives which could resultDirectors are briefed and brought up to date on cybersecurity.

The Company continually encounters technological change.

The financial services industry is continually undergoing rapid technological change with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services, driven by the emergence of the Fintech industry. The effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables financial institutions to better serve customers and reduce costs. The Company’s future success depends, in among other things, a sale, a merger, consolidation or business combination, asset divestiture, partnering or other collaboration agreements, or potential acquisitions or recapitalizations, in one or more transactions, or continuingpart, upon its ability to operate with our current business planaddress the needs of its customers by using technology to provide products and strategy. There can be no assuranceservices that the exploration of strategic alternatives will resultsatisfy customer demands, as well as to create additional efficiencies in the identification or consummationCompany’s operations. Many of any transaction. In addition, we may incur substantial expenses associatedthe Company’s competitors have substantially greater resources to invest in technological improvements. Failure to successfully keep pace with identifyingtechnological change affecting the financial services industry could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s business and, evaluating potential strategic alternatives. The process of exploring strategic alternatives may be time consuming and disruptive to our business operations and if we are unable to effectively managein turn, the process, our business,Company’s financial condition and results of operations.

There is risk associated with the sufficiency of coverage under the Company’s insurance policies.

The Company’s operations could be adversely affected. We also cannot assure you that any potential transaction or other strategic alternative, if identified, evaluated and consummated, will provide greater valuefinancial results are subject to our shareholders than that reflected in the current stock price. Any potential transaction would be dependent upon a number of factors that may be beyond our control, including, among other factors, market conditions, industry trends, the interest of third parties in our businessrisks and the availability of financing to potential buyers on reasonable terms.

We may be unsuccessful at integrating future acquisitions.

If we find appropriate opportunities in the future, we may acquire businesses to strategically increase the number of patents in our portfolio and pursue monetization. For example, in December 2019, we acquired substantially all of the assets of CBM, including the acquisition of certain licensing rights with respect to patents and other intellectual propertyuncertainties related to pioneering drug compounds that were developed at the Universityuse of Wake Forest and the University of Texas at Austin, in the areas of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acral lentiginous melanoma and pancreatic cancer. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to successfully integrate the business or assets of CBM into the Company.

As we acquire businesses or substantial stakes in certain businesses, the process of integration may produce unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures, fail to result in expected synergies or other benefits and absorb significant attention of our management that would otherwise be available for the ongoing development of our business. In addition, in the event of any future acquisitions, we may record a portion of the assets we acquire as goodwill, other indefinite-lived intangible assets or finite-lived intangible assets. We do not amortize goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets, but rather review them for impairment on an annual basis or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that their carrying value may not be recoverable. The recoverability of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets is dependent on our ability to generate sufficient future earnings and cash flows. Changes in estimates, circumstances or conditions, resulting from both internal and external factors, could have a significant impact on our fair valuation determination, which could then have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to identify suitable acquisition opportunities, consummate any pending or future acquisitions or that we will realize any anticipated benefits from any such acquisitions.

Our pre-acquisition stockholders have a reduced ownership and voting interest after the acquisition of CBM’s assets and exercise less influence over our management and policies than they did prior to the acquisition.

Our pre-acquisition stockholders had the right to vote in the election of our Board of Directors on other matters affecting us. As a result of the CBM Purchase Agreement, because of the issuance of shares of common stock to the CBM shareholders, our pre-acquisition stockholders hold a percentage ownership of the Company that is much smaller than the pre-acquisition stockholder’s previous percentage ownership. Because of this, our pre-acquisition stockholders have less influence over the management and policies of the Company than they now have after the consummation of the acquisition of CBM’s assets.

Any failure to maintain or protect our patent assets or other intellectual property rights could significantly impair our return on investment from such assets and harm our brand, our business and our operating results.

Our ability to operate our new line of business and compete in the intellectual property market largely depends on the superiority, uniqueness and value of our acquired patent assets and other intellectual property.  To protect our proprietary rights, we will rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyrightinsurance, self-insured retention and trade secret laws, confidentiality agreements with our employees and third parties, and protective contractual provisions.  No assurances can be given that any of the measures we undertake to protect and maintain our assets will have any measure of success.

We are required to spend significant time and resources to maintain the effectiveness of our assets by paying maintenance fees and making filings with the USPTO.  We may acquire patent assets, including patent applications, which require us to spend resources to prosecute the applications with the USPTO prior to issuance of patents.  Further, there is a material risk that patent related claims (such as,self-insurance for example, infringement claims (and/or claims for indemnification resulting therefrom), unenforceability claims, or invalidity claims) will be asserted or prosecuted against us, and such assertions or prosecutions could materially and adversely affect our business. 

Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, any of the following or similar occurrences may reduce the value of our intellectual property:

Moreover, we may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights in certain foreign countries where we may do business or enforce our patents against infringers in foreign countries. If we fail to maintain, defend or prosecute our patent assets properly, the value of those assets would be reduced or eliminated, and our business would be harmed.

We may be unable to issue securities under our shelf registration statement, which may have an adverse effect on our liquidity.

We have filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the SEC.  The registration statement, which has been declared effective, was filed in reliance on Instruction I.B.6. of Form S-3, which imposes a limitation on the maximum amount of securities that we may sell pursuant to the registration statement during any twelve-month period.  At the time we sell securities pursuant to the registration statement, the amount of securities to be sold plus the amount of any securities we have sold during the prior twelve months in reliance on Instruction I.B.6. may not exceed one-third of the aggregate market value of our outstanding common stock held by non-affiliates as of a day during the 60 days immediately preceding such sale as computed in accordance with Instruction I.B.6. Whether we sell securities under the registration statement will depend on a number of factors, including availability of our existing S-3 under the 1/3 limitation calculations set forth in Instruction I.B.6 of Form S-3, the market conditions at that time, our cash position at that time and the availability and terms of alternative sources of capital.  Furthermore, Instruction I.B.6. of Form S-3 requires that the issuer have at least one class of common equity securities listed and registered on a national securities exchange. If we are not able to maintain compliance with applicable NASDAQ rules, we will no longer be able to rely upon that Instruction. If we cannot sell securities under our shelf registration, we may be required to utilize more costly and time-consuming means of accessing the capital markets, which could materially adversely affect our liquidity and cash position.

Risks Related to the Product Development, Regulatory Approval, Manufacturing and Commercialization

We are early in our development efforts and currently have no clinical-stage product candidates. If we are unable to clinically develop and ultimately commercialize DHA-dFdC or other product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We are early in our development efforts and have no clinical-stage product candidates as of the date of this prospectus. We have the exclusive U.S. rights to develop DHA-dFdC for the treatment of cancer in the licensed field. We are presently planning on filing an IND for DHA-dFdC, and we hope to begin human testing for this indication in 2021, although no assurance can be given that we will be able to achieve this goal.

Therefore, our ability to generate product or royalty revenues, which we do not expect will occur for several years, if ever, will depend heavily on our ability to develop and eventually commercialize our product candidate. The positive development of our product candidate will depend on several factors, including the following:

If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to clinically develop and commercialize DHA-dFdC as a therapy for cancer, which would materially harm our business.

If we are unable to convince physicians as to the benefits of DHA-dFdC as a therapy for cancer, if and when it is approved, we may incur delays or additional expense in our attempt to establish market acceptance.

Use of DHA-dFdC as a cancer therapy will require physicians to be informed regarding the intended benefits of the product for a new indication. The time and cost of such an educational process may be substantial. Inability to carry out this physician education process may adversely affect market acceptance of DHA-dFdC as a therapy for cancer. We may be unable to timely educate physicians in sufficient numbers regarding our intended application of DHA-dFdC to achieve our marketing plans or to achieve product acceptance. Any delay in physician education or acceptance may materially delay or reduce demand for our product candidate. In addition, we may expend significant funds toward physician education before any acceptance or demand for DHA-dFdC as a therapy for cancer is created, if at all.

Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our product candidate.

The risk of failure for product candidates in clinical development is high. It is impossible to predict when our sole product candidate, DHA-dFdC for the treatment of cancer, will prove effective and safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval for the treatment of any disease, the indication for which is licensed to us. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of DHA-dFdC as a cancer therapy, we must conduct one or more clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidate in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. Moreover, the outcome of early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. In addition, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products.

We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidate, including:

If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our product candidate beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to complete clinical trials of our product candidates or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:

Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or marketing approvals. We do not know which, if any, of our clinical trials will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant preclinical or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the right to commercialize our product candidate or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to commercialize our product candidate and may harm our business and results of operations.

If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in any future clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.

We may not be able to initiate or continue future clinical trials for DHA-dFdC or our present or future product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. In addition, some of our competitors have ongoing clinical trials for product candidates that treat the same indications as our product candidate, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our future clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates.

Patient enrollment is affected by other factors including:

Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for any future clinical trials would result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidate, which would cause the value of our company to decline and otherwise materially and adversely affect our company.

If serious adverse or unacceptable side effects are identified during the development of our product candidate, we may need to abandon or limit such development, which would adversely affect our company.

If clinical testing of our product candidates results in undesirable side effects or demonstrates characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to abandon such development or limit such development to more narrow uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Many compounds that initially showed promise in early stage testing for treating cancer have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further development of the compound.

For the foreseeable future, we expect to expend our limited resources primarily to pursue a particular product candidate, leaving us unable to capitalize on other product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of clinical and commercial development.

Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we will focus for the foreseeable future primarily on the clinical development of DHA-dFdC for the treatment of prostate cancer. As a result, we may forego or be unable to pursue opportunities with other product candidates or for indications other than those we intend to pursue that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on research and development programs related to DHA-dFdC for the treatment of cancer may not yield any commercially viable therapies. Because of this concentration of our efforts, our business will be particularly subject to significant risk of failure of our one current product candidate.

We expect to rely on collaborations with third parties for key aspects of our business. If we are unable to secure or maintain any of these collaborations, or if these collaborations do not achieve their goals, our business would be adversely affected.

We presently have very limited capabilities for drug development and do not yet have any capability for manufacturing, sales, marketing or distribution. Accordingly, we expect to enter into collaborations with other companies that we believe can provide such capabilities. These collaborations may also provide us with important funding for our development programs.

There is a risk that we may not be able to maintain our current collaboration or to enter into additional collaborations on acceptable terms or at all, which would leave us unable to progress our business plan. We will face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. If we are unable to maintain or reach agreements with suitable collaborators on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, we may have to curtail the development of our product candidate, reduce or delay its development program, delay its potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense.

Moreover, even if we are able to maintain and/or enter into such collaborations, such collaborations may pose a number of risks, including most significantly property and casualty, general liability, cyber-crime, workers’ compensation, and the following:

portion of employee-related health care benefits plans funded by the Company, and certain errors and omissions liability, among others.

OurWhile the Company endeavors to purchase insurance coverage that is appropriate to its assessment of risk, it is unable to predict with certainty the frequency, nature or magnitude of claims for direct or consequential damages. The Company’s business may be negatively affected if in the future its insurance proves to be inadequate or unavailable. In addition, insurance claims may divert management resources away from operating the business.

Climate change concerns could be materially harmed if any ofdisrupt our businesses, adversely affect client activity levels, adversely affect the foregoing or similar risks comes to pass with respect to our key collaborations.

Even if anycreditworthiness of our product candidates receive marketing approval for any indication, theycounterparties and damage our reputation.

Climate change may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payorscause extreme weather events that, among other things, could damage our facilities and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

Even if DHA-dFdC for the treatment of cancer receives marketing approval for any indication, it may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. For example, current cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation therapy are well established in the medical community, and doctors may continue to rely on these treatments. Ifequipment, injure our product candidate does not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of DHA-dFdC for the treatment of cancer, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:

If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, we may not be able to commercialize our product candidate if and when it is approved.

We currently do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure. To achieve any level of commercial success for any product for which we have obtained marketing approval, we will need to establish a sales and marketing organization or outsource sales and marketing functions to third parties, and achieve the following:

If we do not achieve one or more of our primary locations, negatively affect our ability to service and interact with our clients, and adversely affect the value of our investments. Any of these factors inevents may increase our costs including our costs to insure against these events.

Climate change may also have a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inabilitynegative impact on the financial condition of our clients, which may decrease revenues from those clients and increase the credit exposures to clinically developthose clients. Additionally, our reputation and commercialize DHA-dFdCclient relationships may be damaged as a therapy for cancer, which would materially harmresult of our business.

In addition, giveninvolvement, or our current limited financial resources,clients’ involvement, in certain industries associated with causing or exacerbating, or alleged to cause or exacerbate, climate change. We also may be negatively impacted by any decisions we make to continue to conduct or change our activities in response to considerations relating to climate change. New regulations or guidance relating to climate change, as well as the perspectives of shareholders, employees and other stakeholders regarding climate change, may affect whether and on what terms and conditions we engage in certain activities or offer certain products.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Risks

Increasingly our society and our business are faced with challenges associated with the implementation of policies and practices that are supportive of concerns related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. We continue to explore implementing ESG considerations across our business practices and operations, a task complicated by the lack of consensus around a defining standard of ESG. We continue to focus on improving the resilience of our operations, fostering an inclusive workforce and maintaining a system of good corporate governance. However, our efforts in this regard may be insufficient and may expose the Company to reputational risk from entities purporting to “grade” ESG platforms, reductions in business with certain clients demanding greater ESG efforts or to regulatory expectation and enforcement if such practices become the subject of rule-making by regulators to whom we are currently focusing our efforts on one key cancer indication, namely prostate cancer. Wesubject.

LEGAL, REGULATORY AND COMPLIANCE RISKS

The Company is subject to extensive securities regulation and the failure to comply with these regulations could subject it to monetary penalties or sanctions.

The securities industry and the Company’s business are thus facedsubject to extensive regulation by the SEC, state securities regulators, other governmental regulatory authorities and industry self-regulatory organizations. The Company may be adversely affected by new or revised legislation or regulations or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules by these governmental authorities and self-regulatory organizations.

Dominari Securities is a broker-dealer and investment adviser registered with the risk that DHA-dFdC couldSEC and is primarily regulated by FINRA. Broker-dealers are subject to regulations which cover all aspects of the securities business, including, without limitation sales methods and supervision, underwriting, trading practices among broker-dealers, emerging standards concerning fees and charges imposed on clients for fee-based programs, use and safekeeping of customers’ funds and securities, anti-money laundering and the USA Patriot Act (the “Patriot Act”) compliance, capital structure of securities firms, trade and regulatory reporting, cybersecurity, pricing of services, compliance with DOL rules and regulations for retirement accounts, compliance with lending practices (Regulation T), record keeping, and the conduct of directors, officers and employees.

Compliance with many of the regulations applicable to the Company involves a number of risks, particularly in areas where applicable regulations may be ineffective in addressing this particular cancer indication,subject to varying interpretation. The requirements imposed by these regulations are designed to ensure the integrity of the financial markets and if our efforts to demonstrateprotect customers and other third parties who deal with the efficacy of DHA-dFdC in prostate cancer are not positive, we may lack the resources to expand our efforts into other cancer indications.

We face substantial competition, whichCompany. New regulations may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do.

The development and commercializationenhanced standards of new drug products is highly competitive. We face competitionduty on broker-dealers in their dealings with respecttheir clients (fiduciary standards). Consequently, these regulations often serve to our current product candidate and will face competition with respect to any product candidates that we may seek to develop or commercialize inlimit the future, from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. There are a number of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that currently market and sell products or are pursuing the development of products for the treatment of cancer. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patentCompany’s activities, including through net capital, customer protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization.

Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are ableconduct requirements, including those relating to enter the market.

Manyprincipal trading. Much of the companiesregulation of broker-dealers has been delegated to self-regulatory organizations, principally FINRA. FINRA adopts rules, subject to approval by the SEC, which govern its members and conducts periodic examinations of member firms’ operations.

If the Company is found to have violated any applicable laws, rules or regulations, formal administrative or judicial proceedings may be initiated against which we are competing or against which we may compete in the future have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industriesit that may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller numbercensure, fine, civil or criminal penalties, including treble damages in the case of insider trading violations, the issuance of cease-and-desist orders, the suspension or termination of our competitors. Smaller and other early stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to,broker-dealer or necessary for,investment advisory activities, the suspension or disqualification of our programs, and we may be unable to effectively compete with these companies for theseofficers or employees; or other reasons.adverse consequences.

Even if we are able to commercialize any product candidates, the products may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives, which would harm our business.

The regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing, coverage and reimbursement for new drug products vary widely from country to country. Current and future legislation may significantly change the approval requirements in ways that could involve additional costs and cause delays in obtaining approvals.

Our ability to commercialize any product candidate also will depend in part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for our product candidate will be available from government health administration authorities, private health insurers and other organizations. Government authorities and third party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which medications they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. A primary trend in the U.S. healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. Government authorities and third party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular medications. Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Coverage and reimbursement may not be available for any product that we commercialize and, even if these are available, the level of reimbursement may not be satisfactory. Reimbursement may affect the demand for, or the priceimposition of any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. Obtaining and maintaining adequate reimbursement for our products may be difficult. We may be required to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies to justify coverage and reimbursement or the level of reimbursement relative to other therapies. If coverage and adequate reimbursement are not available or reimbursement is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.

In addition, there may be significant delays in obtaining reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the drug is approved by the FDA. Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement does not imply that a drug will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the clinical setting in which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost drugs and may be incorporated into existing payments forabove or other services. Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors. Third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved products that we developpenalties could have a material adverse effect on our operating results our abilityand financial condition.

Financial services firms have been subject to raise capital needed to commercialize products and our overall financial condition.

Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and to limit commercialization of any products that we may develop.

We face an inherentincreased regulatory scrutiny increasing the risk of productfinancial liability exposure related toand reputational harm resulting from adverse regulatory actions.

Firms in the testingfinancial services industry have been operating in an onerous regulatory environment. The industry has experienced increased scrutiny from a variety of DHA-dFdC in human clinical trialsregulators, including the SEC,FINRA, and will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop. If we cannot defend ourselves against claims that our product candidate or products caused injuries, we will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

We currently do notstate regulators. Penalties and fines sought by regulatory authorities have product liability insurance coverage, which leaves us exposed to any product-related liabilities that we may incur.increased substantially. We may be unable to obtain insurance on reasonable termsadversely affected by changes in the interpretation or at all. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.

If we fail to comply with healthcare regulations, we could face substantial enforcement actions, including civil and criminal penalties and our business, operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We could be subject to healthcare fraud and abuseof existing laws and patient privacy laws of both the federal governmentrules by these governmental authorities and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws include:

If our operations are found to be in violation of anySROs. Each of the laws described above or any governmental regulations that apply toregulatory bodies with jurisdiction over us we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines and the curtailment or restructuringhas regulatory powers dealing with many different aspects of our operations. Any penalties, damages, fines, curtailment or restructuring of our operations could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results. Although compliance programs can mitigate the risk of investigation and prosecution for violations of these laws, the risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of our business. Moreover, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable federal and state privacy, security and fraud laws may prove costly.

Members of our management team lack experience in the pharmaceutical field.

Members of our management team lack experience in the pharmaceutical field. This lack of experience may impair our ability to commercialize our pharmaceutical products and attain profitability. We will need to hire or engage managerial personnel with relevant experience in the pharmaceutical field; however, there can be no assurance that such personnel will be available to us or, that once engaged, will be retained by us. Failure to establish and maintain an effective management team with experience in the pharmaceutical field and commercialization of pharmaceuticals products would have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The marketing approval process of the FDA is lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if were ultimately are unable to obtain marketing approval for the product candidates we intend to develop, our business will be substantially harmed.

None of the product candidates we intend to develop have gained marketing approval in the U.S. and we cannot guarantee that we will ever have marketable products. Our business is substantially dependent on our ability to complete the development of, obtain marketing approval for, and successfully commercialize our product candidates in a timely manner. We cannot commercialize our product candidates in the United States without first obtaining approval from the FDA to market each product candidate. Our product candidates could fail to receive marketing approval for many reasons.

In addition, the process of seeking regulatory clearance or approval to market the product candidates we intend to develop is expensive and time consuming and, notwithstanding the effort and expense incurred, clearance or approval is never guaranteed. If we are not successful in obtaining timely clearance or approval of our product candidates from the FDA, we may never be able to generate significant revenue and may be forced to cease operations. The FDA process is costly, lengthy and uncertain. Any FDA application filed by the Company will have to be supported by extensive data,services, including, but not limited to, technical, preclinical, clinical trial, manufacturingthe authority to fine us and labeling data, to demonstrategrant, cancel, restrict or otherwise impose conditions on the right to continue operating particular businesses. For example, the FDA’s satisfactionfailure to comply with the safetyobligations imposed by the Exchange Act on broker-dealers and efficacythe Advisers Act on investment advisers, including recordkeeping, registration, advertising and operating requirements, disclosure obligations and prohibitions on fraudulent activities, or by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), could result in investigations, sanctions and reputational damage. Increasingly, regulators have instituted a practice of “regulation by enforcement” where new interpretations of existing regulations are introduced by bringing enforcement actions against securities firms for activities that occurred in the product for its intended use.

Obtaining clearances or approvals from the FDA and from the regulatory agencies in other countries is an expensive and time consuming process and is uncertain aspast but were not then thought to outcome. The FDA and other agencies could ask us to supplement our submissions, collect non-clinical data, conduct additional clinical trials or engage in other time-consuming actions, or it could simply deny our applications. In addition, even if we obtain an FDA approval or pre-market approvals in other countries, the approval could be revoked or other restrictions imposed if post-market data demonstrates safety issues or lack of effectiveness.problematic. We cannot predict with certainty how, or when, the FDA will act. If we are unable to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, our financial condition and cash flowalso may be adversely affected and our ability to grow domestically and internationally may be limited. Additionally, even if cleared or approved, the Company’s products may not be approved for the specific indications that are most necessary or desirable for successful commercialization or profitability.

Modifications to our products may require new FDA approvals.

Onceas a particular product receives FDA approval or clearance, expanded uses or uses in new indicationsresult of our products may require additional human clinical trials and new regulatory approvals or clearances, including additional IND and FDA submissions and premarket approvals before we can begin clinical development, and/or prior to marketing and sales. If the FDA requires new clearances or approvals for a particular use or indication, we may be required to conduct additional clinical studies, which would require additional expenditures and harm our operating results. If the products are already being used for these new indications, we may also be subject to significant enforcement actions. Conducting clinical trials and obtaining clearances and approvals can be a time consuming process, and delays in obtaining required future clearances or approvals could adversely affect our ability to introduce new or enhanced products in a timely manner, which in turn would harm our future growth.

Additional delays to the completion of clinical studies may result from modifications being made to the protocol during the clinical trial, if such modifications are warranted and/revised legislation or requiredregulations imposed by the occurrences inSEC, other U.S. or foreign governmental regulatory authorities or SROs (e.g., FINRA) that supervise the given trial.

Each modification to the protocol during a clinical trial has to be submitted to the FDA. This could result in the delayfinancial markets. Substantial legal liability or halt of a clinical trial while the modification is evaluated. In addition, depending on the quantity and nature of the changes made, the FDA could take the position that the data generated by the clinical trial is not poolable because the same protocol was not used throughout the trial. This might require the enrollment of additional subjects, which could result in the extension of the clinical trial and the FDA delaying clearance or approval of a product. Any such delaysignificant regulatory action taken against us could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.prospects including our cash position.

There can be no assurance that the data generated from our clinical trials using modified protocols will be acceptable to FDA.

There can be no assurance that the data generated using modified protocols will be acceptable

Numerous regulatory changes, and enhanced regulatory and enforcement activity, relating to the FDA or that if future modifications during the trial are necessary, that any such modifications will be acceptable to the FDA. If the FDA believes that its prior approval is required for a particular modification, it can delay or halt a clinical trial while it evaluates additional information regarding the change.

Serious injury or death resulting from a failure of one ofasset management business may increase our drug candidates during current or future clinical trials could also result in the FDA delaying our clinical trials or denying or delaying clearance or approval of a product.

Even though an adverse event may not be the result of the failure of our drug candidate, the FDA or an Internal Review Board (“IRB”) could delay or halt a clinical trial for an indefinite period of time while an adverse event is reviewed,compliance and likely would do so in the event of multiple such events.

Any delay or termination of our current or future clinical trials as a result of the risks summarized above, including delays in obtaining or maintaining required approvals from IRBs, delays in patient enrollment, the failure of patients to continue to participate in a clinical trial, and delays or termination of clinical trials as a result of protocol modifications or adverse events during the trials, may cause an increase inlegal costs and delays in the filing of any product submissions with the FDA, delay the approval and commercialization of our products or result in the failure of the clinical trial, which couldotherwise adversely affect our business, operating resultsbusiness.

U.S. and prospects.

The future results offoreign governments have taken regulatory actions impacting the investment management industry, and may continue to take further actions, including expanding current (or enacting new) standards, requirements and rules that may be applicable to us and our current or future clinical trials may not support our product candidate claims or may result insubsidiaries, particularly those subsidiaries that are SEC registered investment advisers. For example, the discovery of unexpected adverse side effects.

Even if our clinical trials are completed as planned, we cannot be certain that their results will support our drug candidate claims or that the FDA or foreign authorities will agree with our conclusions regarding them. Success in preclinical studiesSEC and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful,several states and we cannot be sure that the later trials will replicate the results of prior trials and preclinical studies. The clinical trial process may fail to demonstrate that our drug candidates are safe and effective for the proposed indicated uses. If the FDA concludes that the clinical trials for DHA-dFdC, or any other product for which we might seek clearance, has failed to demonstrate safety and effectiveness, we would not receive FDA clearance to market that productmunicipalities in the United States for the indications sought.

In addition, such an outcomehave adopted “pay-to-play” rules, which could cause us to abandon the product candidate and might delay development of others. Any delay or termination of our clinical trials will delay the filing of any product submissions with the FDA and, ultimately,limit our ability to commercializecharge advisory fees. Such “pay-to-play” rules could affect the profitability of that portion of our product candidatesbusiness. Additionally, the use of “soft dollars,” where a portion of commissions paid to broker-dealers in connection with the execution of trades also pays for research and generate revenues. other services provided to advisors has been mostly prohibited in Europe and, is periodically reexamined in the U.S. and may be limited or modified in the future. Furthermore, new regulations regarding the management of hedge funds and the use of certain investment products may impact our investment management business and result in increased costs. For example, many regulators around the world adopted disclosure and reporting requirements relating to the hedge fund business.

On June 5, 2019, the SEC adopted Regulation Best Interest (“Reg BI”) as Rule 15l-1 under the Exchange Act. Reg BI imposes a new federal standard of conduct on registered broker-dealers and their associated persons when dealing with retail clients and requires that a broker-dealer and its representatives act in the best interest of such client and not place its own interests ahead of the customer’s interests. Reg BI requires enhanced documentation for recommendations of securities transactions to broker-dealer retail clients. The new rules and processes related thereto will likely limit revenue and most likely involve increased costs, including, but not limited to, compliance costs associated with new or enhanced technology as well as increased litigation costs.

It is alsonot possible that patients enrolled in clinical trials will experience adverse side effects that are not currently partto determine the extent of the product candidate’s profile.

Currentimpact of any new laws, regulations or initiatives that may be imposed, or whether any existing proposals will become law. Conformance with any new laws or regulations could make compliance more difficult and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidatesexpensive and affect the pricesmanner in which we conduct business.

If the Company violates the securities laws, or is involved in litigation in connection with a violation, the Company’s reputation and results of operations may obtainbe adversely affected.

Many aspects of the Company’s business involve substantial risks of liability. An underwriter is exposed to substantial liability under federal and state securities laws, other federal and state laws, and court decisions, including decisions with respect to underwriters’ liability and limitations on indemnification of underwriters by issuers. For example, a firm that acts as an underwriter may be held liable for such product candidates.material misstatements or omissions of fact in a prospectus used in connection with the securities being offered or for statements made by its securities analysts or other personnel. The Company’s underwriting activities will usually involve offerings of the securities of smaller companies, which often involve a higher degree of risk and are more volatile than the securities of more established companies. In comparison with more established companies, smaller companies are also more likely to be the subject of securities class actions, to carry directors and officers liability insurance policies with lower limits or not at all, and to become insolvent. In addition, in market downturns, claims tend to increase. Each of these factors increases the likelihood that an underwriter may be required to contribute to an adverse judgment or settlement of a securities lawsuit.

RISK MANAGEMENT

The Company’s risk management policies and procedures may leave it exposed to unidentified risks or an unanticipated level of risk.

InThe policies and procedures the United StatesCompany employs to identify, monitor and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a numbermanage risks may not be fully effective. Some methods of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval for our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell our product candidates. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. We do not know whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changesrisk management are based on the marketing approvalsuse of our product candidates, if any, may be. In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s approval process may significantly delay or prevent marketing approval, as well as subject us to more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.

In the United States, the Medicare Modernization Act (“MMA”) changed the way Medicare covers and pays for pharmaceutical products.observed historical market behavior. As a result, these methods may not predict future risk exposures, which could be significantly greater than historical measures indicate. Other risk management methods depend on evaluation of information regarding markets, clients or other matters that are publicly available or otherwise accessible. This information may not be accurate, complete, up-to-date or properly evaluated. Management of operational, legal and regulatory risk requires, among other things, policies and procedures to properly record and verify a large number of transactions and events. The Company cannot give assurances that its policies and procedures will effectively and accurately record and verify this legislationinformation.

The Company seeks to monitor and control its risk exposure through a variety of separate but complementary financial, credit, operational, compliance and legal reporting systems. The Company believes that it effectively evaluates and manages the expansionmarket, credit and other risks to which it is exposed. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of federal coverage of drug products, we expectthe Company’s ability to manage risk exposure can never be completely or accurately predicted or fully assured, and there can be no guarantee that therethe Company’s risk management will be additional pressure to contain and reduce costs. These cost reduction initiatives andsuccessful. For example, unexpectedly large or rapid movements or disruptions in one or more markets or other provisions of this legislation could decrease the coverage and price that we receive for our product candidates and could seriously harm our business.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively, the “Health Care Reform Law”) is a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance, 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 and impose additional health policy reforms. The Health Care Reform Law remains subject to legislative efforts to repeal, modify or delay the implementation of the law. However, if the Health Care Reform Law is repealed or modified, or if implementation of certain aspects of the Health Care Reform Law are delayed, such repeal, modification or delay may materially adversely impact our business, strategies, prospects, operating results or financial condition.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the Health Care Reform Law was enacted. We expect that additional federal 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, and in turn could significantly reduce the projected value of certain development projects and reduce or eliminate our profitability.

Upon commercialization of our products, we may be dependent on third parties to market, distribute and sell our products.

Our ability to receive revenues may be dependent upon the sales and marketing efforts of any future co-marketing partners and third-party distributors. At this time, we have not entered into an agreement with any commercialization partner and only plan to do so after the successful completion of Phase 1 clinical trials and prior to commercialization. If we fail to reach an agreement with any commercialization partner, or upon reaching such an agreement that partner fails to sell a large volume of our products, it mayunforeseen developments can have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Adverse events involving our products may lead the FDA to delay or deny clearance for our products or result in product recalls that could harm our reputation, business and financial results.

Once a product receives FDA clearance or approval, the agency has the authority to require the recall of commercialized products in the event of adverse side effects, material deficiencies or defects in design or manufacture. The authority to require a recall must be based on an FDA finding that there is a reasonable probability that the product would cause serious injury or death. Manufacturers may, under their own initiative, recall a product if any material deficiency in a product is found. A government-mandated or voluntary recall by us or one of our distributors could occur as a result of adverse side effects, impurities or other product contamination, manufacturing errors, design or labeling defects or other deficiencies and issues. Recalls of any of our products would divert managerial and financial resources and have an adverse effect on ourthe Company’s financial condition and results of operations. The FDA requires that certain classificationsconsequences of recalls be reportedthese developments can include losses due to FDA within ten working days after the recall is initiated. Companies are required to maintain certain records of recalls, even if they are not reportable to the FDA. We may initiate voluntary recalls involving our productsadverse changes in securities values, decreases in the future that we determine do not require notificationliquidity of trading positions, higher volatility in earnings, and increases in general systemic risk. Certain of the FDA. If the FDA disagrees with our determinations, they could require us to report those actions as recalls. A future recall announcement could harm our reputation with customers and negatively affect our sales. In addition, the FDA could take enforcement action for failing to report the recalls when they were conducted.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

We face evolving regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure that may result in additional expenses and continuing uncertainty.

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of The NASDAQ Global Market and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices.  OurCompany’s risk management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time towards maintaining compliance with these requirements. These rules, regulations and standardssystems are subject to varying interpretations,regulatory review and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies.  This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices.  We intend to invest the resources necessary to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.  If our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, which could be costly and time-consuming, and our reputation and business may be harmed.found to be insufficient by the Company’s regulators potentially leading to regulatory sanctions. There can be no guarantee that the operation of these systems will allow the Company to prevent or mitigate the various risks faced by its businesses. Various regulators periodically review companies’ risk control practices, and, if found inadequate, bring enforcement actions and sanctions against such firms.

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPANY’S COMMON STOCK

Our common stock may be delisted from The NASDAQNasdaq Capital Market if we fail to comply with continued listing standards.

Our common stock is currently traded on The NASDAQNasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “SPEX”“DOMH”. If we fail to meet any of the continued listing standards of The NASDAQNasdaq Capital Market, our common stock could be delisted from The NASDAQNasdaq Capital Market. These continued listing standards include specifically enumerated criteria, such as:

There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain compliance and remain in compliance in the future. In particular, our share price may continue to decline for a number of reasons, including many that are beyond our control. See “Our share price may be volatile and there may not be an active trading market for our common stock”.

If we fail to comply with NASDAQ’sNasdaq’s continued listing standards, we may be delisted and our common stock will trade, if at all, only on the over-the-counter market, such as the OTC Bulletin Board or OTCQX market, and then only if one or more registered broker-dealer market makers comply with quotation requirements. In addition, delisting of our common stock could depress our stock price, substantially limit liquidity of our common stock and materially adversely affect our ability to raise capital on terms acceptable to us, or at all. Further, delisting of our common stock would likely result in our common stock becoming a “penny stock” under the Exchange Act.

Our share price may be volatile and there may not be an active trading market for our common stock.

There can be no assurance that the market price of our common stock will not decline below its present market price or that there will be an active trading market for our common stock. The market prices of technology or technology relatedupstart financial services companies have been and are likely to continue to be highly volatile. Fluctuations in our operating results and general market conditions for technology or technology relatedupstart financial services stocks could have a significant impact on the volatility of our common stock price. We have experienced significant volatility in the price of our common stock. From January 1, 20192022 through December 31, 2019,2022, the share price of our common stock (on a split-adjusted basis) ranged from a high of $3.92$11.56 to a low of $1.05.$3.02. The reason for the volatility in our stock is not well understood and may continue. Factors that may have contributed to such volatility include, but are not limited to:

We could fail in future financing efforts or be delisted from The NASDAQ Capital Market if we fail to receive stockholder approval when needed.

We are required under the NASDAQ rules to obtain stockholder approval for any issuance of additional equity securities that would comprise more than 20% of the total shares of our common stock outstanding before the issuance of such securities sold at a discount to the greater of book or market value in an offering that is not deemed to be a “public offering” by NASDAQ. Funding of our operations and acquisitions of assets may require issuance of additional equity securities that would comprise more than 20% of the total shares of our common stock outstanding, but we might not be successful in obtaining the required stockholder approval for such an issuance. If we are unable to obtain financing due to stockholder approval difficulties, such failure may have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue operations.

Our shares of common stock are thinly traded and, as a result, stockholders may be unable to sell at or near ask prices, or at all, if they need to sell shares to raise money or otherwise desire to liquidate their shares.

Our common stock has been “thinly-traded” meaning that the number of persons interested in purchasing our common stock at or near ask prices at any given time may be relatively small or non-existent. This situation is attributable to a number of factors, including the fact that we are a small company that is relatively unknown to stock analysts, stock brokers, institutional investors and others in the investment community that generate or influence sales volume, and that even if we came to the attention of such persons, they tend to be risk-averse and would be reluctant to follow an unproven company such as ours or purchase or recommend the purchase of our shares until such time as we become more seasoned and viable. Our trading volumes are further adversely affected by the 1-for-19 reverse stock split that was effective as of March 4, 2016. In addition, we believe that due to the limited number of shares of our common stock outstanding, an options market has not been established for our common stock, limiting the ability of market participants to hedge or otherwise undertake trading strategies available for larger companies with broader shareholder bases which prevents institutions and others from acquiring or trading in our securities. Consequently, there may be periods of several days or more when trading activity in our shares is minimal or non-existent, as compared to a seasoned issuer which has a large and steady volume of trading activity that will generally support continuous sales without an adverse effect on share price. We cannot give stockholders any assurance that a broader or more active public trading market for our common shares will develop or be sustained, or that current trading levels will be sustained.

Because of the Shareholder Rights Plan and “anti-takeover” provisions in our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, Amended and Restated Bylaws and Delaware General Corporation Law, a third party may be discouraged from making a takeover offer that could be beneficial to our stockholders.

Effective as of January 24, 2013, we adopted a shareholder rights plan which was amended and restated as of June 9, 2017. The effect of this rights plan and of certain provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, By-Laws,Amended and Restated Bylaws and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”), could delay or prevent a third party from acquiring us or replacing members of our Board of Directors, or make more costly any attempt to acquire control of the Company, even if the acquisition or the Board designees would be beneficial to our stockholders. These factors could also reduce the price that certain investors might be willing to pay for shares of the common stock and result in the market price being lower than it would be without these provisions.

Dividends on our common stock are not likely.

During the last five years, we have not paid cash dividends on our common stock, and we do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Investors must look solely to the potential for appreciation in the market price of the shares of our common stock to obtain a return on their investment.

If we fail to retain our key personnel, we may not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth and our business could suffer.

Our future depends, in part, on our ability to attract and retain key personnel and the continued contributions of our executive officers, each of whom may be difficult to replace. In particular, Anthony Hayes, our Chief Executive Officer, is important to the management of our business and operations and the development of our strategic direction. The loss of the services of any such individual and the process to replace any key personnel would involve significant time and expense and may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives.

Item 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.

As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to provide the information required by this item.

Item 2. PROPERTIES.

Our main office is

We lease offices located in New York, New York whereand we lease one office with a monthly payment of approximately $3,200. We also lease space in Longview, Texas, on a month to month basis, for approximately $2,000 per month, and in Williamsburg, Virginia, on a month to month basis, for approximately $500 per month. We believe that the New York Texas and Virginia facilitiesoffices are sufficient to meet our current needs. We leased office space in Bethesda, Maryland under a lease with monthly payments of $15,107 that expired on March 31, 2018, which we did not renew.

Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

In the past, in the ordinary course of business, we actively pursued legal remedies to enforce our intellectual property rights and to stop unauthorized use of our technology. Other than ordinary routine litigation incidental to the business, we know of no material, active or pending legal proceedings against us.

Item 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.

Market Information

Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQNasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “SPEX”“DOMH”. No dividends were paid in 2019 or 2018 and we do not currently anticipate paying any cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future.

On January 30, 2020,March 20, 2023, the closing price of our common stock, as reported by the NASDAQNasdaq Capital Market, was $1.14.  $3.30.

Holders

As of January 30, 2020,March 20, 2023, we had approximately 123135 holders of record of our common stock.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare cash dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws, and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, general business conditions and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

Share Repurchases

Following are our monthly share repurchases for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022: